Category Archives: Peer Pressures & Influences

The Statistics, Underreported by the Local Governments, the Local Governments Pressured the Schools, Some of the Schools Chose to Not Report, Not Reporting, Can’t Save the Unknown Numbers of Dropout Students

And, by “covering up” the numbers, it doesn’t do a thing, to help get these dropouts back into the schools, to continue their, education!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Based off of the statistics of the Department of Education, there’s the continual drop in numbers of middle school dropouts, by 2021, it’d, reached to, an all-time low, of the 1,943 who’d dropped out, ninety-percent came back in.  But, there were the underreported numbers from these, stats, the instructors in the classrooms retold, that the local governments, in order to lessen the pressures, they’d, pressured the local schools, to underreport on the numbers, and some schools are also, passive, lost out on the timing to help these students who’d, dropped, out.

“Not reporting, the resources needed can’t come in, there’s nothing we can do”, the counselor of a school sated, that the resources outside the schools, such as the psychotherapists for the students, the social workers, all needed to be reported to start intervening, but the school, in order to dodge the three-day period of students who became truant, they would suggest that the students come to school for one period of class, or that they are required to show up once every two half days, and disregarded the students’ learning processes.

teens, skipping school! Photo from online

The dropouts of the technical high schools also didn’t get the counseling support that they were all in need of, the students, in being treated with the indifferences by the officials, selected to exit the schools.

“The schools are too passive, the families can, but don’t, causing these children to lack the needed resources that they required”, Chu told, that although in the high school years, there’s no enforcing the students to come to school like back in the elementary, middle school years, but if the schools don’t even report on the dropout students at all, and the families aren’t normal, there’s no way for the resources of social services to come in to assist.

The principal, Hsu of Gangshan Middle School told, that in the past, the dropout students had, wandered outside the schools, that there’s the teams of youth squad to help get them back in, but now, a lot of the students who refused to attend school are staying at home, he’d suggested, that other than the police being involved, there’s the need for the psychological counseling, to have a more secure, safety net set up by the schools locally.

And so, despite how the measures are being taken, these dropouts just, can’t get caught, and placed back into school, and, this will become a huge problem, because, most of these dropout students, they’re going to run with the bad crowds, and, bad influences are going to cause them to go down the wrong paths in life, and, once they go down the path, there’s, no turning back for them, and, the pressures from the local governments to get the numbers down low, does not help, at all!

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Filed under "Professional" Opinions, Awareness, Cost of Living, Interactions Shared with the World, Observations, Peer Pressures & Influences, Problems of the Teenage Years, Properties of Life, Social Awareness, The Teenage Years, Trends, Wake Up Calls, White Picket Fence

The Fifth Grader Co-Conspired with Three Friends, Poisoned a Classmate with Devil’s Ivy for Revenge

What the FUCK (don’t pardon me here!) has happened to the children today???  And, if you asked me, this “KID” should be, CHARGED with, ATTEMPTED MURDER, because that was what he was, trying to do, to the, “victim” of the case here, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Added the Juices of Devil’s Ivy into the Classmate’s Water Bottle, as He Drank the Fluid, He’d Become Dizzy and Had Stomach Cramps, the Families Called the Police, the School Set in to Counsel the Student

In an unnamed elementary school in Taichung, a fifth grader had a run-in with a fellow student, and he’d held a grudge, coconspired with his three other classmates, added in the juices of the devil’s ivy into the victim’s water bottle for revenge, as the victim drank, he’d started becoming, ill, the families called the police.  The Department of Education of Taichung told, that the school is now, having the counselors involved in counseling the related parties, and, both students’ parents are filing for the school bullying and gender equality discussion boards complaints, the case is currently under investigation.

The members of the online community posted, that the higher grades in a certain midstrip elementary school, two fifth or sixth grade students, A and R had upsets, and, although, they’d, resolved the disagreements with the teacher mediating, but A still carried a grudge, and searched for the means of toxic materials, and discussed with the three other students how to poison the victim.

and this is, how “minors”, settle their upsets with one another these, days…photo from online

The four students had the choices of night-scented lily, oleander, devil’s ivy, and they drew a raffle, decided to use the devil’s ivy.  As the victim, R wasn’t paying attention, they’d poured the sugared devil’s ivy juices into the water bottle; after R drank the fluids, he started having headache and, nausea, and thought he had something bad that’s, ingested; the homeroom instructor found that the student had drank the poisoned water, and reported it to the school, also, notified the parents of the victim, suggested that they keep a close watch on R’s condition.

The school also set up a conference with both student’s’ parents, and, the following day, under A’s seat, there was, another bottle with the devil’s ivy juice with the sugar added in under, the parents of both parents went to the police, but the school was quite passive in the matter, refused to produce the video and the sound files of the conferences with the parents.

The specialist of V.M.H. on toxic substances, Mao told, that the plants all belonged in the same group, with the toxics in them, that ingesting by error will cause pains in the oral cavities, throat, esophagus, or it might cause the stomach to upset, to vomit, stomach pains, diarrhea, etc., etc., etc.  Oleander is the most toxic of all, with the toxins that attacked the hearts, and it can cause arrhythmia, and most severely, death.

The attorney, Lin stated, that based off of the law, children under fourteen won’t be sentenced, because they aren’t responsible for breaking the law.  But if the children involved are twelve years of age, although they may not get charged criminally, they can still get sent to be tried in juvenile court; and the victim may seek out medical damages, as well as emotional damages from the legal guardians of the perpetrators.

The assistant professor, Pai of Zhongxing University’s Instructional Development Graduate Studies stated, the higher grade elementary school students under the influences of the internet, life and interpersonal relations, already have some level of maturity of knowledge, but, in the high stress environment, the children are easily stimulated and can feel the extreme emotions, when they feel they’d been unfairly treated, they will try and get the person who made them feel that way, back, to reach that balance inside.

Pai told, that the counseling should NOT just be for the victims and the perpetrators, but for the entire class too, to enforce the interpersonal relations, to teach students how to more effectively handle the disputes they may get into, most importantly, teaching the students, WHAT they can, and cannot do.

And so, due to how these are, minors, they still didn’t get charged with, attempted MURDER, because that would be what the charges will be, had it been, adults, but because these are, elementary school “kids”, that’s why, they were only, given, a slight slap on the, wrists, and, no amount of juvenile detention will be enough, to ENSURE, that they don’t, “act out” again, because, think about it, you can poison someone, because you were upset with her/him, and that, is such, a scary, thought, but hey, that’s kids today for ya!

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The Gangs Targeted the Teen Members, Giving Them the Ideal, that After They Served the Time, They Will Become Leaders, the Gangsters are Getting Younger in Membership

The lies they fed to these, young minds, that aren’t developed fully in the prefrontal cortexes, and that’s why, these adolescents are too easily, fooled, influenced, started living their, lives of, crime here!  Why the adolescents are used, in a lot of the crime sprees to commit the shootings, the murders, and other unlawful acts, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

In recent years, the mobs are targeting the youths with no sense of belonging to join, because the younger generations who were caught usually don’t get the severe sentencing, and, what’s more, the minors’ criminal behaviors are not on the records, because their, juveniles.  A gang leader, Chen told, that the adolescents don’t have minds of their own mostly, and they got nothing holding them back, would feel that sense of honor, getting involved in riots, and shootings, and even if they were sent to prison, after they’d served the time, they’d become, the majors, besides, the sentencing are usually more lenient for them, which is why a lot of the adolescents are willing to become the hitmen for the gangs.

This gang leader told, that the adult mobsters may already have families, and would consider that if they get caught in a crime, they will drag their families, down; but the adolescents believed, that it’s no big deal, after they come out of the system, they will be in the majors then, blankly stated, the younger generations are “more expandable, and easier to use”.

teens used as expandables by the gangs and getting sent to juvenile detention…photo from online

Currently, the three most active gangs in this country, because of the massive numbers of their members, there are the population make up of a lot of adolescents too, and, the gang leaders believed, that they can easily sacrifice the adolescent members, and stressed to them, that if they want to be somebody, then, they need to make the contributions, and the younger generations wouldn’t care about their futures of possibilities of getting caught and sent to prison, whatever the leaders tell them to do, they’d, do it.

In the earlier times, as the gunmen committed the shootings, they would stow away out of the country, in recent years, however, the gunmen are almost all underage, not only were they provided with the weapons for the crimes, they had set the cut-off point for afterwards too, because there’s the less severity of sentence for the minors, in the recent shootings, after the gunmen shot someone, they’d all turned themselves in, to get even less of a sentence on turning themselves, in.

In the past, we see the leaders of the mobs going to the funerals, calling the gangs of adolescent followers’ company, and the adolescents are normally, usually, more faithful, and, as the fight between gangs happens, the younger generations would become more ferocious in defending their groups.

And, due to the underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes, and this is still NOT their faults!  These teenagers became, the patsies, because these gangs zoomed in on the teenagers’ needs to belong, and that there’s more leniencies of laws on the crimes that these younger members committed, and, the teens are, more expandable, compared to the more experienced, members of these gangs, that’s why, these gangs mobs are, getting more teenagers to join in the crimes!

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Filed under Abuse, Abuser/Enabler Interaction Style, Criminals, Observations, Peer Pressures & Influences, Problems of the Teenage Years, The Teenage Years, Trends

The Resolves She’d Helped Me Find in Life

Being bullied is never easy, especially in our, teenage, years, but, someone came along, and showed us the light, and we held on to that light for life!  Translated…

My last year in middle school, I’d started living the life of seven to nine, early to school, studied late into the nights, then turned home, and, even after the graduation, I’d still kept at, this, schedule.

Three weeks until the major exams, the futures belonged to, the future, and, every single tomorrow had, pressed hard down on me.  During the lunch breaks, the heated up classroom became an oven, with only, four buzzing fans high on the ceilings, I’d become, so drained, no matter how much I’d napped, I’d gone without, much, energies, sweated like crazy, and, as we put our heads down onto the desks, as we woke, we still had to watch for the drools we’d left on our desks, otherwise, those bored-out-of-their-bones would, make fun.  And, even as the major exams are coming on, we are stuck in the, awkward years of, puberty.

At the time, I ws best friends with a girl, we’d become, a clique.  The enormous pressures, the tough instructor, those childish boys, the laughter of our friendships, along with that future that’s, driving us on, became, the blueprints of our, teenage, years.

But on that day, after our nap hour, the classmate sitting behind me quietly inquired, “What’s happened between you and your group of, friends?  They’d be spreading the words of you being a ‘bitch’?”, my heart raced very, fast, it’d become, almost, unacceptable, to me.  Are we not the same group?  Didn’t our interactions go very well daily?  I could barely hold down my surprise, ran toward the restrooms, as I’d entered into the stalls, I’d, cried hard, a physiological response that came at me way too hard, I couldn’t stop myself from it, and I couldn’t, head back into the classrooms, again.

it was like, this…getting singled out by that clique you used to, hang out, with…photo from online

My classmate collected my things for me, I’d insisted on riding my bicycle home on my own, but on the way home, I’d had to, pull over to the sides of the road, and started, gagging, with the gall bladder juices rushing up into my mouth.  The following day, I’d decided, to stay at home, and study by myself until the major exams, in the evenings, my instructor called me up, told me to return back to school to study, I’d sat in the living room, without any lights, heard my own, weakened, stubbornness, and the darkness of the future, that awaited, me then.

Then one day, I’d received a card from A, I’d only casually interacted with her from time to time, but in the card, she’d written about how she was worried about me not being in school, and told me to IGNORE what they say to and about me, at the end, she’d given me a motto: you take it all in now, you will feel stable and steady, take a step back, and you will see the world open wide up for you.

“The World Opened Wide Up” was in bold to me, it took up an, entire, page.  I’d read it, and read it, over, and over again, carefully, tucked that card, into my desk drawer, and, my body that was originally filled up with the anger, the resentment, gone then, she’d empathized, and understood my being bullied.

Later I’d, actually gone to that faraway place I wanted to go, but unfortunately, we’re no longer, one another’s, companions.  After I made my way into the adulthood years, out of, puberty, whenever the pains that hit me harder than being called a “bitch” came, as my scabbed up wounds inside started hurting again, I’d, taken out that vast openness inside my heart, that entire, whole, page of it, that’s, still, a guiding light, twinkling, showing me the way in the darkness I was, stuck in.

And so, this is how it got for you, being bullied by your friends, and it’d hurt, but, someone else noticed your pains, and empathized with you, and, you were more than grateful for that individual’s presence in your life, and you’d, taken her words of advice, and, started living by it, and her words became, that bright and shiny beacon, in your moments of darkness, when you needed some, guidance.

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Using the Plug-ins to Set up the False Trades, Many Students Got Involved with the Money Laundering Spree Using the Online Games to Get the Coins in the Games

Yeah, that’s some, EASY money, all right, and yet, as you get caught, you get, CUFFED too, so totally NOT, worth it at all!  Scams and scam artists who are in their teens, from the Newspapers, translated…

The publicly traded game company, Gravity three years ago became an agent for the Korean game that’s gained widespread fame, the EOS RED, it’d, gotten a ton of players playing the game, and later, there were the discoveries of the players’ downloading the plug-ins of the game, using the system BUG to scam others to buy up the upgrades of coins, causing the company to suffer billions of dollars in losses.  The Taipei District Attorney’s Offices followed the leads, caught a total of thirty-six players who were scamming the game coins, of them, most were students, the D.A. charged them all with fraud yesterday.

The game received the comment of the “most dangerous MMORPG cell phone game” by the Korean media press before, back in 2020, the company, Gravity became an agent of the game here in Taiwan, the game claimed that the weapons can’t be bought by the gaming coin credits, that you would have to get them by force in the wild!  The systems of rewards made the kills open to view, this is a real sort of free trade!”, and yet, there were the players who’d taken advantage, using the external plug-ins to scam the coins, this made the gaming company, Gravity, intolerable of it.

The investigations by the D.A.s office found, that someone who’d played the game found the bug in the game, and designed a plug-in especially for the iPhone users, and shared it on the gaming forums.  The players would then download the plug-ins on their own, and falsely purchased the coins, then, cancel the purchase, but the canceling of the purchases would get caught by the plug-in, and get sent to the Apple Store’s payment systems, the system of the game wouldn’t receive this notice, and so, it would pay the coins that were, falsely, bought by the, players.

A lot of the players were able to spend nothing, and tricked the systems to pay them a ton of coins, they were able to get upgrades on the equipment in the game, some had even opened up two, three dummy accounts to get more coins for free.  Because what’s sold in the gaming coins is unproportional with what the game actually made in sales, the company found that there were many players who’d used the above plug-in program to scam the systems, causing the company to lose thousands of millions of, dollars.

But, the players are all over the world, and, those who used the plug-in app, their accounts can’t be traced, and, a lot of these IP addresses are from out of country, which makes this even hard to crack down, it took the district attorneys close to a whole year, to find the exact identities of thirty-six of the Taiwanese players.  And because of these, a lot were students who are still in school, and couldn’t pay for the damages, they can’t fulfill the settlement amount stated by the gaming company, so the district attorney’s offices indicted them all.

And so, this, is how easy you fall prey, to temptation, because you see someone got something good (coins, treasures, etc., etc., etc.) using this external plug-in, so you thought, hey, if others can, so can I, and that sends you on the path to crime, and, once you get on that road, there’s, no turning back, and you got charged, and, chances will be, because you are still students, and CAN’T pay for the damages in the amounts that the gaming company is asking you for, you will serve time, and that’s going to be on your, permanent, records, so totally, NOT worth it, but hey, you still can’t blame these younger generations, because their brains AREN’T fully developed Y-E-T, they can’t see the consequences of their own actions, when they act on it, that’s developing in the 20s, 30s, into our, 40s, even, and these “children” are only in their early, to late teens.

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After the Death of a High School Student, the Police Were on the Look Out for the Bookies and Found Three High Schools and Twenty-Seven of Their Students Involved

Started too young, in the life of crimes, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

The second-year high school student, Kao works as a bookie for a gambling website, because he’d owed $280,000N.T. in gambling debts he couldn’t pay up, on Mother’s Day, he’d attempted suicide by burning charcoal in his home.  The police followed the leads, and two nights ago, managed to arrest the bookies He works under, Tsai and Lee, and Yeou, who’s above the bookies.  After Tsai and Lee were interrogated, they were taken into police custody, and Chuang was charged with gambling right away.

The police sorted through He’s cell phone, and found there to be twenty-four other students from his school who were also involved, and, interrogated them all yesterday, and so far, three schools and twenty-seven students have been found to have involvements in the case, and from this, we can see how serious the problem of on campus gambling is.

The police stated, because the online gambling sites are set up abroad, and, the workers took cash bets, it’s really hard, to find the person behind it all, and, Chuang was merely a “small fish” in the gambling websites.

Tsai and Lee are both minors, and, although they’re involved in the gambling charges, they weren’t caught in the act, and so, they were sent home after being interrogated, alongside twenty-four others, and, they’re to make their appearances in juvenile court at another date.

The investigative officers pointed out, that two weeks ago, Lai, another student from He’s high school, because of how much pressure there was for him as a junior bookie (Retailers), after He learned, he’d taken up the post, but, for the next two weeks, because the students who’d signed the bets couldn’t pay him, and he’d owed the debts himself, he and his peers owed a total of $160,000N.T.  And because the debts are collected on Mondays, in order to find a way out, to turn his situations around, on the evening of May 9th, before Mother’s Day, he’d bet in the “Dice Games”, but, in just one night, he’d lost $120,000N.T.s, the very next day, he’d left the message, “Lost my final bet in life”, committed suicide by burning charcoal.

The student, Tsai was once the upstream for Lai, in February, he was caught by the police, and, he’d handed his job to another student from another school, Lee, later on, He connected with Lee, Tsai and Lee admitted to working as the general agents, and reported to Chuang directly; Chuang sold drinks at the night markets regularly, and, in order to increase his earnings, he’d gotten the agent rights from a gambling ring online, from a man nicknamed “Chang”, absorbed Tsai, Lee as his downstream, on the ninth, he’d heard Lee told, that “He is suicidal”, but he didn’t know He personally.

The police officers said, the student He accepted the bets from his fellow students, and got 1.5 percent of the fees, and, the bets ranged anywhere from $100 N.T. to $10,000N.T., the gambling rings used the temptation of making huge amounts of money to attract the students, and, at the start, they’d given them the sweet rewards, but, they’d found an assortment of reasons, to withhold their commissions.

The police suspected, that He had lost the bets, and, wanted to gamble one last time, to see if he could make what he’d lost back again, and maybe, he was affected by the Japanese comic of “Revelation of Gambling”, the main character from the comic was a habitual gambler, with high debts, in the end, he’d taken his friend’s advice, went onboard a gambling ship called, “Hope”, placed his final bets, ended up, winning everything, but the money was scammed away by his friends, He might have copied the behaviors in the stories, but, he’d ended up, committing suicide.

So, this, is the cause of the death of a high school kid, because he was tempted, and, once he was drawn in, he’d found himself, sinking deeper, deeper, and deeper, and in the end, he couldn’t get out, so, he took the easy way out.

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Filed under Cause & Effect, Choices, Coping Mechanisms, Cost of Living, Current Events, Despair, Getting Exposed Too Young, Lives Lost, Observations, Peer Pressures & Influences, Problems of the Teenage Years, Social Issues, The Teenage Years, Vicious Cycle, Wake Up Calls

Fraternity Crackdown: Universities are Clamping Down Hard, But Do the Bans Work?

I really want to say, that this, is on organized activities (or rather, CRIMES!!!), but, I’m afraid of gettin’ SHOT at, so, from NBCNEWS.com, by: J. Schuppe…

In February 2002, a 21-year-old junior at Alfred University in upstate New York was found dead in a creek after taking a beating from his fraternity brothers at Zeta Beta Tau.

Although authorities couldn’t prove the blows caused the young man’s death, the circumstances prompted school officials to conclude, after years of trying to reform Greek culture on campus, that frats weren’t worth saving. “The Greek system is beyond repair,” the chairman of the school’s board said at the time.

The decision to ban fraternities came during a period of heightened scrutiny on university campuses across the country, in which a number of colleges eliminated school-sanctioned Greek life in response to allegations of binge drinking, hazing and sex assault. Alfred was on the vanguard of a movement that has been gaining momentum ever since, leading to a new wave of crackdowns that have grabbed the nation’s attention, driven by growing sensitivity to campus violence and discrimination, pressure from authorities on sexual assault, liability issues and the power of social media.

The latest example occurred last weekend at Oklahoma University, where officials shut down the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity after members were caught on video chanting a racial slur. The school joins John Hopkins University, MIT, Duke and Texas Tech among many universities that took action in recent months against individual fraternities in response to allegations of rape or hazing.

“I truly believe that prevention of hazing and other problematic behavior is possible … But it takes a concentrated effort, a strategic plan, resources and institutional will for that to occur.”

But even those were minor disciplinary matters in comparison to what happened last year at University of Virginia, University of West Virginia, Clemson University, Emory University and Amherst College — all of which curtailed or completely suspended Greek activities. And those moves followed attempts by Wesleyan University, Trinity College and several other small schools in the Northeast to force fraternities to accept women in an effort to water down testosterone-fueled problems.

“If students are showing dangerous behavior or taking different types of risks, it’s up to us to step in to try to grab their attention and say, ‘This is unacceptable,'” said Corey Farris, dean of students at West Virginia University, which lifted its suspension in January after working with the fraternities to improve their codes of conduct. “I also think there’s a cultural shift where society and parents are less tolerant of it. And people are more willing to step up and speak out.”

A 2007 study found that fraternity members are three times more likely to commit rape than non-members. A 2009 study by NASPA, a national association representing student affairs administrators, found that 86 percent of fraternity house residents binge-drank, as opposed to 45 percent of non-fraternity men. A recent analysis by Bloomberg News revealed more than 60 deaths related to fraternity activities since 2005, and many more injuries and sex assaults.

Last spring, the Obama Administration released the names of 55 colleges and universities that were under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for their handling of sexual abuse complaints, a way to pressure schools to implement reforms.

The fraternities, whose membership continues to grow — there are now an estimated 350,000 campus members nationwide — have also spoken out. Its lobbying group, the North-American Intrafraternity Conference, has challenged efforts to end Greek life on many campuses. In many instances, the group has helped roll back proposed bans. Among its arguments is that bans inhibit freedoms of expression and association. Another is that bans do nothing to encourage cooperative efforts to improve campus life.

“NIC is against the unilateral suspension of fraternal organizations because it’s not the right way to address the issues the community is facing,” Pete Smithhisler, the group’s president, said. “Suspensions of groups is just putting band-aids on the situation.”

The small liberal arts schools that were among the earliest to ban fraternities from their campuses — Williams College, Alfred University, Bowdoin College, Middlebury College, Colby College, Santa Clara College — express little regret about their decisions. In some cases, underground off-campus fraternities sprouted up, but many of them say that they see less misconduct and more tolerant and inclusive attitudes.

Norm Pollard, dean of students at Alfred University, said the school recognized a lot of the positive guidance fraternities provided young men. But it found that co-education clubs, activities, leadership development opportunities and social outlets more than made up for the loss of Greek life.

Pollard acknowledged that it was difficult to measure whether the 2002 ban had a direct effect on students’ behavior. But he sees many positive signs. The local police say they don’t respond to as many raging parties. And there’s been a decrease in substance abuse violations.

“I truly believe that prevention of hazing and other problematic behavior is possible,” Pollard said. “But it takes a concentrated effort, a strategic plan, resources and institutional will for that to occur.”

All of these stats about fraternities exists, due to how there’s still, that need for acceptance by those newly initiated members, because it would be their FIRST year in school, and, they desperately needed a place to belong to, someone who watches out for them, and, that, is why fraternities and sororities appealed very much to those freshmen, and, if you think about it, it’s actually gang like, because what OTHER organizations have “initiations”, gangs, that, is all I can think of, and, fraternity is correlated to the organized CRIMES, after all, in order, to be accepted as a “brother” or a “sister”, a person would be willing to do, JUST about ANY and EVERYTHING, to get in, to become, a part of the group, because, NOBODY wanted to become an OUTCAST, someone who’s AT the bottom of the FOOD CHAINS…

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That Day, with My Back Turned, on the Bus

Translated…

I am without a motorcycle, so, no matter where I go, to class, or work, to shop, shopping for groceries, I’d taken the free bus that runs eight kilometers locally.  But, one day, everything that was familiar, became, kinda odd………

First, it was the driver’s look switched between shocked, pity, and showing concern, it’d flattered me so.  And, there’s the normally rowdy bus that’s gone silent all of a sudden.  For this time frame, and this bus, it’s, quite weird.  In the end, being young as I am, able-bodied too, was given a seat, by a student.

What the heck just happened?  I can’t understand it, until I saw my own reflections on the windows—with a backpack on my left, with a home computer on my right, with a suitcase in hand, plus, a huge bag of quilt………it’d made me, who had to move all my things out, looked like I’d just gotten KICKED out of my place of residence.

Maybe, in those passersby’s mind, my backside was like Tzi-Ching Chu’s “The Backside”, causing people to tear up.

Funny, how when you’d become aware of your surrounding environments that everything just made a difference, isn’t it???  like for this person, who was probably just moving her/his stuff from the dormitories, as the semester ended, looked like someone who’d become homeless in other people’s points of views, that, just shows, that interactions are still happening in the world, without verbal exchanges………

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Filed under Attitude, Awareness, Behavior Modifications, Cause & Effect, College Life, Coping Mechanisms, Expectations, Interactions Shared with the World, Life, Observations, Peer Pressures & Influences, Perspectives, Philosophies of Life, Properties of Life, Self-Images, Socialization, Story-Telling, The Observer Effect, Translated Work

Best Friends

Translated…

Internationally, detective novels had long become the mainstreams of popular literature.  In Taiwan, recently, although, there had been a ton of foreign writer’s tales, it’d become a part of life we can’t get rid of, but, when it’d come to writing these stories, and, it’d gotten my uneasiness, just wanted to find my way back to my studies, and just, write on my own.

With the developments of detective novels up to date, there are many forms of writing that it took.  There are stories that focused on how the crime are being solved, some stressed the judgments of the greater society.  I was, however, affected greatly, by the “father of detective stories”, Edgar Allan Poe, other than detective stories, I’d also written scary stories with the factor of solving mysteries in them.  If it’s a novel of terror, then, naturally, it would not have any kind of sunny and happy tone to it.  And so, as I go up for a publishing talk, or new book coming-out forum, I’d always felt stressed.

I’m really glad, that my novels can actually scare people.  But, if I show my glee too straight forth, then, the readers would think, “this dude takes too much joy in making people uneasy, what a creep!”; and, I’d met readers who talked, with great enthusiasm, of how there are shocking moments in my novels that’s made their hair stand, and, my brain flashed the looks of concern, from Annie Wilkes, the nurse from the movie, Misery, and so, I’d made up an excuse, to get myself away.

There are a row of books “Encyclopedia of Murders”, “Criminal Activities”, and books of the like, and, although my wife knew, that they’re all, for the purpose of my writing research, she’d still hated how focused I was, as I was reading these books.  And now, I have a child, and, I must, hide those books.

But, all of my experiences paled by comparison to the experience of Ronald Knox.  He was born, in a family of god, his father was the Bishop of the Church of England.  After he’d graduated from Oxford, he’d become a preacher of the Church of England, later on, he’d decided to become Catholic, and had become a Catholic priest of the Oxford University.

In order to get rid of his stresses from changing religions, Knox started writing the detective novels, and, he’d gotten the acclaims from his readers.  He’d even published “The Ten Commandments of Mystery”, and disclosed the rules of writing detective novels, and had even set up the “Detectives Club” with other writers of the same genre.  But, his behaviors of straying from his rightful work, “seeing murders as entertainment”, had made the Catholic Church exert the pressures on him, but Knox didn’t take any effect toward their pushing him.

And still, as he’d published his sixth novel, his good friend, Madam Eckerton had, tossed the book into the oceans.  And her behaviors had made Knox given up on writing detective novels, and poured his heart and soul out onto translating the Holy Bible, in the end, he’d managed to complete The Knox Bible.

Maybe, I don’t have a good friend who’d thrown my book into the oceans, and told me to focus, work hard, on being an engineer, so, that, is why I’m still, currently, a detective novelist.

And so, this, is how friends CAN exert that influence on you, which is especially important, for you, to CHOOSE your friends, WISELY, because, like the case stated above with Knox, had his good friend, Madam WHATEVER not throw his stories into the oceans, he would’ve kept on writing his detective stories, and, who knows, he may have made great strides as a detective novelist too, but, he wasn’t, because that woman TOSSED his book into the oceans, and, I’m sure, that that, was the FINAL straw that broke that “camel’s back”, after all, in those times, writing stories about murder, along with ALL those darker things was a taboo, and, unfortunately, this British man did NOT have someone who’d shown support for his dreams, like the writer of this article…

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How to Handle Web’s Cruel Side, by: S. Rosenbloom

From The New York Times that came with today’s papers today…

Anyone who has ever been online has witnessed, or been, virtually hurt by, a mean comment.

“If you’re going to be a blogger, if you’re going to tweet stuff, you better develop a tough skin,” said John Suler, a professor of psychology at Rider University in New Jersey who specializes in what he refers to as cyberpsychology.

Some sixty-nine percent of adult social media users in the United States said they “have seen people being mean and cruel to others on social network sites,” according to a 2011 report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

Posts run the gamut from barbs to sadistic antics by trolls who intentionally strive to distress or provoke.  Whether you’re a celebrity author or a mom with a décor blog, you’re fair game. In the virtual world, anonymity and invisibility help us feel uninhibited.  Some people are inspired to behave with greater kindness; others unleash their dark side.  The singular goal of trolls is to elicit pain.  But those comments, while nasty, present an opportunity to learn something about ourselves.

Social scientists say we tend to fixate on the negative.  Correcting that tendency requires understanding that you are ultimately in charge.  “Nobody makes you feel anything,” Professor Suler said.  The key is managing what psychologist refer to as involuntary attention.

Just as our attention naturally gravitates to loud noises, our minds fixate on negative feedback.  Studies like “Bad is Stronger than Good,” published in 2011 in the Review of General Psychology, have shown that we respond more strongly to bad experiences and criticism, and that we remember them more vividly.  “These are things that stick in our brain,” said James O. Pawelski of the University of Pennsylvania.  “If we allow our attention to move involuntarily, that’s where it goes.”

The mind, however, can be tamed.  One way is to ask yourself if those barbs you can’t seen to shrug off have an element of truth.  If the answer is yes, Professor Suler has some advice: let your critics be your gurus.

“You can treat them as an opportunity,” he said.  Ask yourself why you’re ruminating on a comment.  “Why does it bother you?”  Professor Suler said.  “What insecurities are being activated in you?”

Perhaps a negative comment can help you learn something about yourself.

“It’s easy to feel emotionally attacked from these things,” said Bob Pozen, a lecturer at the Harvard Business School.  He said that doesn’t mean that your critics don’t have a point.

But it’s not always possible to learn something from a nasty comment.  Some are baseless; some are crass.  One way to help is to consider the writer’s motivation.

Professor Suler wrote in 2004 in the Journal Cyber Psychology & Behavior about a concept known as “the online disinhibition effect”—the idea that “people say and do things in cyberspace that they wouldn’t ordinarily say or do in the face-to-face world.”  The result can be benign (“unusual acts of kindness and generosity”) or it can be toxic: “rude language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred, even threats,” Professor Suler said.

The latter is the realm of trolls.  If people keep this concept in mind, he said, “they will see the psychology” of the aggressors, and their comments may be easier to take—and possibly ignore.

Harsh comments can also be made to feel less potent by disputing to yourself what was said.  If, for example, someone writes, “You’re an idiot and no one likes you,” you can marshal evidence against it by reminding yourself of the obvious: You have an education, a good job, many friends.

Also, be mindful when you choose to glance at your blog or social media feeds.  In other words: Stay off Twitter if you just bombed a presentation.

Another way to stop yourself from dwelling negative feedback is to enter into what psychologists refer to as “flow”, a state in which the mind is completely engaged.  Flow can be achieved when playing a piano concerto, practicing karate, being deep in conversation with a friend.  “The toughest time is when the mind is not fully occupied,” said Professor Pawleski, who also prescribed humor as a way to deflect barbs.

Even when a person is alone, humor can be very effective.  Try reading nasty comments aloud in a goofy voice, Professor Pawelski advised, so that when your mind automatically plays back the comment it sounds absurd.

And what if you shared a couple of the good ones with friends instead of sharing the ones that hurt you?  Research shows that it takes more time for positive experiences to become lodged in our long-term memory, so it’s not just pleasurable to dwell on a compliment—it’s shrewd.

“We’re really bad, typically, as a culture about accepting compliments,” Professor Pawelski said.  “They’re meant to be taken in and really appreciated.  They’re meant to be gifts.”

And, this would eventually BE maladaptive because?  Oh yeah, it trains your mind, to DODGE every single BAD experiences in your lives, and, IF you can FACE up to the negativities in your own lives, how can you expect yourselves to be well-adapted, plus, if someone leaves a negative “note” on your weblogs, or Facebook accounts or whatever, just ignore it, and, the article is written for those without a STRONG sense of the self, meaning that those who are affected by the outside world’s opinions of them are still WAY too external (Locus of Control, anyone???), so, take THAT, Professor!  No offense, but this, is how the Q-U-E-E-N (still H-E-R-E!!!) views thing, and yes, everybody IS still entitled to her/his O-P-I-N-I-O-N-S, as this article was written, as someone’s view on the matter, and, we ALL KNOW how we should handle the differences of opinions already, don’t we?  WE R-E-S-P-E-C-T each other even IF we don’t agree with one another!

 

 

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