我要在看得最远的地方
披第一道曙光在肩膀

Insights

English is such a profound thing. English writting has intrigued me. It can be said as a platform for 'expressing ideas' or 'expressing our thoughts'. Choice of words is one of the interesting aspects. Each reader would have a slightly different impression and interpretation for a particular word. This is because each reader have their own status, perspective and past experience. Like my Business Law lecturer, 'sole proprietor' gives him the impression of a lonely man such as Michael Jackson. But to me, the first image that comes to my mind is a poor man, a provision shop uncle. (Probably fed to my mind by my Infa tutor when i first came across this phrase)

Two words with the same meaning can give different impressions to readers too. E.g. Accelerate and quicken. We may feel that 'quicken' is very fast while 'accelerate' is even faster. So the choice of words is quite important to expressing what one really feels. Of course, the writer's vocab mustn't be too shabby.

Colours can actually be used as an adjective to convey messages. I remembered my Sec 4 english teacher once explained to us the phrase 'the white door', in one of the articles. 'White' gives us the impression of purity, clean and maybe coldness. Other colours like blue signifies calmness and so on. Everybody knows it subconsiously. But most have not brought it to the conscious level. Had to thanks her for bringing it to our awareness. It makes us both a better writer and a better reader.

Err...Johnny English has nth to do with this post

Well...Ms Betsy is a good teacher because what she had taught us makes us feel that we had learnt nothing in the past three years. Like the phrase "一针见血", she always enlighten us. Another thing she had taught is to be as detailed as possible when describing a scene. Describing to the finest details like the texture and the temperature lets the readers form an image of that scene in their mind, bringing them into the story. A slow motion story. Thus a five minutes encounter can become a very impactful recount.

The way points and ideas are organised, punctuations and caps affects the flow of the story and the interpretation to it too. English is really profound. What was taught in secondary schools are just basics. There is a lot more than that to vocabulary and grammars. I still have a long way to go. But i will continue learning new vocabs, exercise them and also learn from well-written articles i come across.

There's a lot more to learn.

Lore and Legends(Jack O Lantern)

Well known for his drunken meanness, Jack got so intoxicated on a Halloween that his soul began to leave his body. The Devil saw an opportunity to claim a victim and promptly came to earth. Jack was desperate to avoid his fate so he begged the Devil to allow him one last drink. The Devil consented but stated that Jack would have to pay for his drink because the Devil carried no money. Jack claimed to only have a sixpence left and asked that the Devil assume the shape of a sixpence to pay for the drink. Then, tab paid, the Devil could change back to himself.

The Devil considered the request reasonable and changed himself into a sixpence. Jack immediately grabbed the coin and put it in his wallet, which had a cross shaped catch. The Devil was unable to get out and began ranting and cursing. They then made a deal that the Devil would be released if he agreed to let Jack alone for one year. The Devil agreed and Jack set forth to reform is behavior over the next year. It wasn't long before Jack slipped back into his mean, drunken ways and the next All Hallows Eve the Devil appeared to Jack and demanded his soul. Once again, Jack was desperate to save himself and did so by tricking the Devil.

He suggested to the Devil that he may want one of the delicious apples hanging in a tree nearby. He offered to allow the Devil to climb on his shoulders to reach the apples. Once the Devil was in the tree, Jack pulled out a pocket knife and carved a cross in the tree trunk. The Devil could not get out of the tree. Furious and desperate, the Devil offered Jack ten years of peace in exchange for freeing him. Jack insisted that The Devil never bother him again and he would be freed. The Devil resentfully agreed. Jack then returned to his old ways but before the next Halloween, his body gave out and he passed.

He was turned away at the gates of Heaven because of the meanness in his life. The Devil refused him at the gates of hell, stating that he would never bother him again and told him to return from whence he came. To help Jack see on his journey, the Devil threw him a burning lump of coal from hell. Jack put the ember inside of a turnip and it has been Jack's light on his eternal wanderings ever since. To protect oneself from Jack on All Hallows Eve, jack o lanterns were placed on porches and in windows, in hopes that Jack would take the light if needed instead of bothering anyone.