Recently some articles claim the word “selfie” as one of the most annoying words. But I'd like to offer that maybe it isn't not so bad.

    The “selfie” is used to describe the self taken photo, often from a smart phone. Women and men alike adorn their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts with these pictures, sometimes with puckered lips or large smiles. In fact, the selfie has become so widely known that over 31 million photos on Instagram are captioned with the selfie.

    Let's think about it. Someone takes about 10 seizes each time they do, and they only end up posting one or two of those. They pick the one that they feel makes them look the best. Isn't that beautiful? In that one picture, someone has even him or herself confidence.

    Self-image is important. In society today, we are so often consumed with what society tells us is perfect. But maybe, with that one selfie, we feel like we fit that bill. We feel handsome, beautiful, confident, smart, happy and content. For that moment, everything bad or terrible that has ever happened to us is erased, because that smile or that pucker is what gives us the determination to love ourselves.

    I saw a spoken word poem recently and the young man said: If I ask you what you love the answers will most likely roll off your tongue. You love to read. You love to write. You love birds, music, tattoos… Your mom, your brother, your sister, your daughter, your best friend, your dog. How long do you think you could go on and on before you said “I love myself”？

    That statement hit me like a ton of bricks. I've struggled with confidence all of my life. I still do. And in no way am I saying that taking a selfie is a gateway to that confidence. However, the selfie does deserve some credit for allowing individuals to express themselves. Pamela Rutledge agrees, stating, “There are many more photographs available now of real people than models.”

    When you are travelling in Thailand, which means of transport is the best choice?

    You can rent a variety of motorbikes or bikes in Thailand. It seems to be very popular in most of the beaches and islands along the places in the north. The most popular bikes are the little 125 cc Honda Dream which you can get for about 150 baht (铢) a day or as little as 3,000 baht per month, making it the cheapest way to tour Thailand for the people from other countries.

    Sometimes you will have to go somewhere by taxi. When you are in cities in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, always remember to get a taxi that is traveling on the roads. Some drivers outside hotels refuse to use the meter (计程表). They will ask a price which is several times the price when they use the meter!

    The quality of the roads in Thailand is generally pretty good, so renting cars is another way to get around. The big car rental companies may offer you slightly older cars at a very reasonable (合理的) price. It is a little surprising considering that the cost of buying a car in Thailand is more than that in the West. Petrol is also reasonably priced in Thailand, more expensive than American prices, but much cheaper than what is paid in Europe. In the past, Bangkok could be a difficult place to drive in—signs were generally in Thai only, making it a hard job to find exactly where you were by looking around. But now, the situation is improved. In a lot of places, even the farthest corners of the country, street signs are in both Thai and English.

    On a cool morning, Wilson Kasaine heads out along a dirt path in southern Kenya. His calmness makes it easy to forget that he's tracking one of the most dangerous animals in the world. Kasaine is tracking lions—especially one lion called Marti, who is the real-life Lion King of Selenkay Conservancy.

    Tracking lions on foot may sound like a death wish, but Kasaine has been doing it for most of his life. Born into a traditional Maasai family he quickly grew to understand the beauty and danger of wildlife. Living with big wild animals forces him to develop a good sense of where they have been and where they may be going. During his 12-kilometer walks to and from school, he learned how to tell the paw prints (爪印)of a lion from those of other animals.

    Growing up, Kasaine knew that improving his tracking abilities would help him avoid surprise meetings with dangerous animals. For many Maasai, tracking is mainly a matter of self-protection. But Kasaine is tracking lions to meet them and to protect them. He leads a small group of wide-eyed tourists over the red sandy path, searching for the lion that has left upon it his prints.

    Each year, thousands of tourists crowd Kenya's national parks to try to have a look at the “big five”; elephants, rhinoceros, leopards, buffaloes and lions. The international draw of these animals matters a lot because the nation's economy is tied to the protection of its wildlife. If Kenya's wildlife disappears, so does its second-largest source of income.

    Wildlife protection efforts in Kenya meant marking off land exclusively (专门地) for animals. But it also meant that the people who had originally lived in the area were forced to leave their land and into smaller surrounding areas. They are also finding it increasingly hard to keep a traditional Maasai lifestyle. But people are glad that it really makes a difference to wildlife protection.

    All people need to sleep. Sleep is a restorative(恢复健康的) process that promotes proper body functioning and can improve the quality of your life. Not only is the quantity of sleep important, but also the quality of sleep.

    Your bedroom should be shaped to your taste and allow you to sleep in a peaceful environment. One of the biggest mistakes people make in their sleep is to use the bedroom for activities other than sleep. If your bedroom also functions as a command station for your life and work, the possibility of your sleep being poor is rather high. Bedrooms should be designed, decorated and used for sleep only. TVs, computers and other things should not be in your bedroom if possible.

    Establishing regular sleeping and waking times can help improve the quality of your sleep especially for those suffering from sleeplessness. Avoid hot food, caffeine, sugar and alcohol at least 4 to 6 hours before you go to bed. Develop a regular exercise program. Proper exercise and nutrition will help improve sleep patterns. However, avoid exercising 2 hours before bed, since this may stimulate your body and make it more difficult to fall asleep.

    Establish a pre-bedtime rule that will help you focus on sleep. You can try meditation(沉思), reading or deep breathing and relaxation. Your bedtime rule should be yours. Do not worry about it fitting into a specific category. Do what is best for you.

    Things such as room temperature, noise and light levels and even your bed mattress(床垫) can have a lot of effect on the quality of sleep that you experience. Block out distracting noises and lights. You are in your bedroom to sleep and not be distracted by environmental interference(干扰).

    A name is more than just a word. It carries the weight of a person's whole identity. A name can represent a person's ethnicity (种族身份) and culture, or show respect for their ancestral roots. A self-given name may represent a person's beliefs or chosen identity.

    Everyone has the right to have their name pronounced correctly. It is a sign of respect for a person's individuality. "A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language," Dale Carnegie writes in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Behind each name is a story, and when a name is anglicized (英语化), mispronounced, or ignored, that story is dismissed.

    A name mispronounced for a long time can negatively impact a person's attitude toward their own identity. It can create feelings of shame or embarrassment because they are made to feel like a burden. In the long term, this might cause someone to distance themselves from their roots. They may begin shying away from their native language, culture, and family for the sake of fitting in.

    In order to avoid this, many international students living in the U.S. choose English names. People shouldn't have to ignore their identities for the sake of someone else's convenience.

    Everyone makes mistakes, and not everyone can get a name right on the first try. Mispronouncing a name repeatedly, however, shows a lack of effort. It is not okay to be comfortable with mispronouncing names, and being unfamiliar with a language is no excuse.

    If you're unsure whether you're pronouncing a name correctly, just ask. Think of it as a way to expand and strengthen understanding, both personally and culturally. When meeting someone for the first time, make sure that you heard the name correctly. It doesn't take a lot to simply repeat the name back. Spell it out. Write it down. Do whatever you have to do to get the name right. Making the effort to correctly pronounce someone's name is an essential part of cultural competency (文化素养). Without this, we cannot expect to show respect and tolerance for our diverse community.

    College graduation brings both the satisfaction of academic achievement and the expectation of a well-paid job. But for 6, 000 graduates at San Jose State this year, there's uncertainty as they enter one of the worst job markets in decades. Ryan Stewart has a freshly-minted (新兴的) degree in religious studies, but no job prospects.

    "You look at everybody's parents and neighbours, and they're getting laid off and don't have jobs," said Stewart. "Then you look at the young people just coming into the workforce... it's just scary."

    When the class of 2003 entered college, the future never looked brighter. But in the four years they've been here, the world outside has changed dramatically.

    "Those were the exciting times, lots of dot-com opportunities, exploding offers, students getting top dollar with lots of benefits," said Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge of the San Jose State Career Center. "Times have changed. It's a new market."

    Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge ought to know. She runs the San Jose State Career Center, sort of a crossroads between college and the real world. Allmen-Vinnidge says students who do find jobs after college have done their homework.

    "The typical graduate who does have a job offer started working on it two years ago. They've postured (定位) themselves well during the summer. They've had several internships (实习)," she said. And they've majored in one of the few fields that are still hot, like chemical engineering, accounting, or nursing, where average starting salaries have actually increased over last year. Other popular fields (like information systems management, computer science, and political science) have seen big declines in starting salaries.

    Ryan Stewart (he had hoped to become a teacher) may just end up going back to school. "I'd like to teach college some day and that requires more schooling, which would be great in a bad economy," he said.

    To some students, a degree may not be a ticket to instant wealth. For now, they can only hope its value will increase over time.