Free Passport Photos

Free Passport Photos

This is an awesome website if anyone wants to make a passport photo! It is also free. Thanks to this website, I am able to help make passport online for my parents now!

Love

Do not jump at the chances to make your partner feel awful.

Do not bring up the pasts during an argument and rub it in.

Do not expect much but give much.

Be understanding and use words of encouragement.

Be supportive of one another.

Do not think negatively but positively of your half.

Do not interrupt your half’s thoughts.

Control your emotions and use your head to think when in the midst of a quarrel and not your heart.

Forgive fast and move on.

Thoughts on Glee

Well, just a random thought. I think Glee is a musical drama worth praising as it provides an opportunity for all musicians out there in the world of auditioning to perform. This drama brings out a whole new perspective and future for all musicians out there to not give up in their dreams and pursue their interests as there will always be a place out there for them even though the capacity is limited. 

So yeah, work for what you want and you may achieve it!

New People

And when she alighted from the airport, she met the people she never knew for the first time. So friendly and kind they were, it seems like Buffalo was the right place to go except those who were nice were from her hometown.

Walmart, Wegmans, the places she visited to get her necessities ready for her new home. Her room was complete, her house was complete.

It was a new start, a new beginning.

School seemed frightening. But all schools were the same and thus, the sense of belonging fitted straight away.

Fall For Buffalo

There was a girl who broke free from her seas of troubles back home and ventured into a new world, a new world in Buffalo. Her wish made since 10 came true and now finally at the age of 21, she got to live it.

As she looked into the crowd of familiar faces before she took the flight, happiness was tugging at her heart, no regrets. She waved goodbye and blew kisses to her family and friends. Never did she look back.

The journey was long and arduous. The longest flight she had ever taken. She fell in love with the comedy she never understood when she was 18, “How I Met Your Mother”. It seems like she was finally growing up.

 

Fatal Words

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21067

From the news stated above, it is evident who hold the most power of media and that is the United States who holds much economic and political power.

 The article is about the United States intensifying campaigns against Chavez, who is running for president of Venezuela. As election time approaches, the international news media increases negative coverage of Venezuela. Two US based companies CNN and Fox News are mentioned in the article as they applaud terrorism against Venezuela and accuses the Chavez government of terrorism respectively. It seems that the main objective was to remove Chavez from power.

International media did their part as they slammed papers with slanted reports and sensational headlines which will drive the society in a point that benefits them as opinions got monopolised. As shown in the article, The Economist came up with an accusation that “Venezuela has the worst economy in the world” despite the fact that the data mismatched with the financial magazine. Even the New York Times which set the news standard for press worldwide, headlines its article dangerously and erroneously that “Venezuela is more lethal than Iraq”.

Newsweek had also falsely stated in their article that “Chavez’s popularity has fallen off a cliff”. The medium is indeed more deadly and important than the message. The US had used methods such as broadcasting false news on Chavez using campaigns, news on television as well as all over the papers. The medium alone is enough to cause people to sway towards the desired outcome to go against Chavez as influential, trusted and prestigious newspapers and television channels are brought into the picture. Indeed, like what Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium has the power to change the way we live and experience the world”.

As the US put down Venezuela’s president, there was a spiral of silence from the Venezuelans. This may be due to the fact that the people refrained from opposing any views state by others especially the US when it is such a powerful country. The fear of being attacked verbally aggressively is stronger than the need to speak up to defend one’s opinion or stand. The media apparently supported the view of opposing Chavez, thus encouraging the public’s behaviour to go along with it.

It was said that the opposition to Venezuela’s president had been going on for at least eight years. This perhaps allows us to know that the audience’s responses towards the media are cultivated indirectly and the audience are not affected directly. The influence is gradual and cumulative as the world comes to know of the hard feelings that the US has against Chavez and slowly digest the news.

The television is the new educator at home as statistics shown from the US that the televisions are on for at an average of 7 hours a day. The CNN chose to broadcast an interview of a fugitive terrorist who ran away from the Venezuela’s jail during the prime time whereby the availability of television access is made possible to many people. As stated in the article, “It is indeed a wonder that an international television network can conduct a live interview with a convicted, fugitive terrorist, and wishes him “good luck” in public, without a concern for any kind of consequence. But this type of irony is only possible when it comes to US media treatment of Venezuela.” Also, according to CNN, terrorists are “political prisoners” and fugitives from justice are “immigrants” in the case of Venezuela. The US media had actually created a way of looking at Venezuela to her people and that eventually becomes the commonly held view from her people on that country.

Will you like or allow others to make false accusations about your country, spamming them on cover pages and all over the television? If not, why and what will you do about it?

Chill Chile.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11539182

This particular article, together with a video, was posted on 14 October from an institutionalised source, the BBC news.

It was on the Chile’s mine’s incident where 33 survivors were trapped underground in the mine for 2 months plus and was finally rescued on 14 October 2010.  

Uses of interposed channels can be seen here as beside having the BBC news reporters there, there were many other institutionalised sources there as well, recording or videoing this live moment down while broadcasting all over in the television as well as writings on this incident splattered all over the newspapers. Globalisation of mass media was employed.  This particular news is known as information as identified by Charles Wright, one of the four media functions known because it is a piece of information which relates to the public on the critical happening in Chile and the public got to grasp hold of this news.

The role of the mass media had kind of help shaped the values and world views. From this piece of news, you would be able to see how the Chileans came together as a nation or whole to finish this rescue mission. They went through this arduous moment together for two months, hoping that the survivors would be rescued. In my opinion, this news served as a learning platform for other countries to not lose hope and stay together as a nation to see things through, be it tough times or not. However, this is only one opinion coming from me. The mass media can influenced the public into having other views on this matter as well as cultivating the public’s values on this matter.  

The media’s ability to raise the importance of an issue in the public’s mind is very significant as the news alone could be seen through repeated news coverage on it, be it on the television, newspapers, tabloids and of course, the new media, internet. This is also known as agenda setting.

Chile’s mine’s incident is indeed an unobtrusive issue as through media, it had created a greater effect or impact on the public as people could view it live now, having a more direct experience with this issue. As heard from the video, the tone of the media coverage or rather the news reporter was ecstatic as we watched the survivors climbing out of the capsule which was used to rescue them, one by one. This issue was prominent as it was focusing live on the rescue mission to the 33 lives trapped in a mine who were still surviving through food passed through a hole in the mine. Images accompanying this issue were very real and touching. These pictures signify hope to many as nothing is impossible. Even at the moment when you thought all was lost, there was actually still something to hold on to, so never give up.

Tears of Love

 

Mission Accomplished.

The priming of this article was on the rescue but not really on the safety of mining. Attention and focus were all out on the rescue instead of prevention of this incident from happening again. However, there were some articles written on the dangers of mining which was not as eye catchy news as the ones on the rescue mission. The saturation coverage of the drama by news organisations is likely to have boosted business for media groups worldwide as they got to publish or broadcast this piece of wonderful news.

 As commented by one BBC reporter, “In the end, a potential tragedy in a remote corner of the world has been utterly transformed into one of the greatest tales of good news ever told,” and I too am absolutely glad that everything went well and everybody was fine!

Now that you know about this event too, has it caused you to reflect on your lives?

 

References

• Trenholm, S. (2005) Thinking Through Communication:

An Introduction to the Study of Human Communication,

Fourth Edition, Chapters 10 and 11, Allyn & Bacon, USA

 • Hong, Junhao (1995) The Globalisation of Mass Media

and the Debate Over Cultural Imperialism in Readings in

Communication, Spring 2005, George A. Barnett and

Brian Reynolds, Eds. University of Buffalo, USA

• Hofstede, Geert (1997) Cultures and Organisations:

Software of the Mind, Chapter 1, McGraw Hill, USA

Hill, Charles (2003) International Business: Competing in

the Global Marketplace, Chapter 3, Prentice Hall, USA

• Brandson, G. and Stafford, R. (2005) The Media

Student’s Handbook (Third Edition), Routledge, USA

• Gudykunst, W.B. & Young, Y.K. (1992). (eds.) Readings

on communicating with strangers: an approach to

intercultural communication, Chapter 3, New York:

McGraw Hill, USA

Dinner for Schmucks!

I watched this movie called “Dinner for Schmucks” recently and thought that it was a really good movie and simply hilarious as well. It was released in Singapore on the 6th October 2010 and is stilling showing in cinemas now.

This movie was actually on an executive named Tim who wished to have a promotion to a higher position in the office. This was because he wanted to match up to his intelligent and pretty girlfriend, Julie, who was holding a much stable and of higher paid job than he was. Once his boss got sacked, he quickly harbored the intention of rising up “from the fifth floor to the sixth floor” due to constant nagging from his assistant. This meant a job of higher position in the company. So he came up with a strategy of getting notice in a meeting held by bosses by showcasing his wonderful plan of using old missiles which are not working as a stand for light bulbs. The bosses scorned at his idea. However, when he mentioned that with this, he could clinch a deal with a possible billionaire who might be willing to invest in such things. They started looking at him in a different light and invited him to a dinner. This dinner required the invited person to bring an idiot along so everyone could have a good laugh at those idiots.

It seemed like it was the company’s culture or rather the bosses’, to hold this dinner once a year and most importantly, this dinner was kept private and no one, especially the “idiots” chosen, was supposed to know except this particular group of people, the bosses. This culture was passed down from generations of bosses and these bosses watched the people they invited showed off their “talents” during dinner as a form of entertainment. As for Tim, he was not yet promoted but invited to this dinner to test whether he was able to mingle with them. It was interesting to know that one’s promotion is not based on one’s ability but how one was able to blend in into a group.

Thus, Tim was pressurized into doing something which seemed morally wrong and demeaning to the next party. While Tim had some thoughts about attending this dinner as a promotion was essential to him, his girlfriend strongly opposed to this. However, as Tim said in the movie, “Everything happens for a reason”. He happened to knock down a guy called Barry while he was driving and guess what? Barry turned out to be the perfect guest or rather buffoon for the dinner. And so the story went on.

Here’s the trailer for it.

The question is if you are Tim, will you invite Barry to this dinner for idiots in order to climb up the corporate ladder and fit into this new group of people with a different culture where values of handling the company’s promotions and the idea of dinner were different from the norms?

Well, do go catch this movie if you can! This movie will tickle you throughout. Alright, I must stop. I am sounding more like a promoter for this movie. HAHA! Oops!

Another Big Hooha!

In today’s newspapers, on the front page with headline stating “Tao Payoh Drama”, was yet another shocking but certainly interesting piece of news on the new paper.

The spotlight was actually on the ex-wife who returned to her ex-husband’s minimart and made a big din there. The ex-husband had another woman tending the shop. They are the talk of the neighbourhood as they are dating one another. The man was in his sixties while the lady in her thirties. The ex-wife actually returned, claiming that she wanted to get her daughter who suffered from mental illness to go back to the hospital where her daughter was said to escape. However, upon her return, the husband’s girlfriend intervened and demanded to know why the ex-wife was talking to her man. There on, a fight got started and the police force got into the picture.

The ex-husband and wife must have certainly gone through the first few stages of relationships of coming together, and of course getting married before reaching to such a state. These stages of relationship are a model of relationship done by Mark Knapp which showed the initial stage and how the relationship processes through different stages.

In the case of the ex-husband and wife, according to the source above, they probably had gone through stage 5 together, bonding. They performed public rituals such as getting married and having children. However, as time passed, perhaps the relationship got stagnant though it was not clearly stated. The relationship finally reached stage 10 which is the terminating stage. The relationship now ceased to exist as both parties got divorced.

However, in the case of the ex-husband and his girlfriend, they had actually passed stage 3 as their relationship is intensifying. The girlfriend actually went down to his minimart to help out. This showed participation in the relationship and may be a tinge of commitment added as well.  She developed the “we” thinking in their relationship by sharing his workload with him. Their relationship is now integrating and had reached stage 4. Their identity as a couple was well known by many living in the neighbourhood.

From the source, it stated that “They said that the girlfriend had recently been turning up regularly at the shop.”

As to what I think about the whole situation, I just simply do not understand why people are bringing family matters into the light of the public. Is that not a shame? The fact which is that you cannot handle your family problems and settle them peacefully? Although it is true that the used-to-be husband and wife are already divorced, it is still a disgrace to have your family problem published on the newspaper, especially when violence is involved as well because it reflects a bad impression on the “family members”.

It is also surprising to know that the woman in her sixties got violent because of a question raised subtly by the girlfriend. Can drinks and some items were then seen flying out of the store as the woman hurled them.

Are Singaporeans facing too much stress? And thus resulting in high divorce rates or social problems, like inflicting pain and hurt to others, including their loved ones, to vent out their frustrations and anger?

United Vs Pool

It was indeed a celebration of triumph for the Manchester United team as they won Liverpool FC 3-2 on last Sunday.

It is distinct that there are two different groups of supporters, one for each team. However, there is also another group of people who do not watch or understand soccer but just bet on the teams or for the girls, goggling at the guys.

This particular game was played in Old Trafford.

 Manchester United came in second place during the last season while Liverpool did not manage to be in the top four. It is easy to perceive that the winner will be Manchester United but of course, there is hope from the Liverpool supporters that Liverpool will stand a chance to win this game as the ball is round and sometimes, luck comes in place.

During the game, cheering could be heard around the whole stadium, loud and clear. You could hear the Manchester United fans humming the Manchester United theme song and as for Liverpool, the fans chanting for Gerrard. The atmosphere was really intense as we watched the two teams’ possession of the ball while it rolled to and fro across the field.

The players on field were physically fit and were able to endure the full 90 minutes with some substitutions of players in between. There was also one captain each chosen by the manager for the team and all players were really hard working on the field, running about trying to attack or at times defend their base. As the ball moved forward, you could see the formation of a team moving forward as well, likewise when the ball was going the other way.

The two teams were dressed in their team jerseys. Both teams’ jerseys were different in colour thus making it easier to identify them. The style of playing of the two teams was really different. Manchester United seemed to be more aggressive during the game while Liverpool was much slower and relaxed in their game play.

When it was almost half time, around 42 minutes, Berbatov from Manchester United scored a header into the net. The stadium erupted into loud cheers from the United fans as they watched the first goal of the game. Smiles were plastered on many faces as they waved the United scarves in unison and began chanting the United theme song again. It was really nice how the fans had developed this chemistry amongst one another. It must be the passion and love for the team.

During the second half of the game, it was even more exciting as we watched one goal after another from the different teams. Liverpool managed to fought back to be on par with United as we watched a superb goal from a free kick by Gerrard, resulting in a score line of 2-2. While on the field, different ways of communication could be spotted. Some players shouted for ball while some used eyes or hand signals to communicate.

At the 83 minutes, Berbatov has got a hat-trick as we watched him headed the ball into the net yet again. The final whistle was blown and the game was over.

Personally, I am a supporter of Liverpool FC since young. Although, they lost the game, I would say they played rather well. As a friend of mine put it, Liverpool lost the game to Berbatov, not Manchester United.

 While writing a review of the game, it has given me a sudden food for thought. How could soccer be so popular in England yet different in Singapore? What do you think?