Welcome to my blog

Hi, welcome to my blog. My name is Fung and I am a secondary school student.
My interests are reading books, and playing outdoor sports. My most favoured sport is football, because it consists of communication and teamwork.
This blog is for saving my school work, and posting educational videos to help myself remember work I have done. Most of it will be written work, although I will post some videos.

Inspirational Quotes

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Internet - Impact

With the invention of the Internet, the speed of communication has speed up drastically that people from the last era could not have imagined. In the old days, it will take a letter a week or 3 weeks to its destination. Now e-mails has taken over the old form of letter, and to receive an e-mail it will only take nanoseconds. 

The speed of the Internet not only has improved in communication between friends and families, it has affected people in all different occupations such as business, retail, students and teachers, scientists, photographers, artists, musicians, etc. In the olden days, business’s were conducted through signing contracts face to face. All we need to do now is send an e-mail and reply with an agreement, and there you have one business transaction complete! 

In the old days, if you want to see or locate someone it would take days or weeks. With the introduction of the Internet, basically you can locate anyone anywhere in this world instantly. 

The most common way, and possibly the only way to locate people through the Internet is via social networking. Common social networking sites amongst people are Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Skype, MSN, etc. The advantages of social networking sites are that you can meet new people, chat to friends or colleagues whom you have not seem for a while, and maybe possibly connect with family members that you thought did not exist! 

Nowadays you can basically find anything you want to know on the Internet, anything. In principle, anything you want to learn, to clarify, to read, to teach, to watch, etc. You can find it in detail. In the old days it is almost impossible. You would have to go to an library to find out just one specific topic, and that would take you ages. 

The introduction of the Internet has also promote the introduction of the e-book, which has drastically minimized the cost of reading to readers. And purchase of books have now become eco-friendly as no papers are involved. You can now store up to thousands of books because of the computer. Whereas in the old days, you would need a big room to do the same thing. 

The above are only subtopics that I have touched a little on. The subtopics are mainly about how the Internet has changed the way we live. In the bigger picture, it has changed all facets of this world, including medicine, arts, history, wars, politics, philosophy, science, etc. It will take pages to describe the effects of this invention that has affected all the above. 

Can you imagine having just one day of not having any Internet? People of today must have Internet, if not there would be severe consequences. Business would take months to complete transactions, banks would take ages to process, friends inability to find long-lost-friends, it would be like going back to the dark-medieval ages. 

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Rugby World Cup 2011

As you may be able to tell from the title, yes it is the Rugby World Cup '2011' and now it is 2012. But nevertheless, I thought I would include this short research paper I did in class.


What is the game of rugby about? Originating from the 19th Century, rugby football is a branch of football. Rugby was first developed in England. Rugby has developed from being an local sport into an internationally celebrated icon. Rugby is not a common sport played amongst Asian people. 

During the 19th Century, there were no regulations for rugby. You could have 2 people, to up to 100 or more attendees. Thus making the sport a contact sport where many get injured. 

“Rugby is one of the largest international sporting competitions in the world”. The Rugby World Cup is held every 4 years, where many countries compete over who should be the right host. Fortunately, New Zealand will be 2011’s Rugby World Cup host. 

At 41º South of the equator is a country made up of 203 small islands inhabited and uninhabited. 20% of New Zealand is mountainous. The highest place you can get in New Zealand is Mt. Cook 3754m. Latitude: 43º35’44.69”S Longitude: 170º8”27.75”E. There are 3 main islands: North Island, South Island and Stewart Island. 

On a map, New Zealand lies far from the equator, but has a temperate weather. Temperate weather climate zones are the most comfortable to be in. 24ºC average in summer and around 9ºC in the winter of Auckland. Temperatures in New Zealand vary from the North to the South Islands, 16º to 10º during spring, which is an excellent climate to be doing active outdoor sports such as rugby, football, rock climbing etc. 


Summer Average Weather
Winter Average Weather
New Zealand
24º
South Africa
26º
Japan
27º

Since only 20% of New Zealand is of mountain ranges, it is a good place for growing crops and agriculture, as well as for farming and sheep herding. Most New Zealanders are relocating or are already located in Canterbury (Christchurch), Bay of Plenty (Tauranga), Waikato and Otago. Many New Zealanders have relocated from Auckland to places such as the above. 

New Zealand’s population as of now is 4,290,347 approximately. New Zealand is the 126th most populated place on Earth.


Population
New Zealand
4,400,000
South Africa
50,004,031
Japan
127,960,000

The capitol Auckland, is the most populated urban area in the country, with 1,354,900 residents; one third of the countries population. New Zealand is not known for its own cuisine, since they do not have their own type of cuisine. Instead they use diverse cultured foods such as British, Mediterranean and Pacific foods all in one. Auckland is a extremely low crime-rate city, in fact New Zealand is 52nd overall compared to other countries around the world. 

People all across New Zealand are all friendly and highly intellectual. 

Because of the small amount of population, there is no problem in traffic congestion. Since Auckland has a very convenient subway system, this makes Auckland the perfect spot for hosting big major events such as the Rugby World Cup. 

Giving all the benefits of this country. No doubt this is a great choice to be hosting major events such as the Rugby World Cup. 

With all the positive attributes of New Zealand there is no doubt that the “International Rugby Board (IRB) have selected New Zealand as the host country instead of Japan or South Africa.” 

Works Cited

Gifts - Fiction

Below is a short story of what I think a so called 'special gift' is. Other peer members of mine wrote about materialistic items such as a toy, car, and so forth. I decided to take a different approach which I find is the ultimate gift. Of course, it is only my opinion and yours may vary from mine. 

Thank you for Your gift. 
GIFT
What is a gift? Ever since we, human kinds have been born have been given gifts. All kinds. Everyone of us have received many many different spectrum of gifts, mundane gifts. As a baby, we have been given our mothers care, little toys, dolls, toy cars, helicopters.....etc. When we move onto different stages in our life,for example, as teenagers, you will be given also a lot of other forms of gifts, such as Xbox’s, clothes, laptops, shoes,watches etc. And as an adult, gifts vary as well. You will be given items such as houses, cars, rings, necklaces, and so forth. Infinite varieties of gifts. But lord oh lord, have you ever wondered, what is the ultimate,special gift? How many of us, you, me, our parents, our neighbors and everyone else on earth have ever wondered, really wondered that life itself is already and indeed a special gift? The ultimate gift.

Without life, this gift, I would not be able to experience being in Central, being in Hong Kong, being on this Earth, being in this Universe, being in existence itself. In fact, there would be nothing to feel, nothing to experience. There would be nothing. Nothing!

Life itself is unique, in fact life as being a human is even more unique. Unique to a degree that thinking about our own existence is already so unique. We, as well as all other existing beings, can feel all kinds of emotions such as fear, anger, pain, happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, hopelessness and desire. Is this not the greatest special gift of all? 

Responsibility
Should this gift which we all have received requires our attention to its responsibility? And if someone gives us any gifts should we not take very good care of it and uses it to enhance ourselves and to everyone and everything around us?

I believe that we definitely do have a huge responsibility to take care of this gift itself, and yet at the same time we do have the responsibility to take care of every other living being (I need not mention that these are also gifts in other forms).  We should therefore not take this special gift for granted. It is unique and every human, every individual has the responsibility to protect this gift -life itself. This special gift is not to be ignored. 

As it is our responsibility to protect ourselves, as well as other  species, (endangered or not), such as sharks, lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos etc., we should really ask ourselves, do we really need to kill and harm these beautiful and graceful species? These beautiful and graceful species are just like you and me, they are also being sent to us as special gifts, to co-exist with us together, as our companion. Yet these species are innocently harmed and killed every day because of greed.

 Sharks for example, are killed only for their sharks fins, and the rest of the carcass is being dumped into the water, leaving the shark to die. Animals such as tigers and lions, their skins are peeled off for profit and left to die. What has happened to human consciousness ? Has this gift from the Creator gone ashtray? In retrospect,and if we think deeply,we as human must take care, and protect other living species as well, if not, everything will and  can fall apart. Say if just sharks were to be extinct, and removed from the food chain, it would affect the ecology of the ocean. In fact, the affect would spread to affect the food chain of humans, and other animals and every other organisms on earth. If all sharks were destroyed and consummated, there would be too much fish, and then plankton would be gone. You may think that if sharks are gone,  there may still be  dolphins and whales. NO no, they won’t exist either as the food chain is already disturbed.The viscous cycle had begun.

Do any of these other special living  do any harm to us? No, they do not, so why should we do such cruel and brutal actions to them, when they bring us no harm. They are just like us, trying to live, to experience and to survive, as another form. They are also trying to experience, like us, this wonderful experience of being in existence itself Thus, we must take the responsibility to protect them. As they are also unique gifts to all of us.

We can protect other human beings, or other beings, by not trespassing what is theirs; things such as their habitats, their nutriment, their survival gears etc.. If we do the above, not only do we make ourselves safe and out of harms way, but we also provide happiness to the everything around us; ultimately leading to  interconnected joy. 

Process of Life
The process of life is different for everyone.

“Most people live life on the path that is set for them. Too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while, special people come along and knock down all the obstacles put in their way. People who realize free will is a gift, you’ll never know how to use it until you fight for it. I think that’s what His real plan is. But maybe, one day, He won’t write the plan. We will.” 

When we are all born, our life may seem predestined. But as being said above, there are some people who push their limits to the utmost, and change what was predestined for them, making their own destiny and history. As humans, it is only  our nature to feel equal as others’ around us; friends, family, teachers, colleagues. But there are people in this world, who push and strive to be different. They love and wish to change history. A good example is Steve Jobs. 

“It’s easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is much better at the top”
Certainly the process of life is different for everyone, but the ultimate statement is not to do harm but do things that  are beneficial to mankind. Yours and mine and Steve Jobs lives are definitely different form each other, but have we noticed that we affect each other and we are all connected.  

There are times in life, where we all have to experience ups and downs. We have diseases, we experience depression and have our dark days, but this is part of life. Some people are born with no arms, no legs, but yet they have no worries, no complaints. 

Another painful aspect of life, are losing people you dearly cherished. People come and go, friends, family, colleagues. Nothing lasts forever, but the process of life is the same. Each of us is unique, and we all are gifts form the Creator.

Fairness in human beings? 
After being endowed with life, can we substantiate fairness? In life, it is fair. What makes it fair is using the power of Now. , the power of Now is to think of the current this moment. To not think of the future, nor the past. Base your decisions on what you wish to occur for the next few minutes. The power of Now is a technique for learning how to live. To really feel what existence is. To totally understand this gift of life.  

To be fair, we all must work together, we must cooperate, and we must work hard. In order for fairness to work, we must try and make our surroundings fairer, by fighting for ourselves. 
To be fair, we must not use people, we must not lie to people, we must consider other peoples well being. We must also not be in it for ourselves, we must look at the bigger picture. 

If we are not fair to each other, countries could fall apart, economies could fall apart, corporations could fall apart as we can see from the current world situations, in politics and  economics .To attain fairness, there are certain qualities that must be involved, such as honesty, commitment, and so forth. Fairness is therefore ultimately important so that life can be sustained, this gift of lifecan be kept forever.

Connectedness
All living organisms are connected to each other one way or another. Each and every single living organism has its own strand of DNA, and their own set of genes, but that is not to say we are not connected, or we are not similar. We are similar, we are all living creatures, living, experiencing. We are all just beings, doing what is in our nature to be existence itself, to experience ourselves as lives.

Connectedness includes communication,and communication could be with anything or anyone. Your parents, teachers, friends, pet dogs, cats, squirrels,anything. A good thing to keep in mind, is to act in a nice and respectable manner to everyone and everything you encounter, treat them as you would like them to treat you; in other words; be nice and do no harm, then they will return the favor. 

Then all life forms as gifts are blessed.

Awakening
All of us are awake everyday, but I would say most of us are not awakened to truly understand how to manage life itself. As an awakened individual, it is therefore important for us to understand that this network of connections must be upheld. It is like an butterfly effect, where something that happened across the continent could affect you. which it will.


There are definitely causes and consequences in this world and in physics, this is called action and reaction, every action has its consequences. As awakened individuals, we must keep this in balance and check, so that everybody will be able to understand we are all connected, and therefore horrible consequences can be avoided, because again, every action has a reaction; if you do something bad, something bad will come to you, if you do something good, something good will come back to you. 

To be able to be given this gift as a being, as a human is a miracle. And thank God for giving me the ultimate.

This is Wonderful!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

The World is Grey - Values

Here is a speech that I wrote for class. The speech talks about fairness - thus I titled it 'The World is Grey' since it represents the middle, between white and black. Sort of 'good & evil'. I used an example from the Justice lecture presented by Harvard University about the car track as part of my speech.


Quite often, I hear people complaining that’s not fair.

To be quite frank with you, the world was never fair, and never will be. People try and make it as fair as possible, but never can make fairness. People can only make the world fairer.

Fairness also is determined by how you define ‘fairness’. Being fair to yourself does not necessarily mean you are being fair to others. Fairness would mean for everyone to be equal. Does the world function on equality? Certainly not, and neither do we want it to function on equality.

Fairness does not equal equality. We are all equal because we are humans. But at the same time it is not fair, because we are all born in different sizes, different intelligence, different social levels etc. For example, nepotism exists in this world. It is only natural. If I were a doctor, would I make my father wait in line? If I were a concert manager would I give priority tickets to my friends?

I would.
You would, everyone would.

As a conclusion, let me post you the following scenario: You are a driver of the train, and you come to a fork in the train track. You can either turn left, or turn right. If you turn left, you will kill 5 people. If you turn right, you will kill 1 person.

What would you do?

Is it fair?

IS IT FAIR?

知足長樂

Here I have what I myself consider my first well written Chinese piece of work. It talks about what makes me happy and it gives two examples of what an happy and unhappy person would do. The two examples are based on a person who is wealthy, and one that is poor - the different ways in which people think.


“知足常樂”

中國人為什麼要說知足長樂這句話呢?

我知足長樂的原因是因為我很幸福,我每一天起床的時候我問自己快不快樂。中國人會說知足長樂所以我每一天都會快樂。最普通的東西我都有:一對眼睛,鼻子,口,雙腿,雙手,每一天都有地方住,能上學,洗澡,有清水喝,衣服穿,等等。

“不知足的感覺”

我每一天起床的時候,我每一分鐘都在想東西不夠,要多一點兒,什麼都要想多一點兒。我現在已經有兩對鞋子,但我想要買多五對。我已經有一個勞斯萊斯,但我還想要多兩家法拉利。我已經吃了兩碗魚翅,我還要多三個鮑魚。為什麼我每一天多這樣想呢?為什麼我每一天都不快樂?我買了那麼多東西,我還不快樂!

讓人快樂的不一定是有錢或物質化的東西,而且也不是在上面提出的東西。讓人知足長樂的是一重心態。知足的感覺已經令我很快樂。