Respect

Never take a person's dignity: It's worth everything to them, and nothing to you. - Frank Barron

I've been saving this word from a long time till the right moment to post it as a blog post. This word is very meaningful to me, at the very least, and it is a very powerful word. Respect, like love, can't be measured. Well, there ain't any S.I units for the measurement of Respect. It can't be like, you have "50cm^3 of Respect". Neither can it be, you have "50 tons of Respect". The only way to measure it is to count how many people respect you, maybe for your intelligence, your quick wits, your leadership capability, or your athletic skills for instance. If you're respected by a certain somebody for a certain something, you're respected by that certain somebody for a certain something. It's that simple. However, there's not many people who is in this world who can respect everybody he/she has encountered in his/her life. The respect I'm talking about now is the general respect that every human being at the very least should have. You may hate him/her, love him/her, being not close to him/her, not understanding him/her and so on... But there should be that essential and minimum amount of respect you should have for him/her. A couple of months ago, Three buddies and I were playing Basketball at the basketball court somewhere near to my house. We know we definitely ain't good players, we're not even close. But there's no reason we should be looked down on, humiliated, and thought to be only "small fries" and nothing else. However, a group of guys perhaps one or two years older than us, did the exact same things I've mentioned above. We were just playing, they asked for a match, between us and them, and the match starts. They just ignore our defense, play and trick around us, making us look like clowns, and just spam 3-pointers. They get the rebounds, pass them back out to the 3-point line and continue shooting. They don't even want the easy 2 points. They just shoot 3-pointers. They are obviously better, and we are obviously thrashed. They are not even playing seriously, humiliating us like that. If that happens to you, how will you feel? Today, a similar event happened. It's me together with another three friends (I also don't get why there's always FOUR of us), we were also playing Basketball, and a group of four wearing school basketball team jerseys, wearing official basketball shoes and basketball equipment, all save one guy, came in and asked for a match, obviously picking on us coz' we looked weak in basketball skills (Don't ask me why, coz 'this kind of stuff always happen), and we accepted just for the fun. They begin with one guy who always shoots 3-pointer (he kinda really suck at it, even his teammates acknowledged that), another guy that we know as a very pro player, two others rather unknown. Only the guy who always 3 pointers spam 3 pointers this time, while the others are rather strong. They also ain't playing seriously, until we are quite close to winning, then one guy says "Play seriously now". The first match we lost by 2 points (A basket coz' one basket in meant 2 points), and we eventually won the second match. I mean seriously, why do all these people play like that, fooling around, making beautiful but difficult lay-ups when they can just keep it simple and win the match easily? This does not just apply to only sports and games, but rather giving chances to your opponent to allow them to have a decent chance to win when you know they are "too weak" for you. Picking on people who are obviously below your level may be already considered as a cowardly approach to some. Not respecting them in the game or event, no matter how lousy they might be in the game, unless he/she shows utterly no sportsmanship at all and is really someone who deserves it, does not make you a winner. It only makes you a winner without any glory. And, a winner without glory might as well be considered a "loser". Respect begets Respect. These people definitely don't deserve respect from me.

Repress

No sweeteners will cloak some forms of bitterness. If it tastes bitter, spit it out. That's what our earliest ancestors did. - The Coda

I'd just realised that my previous post was my 77th post. 7 is my favourite number. I can find many 7's in my life. Anyways, I've been busy so I didn't post up till now. Common Test 2 is right up, and the Preliminary Examinations is next month. Gotta work hard, gotta stay focused, gotta perservere through it all.
How many times have you ever repress your feelings, emotions, words and expressions? Exactly how many times? What's the reason behind each of them? I'm pretty sure everyone of us have repressed ourselves for a certain occasion or event. Maybe it's because that you did not want someone to realise your thoughts or emotions. Like maybe in a game of Chess, you did not want your opponent to know that their "king" piece is at risk of getting checkmated so you repressed your smile and anxiety. Maybe in a game of poker where you did not want your opponents to be able to read your moves and the strength of your cards, whether you're bluffing or not, so you put on a poker face, giving a blank expression. Maybe you repress your emotions because so that a certain someone would not know how you felt and lead to undesirable consequences. For several reasons, we humans have all repress our emotions. Babies and Toddlers are the exceptions, cause' they did not care what would happen. If they feel happy, they will just giggle, or make a big smiley face. If they are hurt, they will just cry over the pain and hope that someone will comfort them and fix their "injuries". If they are angry, they will just throw tantrums, fool around and show their dislike for something. If they are scared, they will just cry and hide from the fear. To stop yourselves from expressing what you really feel may be a good decision depending on the circumstances but it's definitely not healthy and it may result in undesirable events. In cases like being around friends and you keep all the unhappiness in between you and all your friends is definitely not a good idea as it does not just leave the problem unresolved and it is likely to lead to more misunderstandings, incurring heated arguements, till the time when you or them just can't take it any longer and would have resulted in breaking the friendship ties and never really communicate with one another again. In similar cases, you should settle down and talk to the people involved about your feelings and you all will work together to solve the problems and prevent similar cases to occur again within the group. Keeping our true feelings to ourselves could lead to several bad outcomes. In a larger and global scale, this could have resulted in failure of a certain policy, deteriorating relations amongst countries, and even war. If only things were as simple as the ancient times where we are very honest in all things that we do. But things are never that simple.

Restrict

Fear is the father of courage and the mother of safety. - Henry H. Tweedy

Fear is one silly thing. Fear can do lots of stuff. Or rather, Fear can make us do a lot of stuff. Fear of doing badly for our exams make us study and prepare for it. Fear of getting lectured by our teachers or getting punished make us do and submit our work punctually. Fear of getting caught of having longer hair than expected(for a male student in the school rules), make us panic and get a haircut. Fear can make us check ourselves to be safe at all times and cleared for a "dangerous" action/event like abseiling. Fear can make us take precautions and be cautious to our surroundings. Generally the "good" side of what Fear can make us do. However, Fear can make us do "bad" stuff too. People may feel insecure as they fear that their loved ones would cheat/abandon them, leading to certain actions and events. People may distrust and get suspicious at someone because they fear that they might use them or badmouth them or steal their position (like at work). Fear can make us "destroy" things that can pose a threat to our safety or something/someone we care about. Fear can also make us run away from our problems, refusing to face them.
Fear can make us do a lot of stuff, but it can also make us NOT do a lot of stuff. Fear can make us stop playing games or slacking when the exams are near. Fear can make us not charge into any situation without any preparations and precautions. That's about the good side. Fear can make us not do something or say something to someone because of the possible and undesirable consequences, letting the chance slip by and never come back again. Fear can make us to not be forward-looking and dwell on the past. Fear can cause us to not make the correct yet tough decision, wanting an easy way out.
Fear keeps us safe, yet Fear restricts us. A shield that would block everything out, and lock everything in. If we can't overcome fear, we would not be able to take the first step. Then the second step. Followed by the third. And the fourth. And so on. Some kinds of fear lasts for seconds,  some for lifetimes. We should FEAR and NOT FEAR at the same time. But can we differentiate when to fear? And what to fear?

Reproach

Thinking you know why you behave as you do gives you all sorts of excuses for extraordinary behavior. - Duncan Idaho

It's been quite some time since I've posted; I AM made busy by the insane amount of holiday homework. Today, I've got my new pair of spectacles! Let's get to the main topic of this post.
After getting my pair of spectacles today, I went to ("Gasol")'s place and after a couple of minutes, went down to the usual basketball court that we always go to and started playing our favourite sport. After a few shootout practices and friendly matches, we saw a familiar figure heading towards our way. It's UIG (Un-Invited Guest), a nickame we placed on the usual guy who always seem to appear uninvited whenever we are there playing basketball. Lemme describe him. A rather "big" dude, just a little bit fleshy (I'm being honest here), a basketball team member of his school, rather skilled in the game. Okay, here comes the "bad" part. He's rude, rather vulgar, a sore-loser, doesn't know how to keep his "unhealthy" comments to himself and just says whatever he is thinking at the moment, mean, and ummm... fast-tempered (I'm also being honest)? Let's state this first. I don't really know him that much so I can't promise that whatever I have said about him is correct but that is what I can infer from how he behaves around us. I totally meant no offence, I'm not trying to rant and rave about how "bad" this guy is, but rather just an inference. This is the event that happened today. We were just having some shootout practice (I was resting at the moment), and one of us takes a shot. Very unfortunately the ball rebounded and hit the guy at almost "point-blank range". On the head. From his expression, and actions (and words he spat out after the hit), it definitely hurts. However, a few of us exchanged glances when he wasn't looking. Glances and expressions. A few gave secret grins, a few gave a "YES!" look. Regrettably, I was one of them. Even though we generally still show our concern by asking him about his injury, but in our hearts, we felt that he deserved it. After a couple of minutes, I began to feel sorry for him. Although I still don't really like him but I feel that feeling happy when someone got injured wasn't right at all. I gave myself a little reproach. But... He, still trying to recover from his minor injury, shouted at us.
He: "Who threw the ball!?"
One of us: "I wasn't even at this half of the court!"
He: "Who threw the ball!?"
Me: "I just stood up from the floor, I didn't shoot it."
Another one of us: "I was sitting down."
Another one of us: "I was walking around."
He really sounded furious at that moment, and we were afraid that he would do something to the person who accidentally caused his injury. Although his temper simmered down and finally closed the case, I was wondering whether any of us would reproach ourselves for feeling "joyous" (can't seem to find the right word) over his mishap. Should we? Should we not?

Resent

When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite. - Scytale

I had caught the movie X-Men First Class with a group of my friends a couple of days ago. I have watched the entire X-Men Trilogy, except X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm not a really super X-Men fan, but I generally know the storyline. I'm not here to talk about the plot and bore those who have completely no interest or already know the plot themselves, but I will give you the background information. Mutants were appearing on Earth due to atomic radiation, and it created another stage of human evolution. However, those "Normals" think of these Mutants as a threat to all mankind because of each of their special abilities. The "Normals" generally felt the need to annihilate all Mutants,  stirring fear and anger to both sides, resulting to a full-scale war between the "Normals" and the Mutants. Of course, the X-Men are a group of Mutants who dedicate themselves to protect humanity, Mutant or not.
You can consider me a fan of Anime, and I've watched similar cases. One fine example would be "Gundam Seed" and 'Gundam Seed Destiny"(the sequel). If you didn't watch it, I suggest you watch it but if you don't want, it's okay. And if you did, you will understand what I mean. Envious of their abilities, thinking that it's not fair, thinking of the other side/"species" as a major threat to their own, resenting the fact that they are superior, and rejecting them from society even though both are humans. If this kind of stuff really happened, how will the world respond? Will it be like X-Men and Gundam Seed, where both sides fight each other till the other is annihilated? Or will the world accept each other, where both sides can co-exist together? We, or the future generations, may have to make this choice.

Recoil

Good intentions can bring about as much destruction as an evil conqueror. Either way, the result is the same. - Zensunni Lament

Thoughts become weapons. Philosophies are distinct reasons for war. Good intentions are the most destructive arsenal of all. - Cogitor Kwyna

Often we were asked this question: In times of war, which is responsible for the death and destruction? The weapon or the wielder? Most people will give the rather obvious answer. "Of coz' the wielders are responsible." "If there are only weapons, and no people to use them to kill one another, there will not be unnecessary casualties and destruction." "Weapons are created by wielders, too." Most of us will have these thoughts when asked this question. But is it really true? From my personal point of view, I think that it is half-correct. Yes, the people using the weapons should be responsible. However, in modern times, soldiers use guns, missiles, rockets, mines, tanks, fighter planes and stuff. They use machines. Machines that are created to kill. When soldiers take these weapons and go to the battlefield, they become as cold-blooded as the machine. They just press the trigger and let the weapons do the killing. They can't feel much besides the recoil and pain from shots. It's not like the ancient times where wars and battles were fought melee and using swords and spears. The fighting would be up-close. You can hear your enemy scream in pain when you slash or stab him. You can feel the hot blood splashing all around you. You can see your friends and comrades dying first hand with your own eyes. You can understand the horrors of war. So you can't really blame those who wields the weapons. Also, there's another answer to the question. Besides the weapons and the wielders, there's another thing that can be held responsible. It's the "Good Intentions". People pick up arms and fight wars with their "Good Intentions." Like they join the battle so that they could defend their country, their home. Or maybe to uphold justice. It could be because they wanted to defeat the aggressor and stop them from attacking other countries. It could be because they wanted to live. It could be because they desire better living and working conditions. It could be because they wanted their country to regain their lost national pride. Remember World War I and World War II? People who fight for "Good Intentions", fight the hardest. That could result in massive destruction too. And that would be the recoil of the most dangerous weapon of all time.

Realise

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him. - The Collected Sayings of Muad'dib by the Princess Irulan

Once again, before I begin anything, I shall update you about the certain events of my life these few days. As you should've known from my previous post, I've had my Chinese 'O' Level Examination just a few days ago. Well, I personally think that I did average for Paper 1 (the composition and situational writing) and not bad for Paper 2 (the comprehension). I still have a tinge of regret after the exam, coz' I realised that I made some silly mistakes. That really was careless of me. The extended lessons are still going on till the end of next week, which means that I've work to do. Just yesterday, I've caught "Pirates of The Carribean: On Stranger Tides" with 3 of my friends after school to just chill out a bit and enjoy ourselves (I'm a Pirates fan by the way). This was not bad although it was a little too predictable. I'm not sure whether it's me or are the movies nowadays really so predictable?? I'm not sure myself. Let's get to the main topic.
After reading up a few blogs recently, I realised that generally, bloggers have different styles of blog post. Some post short and sweet posts and let the photographs do the saying. Some will just post about their daily life, keeping it short. Some will write really long essays, mostly expressing their thoughts on something or so. Some will mix all styles together, having a variety. Of course, there are also bloggers that do business. Mine is obviously the long essay type, without any doubt. But I'm sure there are people who prefer short posts with photographs or any other type I've mentioned above than to some lengthy old grandmother story. I'm not asking anyone of you to try to 'like' this kind of blog post, I also have my own preference. But there's a type of blog posts that I don't really like. Some bloggers just rant and rave about someone/something that 'offended' them all the time. I'm pretty sure almost every one of you readers/bloggers have come across a blog whereby the blogger condemns, complains, swears, or write anything negative to a particular person or a group. They might even be one of you here, reading this very post. So long as you don't break the rules and regulations AND the law, you can practically do anything in your blog. But there are cases whereby people make bad comments on people and they get caught and prosecuted in the process, punished for their actions. Like a case where the student gets lectured badly by the teacher and the student goes home, turn on the computer and start to post negative comments on the teacher, swearing, scolding and even threatening. Or a case where cyber-bullying occurs. If you are like the bloggers I've described here, I meant no offence. But please bear in mind, that if you're one of the victims of such acts, I truly agree that you wouldn't feel any better than any of the other victims that had suffered the same treatment. We're all humans, and we all do make mistakes. If they have offended you, please don't do the same, especially in public like the Internet. And if you have done the similar act, it's not too late to realise your mistake.