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Sometimes,
it's best to keep to safe plans and actions rather than taking
unnecessary risks doing something you are not confident of.
It was a rainy day (it's only a drizzle actually :P) when I was
returning back home from the university campus. I never like drizzly or
rainy days, for they make you feel kinda down and spoil your mood when
you are looking forward to bright and sunny days. I had to cycle back,
and that was quite uncomfortable during rainy days, or in this case, a
drizzly day. It is troublesome to wear the raincoat with the hoodie
covering the head as when I cycle, the wind blows against me, and my
face is washed(?) with rainwater. Great, helps to clean my face. And the
rainwater droplets on my glasses limit my vision. Frowning upon the
weather, I made a risky decision: instead of using the
raincoat, I planned to cycle with one hand controlling the bike handle
and the other holding an umbrella.
The thing is, I've never tried doing something like that before. I
couldn't balance myself properly yet with one hand on the handle but
then, I launched the idea without thinking much of the consequences. At
first, it was all okay...I managed to balance myself fairly. The trouble
started when I was approaching the corner of a junction. I knew that I
don't have that much ability to be able to turn left smoothly with only a
hand on the handle. While I was thinking of my next course of action,
my body unconsciously drove my bike to turn left and I went off-balanced
and fell almost in the middle of the road. Thank goodness no car or
motorcycle happened to pass by, if not it would be a double accident.
In the end, I got myself unnecessarily hurt on the way back.
Gosh, that was the third time I've hurt myself due to incidents
associated with my bike. Maybe my bike hates me. * sobs* The only good
thing was I managed to keep myself dry from the rain(drizzle...). Coming
to think of it, my act seemed to be unworthy after all...
I
guess I would not pull that act again until I know how to perfectly
balance myself on the bike with one hand controlling the handle...
Ringing of the alarm from my handphone.TIME TO GET UP,it seems to say as I silence it with a single press on the 'Turn Off' button.
Oh right.It's yet another new day.
Gah,I still want to continue sleeping!,my
mind protests as I groggily get up from the bed.I look into the mirror
and frown.More pimples and dandruff flakes.And tired eyes.Great,the effects of sleeping late and waking up early almost every
day.
Oh,I
knew that having staying up till very late at night is seriously bad
for health.Due to that,I find myself often feel sleepy in classes and
I'll start to go "fishing" during lectures.I try telling myself to go to
bed at 10pm,but little did I realise when I look at the time,it's
already half past twelve in the morning.And all the while I've been
dawdling over my work.Daydreaming while thinking of the discussion part
for my Organic Chemistry report.Facebooking when I'm supposed to finish
writing the script for my upcoming sketch presentation.There goes my
precious time for sleeping.
And
the cycle continues to repeat itself.Late night,early
morning,dawdle,procrastinate,daydream,late night again.The lifestyle of
most university students,perhaps.Nah,just blame it on my lack of
self-discipline.
How ironic when you know the bad effects of sleeping late and yet you still want to do it.
Yawns.I think I'm half-asleep when I'm typing this.Eyes half-closed.Wait,what have I been talking about?ZzZzZ.
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,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.
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.
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
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~
