(Mis)Judging People

One of my friends often posts on Facebook about how people who like to judge others seem repugnant to her. I see eye to eye with her. No one's perfect, so why all the fuss? I especially nurtured a distaste for people who like to spew out their bold views about others without even checking themselves in the mirror (Well, it sounds like I am judging people here, too, but I hope this post will help kickstart the 'Judgement Day' of this foolish trend).

Comments like "She's ugly!", "He's a fatso," are some of the common ones we hear in everyday gossips. Ponder! Is everyone born physically beautiful, or perfect? No, no, NO! And this variance is what makes life colourful! Imagine if you walk down a boulevard and see people with similar heights, similar waist sizes and similar supposedly beautiful or handsome faces. Wouldn't it be boring?

We can also see very impolite comments on many television programmes (I usually see these on Korean channels, like 'Entertainment Weekly', I don't know, but it seems normal to them. Absolutely, no offence!), "Wow, she's sexy!", "Hey, he's so hot!"... let's just be frank, these comments make the subjects look cheap, like their lives depend on physical appearance alone! From my view, honestly, these subjects become a tool to arouse some people's dirty desires (you can see this clearly in K-POP, when girl groups wear very short skirts and dance, try to look at the gazes of the male fans).

Of course, regarding the 'fatso' thingy, I am not trying to say that people now don't have to worry about being fat and can eat as much as they like. It is of utmost importance for them (and me, I admit I am a corpulent guy) to stay healthy, by practising proper eating habits. But sometimes, gene plays a role in deciding the body shape (for instance, some people become plump more easily than other people even though they eat less, due to gene). So stop being so judgemental, people!

Everyone has his or her own story. You can't imagine (or maybe you can, if you are a victim) how it feels to become targeted by malicious comments. It really hurts! People sommer vomit fatal remarks without thinking of the consequences. A teacher once told me that hurting people verbally is worse than hurting them physically, for physical wounds can be treated but mental and emotional wounds will leave eternal scars on the victims' minds. Indeed!

Therefore, why not change? Why not look at people from the good side? Why not work together to forge a happy and worry-free tomorrow? Why not we bring an end to this hurtful culture?

Learning ENGLISH

Nah, I am not trying to teach English here (you can count the vocab I master with your fingers, and toes). But I can tell you honestly that I have fallen deeply in love with English (the language, don't cook up a speculation that I have an English girlfriend). I must thank my English teacher who taught me when I was still in Form 1 (you can see who she is in my post 'Dine, Converse', she was the special guest). She didn't just teach me English, she taught me how to learn English. She catalysed the germination of my love towards this international language.

If you (juniors) think that you can learn everything from your English textbook, then you are terribly wrong. English is everywhere (if you care to dedicate some time to it).

Me? My first English 'sharpener' wasn't Hans Christian Anderson's work (I already knew his stories in the Chinese version), it was the Reader's Digest magazines. My brother is fond of reading them and one day, I picked up one of them. I browsed through the pages and found that I could hardly finish any paragraph without asking him the meanings of the unfamiliar words. I guessed he was tired of my constant pestering since he then taught me how to use the dictionary.That little incident kickstarted my curiosity about English.

There are many ways for me to learn English:

• Whenever I come across new words, I refer to the Qur'an of English, i.e. the dictionary. Sometimes, when I feel lazy to scan through that big pile of papers to find the words I don't know, I make sure to note those words down so that when I regain my spirit, I will know where to start from. 
• Songs! It is of no use to only know how to write in English, it is equally vital to be able to listen when other people speak. So, I make it a habit to visit YouTube and listen to some English songs, then I will write down the lyrics and check with the actual lyrics when I am done to see if I get them right.
• Write, write, write. That's why I blog. It's to make sure I don't forget what I've learnt. When I was still in school (during which time I didn't have the time to blog), I write on pieces of paper. I sommer came up with topics and tried to elaborate from scratch.

I bet I am still very, very, very far from mastering English. But I'm not worried. After all, non scholae, sed vitae discimus.

Consumer is KING

Well, is it? I have doubt. I have seen a great many salesmen and saleswomen 'decorating' their faces with sour and sombre expressions (it's not like I owe them money, or anything!). I thought each and every consumer deserves the best of products and services, no?

Let's put products aside. I have too many complaints about the services I have been receiving so far. I can still remember there was once when my mum and I were having breakfast in a café, that fool of  a waitress shouted at my mum, "RM 9!" At first, we thought that she was worried that we might not pay (since there were too many people and someone might try slip away anytime) and let it slide. But when she returned to pass us the change, she literally threw it in front of us (and got a good shout from my mum, served her right!). Ever since then, we have not visited that café.

Supermarkets also hold a lot of people deserving reprimands. The very incident that got me throwing the goods I was carrying at the cashier was when she yelled at me and asked me to push the trolley back to where it was from (it was other people's trolley, I carried a basket). I did not pay, nor did I reclaimed the groceries I threw at her.

Now, the entrée, an incident that happened in a hut (you should be able to guess this) that sells pizza. My family invited my mother's friend's family for a lunch at that hut. First, the waitress took our orders (she did not record anything down), and got them wrong, we bore with it. Next, when I ordered some ice cubes, she said, "Sorry, we don't have anymore ice cubes." Hahaha (a sarcastic laugh)! No more ice cubes in that hut that sells pizza? I swallowed my lunch with my fists clenched.

Are consumers king? You tell me.

LEADER

Leaders must be close [sic] enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. 

- John C. Maxwell - 

I had seen people acting as leaders in my secondary school days and I had been led by some of them. Ah, I admit that I am not qualified (at all) to judge these people. But honestly, not many of them had the so-called 'leadership' aura (or halo), meaning, they were not able to convince people (maybe just me) that they were able leaders.

So, what does it take to be a good leader (not that I am a good leader, though)? Read down...

Lonely - Leaders are meant to be lonely. If they were given the title of 'leader', they shouldn't go around telling people their personal troubles. They keep those problems to themselves to avoid affecting the morale of the people they are leading. Sometimes, it is good to hide...

Esteemed - I am not saying that they should be arrogant, but leaders should nurture high self-esteem. Why? It gives the followers a sense of confidence. When they are confident, they can focus more on the work at hand, instead of worrying about how people look at them.

Affable - I doubt anyone wants a leader with a stern face (or they call it more Stalin than Santa) 24/7. Leaders should be friendly and easy to talk to. This ensures loyalty of the followers. Besides, affable leaders can grow into better leaders since they can easily listen to people's opinions, granting them the ability to be empathetic.

Dree - Yup, leaders are destined to dree more pain than any other people. They have to listen to criticisms, reprimands and chastisements (even if they had done nothing wrong). People tend to expect more from a leader... so they have to dree to survive.

En face - There is no time for leaders to look back to their past and say, "Oh, I should have done this, I should have done that..." It's all about the future. They learn from their mistakes (and be grateful that they have made those mistakes) and forge a better future together with their subordinates.

Responsible - Of course, leaders have to be responsible. They have to be held accountable for their followers' fate (since the followers do as the leaders say) and future. They have to bear in mind that their actions decide how tomorrow looks like.

Voila! These are some of the qualities a leader should have (of course the actual list goes beyond this acronym). Build your leadership skills around these qualities and you will find yourself noted down in everyone's white list.

Building A Website

Many people choose to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website editing programmes to build their websites. However, I chose to do some coding with a free HTML editor. It turned out to be much harder than I had expected.

I am quite familiar with HTML (hypertext markup language), I learnt it when I was still 14 years old. This language allows users to manipulate (position, size, colour and font of) web elements. The reason I chose to build a website is to move all my blog posts on Blogger there.

Blogger does not give me the full power to customise the appearance of my blog. So, what to do? I have to move, but not so fast, I am far from done...

This editor is called the 'Taco HTML Editor'. Need to code from scratch.

Before I could concentrate on coding, I need to design a few simple graphics as menu buttons. Since I don't have advanced applications like Adobe Photoshop installed, I turned to a presentation programme, it's called Keynote (Keynote is very much like Microsoft PowerPoint, only that it is designed by Apple, for Apple customers).

These are icons. I designed them to be as simple as possible. I used basic shapes and combined them to form the desired icons, for instance, the 'Pics' icon below:

For this icon, I only used four rectangles and two triangles. The typography beside it features small-lettered words to give people a sense of informality.

Each menu button has three different images. I enabled rollover images so that they look more alive. When you move your cursor over them, they will change into their corresponding second image. After that, I saved each of these as .PNG images. Then, I uploaded them to my domain so that my HTML editor can fetch them as web images when I start coding.

Time to code. First, I included the address of each of these pictures in my code. This allows the browser you are using right now (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox or Opera) to fetch these images and portray them they way I want. I placed all of these menu buttons at the top of the page for easier navigation for my readers later.

Next, I designed the background. The background isn't just an image. Since I want the background colour to match that of my icons, I need to find the perfect code for the colour I used. 

It isn't simple to find the correct colour. I need to do some Wikipedia readings to get the colour right. Before I go on, I feel the need to explain to you about these colour codes, or else, you will lose interest of reading the remaining post due to incomprehensibility. 

Each pixel (meaning the dots on your screen, if you take a closer look at your computer screen right now, you will see tiny dots) is made up of three colours (red, green and blue). The combination of these colours at different brightness gives you different colours. If you turn on each colour to their full brightness (#FFFFFF, each two letters determine the brightness of that particular colour in the arrangement I mentioned), you see white colour. If you turn off all of them (#000000), you get black colour and so on. 

I used half a day to find the correct colour. I added some attributes at the bottom of the page and that's where I am right now, I am still working to come up with the rest of the page. You can see a big pile of codes below only results in a small outcome in the real website.

That's all for now. I will continue to post about my progress in the future. Do come back!

Chase - Chapter 2 (Part I)

She couldn’t shut her eyes. She was still afraid. Why, she thought. She was once one of the readers of John Foster’s cases in newspapers. She critisised the man’s inhuman action, slaughtering men as if they were animals. But a few hours ago, he proved to her that she was wrong. She couldn’t forget his eyes, his gaze. She could not help but hoped that he would not be captured. No, she would not tell her mother. She didn’t want to hurt her mother’s feeling. Let her sorrow be hidden in her heart, she vowed to herself to bring that secret to her grave. She would not tell anyone. Soon, the rain ceased and the golden rays of the great fire ball bathed her room and the town, marking the arrival of another day, and the arrival of a true mastermind.

“Wake up,” Mike shook Carl violently. The 26-year-old opened his eyes slowly. “We should go around the town to hunt down our man.”

“He might have boarded the ferry yesterday, and left,” Carl said, trying hard to roll to his side, with his back against his senior.

“Don’t be so naive. The ferry was not permitted to leave yesterday. He can’t escape,” Mike replied, his hands were busy buttoning up his jacket. Carl got ready and joined his senior in the cafe they visited yesterday for breakfast. They had an American set. Carl and Mike were temporarily freed from work-stress thanks to the view of the scenic sea from their table. Just then, small boats started to appear along the horizon, about half a dozen of them. They seemed to enlarge every now and then, indicating that they were actually approaching the shore. 

When the boats finally arrived, the detective duo could see that the passengers were police officers. “Definitely aid from headquarters. Yup, they are,” Mike said slowly, and stood up, leaving an empty plate and his junior behind. “I will go to the station first. You can catch up later.” With that note, he flew out through the door. Carl hastily finished his last spoonful of baked beans, left some money on the table and picked up Mike’s trail.

When Carl finally reached the station, he saw some familiar faces among the crowd congregating in Chief Albert’s office. “Lee, Stephen, Kevin! What are you guys doing here? I thought you are still working on the Internet fraud case,” Carl asked his colleagues. 

“The higher-ups have decided to assign more manpower to this case. We had to pull some men from the HQ, this pack volunteered,” the chief answered, on behalf of the sea-sickened trio. “They are going to join you. Since they are your colleagues, I trust there will be no problem in collaboration.” He stood up, “The others will help to trace our man on the field. Let’s go!” 

It took a whole minute for the remaining 16 people to exit the small office, following Chief Albert to the crime scene for follow-up investigations. Mike was the first to break the silence among the five people remaining in the office. “We will move to Room 4. Our documents are there,” he said and led his juniors into a shabby-looking room, with which the four corners of its walls were at the mercy of spider webs. 

CHASE © David Egong 2012. All rights reserved. Check back every two weeks for subsequent chapters or parts.

Of Soil, Water and Sun

A simple analogy: I am a small plant with few small, photosynthetic leaves. Germinated from a seed planted into the soil, I get plenty of water from the rain and surrounding moisture. Most importantly, I get sufficient sunlight 12 hours daily. All of these factors contributed to my growth and development.

Hmm... I am not trying to teach anyone Biology here. This is a perfect introduction to illustrate the people around me. 

The soil represents my family, water represents my teachers and the sun, my friends.  My family nurtures me with nutrients (which means feed) and support (moral, financial, you name it). They are always by my side, through thick and thin. They give me the love that I need and the warmth that I yearn for. And they never ask anything in return, just like the soil, staying low at the root of a plant. I love them, and I can't imagine how I can ever live without them (don't bring up things like hydroponics and aeroponics, I am getting really emotional here, don't start!).

My teachers are like water. They pour valuable knowledge at me (thanks!). Sometimes, they reprimand me (for my own good), just like how the rain will occasionally tear the leaves of a plant apart. But I know they care for me, I know they have my best interests in mind. They guide me and shape me into who I am today. 

My friends are like the sun. They cheer me up, bringing endless joy into my life, though at times, we get into arguments (you can say that a plant will suffer a great deal when the sun becomes mercilessly hotter than usual). Ah... it's great to have them in my life!

Endless guidance from them brought me up. Now, I am ready to stand in storms' way. Thank you, Soil, Water and Sun...

A Bond Built On Conversations

Ehr... please do not misunderstand me. I know the title sounds like I met someone through a chatting website. She is a good friend of mine. I never knew her until I was in Form 4 (I am not going to say how I came to know her). She is from another class. We seldom meet each other.

But we got involved in the same co-curricular activity (no, I refuse to tell you what activity it was). Through conversations, I came to discover more about her views and thoughts (important for me to judge a person, I don't judge a book by its cover). She is (now, still) gentle, kind and has low self-esteem. She does not know how valuable a friend she is to me and some of my other friends.

She was (back to past tense) always there to support us (my friends and I), quietly. She did not stand in the limelight, but rather, she operated the limelight, so that it shone on her friends. There were times when I disagreed with her opinions, but that was what got me thinking more than I did.

We also found ourselves competing against each other sometimes. I felt fun and motivated to be with her. She pushed me beyond my limits to make me a better person (unintentionally).

I often tease her (I just did it on Facebook) but deep in my heart, I respect her, a lot. I am not sure if she could feel my respect, probably not, since I am good at hiding things (but I usually forget where I hid them). I am not going to name her, but I am going to give her a sign here, maybe she will know that I am talking about her. ~Sb~, got it?

Carbon Footprint

All of us contribute to the emission of carbon dioxide. Let's see what is your score. Enter your details into the calculator below to find out how great a damage you are causing to our Mother Nature:

When I feel down...

There are times when I feel down. The feeling sometimes grows into a monster called 'rage' when I come into contact with people 'equipped' with sour faces. I am still a teen and I am still struggling to escape the maze of mood swings I am trapped in. For no reason, I can suddenly become angry and violent. Guess some of you are like me, too.

That is when I go seek for calmness, in my memories. I have come across people from all walks of life, some of which I share sweet memories with, and places of all altitudes and areas. I do record many of my memories in my photos and when mood swings strike, I reach for them.

Those photos help me to recall all the happy past I possess. Pictures of my family and I, friends and I, natural scenes and sites, historic places and food. Browsing through all those photos help me to retrace my route, and in an instant, I could fly into my imagined space (suddenly thought of the song lyrics: You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one), reminiscing the scents, sounds and ambients of places I have been to and people I have met.

Trip to Taiwan (2009). One of my sweet memories.

Ah, those memories. I won't say I wish to go back to those time, or else I will need to go through my hectic secondary school life again!

By the time I reach the end of my albums, I could feel tranquility filling my soul. Now, what do you do when you feel down?

Spend. Wisely.

"What? These three bottles of makeup cost RM 600++?" That was what I heard when I was shopping in Parkson a few days ago. A man was grumbling at his girlfriend (from what I can tell, the couple is still too young to be married) for spending beyond their (or maybe, his) limit. What is happening to youngsters nowadays? Only God can tell. Well, I am in the 'youngsters' group, but even I can't understand about their (maybe I will leave myself out of this group for a while, so that an 'our' is not needed here) spending habit.

One of my friends once told me that she has no trouble spending all of her pocket money. When I asked her about this, she replied, "My parents gave it to me, so it is rightfully mine. I can spend it anyway I like." Hmm... It is up to you to judge this person. 

Honestly, even if our parents do give us pocket money, we don't necessarily have to spend it till it hits zero. I mean, what is it that we need to buy for ourselves? Our parents feed us, clothe us and take care of our stationery. Maybe occasionally, we will need to spend our own money but I am sure parents give pocket money to their children so that the latter will learn to save up.

It's not like the pocket money is spent on the right things anyway. With their pocket money, children reload their own phone credits (and they go on to send text messages like crazy), buy snacks for their friends (and fatten them up), purchase clothes (online or in-the-store) and do anything that their creativity allows them to. Ah, yup, some even buy games and tech gadgets.

I think someone is feeling the heat here... Is it you?

I wonder if they know how hard it is for parents to earn all those notes. They will get a taste of it when they reach adulthood, having their own children spending every penny they earned with their sweat, tears and blood.

Smoking

I can't help but think that smoKING is a powerful king. SmoKING conquers a lot of regions around the world. Just a few days ago, when I was enjoying my roti canai, a man sitting at the next table started smoking as soon as he had finished his share of Indian bread. The smoke from the cigarette rendered me impossible to continue eating. Eventually, I had to pay (well, my mother paid) and leave, without finishing my bread.

I really can't understand why people smoke (and I am not interested to devote myself into understanding the thoughts of these smokers, or I call them the silent murderers in our society). One of my uncles in Korea is a smoker. I can still remember that a few years back, when I was staying with him, I froze his pack of cigarettes in the fridge to stop him from doing destruction to his own body. Ah, I failed. He is still into smoking.

There seems to be of no use for people to spread news about the damage smoking can bring to the smokers and the people around them. Smokers will, most of the time, ignore those 'Love yourself' messages and carry on with their 'cool' actions. Honestly, I don't think they are cool. I think they are childish and irresponsible, seeking temporary pleasures to escape from tensions they face, only to find themselves wholly dominated by tensions when that greedy ember reaches the end of their cigarettes.

The number of teens enslaved by smoking is rising at an alarming rate. I have seen my friends cruelly dragged into dark alleys by the desire to smoke. I have seen how they tremble at the thought of their fingers being parted from that nicotine-doll. I feel bad for them, but what can I do? They rather listen to the devilish whispers of the cigarettes than to me. Images of damages done to human organs due to smoking don't seem to frighten them. 

What about you? Are you a smoker? If yes, then do you plan to quit? I hope you do... or else the Angel of Death will emerge unnoticed from the cloud of smoke you breathe out and drag you away from your loved ones. 

Welcoming 2013

Personally, I think this is one of the most not-so-awesome new year for me. I was so bored on 31/12/12 that I started counting down to 2013 from 5 p.m. alone in my living room. When the clock struck 12, I could only see a couple of fireworks reigning the night sky before it turned completely dark in my neighbourhood. The next day when I woke up, I watched several live new year performances in England through TV (England always celebrates new year 8 hours later than us).

How did I celebrate new year? Ermm... I watched Tai Chi Hero (google it if you don't know), cooked two bowls of Maggi Laksa for breakfast (one for my mum and one for myself). The rest of the day, I tried to come up with the rest of my story (CHASE, you can read the two parts that I have posted down here ↓). 

Ah, forget about what I did. Let me tell you about my new year resolutions:

1. Lose weight. I used to be (alright! I am still) a corpulent guy. Actually I have been trying to lose weight just before my SPM (ate less) and I am glad to have some success (from 76kg to 71kg). I hope to bring the number all the way down to 65kg (I think I can hear you saying, "Ceh~ Impossible". Hey! Don't be so discouraging!)
2. Work on my English. After SPM, I think half of the English 'library' in my brain has been corrupted. I have a hard time coming up with suitable words sometimes while I am blogging. I think I will start by re-reading the seven instalments of Harry Potter books and some crime stories by Henning Mankell. Should listen to more BBC news, too!
3. Learn to cook. Well, I can easily come up with a plate of nasi pattaya, but I still have difficulties in preparing dishes of meat and vegetables. Guess I need to join my mother more frequently while she cooks. 
4. Drive carefully. I am going to learn driving tomorrow. If I were able to pass the driving test later, I will try to make sure I don't cause any trouble on the roads (I often drive into other cars while playing 'Real Racing')

There you go, my new year resolutions. Hope I can achieve them!