1. Speak TO the person directly involved
2. Do not shy away at certain topics, it makes it worse; talk the person through it, ask questions since it has been brought up; CHECK if unsure, do not assume
3. Remember, sometimes things are mentioned because people want a listening year. the word as sister says is 'VALIDATE'
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Dream-Catcher...
I made a dream-catcher at my volunteer group on Monday :) Too bad I could not bring it home. The organizers of the project are going to different community groups in Sheffield to ask people to make them. They will be part of a grand installation to promote conservation of Sheffield's waterways and will be exhibited end september :p
This photo is to show my mother what I meant :p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher_(Native_American)
This photo is to show my mother what I meant :p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher_(Native_American)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
On Top of the World (well Sheffield at least)
I went to my new accommodation last night to move a few things in :)
I think I'm going to be very happy there. It's an attic room. It looks gorgeous and overlooks Sheffield. This is the view I get from my window...
I think I'm going to be very happy there. It's an attic room. It looks gorgeous and overlooks Sheffield. This is the view I get from my window...
This is my new little dwelling :) The biggest room I have ever had in Sheffield. Look! It's even got a sofa chair.
The door to my attic room is opened by a silver key... Makes me think of a magic key that opens to a whole new world, up in the attic. :> Perhaps staying there will make me more creative in the next 6 months.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Marathon...
I watched another good Korean movie on my flight to the UK :> The movie entitled 'Marathon' illustrated the story of Cho-won, a teenager with autism, and his passion for running. He initially got into running because his mother chose the activity for him, but he develops a love for the sport even though he never expressed it in words or action. The plot revolves around him training for his first marathon, amidst struggles between his reluctant marathon coach and his mother, trying to understand what Cho-won wants.
In the film, Cho-won emerged from being a boy with a disability working in a sheltered workshop, to a someone who knows what he wants in life and has the strength to compete on par with people who are supposedly more advantaged. He is not the only character who grew in spirit in the story. Cho-won's reluctant coach had no understanding of autism at first. He grew to see beyond Cho-won's condition and began to treat him as a promising athlete and a good student he is. Cho-won's mother started off as a guilt-ridden and controlling mother, trying to find her son a niche in life and to make the best choices for him. Cho-won's mother was 100% behind her son running the marathon, but started to go against him running when she lost faith in her belief that Cho-won likes running. She did not want Cho-won to risk his life running the marathon just because she wanted him to. Cho-won finally shows that he really loves running, by competing in the marathon against her wishes. From that, she discovers that her son has grown up and is capable of making choices for himself. Subsequently, she was able to let her son be, and assumes a supportive role.
A sub-plot in the story was the effect of Cho-won's autism on his family. Cho-won was a difficult child from young. His parents lack of understanding of the disorder led to a lot of tension within the family. His father left the family. Cho-won's mother had custody of Cho-won and his brother Jung-won. She however concentrated all her efforts on Cho-won, and seemed to have neglected Jung-won's needs. Jung-won grew up feeling resentful about Cho-won. Even so, in moments of crisis, when their mother was hospitalized and Cho-won runs away to participate in the marathon, Jung-won was able to put his bitterness behind him and helped his mother find Cho-won.
I really felt that the movie depicted autism in a very real way. It demonstrated the difficulties in communicating and interacting with people, the poor understanding of emotions, and restricted interests. What it did very well was also to show that people with autism are also not much different from supposedly 'normal' people.
Cho-won often seldom tell other people how he feels, especially whether he feels tired or in pain. When asked questions, he often repeats them and it takes some effort to get him to answer your question but that still leaves you thinking whether you lead him to that answer in the first place. He takes things literally, running 100 laps around the field when his coach just said it jokingly. He is over-formal with his brother as he bows to his brother when ever he sees him. When asked how does he feel (happy, sad, angry, frightened) in different situations (including one of his mother being in hospital), he could not answer. Cho-won however did feel really distraught when his mother was hospitalized. He could not put a name to it, but he was definitely feeling a negative emotion.
Another thing I thought was wrapped up really well in the movie was Cho-won's love for running being shown as very exhilarating sensory experience for him. The air brushing against his cheek as he sprints; his hand running through the long grass on the side of the track; his heart pumping to push blood around his body. It made him feel alive. :)
That is what we all are and that's what we all want... to feel alive. We may have different personalities, different beliefs, different abilities, different limitations. But our aspirations always lead to one things, the feeling of being alive :)
In the film, Cho-won emerged from being a boy with a disability working in a sheltered workshop, to a someone who knows what he wants in life and has the strength to compete on par with people who are supposedly more advantaged. He is not the only character who grew in spirit in the story. Cho-won's reluctant coach had no understanding of autism at first. He grew to see beyond Cho-won's condition and began to treat him as a promising athlete and a good student he is. Cho-won's mother started off as a guilt-ridden and controlling mother, trying to find her son a niche in life and to make the best choices for him. Cho-won's mother was 100% behind her son running the marathon, but started to go against him running when she lost faith in her belief that Cho-won likes running. She did not want Cho-won to risk his life running the marathon just because she wanted him to. Cho-won finally shows that he really loves running, by competing in the marathon against her wishes. From that, she discovers that her son has grown up and is capable of making choices for himself. Subsequently, she was able to let her son be, and assumes a supportive role.
A sub-plot in the story was the effect of Cho-won's autism on his family. Cho-won was a difficult child from young. His parents lack of understanding of the disorder led to a lot of tension within the family. His father left the family. Cho-won's mother had custody of Cho-won and his brother Jung-won. She however concentrated all her efforts on Cho-won, and seemed to have neglected Jung-won's needs. Jung-won grew up feeling resentful about Cho-won. Even so, in moments of crisis, when their mother was hospitalized and Cho-won runs away to participate in the marathon, Jung-won was able to put his bitterness behind him and helped his mother find Cho-won.
I really felt that the movie depicted autism in a very real way. It demonstrated the difficulties in communicating and interacting with people, the poor understanding of emotions, and restricted interests. What it did very well was also to show that people with autism are also not much different from supposedly 'normal' people.
Cho-won often seldom tell other people how he feels, especially whether he feels tired or in pain. When asked questions, he often repeats them and it takes some effort to get him to answer your question but that still leaves you thinking whether you lead him to that answer in the first place. He takes things literally, running 100 laps around the field when his coach just said it jokingly. He is over-formal with his brother as he bows to his brother when ever he sees him. When asked how does he feel (happy, sad, angry, frightened) in different situations (including one of his mother being in hospital), he could not answer. Cho-won however did feel really distraught when his mother was hospitalized. He could not put a name to it, but he was definitely feeling a negative emotion.
Another thing I thought was wrapped up really well in the movie was Cho-won's love for running being shown as very exhilarating sensory experience for him. The air brushing against his cheek as he sprints; his hand running through the long grass on the side of the track; his heart pumping to push blood around his body. It made him feel alive. :)
That is what we all are and that's what we all want... to feel alive. We may have different personalities, different beliefs, different abilities, different limitations. But our aspirations always lead to one things, the feeling of being alive :)
Friday, August 3, 2007
Cute Elephants :p
This is rather late news. hehe but I was talking about elephants and self-recognition with my friends yesterday. This is an article from the bbc, which has shows the elephants and what the experiment shows
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6100430.stm
I always felt self-recognition was a very important part of our humanity. I used to see some of the clients in the care home I work with hurting themselves, pinching, bitting. As the clients don't see much of themselves in a full-view mirror (mirrors might be a safety issue in the home), I always wondered if their self-injury behavior would be lesser if they looked at themselves in the mirror more. Pure conjecture on my side. :p
Hmmm slightly out of point again... but think J Lacan's mirror phase... Not too sure if he is a friend/ foe of Freud, but he is part of the Psycho-analysis movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6100430.stm
I always felt self-recognition was a very important part of our humanity. I used to see some of the clients in the care home I work with hurting themselves, pinching, bitting. As the clients don't see much of themselves in a full-view mirror (mirrors might be a safety issue in the home), I always wondered if their self-injury behavior would be lesser if they looked at themselves in the mirror more. Pure conjecture on my side. :p
Hmmm slightly out of point again... but think J Lacan's mirror phase... Not too sure if he is a friend/ foe of Freud, but he is part of the Psycho-analysis movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan
I have Bad Taste in Music?
I'm not a person who listens to music very much. My favourite music albums consists of West End Musical soundtracks and old disney songs... quite pathetic right?
I've listened to the most new music this holiday. :p One big reason was that I've been poking my nose in the sing-a-long sessions at Westend Project (this is the Singapore Westend :p a MINDS Youth group project for the Intellectually Disabled). The first sing-a-long was in conjunction with LIVE EARTH (yes... this has got to do with my drive for meaning, there must be a reason why we want to sing a song). I listened to Madonna's Hey you! so many times, I've started to like it :p Like my volunteer senior said, the lyrics are meaningful. Still, I thought the melody could be zestier. Today's sing-a-long will be for national day :p. I've been talking about the national day songs with my mother, my sister and my friends... I LOVE national day songs and I LOVE to sing a long to them. But the response from most people has been less than luke-warm. While I see crowds of people at National Day parade swaying in enjoyment to those classic and most recent songs, a survey of my family and friends make it seem like I'm a small minority.
oh well... different people have different opinions. For people who I have not surveyed, or have not had time to listen to the newest, or from the UK, go visit the link below :> {to my good friend who is into trying new music, and a big bollywood fan, and wanted me to bring some of the music from my region over: maybe you will be interested in listening to these}
http://www.ndp.org.sg/multimedia/audio/index.html
My favourite National Day songs:
(My 5 cats Gang and I had a discussion on that... hehe you gals will be glad to know that I've found the name of my favourite song, the one I could not name*)
The Magic is You*
It's the Little Things
Will You
There's no place I'd Rather be
We will get there
AND the children's day song :> Semoga Bahagia (May you Achieve Happiness)
A few good friends at Uni love going to music festivals. They definitely know all the newest coolest music. I was with them at one jamming session and they are really good :p 1 friend even joined a band comp at Uni before. I always feel I need to educate myself in this area... haha :p Another friend at my UK volunteer group once teased me about not knowing what songs David Bowie sang (that's the person we were talking about right? hmmm...). haha sometime really needs to be changed.
I've listened to the most new music this holiday. :p One big reason was that I've been poking my nose in the sing-a-long sessions at Westend Project (this is the Singapore Westend :p a MINDS Youth group project for the Intellectually Disabled). The first sing-a-long was in conjunction with LIVE EARTH (yes... this has got to do with my drive for meaning, there must be a reason why we want to sing a song). I listened to Madonna's Hey you! so many times, I've started to like it :p Like my volunteer senior said, the lyrics are meaningful. Still, I thought the melody could be zestier. Today's sing-a-long will be for national day :p. I've been talking about the national day songs with my mother, my sister and my friends... I LOVE national day songs and I LOVE to sing a long to them. But the response from most people has been less than luke-warm. While I see crowds of people at National Day parade swaying in enjoyment to those classic and most recent songs, a survey of my family and friends make it seem like I'm a small minority.
oh well... different people have different opinions. For people who I have not surveyed, or have not had time to listen to the newest, or from the UK, go visit the link below :> {to my good friend who is into trying new music, and a big bollywood fan, and wanted me to bring some of the music from my region over: maybe you will be interested in listening to these}
http://www.ndp.org.sg/multimedia/audio/index.html
My favourite National Day songs:
(My 5 cats Gang and I had a discussion on that... hehe you gals will be glad to know that I've found the name of my favourite song, the one I could not name*)
The Magic is You*
It's the Little Things
Will You
There's no place I'd Rather be
We will get there
AND the children's day song :> Semoga Bahagia (May you Achieve Happiness)
A few good friends at Uni love going to music festivals. They definitely know all the newest coolest music. I was with them at one jamming session and they are really good :p 1 friend even joined a band comp at Uni before. I always feel I need to educate myself in this area... haha :p Another friend at my UK volunteer group once teased me about not knowing what songs David Bowie sang (that's the person we were talking about right? hmmm...). haha sometime really needs to be changed.
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