being

Love at first sight is an emotional condition whereby a person feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first encounter with the stranger. The term may be used to refer to a mere sexual attraction, crush, or even an object. However, it usually refers to actually falling in love with someone literally the very first time one sees him or her, along with the deep desire to have intimate relationship with that person. This usually happens when the object of his, or her love, for instance satisfies his subconscious concepts of beauty. The stranger may or may not be aware that the other person has any such notion, and may not even be aware of the other person's presence. Sometimes two people experience this phenomenon towards each other at the same time, usually when their eyes meet.

Recent studies, biogical studies, in neuroscience have indicated that a consistent number of chemicals are present in the brain when people testify to feeling love. These chemicals include; Testosterone, Oestrogen, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Serotonin, Oxytocin, and Vasopressin. More specifically, higher levels of Testosterone and Oestrogen are present during the lustful phase of a relationship. Dopamine, Norepinephrine, and Serotonin are more commonly found during the attraction phase of a relationship. Oxytocin, and Vasopressin seemed to be more closely linked to long term bonding and relationships characterized by strong attachments.

When one is in love at first sight, one loves an abstraction or image of the person’s best qualities and would love a person for his or her unique qualities, because the ideas are abstractions that do not vary. In love, we thus look for the best embodiment of a universal truth in a person rather than that of an idiosyncratic truth. Being based on appearances and first impressions, the feelings of love felt for the other usually wears off after awhile when he or she, finally gets weary of their love's appearance and real character after they had known them long enough and where, the true self reveals.

However, despite of the many failed relationships due to this phenomenon, there are some who got their happy-ever-after fairytale. Taking my parents as an example, they had met at a barbeque, a birthday celebration at the age of sixteen. Both of them had already fallen for each other at the first sight. Those feelings kept on even till now, they're still behaving like a young, deeply attached couple and loving happily still.

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Good morning to all present.

Today, I will be talking to you on the wonders of music.

Beethoven, Mozart and Litz. They are great men of the 20th century who has touched the lives of many through their works and their prodigious skills. Did they create the first filament light bulb? Or invent the first aircraft?

No. They did not. But what they did, has had a resounding effect throughout the ages of Man. Even though the great composers of the past have died, their music lives on. And has manifested in different forms. Their works has provided a sense of comfort and refuge for the people living through the ages. If one were to listen closely when placed in places with pain and suffering, it would be quite easy to note the strains of music traveling through the spaces and displacing misery with a sense of hope, sadness with a tinge of joy. This can be captured succinctly with the quote that Percy Bysse Shelly made, which is “Our sweetest songs tell of the saddest tales”.

I come from a choir that has achieved much in the musical arena. But ultimately, if you were to look at why the choir has so much fun despite the long hours spent in training, you would notice that we do not really care about the time spent training. Because the love of music and the bonding we have makes us inseparable. They say singing is the voice of angels. And I think, if you were to hear a choir perform, you would surely agree with them. The simple harmonies and crests of crescendos crashing upon one’s being, creates a sense of uplifting and the joy that fills up your entire body, making you feel as though you are floating with the music itself. And surely that has nothing to do with the effects of morphine or any dope for that matter.

Music binds Mankind. Be it from the Wayang Kuilits in Indonesia, Gamelan (Pronounced Gam-May-lan) of India, Operas of the Chinese and Western kind, every great civilization has had their own brand and kind of music. This shows us of the great influence that Music has had. Regardless of the different cultures or religious backgrounds. And this even more so in the modern context where differences between Man is being accentuated and emphasized.

Albert Einstein once said. If I were not a physicist, I would be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. And when that comes from one of the greatest Man of Science, I think there can be no greater affirmation of the beauty of Music.

Thank You.

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His intro:

John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980), was a 20th-century Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning English songwriter, singer, instrumentalist, graphic artist, author and political activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles. Lennon and Paul McCartney formed a critically acclaimed and commercially successful partnership writing songs for The Beatles and other artists. Lennon, with his cynical edge and knack for introspection, and McCartney, with his storytelling optimism and gift for melody, complemented one another uniquely. In his solo career, Lennon wrote and recorded songs such as "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance".

Lennon revealed his rebellious nature and irreverent wit on television, in films such as A Hard Day's Night (1964), in books such as In His Own Write, and in press conferences and interviews. He channeled his fame and penchant for controversy into his work as a peace activist, artist, and author.

He had two sons, Julian, with his first wife Cynthia, and Sean, with his second wife, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono. Lennon was murdered by a deranged fan Mark David Chapman in New York City on 8 December 1980 after he and Ono returned home from a recording session.

In 2002, respondents to a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted Lennon into eighth place. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon number 38 on their list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time"
and ranked The Beatles at number 1.

Why he was popular?

Lennon had a varied recording career. Whilst still a Beatle, Lennon (along with Ono) recorded three albums of experimental music, Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, and Wedding Album. His first 'solo' album of popular music was Live Peace in Toronto 1969, recorded prior to the breakup of The Beatles, at the Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with The Plastic Ono Band. He also recorded three solo singles: the anti-war anthem "Give Peace a Chance", the heroin withdrawal report "Cold Turkey", and "Instant Karma!". Following The Beatles' split in 1970 Lennon released the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album. The song "God" lists people and things Lennon no longer believed in - ending with "Beatles". The album also included "Working Class Hero" which was banned from the airwaves for its use of the word "fucking".

The album Imagine followed in 1971, and its title song soon became an anthem for anti-religion and anti-war movements. The song's video was filmed during Lennon's "white period" (white clothes, white piano, white room, and the like). He wrote "How Do You Sleep?" as an attack against McCartney, with George Harrison on slide guitar, but later claimed that it was about himself.

Some Time in New York City (1972) was loud, raucous, and explicitly political, with songs about prison riots, racial and sexual relations, the British role in Northern Ireland, and his own problems in obtaining a United States Green Card. Lennon had been interested in left-wing politics since the late 1960s, and was said to have given donations to the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party.

In 1972 Lennon released "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", which drew parallels between exploitation of women and discrimination against blacks. Radio stations refused to broadcast the song and it was banned nearly everywhere, though he managed to play it to television viewers during his second appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.

Things he did that shot him to fame:

On 4 March 1966, Lennon was interviewed for the London Evening Standard by his friend Maureen Cleave and made an off-the-cuff remark regarding Christianity.

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink.... I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

The article was printed and nothing came of it — until five months later, when an American teen magazine called Datebook reprinted part of the quote on its front cover.

A firestorm of protest erupted across the American Bible Belt in the South and Midwest, as conservative groups staged public burnings of Beatles records and memorabilia. (The Beatles at first viewed this in a wry way, saying, "They've got to buy them first before they burn 'em.") Many radio stations banned Beatles music, and some concert venues cancelled performances.

A 1967 portrait of Lennon by Richard Avedon.

On 11 August 1966, The Beatles held a press conference in Chicago, in order to address the growing controversy.[citation needed]

Lennon: I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a journalist friend, and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think — as Beatles, as those other Beatles, like other people see us. I just said "they" are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way, which is the wrong way.

Reporter: Some teenagers have repeated your statements — "I like The Beatles more than Jesus Christ." What do you think about that?

Lennon: Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact, and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing, or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this.

Reporter: But are you prepared to apologise?

Lennon: I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologise if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do, but if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry.

The Vatican accepted his apology, but the Southern Baptist Convention (the predominant religion in the U.S. Bible Belt) did not.
Lennon wrote later, "I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn't said that The Beatles were 'bigger than Jesus' and upset the very Christian Ku Klux Klan, well, Lord, I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas! God bless America. Thank you, Jesus."

The crazy stuff he done

On 14 March, as Lennon and Ono were being driven to Mimi's house, in Poole, Dorset, they asked if it was possible to get "married at sea". On 20 March 1969, they were married in Gibraltar, and spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam in a "Bed-In" for peace. Behind their bed were posters that displayed the words "Hair Peace. Bed Peace." They held another "Bed-In", in Montreal, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where they recorded "Give Peace a Chance", which became an anthem for the peace movement. They were mainly patronised as a couple of eccentrics by the media, yet they did a great deal for the peace movement, as well as for feminism and racial harmony. Lennon and Ono often combined advocacy with performance art, as in their "Bagism" introduced during a Vienna press conference. Shortly after, Lennon changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon wrote "The Ballad of John and Yoko" about his marriage and the subsequent press coverage it generated.

The failed Get Back/Let It Be recording/filming sessions did nothing to improve relations within the band. After both Lennon and Ono were injured in the summer of 1969 in a car accident in Scotland, Lennon arranged for Ono to be constantly with him in the studio (including having a full-sized bed rolled in) as he worked on The Beatles' last album, Abbey Road. While the group managed to hang together to produce one last acclaimed musical work, soon thereafter business issues related to Apple Corps came between them.

Why he is a genius?

Lennon started writing and drawing early in life, with encouragement from his Uncle George (Mimi's husband). He often drew caricatures of his school teachers; when he attended art school he penned love poems to Cynthia Lennon on scraps of paper, once writing, "Our first Christmas, I love you, yes, yes, yes."

Lennon even created his own comic strip, which he called "The Daily Howl". This contained drawings, frequently of crippled people, and satirical writings, often with a play on words. For example, in one page, Lennon wrote a weather report saying that "Tomorrow will be Muggy, followed by Tuggy, Wuggy and Thuggy."

When Liverpool's Mersey Beat magazine was founded, Lennon was often asked to contribute. His first piece was about the origins of The Beatles and contained the line, "A man appeared on a flaming pie, and said you are Beatles with an 'A'."

Books written by Lennon, or with contributions. Some were published posthumously. The first three works here are generally considered to be unique examples of literary nonsense.

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GREENMILE

Everyone should be given a chance to repent. I don't believe in capital punishment personally. It's really scary to see a human being getting tortured like that. Be it getting electrocuted on the electric chair or hanging. I wouldn't even want to hear the noise made. Even if it's just the sound. I really can’t imagine how those witnesses can sit there and witness the whole thing. People like Dell and John Coffey, they don't deserve to die. Sometimes, you never really find out what's really the truth behind everything.

Percy got what he deserved, life imprisonment in his own little room along with mental illness for life. I don't think wild bill should die either. Dying will only end their sufferings even quicker than having to suffer from mental illness for the rest of their life. I think they should insert drugs that make a human suffer from mental illness instead.

Percy’s such a spoilt brat. He’s a small cruel little thing. ( I think he resembles a mouse physically )

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MY MUSIC-MYLIFE

I love music. All kinds of music as long as they're pleasant to my ears. I like to read and imagine while listening to the song. Imagine the scene the song's describing, the actions in it. Nowadays 99 out of 100 songs are songs to do with love. Typical eh? It's always about love, the same old thing. Can't they have like anything else? Here's one of my favourite song...

Once Upon A Broken Heart

Once upon a broken heart
I was walking alone in the dark
Looking for a way to start again
What I wouldn't give for a friend
There was no love in my life
There was no light in my eyes
All the tears that I had cried and cried
Seemed like they'd never end

And I never believed fairytales came true
But now I know that they really do
Now that I found you, now that I'm here with you
Just look at the sunshine, and you
Showed me a world
That I'd never seen
I woke up and fell into this dream
Happily ever after just took time
Once upon this broken heart of mine

Long ago and far away
I could never dream of the day
That your love would come my way and stay
And sweep me away and I

Never believed fairytales came true
But now I know that they really do
Now that I found you, now that I'm here with you
Just look at the sunshine, and you
Showed me a world
That I'd never seen
I woke up and fell into this dream
Happily ever after just took time
Once upon this broken heart of mine

this is the way a fairytale feels
This is the way I know it's real
'Cause this is the way a broken heart heals

And I never believed fairytales came true
But now I know that they really do
Now that I found you, now that I'm here with you
Just look at the sunshine, and you
Showed me a world
That I'd never seen
I woke up and fell into this dream
Happily ever after just took time
Once upon this broken heart of mine

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If the school were to forget about a CCA, why choose choir? To think that they actually remembered modern dance. How can they be compared to the choir for goodness sake? ( p.s. The school I’m talking about is not Anglican High but my own primary school.) Seriously, have they ever compete in any competition? We’re talking about local competitions here, not overseas ones. Well, the answer is no, they’ve never been to any. Maybe they’ve done something for the school, a dance on the prize presentation day. A dance where they danced to the song, ‘ You Are My Sunshine’. A dance with dance steps that the little kids from the nursery, correction, the playgroup learn. Yes, it is that simple. They don’t even have timing, rhythm and coordination.

Well now, lets talk about choir. They've been to other countries for competitions, SYFs, where they never fail to bring good news back to make the school proud, and lots of other performances and stuff. There’s like a whole lot of reasons for choir to be recognized. I mean like, the Chinese orchestra have been getting like bronze for every single SYF they took part in? I’m not surprised actually looking at the fact that they’ve been learning and practicing and going for competitions with that very same song for like 9 freaking years straight. Even now, it’s still that song that they’re practicing. The judges would be bored to death by them.

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