My transportation was unexpectedly smooth and I arrived at the meeting half an hour earlier. I kept my eyes on the restaurant door. Several customers entered, but not my friend. At 6:00 pm, she sent me a text message:“Urgent work to finish. Will be 20 minutes late.”

I had left my book in the office, so I spent the time thinking of my experiences of being late in China. On my first visit in 1985, punctuality was deeply rooted in the Chinese hearts. There were no traffic jams then.

    As a teacher in Canada, I always insisted on punctuality. I would open the classroom door to a late student for the first time and the second, but not the third. During the six years I worked for CCTV, I had a Chinese friend whom I often saw at lunch time, or after work. We used to meet at the subway station nearby. He was always late by 10-20 minutes. To myquestion, “You were busy?” he would surprisingly answer, “ No.” Once I asked him to check the clock in his office, he smiled.

    In March 2015, I got permanent residence (居住权) in China.The ceremony was scheduled for 9:00 am at the Public Security Bureau on the Second Ring Road. I told my driver I had to get there by 8: 40 am. “No problem,”he replied. But he thought he had time to drop someone off at the airport before picking me up. I desperately waited for him. Then, to rub salt into my wound, he had to stop at the exit of a gas station. Finally, I entered the room at 9:07 am ── the last guest to arrive!

    John Smith was a very handsome young man but he was lazy. He had finished his education and was happy to sit in his room and listen to the radio all day long. In fact, he had been doing nothing for almost six months, which worried his father a lot. One day Mr. Smith decided that he had to do something. “Johnny, When I was your age I was working and supporting my ten brothers and sisters. I want you to go out and get a job.” So that was what he did. In fact, in the next three months, Johnny started ten jobs and was fired from ten jobs. He explained to his father.

    “They wanted me to be at work at 8:00 a. m. and told me to do all sorts of unpleasant things.”

    “I don't care how you do it,” Mr. Smith said. “Either you earn some money or move out of the house. I gave you one week's time.”

    In the next few days Johnny began to change. He still stayed in his room all day, but spent his time writing letters and reading through the newspapers. More and more posts began to arrive for him. He bought a new suit for himself and invited his parents to the theatre and for dinner afterwards at the most expensive restaurant in town. When his proud parents arrived home after their evening hour, a policeman was waiting at the front door.

    “John Smith,” he said as he handed him a piece of paper, “I'll see you in the court tomorrow.”

    When he got outside, Johnny told his parents everything. “When you told me to earn some money, I decided to put an advertisement in the newspaper saying, 'New way to money fast! Send me $ 5 and I'll tell you my secret.' When I received the money I wrote back telling people to do as I do.”

    Johnny was fined $250 by the court and was ordered to pay all the people back. As he left the court house feeling very ashamed, a newspaper man came up to him, “Young man, would you like to tell your story to my newspaper for $2,500?”

    What's the most important thing in a piece of writing? Is it the story, the characters, the description, or the style? Obviously, you can't choose only one. A great work succeeds in combining all of them in a great mix, producing a wonderful work.

    In most cases, you're better at one writing element over the rest, and working on your strengths will work to your advantage. Building characters, however, is important to your writing. It's not to be ignored no matter what your case is. So, how do you achieve that?

Make Them Real

    This is probably one of the most common pieces of writing advice: make your characters believable. What does it really mean? It means that your characters need to be there for a reason, not just for pushing the story forward. He/She has a real life, with his/her own fears and dreams, and you have to show this. Your characters don't need to be typical to be believable. The unusual ones are even more interesting, but it's your job to make your readers relate to them.

Understand Human Psychology

    To build great characters, you'll need to understand people's psychology: what are they thinking about, what are they feeling and experiencing, and why are they doing what they are doing? Get behind the obvious. Be in the backstage with them. Sit them in a chair and let them talk away. If you truly listen, you will learn.

Be your character

    When you immerse (使沉浸) yourself in your writing, you get lost in that world and you start living in it. This is when the magic happens and you become your character. By putting yourself in your character's shoes, you allow yourself to experience what you're writing about first-hand. The more it feels real to you, the more the readers will feel the same, too.

    I have two kids, a boy and a girl. I don't worry about my girl; I'm sure she'll be well trained in mixed martial arts. I worry about my son. I'm pretty sure he's going to be feminine (女性化的). Sorry to say that, but let's face it. No dad wants his son to go feminine.

    At the rate we're moving in a couple of years you won't be able to tell the difference between boys and girls. Sound extreme? Think about this. In every movie where advanced time-traveling beings come to our planet, there's one constant: You can't tell the male aliens from the female aliens!

    But that's the future. Kids today are soft and fat. People ask why. Is it junk food? No. Junk food has been around for fifty years. Is it video games? No. Video games have been around for thirty years. None of the kids playing them back in the day were terribly obese. We're all scratching our heads trying to figure out what we've introduced to society to ruin our kids. But it's not anything we've added that has ruined our kids. It's stuff we've gotten rid of.

    Take the gym rope for example. Remember that thing that stretched from the floor to the ceiling in your gym class that you could never climb? Most of the kids couldn't make it to the top. But that wasn't the point; the point was that you had to try while some middle-aged guy who couldn't make it up a flight of stairs shouted at you. We should have put our son on that rope, and given him a head start. But we didn't want to shame the boy, so we took it down.

    Taking down the rope would be a good idea if there were no ropes in life. But they're everywhere. You just can't see them. They're in every goal unrealized and expectation not met. The point everyone missed about the rope is you weren't supposed to make it to the top. It was there to create a fire that burned in the oversize belly of every kid.

    Do you believe in the power of music? If you're like most kids these days, you probably have an electronic device loaded with hundreds or even thousands of your favorite songs. At any moment in time, you can fill your headphones with the sounds of a particular song that suits your mood at that exact time.

    Are you getting ready for a big soccer match or do you need to get excited? Maybe some hip hop with a strong beat will do the trick! Besides, you might be ready to study for a big exam the next day. To calm your nerves and help you concentrate, a little bit of Mozart might make memorization more manageable.

    But is there any scientific evidence of these effects that music seems to have? You bet there is! Scientists have long recognized the power of music. Over the years, many studies have been conducted to examine in greater depth the nature and extent of the effects music has on people.

    For example, scientists at the University of Missouri have found that listening to music can have a positive effect on your mood. Their research gives scientific credibility(可信性)to the behavior that many people have already experienced on their own: listening to upbeat music can brighten your day and boost your mood.

    Other studies have shown that upbeat music isn't the only type of music that can be helpful, however. When people are sad or have suffered a personal loss, sad music can be helpful because people identify with the tone and lyrias(歌词)of the music. Likewise, people under a lot of stress or experiencing upsetting situations can benefit from listening to angry music. Although angry music might not help you if you're in a normal mood, its tone can benefit you when you are dealing with stressful and upsetting situations.

    A shark moving around the coastline is normally a worrying sight，but this waterborne drone (无人机) threatens floating rubbish instead of people.

    Developed by Dutch company RanMarine, the WasteShark takes nature as its inspiration with its whale shark-like mouth. Responsible for collecting waste, the drone will begin operations in Dubai Marina in November after a year of trials with local partner Ecocoast.

    According to RanMarine, the WasteShark is available in both autonomous and remote-controlled models. Measuring just over five feet by three-and-a-half feet (1.5 meters by 1.1 meter), it can carry up to 352 pounds of rubbish (159.6 kg) and has an operational battery life of 16 hours.

    By 2016 there were approximately 150 million tons of plastic in the world's oceans. One paper from December 2014 estimated that over a quarter of a million tons of ocean plastic pollution was afloat.

    "WasteShark also has the abilities to gather air and water quality data, remove chemicals out of the water such as oil, and heavy metals, and scan the seabed to read its depth and outlines," said Oliver Cunningham, one of the co-founders of RanMarine. "Fitted with a collision-avoidance system, the drone uses laser imaging detection and ranging technology to detect an object in its path and stop or back up if the object approaches."

    "Our drones are designed to move through a water system, whether it's around the perimeter (周边) or through the city itself. The drones are that last line of defense between the city and the open ocean," added Cunningham. "WasteSharks are operating in Dubai, South Africa and the Netherlands and cost $ 17, 000 for the remote-controlled model and just under $ 23, 000 for the autonomous model."

    Dubai-based operator Ecocoast has two WasteShark drones. Co-founder Dana Liparts says they will clean waterfronts for clients including hotels and environmental authorities and that Ecocoast' intention is to have the collected rubbish recycled or upcycled. However, Liparts argues that cleaning waterways doesn't have a one-size-fits-all solution and requires a combination of new technology, preventative measures and changing people's attitudes towards littering.