With your CHARISMA partner, discuss the following questions:

1. Why do people go steady?
2. When can we go steady?
3. Are there any consequences if we were to go steady at a young age? if so, what could they be?

Question 1. Why do people go steady?

People usually go steady maybe because of physical attractions, like good looks or that particular person have a high status, or the person is well-liked by the teachers or friends. It might also due to some infatuation or crushes, as one may think that he/she is being very nice to you, therefore, you will think that he/she will be the right person to live the rest of your life with. Other than that, some people have a desire to learn through experiences or that think that dating is just a part of the teenage culture. These people want to show their love for each other, and they want to know each other even better than they do now, therefore, they will start to go steady.

Question 2. When can we go steady?

We can go steady when we are mature enough to understand that love is actually very complicated. But there is no appropriate age because affection, cannot be predetermined or measured. When you are immature, you will not how to end a relationship and this will hurt the other party's feeling. Some people cannot face the music, therefore, they will continue to bug you until you are irritated and push him/her aside. This will leave a bigger scar than you have created. Girls, especially if your relationship has ended, some of them cannot take the reality, therefore, they might do some silly things like cutting themselves or killing themselves so that they would not feel so sad. But this is the consequence if the couple do not handle the relationship properly. So, if you want to go steady, you must first have the scenario in mind that if the other party suddenly ask for a break up, you will not be agitated.

Question 3. Are there any consequences if we were to go steady at a young age? if so, what could they be?

There will be consequences if we were to go steady at a young age. Some of these will be that your results will drops as having a relationship is a source of distraction. The couple might also neglect their best friends, and their eyes will only have one person, which is his/her boyfriend/girlfriend. Going steady at a young age would have a risk of getting too involved with someone too fast. But if you go steady at a young age, the relationship could change overtime when one or both the party meet new friends and build relationships. For example, if you go steady at a young age, like 12, this relationship would affect your studies and you will score badly for you Primary School Leaving Examination. Both parties may go into different secondary school next year, and they will not have sufficient time to meet each other, as they is an increase of homework and other stuff.

Having relationship at a young age is NOT recommended. Think trice before doing any thing.

In life, you will meet many people; some will encourage and help you and others that will discourage or even distract you. These people will eventually play a part in molding your character, values and life principles. Can you identify the voices around you? “Voices” refers to those that are able to influence or make an impact on your actions/thoughts. E.g. Parents, friends, or even people who you do not know. Sometimes these “voices” can influence you without you being aware of it.

Question: As a student, what are the “voices” that surround you? What can you do to prevent those “voices” that can influence you negatively? Go to the website below, complete the quiz, and find out if you are the one influencing others.

After looking at the site, post the results of your quiz on your blog.
http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/above-it.aspx#

Dawn and WeiLing：
We didn't go and do the quiz as it is very lagging. sorry:(

Anyway, as a student the "voices" that surround you is our friends. Some of our friends will try and influence you to like a particular thing. You will then be addicted to the band for example, and you will neglect your studies. Some of the adult that we can trust is parents, teachers, councellors, and maybe some of your seniors that you trust.

SEX makes babies - that was all the girl said she knew about sex when she was 11 years old, the age at which she lost her virginity.

Now 13, she recounted matter-of-factly how she met her first boyfriend on the social networking site Friendster last year.

They started exchanging messages before taking their online relationship offline, going out in groups with other people they knew from the Internet.

ABOUT THE CASE

THE girl was only 11 when she had sex with her 16-year-old boyfriend in her flat last year. They had met on the social networking site, Friendster.

The pair had sex again on a staircase landing of a nearby HDB block around the same period of time.

The boy, now 17, was arrested and charged with having sex with an underage girl - defined under the law as being under the age of 16.

Don't let children lose themselves in virtual world

The Straits Times runs the girl's answers past clinical psychologist Carol Balhetchet, who is the director for youth services of the Singapore Children's Society

The girl said she thought that after having sex with the boy, the relationship would last. Do girls her age normally think like this?

This is very typical behaviour for a young girl with an older boy.

At her age, she could not have processed the risks and consequences of sex.

She would only be able to focus on her need to hang on to the relationship and see what she did as an investment.

In this article,“The girl said she thought that after having sex with the boy, the relationship would last. Do girls her age normally think like this?” My question to you is: Do girls her age normally think like this? Also, do you think its appropriate to go into a relationship at your age?

Dawn and WeiLing:
Girls normally at her age don't normally think like this. Maybe is just a sense of excitement and the feeling that makes you feel safe when you surf online, these are the reasons that draws you online. At this age, it is not appropriate to go into a relationship. It might be a source of distraction and therefore, it will affect your studies. When you are in a relationship, you might neglect other friends, and there would be a risk of getting too involved with someone too fast. This relationship would change overtime when one or both parties meet new friends and build new relationships. If the couple really break up, they might not be mature enough to handle such a relationship.

So, to protect your hearts from melting, you must be friendly and pleasant. Do not try to flirt. otherwise, you are asking for trouble. If you break an unknown guy's heart, you'd never know how he might plan to get back at you. Another point in to avoid sharing intimate things and feelings with online friends. As you will develop an emotional attachment for these people that will make you vulnerable.

Don't get sweet-talked. You are very precious!

“Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you.” Do you think it's true? False? What do you think?

Dawn and WeiLing:

This is FALSE! Words can hurt people badly.Cyber bullying can hurt a person mentally and can be more destructive than physical bullying. Cyber bullying is more destructive than physical bullying as it is 24/7, and the bully may be anonymous. The bully need not to be there in person. This way of bullying will make most of the victims feel helpless.
So, if you know a friend / yourself(Touch wood)is bullied? Try and speak up and talk to someone who can help, like your parents, teachers or counsellor. You may also want to block the contact or something. You can also save the evidence of you being bullied by saving a screenshot of evidence. It is very precious. Practice selective disclosure of information, which means that you might not want to show the blog to the public. You may just want to show this blog to invited readers.

Remember that words have power, online or offline. Try and be respectful and responsible for what you say.

No child's play

IT WAS his teacher who inspired Jason Chionh to pursue a career in video games, but not in the way you would expect.

While doing his final-year Computer Science project at Victoria Junior College, Jason was discouraged from proposing a games-related one. According to his teacher, his design could 'never compete' with the commercial games that are in the market.

'I didn't do a games project but it got me thinking that maybe I can do something in the future,' recalls the 33-year-old, who grew up playing Wing Commander, Monkey Island and Ultima role-playing PC games.

After receiving a computer science degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS), he followed it up with a Master of Science, all the while dreaming of entering the fledgling game industry.

'There were no game-related studies but I knew what I wanted to do and was prepared to move overseas if I had to.'

There was also the fantasy of creating his own game with a few friends, if no one would hire him.

All this while, he kept his aspirations from his family and friends, knowing that job opportunities were scant, with gaming still considered mere child's play.

In 2002, he applied through the Economic Development Board job attachment program to work with noted Japanese games company Koei but was not selected.

He found a job as a full-time teaching assistant at NUS and tried again the following year. This time, he was accepted by Sega, another noted Japanese games developer and publisher, and went on an 18-month stint.

What he found really useful was the on-the-job training and experience he gained from working on console games.

One title he worked on was Altered Beast for the Sony PlayStation 2 console.

He worked on all the programming aspects for implementing the fight scenario, the artificial intelligence behaviour of the boss character, the visual effects and the sound and animation of the characters, to name a few.

Upon returning home, he took on a job with G-Gadget, a local start-up working on games for the Nintendo DS-Lite platform.

His parents, however, did not like his job because they felt that game piracy limited any possible success in the industry.

Things took a positive turn when industry giant Lucasfilm of Star Wars fame announced that it was setting up an animation and games arm here.

Jason successfully applied to Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and soon found himself surrounded by his childhood movie and game heroes, from the Jedi masters, Indiana Jones to Guybrush Threepwood.

'I heard they were hiring and you don't question yourself if you want to join Lucasfilm,' he said.

As a games software engineer, he is currently working on several unannounced game projects. He already has one title under his belt - last year's Jedi Alliance game for the DS Lite.

His involvement in this game was more extensive, as he worked on programming both the engine for the game and the game systems, including the sound, visual effects and combat systems.

His parents have also come around and accepted his chosen profession.

For Jason, his long-time dream lives on. Although he is part of a large team working on several games, he still wants to create his own video game one day.

To turn that dream into reality, he realises it is going to take more hard work at Lucasfilm.

'What I find most valuable is to be able to work with a very talented pool of people here. We are able to openly discuss ideas and bounce these ideas off one another,' he said.

'Because of this, I have learnt a lot and I feel there is so much more that I can learn.'

After you read the above article, I would like you to answer a few questions

a) What are your views in pursuing a career with the gaming industry, especially in Singapore?

Dawn and Wei Ling:
I think that it is unpractical to pursue a career with the gaming industry. Singapore is an urban and realistic country. Although some people do succeed in this pursue, it is only a small percentage of people. Some of the parents complain about the violence and poorly developed skills caused by this unhealthy gamings. We strongly discourage teenagers to stop their addictions and reduce their over-spent times on the internet. Instead, they should do other healthier and more meaningful things like studying and sports etc.

b) What qualities does Jason Chionh have that allow him to do what he wish to do?

Dawn and Wei Ling:
He had inspiration and support from his teacher. He had a strong will to pursue his dreams and persevered through the setbacks. It was his life-long dream. He applied what he learnt in schooling/education to his career and succeeded.

John was checking his email one day, and he saw this
particular one, which was sent to him from someone he did not know. The subject
of the email sounded urgent, so instead of deleting it, John clicked on it to
read it.

Subject: 81 feared dead from swine flu in Mexico

I sent
this email to you with a very heavy heart. I’m sure you have heard of the recent
swine flu outbreak. Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a new flu virus of swine origin
that was first detected in April, 2009. The virus is infecting people and is
spreading from person-to-person, and has sparked a growing outbreak of illness
in the United States with an increasing number of cases being reported
internationally as well.

To date, A/H1N1 flu has killed 337 people in
121 nations and regions and the number of the total infected exceeded 80,000, a
top official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. There are
already 1003 cases in Singapore, a country known for its stringent health
measures.

Just FYI, in 1918, there was flu pandemic -commonly known as
the Spanish flu- which was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A
virus strain of subtype H1N1, claimed the lives of 50-100 million people.
Researchers are speculating if the one that is ongoing will have that high
number of death tolls, that is, if the pandemic persists.

I’ve attached
a file on how to protect yourself during this period of outbreak. I sincerely
urged you to take a look at it, so that you can take the said preventive
measures. You are not only protecting yourself, but also the people around you.

My cousin, who lives in Mexico, introduced me to a type of medicine that
is said to work effectively. I’ve also given you the link in the file
attachment. I strongly encourage you to purchase the medicine, as I have also
purchased it myself.


Yours sincerely,
Max Wilkertin

Now,
what should John do? Should he open the file attachment? Should he buy the
medicine?

Dawn:
I think that John should not open the file attachment. However, he could take a look at it. It is quite fake as the News has not announced this "medicine" for H1N1 yet. How could Max Wilkertin's friend know it exists? He should not buy the medicine. It is a scam, to cheat others. They might just pass of normal cough medicine for this "special" H1N1 medicine. I think scam mail like this is a very childish act.

Wei Ling:
I think that John should not open the file attachment. But if he wants to know what is inside the file attachment, he could take a glance of the contents inside. The file attached may contain viruses that will harm the computer. Max Wilkertin may gang up with his cousin and trick him into a trap. John should not buy the medicine, as the medicine may not be effective to the H1N1 flu. It may just be a flu or cough medicine, where you can get all this in hospitals, clinics, or polyclinics. The website that is attached to the file may contain harmful viruses too. In conclusion, this may be a scam mail and the information inside this file is most likely to be fake. This type of mails are normally sent to teenagers like us, and they will try the encourage you to buy the "special" medicine. The people will try to state in the mail that if you forward this message to more than 10 people or something, their lives will be saved, and they will not be affected by the H1N1 virus. People should not be so foolish and believe this type of scam mail. They should just listen to the news so as to update themselves on the latest H1N1 flu condition.

In Session 1, we shared about how your online identity is public, not private, and how you should always be careful what you post online.

Watch the following clip linked below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOwpGF1SOQM
What do you think the clip is trying to share?

Dawn and WeiLing:
We think that the information that we reveal online is freely accessible to anyone and everyone if we did not state who can look at this blog or information. If we did not state who can look at our private information, strangers may think that we need some "love" or some "care" and may call us and they will try and find a chance to meet us. Some people just want to irritate us and annoy us, therefore, if we put our private information online, and everyone can see this information, these people may spam us with lots and lots of mails, messages or advertisements. If you post a "funny" picture online, and you allow everyone to see it, you are being very foolish. These pictures if posted, they will be staying in the system forever. Although you might think that if you deleted the picture, everyone will forget about it and will not tease you about it. If you think that is what happens when you delete something online, you are very wrong.

These pictures will stay in the computer of the system as the people working in this big companies usually clear the things that you have deleted a long long time later. Therefore, to prevent this incident from happening to everybody, you must ensure that the pictures that you post or the messages that you post can be seen by your friends, and friends only. You don't want to be recognized by a crowd of strangers that you don't know, and you would be wondering why do they know your name? You must ensure that the private information they you give can be seen by strangers and "weirdos". So, you can try to hide your identity by using you nickname like "Mistygirl" or "HAHAgirl". In this way, people will not know your real name and your private information.

Stay safe and Have Fun!!!