Spellmaster, Wizard, Sorceress and Magician

What will you do if you can cast a spell, using magic or manipulating time? The fantasy fictions or movies usually introduce magic in numerous styles. Some could use the White magic to heal, cure or restore conditions for their allies while some may cast the destructive magic to exterminate their enemies.  You may be interested in illusion magic to hypnotize or mesmerize your rivals. Perhaps the death magic is suitable when you want to bring your friends back from realm of the death and finally hex spells can assist you to curse your opponents.

Magic could exist in the ancient and the medieval era, where witches were hunted down and burning alive at the stakes.  Some religions may believe that magic is evil, but various legends and fairy tales emphasized that magic is not an absolutely evil at all. It depends on the casters’ purposes. The great wizard Merlin used his spells for his king named “Arthur” while the wizard Gandalf from the novel “the lord of the rings” is also casting his spells to fight against armies of the dark lord Sauron.

If magic were existed in this era, how the world would be? Our life could be more comfortable when we could teleport from place to place. We don’t have to walk since we can float and fly. We will learn magic in the school instead of regular subjects.  We can also live forever when we drink the elixir to sustain our life. It seems that if it could be real, the world would be more comfortable than nowadays.

However, if criminals could also cast the magic, the world may be in chaos. The situation could be harder than before if those criminals could become transparent and hide away from polices. Besides, if there was anyone who mastered all of spells and wanted to dominate the world, that man can bring the doomsday to mankind with ease, like Lord Voldermort in Harry Potter series.  As for me, I believe that magic is real and we can practice them. When we have a faith in something, we could do it. I will use my spells to help other people and fight against the injustice. What about you? Are you interested in spell casting?     

IF...

If life could be experienced one more time, what will do you? Will you find another job? Will you tell the person you had crushed on that you loved her/him? Will you be here now? Will you be the same person as you are today?

“If…” always is an in-depth question to people. Sometimes, people may regret something which has been done before or should have been done before. In the same time, they may consider something they want to make it in the future. Regrets or motivation, it is up to the people.

As common knowledge, we all know that we should look forward instead of living in regrets. (It is easily to say. The feeling is sucks. I may just stuck in there and do nothing.) Personally, I admit that it is hard to move on after you did something really wrong. In another hand, it cannot be denied that sometimes regrets motive people to be better. When “if” comes, apparently it means something bad already happened. The best thing is that we can overcome our failure to keep moving on our life.

I know “if” may mean nothing when bad things happened. But, “if” may remind us to live our life alive. I hope “if” can give your motivation more than bring you regrets. After all, we cannot turn back time, there no such “if” in our life. Learning from it is better than stopping by it.

What can you do if you can freeze the time for half a second

At the coffee table today with three of my friends a question was raised: What will you do if you can stop the time for half a second? After half a minute (60 half seconds) of silence one of us said that that much time is enough to dodge a bullet. Another one said that an athlete can win a competition if he had half a second more than his opponent. I said for a fencer it is plenty of time to score since on thrash takes less than half a second (about .20 seconds as I was told).

The person who raised the question made it more complicated by saying that would it be worth it if between each pause you would have to cool down or recharge for 5 minutes before you can freeze the time again. And were we sure that we could really do anything in that short time with the difference of a wink.

The discussion didn't continue from there on since the conversation was interrupted when some one else showed up and the topic was changed to something more current.

After I left I considered the question again that who would get the most use of this ability. It occurred to me that even for athletes you would have to be good enough to benefit from it. If you are a slow runner half a second every five minutes would not do you any good. For a fencer to win you would have to be able to win on your own anyway since one bout or fight can end in less than three minutes which means that they can get only one extra point during that bout.
To dodge a bullet you would have to know when the trigger is going to be pulled and by the time you freeze. If you miss to guess when the gunner is going to shoot then the ability would be useless since you would have to wait for a whole five minutes before you can dodge again.

Special abilities like this may sound good at first, but after reconsidering the matter it becomes worthless and it would be worth using only when you are well enough on your own. So why would you use it. by the way, in most uses that I can think off they are actually a way of cheating even if know one knows.

The abolishment of youth law in Thailand

          Youth law refers to law that protects minors who are under 18 years old. It is mainly created to prevent child abuses. And if any youth commits a crime, their punishments will be lesser than common laws. In Thailand, there were various cases that clearly injustice. For example, an underage biker raped a women but he was sentenced to be jailed just for 3 months. The punishment was terribly unfair since offender was a youth. Another incident was a group of bikers provoked and disturbed townsfolk in the late night. There were a couple of men approached this gangster and hit one of them with their shovels caused that youth biker died. But those brave men were convicted, condemned and punished to be in the prison for a long term. These major incidents are crystal clear that Thai’s legal system and the police department are incompetent. Moreover, teenagers will be encouraged to defy laws. Why a common people should be sentenced instead of those convicted youngsters?

          In my opinion, I can recommend 2 choices. The first one is the abolishment. If Thai court cannot sentence these criminals with justice, Thailand should rescind youth law and enforce public law on Thai teenagers instead. I believe that if it could be done, crime rates in Thailand will be reduced. And peace will be restored in the communities once again. For the second way, we can edit some of youth law. The definition of the word “underage” should be corrected to 10 years old instead of 15 years old. Public law will be effective on any people whom age is above than 10. The second option will be more flexible and it is still protect Thai adolescents. Whatever it is, the youth law should be improved.  

By Nuttagon "Pique" Sattayapanich : 530132006

The Achievement in Learning English as a Second Language of Children from Thai-Bilingual Families


At present the idea of raising children in a bilingual environment is appealing and possible for more and more families because the term of globalization. Children who are growing up with more than one language may have its advantages in today's global world. Yet bilingualism is not something new that simply happens. Bilingualism can be described in two different ways. First, bilingualism means an equal ability to communicate in two languages. Second, bilingualism means the ability to communicate in two languages but with the possibility of greater skills in one language. Learning a second language is a focus in speaking, listening, writing and reading in that language beside their native language. A second language is also often learned in an environment in which it is not heard outside of the classroom.
These days, the number of Thai children speaking other languages especially English language in Thailand is expected to increase in the next decade. Many more Thai middle class families are increasing. Moreover, parents have opportunities to study in high education. They have seen the importance of language especially English language which plays an important role worldwide. Parents in globalization world want their children to be competent in many languages at the same time in the early years of life. This is because the early stage of life, between 1-5 years or preschool years, is the stage of learning language acquisition. The brain of children effort required to master the two languages instead of one certainly diminishes the child’s power of learning other things which might and ought to be learned (Jesperson, 1922).
In my opinion, I think bringing up children bilingually is a good idea to clarify what bilingual systems fit for each family. Families including both Thai parents but speak foreign language and native language will provide bilingual systems suiting for their families and children in Thai environment. More Thai children from bilingual families are entering bilingual schools or international schools and tend to have a better learning skill than monolingual children. Therefore, if I have a chance to have my own children in the future, I will bring up my children bilingually because I believe that bilingual system will help children to have a better achievement in learning English as a second language.


Poonsinsiri Poolsuk 530132022

MUSIC THERAPY

What kind of music do you like? Everyone has different tastes in music and I believe that everyone has their own favourite song. I am the one who really like listen to music. I always listen to music in my free time. Moreover, I am a musician as well. I think that music has a lot of advantages. For example, music is used for intelligence stimulating creativity by creating channels of neurons in the brain. Research has proved that music tunes the brain to higher planes of thinking. Music is not only has a role to entertain and to relax the listeners, it has another role as a therapy as well.

Music therapy is an alternative medication emerging arena of health care in which music is used to heal patients fighting cancer, children with reading or writing problems and others. Many health care facilities also make use of music to help patients fight depression, cope with pain and ease muscle tension. There are plenty of other advantages associated with music therapy as music impacts the mind and body in many ways that are powerful. Studies have shown that music with strong beats can help bring alert thinking and better concentration there by promoting calm and a meditative state. Many experts suggest that it is the rhythm of the music or the beat that has the calming effect on us although we may not be very conscious about it. They point out that when we were a baby in our mother's womb, we probably were influenced by the heartbeat of our mother. We respond to the soothing music at later stages in life, perhaps associating it with the safe, relaxing, protective environment provided by our mother.

Music therapy is largely used to counteract the damages caused by chronic stress and thereby leads to promotion of all-round health. Music helps to create a positive bent of mind and helps to stay away from depression. This can lead to better levels of optimism and creativity and a lot of other benefits. Because of all these advantages and positive effects physically, many view music as a crucial factor which helps the body to fight diseases and to stay healthy.

For me, I am familiar with music especially, Thai traditional music since I was young. I love playing instruments and like listening various kinds of songs. I also use music as a therapist as well. For example, when I cannot sleep at night, I will listen to music so that I can sleep well. I like to listen and play music after serious examinations as well. Moreover, sometimes I feel down, music can make me feel better with a lyric that can encourage me. I think that playing music is meditation for me making me more relax and clam. Therefore, my life cannot stay away from music. It can be said that “Music is my life”. So, let’s listen to music together.

Transsexual people and job opportunities

By Nok (Kanokwan 530132001)

Many people cannot identify themselves clearly as male or female because their appearances do no match information on their IDs. They sometimes are not considered by the company they apply for a job although they have excellent knowledge and skills. Having been denied must be a very painful experience for anyone.

However, recently there is a new airline in Thailand formally provides job opportunities for transsexual people, men who have undergone a sex change operation. It is a new phenomenon of international airline career. The company’s executive mentioned that all candidates will have to take a test and to be trained according to standard of Department of Civil Aviation the same as male and female candidates.

In my opinion, it is good and interesting news that people nowadays give more chances to this group of people although only 3 positions are available for them. It is the first step of Thai society to openly and formally accept this group of people except for their particular opportunities such as cabaret show, beauty contest or makeup artist. This situation also shows that Thai society concerns more about human rights and human dignity.

I think we should not judge people from sex and appearance whether they are men, women, heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. I think skills, ability, knowledge, responsibility and a quality like service mind are more important for a service job. However, they should behave and express themselves appropriately according to their career.

The most impressive thing about this airline to me is giving a chance. If we do not give people a chance to try, how could we know the result whether it is good or bad.

What is Language? Benjamas:53132008

What is Language?

By my point of view, language is a signaling system which operates with symbolic vocal sounds, and which is used by a group of people for the purposes of communication.

Let me look at this definition in more details because it is language, more than anything else that distinguishes human from the rest of the animal world.

It’s true that other animals communicate with one another by means of cries; for example, many birds utter warning calls at the approach of danger; apes utter different cries, such as expressions of anger, fear and pleasure. But these various means of communication differ in important ways from human language. For instance, animals’ cries are not articulate. This means basically that they lack of structure given by the contrast between vowels and consonants. They also lack a kind of structure that enables us to divide a human utterance into words.

We can change an utterance by replacing on word in it by another: a good illustration of this is a teacher who can say, e.g. “textbooks are behind the green box”, or he/she can change one word and say “homework are behind the green box” or “textbooks are behind the pink box” ; but a bird has a single utterance cries which means “danger”

This is why the number of signals that an animal can make is very limited whereas in human language the number of possible utterances is infinite. It also explains why animal cries are very general in meaning. We are more civilized than animals with beautiful language. Thus, we should maintain such signaling system as a magnificent human language for our next generation.

Bittorrent : A pirate software or a right of internet users.

Good evening everyone, my name is Nuttagon Sattayapanich. My ID is 530132006. So let me start the first topic.

Have you ever surfed internet? If yes, did you recently download files from the internet? Are those files legal to download? Well, I am sure that you will hear about Bittorrent. The Bittorrent is a program that assists the internet users to download files between peers (To make it simply, the user can download files from other users. For instance, Mr.A uploads a movie via the Bittorrent program, then, Mr. B C and D can download that movie from Mr.A’s computer). This program was designed for transferring huge files on the internet. Nowadays, Bittorrent has become very familiar with the internet users all over the world. Basically, Bittorrent users can upload any files for their clients, including pornographies, illegal software, unlicensed programs and pirate files. This leads to an issue that Bittorrent users violate the copyright software, movies, games and music. Many organizations claimed that their revenues were heavily declining. Thus, many countries prohibit the Bittorrent such as Thailand and The United States. However, numerous internet users are still using the Bittorrent as it is not illegal. Recently, in Thailand, the police department charged one of the Bittorrent administrator for an accusation of piracy that resulted in the shutting down of Torrentmove website. This website hosts more than ten thousands of Bittorrent users. Right now the head of the police department announces that downloading files via Bittorrent client is illegal.

In my perspective, I am the one who also being as the Bittorrent tracker. I believe that using the torrent is not illegal. However, it will be illegal if the user uploads or downloads the pirate files. But to download these files is commonly accepted in entire world. I think it has been adapt to a social norm already. Nevertheless, the problem begins from some of merchants who download these files and burn them into DVDs for selling and earn an abundant of profits. This causes various organizations loose lots of their income. If the policemen consider torrent is really illegal, they should incriminate those merchants instead of torrent users. I think it is unfair to blockade the Bittorrent program for internet users. The real problem is selling the pirate programs. Therefore, police officers should reconsider this issue and start a new campaign to settle this topic. Finally, I perceive the torrent is on the grey area, it is neither right nor wrong. We have to use it wisely and carefully.

Nuttagon Sattayapanich "Pique" 530132006.

Just a test

This is just a test.