always something’s blog

According to the psychological researches on the heart disease breaking out under the age of 50, Dr. Redford B. Williams dedicates that people who are hostile will lead premature death than those who are relaxed. Williams figures out the differences between the identified "Type A" and "Type B" men. The feature of Type A people are that they tend to be angry, cynical, stressful and will always act on  their anger and easily encounter more problems. On the contrary, Type B people are calm, trusting, relaxed and live a better lives.

In the report, the personality traits provide some information that may be the causes associating the early death of some people. Williams points out that hostile and nonhostile people seem to vary from the fundamentally different nervous system. Because of having weak nervous system, hostile people are hard to calm down and then will make the level of adrenaline in their bodies remain high; thus,they will stay unpleasantly aroused and continue to feel angry, Williams says.

Besides, Williams also mentions that those difference between hostile and nonhostile people appear in infancy. When they become upset, hostile people have large rises in blood pressure and have bigger chances to lead to damage of the heart and blood vessels than nonhostile people. However, Williams states, there is no evidence that the Type A personality is likely to die young but there is lots of evidence that people who are hostile and angry do.

In my opinion, I believe that being calm and relaxed will definitely benefit our health condition no matter how much evidence are claiming this idea. I think that people who are always in bad mood or feeling negative such as anger, anxiety, pressure will damage their mental and physical health. And I think why the negative feeling will do harm to us is because they will make our bodies running into a abnormal, irregular state disturbing the originally operating function. So, I suggest that we should try to be calm when facing problems or difficulties and relax ourselves when finishing a big project or feeling exhausted to make ourselves get chance to recharge and refresh then to start again.   

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V sign today can be easily seen everywhere in Taiwan, in most countries of East Asia, especially when people take pictures, show their delight and hooray their victory. The V sign gesture in Taiwan simply expressed the happy feeling without any doubt or controversy but can you imagine that the V sign gesture once was a symbol of insult and defiance in England.

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Historically, the V sign, when the palm is facing toward the person giving the sign was thought of as an insult in the United Kingdom and its use is largely restricted to the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It do make a difference whether your gesture is corrected formed and faces the proper direction at that time. Also, it is frequently used to signify defiance, especially to authority, contempt or derision and is often accompanied by the phrases "up yours" or "fuck off".

180px-Churchill_waves_to_crowds

But later in the Second World War, Winston Churchill popularized its use of victory, initially with palm inwards and later in the war palm outwards. The U.S. president Richard Nixson also contributed the spread of its meaning as victory and further more the V sign became one of his best-known trademarks. A similar sign was used in protests against the Vietnam War and by counterculture as a sign of peace, including the sense of anti-war. Today, the V sign gesture is largely used as the symbol of victory and peace, the positive meanings. In addition, the V sign can often be seen in some photos behind the head of someone to give a cute pair of Bunny Ears.

180px-Bunny_ears

In my opinion, non-verbal communication is not unusual in our daily life and is also worldwide used. It is easy to understand that different gestures in different countries, cultures may represent different meanings. However, we should also be aware that even the same gesture may vary from the meanings in different places, and we should never be too ethnocentric to judge the way other people used to do. For the different backgrounds and historical origin, none of the cultures' custom or practice can be superior to others. As a citizen in the global village, we should gain more cross-culture understanding and be humble to face the difference. With an open-minded heart, we will have a bigger chance to see all the aspects then getting better knowledge of human society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign

450px-Disney

You could not see "Micky Mouse" without thinking of his "father", Walt Disney, as one of the world-famous film producers, directors, animators, and entrepreneurs. Disney had been an influential and innovative person in the field of entertainment since the twentieth century. He was so creative as a  motion picture producer to create so many cartoon series as well as fictional characters and as a innovator of the"Disneyland" and "Theme Park", and his creativity and originality are credited and awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences(AMPAS) to recognize the excellence of professions in the film industry.

Walt Disney began to develop his fondness for drawing in his childhood days. Later in his teenage years, he attended high school in daytime and took night courses in Chicago Art Institute. He became the cartoonist in the school newspaper and later on he got many different chances to work in various kinds of job which finally resulted in his great success of The Walt Disney Company. However, his career was not so smooth at the very beginning because of some problems of the copyright between his company and others’, but after going through those difficulties was the coming of his golden age.

Besides his conducts of the mentioned cartoon series, film and animation (e.g. the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Disney also presented his creativity in establishing his amusement park in concrete steps which simply derive from his care for his family and employees. He was also fond of trains when he was a child and once he developed the blueprint of railroad and started to set up a miniature in his back yard. Later on he applied his idea when building the Disneyland and he said "I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train." 

His most fabulous work was the Disneyland located in the southwest of Orlando. It contained four theme parks, two water parks, twenty-three theme hotels, and numerous shopping, dining, entertainment and recreation venues. The feature of the four theme parks were represented by an iconic structure including the Magic Kingdom-Cinderella Catsle, the EPCOT(Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow)-Spaceship Earth, Disney's Hollywood Studios-Sorcerer's Hat, and Disney's Animal Kingdom with the scene of The Tree of Life. His imaginative thinking was taken to action and the finished product was dreamlike amazement.  

I think the genius of Walt Disney was awesome and his success was beyond words. Because he did do something that nobody would never ever think about and he did make the earth to be a play ground for every adult and child. He made the virtual world to be real and existed in our lives, and he brought all the characters he created to life. He seemed to be the God, the creator of his Kingdom. The fairy-tale castle and scenes of fantasy all walked out of imagination and even to be touchable by ourselves. How amazing to live within such a romantic world with fantasy and dreams. Although Disney passed away in December 1966, his contribution to the field of entertainment remained influential. I really like the romantic words inscribed on the monument of Walt Disney, "Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy." I think it meant that his great contribution to the dream-like wonderland would definitely get into part of the history and to be marvel by the future generations, and his creativity and spirit would continue to inspire every soul of dreams.

800px-Disneyland_plaque

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney

--- Four pieces of article I read 

1. Personal Space In a Virtual Realm  (March 3. 2008)

2. On the Internet, It's a Girls' World  (March 3. 2008)

3. All Corners Of Russia Feel Putin's Iron Grip  (March 3. 2008)

4. Jazzman Takes Musical Cues From All Over  (March 3. 2008)

--- I want to talk about more

"On the Internet, It's a Girl's World"

I think this topic is quite interesting because it really reveals some situations that do happen in our daily lives and are so familiar with us. Not until finish reading this article do I notice that girls do pay much attention to take care of their own websites or blogs compared with boys. And another interesting circumstance mentioned in the article is that girls tend to be much more creative than boys when it comes to design or create their own personal space on the Internet. That's cool. And I am also surprised to know that some teenage girls just like I am can have certain influence in some special area such as fashion on the Internet. Amazingly, some of them even get sponsorship by companies or set up a website which now is so popular and well-known.

In my opinion, I think why girls perform much better than boys in running a website due to several qualities distinguished from boys. First of all, girls seem to be better on self-expression and easily to develop the habit to write articles or keep journals than boys and it may contributes to the using of blogs on websites. Secondly, I think girls incline to care more about the styles of their own and try to be unique which they will represent to others. It may be the cause that girl will devote plenty of time to design or decorate their websites. Third, I think girls are more patient and interested than boys when facing this kind of "stuff". What I mean is that boys may choose to spend time to play sport games or do some activities while girls may choose to stay quite still focus on something which need to use imagination or creativity.

As my observations on my friends who have their own space on the Internet and interestingly I find out that girls are the majority. And I also find another amusing difference in the way of running a website between girls and boys. It is easier to encounter DIY products in girls' websites such as the creative settings and some cute decorations and even special functions than boys'. Besides, it's usual to see some photos or pictures on the pages of girls' websites. Boys tend to simply write down their feelings or thought without adding anything else. I think that's really amazing to figure out some specific difference between girls and boys in such a common practice in our daily lives. 

As the student of university, we are exposed to chances that are required to complete a project as a team or to work together to achieve a certain goal and so on. And of course, we will always choose a leader, a person in charge, from one of us. Since a leader plays an influential role in the group, I think he must to be someone who has vision, good manner and caring so that we can trust in him respecting and following him.       

Talking about the leaders, recently, Taiwan has just shifted the political power to a different party, the KMT, and the new leader of our country will be Ma. After eight years of being ruled by the DPP, people today in Taiwan has changed their minds remaking their choice and decide to give an opportunity to the KMT to be the ruling party again. Although I personally stand by the side of Ma, it does not mean that I am a pale-blue person nor does it infer that I will totally agree with things whatever related with him. But in my opinion, the result of the 2008 election simply and clearly shows what exactly the majority truly concern with and cares about. Ma, as the president-elect, may not be completely equipped with all the qualities which an ideal persident attains to, it can not be an excuse to prevent he from stepping upon the power stage. Then in that case, what is actually an ideal president's feature?

In my point of view, the characters of a president I put the most emphasis on is vision. A person with vision is always foresighted and can cogitate things through various perspectives. Also, a visionary person will not be limited by his environment, that is, he will be able to care about not only the domestic problems but the international affairs. Then coming with vision, he will be much more cautious and be careful consideration whenever there needs to make decisions or changes. We people want a president who can give us to a promising lives and can make our country keep on improving and well-adapted to the global village at present as well as in the future.

The second main character a president should have is manner. There are a lot of proverbs that express the same idea that if a leader does not have the manner to accept different ideas, to listen to the voices and opinions against him, to be capable of reflecting on himself and learning from the past experience, to be able to get along with and communicate with people who are opposed to him, it will be nothing more we can expect. Even a president is a human being, so it's impossible to ask him to be a perfect man without making any mistake or doing anything wrong. Therefore, whether a president has a good manner can be a significant matter for us to pay attention to.

Last but not least, I think it is very important for every president to bear in mind that the people is the most precious property they have to cherish and to care about. People should be the priority of their concern when making policies or doing anything. People is the root and the foundation of a country. As a president, his duty is to endeavour his best to make his people live better and happy without worrying about the uncertainty of political situation or suffering from economical depression. President is someone whom we choose to believe in and to give our power to so that the leader should realize how much responsibilities he carries on his shoulder and he has to try his best to do anything good and beneficial to his people during his term.

In conclusion, a president, the leader of a country, will definitely influence a country's future especially the countrymen's future. If he can always look forward with vision, discipline himself with good manner and put all his concern on people's lives, he will absolutely be a great president.

1.under the sea

Why I will like to listen to this topic again is that I am always fond of the beautiful sea and I really enjoy the feeling of diving ever since I took a first taste in Thailand. Swimming with the colorful tropical fishes in the marine blue sea was such a wonderful experience I have never had before. The underwater world was amazingly beautiful and I would always remember the feeling when I bathed in the clean and warm sea water. As for me, it's so fascinating to hear someone talking about the same experience.

I so envy of someone who can travel around the different oceans and can even have chances to jump into that water. If I can afford to do the same thing, I will definitely "dive" around. 

2.Joe's tatto

In fact, I really want to get a tatto in the future in Miani. After hearing that most of my friends' repondses are surprise. And their reactions are no doubt within my expectation because tatto is always considered a label of evil or guilt or something bad in Chinese culture. If someone who wears a tatto in arms or hands, he or she will attract attentions from other people. Terribly most of the judgements people make are filled with bias and I always feel sad and unhappy about that. I know this situation is somewhat related with our traditions and some famous proverbs told by ancient sages such as 身體髮膚受之父母. On the contrary, nowadays in the U.S., tatto is prevalent and people accept it without thinking anything else and it is not unusual in other western countries in Europe,either. Though my mom once told me that tatto used to be a symbol of slavery, I still don't care about it. In my opinion, tatto can be a symbol represents who you are and can also be a memorial of someone you love, cherish or lose in your life.

And the reason I want to get a tatto in Miani is simple. I watch the program of discovery on Miani Ink and I think the arts there are so cool and their works are awesome so I want to get a tatto which they can make for me.

3.British Icons: the pub

Pub may be a controversial place in every society and it seems to be troublesome and somewhat chaotic. What I learn from the passage is that British government has put a ban on smoking to every pub in Britan and it means that you have to smoke outside but of course you can still get some drinks in it. It is amazing when I know it and I think this policy is very great. Because I really don't like the smelling of the cigarettes and if it is true and even can be proof by scientific facts that smoking and second-hand smoking are harmful to human beings, it will be good to restrict in public space.

I think the image of pub is distorted in modern societies because more and more people abuse their rights and mistake it as a space without orders and laws doing whatever they like but unallowable and even illegal. But I think the original concept of pub is simply for people who want to find a place to sit down or to chat with friends just like coffe house. And I think the difference may be that pub open mostly in night and it offers alcohol.

http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/pages/level3.shtml

I think there are several important factors that contribute to the success of a company and these factors can be applied to every walk of life.

First of all, I think every company needs to know what their direction is, in other words, they should realize what their value is and they should try their best to strive for it including the leader to all the employees. After establishing their goal, the leading people in the company, the leader and the managers should work out some certain rules to institutionalize their working system. It will be effecient and uncontroversial if  there are some basic rules to follow and obey.

Second, the boss should know indeed what kind of employees they need. Different kinds of occupation fit different kinds of people because of their personalities, abilities and their expectation on their work in the future. So it is a challenge whather the boss can choose the "right" employees and put them in the "proper" position.

Besides, I think "teamwork" plays a significant role in the success of every company. In the modern society, a lot of companies acquire the ability to work with others. And I think teamwork is a very helpful way to assemble ideas and information from their workers. By brainstorming, the outcome will always be much more creative and detailed and even all-embracing.

Last but not least, I think the company should always focus on the customers. They should totally understand what they can do or make for their customers and then they can improve their quality of their productsand it is especially  important in the commerce and service industry. In addtion, they should also care about the customers' feel in order to meet their needs and make them feel comfortable and respected so that the customers will be very impressive and want to come again.

And I think ADIDAS is a good example of a successful business who set up an international brand and be broadly welcomed and popular in every part of the world. The following passage is cited from their website and it clearly indicate their goal, value and what they focus on and how they do to improve themselves.

The adidas Group strives to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with sports brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle.

We are consumer focused and therefore we continuously improve the quality, look, feel and image of our products and our organizational structures to match and exceed consumer expectations and to provide them with the highest value.
 
We are innovation and design leaders who seek to help athletes of all skill levels achieve peak performance with every product we bring to market.

We are a global organization that is socially and environmentally responsible, creative and financially rewarding for our employees and shareholders.

We are committed to continuously strengthening our brands and products to improve our competitive position.

We are dedicated to consistently delivering outstanding financial results.

http://www.adidas-group.com/en/overview/welcome.asp

This winter vacation I spent most of my time in PingTung because PingTung was actually my parents' hometown and both of them grew up meeting each other there. Not until university did they came north to Taipei to have higher education and even decided to settle down in Taipei county. So, Chinese New Year gave us a chance to get back to PingTung to have a yearly reunion with our grandparents and relatives.

In my grandparents' house, they did not have computer at all so we can not spend a whole day as what we used to on weekends or holidays surfing the Internet, playing computer games or just being indulged in it. Owing to this reason, we used to consider going back to Pingtung could be very boring and would have nothing else to do unless you go out of the door activating or sit still in the couch reading some books, novels or newspapers.

And what I did the most in the winter vacation to "keep in touch with" English was read the New York Times. In fact, my dad really encourged me to read the newspapers written in English when I was still in the senior high school. Besides, I would listen to the broadcasts of BBC News or ICRT, and of course why I began to do so was because my dad's "suggestion". Haha! Hopefully, I was obedient enough to listen to my dad's words and form this habit which turned out to be good and useful for me and for my learning.

In addition, I also watched some foreign films and programs on TV and I really loved one of the programs called Travel and Living which belonged to the series of Discovery. Oh! I really recommend this program to every body.

The third week of December with the coming of Christmas Day, there are a lot of activities held around on the campus and I have been busy these days. I attended a Christmas party of club on Tuesday night and watched the performance of seniors of our department and after watching I went to a gathering with the elder students of PME and FLL as a family reunion on Thursday. Besides, I had some works to do and also had to find time to discuss about the content we would present in the final report of sociology with my partners. Moreover, this week I had a vocabulary quiz and I hadn’t prepared much before. My schedule was filled with colorful marks and notations to remind me of everything I should do.

The Christmas party and the reunion were wonderful and I really had a good time. I really love the feeling that everybody could get together having a meal and simply talk, chat or share something with each other. I love the feeling of party for the cheerful and joyful atmosphere among each other and I love the feeling of reunion for the warmth and fellowship in a group. For me, as not a Christian, Christmas is a chance or a kind of holiday that I can celebrate it with my family and friends far away or long time no see. Another purpose Christmas may have for me is to indicate that it is almost the end of the year and the brand new start will soon begin in the near future.

In fact, I used to look back and reflect on myself and on what I was doing in the past year in the last several weeks of every December. I used to rethink the whole year checking up the days I have been through by rereading my diary or looking at the photos I took or through the thorough cleaning before the coming of New Year. I can not turn back the clock to change anything or to live again but I want to bear something in mind. I want to collect something worth remembering and to piece together the memory of the passed time including good and bad ones. I always believe I can’t step into the future without my past and there is always something to be remembered and to be cherished.

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Can you imagine one day in the future you can travel around without taking any public transportation? That's what I am going to show you about the future innovation will benefit us. Thay's really cool!

Its name is DODY and its major function is to transmit a person from one side to another. Its appearance is similar to the screen of the TV or computer and it is flat. It is simple to operate for everyone for you can just touch the surface of the screen and it starts to work. From your fingers and to your arms and then extend to your limbs ,and finally your whole body will "get into" the 3D space. Before transmission, you have to set up your destination to identify where you will go simply by several clicks. And after those easy steps, all you have to do is wait for seconds or minutes, depending on how long the distance between the two places, you will be on the chosen spot.

And let me simply introduce the function of buttons on the screen to you. First, you have to turn on this machine,the buttons on the upper left side with green and red. Then, key in your destination by keyboard and it will show up on the top of the screen, and remember to check it again before transmission. After setting up those above steps, the upper right side will show you the simultaneous scene of your destination and you can check up the weather or everything you want to know and decide what you should wear or prepare what you want to bring with. And you do not have to change the several buttons on the left side for that are some basic settlement, just leave it alone. That's all the steps you should know in order to operate DODY. It is a piece of cake, isn't it?

This kind of device can help us make our lives easier in many aspects. First, It can save time when we used to spend on traveling. It can reduce a large amount of traffic jams and many traffic problems that frequently taking place on roads or highways. Second, through it we can always keep close contact with our family and friends and people around the globe virtually. It almost decreases the distance to zero. Third, there will be no more need of vehicle and, of course, there will be no more consumption of fuel and can also get rid of pollution.

However, it requires precise and accurate high-tech to accomplish and it should attain to a certain degree of sensitiveness. And the most important is to be absolutely unharmful for human bodies. Moreover, it must be kept in good repair and carefully run. In fact, It will take time to prevail but it should be shared with every one for its convenience and its function of communication.