收皮

禽日大佬同我講今日十點半堂，咁我咪十點半番到 campus 囉，點知原來九點半堂，番到黎都己經上完堂，大佬話佢話「可能十點半堂」喎，我頂佢個肺 ~

今日第二輪初賽，我地如常去左方樹泉練歌。三點半之輪到我地，有排等。

三點半去到 CYM 101，佢地話我地係第一組，但個評判抄車所以遲到 (不過好彩個人冇事)，真係好事多磨。

等到成四點三個評判先黎，係一個男仔頭，好高好型好靚 !!!! 音樂人果然係唔同d ~

因為有一組好趕時間，所以我地讓比佢地先。佢地係一男一女既組合，男O個個勁到嘔電，係唱得超級好O個隻，想唔入決賽到唔得。可以話係大開耳戒。

先後就係我同大佬，我地首「藍雨」就被比下去了，同人地差幾皮，大佬走左少少音，我又覺得自己唱得好差 (因為我好驚好緊張)，唱時又唔敢望個評判 (因為怕羞呱 xddddd )。唱到咁上下都知自己衰梗，氣數已盡。

不停同自己講：「咁廢你學咩人比賽丫~ 收皮啦你 ......」

冷冷雨

今朝走堂去睇「精武家庭」。但又唔係我想像中咁好睇，阿妹講到天花龍鳳咁，其實一般啦我覺得。不過早場 25 蚊，都值既。

睇完戲都成 12 點，我坐 970 番 kong u，因為約左大佬練歌，幾神心。

聽日就係第二輪既初賽，我地首「藍雨」仲未係好掂，我同大佬有d地方唔夾，又不時走音，都幾危。不過都係至在參與姐。

呢幾日o係咁唱藍雨，把聲帶都開左好多，高音左起碼三個 key。學友就係好勁，點學都係差好遠。

唱歌其實都幾好玩丫，不過我始終唔鐘意唱 k，尤其同 d 女仔唱，次次都聽既多過唱既，又難聽喎，番屋企練下先啦唉。成班得阿船同 amy係識唱 (雖然兩人亦有很大的距離)。

但到底咩叫好聽我又唔係好識分，到底唱腔對唱功又起左d咩影響作用呢 ? let's explore it in the future.

大學之道

今日5點要上堂叫 cultural sustainability 既 broadening course，仲要交一份 field trip 既 report，只不過是600字。個 trip 既目的地竟然係港大 main build，你話係咪硬膠到震丫？

禽晚經己寫好了。完全唔知自己寫乜。是蕉旦算了 ~

今日番黎我先知我地係 supposed 去用一 d main build 既圖片去 illustrate 我地寫既野，痴 Q 線，我本身寫既都唔太關 main build，純粹吹水，illustrate條毛咩？又話要訂裝喎，佢都 on 9 既，600字根本連兩個 pages 都唔夠，咁都要訂裝，你話幾咁勞民傷財同埋唔環保丫，咁白痴既 lecturer都有，大學既教育制度有咩辦法唔比人批評丫頂 ~

我同阿彪都廢Q線理佢，是旦 print 出黎交左就算。5點我地到左 lecture room，放底我地份 assignment，再 take 埋 attendence之後，我就同阿彪講：「走喇我地~」

我地一推開度門，就馬上「斷正」，我地出，個 lecturer就入，我眼角 gup 到係佢，但我當完全睇佢唔到，阿彪亦然，大家直行直過。

出到黎我地進行以下的對話 ...... (W: Will；B: Bill)

W：頂 ~ 有會咁岩得咁橋架，斷到正 !!!
B ：嘩，佢求先望實我地呀，我完全唔敢望佢囉。我地擺到明走堂。
W：潮！收皮啦叫佢，我地走堂唔係我地既錯，係佢既錯，佢教得好邊有人會走佢堂呀！
B ：係啦，條友講野又廢到嘔喎！
W：咁廢仲好意思望我地，食屎啦叫佢！
B ：仲話o係大學教書喎，真係勢風日下 ~
W：簡單係不知廉恥 !!!!

大學之道，在明明德

死性不改

講你又唔聽, 聽你又唔明, 明你又唔做, 做你又做錯, 錯你又唔認, 認你又唔改, 改你又唔服, 唔服你又唔講。

做人唔應該係咁架，唉，真係 disappointing 呀。

我輸了

剛看完「單身日記 二」。

其實自己對這類型的戲不太有興趣，但因為這部戲有口皆卑，所以是有必要看一看的。

總覺得，一個人單身時永遠都是幸福的，無憂無慮；但當生活中多了另一個時，事情總是會複雜起來；當然任何人都不能抹殺戀愛的幸福，但不竟是有幸有不幸。

愛的反面絕對是恨，戀愛金幣不停地在轉動，同時亦向前走著，他可能一生一世地走著，不斷地發放愛的光芒，但也可能無端倒下，而以愛還是以恨作休止符，實在難以估計，結果往往出人意表。可惜，很多人甘願參與這場無把握的賭博。

世上一切關係都逃不出「緣」的張力。有一天緣來了，意味著終有一天緣會離我而去。有能力把緣凝固下來的人屈指可數，我亦無信心認為自己亦然。這個世界也實在太過謊戊。

「順其自然」似乎成了一個逃避的藉口，配合「騫翁失馬」的理念實在天下無敵，起了一個宗教層次的作用，我機乎把現在的自己推崇至九霄雲外。

真對不住自己。

我輸得切切底底。

X X 移動城堡

今日睇完「哈爾移動城堡」，覺得都唔錯，一貫宮崎駿既味道，又好笑。之前聽到唔少人彈呢出戲，唔係丫，雖然的確唔及「千與千尋」咁緊張刺激，但係好岩一家大細睇喎，o係戲院入面我四圍都坐左唔少小朋友。

有一句對白好深刻 ~
哈爾啜泣地說：「唔靚仔 ...... 我仲生存黎有咩意思 ......」

死未。但無可厚非，佢的確係勁靚仔。所以，呢出戲其實叫「靚仔移動城堡」。

同時，亦好期望「AV」。

又是旺角

睇完「連環不幸事件」，發覺都唔算係太不幸，仲不幸o既人比比皆是 (雖然幸唔幸福係視乎自己點睇)。

之後o係旺角撞到亞珊 (佢依然係咁有型)，寒暄左幾句又走左，我繼續行呀行，行呀行 ......

我係貝貝

我始終只係適合 "男生圍" 的生活，不竟 ...... 男女大不同

「愛總是讓人哭，讓人覺得不滿足；天空很大卻看不清楚，好孤獨」

有幸冇不幸

睇黎我真係越黎越樂觀了~~

Will Leung 連環不幸事件

CRE 肥中數
IELTS 6.0

Eye "Wild" Shut

i found i don't belong to this "civilized" community.

i rather stay back in my little world, where others will never understand...

The Old Man

ENS金城武 (又名彈弓人，即高老闆) email reply 我份 dissert，話我份野好亂，what a mess，又o係咁話我 plagarism，叫我去 meet 佢，搞到我一度失落，擔心左一排。

兩三日之後佢上堂派 dissert，由於我品學兼「休」，堂我梗係冇上啦，所以搞到界王神幫我出去拎，阿彪話 corlett o係咁望實佢， hahaha !!!! 大獲，比佢知道我冇上佢堂添，but who fucking cares?

睇番佢改左 o既 dissert，其實又唔覺咁大問題姐，都係citation 方法有問題之麻。

今日去 meet 佢，o係我三寸不爛之舌同楚楚可憐 o既游說同解釋後，佢話 "that's ok" 喎，又話自己寫 frence 同 spanish journal 時都係差唔多，唔識點改人地 d 字，hahaha。佢表示我 generally 都 ok，冇咩特別問題，又話明白 babblers 呢份野係 difficult 喎，at least 都會比個 credit 我 (下? credit 咋? 不過算啦，我都係求合格o既姐，有 c 已經謝天謝地)。

我又一次創出奇蹟，用極短時間，極少 o既 effort，唔睇 journal 內容，只靠幾十份 jouranl o既 abstract 同網頁都鬥到一份 6000 字o既 journal 出黎，簡直係鬼斧神工，將我呢兩三年浸淫出黎 o既「大學之道」同「撻皮讀書免炒大法」推展到最登峰造極 o既境界。

I don't See

I was not born to be that busy; I was not told to be that crazy about my work in Solar Campus; I was not prohibited to have a sleep or even nap of a reasonably long time; I was not this, I was not that. But why was I? Do I deserve? I don’t think so. Does it what I wish? I don’t know.

I appear to keep on doing something I had thought to be ridiculous and impractical. “On 9” is commonly used by me as an excellent adjective for the description on most of the persons who in many cases fail to side with my points of view. The notion that girls are “on 9” has been firmly sealed into my skull since the stunning speech about this was delivered by my social work in Form 6, which in turn has been advocated by many of my friends (that's why they're still my friends). He is fucking right. Anyway, if based on my concept of thinking in the past, what I have been doing in Solar Campus are amazingly “on 9”. Well, I forgot what I thought actually. I forgot many thing, such as my dream, my belief, my friends, as well as my personality, all of which I personally had very much appreciated for long. I am now old (but not matured) enough to think about my future, and yet nothing seems to be critical in my eyes. Money is nothing to me. What I in fact am calling for seems to be a happy life. Unfortunately, happiness is nothing less than a kind of luxury for a person like me. Friendship is the sole element I could find which is somehow able to contribute to a relatively happy life. But at this moment, even though friends don’t leave me, I do. I fail to manage the thing in front of me, or in my hands. I can't see why. I don't see either.

At night, the sky should be dark.

完結篇

現在，在我的生命中，一切皆了結，甚麼都完了。

在這一刻，我只想睡一睡 ......

- The End -

Fishery Trip

今日fishery 要去香港仔出 trip。漁類批發市場鬼死咁 dirty，又臭又濕 ~ 睇埋d 無謂野 ~ 又去街市，痴線囉簡直，哂晒我地d 時間。

出面超熱，咁鬼晒但cornish o係度教我地點認漁船，佢都 on9 o既 !!! 睇相咪得囉，上網大把啦~ 清楚十萬倍 ! 佢o係度指黎指去都唔知佢講邊條船 !

好彩食左個超正o既 lunch，成班去飲茶 !!! 勁開心 !!! 我仲同索女 nancy 坐添, 嘿嘿嘿 ~~~ cornish 叫我地 2 點鐘準時集合，佢都傻o既 ~ 根本無人理佢囉，個個都食到肚滿腸肥，成兩點半先離開茶樓， hahahah !!! 呢d就係ENS o既不朽精神 ~~~

今晚又要開會囉 solar campus，不過o個勢都出晒黎，做得好喇各位 buddies !!!

望穿秋水o既新年又到 lu，勁開心，新年不嬲都係最過癮最輕鬆o既佳節。又會見到 d 好耐冇先過o既親友，又有利是痘，而我又唔使理份dissert 喎，正 !!!!

Ecology of Babblers

我終於寫完我份論文喇 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! 好激動呀我而家 !!!!!
超開心呀 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 哈哈哈哈 !!!!
一共 6200 字 ! 69 個 refernce (真正睇過o既少過15個) ! 晒左成百個鐘頭 ! 勁 !!!!
fuck you, babblers ~~~~

Ecology of Babblers

ABSTRACT
There are 257 species of babblers, the family Timaliidae, in the world, most of them dwelling in Oriental and Africa and some in Australia. Babblers have been noticed for their morphological and ecological diversity, and hence results in particular difficulties in their problems of systematics. Population of babblers has a complex sociality and many of them exhibit cooperative behavior which was deeply investigated along with some of the basic facts of their ecology. Despite the reasonable amount of studies about babbler so far, they are rather scattered and inconspicuous, which might be due to the difficulty in its taxonomy and diversity. Global threat on babblers is mild, whilst some local severe cases do exist anyway. Many of 14 babblers in Hong Kong are invasive birds and most are resident.


1 Introduction
1.1 What is Babblers
The babblers, family Timaliidae, is an important group of Old World insectivorous passerines (Sibley and Monroe 1990). There are 257 species of babblers in the world, in all incorporating 11 genera, distributed for the most part in Central and eastern Eurasia, Africa, Madagascar, Philippines, East Indies and Australia (Austin 1987). Virtually most of the babblers are restricted in the Old World, but with a single sole exception, the Wrentit (Chamaea fasciata) (see below), which appears in North America. Due to many of the passerine families, the babblers do not have diagnostic morphological characters. The morphological features of the group of babbler are generally the lack of a distinct juvenile plumage, shape and size heavier than the warblers (Sylviidae), in particularly legs and bill, as well as sexes alike in most species (Ciblis et al. 2002).

Moreover, behavioral characters are another cue used by systematists to define them as a group. The high degree of sociality of these non-migratory birds is the most significant feature, manifesting themselves in lots of ways. They usually gather in flocks and parties. Some species are cooperative breeders. Members of a population of most babbler species clump together while perched during the day and when roosting at night, with mutual preening observed in quite many species. The family is named as babbler owing to its babbling chatter and noisiness of some relatively sociable members, in particular the genus Turdoides, with many of them being fine songsters. Regardless of such similarities in nature, the babblers exhibit great morphological and ecological diversity. Being so variable and diverse, the family looks like a great collection of many different unrelated species at the first sight. New forms of babblers are still being described (Gonzales and Kennedy 1990). All these result in a complicated situation in the systematics of babblers and create troubles to systematists concern.

Babblers belong to the Aves class, order Passeriformes, and the Timaliidae family. But sorting out the phylogeny of babblers has all along been a challenge of systematists and there is particular difficulty in the systematics of babbler and some related members of the Old World insectivorous passerines. And yet in recent years there have been quite a lot of discoveries by means of molecular bases (Barhoum and Burns 2002; Barhoum and Burns et al. 2002; Cibois 2003; Cibois et al. 1999; Cibois et al. 2001; Cibois et al. 2002). In the long term progress of systematics of babblers, some species have been found to be wrongly included or excluded in the group. For example, laughingthrushes are now proved to be a sister taxa to all other babblers; two other oscine taxa, Sylvia (Sylviidae) and Zosterops (Zosteropidae), which was traditionally considered as poorly related to the Timaliidae family, has been recently found ought to be included in the babbler assemblage; The Shrike Babblers (Pteruthius) and the Gray-chested Thrush Babblers (Kakamega pliothorax) are the examples of species traditionally included among babblers but actually not related to the Timaliidae (Cibois 2003); the Malagasy “babblers” should not have been considered related to true African and Asian babblers, nor should Asian White-bellied Yuhina (Yuhina zantholeuca) have been, which the analysis by Cibois (2002) suggested not to be monophyletic with genus Stachyris. The Some molecular markers of sequence of mitochondrial genes by DNA hybridization work have been used to clarify the evolution of the complex babbler group (Barhoum and Burns 2002; Cibois et al. 2002; Cibois 2003; Sibley and Ahlquist 1990). Contributions made by Alice Cibois and other previous molecular researches allow us to have a more accurate insight into the limits of this family. The high similarity in size, shape and behavior between “real” babblers and the “false” ones is probably the result of convergent evolution.

1.2 About this essay
The study of babblers is still very inconspicuous, and so far there is no a single “family book” covering babblers. Among all species of this family, Arabian babbler (Turdoides squamiceps), which is a group territorial, communally breeding thrush-like babbler, occurring in Israel, is most intensively studied.

This essay is called “ecology of babblers”. In this essay, besides some general information of physiology, diet, habitat, etc., the most interesting part of social behaviors of babblers will be fairly discussed. Due to the inconspicuousness and scatteredness of the study of babblers, it would be advisable to cite various species as examples in cases. Moreover merely true babblers will be mainly focused on, instead of some non-babbler groups like the family of Australo-Papuan babblers (Pomatostomidae), also called Pseudo-babblers, with totally 5 species including Gray-crowned Babbler (Pomatostomidae Temporalis).

2 Physiology
2.1 Morphology
The members of the babblers are ranging in size from 3.5 to 16 inches (9 to 41 centimeters), while their colors vary from the plain browns and grays of many babblers to the warm red and yellow of the Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea), a native species of southern Asia introduced in the Hawaiian Islands (Walters 1994). Most of them can sing very charmingly, but all species of fulvetta have rather subdued plumage. The babblers, through evolution, need not wings to find food virtually, resulting in their awkwardness in flight. Instead, babblers have the strong legs and bill. Strong legs facilitate their motions of hopping and walking in the forest scrub. The leg musculature of babblers is packed tightly together and muscularly developed, whilst no outstanding deviations from the order Passeriformes are observed (Jayasree and Mathew 1992). One of the prominent features of musculature is the disparity in the degree of fusion and intermingling of the bellies and fibres of the various thigh and shank muscles, probably related to the energetic movements of their legs. The difference in habitats may have attributed to the variation in patterns of the leg muscles among species of babblers.

Babblers’ feathering is often lax and soft. They possess a pair of short, rounded wings with ten primaries, as well as an unusually long tail for a flying bird (Gilliard 1958). Therefore the babblers fail to be great fliers. They usually perform short flights that are low in dense vegetation, or flights of as low as 50m over open ground between shrubs and clumps.

Unlike thrushes (of Turdidae family), many of which are superficially resemble to one another, the juveniles of babblers are normally not spotted. Bills of babblers are more robust than those of Sylvidae (Fauvettes), the closest relatives of babblers. Some have specialized shape of bills. For example, Scimitar-babblers, in the genus Pomatorhinus, work among leaf litter with their long decurved bill.

2.2 Energy Expenditure
Some variables like resting metabolic rate (RMR), existence energy (EE), heat increment of feeding (HIF) and filed metabolic rate (FMR) are data often investigated to determine the energy expenditure and its component in babblers. The energy expenditure of babblers proved to be adjusting within day and between seasons.

Most of the studies about metabolism were associated with Arabian Babblers. For example, it is found that their variation of FMR and EE of non-breeding individuals between winter and summer are due to activity, chiefly foraging and thermoregulatory cost in free-living birds (Anava et al. 2003); and breeding babblers required more than non-breeding ones. The difference in seasonal daily field metabolic rate is suggested to be the result of a variations in daytime metabolic rate, while during the different seasons, night-time metabolic rate is similar (Anava et al. 2002). Energy expenditure of Arabian Babbler is more or less the same as other desert bird species but not as high as that of non-dessert species.

Furthermore, the group size of babblers may exert a significant influence on their field metabolic rate. For instance, the Arabian Babblers’ groups comprise both adults and helpers and are generally made up of 3 to 5 individuals. All members in the group feed nestlings at similar rates and the rates of individual visitation drop with an increasing group size. FMR of primary females declines with group size, resulting in energy savings which allow primary females in larger groups to initiate a new nest sooner (Anava et al. 2001).
2.3 Growth
Babbler nestlings have a relatively high growth rate than other passerine species do, but not fledgling mass (Anava et al. 2001 b). In Whiteheaded Babblers (Turdoides affinis), with some sources calling it Yellow-billed Babblers, the low growth rate is compensated by the long fledging period and care by many parents (Jayashree et al. 1997). The earlier fledging, moreover, allow the species to obtain more food under the protection of their parents. Among some species of babblers, the young are accompanied by their parents for one to two years. Generally, the amount of accumulation of energy intake inside tissue in babbler nestlings decrease with age while energy content per gram of body mass increase with age.

2.4 Others
The enzyme Lgulonolactone oxidase (GLO) is always needs for the synthesis of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in animals. This enzyme exists in all non-passerine birds, but the reacquisition of GLO is surprisingly apparent in babblers (Corliss 1998). In additions, there is no direct relation between the brain size of babblers and the complexity of social play among genera within taxa (Bond et al. 2003).


3 Geographical Distribution
3.1 Habitats
Babblers are non-migratory birds. Almost all babblers occur in woodland or forest, though those in drier areas may occupy sparsely wooded expanses, often with a scattering of copses as well as small thickets (Stuart and Stuart1999). Most of the babblers are sedentary, elusive birds and hard to observe in the forest; they loiter near and on the bottom of the forest or among bushes in scrubby grasslands (Gilliard 1958). Their nests are built in trees, wooded areas, on rock ledges, on the ground, or within a few feet of it (Walters 1994). The structures are usually in dome-shape with some cup-shaped. In breeding season babblers strongly prefer having their nests built close to the ground, where can be well hidden from enemies. Their nests are often made of lichens, skeleton leaves and even spiders’ webs. Some 30 species are open-country birds in the genus Turdoides, while some are marsh birds but most do appear in open scrub of thorn or savanna, where babblers travel in small family parties. They are usually singing and leap-frogging with each other as moving swiftly from one bush to another and so, making the whole party exhibits to be “rolling” across the plain. A lot of Asian babbler pairs in fact mate for whole life and are completely resident, meaning that they spend entire lives within merely a few acres of scrub.

Habitat partitioning mechanisms of certain blabbers have been studied. For example, Black-lored Babblers (Turdoides sharpie) live in open areas with sparingly dispersed small trees and short ground vegetation cover, while Arrow-marked Babblers (Turdoides jardineii) can only be found in shorelines with dense trees and ground vegetation cover (Gole 2002).

Inhabiting hot, dry deserts, Arabian Babblers have its own physiological strategies for the habitat of extreme deserts. The lower critical temperature and conductance of Arabian Babblers are both relatively high, indicating a better adaptation to hot habitats due to the better capability of heat loss (Anava et al. 2001 c). Nevertheless, other changes including plumage, circulatory and activity modification must occur in order to drive away more heat and lessen the production of heat under the situation of increasing air temperature, which are still unclear.

White-browed Babblers (Pomatostomus superciliosus) performs territorial behaviors including calling displays and chases, resulting in the group division. These two territorial behaviors occur solely in the breeding season. The absence of territorial behaviors during the non-breeding season would be linked to limitation of food supplies during the summers (Gale 2002). Structured population of many babblers make up of various levels of organization, including groups, social neighbourhoods, local population neighbourhood and metapopulations. However, these structural units generally do not have discrete boundaries; the structure of their occupied landscape turns out to be the determining factor affecting these indiscrete boundaries (Cale 2003).

For those species living in hot, dry environmental conditions and with unpredictable food supplies such as Arabian Babblers in deserts, two physiological variables, field metabolic rate (FMR) and water influx rate (WIR) are considerably responsive to environmental fluctuations and hence are useful for examining its adaptations to extreme environments (Anaval et al. 2000).

4 Diet and Foraging Behavior
4.1 Diet of Babblers
Fruit, insects (or other small animals without backbones) and some seed are the general diet of babblers. Many of the insect species eaten by babblers are pests consuming common crops or stored grains (Dhindsa et al. 1995). Arabian Babblers, inhabiting extreme deserts of Israel, consume invertebrates and fruits (Anaval et al. 2000); the availability of invertebrates and fruit there is fine throughout the year, and their amounts depend on rainfall which is virtually highly unpredictable as mentioned. To sustain their life, babblers have to spend most of their time on the ground to seek food; they are bounding along, researching through leaf litter, probing into soil and turning over such small objects as cowpats, stones or sticks; on the ground they knock over large objects by inserting their bills beneath them and pushing forward and upward. Most babblers are arboreal but some are terrestrial in their foraging behavior (Stuart and Stuart1999).

4.2 Foraging efficiency
Ecologists frequently make used of food-supplementation experiments to investigate the influence of food availability on timing of other activities such as breeding (Boutin 1990). It is suggested that supplemented food contributes to the alleviation of energetic constraints on reproduction (Perrins 1970), consequently boosting laying by supplying energy for reproduction which is unavailable from local resources. There are generally three sources of energy supply of birds for reproduction: increase energy intake, reduce energy spent on other activities, or use somatic stores (Walsberg 1983). Furthermore, the great amount of supplemental food, the great sentinel effort of babblers (Wright et al. 2001). Since supplemented babblers forage more efficiently than the others, they can shift time from foraging to vigilance with approximately the same food consumption rates. Despite the point that the energy of provided food may not be equivalent of that of natural one, this can reduce their risk of predation (Arthur et al. 2003), suggesting that resource predictability may be an indication for the appropriate timing of breeding.

FMR and WIR of babblers are generally lower than other bird species, but, in particular Arabian Babblers, are more or less the same as those of other desert birds. The higher water content of the dietary intake contributes to the higher WIR in winter than in summer. Moreover, babblers consume a relatively energy-rich diet in summer and water-rich diet in winter (Anava et al. 2000)

4.3 Food Division
One of the crucial aspects of parental care is nestling provisioning in most studied avian species, babblers included. It is apparent that food division is negatively correlated with the order of hatching, and many last-hatched nestlings can be found dead in nests due to starvation (Ostreiher 1997). The phenomenon of feeding preference can hardly be observed between an adult and a particular nestling. The reason is that food division is chiefly determined by the severe competition among nestlings, rather than by the preference of parents. The parents, and not to say helpers, will never interfere with their nestlings to spoil the competition, nor do they prevent siblicide. Ostreiher (1997) found that feeders of Arabian Babblers feed randomly the nestling, particularly which most effectively draws their attention at the right time. As a result, the factor determining food division among the nestlings is probably the consequence of nestling competition. Nestling competition is in turn significantly relying on the feeding-space strategy. Two feeding spaces around nestlings are defined and they defend them by means of pushes against one another if necessary (Ostreiher 1999). Siblings in nests are able to obtain similar amounts of food within exclusive feeding spaces which are equal in size, while within shared feeding spaces, on the contrary, feeding rates increase with feeding-space size and decrease with hatching order. Preventing nest mates from obtaining food from feeders can simply be interpreted as defending a feeding space that moves with the nestlings and is an individual-space defense in babblers.

5 Social Behavior
5.1 General Sociality
Babblers enjoy traveling in troops, squeak, churring and babbling. Social reunions and assembling in flocks when not in breeding characterize most of the babblers. Babblers are so lively that they cluster together on a roost, preening one another and playing the music of babbling songs. In breeding season, the groups of babblers split into pairs and keep watching on their territory. Encountering enemies, they will defend themselves, or pairs may gather together with flock in other groups.

Small babblers like Chestnut-tailed Minla (Minla strigula) can be found in mixed species flocks or isolated pairs inside the forest (Roberson 2001). Numerous babblers are in small family parties perennially and are known as co-operative breeders (see below), while individuals in lots of species may clump or huddle together firmly when roosting and loafing. Populations of babblers have a complex social hierarchy. Primarily, the ranking system is the base regarding both age and sex, under which males tend to take precedence over females, and older birds over younger ones.

5.2 Breeding
The colors of babbler’s two to seven eggs are various; those of the large species are generally unspotted while the smaller ones often lay spotted eggs, one example being Chestnut-backed Jewel Babbler (Ptilorrhoa castanonota) giving eggs with russet blotches (Walters 1994). Incubation done by both sexes or female alone usually starts after the last egg has been laid so as to broods hatch almost synchronously, with for example 6 to 34 hours passing between hatching of the first and last chicks in Arabian Babblers (Ostreiher 1999).

As for the hatching order and nestling location in the nest, it was found that feeders tend to feed closer nestlings more frequently than those further away, and straight ahead instead of sideways. In the open circular nest of babblers like Arabian Babblers, the positions of adult feeders are not predictable and equally distributed around the nest. The nest’s architecture of babblers exerts a great influence in food distribution among the nestlings, and can help reduce inequalities in the sibling’s abilities to obtain food (Ostreiher 2001). In some species like Large Grey Babblers (Turdoides malcolmi), all the adult family members involve in the nest construction (Gupta and Midha 1997)

Reproduction by subordinates is not common but predictable (Lundy et al. 1998). In Arabian babbler, for example, subordinate males who sire young are more likely to be recent dispersers from their groups which they were born or members of newly formed groups that subordinates who do not reproduce.

Normally, group size of babblers is positively correlated with the territory size. Nevertheless, for example in Arrowmarked Babblers (Turdoides jardineii), neither group size nor territory size is related to the number of nestlings raised by a group, and an extra amount of adults in a group may not promote the reproductive output of the breeding pair, at a time when they, however, help in defence and enlargement of their territory saturated habitat (Kemp et al. 1995).

5.3 Cooperative Behavior
While this framework of sociality is as rigid as in other forms of wildlife, in fact, at the same time another system is operating. The social status of individuals is variable and changes over time depending on their own management, even though individuals are of the same sex and age. For instance, some impoverished people refused to apply for public assistance because of shame; similarly, subordinate babblers may refuse to be fed by another even in starvation, since being a recipient of goodness lowers its social status. Instead, subordinate babblers are spending as much time as they could feeding the young so that their status could be raised. Meanwhile, the individual flies away less frequently when a dominant bird is present at the nest. If it does not fly away, the dominant helper will display a non-aggressive motion of social status to ward it off by preening it (Hunt 1999).

Competition for sentinel job opportunity is apparent in cooperative babblers. Certainly the alpha male is the one staying at a top branch as a sentinel. It is interesting to learn that sometimes it will leaves his position and be substituted by a less dominant one, but he will then address to and relieve the substitute of his duties by feeding him when he wants the position back. All in all, babblers are generally unfriendly to those who reciprocate, and they are likely to make benefits from doing giving by itself rather than receiving. It is easy to realize the mechanism of altruism in terms of natural section since such kinds of activities lead to direct benefit. Even though some example of altruism with reciprocity in some vertebrates, it seems no longer to be a controversial conclusion that so-called altruism in babblers is merely a simple selfish action (Zalavi 2000).

5.3.1 Cooperative Breeding, Parents & Helpers
During cooperative breeding, helpers are providing parental care for the young which are not theirs. Cares are provided usually in terms of food, but other forms of care are also common like nest construction, territorial defense, incubation and defense from predators. For example, in Large Grey Babblers, all the adult family members take part in nest construction, incubation and feeding the young (Cupta and Midha 1997).


In cooperative babblers, a group territory is defended by both a dominant pair and their offspring from previous years, some of which might also help raise the current young. The young thus gain living space for up to some years, and yet help with territory defence and chick care. This form of system can be observed in some resident species, probably occupying their habitats to saturation, without space for a separate non-breeding sector. The Arabian Babbler is a well-studied example (Newton 1998). The parents gain in fitness by allowing offspring to stay with them until they are capable of acquiring own territories. With the help received from helpers, therefore, the parents are able to raise more young than they could be independently; it may not be advisable to for the young to instantaneously disperse into a habitat which is already saturated with other territory-owners, so these young are then supposed to live better by staying with their parents until an optimal time to leave (Newton 1998). The system of assistance provided by helpers is best developed in babblers of the genus Turdoides (Stuart and Sturat 1999).

Non-breeding helpers raise young produced by dominant breeding ones. While kin selection (by which individuals make indirect benefits to fitness by aiding collateral relatives) chiefly contributes to the evolution of cooperative breeding, more and more evidence reveals that there might be no close relation between the helpers and the young (Clutton 2002). It is suggested there may have been overestimations in the indirect benefits of cooperative behavior, whilst the direct benefits of helping to the help’s fitness have been underestimated in all probability. The mechanism of evolution keeping breeding cooperative are likely to be diverse; in some species such as Arabian Babblers the direct benefits of helping is sufficient to maintain cooperative societies in the view of evolution.

The trade-off between fitness returns from current versus future reproduction could determine the optimal degree of parental investment (Trivers 1972). Moreover, when care is provided by two parents, optimal degree of investment also depends upon collaborator work rates. Individual compensatory adjustments in nestling-feeding effort of both parents and helpers are according to the work rates of collaborator (Wright and Dingemanse 1999). Individual babblers are expected to make the most of their fitness by making their chick-feeding effort only on broods which contain closely related nestlings. But Wright (1999) concluded from the three measures of relatedness, i.e. DNA fingerprint, group histories and observed information on relatedness in Arabian babblers, that individual birds have surprisingly no access to sufficient information regarding the variation existing in their own genetic relatedness to the brood, while it may make efforton relatives by simply feeding any nestlings that exist in the territory of theirs.

Helpers would compete with one another for feeding nestlings and young fledglings by stealing each other’s food and taking it to the young, so as to raise their social status as discussed. Helping-at-the-nest produces a positive and linear effect on breeding success in babblers, and the provisioning effort needed of other group members can be largely reduced (Wright 1998). Although quite some species are practicing community breeding, most of their breeding habits and rituals are still unclear.

5.3.2 Mobbing
For a prey, the normal reaction when it encounters a predator is to run away straight or hide itself, but when the unlucky prey has no other choices, it tends to retort. In babblers, likes some other species of birds and fishes, the prey group groups together and approach the predator, in which mobbing is a noisy form of behavior where birds approach and chase away predators if possible. However, the costs of approaching a predator are never insignificant, some examples being death, time investment, wastage of energy, advantage for others who do not accompany, etc. It is therefore surprising why babblers mob at all. There must be benefit in mobbing, and otherwise babblers adopting this behavior would have failed to pass on the ability to their offspring. The mobbing allows babblers to remove the advantage of surprise on which many predators depend to make a kill, and to facilitate the acquirement of information about the nature of the threat (an assessing behavior), and it turns out to be less dangerous when the number of group member increases (Arnon et al.1998)

Additionally, mobbing has its social function (Dreher 2002). It was recently proved in Arabian Babblers that a much more absorbing benefit of mobbing is self-advertisement (Maklakov 2002). Research shows that in babblers where both parents look after the offsprings, the males tend to take more risk in mobbing. Virtually approaching the predator more vigorously contributes to the image of its strength and ability to chase away predator, attracting females for further broods, while mobbing in the absence of an audience or additional participants reveals that this is basically a selfish behavior (Ostreher 2003).

One of the major differences between babblers and other passerines in terms of mobbing is that babblers live in relatively stable groups of familiar and mostly related individuals (Hultsch et al. 1999). Individual who is far away may attain information from the signal of calling about the type of threat facing, and as a result they are able to assess the situation before they try to approach or decide not to approach. In addition, each specific call may increase the future vigilance of group members with regard to particular types of predators.

5.4 Communication
Babblers, just like most of other birds, produce sounds to communicate with one another. In order to deal with communication sounds of babblers, the traditional measure is to consider every type of vocalization in the babbler repertoire as a kind of signal. There is moreover a strong linkage between communication and mobbing mentioned.

5.4.1 Alarm calling & predator discrimination
Many babblers have their own specific call types responsing to predators. Mobbing also involves different call types and in turn provide information on various predator-induced situations in the group, for one, in Arabian Babblers short metallic-sounding “tzwick” implies a higher risk or urgency than long trills, and different combinations of both call types probably provide grade (Hultsch et al. 1999). Moreover, babblers may have some distinct classes of alarm call in response to potential predators. For example, Arabian Babblers use three distinct types of alarm call, namely “Pshews”, “tsits” and “trills”. Pshews are referred to flying avain predators as well as escape behavior, while tsits implies terrestrial predators and approach-mobbing heavier, and trills are linked with perched avian predators and monitoring behavior (Regosin 2002). But it is found that sometimes the babbler alarms do not have any stimulus specificity of externally referential signals.

One of the vocal expressions is called the ‘shout’. As mentioned, some babblers are a social bird and live in groups to defend territories against other groups. The vocal repertoire of some babblers involves some twenty various vocal expressions, in which the shout is the most widespread one (Katsir 1995). In many situations like fighting, shouts are being emitted by those in the position of sentinel from the nest, resulting in a chain of ‘syllables’ with pause in between. Never are the chains the same in terms of numbers, curves of frequency, duration and intensity of each syllable over time, not even for the same single individual. As a result, every single performance of shout is interpreted as a variation and there is a connection between the acoustical-musical structure of the variation and babblers’ behavior, suggesting that the existence of such variations in babbler shout may be critically important for communication.

5.5 Sentinel behavior
Sentinel behavior appear in many forms of wildlife, including babblers. It was found that such a kind of so-called “cooperative” behavior turns out to be simply the result of individually selfish anti-predator strategies (Wright 1997; Khazin et al. 2001; Mathew and Zacharias 1998). Despite the selfish anti-predator strategies, there is little solid evidence that individuals compete for the opportunity to engage in sentinel in order to advertise their status and gain social prestige. In many babblers, the sentinel activity of simple family groups is generally the same; there are no differences in rates of alarm calling between group members, while more territorial calls are made by dominant males to neighbouring groups during sentinel. Besides, individual state has proven to be the determining factor of the effort of sentinel within groups, with no evidence for competitive sentinel behavior between males (Wright 2001).

5.6 Interesting Behavior
When calling and displaying, many babblers spread and depress the tail feathers and expose the rump with fanned wings held downwards and quivering. Some babblers also display certain forms of unusual and interesting behaviors.

The Arabian Babblers exhibit the “morning-dance” on the ground beside a bush. The dancers, who may include the whole group of adults and immature birds, stand alternately in a row and gather into a tight ball, whilst individuals tend to force themselves repeatedly into middle of the row or the center of the clump. They sometimes keep playing for half an hour. The frequency of morning-dance moreover is affected by the presence and behavior of observers (Osztreiher 1995). When they discover water, these babblers drink and bathe, and then engage in a “water dance” which is different from morning play; it is apparently not a performance which helps dry their plumage, since bunching together will slow down evaporation, and even those who have not bathed may join in the “water dance” after some bathers have started it (Skutch 1996).

Alloreening characterizes the Whiteheaded Babblers. The merits of this unique behavior among babblers are to help make themselves less aggressive and promote mutual relationship between individuals and therefore group integration (Mathew and Zacharias).

Jungle Babblers (Turdoides striatus) are often called “the Seven Sisters” because they are usually observed in groups of seven, of course not always, but there is certainly a strong tendency toward the number seven (Corliss 1998). Jungle Babblers, furthermore, perform two forms of vigorous play. One is “rough and tumble”, which was a tussle between two or more babblers. Some of them will lay passively on the ground, while others roll on top of them and peck them intentionally and yet softly. Most of the participants are younger than one year old. The second play is “mad flights” in which one or several fly rapidly without definable purposes obviously. They twist and turn wildly among the branches of a tree. Other babblers like the Large Gray Babblers (Turdoides malcolmi) and Arabian Babblers play similar vigorous games (Skutch 1996).

The Whiteheaded Babblers perform allopreening to help reduce aggression and promote group integration. Allopreening, clumping and sentinel system, together with the large repertoire of vocalizations are likely to facilitate consolidation of the group and coordination of movement of babblers (Mathew and Zacharias 1998).

6 Threat
According to BirdLife International (2005), 6 out of 257 species of all babblers have been categorized as “endangered”, without any recorded extinction so far. The 6 species are Rufous-breasted Laughingthrush (Garrulax cachinnans), Collared laughingthrush (Garrulax yersini), Negros Striped-babbler (Stachyris nigrorum), Flame-templed Babbler (Dasycrotapha speciosa), White-throated Mountain-babbler (Kupeornis giberti) and Grey-crowned Crocias (Crocias langbianis). In fact, there have been a few studies on some others babblers considerably concerned locally and globally.

Hinde’s Babblers (Turdoides hindei) is a scarce, globally and species under threat, which is also endemic to central Kenya, and in fertile, moist land largely cleared for agriculture, but retaining some thicket cover. The Hindle’s Babblers in both situations normally stay near streams and rivers. But they are now facing the problems of widespread clearance of thicket resulting from skyrocketing human population and therefore the increasing demand for agricultural land. Worse still, remaining thickets are become more and more isolated. It is suggested this turns out to be a great impact on Hinde’s Babblers because they are not flexible in the habitat choice. For example, the high dependence of Hinde’s Babbler on Lantana thickets means it is strongly susceptible to further habitat loss (Njorge et al. 1998). Hinde’s Babblers are now classified as globally vulnerable. But merely 8% of the known population are found inside legally protected areas at this moment and the global population is suggested to be as low as 1,500 individuals (Shaw et al. 2003).

The problem of habitats fragmentation has been concerned as a threat on babblers. The behavior of White-browed Babbler groups produces a significant influence on the dynamics of local populations, and probably affects the persistence of the local population within fragmented landscapes. Group dynamics is essential to persist its local populations, particularly in landscapes facing habitat loss and fragmentation. In Australia the tendency to give general prescriptive management guidelines derived from comparative babbler assemblage studies is not capable to recognize the spatially explicit nature of population dynamics as well as the role that species’ specific behaviors on those dynamics. It is therefore crucial to determine the unique characteristics of the landscapes and the species being concerned so as to generate prescriptive management guidelines (Cale 2003).

7 Babblers in HK
14 species of true babblers, including both laughingthrushesand and Yuhina, has so far been recorded in Hong Kong: Streak-breasted Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus ruficollis), Rufocus-capped Babbler (Stachyris ruficeps), Chinese Babax (Babax lanceolatus), Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush (Garrulax pectoralis), Black-throated Laughingthrush (Garrulax chinensis), White-browed Laughingthrush (Garrulax sannio), Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea), Vinous-throated Parrotbill (Paradoxornis webbianus), Masked Laughingthrush (Garrulax perspicillatus), Hwamei (Garrulax canorus), Siver-eared Mesia (Leothrix argentauris), Blue-winged Minla (Minla cyanouroptera), White-bellied Yuhina (Yuhina zantholeuca), Striated Yuhina (Yuhina castaniceps) (HKBWS 2005), among which the first 8 species are, or have been, listed in the category defined as “Southeast China breeding species, the established or formerly established Hong Kong population of which is considered to be derived from captive stock, but which probably occurred in Hong Kong prior to anthropogenic habitat changes” (Carey et al. 2001).

All of the babblers found in Hong Kong are resident, with a sole exception of Striated Yuhina, being an irruptive winter visitor, although there are a small number of escaped or released birds obverted. All breeds mainly or fully within the Oriental region, but none of them are endemic to Hong Kong. 10 out of the 14 babblers are considered to have been established in Hong Kong by means of human agency as a kind of invasion since 1860 (Corlett and Leven 2004). The reason for their invasion was probably due to being released from cages. Babblers are noted for its noisiness and their owners might have been tired of their noisy pets and therefore gave them up by release. Nowadays, those who have already well-established include Streak-breasted Scimitar-babbler, Rufous-capped Babblers, Greater Necklaced and Black-throated Laughingthrushes, with a rapidly expanding population in both forest and shrubland (Carey et al. 2001). Hwamei, which somewhat characterize the shrubland in Hong Kong, seems to be the most well-known common name of babblers to Guangdong people, in particular senior bird owners.

8 Conclusion
Babblers are a family comprising species with both diverse morphology and ecology. In spite of this, the babbling and sociality, especially cooperative behavior, characterize this family of bird. It is apparent that the core of the sociality of babblers is their cooperative behaviors, involving cooperative breeding, mobbing and sentinel, all of which are highly associated with the communication between members, under the principle of fitness (or selfishness) as a basic. The amount of investigations and studies about babblers seems reasonable but terribly scattered, probably due to their variability between genera. One of the main problems is that the taxonomy and systematics of babblers has long been in chaos, acting as a kind of burden hindering the understanding of this bird. In general, whilst the threat on babblers is not very high, some more appropriate measures ought to be stepped up in order to deal with the problems local. In fact, the first step, or the step kept path with, is to promote a more rapid research on the babblers relatively concerned such as Hinde’s Babblers. In Hong Kong, babblers are mainly invasive birds and their local ecological values are unclear or just not significant.

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Lundy, K. J., Parker, P. G. and Zahavi, A. 1998. Reproduction by subordinates in cooperatively breeding Arabian babblers in uncommon but predictable. Behavioral-Ecology-and-Sociobiology. 43(3): 173-180
Maklakov, A. A. 2002. Snake-directed mobbing in a cooperative breeder: Anti-predator behavior or self-advertisement for the formation of dispersal coalition?. Behavioral-Ecology-and-Sociobiology 52 (5): 372-378
Mathew, D. N. and Zacharias, V. J. 1998. Behaviour of the whiteheaded babbler Turdoides affinis Jerdon. Journal-of-the-Bombay-Natural-History-Society 95 (1): 8-14
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心中刺

dissert 簡直係我心入面一條刺，我一定要o係呢兩日入完全 ko 呢份野佢，唔係都會好唔安樂 !!!!

頂 ~~~~ 好似改極都改唔完咁o既 ??!!! why ????!!!!

<<超人特工隊>>

禽晚去 greenpeace office 開會，好多人冇黎，但都照傾囉，而阿安哥仔黎左 ~~~ good la。阿興已經整好塊「大學生的聲音」板，係好搶眼喎，well done 啦 ~~~ 開完會一齊去食飯，大家有講有笑，勁開心。其實開會都可以好開心o既，又係一個交換知識o既機會 (弱智恆講 o既，我覺得好岩)，唔係阿彪講到咁晒時間囉其實~~~

禽晚班勁耐冇見o既豬朋狗友漏夜約我睇戲，話睇<<超人特工隊>>，o係旺角，就晒我。所以今朝就出左睇囉。

其實本來 katy 約左我今日睇<<小飛俠前傳>> o既，但後尾發覺我真係冇乜趣興 (i mean 對套戲，hahahaha)，又廢事專登過海咁麻煩啦，所以同佢講話唔睇囉，sorry 呢 >_< ~~~

<<超>>超好睇囉，我覺得仲要比 nemo 好睇少少，都幾搞笑 ~~~ 睇完就坐低吹左陣水，就散lu。

我仲要做 dissert 呢 >_< 救命 !!!!

最後一次開學飯

今日八點就起左身喇，想上我老細corlett o既堂，so far 都未上過 ~~~ haha，但點知架巴士炒車囉，o個架van仔都 on9 o既，亂咁 cut 線，最後搞到我遲到囉，得番兩三個字我梗係唔入去 lecture room 啦，咁外眼，我下午仲要見corlett，比佢點我相咪死?! 所以去左 cc 囉。

跟住上fishery，唔慣上堂，好眼訓，訓著左兩次咁多，但係坐我後面的索女 nancy 篤番醒我，唉，其實比我訓下好過啦 ....

上完fishery 去食開學飯，今個semo係最後一個sem, 所以係最後一次開學飯 ~~~ >_<
不過唔係太多人黎左，但 cynthia 都有黎，good la~

大家不停吹水，影下相咁，如常地和諧啦。不過最後一個sem，有d唔捨得，又好驚 grad，唔想做野呀~~~~~

食完去掛solar campus banner, 之後就見老細 corlett，嘩, 佢癲架 ~~~~~ 拎住我份 draft of draft 好快速望，10秒之後指住一句同我講: " Don't plagiarize. Use your own words. or you'll get 0 marks. " 我啞左囉。唉，佢實在太勁，我大獲喇，rephasing 都 re 到我 pk 啦咁?! 六千字呀 !!!!!!!! 救命 ~~~~

之後落左去打波, 好一場開學波，超開心囉，勁耐冇打波，好"支力"呢而家 >_<

我手寫我心

今日下午，媽媽整左 d 湯丸，問我食唔食，我依依哦哦仲未諗答咩，佢就已經同老豆講：「畢三粒比個仔！」，我冇回應，繼續寫我o既 dissert。

過左兩分鐘，佢地叫我出黎食湯丸，我一次過食了三粒，味道都只係一般，不竟我不太喜歡食甜品。今次係我有記憶以來第一次食湯丸，自自然然的，口味沒有什麼特別，但內裏有點心血來潮，現在心態變了，只想開開心心過活，不要讓任何事情令我不快。

簡簡單單、開開心心、快快樂樂。

在真實的世界裏飛呀，用心體會飛翔的感覺。

對，我要飛起來。

女生鬈起來

突然發現 ens 班女生很多都電鬈頭髮來，我o既睇法只有個：冇o個樣整o個樣

佢地大部份都老左 5 至 10 年，有d仲電個完全唔襯自己o既髮型，結果變左個施奶，可謂弄巧反拙；可能佢地見有d 人電得好睇自己有想試下啦，嘿，笑話。

又係o個句啦，我只係見過一個人電左髮之後o係會好睇左，o個個就係 juno 條女，其它女仔電乜鬼髮丫，好樣衰呀頂 ~~~ 尤其係d本來已經唔靚o個 d，算吧啦 ~ 東施效顰有冇聽過呀?!

雖然說話係難聽 d，但其實係大部份男仔o既心底話，我只不過如常做下羞人。

品學兼休

開左學都有三四日，但我都仲未番過學，是為休學；
我已經成為 ens 班同 solar campus o既邪惡軸心，品行直踩新低，是為休品。

而家我品學兼「休」，禽獸學生莫過於此。

GPA

今日下午三點出左第一個sem o既成績, 2.43, 都幾滿意啦, 其實我只求所有cores 都pass 姐，而家咪得賞所望囉。

billy 都算有人性，EIA呢科冇肥到我，我成份卷都唔識，essay又成條唔知答乜，拎個D都要多謝佢。今個sem 如下：

Chemistry and daily life C (頂佢，握錢o既呢科，得個c)

Advanced language studies in Chinese B+ (都話林光泰d咁o既老師係可遇不可求)

Systematics & Phylogenetics B (我tip中晒，拎係正常；又一次證明上堂係冇用o既)

Environmental toxicology B (我一直怪錯好人，菇菇簡直係再生父母，我咁都拎b)

Pollution and environmental impact assessment D (billy....... 唉，拎 d 其實都幾灰，不過有henry同 juno 陪葬)

Scientific thinking and interesting discoveries C (搵笨啦又係)

Adventure-Based Counselling: theory and practice B+ (一科正到震o既科目，又有得玩，寫兩隻字就 b+)

Critical thinking (C&V) D+ (我都係第一次見braoding 會比 d+人 ...........)


anyway, 大家d成績都好似唔錯，而我o係被solar campus燃燒我gpa o既情況底下都只係差左少少，已經幾滿足 >_< 。

對，知足常樂。

膚淺

我想做好人。

論文呀! 論文!

原來2月7日前要一定要見一見o個老細先，唔係份dissertation就要扣十分喎！所以呢幾日我都不停寫呀寫 (嚴格黎講係抄呀抄)，但難高好高呢，要成六千字，我一份journal都冇睇過 (亦冇打算睇，睇得黎都天黑)，都唔知點嘔六千字出黎。而家唯有用我獨門絕技，斗轉星移，先上網搵料，copy and paste，然後先慢慢搵 reference。嘿 ...... 不過如比corlett知道我可能書都冇得讀。

solar campus o既工作如火如荼，大家都好比心機 ...... 大部份人啦，唉。

2月17，萬眾期待，solar campus一夕成名。

寶安商會王少清中學

「大家好，我叫阿Will，係大家今日o既生態導尚員。」

今日o係嘉道理農場帶左一個中四團，一組黎自王少清中學(o係荃灣的，之前未增聽過)的青春活潑玉女軍(另加一個男生，咁都得? 嘿嘿)；佢地比想像中活躍，之前未帶過咁高年級的團體(最大都係中一)，都驚佢地一隻二隻會鵪鶉咁，擔心冇人show我，得我齋講咁就冇癮啦，我都係志在有人肯聽我吹水姐。

呢班女生團都 okay，肯聽我 "九up" 之餘，不時都會比 feedback我同問下我野。呢團係我做咁耐導尚義工以黎最輕鬆、最開心的一次，又影左百九幾張相，抵到震。跟尾o個個 "NG" sir又潮又趣誌抵死，呢d先係老師黎架嘛，又教英文喎，我不嬲最敬重d英文勁o既人架喇。

帶過咁多團，一般都係比d參加者叫 "阿聰"、"阿sir" (蝦條! sir乜鬼野姐?!我又唔係老師，又唔係差人?!)，都好唔仲意；「哥哥」都好d，o個班弱智o既二年班叫我哥哥，因為佢地實在太可愛，帶得都好開心。而今次第一次比人叫「導遊」，好似好 prof咁添，哈哈，但最高興終於有人肯叫我做阿 Will，我都唔明點解之前我次次自我介紹做阿Will，都冇人肯順下我意咁稱呼我！

對住班o靚妹，先知自己係咁老，不過我心智已經停止長大好耐，可能因為咁，總算同佢地傾得兩咀o既，呵呵。

越黎越發覺自己喜歡做教育工作，Greenpiss o既工作太政治化，始終非吾願。但離開嘉道理，便馬上要回 greenpiss 幫手。Henry大整古，又話得一個學生，去到先知成班鬼仔鬼妹，我地d英文相映成絀，樣衰都震。

之後同Gloria開會，其實只係proposal o既一d小問題，一切都幾順利。原來都知道我都幾大壓力，又擔心我支持唔住，呢d咁o既 supervisor 去邊度搵丫。仲有，我真係好鐘意同大佬Mic一齊做野，佢往往都會令你喜出望外的，的確功德無量。

Last Few Months

真的不想這樣子渡過我大學生涯的最後幾個月，我會後悔一世的......

不想，但又奈何。

Professional

I have been a Professional Environmental Interpreter.

自己好叻咩?!

讀左兩年半大學，又做左大半年 solar campus o既工作，開始有d做人做事o既心德。

每個人o既諗法都唔同，人各有志，千期唔好倚賴其它人，亦唔好expect人地會做好點好點好。人地做得唔好唔足唔夠，咪自己做埋佢囉，如果自己真係咁叻，點解唔做埋佢 jack? 一日到黑係都怨人呢樣o個樣係一個唔正確o既態度。並唔係人人對某 d野都睇得好似自己咁重，你自己都會有d野係唔著緊架啦，只係因為你認為唔重要先至覺得冇野姐，但可能有d人會好介意。所以有口話人之前，諗下自己係咪真係咁 perfect?

It is not the Road

My changeable personality brings me a awful life.

Since after the period of examination, nothing in the world seems capabale to draw my attention, not to say my ambition to engage in. Those complusory for me turn out to be the most discouraging. They include, for example, dissertation as well as Solar Campus. Ecology of Babblers is my ever first piece of dissertation (lengthy essay), which mostly, I guess, require a massive effort. Students who fail to acquire GPA more than 2.7 are supposed to take this course of essay writing, whislt the others would be crazily engrossing in the backbreaking FYP, short for Final Year Project worth 12 credits, costing double credits of the dissertation. Stupid people prefer FYP. That is it. On the other hand, being not a academic course in the university, Solar Campus, by Greenpeace, one of the most noted non-governmental green organization around the world, is another much more frightening task to me. The workload in SC conservatively guessed is just equivalent to a 24 credits in HKU. Never should anyone who have taken charge of something in SC do away with his responsibility or something he is responsible for, which would result in amazingly great discouragement to other people working together. Who without a strong sense of responsiblity and belonging, therefore, had better not join solarcampus as a core member. That's what I always liked to reiterate and hope people can understand beforehand. But today, I have already been discouraged by myself and my own duty since the most acute problems have already arisen, mostly due to my changeable personality. I no longer believe in what solarcampus is doing could help improve the situation of HK, needless to say that of the world. My theory, which Michael seems not able to agree with, is the Earth is on its deteriorating way and soon comes to a disastrous ending, regardless what green-groups, who keep wasting donators' money and material, around the world are calling for. The world nowadays has no more belonged to the nature since the days the crazy experiments and inventions contributed by scientists, who merely have a short-term simply definable propose instead of long-term result. This argument was quoted in my year 1 SCNC essay entitled "why do I NOT want to be a scientist?" and turned in to asshole Prof. Lee Kan Ji. C- was the outcome of my SCNC course, probably because it's no use citing the Bible to a non-christian.

The reason I am spending long time here writing so-called "diary" in English is that I am entitled to take part in the English exam of IELTS in early March next year. Essay writing is one of the major part of the exam. Responding to my informal enquiry, Michael personally adimtted that Essay writing amid the 4 aspects of language capability is likely to be the one which could most reflect a person's strength of English. I think so too. As remember, I said, addressing to Hing, that on the two days of the IELTS exam our English would be at the top in our life, which however, at the same time, acting as a turning point, followed by a significant drop. Both of us smiled, but it is probably true.

My study momentum has been fully broken by my academic conditions. First, I am destined never to obtain a honor of 2nd A, unless my GPA in this final year could be as high as 3.6 in average. I would be very pleased already if I get more than 2.6. Due to this reason, regardless of how much credits I am taking this year, it doesn't help and the situtaion will merely more or less the same. As a result, being adapted to a tappy life of university, I would rather take as less credits as possible. Let's see if I would be allowed to take as less as 18 in the next semister. There are two remaining cord subjects and I will turn out need not go to the campus anymore, so seeking for a postition at present would be very much advisable. Haha. Kiding. Generally, attentions of lectures are never taken as a count of assessment and by evaluating the prior history of courses taken and exminated I dare announce hereby that the exam result is absolutely independent on how long you attend in lectures, how many references or textbook you read, how many emails of enquiry you send to the lecturers, etc. but chiefly depends on your luck and sources you obtain just before the examination. It calls this The Road of University.

It's not the road! (咁唔係路)

Happy Birthday to Katy

It was 25th December, the day on which both Jesus Christ and one of our sexy babies, Pretty Katy, were born. Everybody around were supposed to be glad, enjoying this merry festival, especially Katy’s good friends like us. I got up bright and early. But actually there was none of things for me to do on that day time. Time seems slowed down and no longer flies as quickly as it supposed to be. I sat in front of the television for hours without focusing on anything, merely recalling my past, my old little world, and what I have at that moment from my memory like a sieve.

At about 6 o’clock in the evening, I was phoned and informed that there was a birthday party for Katy held in Juno’s house at night. Participants were supposed to meet at 7 in Mei Fu MRT station. At that moment I was seeing the VCD just borrowed, with a title of “Hana and Alice”. It is a Japanese love film and considerably touching. The two major actresses, who do ballet in many scenarios, are pretty and make the entire movie elegant. Looking up at the clock, I found I could arrive in Mei Fu on time even if I finished the whole movie. After that I went to wash up, got changed and left home.

At 7:05 I stepped out of the train onto the Mei Fu platform. I got Connie there. Being classmates for more than two years, none of us should be surprised by the good news from Connie that the other bitches would come later, some even for more than half an hour. We were there to prepare for the hot-pot dinner at which many food and beverages were needed for some 8 people this time. Connie and I were hanging around with the purpose of locating any shop providing proper kinds of hot-pot food. We found a supermarket but unfortunately it was providing not enough. We consequently took advices from Katy. Eventually two of us came to a shop specific for what we needed. Connie was so insane and was keeping putting products into the basket, no matter what I said. I stopped her at last, at a time which our basket was full with much more than enough food.

People arrived one by one. We came to a cake shop to purchase a “black forest” birthday, which cost $55. It was inexpensive and looked delicious.

We all went up to Juno’s home and were welcome by Juno’s parents. People, excluding I, started preparing all stuff for Katy. Some of them were handling with the dinner, some dealing with presents, some writing “heard-word notebook”.

“Beauty and the Beast” was showing then.

Katy was then invited to come. She lives in Mei Fu as well.
Katy prepared a well-set hair style wining thousands of praises. The dinner then began. It last for a long span of time. People were ingesting at a slow pace just because all of their attention was paid on the Disneyland cartoon movie. Frankly, I love that movie anyway.

Too much food was on the table but people were no longer capable to eat anymore. All of us, except me again, were cleaning up the table in order to be ready for the next part of the party. Light was abruptly turned off, and the birthday cake with candlelight prepared in advice was taken out in a warm and hear-touching atmosphere. Katy was delighted by it. We sang the “happy birthday song”, followed by her blowing the flickering candles out. People turned out to be excited and kept yelling. The cake was divided into pieces and delivered to everyone. Although I decided to be on diet (for my charter 10km), I ate as it was Katy’s birthday cake. There was no point not to eat, even though it is poisoned by Dr. Gu, right?

Here came the most fantastic moment that night. The present prepared by ladies was placed somewhere in the house. The game was that we commanded Katy to seek for her gift, making use of our hints in terms of the frequency of “do-do” sounds we produced. That is, the higher the frequency, the closer to the present she was. Needless to say, she got her present shortly afterwards. It was actually placed under the sofa. The present was a chocolate, a necklace and a pair of earrings. Katy was again delighted.

My present for Katy was myself. But she refused to accept. I made me sick.

Anyway, people were giving great effort, in the hope of Katy’s happy birthday. Hope she can be happy forever.

Hope so.

Merry Xmas

Merely 18 (3 courses time 6 credits each) out of 42 credits in this semister were contributed by cores with compulsory examinations. They were systemtics, toxicology as well as EIA. All of them were harsh courses, according to both of their contents and exam approaches. Motherfucker Dr. Gu turned out to be the most merciful lecturers, who repeated numerious questions the same as last year. The other lecturese (Billy and MK ) faked the repeat, though. But fine. Exam should be like that anyway. People deserve.

Ensian Jackets and Tees were delivered to classmated in Swire once after the end of the exam period. Again I am not satisfied with their quality. Juno and I accompanied Swirians to go upstair taking the products which were temporarily stored in Swire. Most ensian dismissed, with a few of us hanging around. Girls decided to sing k, and boys had to follow. Bill, Michael and Lucky were asked to go to Causeway Bay in advance and open a room. Of course they had no point to rejected. Nancy and I stayed at Katy's pretty room, helping her to deal with some silly but funny "Xmas gifts" for her hallmates. The mission then completed and it was time to go. We arrived in Causeway Bay by bus.

I hereby reiterate: I like singing but dislike Karaoke. Thus I sang least there. Guys contributed a good arrangement. Tickets of the film by Stephan Chow, Kung Fu, were prepared. At 3:30 pm boys went to see the movies, leaving the girls in Karaoke.

Kung Fu is not as good as expected. It is rather short and less funny and has a poor content, but the fighting scenario is amazingly spectacular. Chow, my true idol, has become more and more muscular and cool. I told the guys that I would soon have a body shape just like his. I am on my way to the Charter 10km in the coming early year, setting the target of 45 mins. It is absolutely not an easy task. I am urging Bill, Michael and Hing to accompany me. They seems enthusiastic, even though Bill gets hurt on his leg. I appreciate that so much.

After Kung Fu, guys visited the malls for a while and then dismissed. Dinner was well prepared at home. I miss my little sister, even though she is always with me. She helped me bleach my hair. I turned out to be a MK asshole.

I went to bed at 1:00am and was up at 10:30 am the next morning. Little Sister again helped me dyed my hair. The result was however surprisely poor and we could not find any observable differences between before and after. Damn it. How could I go out with golden hair? I couldn't stand it, not to say my mother. I ordered Little Sister to purchase another dye in black color to deal with my problem. As a result of a considerable amount of effort, time and money, my hair is now much darker than it originally was. That's it. Anyway, I had hair cut myself after that.

That night was Xmas Eve, which appeared to be a happy night. Needless to say, Little Sister were hanging around with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is good actually. I like him quite. I refused to stay home, so I told my mama I was going out. At about 7:00 pm I arrived MK. Thousands of people were walking on the street. I visited this, visited that, without any definable purpose, like a body without a soul.

I am delighted that so many couples are having a merry xmas. That's why Xmas Eve has its merit.

But I found I failed to walk around for more than 2 hours. I went over to MK UA cinema, to see if I was still able to find any seat available. Wow, I noticed that there were 3 empty seats of Kung Fu 9:20pm shown on the screen. I queued up to purchase the ticket. It was my turn after a minute. In front of me there was a ticket-saleslady (actually a BT-like girl) on the counter. Followings were our conversations:

" Kung Fu. 9:20pm, please."
" Sorry that no more Kung Fu available at that time la wor"
" Then when will it be available?"
" Not available up till mid night."
" But I see it's still available for 9:20pm on the screen wor"
" Well, it's actually available. But all are in separation. One by one, individually."
" Um..... I am with myself alone."
" Oh... really sorry, sorry, sorry......" (followed by dozens of apologies.)

I smiled.

想入非非

完全無法集中精神，糊思亂想。

事情往往都會在考試前席發生...... but i deserve

本質不變

我大概明白何謂不能自拔了

My Journey of Adventure Counseling: The Past, Present and Future

Time files and the course of Adventure Based Counseling has come to an end. It’s probably one of my favorite courses I have ever taken in this 2.5-year university life. The course allows me to have real changes, most of which are different. How come changes seem to be different? What does it mean? How does it affect me? Too many things happened. To me it is necessary to figure it out altogether again, just after this period is being over. The course is over, whereas I personally have been ever first push myself onto such a challenging status in mind, representing another milestone appearing in my life.

Relationships of the past, present and future helps in understanding my significant self, including my motivation, feeling, and self-esteem, in order to better give and receive changing in healthy ways. What did I do? What am I doing? What will I do? All these are the question people have to ask themselves. I view the things I did in the past as a contrast to what I have done during adventure. What about beyond adventure? What’s next? The future outcome will always turn out to be the most valuable issue. It is advisable the participants equip themselves for gripping such a precious opportunity to bring themselves one step closer to the dignitarial life, as a result of valuable adventure. So writing this essay has its merit and I think that’s why we are told to do so. I personally interpret this essay as a personal written account, which is more of a mean of expanding and corroborating my individual growth than just a source of data in myself [2]. Writing what I feel allows me to figure out and reveal a greater depth of understanding about my own response to a specific context and to the whole experience.

So what exactly is experience to me? I have been told tens of various definitions. After interpretation I would like to state it as which create, provide and invent knowledge for the future. Why do we long for so-called valuable experience? The valuable experience is viewed as such because it is distinguished from traditional knowledge, which sometimes is attainable by reason alone. It is merely a kind of priori knowledge, whilst knowledge based upon experience is called a posteriori knowledge [3]. The learning from valuable experience could be a bit ideal and it still would be fine. After that I learn what I want, what I need, and what actually I am insisting on. That’s what I could come up with at present. But of course the issues are not just that simple. Experiential learning offers adversity. The appearance of adversity usually turns out to be an expansion of comfort zone, allowing me to rearrange the belief of life and its preference, mending some of my unconstructive habitats, leaving meaningless boundary and persistence, and even making a brand new choice of direction of life and focus. In the past, the faith on my religion was not that tough. The situation had not been changed regardless of how much related books read. I was tired of figuring it out, just because I lacked one single element in my concept i.e. the faith, which is able to solidify my religionary knowledge, concepts, ideas. I emphasize it as the high peak experience in this short journey of adventure based counseling.

Debriefing the experience is to shift an experience beyond just learning by doing. The major reason of debriefing is to allow participants the opportunity to integrate their learning. I have a sense of closure or completeness of my experience. In order for myself to take what I have experienced and use it effectively in own present daily life, I have to think about it and interpret its meaning, significance for myself [1]. I gradually learn how to expand the learning potential via the reflection and some application steps taught. The results of each challenge come to life every time when I could ask myself appropriate questions to initialize thinking and even mediation. I found this part significantly crucial since it helps me explore the activities from my own perspectives, generalizing to my own life and see how to apply what I have learned in the future, which help reach the goal we set at present; otherwise, things turn out to be meaningless and much of the benefits would be lost. Let’s keep asking ourselves “How can I apply the life skill that you practiced in the near future?”

So I think it is a good chance to answer this question here. However, first, at present, let’s have my future goal set, at the time when the trust has been built and becomes accessible. Well, I don’t know goal setting will give me long-term vision or merely short-term motivation. I at least, however, know precisely what I want to achieve and what I have to concentrate on and improve. I fail to recall any of my dreams I had when I was a kid. But I know how many I have accomplished. None of them. Whatever, I am looking forward to those coming. Well, partnership seemed not to be significant to me in the past. I built up most of the ideas and decisions on self-centered basic, seldom concerning other people’s aid, in terms no matter of games or works. Actually I didn’t know partnership is not that simple. Neither did I try to step out of my comfort zone. I was always confining myself inside a groan zone and struggling. Although it is likely to enhance my capability of rivalry, I lost many, which I found turned out not to be worth. I am confident that I don’t lack of personal competence while now I need more belongingness in the community, in the partnership and among the buddies. I will raise more concern and awareness on people who are fighting for the same things, sharing the same views and the same exact belief. During adventure based counseling, teammates which are working together to overcome tasks and even risks research their common goal and target. The existence of small teams provides me with safe environment, supportive atmosphere as well as positive model when facing challenges and risks. Partnership is a power anyway.

After a few times of challenging activities beforehand, I was inspired with the hope of insisting on faith. As stressed in the last two reflection papers, faith is now the most critical element in my spirit. Faith can enhance courage and confidence, as well as breaking down my boundary, which is in turn built by fragility of faith. Adventures in life are of various types. In normal life we are facing adventures, and then there must be mental pressure and the pressure of risks. From now onwards, my mentation become different, and I will keep trying to obtain my peak experience by my somewhat equipped senses.

The present is still my wallow in my lovely nature. Humankind in fact belongs to the nature. The nature is our mother and calling us to return, and enjoy her space, her nurture and healing, enabling us to become gentle and mild again and to recalling our amaze and respect to lives.

Challenge by choice! This is just to remind me that I am not going to indoctrinate other people, forcing or urging them into any situation. I am also reminded that it is my own choice. Challenge in the future depends. I can’t tell any. But why do I have to concern with the future at this moment? It is because although challenge is real, the real doesn’t happen all at once. It takes a rather long time. That is the reason why the real is not often beneficial to people who break easily, or who have to be kept carefully. But 50 years later, at the time when I get loose joints, I eyes become out of focus, and my hair drop off, I shall not think it’s a big deal because once you are handsome you can’t be ugly, except to the stupid who don’t understand. (1350 words)

High Event Challenge Day

I was significantly amazed at a time when I first arrived at the campsite, looking up towards the sky and founding two equipped guys climbing up onto two huge woody pillars. “Excuse me? Are we supposed to do it in the same way? It must be joking…” I muttered away to myself. People’s feeling had no differences from mine, more or less, as which I could interpret their facial and verbal expression. The night before the event I just read the notice delivered to prepare for it. The event was so-called “High Event Challenge Day”, with the formats including many challenge, collaboration as well as inspiration. At the beginning I was so attracted as the title of the event insisted in “high” level, compared with the “low” one which has already, however, induced my illumination of my faith for every single current situation and the much prospect for future life with a definable purpose and target. I was satisfied but in fact I expected and looked forward to it much more this time.

The day was properly divided into two sessions, namely the morning session and the afternoon session, which was arranged on game-based. Actually in total 3 part of games. My group, similar to the other two groups, joined two of them, in which one of them consisted of two sub-games for us to select while the others were preferentially assigned, were available. At the beginning I wondered at the considerately great difficulties of the games accounting for courage and physical strength. I was not worrying about my ability to deal with them but my fellas, in particular the ladies. All ladies in my group were my classmates being studying together from more than 2 years and I understand them well. But anyway they are brilliant. Everybody at that time was taking it easy. However, since it was “high” event, instructors gave a clear briefing of that day’s programmes as a routine interest very seriously and audients were all seriously listening.

The first game began. Our instructor first gave a speech, letting us look into details of the tasks we were facing. I know my bad. I am a terribly poor listener. I used not to pay attention to what people are talking. But I knew I had to, at least this time, once the instructor warned us, “Your buddies’ lives is now in your hand. Grab it hard!” Oh he is right. I was reminded that I was not having an individual show but was cooperating with my friends, my fellas. Most the time when a person places himself into the society, he is not alone. Everybody ought to insist on high accountability and respect to the others, regardless of whether he is leading or being lead. I am forcing myself to become a proper listener, telling myself and others, “Those who don’t care about fellas are even worse than a good-for-nothing.”
The first game focused on collaboration. Two people grouped together and helping each other to climb up to the Giant Ladder which consists of sever steps, some 2 meters separated from one another. My partner, Sharon and I was the last sub-group to climb. At the beginning we set a goal with comprise. At last our subgroup showed a successful performance. I was so delighted not only because I did it, but also because my partner said during evaluation that she really trusts me. I always bear it mind that individual showing up is definitely not a big deal. The skills how you facilitate people in your group, which outcome could not and should never reply on whoever, must be most concerned in a team work. I never viewed my delicate partner as a burden; I never blame her for hitting my face with her legs for several times when she was stepping on me to climb up. Indeed, she was facilitating our entire progress during such a successful partnership. There is a trust building between each other. A simple claim of “supporter ready” virtually will show its magical effect in participants’ heart. Moreover, at the time when I was trying to climb up to the fourth level I was so diffident and I didn’t think I could do it. At that moment my self-confident shrunk, but I had the incredibly strong faith to do, to try. Ultimately I got it. People break through their boundary in the encouraging and supporting atmosphere. The so-called self-utmost a person could figure out is a fake due to fragile faith. Personally faith is more crucial than confidence. The former is the ultimate element that brings great breakthrough. It’s my peak experience this time.

On the other hand, I call for experience because the best learning measure is to experience. Before I climbed I had been the string holders for 3 rounds, offering me many experiences and letting me know I was not just to hold the string, but in fact properly enhancing climbers in my group to keep going up. As a result, I frequently kept giving signals to my string holder and asking for help when necessary. That’s why experiential learning, stressing that participants learn in a situation at a real environment and improving the ability of self-examination via experience has its merit.

Certainly people with different thinking will have different feeling for the same experience. The 2nd game was abseiling in the afternoon. Abseiling seems to be the “highest” task there. Participants abseiled with a string down to the ground floor from the roof of a 6-floor tall building. Most of us had never did it beforehand. But I just viewed it as a simple game. I was tired and thus I rather let others to play first so that I could take a rest. They played one by one. Every time when a teammate was abseiling down people kept shouting to support him and applauded when he completed. This kind of encouragement is touching our heart; otherwise things would turn out to be less meaningful. During debriefing, I learned that most of us appreciate the support from teammates and see it as the point for their success.

I did better than I could expect. This is due to my strong faith in mind, in heart. I got it from this high event, which brings my faith one steps to a more advanced level. Experiential learning actually could be interpreted as a positive scene of a mini-society, revealing a nature with an affirmation, a convincing support by mean of various types of beneficial experiences. The appreciation made by participants, including me, all evolves from heart by experiencing others’ care and by feeling which in turn convinces life change.

I have new dignitarial experience.

Will My Progress

October is going to complete and November will come soon. November is an extraordinary month, for university student, at lease ENS students in The University of Hong Kong. Students virtually suffer but stuggle, and therefore suffer far more, which would probably turn out to be adverse situation and make themselves suck. Who suck more? Certainly women! I dare say that. Who cares? This is an indisputable fact but stupid girls never know. Even if they do, they refuse to admit the reality, making the smart, like me, looking down on them even more. They are unreliable and silly, as I always say. Friend K said that's true but boys still loves girls. Well, let me clarify the statement here: Most of the boys LIKE girls. Is it easy for a boy to love a girl? It is not easy. It is terrribly difficult. That's the point which bitches have to bear in mind. Second, the chief reason of why boys still like girls if girls suck is that boys are born to be horny. All boys become gay if they are not horny. For men, women are really from Mars. But of course, I love my mama.

I don't even care whether anyone go along with me. And I refuse to listen to the so-called points from bitches. They make me sick.

By the way, the dueday of the most horrible assignment, the essay plan of my dissertation, is coming. There are merely 2 days left. The course ordinator, Dr. Gray A. Williams, put his advices on the learning support centre and we students are supposed to read and follow the instruction. I have not read and therefore not followed anything. We are urged to have a meeting with our own boss once per two weeks so as to keep our dissertation in a fine progress. That sounds good, but who does so? Never heard. As for me, my boss, Dr. Corlett hasn't have any single meeting with me and he is therefore not able to identify who the hell is Will. I haven't yet send a single email to him to ask for his recommendation. I completely count on myself, but not anybody else, not even my boss. I am so confident cus......

ABC

Personal Growth through Adventure: Low Event and Wilderness Overnight Camp has been the ever first adventure based camp for me to join. Beforehand I did join quite a lot of camps with various purposes and natures. Some of them were fully for fun, like wild camps threw by the classmates (my class is by the name of Environmental Life Science, ENS, with many ENSians enthusiastic about the wild environment and ecology), while some were O camps hold by societies in the institutes aimed to let ourselves meet one another. Sometimes I was really bored by them just because there was no anything fresh. Before taking the course ABC I didn’t know what means by ABC, not even Adventure. But I expected a lot of things before the adventure camp. And I was certain that I could gain, could learn and could experience a lot from the adventure camp. That was why I was keen to it. While I am not the one who could easily familiarize with the theoretical concepts of adventure based counseling, I personally interpret the uncertainty in my uncertain way, by which I am always experiencing more. I just found that there is something entitled “character education”, via which the self-aspect one is aiming to rise the understanding of oneself, self-confidence and so, and that’s what I concerned most. At the moment I feel satisfied with relationship with others, but I realize that I often fail to stabilize and control my emotion, mood and temper, which make me down and upset. So, I often focus on self-counseling. I expected the camp could help me.

Before the camp I was surprised that applicants were divided into 3 groups regarding to their curriculums. I appreciated that arrangement because this helps us, in particular whose were relatively outgoing, to reveal their feeling and they experienced. Plus, I relax and feel comfy much more under a familiar circumstance. I think I can gain more step by step. At the beginning, I was delighted and inspired by the certain kinds of activities we tried at the secondary school campus where the facilities there were amazing. As usual, our guide, Mr. Lau, kept letting us do evaluations and giving us debriefing after every single problem-solving game. That’s the key part of each game. It includes trust, initiative, What applicants should concern are what and how they gain as much as they could. Actually I gained some, but not too much, because I have thought about them before and had the concepts in my mind for long. I preferred learn something new which leads to change. A small change may evolve great improvement. And I was still looking for it at that moment.

Wow! We went up to the hill at the evening. I stayed in the wild again! I became in a great mood since then. But my feeling this time is most different. I love hiking, but never hike at night. The feeling was fresh and good, but the journey on the trail and the dinner we made were no big deal to me. I started to feel disappointed with the camp. “Did I expect too much? Is my Goal set too high?” I asked myself. Besides knowing myself, knowing other people is also a critical thinking. Some of my teammates who are not studying ENS have seemed quite silent all along. Is that trust failed to be built between us. Is that what called “comfort zone”? I have to think about it. During the process of growth, matter the youth and the adults, people are facing thousands of challenges and breakthroughs, and in the view of “uncertainty”, such a comfort zone is restricted. I used to confined in a small comfort zone. It didn’t have to be like this. I realized that people must to equip themselves as regards emotion, physical status, and belief. During the camp I tried stepping out of the comfort zone so that I could “grow”.

The “walk alone” task was soundly the most meaningful program in the camp. It was an incredible experience for me and led to a great change to me. I was a boy who is terribly afraid of ghosts, darkness and solitude. However, in fact, I am a Buddhist. I believe in Buddha. My religion tells me that ghosts do exist, but could not do any harm on humans. So ironically a great contradiction has immerged in my faith, and it has been one of my deep worries all along, making me not able to make important decision about “to do or not to do” in my daily life. I tried to fix it times beforehand but failed over and over again. The religion does not mean all to me, whereas it has been one of the key and essential parts of my life of the spirit. I am pleased that the dark trail helps solidify and tightly keep my faith of my religion. What’s more, I notice that the faith could be generalized and spread throughout everything, including affair, man-man relations, attitude to many things, in which that to the nature seems to be the most impressive. I did experience changes. They are a kind of changes in faith. I used to love the nature, but now I KNOW I love the nature. I dare say that is a very important change in faith to me. I could interpret it as a peak experience.

The fact is that the dark trail was an awful adversity to me. The appearance of adversity usually turns out to be an expansion of comfort zone, allowing me to rearrange the belief of life and its preference, mending some of my unconstructive habitats, leaving meaningless boundary and persistence, and even making a brand new choice of direction of life and focus. On the trail I did some introspection, and as a result I alter such an adversity to become a beneficial experience about a process of renovation at this point in my young life. And I believe its application is available in the future.

Programmes were group based and its value considerably relies on applicants exposing themselves to perceived physical, emotional and social risks. I was nice that a vital supportive group atmosphere could be evolved and that basic, agreed principles of engagement were shared by our group.