The Nature of Animal Testing: STOP ANIMAL TESTING!

Or click here to watch the video on youtube.com!!!

Process Analysis:
I did my visual argument on the nature of animal testing. The point that I was trying to get through to my audience was how much pain these animals actually go through just to make sure that the new mascara wasn't going to burn off the consumers' eye lashes when they apply them.
To how I arranged my pictures, I decided to go with the milder pictures first because I wanted to build some kind of climax and suspense. I wanted to shock my audience by informing and alarming them what animal testing is doing to our poor and innocent creatures. That's why ended my slideshow with the pictures of the aftermath of animal testing. There was a bag of dead rabbits in a white bag with blood spilling out of each one. Also, while going through pictures and picking out the ones that I wanted to use, I looked for the animals with big eyes. Those pictures would eventually help to create an illusion that the animals are sad and afraid. It appeals to the audience as it stirs up their emotions. Every picture that I had, appealed to the audiences pathos. I felt that it would be the most effective way of drawing them in and showing them the different torturous kinds of experiments these animals have been going through for year. They have been locked up, chained, etc. The pictures also appealed to the audiences' ethos as majority of them were real pictures taken directly from the experiment room. It showed that it really did happen and it wasn't some kind of rumor that had been started just for the sake of stirring something up.
The music that I chose also played a big part of creating this emotional appeal. It started off with just a piano introduction that's very simple and has a sad tune to it. Then a woman starts singing in a very calm and hushed tone. The lyrics also paid a big role to why I picked this song. It had lines like, "I'm so tired of being here", "I wish that you would just leave", "these wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real." I thought it related really well to what the animals must be feeling when they were held captive in their cages against their will and inhumanely experimented on.

Sources:
1. http://www.4us2be.com/tag/animal-testing/
2. http://current.com/1kkt04c
3 & 4. http://urbanaspirines.blogspot.com/2009/11/animal-testing.html
5. http://www.animalport.com/animal-testing/animal-testing-rabbits.html
6. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1jtwKsSBDWU/TD-HPefETUI/AAAAAAAAEIk/AGy_v1rycJM/s1600/primate_testing_540x.jpg
7. http://humanityy.com/ecology/animal-protection/the-horror-animal-testing-illustrated/
8. http://www.freewebs.com/ectanow/animaltesting.htm
9. http://theanimalvoice.blogspot.com/2009/03/animal-testing-and-european-parliament.html
10. http://floridavoicesforanimals.org/issues.aspx
11. http://www.petside.com/petsideblog/2009/10/cyber-marchers-needed-to-help.php
12. http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Animal%20Testing/Monkey_Terror.htm
13. http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/rabbit.html
14. http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=16586
15. http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/animal-testing.jpg
16. http://humanityy.com/es/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/bigsmokmonkey.jpg
17. http://humanityy.com/ecology/animal-protection/the-horror-animal-testing-illustrated/
18. http://doctorbloggs.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-whose-interest-healthy-nation.html
19. http://s3-p.animoto.com/Image/s4m1003Mw9O9ZNOUFPXdow/l.jpg

Song: My Immortal by Evanescence

Inner RIng Response

When we were assigned this essay to read, I was really excited. I've heard so much about C.S. Lewis and I wanted to find out what all that rave was about.

I found out that this relates a lot to high school. Everybody is trying to find this group that the belong to. The sense of belonging is really important to human life. We need someone to be there for us when we're sad, someone to listen to us, and someone to just tell us that everything is going to be okay. But when reality and fantasy collide with each other, it may result to total chaos. If we dream too much about being in a group, all we're focused on is trying to get involved and be considered one of them instead of making them like us for who we really are.

I found that I really had a connection with what Lewis was trying to say. When I transferred to WHS, I didn't know anybody. All i know was that I had to make friends and get more involved in school so that I wouldn't stay as a loner. Once I found a friend, I tried so hard to fit in with her friends, hoping that they would include me into their clique. Unfortunately, they weren't the kind of people that I associated with. We had nothing in common. After giving up, I found myself making friends because I stopped trying so hard and people finally got to see the real me.

Mother Teresa's speech on God's mercy and forgiveness

Click here to view the video!!




Sarah Mia :D

Ugly

Synonyms of ugly: hideous, frightful, monstrous, ghastly, horrid, unsightly, gruesome, disfigured, grotesque, and unpicturesque.

1. Hideous (Adj)
-offensive to the senses and especially to sight : exceedingly ugly
-morally offensive : shocking

Examples of hideous
- The room was filled with hideous furniture.
- The hideous way in which she treated her maid after she discovered her ring was missing.
Origin of HIDEOUS

Origin of the word:
alteration of Middle English hidous, from Anglo-French hidus, hisdos, from Old French hisde, hide terror
First Known Use: 14th century

2. Frightful (Adj)
-causing intense fear or alarm : terrifying
-startling especially in being bad or objectionable

Examples of FRIGHTFUL
- As he fell, he let out a frightful scream.
- a frightful illness that causes extreme pain
- The children made a frightful mess of the kitchen.
-Many critics have expressed shock at the song's frightful lyrics.

First Known Use of FRIGHTFUL
1607

3. Monstrous (Adj)
-obsolete : strange, unnatural
-having extraordinary often overwhelming size : gigantic
-having the qualities or appearance of a monster
-obsolete : teeming with monsters
-extraordinarily ugly or vicious : horrible
-shockingly wrong or ridiculous
-deviating greatly from the natural form or character : abnormal

Examples of MONSTROUS
- It was monstrous of him to keep the truth from them all those years.
- A monstrous melon that was clearly not fit to eat.

First Known Use of MONSTROUS
15th century

4. Ghastly (Adj)
-terrifyingly horrible to the senses : frightening
-intensely unpleasant, disagreeable, or objectionable
-resembling a ghost
-obsolete : filled with fear
-a ghastly mistake

Examples of GHASTLY

- You're making a ghastly mistake.
- His room was a ghastly mess.

Origin of GHASTLY
Middle English gastly, from gasten to terrify — more at gast
First Known Use: 14th century

5. Horrid (Adj)
-archaic : rough, bristling
-innately offensive or repulsive:
-inspiring horror : shocking
-inspiring disgust or loathing : nasty or a horrid man
-horrible 2

Examples of HORRID
- People there are living in horrid conditions.
- He's a horrid little man.

Origin of HORRID
Latin horridus, from horrēre
First Known Use: 1590

6. Unsightly (adj)
-not pleasing to the sight : not comely

Examples of UNSIGHTLY
- The cracks in the wall are unsightly.
- Strip-mining leaves an unsightly gash in the landscape.

First Known Use of UNSIGHTLY
15th century

7. Gruesome (Adj)
-inspiring horror or repulsion : grisly

Examples of GRUESOME
- The police report described the scene in gruesome detail.
- Didn't stick around to hear the gruesome details of the car accident.

Origin of GRUESOME
alteration of earlier growsome, from English dialect grow, grue to shiver, from Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Dutch grūwen; akin to Old High German ingrūēn to shiver
First Known Use: circa 1700


8. Disfigured (Adj)
-to impair (as in beauty) by deep and persistent injuries a face disfigured by smallpox>
-obsolete : disguise

Examples of DISFIGURE
- His face was disfigured by a scar.
- The statue was seriously disfigured by falling rubble during the earthquake.

Origin of DISFIGURE
Middle English, from Anglo-French desfigurer, from des- dis- + figure figure
First Known Use: 14th century


9. Grotesque (Adj)
-of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the grotesque: as
-fanciful, bizarre
-absurdly incongruous
-departing markedly from the natural, the expected, or the typical

Examples of GROTESQUE
- The actors wore dark capes and grotesque masks.
- A grotesque distortion of the facts

First Known Use of GROTESQUE
1603


10. Unpicturesque
-displeasing to the senses
- ugly face

Examples of UNPICTURESQUE
- His candor in depicting how unpicturesque but absorbing much of the world is — if only our hearts would admit what our eyes tell us — elevates him above all other 19th-century landscape photographers in some minds.
- The hills are barren, they are dull of color, they are unpicturesque in shape.

Part time job

I work at a chinese restaurant owned by a family. I shall name the restaurant to keep it anonymous.
Recently, they hired a new guy and his job was to help and over see everyone while working. At first, we all liked him because he really did help us out during the rush hour. He greeted the customers, treated them with respect, peel pee pods and cut string beans really fast but after a month, he is getting really mean, especially to me. He has been picking on me every time I work saying that I'm slow, I'm fat, I'm lazy, etc. I knew he was kidding so I laughed it off.

A joke is a joke. Once you tell it, you don't re-tell it over and over again. It gets really boring and irritating. I don't get why people are able to repeat a joke many times and still find it funny. Doesn't it get old? Well, if he keeps it up any longer, I'll confront him and maybe things will change.

Response to 2 Million Minutes

I've seen this documentary twice. The first time I saw it, I felt really ashamed. I felt like such a slacker but when I watched it again today, I realized that this was not the point the film maker was trying to get across. The point of the documentary was even though the education systems in India and China are much more competitive and stressful, the students there may not always succeed.

When I moved here from Singapore, 4 years ago, I was really shocked at what the students in my math class were learning. They were learning how to multiply fractions and learning how to calculate percentages while in the school that I came from, we were just already learning algebra. It really showed me how different the math systems were.

In the video, the teenagers from China and India were saying how laid back it would be if they came to America but I don't think that't the case. Yes, we do have a slower math system. Yes, our parents do not really stress on education as much as theirs. The reason why I think we have a better system is because we're taking our students through a less rigorous math system in middle school trying to build and firm up their math foundation so that they can take harder courses in high school. This helps the students learn better in a less stressful environment. It's like the story of the rabbit and the tortoise. The slow and steady will win the race.

:) Sarah Mia Sham

The Answers

#1 is Description
#2 is Narration
#3 is Example
#4 is Process Analysis
#5 is Definition
#6 is Classification
#7 is Argumentative/ Persuasion
#8 is Division of Analysis
#9 is Cause and Effect
#10 is Comparison and Contrast

Friendship :)

One night, while doing homework, Stefanie gets a phone call. It is from her best friend, Natalie. She is crying hysterically because her boyfriend just broke up with her. Stefanie immediately sprints out of her house and starts driving towards her best friend’s house. She greeted Natalie’s mom at the door who has a worried look on her face and walked her to Natalie’s room. In there, Stefanie dropped down to the floor where Natalie was curled up in a fetal position and hugged her. They sat there for an hour in silence together as tears ran down both their faces.

On the first day of primary school, I was awkwardly sitting at the corner of my room in my blue and white uniform. I didn’t know how to socialize with others so I just stared down at my shoes. All of a sudden, this cheerful girl who had the cutest dimples on both of her cheeks approached me and started to ask if I had any Pokemon cards. I looked up at her and I was ecstatic. I loved Pokemon; I had every single card and every version of it on my GameBoy. I was a Pokemon fanatic and she was too. I could feel the sparks fly. We quickly became best friends because we had such a strong thing in common. We were inseparable.

I’ve always had a mentality that having a best friend meant have an endless amount of matching t-shirts, sleepovers, and friendship bracelets. But I’ve matured or at least I hope I have, I don’t think that having all those things means that she’s your best friend anymore. I think having a best friend means being able to trust one another with your deepest darkest secrets, being able to accept one another regardless of race, gender, or even sexual preference.

Making friends is easy but keeping friends is a much harder thing to do. As “requirements” for having a best friend, you have to be able to keep a conversation going. Best friends spend most of their time talking to each other. They share secrets, gossip about the clothes other people are wearing and laugh at each other’s imperfections. But before getting to that stage, we must each go through the different levels. First of all, there are strangers. They see each other in the hallways and might even look away because of the heavy tension. Next comes, friends. They aren’t best friends yet but they’re also not strangers. When you see them, you run up to them and give them the biggest hug in the world. One of the differences between a friend and a best friend is not being able to share all your secrets. You don’t know if you can trust them yet with who your latest crush is.

Having friends is something that people should always treasure. To find someone who shares the same interests, hates the same things, or accepts you for you really are is rare. But when you find them, it would be them who would be able to lift your feelings up when your parents or siblings can’t. It would be them who would cheer up with just a hug after you flunked your calculus final. It would be them who would be able to make a day of just staying home fun. It would be them who would encourage you to keep on going when you are on the verge of giving up. It would be them who will push you to your limits just because they have enough faith in you and they know that you can do it. Treasure your friends because they would always be there for you.

When we think of friendship, we always think of two girls hugging each other whenever they see each other or two guys fist-pumping one another. However, we repetitively cease to remember that a spark might occur between two people of different gender or even between a human and an animal. What happened to Willy and Jesse from Free Willy? What happened to Paul, Cindy and Benji from Benji? Even though neither Willy nor Benji could talk, it was the trust and love that each of them received and delivered that made them the best of friends.

It is not easy to make friends. One has to be open to new ideas and feelings, the other has be able to accept differences and give encouragement and vice versa. Why do we have to sometimes change how we perceive the world or even the littlest information? It’s because friends is something that every one of us should have. They’re our little escape out of this world, they help give us a different perspective on things and they even open us to things we’ve never dreamt of even doing. Like going bungee-jumping, learning a new language, or experiencing a new culture.

Keeping friends is not an easy thing to do. We have to consistently be open about one another’s feelings, try to view the problem from a different perspective, being able to forgive, etc. There is no specific formula that can help you accumulate and broaden your social network. It’s something that you have to keep working on. All you need is a little common sense and trust. Trust your gut, trust your heart and trust your brain.

Think of friends as rewards from God. Before getting that reward, you have accomplish a few different things. First, you would have to learn how to respect yourself. Decide what your values are and then stick to them no matter what. Secondly, you have to be loyal. You have to be there for your friend when they need you the most. You don’t have to be there physically but just emotionally. Send them a card or something sweet to remind them that you are for them if they ever need you. Last of all, stick up for them. Many close friendships are formed when they feel protected by the ones they love. These are only some examples but when you achieve them, you would be showered with love and care by all your friends.

Friends and enemies. It’s something you don’t really hear together in the same sentence. While friends give you warmth, enemies give you feelings of antagonism. Friends give you companionship while enemies give you feelings of oppression.
Friends make you feel like you’re on cloud nine while enemies make you feel like you’ve gone to hell and back up. Friends make you feel like best person and brings your self esteem up but enemies just crush your ego and whatever is left of you to make you feel insecure, uncertain and unhappy.

What Ticks Me Off

Hi everybody,
I'm currently sitting here on a bus with 33 other people. We're driving back from St Louis, Missouri and it's going to be a ten hour ride. Yippee!... For the past four days, I've been trying to come up with what really drives me up the wall and the only one that I can think of is when people take more than what they can eat at an all you can eat buffet.

I’ve been to so many buffet-like meals before with either friends or families and there has always been that people whos take every single object that has been laid out on the table even though they know that they can’t consume everything. I feel that the act of piling a plate with excessive food just because you paid a set fee with no additional costs is simply wasteful. Let’s say you pay $20 for an all-you-can-eat buffet at a sushi restaurant. You decide to take every single item in the buffet just because you feel a that you need to making the most of your money. Seriously, I feel that the better method is taking a little portion and then if you are still hungry after that plate, you go and get some more. There are no restrictions to how many rounds you can pile up. It’s better to be careful than wasteful.

So, the next time you go to a buffet style meal at a restaurant or a friend’s house, please take only what you can eat. Do not waste.

Manufacturing Consent

On Wednesday, Mrs Smith told us that we were going to watch this documentary called Manufacturing Consent about Noam Chomsky, I wasn't really interested. First of all, I had no idea who this Noam Chomsky guy was and the title did not sound exciting. But since Mrs Smith was being so nice, I decided to pay attention. Before I go on about the video, let me tell you this. For some weird reason, war stories interests me a lot..

So once the movie started, unsurprisingly, the whole section about the East Timor and Cambodia genocide really caught my attention. Being the ignorant girl that I am, I had no idea that such a horrible thing happened to such a peaceful country. It reminded me much of my homeland. Like East Timor, Singapore is also a very small island with a large population with many different dialects. They are also both independent nations. The documentary also carried on about how the genocide in Cambodia that roughly happened around the same time had more coverage in the United States. While watching that, tears were slowly forming. I was dismayed that such a big newspaper company like the New York Times would cover up most of the facts that were happening back then. I'm sure that if the New York Times was to give all of us back then all the straight information and facts, much more action would have been taken to help the people of East Timor.

This video has impacted me in many ways. I've come to find myself really interested in this documentary. I believe that Noam Chomsky is a man of many opinions and I want to thank him for pointing it out to me that this country is hiding so much information from us. It's about time that they open up and tell us the truth.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Asia/GenocideEastTimor_Z.html

Try My New Sleep Schedule!

Hi, my name is Sarah Mia Sham and I'm a junior.
I'm currently taking psychology, AP Comp, US History and AP Calc.
I work at Edible Arrangements and Chef Lee's and I'm in Student Council, Link Crew, FPS, BPA, Club YES and Fencing. For some of you, my schedule isn't really stressful but to me, it is.

It has only been a month since school started and I've tried many ways already to adapt to the new tedious cycle. You see, it's my first year taking AP classes and I'm very inexperienced. This is one of the most successful methods that I have tried.

- Wake up at 6am
- Drive to school 7am
- Arrive at school 725am (I hate that bridge!)
- Stay in school until 220pm
- Drive home 3pm
- Walk my dog 330pm
- Volunteer 4-5pm / Work until 8pm
- Drive home 810pm
- Feed and walk my dog 830pm
- Sleep until 1130pm
- Go on the computer to check my mail until 12am
- Start my homework
- Sleep at 3am
- Repeat :)

See, if you calculate the time that I slept, it adds up to 7 hours!! It makes me feel so refreshed in the morning! If you don't believe me, try it out for yourself!

Sarah Mia Sham <3

I Guess Sometimes My Mom Is Right...

Shoot for the moon and if you miss it, at least you'll be among the stars was what I've been told by my mother a hundred times every since I entered grade school. It affected me negatively and positively but this is going to be about how this sentence is going to haunt me for the next ten years.
I was six years old and my mother said that to me right after she signed me up for abacus, piano, and ballet classes. Ever since then, I have been think about it at least once a day. I keep pondering about how I can shoot for the moon? It seems like very specific and simple sentence but when I was six, I thought there was something more to it. Here I am, a junior in high school, finally! I'm almost all grown up and I am still trying to figure exactly what my mother meant. I'm trying to be the best but even when I feel like I'm the best, there is always going to be someone better, someone with much higher authority, or someone who is just smarter than me. Even though I have all these negative thoughts building up inside of me, my mother's high pitch voice is still there.
How am i suppose to shoot for the moon? Am I suppose to juggle social, school, and work life all at once? Or am I suppose to find a passion and just do my best in it. That, I do not know. I wish my mother would emphasize on how I can actually shoot for the moon. She just left the words there to haunt me for ten years.
Thankfully because of her, I am what I am now. I push myself to complete my homework daily, take challenging classes, and to be a good employee. I am a driven person. I do what I think is right for me and I go for it. For example, if everyone in school has been telling me that a certain class is really hard, I would give myself a goal. Let's say that my goal is to get in the A range and at the end of the term, if I get an A- on my report card, I would be okay because I know that I tried my hardest and I have no regrets.
It is also because of the sentence my mother said to me that makes me want to be a veterinarian. My passion is to help animals. I want to help many abused and homeless animals as I can throughout my entire life. To strive for that goal, I have to do extremely well in school. The veterinarian course in college is competitive and only the best of the best would be selected. If I do not get accepted? There are so many other ways that I can help animals. I could open up a pet shop and educate others on how to keep their pet healthy and happy. I could start an organization and raise money for abused and homeless animals. Even if I have to do something other than being an animal doctor, I would be alright with it as long as it involves animals.
I guess that is what my mother has been trying to tell me all along. She wanted me to figure out what my 'moon' is. She wants me to shoot for it by myself and she wants me to be happy. Not necessarily successful but at least content with how the outcome of my future is going to turn out. I guess sometimes my mom is right..

Author's note: Hehe :) Hey, thanks for reading this. I hope you like this essay. I'm not a very strong/ good writer but I'm going to keep trying! So keep on reading and bye! <3

Why I Write (Used without permission) :D

Of course I stole the title from this talk, from George Orwell. Of course I stole this sentence, from Joan Didion.

If someone was to ask me why I write, I wouldn't know what to say. Even though I have a blog with over 280 archives, I still can't tell you or I can't describe what's this addiction that I have to writing. No, I'm not trying to use it to get people's attention. I'm not trying to tell people how I feel indirectly.

If I don't write, I feel like there's something scratching from the inside, trying to get out.

If you are following my blog on Tumblr, you would realize that it is extremely random. You would find one post on how much I hate math and another post on how much I love animals.

But I guess if someone was to hold up a knife to my throat or a gun to my head and asks me to give an answer, or else..
My response would be something like this. I write because I need my imagination, thoughts and ideas to be written or typed up. It feels great to open up and know that your secrets or fantasies would not be leaked out. I write because I love how there's no restrictions. It's freedom for me and my thoughts.

Bad Day

I really don't know which is worse...

Being humiliated by your teacher in front of your entire class or continuously making mistakes at work.

:(

Can today get any worse? Oh yeah, I probably have to stay up just to get my homework done.

BLEAHHHH!

More About Me

I love blogging, always have and always will. I share random thoughts in my head and things I want to show others on my blog. It's such a great way of communicating and expressing your inner self.

I'm 16 and I'm going on 17. Right now? I'm afraid of growing up and being held accountable for every thing I do. I've heard people say, "Learn from your mistakes" but what if I'm scared of making mistakes? I'm such a perfectionist that for me, it's very unacceptable. I'm pretty sure that one of these days, I'm going to accidentally let my guard down and slip. I'll learn then.

Animals make my tummies go all fuzzy. :) I love every breed or species of animals. They are all different and unique like us. The only difference? They can't talk and walk on just two legs.

My goal in life? Be a vet. I want to save homeless and abused animals. It's a competitive course in college and I really hope I make it.

Alright, enough about me. I want to know about you :)

Lots of hugs and kisses <3,
Sarah Mia