Week 6

Class was cancelled on week 6 hence, i shall talk about how much i enjoy taking photos and travelling.

I really love getaways. I enjoy being away from home for a few days. I could leave all my problems and worries behind for that period of time & feel.. free. I love traveling to new places and observing people. It just makes me genuinely happy. Travelling allows me to explore and learn more things. It also takes me to beautiful places and i will get lost in my own thoughts. Here are a few photos i took while i was away getting lost and feeling free. 

 These four photos are taken at Colmar Tropical and i love how there are so much greens. It makes my photos look really calm and relaxing. 

 These are casual photos i snap every time. Food, photos of food is a must!! 

 Caught the sunset by the beach in Port Dickson and this photo does not bring any justice to how breath taking the view was. It was so beautiful no words could describe this kind of beauty.

Took a few photos of the low tide during sunset. It was a rather cloudy and gloomy day as you can see from the dark clouds. (Also, my sister took a photo of me in action hehe)

These last two are taken on my spontaneous trip. It was a rather last minute plan. Oh how much i love  being spontaneous. 

Week 5 - Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking is solving a problem through an indirect and creative approach that uses reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It is basically thinking creatively or "outside the box". There are a lot of lateral thinking puzzles and i feel that it really helps our brain working and trying to think of a unique answer. Here is an example i got online (http://www.folj.com/lateral/):

You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose? 

I thought hard about it and i did not get the solution right even after reading the hint! Haha. 

Well here is the solution:
The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus. 

This proves that i need to start improving on my lateral thinking skills. 

Also, here are some photos of lateral thinking puzzles. 

Week 4 - Mind mapping

A mind map literally maps out our thoughts and ideas. Mind mapping is useful as it is a more structured and organised way to brainstorm and collate ideas. Basically a mind map extracts our ideas from our head into something more visual and structure. It helps us plan and organise our thinking before we start writing or get stuck into a project or assignment. 

A mind map can turn a long list of boring information into a colourful, memorable and highly organised diagram that works in line with our brain's natural way of doing things. There can be as many branches in a mind map. Like example there will be a subject and from the subject there will be a few branches for the ideas and from ideas there will be sub ideas and the list goes on. We can make a mind map with any tool. We can use colour pens to draw them or even use a mind map software.

Here are five essential characteristics of a Mind Map:

• The main idea, subject or focus is crystallized in a central image.
• The main themes radiate from the central image as 'branches'.
• The branches comprise a key image or key word drawn or printed on its associated line.
• Topics of lesser importance are represented as 'twigs' of the relevant branch.
• The branches form a connected nodal structure. 

 (http://www.mindmapping.com/theory-behind-mind-maps.php)

I think mind mapping is almost as similar as brainstorming and it helps a lot with group projects. It makes the discussion more interesting and less boring. Ideas will usually just keeps on flowing in with the help of brainstorming and mind maps.

Week 3 - Brainstorming

Problem solving skills is important in every aspect of our life because in life we have to make decisions. There will always be problems whether you are a student, a teacher, a parent, a businessman or the president of any country. In fact, problems occur every day on our daily lives. No matter how big or small a problem is, we use our problem solving skills to deal with it.

It is also important to apply proper problem solving skills in a group work because every team has a similar goal to achieve but there will be disagreements on every member. Different people will have different perspectives and in order to overcome it, the group should figure out a solution.

On top of that, brainstorming is also one of the ways to solve a problem or to figure out a solution in a group. Brainstorming is effective as it uses every member’s brain juice to gather up different ideas and perspectives to solve a problem. Every individual is creative in different ways. From what I learnt is that it is important to interact in a group and have no distractions. The more we interact and have no distractions, the better our train of thought functions. 

(205 words)

Week 2 - Breaking the rules

These photos are shoes and dresses designed by Alexander McQueen. He is a British fashion designer. The reason why I chose his designs and these photos is because we learned about breaking the rules this week and I feel that Alexander McQueen is one of the many designers who successfully broke the rules.

His designs are creative and interesting as they are physically unique. As for the heels, he made the physical appearance look like it is impossible to walk in those shoes. The design made it seem like they are only meant for displays and photos. But apparently, the shoes can be worn and people do walk in those. The colours of the shoes will not attract any attention as they are not striking but people will notice and be attracted to the shoes only because they do not physically look like any other ordinary shoes. 

The butterfly hat he designed is also interesting. The colour of the butterflies is very vibrant and the massive amount of butterflies on the hat is the main attraction. I feel like the hat do not emphasise on the model's face as it covers most of her face. It looks like the model is being surrounded by butterflies.

The parrot dress designed by him is lovely as the brightly-coloured feathered wings sits on top of the model perfectly with the colourful dress. Nobody would want to dress like a bird but Alexander McQueen makes it possible for anybody who wants to dress like a bird and still look fabulous.

253 words