Working with people (repost)

Sometimes,it may be a little difficult working with people.Especially those who are new to you.Even more when you have communication barriers.

         I just had my meeting with my fellow group mates regarding our sketch presentation for Effective Communication Skills (ECS).At the moment,we do not have an official group leader,as we do not plan to elect one yet.However,I think we sort of know who's the leader in our group,judging by everyone's personality and the way they speak.

         Well,the main agenda was to decide on a storyline for our 20-minute sketch comprising of six people,including me.Basically,I had two ideas and I told them with much difficulty,considering that they love speaking in Mandarin and I am more comfortable conversing in English (my Mandarin is not very good).The ideas were supposed to sound funny,but somehow they couldn't pull off the trick due to communication limitations.My members did not get the joke.Sigh.Gah,I should have pick up my Mandarin whenever I could.

         Each of us had quite different point of views.I am the type who prefers something that is meaningful and portrays moral values.I was thinking of doing something more original,something where others have never think of it.However,my group mates are the type who focus more on the humourous aspect and anything out-of-the-world,time-travelling,magic and fantasy.Not that it is bad,in fact it's the kind of sketch that would draw the audience's attention to the sketch.Somehow,I felt from the way our discussion was heading to,our sketch is going to be quite clichéd,the normal fairytale kind.Probably I was having too high an expectation on how our sketch should be.I had wanted a more original and professional play.

         During our discussion,I was quietly observing my group members,occasionally contributing ideas whenever I should.I noticed that there's one who is quite self-centered.I think she's saying "In my opinion..." in Mandarin,but somehow those words seem to center heavily on the word "I".There's one who is quite passive in the group,and another who is actually full of ideas but she doesn't want to complicate the discussion further.The thing is,all of us are not of the same frequency.The meek and passive ones would have to tune into the frequency of the more active ones.That's always the case when working within a group.Either you lower your level to be the same with others,or others would have to raise their level to be on the same level as you.

         I came to realise one thing: All of your ideas may not be accepted,maybe because your ideas aren't good,or you fail to get the message across,or you just don't have enough persuasive skills to convince others that your ideas work.You may feel dejected,but learn to adapt and flow with the group.Other's viewpoint may not be that bad after all,although they may not be up to your personal expectations.You are not working alone;you are now working with a group of people.Everyone is dependent on one another.Learn to accept other's opinion and think out of your shoes.With that,working with people would be much more easier and smoother.  

         At the end of our discussion,we decided on the fairytale-kind of sketch.I offered to write the script for them as I know they might have a problem when it comes to writing a script in English.Initially they suggested to write the script together,but I know very well in my heart doing things like this will never get us anywhere in time for our sketch rehearsal and presentation day.

And now,I'm tied down with an extra job.For the group's sake,I shall do it!
:)

Mind your manners! (repost)

Mind your manners,mister! I cried in my brain.I was walking behind a man ,who looked to be in his forties,on my way from the parking area to Tesco's side entrance.He was definitely taking his own sweet time ambling,but that was not my concern.The thing that annoyed me was he was walking and spitting on the ground,not only for once,but I counted thrice.Three times,spitting along the way as though he owns the place.What kind of people we have nowadays?

         It is sad or rather disappointing to know that we have more and more bad-mannered people in today's society.Step out of the house,and you see your neighbour looking at you for a moment,then walks into the car and goes off without even a word of greeting,although you make the effort to smile at him or her.Take a walk in the park,and you see a child throwing an ice-cream wrapper on the grass and walks off licking his or her prized treat,the wrapper adding to the littered surroundings.Come back home,and you see "freshly-produced" dog faeces awaiting right in front of your gate,acting as a welcome-back-home present.Great.You wonder if the dog's owner actually does have a brain.

         Good manners and behaviours are no longer part and parcel in our daily lives.Gone are the days where students respectfully greet their teachers whenever they see them and have the initiative to help them carry books and other things when in need.Gone are the days where people apologise when they knock into someone's shoulder or when they are conscious of their mistakes.Gone are the days where people speak with politeness when interacting with others.

         And the root cause behind the bad mannerism?Why,it definitely comes to family upbringing.It all starts from the parents or guardians,who are the role models for the children.If they adopt bad manners and behaviours,the children are sure to follow them.If no effort is taken to teach them the proper things,when they become adults,the chain of bad mannerism and behaviours will continue until someone comes to a point of realisation that it is not the right thing to do and breaks the chain.Of course,there may be other factors,like bad influence from peers,but it all goes down to family upbringing. 

"What a terrible fellow,"I said to myself.The man had disappeared into the building.I sighed.Imagine if someone unlucky were to accidentally step on his spit.If there are more of this kind of people like the man,life is going to be a little unpleasant.Shaking my head at his actions,I carefully treaded past the area and walked thoughtfully into the same building.

Skipping classes and being absent from school (repost)

I wonder if skipping classes or being absent from school have become a popular habit among students.

I still remember,as a little kid in primary school, it was instilled in me that it is not right to be absent for classes unless there's something urgent to do,for instance,attending your close relative's funeral or house-moving. The only times I was forced to be absent from school were during my house-moving event and the death of my paternal grandmother,both happening when I was studying in my secondary years. Other than that,regardless of whether there are replacement classes on Saturdays,I would faithfully make myself present for lessons.I never like missing classes.If I do,I would feel very bad.

However,a lot of students nowadays are actually getting into the habit of skipping classes and being absent from school often.You can observe this kind of scenario in secondary schools,especially in universities and colleges,where most students are no longer under their parents' supervision and they are given the freedom of choices.There is no one to force them to attend lectures and tutorials;the choice is up to them whether they want to do well in their tertiary studies or flunk it.Of course,the lecturers will be giving advices to pull them back to the right track but again,the students make the final choice.As for secondary school students,some of them even take "sick leaves" from school to go for a short vacation with their parents.Sick,huh? 

Well,who else is to be blamed but the parents themselves?If parents have inculcated in their children of the proper things to do at a tender age,then there shouldn't be any bad habits such as ditching classes for personal purposes.The most common excuse would be "Oh,I need to use the time to study for the upcoming exams".For goodness sake,this is such a debatable statement.Why do you need to make use of the time for attending classes to study for exams when you could have spent an hour or two daily on revision instead of wasting your time by playing around?This just shows that you have bad time management.And isn't it ridiculous when you find that your exam grades still drop although you have skipped classes for exam studies?

Skipping classes may seem to be normal and acceptable among students but in actual fact,it reflects a person's personality and attitude,and also,the family upbringing.Imagine,if this habit continues on in working life,it will only give the employer a bad impression.What's more,the "I'm sick" excuses won't work anymore.

New hobby: Roleplaying! (repost)

Ah, I have found a new hobby a few days ago! It's play-by-post roleplaying!

Initially, I did not know anything about roleplaying. I had thought of it as something to do with dramas and sketches, but no, it wasn't that. My friend told me about it and sent me links to some roleplaying sites to have a clearer picture to what roleplaying is all about. That was how I learnt about the term.

Doing roleplays was something different; it was a whole new experience to me. To those of you who are unaware of it, roleplaying is the act of posing yourself as another character and here in play-by-post roleplays, you assume the role of a character, usually created by you or the Gamemaster, in a particular story or setting. There are two types of roleplays, one-on-one roleplay and group roleplay. In one-on-one, you roleplay with only one person whereas in group roleplay, as the word suggests, you roleplay with a group of people. The Gamemaster, who is the one who gives the idea of a story, will post the story's introduction in a thread started by him or her, and you as one of the characters involved, will post in the thread regarding your character's actions and thoughts in response to the plot of the story. In one-on-one roleplays, the Gamemaster is usually involved actively in the roleplay. In group roleplays, the Gamemaster may or may not be actively involved in roleplaying. Others playing their own characters will post about their respective characters' doings in continuing the story, including you. This will go on and on until the Gamemaster decides to end the roleplay.






Being someone who loves to write, it has become a newfound passion to me. Almost every day, I'll be logging in to the sites and posting up my replies to the roleplay threads I've gotten myself involved in. I found that ever since I have joined the roleplaying community, I have been more confident of my writing skills, partly because I am able to gain instant feedback from other roleplayers about my writing skills, if I ask them that is. This really helps me to improve in my writing, besides having fun unleashing your creativity and imagination as in how you make your character respond to the given situations.

Well, I'm really into roleplaying nowadays. If you are one who loves writing and are now itching for something different, something to express the wilder side of you by letting your creativity and imagination run freely using words, I suggest you to indulge in roleplaying.

*battle cries* HYAAAHHH! Roleplays, here I come! :P

Yummy, yummy, Lazy, lazy~ (repost)

Oh fine,I admit that I'm seriously still on a baking spree.I baked a batch of chocolate rice butter cookies recently on Thursday and just yesterday,when my house-mate said, "I suddenly feel like eating a cake.",I was more than eager to bake a cake for the three of us to eat (the three includes me and my two house-mates,Velerynn and Kate).We shopped for the necessary ingredients and we finished baking at about five in the evening.And of course,when the much awaited cake was finally ready to be eaten,we helped ourselves to it.Haha,to think that I have so much time to bake,considering that I have a Biology test coming...

         I may look as though I'm so hardworking and energetic,as in baking twice for the week.In fact,I feel quite lazy...I have a greater inertia to remain on my chair in my room during the weekends,facing my computer screen the whole day,going online like nobody's business.I guess that's basically what most youths are doing,but in my case,I think I'm in the extreme category.That spells BAD.WASTING OF TIME AND ELECTRICITY.When I could actually do something else more healthy and beneficial,maybe like reading (*whines*but I have no reading materials except...lecture notes?! *wails aloud*I want to read fictions! :'[ ),writing (yeah,I'm doing that on the com ;) ) and exercising (I cycle everyday so maybe I can skip that? :P).
          I guess when you are living on your own,no longer under your parents' wings,you tend to get off track most of the time.I could clearly remember my father telling me and my siblings the time frame for playing computer games,which at most is two hours for the three of us,and we have to divide the given time to forty-five minutes per person.And the usual scenario happens:someone would be taking away the alloted time of the other.Haha.Talk about bad time management.
         I could also recall my mother bustling around in the house,nagging to the three of us to clean our study table,which are constantly messy:rubber dusts,used papers,study books that we seldom open and read,my little brother's stacks of Pokemon drawings and playing cards, small toys and keychains,etc etc,make the beds and wash our school uniforms,shoes and socks.Those were the times we,at the rebellious stage,always grumble about the chores.Now,ever since I'm on my own living together with my house-mates,I find that without being under the watchful eyes of my parents,all the bad traits start to grow:Procrastination,Laziness,Staying up until very late at night,so on and so forth.Well,maybe some of you may not have this kind of situation.If so,I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart that you are actually a person with great discipline and control,unlike me... :P
Okay,now I start to feel a little guilty.Maybe I should put some effort to exercise self-control.Hmm,will see,will see~

I hate this part of me where I'm being...

Demanding.

Inconsiderate.

Selfish.

Whiny.

Doubtful.

Lifeless.

Sometimes, I just feel like that when I look at how I behave, how I talk, how I see things...I can see all those qualities in me. Problem is, the "sometimes" is just too much, that it gets repetitive. And then I'll go "Oh my, I'm repeating this same old thing again..." and then I'll stop, and before long the whole procedure is gonna be repeated...again. I wonder if somebody set them on repeat mode. Then again, I think that somebody must have been me all along.

I've tried to control myself: whenever I feel like that, I pretend that I'm fine and keep whatever feelings I have in me to myself. Result? I feel worse, as though my heart is filled with mercury, slowly poisoned by self-pity and emo-ness and there's a heavy feeling that makes you very uncomfortable. Right. Another approach that I've taken, or rather, still taking, is that I pour out my emotions to someone close, everything. Result? Oh yes, I feel much better,  but then what comes next is the feeling of guilt, that I've troubled that someone with all my whiny nonsense and problems that appear to be big but are actually small petty matters easily handled with a clear, calm mind. It's like a love-hate thing; you don't want to trouble others yet you want them to listen to you, comfort you and set your world right again with just simple words of advice and encouragement.

Sigh, I don't know. I thought I've lost these unpleasant moments of emo-ness for good a long time ago, but somehow, they came back. Wonder why...maybe it's just me, since I like to think a lot and just make things worse with all that unnecessary thinking. Hmm.

Oh well, I shall /endrant with this song, My Immortal by Evanescence. Not that the lyrics describe my situation or how I feel now, but the melody does that.   

Restless.

The night's quiet and peaceful, yet I can't help feeling somewhat restless inside. Maybe it's because the night is void of lively activities to keep the mind away from slipping into boredom and loneliness. What is there to do? There's studies for finals, listening to music, watching videos, gaming, reading, chatting...but hmm, all those don't seem to be able to subdue the restlessness. I've been studying almost the whole day (ineffective revision though heh <.<), listening to some favourite songs with repeat mode on, watching Tangled the movie and crying at parts that touched my heart, gaming with a friend on LoL only for an AI game...but all that could only do that much to keep me entertained temporarily. Don't feel like picking up a book to read for now, nor doing any writing. Chatting does wonders, except the person I want to chat with isn't around. : /

Sigh, maybe I should just wish the world goodnight now.

*wishes a silent goodnight*