Psychopaths-unravelling the danger within

Psychopath-The first time I heard this word was from a crime investigating television show called “Criminal Minds”. This word has raised my curiosity and drove me to surf into the web to search for more information regarding this strange yet lethal human trait. Well, I hope you will bear in mind that this post is not everything about psychopath but it is actually bits and bytes about psychopath.

            First of all, what and who is a psychopath? The word psychopath comes from the Greek word ‘psyche’ meaning ‘the mind or our mental state’ and ‘pathos’ meaning ‘suffering or disease’. At brief, a psychopath refers to a person who is merciless, wields false emotions and has depletion in terms of emotion. A psychopath is a person who suffered psychopathic disorder. The characteristics of a psychopath include pitiless, lack of empathy, self-centered or egocentric and selfish. They may not be easy to spot at first, but they are cold-blooded as you slowly know them. Psychopaths are also good in unmasking their feelings and thoughts. They have no problem of disguising themselves as normal person as well as making friends. Psychopaths are also masters of manipulation. They can freely use people at their own will to benefit themselves. They did not even bother of sacrificing the rights of others because they only care of themselves. Hence, they don’t establish strong relationships with others.

            What did I miss besides those above? Oh, yes, psychopaths are also good liars. They can lie to almost everybody, even an expert interrogator. They can easily remake the whole story and refine it to make it sound like real without showing any common signs of bluffing. A theory states that psychopaths also have high IQ when compared to normal people. They are faster in answering questions especially questions that require emotional consideration. One of the tests that are used to differentiate between psychopaths and non-psychopaths uses this to distinguish between them. Another bonus fact about psychopaths is that they are irrational and do not reason their acts. For everything that they have done whether it is right or wrong, most of them do not have the sense of guilt or remorse. However, some of them may reason their acts, but they will try to minimize or neglect the seriousness of their acts without further questioning. They try to deny their mistakes and can deliberately forget their sins immediately.

Due to the lack of emotions which strongly differentiate normal humans and psychopaths, this group of people are usually more violent and are more prone to commit crimes and contribute to most social problems. Studies show that 88% of murder cases are convicted by psychopaths. The population of psychopaths against normal human being is also mind-blowing, where in every 25 normal citizens; there will be 1 psychopath within them. In other words, 4% of the society is psychopaths and this alone is a threat for the maintenance of a peaceful and harmonious life. Another recent study also shows that most of the children born today are psychopaths, known to us as "indigo children".

I will further discuss this in my next blog post.

2 Reasons why I find this year's Chinese New Year boring

Happy Chinese New Year to all my dear readers who celebrate this festival! Today is Chu Ba, which is the eight day of the Chinese New Year. Honestly, I seriously think that Chinese New Year for the last few days seemed to be getting boring and boring year by year. Here are the two reasons:

Reason 1: Process of maturation

The first reason that it gets damn sulky is because I had already about to finish my synthesis or growth from a kid to a teen. Well, other than the gathering with relatives and friends’ part and the fireworks part (in which sometimes may be boring too), nothing else catches my attention. Not the freedom you have in consuming tonnes of food and drinks. Not even the opportunity to gamble until you go nuts and started to have an addiction (well, I did that this year, but it sounds kind’ a boring, even though you may eventually win a lot of money). As little children started to walk into the shadows of youth and adultery, they started to feel the oomph and excitement of the festival slipping away from them. This is then refilled with the boredom of the repeating sequence of the constant Chinese New Year celebration pattern, as well as the must do’s and don’ts during that period. However, don’t mistake me for saying that the traditions and customs that need to be performed during this day should be neglected nor banished. Instead, they must be preserved due to the fact that they are part of our culture and tradition as Chinese, even though I nowadays find it quite boring.

Reason 2: The atmosphere

Another reason will be the celebration of Chinese New Year in terms of the community and our society. In the past, Chinese New Year is a majestic event that is celebrated by the Chinese with much gaiety and enjoyment. They really enjoy themselves and enable themselves to relax at these 15 days and at the same time follow the customs strictly. People in the past are also friendlier than the present. People who lived in the same village or town will visit others' houses among themselves and exchange mandarins as well as jokes as they met. Lion dances and dragon dances too are a common sight to behold at the first few days of Chinese New Year. You can also hear the sound of firecrackers all over the place you live and easily observe piles of red, ashy and combusted residues all over the floor and roads around your house. Voices full of happiness and laughter of adults and children is also very frequent at that time. Sad to say as time flies year by year, all these began to fade and vanish into thin air when modernisation and also urbanisation takes place. The more advanced our technology are, the more civilised we became; and as more things we started to forget and discard, the more materialistic and hollow we slowly became. Nowadays, the atmosphere of celebrating Chinese New Year turns warmer time to time where every family starts to live “individually” and not as a community. The technological advancements that initially were created to improve our life also created a barrier that impedes verbal communication, causing lesser direct communications between people.

Down into the blue

My swimming story@ Benefits of swimming

It is another hot afternoon in Malaysia. The sun is gleaming brightly above the sky, scorching the semi-barren lands below it. You cannot even feel or sense the motion of air around you, as if you are living in a world without air. At this time, I wonder what am I doing if I am not at the swimming pool in the clubhouse not far from my house.

That's right, I often swim and take it as one of my hobbies. Although it is not my daily routine, but I would go swimming twice, sometimes thrice depending whether I have or don't have time. I started learning swimming using the basic frog-style or breast stroke when I was six. I didn't fear of having my body underwater so I didn't have much problem learning. The first few 'lessons' at the swimming pool are spent at playing in the shallower children pool. Luckily, my swimming tutor is my father himself, so I didn't get scolded for that. It was quite easy to me as I picked it up quickly. From that time onwards, I would go swimming whenever I have time because I put study as my priority. Kinda nerdy huh? Well I admit that.  Nine years later, I learned free-style or front crawl through a swimming tutor. Free-style was a bit complicated and exhausting than the breast stroke but I like it more because it is more faster and at the same time enables me to train my arm strength. 

  

So, why I choose swimming as my hobby? There are many reasons. Swimming is really fun. Imagine yourself fully immersed into the swimming pool while you hold your breath, where your whole body is completely surrounded by gentle, cool yet revitalizing waters that flow towards you from all directions. It makes you temporary forget about your worries and gives you comfort. After a few seconds break free from the water by penetrating up from beneath. 

I like this feeling of popping myself up from the water after soaking whole of my body inside. It feels as if I am reborn from death. (Although I found it fun but to hydrophobia's, it may be a haunting nightmare.)

I also promote swimming because swimming is a useful skill that can save your life in times of needy! This skill enables you to cruise through dangerous waters and rough waves if you find yourself shipwrecked or trying to escape from a man-eating shark. For scuba diving lovers and those who enjoy snorkeling, swimming is the basic thing that they must learn. Although it is not clearly stated, but they must at least know how to move underwater and this means that to play safe is to learn how to swim.

My father, my brother and me in the pool.

Swimming is also a beneficial exercise. It improves your fitness level by strengthening your heart and training your limbs, building energy within your body. By constant training, you can even increase the deepness of your breath, making you able to withstand the condition of not breathing for a longer time. It also enables you to build your muscles and burn away excess body fat, giving you a better body shape. What's more, it is a mild exercise that does not or rarely gives physical injury to your body. While swimming you just have to bear in mind not to swim alone or in dangerous places. Muscle cramps can be prevented by warming up before swimming. Another useful tip is to have a brief shower before going into water to enable yourself able to adapt to the water temperature.

Now what are you waiting for? Go find a good swimming tutor and start practicing! Well, excuse me now, because I am going to have an excellent night swim. 

Do we have the rights to speak freely here?

Two days ago when I am reading the newspaper, I came across a somewhat interesting local news of a teenage university student whom was caught by the police for posting a ridiculous joke in facebook in which the authorities felt will threaten the country. The joke was so simple. The first line goes like this: "Our prime minister, Najib is about to visit our campus." and the next line is: "Let's bomb his helicopter!" . A few hours after this post, he was arrested by the police for leaving comments that are seen as a threat for them. He was released a few hours after that. 

Well, according to the police, they said that arresting him is a crucial measure to ensure the safety of the country.... blahblahblah... This tactical move makes them look quite efficient in the eyes of the foreigners but only those who lived long enough in Malaysia knows that they are only trying to scare away people for using the internet to criticize the government, thus killing away everyone's freedom of using the internet. I think they are over-sensitive for arresting the teen because they should check his backgrounds, whether he had or hadn't any criminal records. It is very clear that he was arrested because he threatened the prime minister, leader of the main political party that rules the country. However, if the offensive comment is launched at any of the opposition party leaders, I dare say that this would certainly be a different story. The police and the authorities will try to ignore it and added in numerous irrelevant excuses. In fact, they don't even bother! Very ironic but this is what that actually happens in our country. This is totally politics! "Selamat Datang" or welcome, to Malaysia, a land of "infinite possibilities".

Well, I am actually a patriotic guy. I love my country because this is the place of my birth. Malaysia is a special multicultural country with an all year-round summer. It is peaceful and remained intact from the wrath of mother nature. But what I really love is the people and the place itself, not the politics that overpowered the innocent minds of the people. Politicians are the ones who shape this country and its citizens into the condition and shape that they want and are favorable to them even though it costs evoking racist and mass slaughter. Most of them are selfish and are willing to sacrifice the people's social rights to achieve power, fame and money. This is why until now, racism still lives in the minds of everyone here, because the politicians are creating the barrier around us especially in terms of the special benefits preserved for certain races. 

Now we may wonder : How fair is this democratic country actually? Even though they have already crossed out ISA, but what is the difference between "having limited freedom to speak" and "no freedom to speak"? Do we really have the rights to speak freely here? And I bet you already got the answer.

  

The power of BELIEVING

Recently I come across articles of different spiritual beliefs and mystical ritual practices in the internet while gathering information to compose a half-fantasy novel that comprises of ancient religions, myths, legends, and folklore. Once, I found a website full of information about witches and witchcraft and I read through the comments of those who had followed one of the spells that promised you to grant you whatever you desire. As a result, many believers said that the spell works for them. Unfortunately, there are also a group of skeptics, (of equal amount) protested that the spells are nothing but useless.

Now you may think that there might be something fishy going down here but I dare to tell you that nothing goes wrong here. Both categories of people had tried the spell and most of them may follow the rules 100%, but the point is: Do all of them really believe the spell can work? No, definitely. Those who don’t believe will certainly fail to achieve what they want. This is because they are not self-convinced about what they are doing. As a matter of fact, they don’t really understand what they are actually doing and tend to restrict what they yearn for from happening to them. By not believing or fail to reason the true purpose of believing what we want, we will keep on staying in our present and remain stagnant until we believe in something new.

The universe is a big donor of all inhabitants in our planet, Earth. It not only creates us, provides us with a place to stay and exist, but also generously fulfills our dreams and those seemingly wild imaginations. The universe responds to each and every of our simple request, from what we want, what we like to what we get. Even though we didn’t tell it, the universe still knows from our thoughts. That’s right; our thoughts are actually stronger than what we think. The strength of our thoughts has no boundaries. Just a simple thought has the enough power to alter the entire reality of the universe and that alone makes all of us special in a certain way that everybody has his or her own thoughts.

Sometimes, we are fooled by what we see as the proverb goes: “Seeing is believing,” Several things that we cannot see or hear doesn’t mean that they don’t simply exist, for example air and viruses. In contrast, what we see may not be what it seems. Hence, many people often convince themselves to take note of things that can only be detected by their senses. They divided their world into two parts, notably reality and imagination. They thought that they are geniuses but actually they are not. By labeling what’s “real” and what’s “fake”, these people are actually sealing their ability to dream and imagine-a crucial element in setting long goals and achieving bigger dreams. In other words, they create a barrier that restricts them to believe what they want to achieve. 

In this wide, vast world, there are many different religions worshiped by different races and ethnics of people. These religions ranged from the monotheistic ones, including Christianity, Islam and Jew, to the polytheistic religions, for example Hinduism, and Taoism, to those who focus on self-enlighten and faith on gurus such as Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Baha’ism. These religions served as a principle of life for the worshipers. Each religion will guide their worshipers to the path of goodness and implant an orderly set of thoughts that will help them differentiate between right and wrong. Usually, followers of a religion will show faith and devotion to the religion they follow. By standing firm on what you think is right, you will be able to achieve what you want and believe. For example, if you sincerely and rationally believe that by accumulating good deeds will result in a blessed life in the heavens, then work your way towards your goal no matter how surreal is your belief. In fact, everything you believe has the equal possibility to exist and take place in this world. So, don’t even question your life principles if they are constructive and rational ones. Just do it!

(This blog post was inspired by the number one worldwide-bestseller “The Secret” and “The Power”.)

Entertainment - without it will certainly be the end of us...

         Doing work is a necessity in life. Without work, our lives will be dull and we might not obtain enough food to sustain our life. However, we cannot work all day long without stopping as we are not soulless machines that do not have emotions and feelings. We may sometimes feel tired and want to have some rest. At this moment, having some entertainments may be useful to make us relax and relieve our tiredness at the instant. This is why we must have certain amounts of entertainments in our life.

          Maybe you don’t realize that actually many things we have around us are actually part of our devices that gives us entertainment, for example televisions, video games, computers, radios, magazines, books, music and even hobbies. Entertainment refers to anything that would entertain you, or give you pleasure in order to let time pass without feeling bored for that particular time. It helps you to temporarily escape from the normal routine that you are having, giving you a break while showering you bits of joy to continue life in your fullest. It also offers you a perfect sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of city life, enough for you to dwell in your own world without worries.

          Entertainments play a crucial role in our lives. It balances all the work that we have done in our daily life. Imagine a life without entertainment, where we have to work all day and all night without having the chance to do things that we like. Our lives will be totally boring as all of us shall live with work, as the proverb goes “all work and no play makes jack a dull boy”. We require entertainment to divert our attention to let us concentrate on things that we like until a certain level of alertness is achieved. It even eliminates fatigue and tiredness from us. This regains our consciousness and helps us stay alert all the time to enable us to perform better and excel in work. Now you have figured it out why holidays are created for everyone.

          Entertainment is also responsible for keeping you stay good and healthy. Here is a simple question: Do you prefer to do things that you like or do things that you dislike? Undoubted, all of us will prefer to do things that we like over the things that we hate, and your entertainment is often something that you like, while your work, vice versa. Referring to this, we are often in a happy state when we are having our entertainments as it grants you instant happiness and satisfaction that could not be given by work itself. Likewise, if we are happy, then we are in a good mood, and our mood itself, determines a big portion of our health condition. If our mood is good, then our body is healthy at that time. Hence, having some entertainment can make you feel good and keep you healthy always.

          Furthermore, entertainment can reduce stress and tension that is resulted by work. It doesn’t matter what you do to entertain yourself. It might only be lazing at the sofa to watch a drama, having a good conversation with your loved ones, gardening in your backyard, or playing basketball with your best friends. It can temporarily stop you from having any other extra thoughts regarding your stressful life, your worries and your hardships. It allows your mind to calm down and refresh, giving you peace and letting your hair down. This enables you to have a bigger and wider space to think rationally to solve the problems that you faced.

          Basically, entertainment is one of your raw sources of happiness that makes you feel that you are in cloud nine, while alleviating all the conflicts and problems you faced in the reality. Having a sufficient amount of entertainment can give you the motivation power to be better in life. Contradictory, having too much entertainment is also as dangerous as not having it as it causes people to be lazy in work, only hopping for the pleasures that they gain from their entertainments. Hence, we must have good time management to let us balance between work and entertainment. Only by this, we can live our lives to its fullest extend.

Family

Whenever I see orphans in the television or happen to read about articles related to them, two different thoughts would just pop out of my mind from nowhere. The first thought is, “Oh, they are so pity. They have an incomplete family. I really wish that I can help them.” and the other one is, “I feel that I am very lucky, for having such a good family.”

Me and my family in Pulau Langkawi(2009).

          “Family”, this small word may seem insignificant, but the meanings that it holds are much greater than what we know. Well, in brief, family can be described as a group of individuals that are interrelated among each other, living together as a community with love and harmony. Everybody who lives in this world has his or her own family. It is unnecessary that all the family members must come from the same ancestors and possess the same origin of inheritance. All members of the same family also need not have to share the same ambition and passion. A family can be any group of people who are close to each other and share their love and joy, tears and laughter among themselves.   

         Humans are not independent creatures as history has already proven this statement long, long time ago. To enable progressions and achievements of mankind to occur, we must unite and live together in a colony like the ants in a society. Hence, we must learn to live with our same kind in a vast community called society. Family is the basic unit of the society. Living in a family is actually living in a small society. From a family, we can learn many useful things comprising of moral values, ethics, cultures, customs and basic skills as well as gaining experiences. One of the prime purposes of a family is to prepare you to cope with the society, learning to live with it harmoniously while giving essential contributions that benefit it. Hence, a family plays an important role in nurturing productive individuals to the society.

          What does the family stands for except this? A family is the cradle of love and happiness for all beings in this world. We often speak about love but we do not know the differences in each kind of love. The love given from your family is the greatest love you have, as it is unconditional. Come to think of it, how do you come to this world? Right, it’s your parents that brought you here. If it is not because of their love, your mother would not bear from the pain of the nine months pregnancy and delivery process just to see you being cuddled in her arms and let out a cute smile. If it is not because of their love, your father would not work until late of night every day, barely having any time to rest, just to see you happy when you play the toys he bought. If it is not because of this, they won’t give you free shelter, food, and clothing, fulfilling your desires everyday. Your family gives you love and this alone makes it the reason for you to love it more than anything else in the world.

Me and my family in our trip to Singapore(2008).

          Moreover, your family is your source of inspiration. Many successful, potent leaders in the world start from scratch. They have with them only some simple blessings from their family. These blessings eventually evolved into tremendously, powerful inspirations that gives them the driving power to enable them to pursue their dreams and achieve their dreams, transforming the impossible into reality. Your family also gives you comfort and useful motivations when your spirits are down. This can help you to regain your spirits and assist you to solve your problems. In hard times, your family is your last resort and your only sanctuary that you reside on to shelter you from the cruelty of reality and offer you infinite protection against the hazards of the society.

          In a nutshell, family is our most valuable asset that all of us hold. Sadly, despite every one has their own family, very few of them ever bother to cherish the presence of their family members. We must learn to be grateful to our family. It is very important to express your gratitude to your family members once in a while, as they are the ones who watch you grow, care for you, truly love you, and give you all the happiness that you have. They accompany you through thick and thin, giving you determination and support to drive you to the pavement of success. Without them, you would cease to exist in this wonderful world. So, what are you waiting for? Go and spend some valuable time with your family members. They must be waiting for you at home now… …

New year, New Beginnings

Happy New Year! This is the first thing that I wanted to say after spending an awesome New Year’s Eve celebration gathering with a few of my friends. Although the gathering turned out to be a bit pathetic because there were only four of us, but four of us had enough fun together.

At that gathering, I met a new friend by the name of Raul. He’s one year older than me and has great looks. He is the kind of warm and friendly nice guy that you can’t resist to befriend with.  He is a cyclist, an active one in his cycling group at least. He studies in SMK Bakar Arang and is his school’s English Parliament Debater. He is easy going and open minded. I think these traits made me inclined to make friends with him.

 Four of us chatted freely without any boundaries with each other the whole night as if we have not seen each other for years. We talk about almost everything. From politics to religion views, from philosophy to ambitions and dreams, from scientific theories to our holidays, we shared our thoughts and accept what others give too. After that, we listed down our New Year resolution and waited for the time for us to start our countdown. This is my first New Year’s Eve celebration experience. 

          I slept at 1.30pm that night and woke up at 9.15am the next day. I felt extremely tired but I don’t want to return to my bed. Hence, I read a novel before accompanying my little brother to his primary school to buy exercise books. Hah, I had to admit that I feel completely free because I am graduated from secondary school finally! I need not have to worry about that or even whether I had bought my school uniform and my stationery either.

          The whole afternoon was spent by helping my grandmother preparing one of my favorite crispy fried arrowhead crackers. 

 

The process is not as easy as it seems. First, we must remove the ‘tail’ part which is the softer part of the arrowhead. Then, peel the outer skin of the arrowhead and grind it layer by layer into thin pieces. After that, fry the pieces of arrowhead until golden. 

There are 8 trays of it and we took about 3 hours to complete the frying. It is a tedious job to be done but it is definitely fun watching the containers being filled by delicious arrowhead crackers one by one. The satisfaction that grows from beneath my heart is indescribable.

          At night, I went out again. This time I am of to Village Mall for another gathering. This gathering is a second reunion of me and my primary school friends. Although there are only 14 of us there, but we still managed to have some fun together. We watched Darkest Hour in 3D, have our 2-in-1 dinner and supper meal at a nearby Chinese restaurant and have some fun in the karaoke until 12.30pm.

          Well, that’s all for my New Year. A new year resembles new beginnings. Let us kick start and work towards our hopes and our way in this wonderful year. I sincerely wish that the world will stay in peace and harmony while everyone can achieve their dreams and live a happy and blissful life. May all your dreams come true…