Influence

Looking up the phrase “influence on something or somebody” in a dictionary, it defined the effect that somebody or something has on the way a person thinks or behaves or on the way that something works or develops. Influence changes with mainly four elements: conformity, liking, authority and benefit. These four elements are totally different but they’re inseparable from each other.
There’s a idiom said: “Public clamor can confound right with wrong.” Human always think what the most people think is just the right thing. It’s a phenomenon called “conformity”. When a person was driving on a highway and saw all the other cars head an opposite direction to ours, the person would be confused and think if the direction is right. In addition, when watching a TV show, the show always add a lot of noise of laughing so the audience would feel the show is fun, too.
To a certain extent, everyone’s liking has something to do with influence, and that’s why the advertising companies usually ask those famous movie stars who are deeply loved by audience to be endorsers of their products in TV commercials. Customers always listen to what their idols’ recommendations. For example, Michael Jordan’s sports appliances are always hot and popular in the sports stores because he’s authoritative and widely loved by basketball fans.
Next, authority is a tremendous element which determines the influence. In the human society, even in a democratic country, there are still classes between each people. For example, parents to kids; teachers to students; bosses to employee. It’s an invariable rule that people listen to those who are in a higher position. Employees dare not disobey the bosses’ order and students dare not disobey their teachers because no one would like to be fired or flunked.
At last, how much benefit can be obtained also makes differences of how hard the influence is. The more benefit can be gotten, the more influential those things are and people would be more willing to go for it just like children love to go to 7-11 to buy Kinder Chocolate which contains interesting toys in it, and they buy Kinder chocolate mainly not for chocolate, but for the toys.
As long as more than two people are situated at the same space, there’s the existence of influence, and those who get the power to influent others, they’re in the advantageous position, so most people in the human society spend their whole life to be more affecting, but to be the affected. How to use influence well is important because it can be used in a good way but also in an evil way. With great power comes great responsibility. It’s also a duty to make others do things right.

Argumentation

What Should Students Wear?
It’s easy to see people wearing uniforms everywhere when we walk on the streets. They could be McDonald’s clerks, insurance company’s employees and students. It’s always a controversial issue especially for students that students should wear uniforms or leisure wears to school. In Taiwan, students are supposed to wear uniforms. However, as time goes by, some students doubt why they must wear uniforms but not their own leisure wear.
It’s quite a pity for the students who have pretty clothes in their closet. They’re forced to wear the same uniforms as other students. “Why not wear leisure wears to school?” they ask. Students should have the right to choose what they want to wear. Compared with uniforms, it’s much more variable and it looks livelier to wear leisure wears, because students can match up their clothes colors by themselves and cultivate their sense of beauty. However, I think they focus on a wrong point, because the most important duty for student is going to school and concentrate on their studies. They should not spend too much time worrying what they wear and hesitating in front of their mirrors.
There is another advantage of wearing leisure wears to school: students don’t have to face the problem of wearing too light or too heavy when the season changes, and there won’t be any problem about the uniform’s size. Nevertheless, there are some advantages of wearing uniforms that can’t be substituted by wearing leisure wears. That’s why uniform means everybody’s the same. Uniforms can unite students as a group. It provides student with the chance to learn to live in a group.
Uniform is a symbol of school. With uniforms, school can be a much safer place because it’s much easier to recognize strangers in the school and thus ensure the security of students. If there was any student who met accidents outside the school, through the uniform of the student, people can inform the school sooner and the school can help the student much sooner. The much safer schools are, the more willing students are to go to school.
It’s human’s nature to compare each other’s appearance no matter when and where you are. If students wear leisure wears to school, it would be easy for students to recognize whose family is rich and whose is poor, and no doubt the schools would become a place for students to compete with each other, and then may become discrimination and break the friendship between students. With uniforms, there won’t be this problem anymore. Students’ parents won’t suffer from the demands from children to buy expensive clothes or accessories, and school can spend more time on teaching instead of students’ appearance.
To sum up, uniform plays an important role for students in the adolescence from many aspects. It can unite students together, share their honor together and dress the same, and make them feel they’re united together. Wearing uniforms, is the first step to learn to live in a group.

Farewell Party

2009.06.19
It's been about half an year since I joined this band "Sky Window" with Yamasaki Yusuke, Joseph, Book and Alen. Today is just a milestone of this band, because Yamajian is going back Japan, and book is going to serve in the military. We held a farewell party to say goodbye to Yamajian and to memory this band in Un In Guan near the Yi Jong Street. Practices nights and nights, countless practice in the band practicing room, it really nice to play a band with you guys. Thanks. And also thanks to all the friends always come to see our performance.

After the passionate song "X", it came another classic ballad song "Endless Rain", just like the song title, the monitor was playing rain like animation. It'was really cool, and in the end of this song, all the audience just kept chorus the lyrics "Endless Rain.. fall on my heart kokolo no kitsuni", "Let me forget.. all of the hate.. all of the sadness.." These two lyric sentence kept repeat and repeat, it was really touching and it's hard to describe the feeling of hearing over 10000 people chorus my favorite song...
And then, the last song they played: "Art of Life" The whole stage was dark, and Yoshiki's piano played sometimes sadly, beautifully, sometimes hysterically, and then the stage's light suddenly all on, and all the other members appeared and played. I'm really glad that I was there.

Next, as if they wanted to encourage us, it was "I.V."'s time, and Toshi taught us sentence by sentence of the lyric: "In the rain" "I'm calling you dear" "Find the way" " Can't you see me standing right here?" After he was sure that all of us knew how to sing the song, Yoshiki walked to the drum from his piano and started beating his drum and his drum set started to flow up again.
After I.V., an unfamiliar background music was played, and at the path stage two doll dragon appeared, and The Dragon Dance started. It was pretty fresh, and it was my first time to see such performance on X Japan's concert.
In the end of the dragon dance, the lights in the stadium suddenly shined, "Prologue(~World Anthem)" played, and Toshi and Yoshiki with a bridal veil. Ha! "Are you ready!?" Toshi yelled and then a male voice appeared to introduce the band members and the the concert continued.
"X" came out! The craziest song today, because with Yoshiki's heavy drum beat point, people started to "X Jump" - the tradition of X Japan's concert! Everytime Toshi sang the world "X", we jumped with our hands or luminous sticks crossed like "X", and it felt just like earthquaking at that time. Looked around the stadium, the scenery was really shocking because every hands I could see was crossed X. Maybe it's the only time that I can see such a glorious view.

Yoshiki, Toshi, Pata, Heath, Sugizo, and the forever Hide, all of them appeared on the stage and on the monitor, doing their play, their performance. Along the whole stadium, I could see various color of luminous sticks waves together with the rhythm. "Taiwan!!!!!" Toshi's high decibel voice broke the silence dark sky, and the infinite sky could not cover our passion.
Then, X Japan's classic song came one after one. "weekend" "silent jealousy" "Pata's solo" "drain" "Say Anything" "Tears"...and then "kurenai" began, hide started to play the prelude. I quickly took out of my own handmade red plastic ball and raised it up, and people in the stadium were soon became red, just like the song title "kurenai", and then Toshi yelled "Kurenai!!!!!" The stage explode out those silk colored ribbons...Another orgasm.
After "Kurenai", it's was a rest time, and Rosa started to sing with the dancers dancing beautifuly on the three path stages, and the came the fasion show to relieve the audience emotion. Soon, Yoshiki's drum set started to raise up and move forward fromt the stage and Yoshiki started to solo, and I can only say it must had been human's extreme of playing drums...
Finally the drum set landed down to the ground and Yoshiki exhaustedly walked to the piano and the creepy "without you" was played. Old clips of X Japan started to play on the monitor include some images of Hide, and I heard some people's sob.

The sky became darker, the moon hanged on the right side sky as if it was also waiting to watch this fantastic concert. I could feel the excitement around all the stadium because people starts to play the waving audience trick and yelled "we are X !!!" And soon, the whole stadium went crazy.
7 o'clock, the familiar song "Amethyst" rang, smoke started to spray around the stage, beautifull red and blue light inlluminate the stadium, the scenes I could only see in the DVD became reality, and I was just in it! Everyone raised their luminous sticks into a shape of X and waited for them - X. A female's voice appeared " X, Japan...Japan...Japan...", and then a male's voice started to introduce the band members: Toshi, Pata, Heath, Hide and then Yoshiki. Just right at the time Yoshiki beat the drum, the firework spurted into sky and "Rusty nail" started to play... The whole stadium screamed, over 10000 people screamed together. "Finally they comes, finally I've heard their live! It's true. It's reality and I'm not dreaming!" The lengend band in the music history finally revived and backed to us.

During the time we lining up, we could see that people were getting more and more. In the beginning when I arrived the stadium, the line was only about half of the stadium, and till the afternoon, the line had prolonged more than the whole stadium, all of them came here for the same purpose of mine, they came for X Japan. Among these people, many people's costume were just fantastic. They cosplay the style of X's membersb vividly, and many people dyed their hair red because of the guitarist Hide.
At about three o'clock, we could hear some music from the inside of the stadium, they were rehearsing the concert. Those familiar songs I've listened for countless times spread out of the stadium. It was really a special experience and I sang with the music with excitement and looked forward to the performance.
At About five o'clock, the gate opened and fans started to go into the stadium. We sat at the stage's right side and located about in the middle of the stadium called the Western 1 Grandstand. The view was pretty good because we could see the monitor clearly and the whole stadium's audience and see the stage's move a little. And the tremendous logo of X was just above the stage.