Negative Impacts of Violent Games on Kids

As you all know that I am a student myself, so I do understand that sometimes study could be a little bit stressful. You can not just study all the time, right? You got ta get some time off and relaxed, get yourself sorted out with some entertainment, like music, TV or probably video games. Well, video games are not all bad, however, parents should know that the right choice of video games is very important for your kids. Especially you should keep your eyes on the violence games. And if you ask me why, I would like to tell you that these violent games could influence your kids in many negative ways.

First of all, video games could divert kids perspectives about the world in a repugnant way. For example, a role-playing game like Killer. It plays when squads have assign the “PIE-CHART DEATH” . And the one who has killed all the hit lists in the chart wins. In the text of “ High Jinks: Shoot-out” by Guy Martin, one of the player, Willis Cohen, has been killed by his own friends. Martin describes this event like, “ Cohen was finally killed through no fault of his own. He woke up and, as usual, hoped a neighbor’s fence and exited through a neighbour’s house.” This indicates that he doesn’t really expect it at all that he was going to get killed and obviously not by his own hand of his friend. Therefore, in this game basically it actually promotes people not to trust anybody except yourself. While this somehow sounds logical, however, where is the value of friendship gone? Friends are supposed to be people that you could go and rely on.We could not just live by our own, could we? If we want someone to trust us, we have to trust them back. It changes the world from bright and hopeful to a dark place with full of monsters that you should look for. It is kind of the idea of a psychopath, who always care about themselves and nothing else around them.

These games destroy all of this perspectives and lead alone the dark impression that could affect kids in their real life on trust of friend.

While some people might interpret Killer that it could help teach the kids to problem-solving, you might be right. However, I would like to add on to that, it actually teaches children to choose violence to help solving their problems instead of just talking. Killer, could give a higher pressure on the kids heads and lessons on real life-savage. to dto every part of it, was kind of dark, scary, and full of vicious. There are only two choices in this game, you kill others and and your life goes on. If you don’t, someone would kill you. That aspect would definitely reflects on the kids mindset. Next time, problems come, their solution will be choosing violence instead of just words. WHY? Because of the aspect: “ If I don’t kill you, you would kill me.”

The last point is that it gives a person mentally- killing satisfying. The more they kill someone, the more chances that they could win. It is well known that rewarding behavior increases its frequency. Ask yourself, wouldn’t you want to organise your stuffs again if your teacher admires you?

A visual example in this text it says that, “ When the Lowther team won, with twenty-one kills. They celebrated with a spaghetti dinner.” This proves that they are very satisfying for what they’ve done, which that could have an effect in real life. Kids couldn’t understand separately between in games and in real-life. They would get another sense of killing and death is a kind of game instead of a real serious problems.

With these three solid reasons, dear parents, your child is in your hand, you are the one who would make the decision for your child. I would strongly recommend you not to let them play all of these games. With only just problems giving out, there’s not exactly any advantages moving in. Therefore, you should make the right from now on, your kids are like white paper, if you put bad colours in their minds, it is hard to wash them all up again. Isn’t it just risky to risk your child’s mind? Remember that protection is much better than treatment.

By Khantey

City Of Orphans Vs. Total Tragedy of a Girl named Hamlet: Comparative Essay

Everyone in this world is hoping of having a true friendship. However, what considers as a good friendship? Probably you are describing it as loyalty, helpful, and grateful. In the “ City of Orphans” by AVI, and in the “ Total Tragedy of a girl named Hamlet” by Erin Dionne, they both are talking about the theme of friendship, and they both start off their two representative characters taking benefits from each other, however both change their directions of their friendship into two different ways.

In the “ City of Orphans”, Willa and Maks are not willing to be friends with each other. For example, when he says thanks to Willa for her help and Willa responds back sure, the author shows Maks’s inner thinking, “ Relieved that Willa ain’t gonna hold on to him, Maks heads down the alley trying to act easy.” This illustrates that he feels happy to get out of that place and specifically, from her, he desire to escape from there as fast as he could, however, he tries to act as cool as possible not to show that he is scared of her. Realistically, Maks asks Willa to go with him the second time, because he wants her-and her stick to protect him again from Bruno. Same thing, Willa goes with him on a purpose of to the promise of Maks giving her food.

Similarly, in the “ Total Tragedy of a girl named Hamlet”, by Erin Dionne, Dezzie really values her friendship with Saber and Mauri like they are her only child. Why? The reason because they are her first two friends in her life, she sacrifices anything just to comfort them as much as she can. However, Sauri and Mauri are trying to be friend with Dezzie in another purpose, getting good grades. Dezzie doesn’t know anything, but it is Hamlet who knows that the questions they ask her are the homework questions. These two books are the same at the start of the book but not at the end.

“ In the City of Orphans”, throughout the book, we can see that they start to become loyal to each other, they help each other in bad conditions. Maks left very quickly after hearing that Willa is being kidnapped by the Plug Uglies Gang. In contrast, at the end of the book of “ The Total Tragedy of a girl named Hamlet”, the relationship doesn’t last long as expected, it turns out to a break-up one at last, because Mauri takes her relationship as a game and pretends to play it as a drama displaying only in front of her face.

With this, we can imagine the two relationship starts off at the same point, but each of them goes to a completely different directions. The relationship in the “ City of Orphans”, is like the river that stills flowing, however, the relationship in the “ Total Tragedy of a girl named Hamlet”, the relationship has already stopped in the middle of the way, no more chance to go.

While some people might ask that how do you know that Maks and Willa are a good relationship, they probably stay together until now, because they still have advantages from each other, while Dezzie breaks up with Saber and Mauri, because she has no more benefits from them. You have to remember that Willa and Maks take benefits from each other but they are happy together, loyal to each other, and at last, they stay under the same roof like brother and sister. When Saber and Mauri doesn’t truly wants Dezzie to be friend with her, their feeling, their mind are still not accepting that Dezzie is not their true friend, she is just their school homework assistant, which leads them to break-up line.

To sum up, we can make a overall theme of the two books that the friendship is depends on the friends themselves, whether their mind consider each other as friends or not, it doesn’t matter how the relationship starts.

By Khantey

City of Orphans: Author's Craft

Life is hard without having some power of your own and it is even harder if you are a newsboy on the street in New York 1893. You don’t get to do what you want, everything needs to be in secret. You have to be careful at all time, and everything is depending on the destiny. It is like a shell that you are trapped in, no days to pop your head out of it. That’s what happen in the CITY OF ORPHANS, by AVI. Life is super tough for Maks and Willa. On one hand, there’s an ill-sister and on the other hand is a jailed-sister that has to be rescued. Maks is definitely in a huge trouble, he needs money, that’s the reason why he tries to keep every pennies that he made from selling his newspapers. However, the Plug Ugly Gang doesn’t let him do that, if they find him, they’ll beat them up and take all of his money. NO, he could not let that happen, he gets to do something, he needs freedom and power. AVI uses the stick as a symbolism of freedom and power.

In the beginning of the book, when Willa extricates Maks from the Gangs with her stick, the author used descriptive language,“looking hard and nubby” to illustrates the appearance of the stick, its fierceness which is a perfect feature for power and a protection. In addition, the author even addresses Maks’s inner thinking “ he could not asking himself if she-and that stick could help him one more time.”,to convey that he doesn’t want to leave her, he is fearful, he doesn’t want to lose his chance and his opportunities. He needs some protection.

In the middle of the book, whenever and wherever Willa goes, she will always bring her stick with her,“ She stands with her stick in her hand, ready to go.”, from this we can infer that the stick is like her life-long friend, that she just feels secure with it. Amazingly, nothing happens to her. This can be interpreted that the stick has some power to her, no one could do anything harm on her. Until at the end of the book, she just realizes in the middle of the street that she forgot her stick with her. However, it is too late to get back home to get it. At this point of this story, it builds suspense to the readers, readers seem to know more than the character in the book. Readers want to shout their voice out to warn Willa to go back and get her stick because they could predict that something fearful would happen. It builds up the mood of nervousness, scared, and fear. Ultimately, the readers prediction comes true. The Plug Uglies Gang finds her and takes her away, she could not do anything. Without the stick, Willa is like the Fairy God Mother losing her magical wand, losing all the power that could protect her from something horrifying.

In the CITY OF ORPHANS, the stick symbolizes the protection, the security, that could scare the villains away, thing that everyone's wants especially in a hard time. People desire to have power, power of their own freedom so that life could get better.

By Khantey

City Of Orphans: An Exploration of Friendship

AVI’s adventurous story, “City Of Orphans” takes place in New York, 1893, which is full of life, crowded, filthy and dangerous. Maks Geles, a 13 year-old-newsboy needs to watch out for the Plug Ugly gang, or they will beat him up and take away all his money. One day, Willa has saved Maks from the gang, and they go on an agreement together for their own advantages. After a while, they are becoming best friends. A lesson that this story willing to tell us is that even if two people are taking benefits from each other to fulfil their own needs, this could lead to a life-long healthy relationship.

While some might argue that probably Maks actually likes Willa at the beginning and then afterwards wants to be her friends and at the same time getting some benefits from her, which is somehow kind of true. However, the consequences of the story is quite wrong. You have to remember that in the part when Willa climbs up on the fence to show where she lives, the author again describes that, “ Maks gets so interested in her climbing that he forgets to escape.” which can indicates that somehow one part of mind still feel scared of her. Now long after that, Makes says thank to Willa for his help and Willa replies back sure, the author shows Maks’s inner thinking, “ Relieved that Willa ain’t gonna hold on to him, Maks heads down the alley trying to act easy.” This illustrates that he feels happy to get out of that place and specifically, from her, he wants to get out there as fast as he could, however, he tries to act as cool as possible not to show that he is afraid of her. At this point, you can see that Maks absolutely really wants to get out from her, it is just when he thinks what if the Plug Uglies are waiting to ambush me when I step onto the street?, “ He can’t help asking himself if she and the stick might be willing to defend him a second time. He starts to say something, but it ain’t easy to ask a girl for help.” In this scene, he needs help from her again, he just feels he needs it, but as long as he is a boy, it seems not too cool to ask a girl for help, that makes him feel bad for himself. And that when he offers her some food if she goes with him again. To cut down his bad feeling, he just realised that according to the newsies rule, he owes her. So giving her food is actually good for both side-for her and for him.

Why does he choose to offer her food? If we look back at the beginning of the story, when Maks realizes that the one who helps him is Willa, the author really focuses on how Maks sees Willa likes, he uses many short and long, descriptive words and sentences to describe her, “ Her hair is dirty, gnarled, and twisted into greasy knots. She’s wearing a faded green shirt, which must have been some lady’s cause bits of lace, like tattered spider’s web, are curled round the collar…”, which reveals obviously that Maks is studying her by her appearance. He could tell that Willa is much worse than him. She is way more desperate, poorer, and even sadder than his family does. Also, he knows later on that the girl lives on the street and at least he has a home. With that, he can say that the girl might need some food. And he uses food to attract her. Also, it makes him feel like he is offering some benefits to her while he is also getting benefits from her as well.

Moreover, at this scene, why does Willa accept the invitation? Did she know that Maks try to take her as a protection by convincing her the food? Of course, she knows it, later on, on the street walking to Maks’s house, Willa asks Maks, “ They( referring to the Plug Ugly Gangs) really make you nervous, don’t they?”. In fact she knows what is happening, she knows the reason, but why does she still go there? The answer is because of business. It is like the trending in the market, I give you oranges, and I give you money. The same thing happens here, if Willa goes with him which makes Maks feels safer, than Maks would give Willa food back in a return.

However, this is just a short business only, Maks actually doesn’t want to be with her that much. Another detail that shows that Maks doesn’t want to be with her that much is when they walk on the street and another newsies walks past by and says, “ Hey, Maks mug, find ya girlfriend from the dump?”, and it says that “Maks isn’t too happy being seen with this dirty girl.” Later on, “ Maks wants nothing more than to get this girl in and out - fast.”. Consequently, Maks doesn’t want to be with her that long. He arrives home safely, and the next thing he promises is to give her food, and their goal afterwards is to get her away again.

It is not until the situation again changes when Ema, Maks’s sister was sent to prison because she was accused of stealing a gold watch. And then everyone is suffering. And that’s when Maks truly wants Willa to stay in his house.

From that day, Maks and his family gives love both mentally and physically to Willa, they give them food, bath, and act like she is one of the member of the family as well. On the other side, Willa tries to think of an idea to help Maks’s sister from the prison, she goes to sell the newspaper instead of Maks and takes care of his younger brothers. They show their loyalty on each other. When Willa is being kidnapped by the gang, he hurried quickly to help her. A moment later on, at the end of the story, Willa decides to give her new family her gold ring which she gets it from her dead mother, to sell it for Agnes, Maks’s another sister who is having wasting disease, for a medication treatment.

Sometimes, people are acting like they are friends, not because they are feeling life real friends, but because of there’s something from the other side of you that could benefit both to let us fulfil our own needs. Although, this can lead to a very happy ending relationship. Who knows. This is the nature of friendship. Things could change at any time. Nothing could tell whether this relationship is good or bad at first sight. No one!!!

By Khantey

Lacking Water in the Future

While three little kids are brushing their teeth, one kid starts to fight another one in order to get into the first tap to get the water first, but after one fight one, the other try to fight back and then run away leaving the tap open, leaving the water to run all over the floor.

Is this a kind of wasting water? Of course, water is the most important source for us to survive, without water, there would be no other living creatures on the world. So have you ever imagine of a time when people will fight each other for only a glass of water? This is the question to ask when the scientists have claimed that water will be lacked in the near future. But what reasons that inspire scientists to claim like that?

According to CIA source, it reveals that on Earth, the freshwater only makes up just three percent of the water supply. And it becomes more clear that less than one percent is freely available; the rest is tied up in ice, as in icebergs, glaciers, and snowcaps. This means that all of the rivers, streams, lakes, aquifers and groundwater expected to sustain 6,602,224,175 people on Earth.

What caused the water lacking? It will happen because of two important factors:

Global Warming: It is the most serious environmental issue that the world always concerns about. If the world become hotter and hotter, the water on the surface will dry up quickly. Furthermore, the ice at the Arctic Circles starts to melt.Therefore, in the future, we have only salt water that we can not use. As you have known the first point, the second point also links with the point above.

Deforestation: Based on WWF Survey, it illustrates that about 60 hectares of the world’s rainforest are being destroyed to clear land for cattle, oil rig, and mine. The more trees are destroyed, the less chance the rain will fall. At that time, drought will happen everywhere. And it will have a really bad effect on humans, animals and plants in the world.

Things that is even worse and unbelievable, in 2070:

The people who are 50 years old will look as old as the people who are 85 years old, in addition, they’ll have many serious illnesses because of lacking water in their bodies. All of the people will look as ugly as the zombies. Bodies are full of viruses from the sunlight ( ultra violet), because there is no ozone layer. Life expectancy will be only 35 years.

People will use towel with mineral oil to clean their skin instead of water.

All of the people must shave their hair off, accordingly, they don’t need to wash them by using water.

Everywhere all around us will have no more people like the desert. Employees will work for water instead of money.

Usually people drink at least 8 glasses of water, but at that time, only half a glass of water will be given to each person.

In some countries, where there are still some green zones crossed by rivers, they will be guarded with heavy armed soldiers. Then, water will become a very coveted treasure, even more precious than gold or a 100-carat diamond.

In spite of that, some places like Africa and some parts of some developing countries are facing this unfortunate event. However, why were most of the people enjoying themselves by pouring litres and litres of water on their bodies uselessly at the same time that Africans are lacking clean water? So it indicates that the events described above is likely to happen if we continue this things to happen. Well, not many people ever think about this issue since they live in a place that have plenty of water. But just because they are not involved in this event, and they don’t care about it. However, this idea is totally wrong. Like Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft and a philanthropist, said that, “ Do we really not care because it doesn’t affect us…? I refuse to sit there and say, Okay, next problems, this one doesn’t bother me. But It does bother me very much! ”. That’s why we cannot just sit and ignore it because it does not bother us. We MUST take actions on it.

So can we do anything to help? Of course, we can!!!!

Stop cutting and start growing more trees, stop polluting the environment, start using public transportation or riding bicycles and try to save water!!!!

By these 5 easy things, if you can do it and continue to do it consistently, you will become one of the hero in this world. You are helping yourself, your family, your friends, your world and everybody!!! So, go and get started!!!

Written by Khantey

How’s Technology Affects Children’s Daily Life?

Over the last five years, technology has changed and expanded in every field imaginable. Smart phones are now like the Hogwart. It is capable of taking pictures, sending emails, contacting and even searching the Internet. Of course, it does change our lives but not always in a good way.

As in a real life example,during dinner time at the canteen, there’s a group of students flunking together in one table, eating their dinner. But the one noticeable thing is that they spend most of their time paying attention to their phones and headsets in their ears. But no one starts the conversation to each other.

In this situation, we can see that technology can change the world in a different way from what we expected. It supposed to help us communicate better with people more when we don’t see each other very often and it also uses to help our studies as well. Moreover, it has many apps that can help our life more convenient with everything. Even though, it’s not always the same as what we thinking.

A boy and a girl chat with each other on the phone everyday but when they see each other face to face at school, they don’t even say a word. Furthermore, on Facebook or Twitter, they have thousands of friends or followers from all over the world. But their friends in their outside world is just only 20 to 25 only. And furthermore, their friendship is not even improving because they don’t communicate very much.

Second is about their study. Some technology like phones, electronic dictionaries, laptops, Ipad are expected to help young learners with their studies. And that’s also a big reason when their parents buy them all that technology devices. But most of the children use it for the entertainment even more than everything. Some kids even complain about too much homework and too much pressure. But it is actually not the problem with the homework but it is with themselves. They check their phones to see if there’s any messages or emails several times in an hour. They even spend their time doing stuffs with their electronic devices in bed as well. So where is the real meaning of using technology?

“Modern technology is part of contemporary life and naturally affect in people’s lives. However, it becomes really obvious that a number of children nowadays are using technology excessively” says a teacher.

So what can we do to stop it? We don’t need to throw the phones or the laptops away to stop it. But the important thing is people have to balance their schedule better. They have to balance what time should they have for their family, friends, studies and for their entertainment!!! Then, everything will be BETTER!!!!

Written by Khantey

Library or Room?

Every Monday to Friday, from 7pm to 9 pm, students at the boarding house who are in grade 7 to 11 have to go and have their study time at the library. It is a time for students to do their homework or review their lessons or tomorrow subjects.

Except for grade 12, they can study at their own rooms. Students at other grades always complain that it is unfair to let the other students go to the library and walk back to their own room. And let the grade 12 students stay in their room after dinner.

However, Marcel, one of the houseparent, explained that the reasons why they let the other grades except grade 12 to study at the library, because they are still little kids so it is better to let them study at the library so that they can pay attention to their study more than at their room. But is it a right decision?

There’s been a rumour from an anonymous student said that, “ I cannot dissipate on what I’m learning at the library. People always keep scolding at each other which is very loud and the house parents don’t even know about that because they are outside. We come to study at the library because it suppose to a quite place but it isn’t. So what is the purpose of being at the library?”

Because of this rumour, the house parents at the boarding house start to think about it over. And they decide to have an assembly after dinner time one evening. It is a vote council. Students have to raise their hand for their own favourite whether at the library or at their own rooms.

It’s about 70% of the students show their hands for their own room and about 30% show for study time at the library. One of a girl claimed strongly that, “ I cannot study at my own room. I always feel disturbed from people around me. Sometimes they do not have any homework so they spend their time make up or chat with their mother. I can concentrate more at the library. I don’t mind walking from my room to the library.”

Because of there are two different ideas and they are both good at both side. So the house parents have to discuss with the other and decide whether should they let the students study at the library or room or keep one houseparent in each room at the library. They still figure out about it. But what do you think, library or room?

Written by Khantey