How to Fight Violence Against Children?

There's a campaign going on at Facebook - "Change your FB profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood... Join the fight against child abuse....."

Most of my friends and friendlies have participated and I'm amazed on its success - my facebook has become so cute and colorful.  Everyone seems little children with innocent minds.

I would like to contribute my idea.  

Many of us are much aware of the physical abuse or the active type.  Children who have been ignored or neglected are considered abused too (passive abuse).  

For me this emotional/intellectual assault is more harmful to children. Infact, it is more rampant in ordinary homes.  There's no wound to heal, there's no words to say.  Parents would say "I didn't do anything to that child".  That's the point - being quiet or having no (good) words to say to our children is a missed learning opportunity for them.  Many children grew up without practical intelligence  or  "common sense".  Their views in life are not normal, their behaviors are awkward, life for them has no value.

Our home is like a kids gym - it's an extraordinary playground.  There are climbing bars on the doorways, ropes on the ceiling, punching bags, trampoline and home-made convertible swing, yet imagine how small our home is.  Our TV has a timer and its faced on a wall without a sofa - so they will not enjoy watching too long.  My kids got a second-hand gameboy (from their cousins) which only allowed to play every Sunday for 1 hour.. Computers have timer and schedules too.  Cartoons on the TV and CDs are supervised.  Power Rangers and Tom and Jerry were stopped - but sometimes a short clip is ok..ssshh. don't tell their mother.

Well, I like our life as it is. Everyone is healthy.  My wife and I are enjoying our full time together with our kids.  Our house is an exciting place to be.  We pray, laugh, fart and burp.  Our kids learned to cooked. They never go to the toilet without a book and reading stories had become part of bed routine. All of us are now members in the city library.  I like that fact that my children seems so little, doesn't know much in life yet can teach us so many valuable lessons in life.

My illustration above shows how media (television) can poison children's mind.  If we don't act or say something, they will.

Photo credit: MmeEmil (Canada) 

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Greetings to all Muslims

To all Muslims in every walks of life in every nation.  Have a wonderful holiday and blessed days to come.  Peace be with you.

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Why disciplining our children can do more harm than good

Should we expect our children to behave? NO.

Should we discipline our children? NO.

So therefore, we should simply ignore them when they are misbehaving. Right? NO.

We should GUIDE our children instead of disciplined them. By GUIDANCE, they will learn how to do things right and not how to avoid bad things to happen.

Disciplining is merely giving a child a terms and conditions that he needs to forcefully follow every single day.  

We (parents) want our kids to stick to their minds our RULES and that they should live with it. If they do not follow, they'll be punished. 

This will never teach children to decide on their own when they grow up.

And ignoring our children will also not teach them a lesson. Children are asking us to talk to them, to be with them and to understand them.

Children have so many rights that many parents today have never wanted to learn about.  

Being a parent, I should not stop from just being a dad. I have so many things to learn and many things to make up.  

Everyday is a new exploration. A life in which I try to live by example, 

so that when the time comes they are ready to start their own families, I can say this to them; 

"You're done being my son, but I am not done being your father."

How about praising them or giving them rewards when they do things that pleased us or made us proud?

More about this soon.

* This Illustration is my quick rendition of Dr. Louise Porter's book "Children are people too" and inspired by Peter MacMullin's art.

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Why 8 hours of work is not enough

You do the math.  Think if you are using your time wisely.

For those using the internet and computers to accomplish their work is an everyday hard battle.  

If your job doesn't involved researching the internet, or require you to chat with people or managing social media tools you will be unproductive and it will affect your job and relationships.

Show this to your boss so he/she will understand why do you need to bring home your work or do it over-time.

Good luck!

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Whether you LIKE it or not

I just made my facebook fan page.  I hope you like it or may be not :)  

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Freebies of the month: Web Tidbits for Graphic Designers

Download HERE: http://www.rongenrobles.com/freebies/web-tidbits.zip

I'm done compiling some of my web elements and I'd like to share them.

The original toolkit was from quommunication .com - It only serves as basic guidelines to jumpstart your web canvas.  

I added more useful elements/graphics to make designing easier.  Use as a reference or anyway you like it.  It's free :)

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Battle of the Titans: Google vs Apple vs Adobe

Apple mobile devices doesn't need flash... Google supports flash.  Google has Chrome and will release their own OS soon to compete with macOS.  What's next?

As an avid user of all these products, I know each one has flaws and most of the time they compliment each other.  In my own experience, Gmail now can support drag-drap email attachment in Chrome and Firefox but not in Safari.  but I hate Chrome when browsing though they are fast.. the auto download of images slows down my work and eats up my download folder.. In safari, I can view images and drag it straight and all the way to Adobe Illustrator of Photoshop without downloading them.  I don't know what will happen to this war, but I believe it's a healthy competition and most users will benefit.

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Chain Reaction or Life Cycle

I'm back to my drawing board.  This rendering was purely by mouse :( I miss my Wacom) so I decided to make a water color effect and a child-like drawing. 

Anyway, I was inspired to doodle this quickly after seeing a father and son yesterday in the department store.  The dad gets mad and shouted at his kid.  I pity the situation.  Many parents do not know the implication of their attitude towards their children.  Experiences during childhood will either teach children how to handle life when they grow up or turn them into psycho.  Young bullies are not really bad children. How I wish I could talk to parents.  Hopefully my illustration will work wonders.

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Testing post

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

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I'm a New Daddy.... Again!

My wife is expecting in November or December.  We're all wishing for a baby girl this time but as long as my wife and the baby are healthy, any gender is fine with me.

I just learned about the Alkaline and Acid diet before conception but still this kind of practice in choosing the gender of a child is not 100% accurate.

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Would you rather go naked?

I was just doodling.  Nothing environmental really.  I was suppose to talk about peta but this is what I ended up with.

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Earth-hour... Then back to normal, or worst.

Ok, so the earth-leaders, companies and individuals have joined the campaign.  And what happens next?

Sure it will be on the headlines.  Lots of pictures and viral videos will spread around.  Promo t-shirts will sell and print ads are out there.

In preparing all this, how much energy, electricity and money the involved parties have wasted?  After one-hour of darkness, it will be 365 days of ruining the earth.

How many mobile phones, computers, cars and other electronic devices produced everyday?  And how many of the old items we throw away, and where do we throw them?

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Busy Week Ahead! Cartoonous will continue next week.

Many things to finish and priorities to face.  I will still try to post if there's a chance to free up my mind and to step away from work pressure.  Thanks for visiting.

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Over Exercise or Exercise is Over?

Do you know that your upper body muscles are easier to build than your lower body muscles?  

It is always a hard game for bodybuilders to develop their legs.  When you train your legs hard, you are already training 80% of your muscles including your heart and lungs. This helps to build up your stamina.  

Based on experience, sprinting is better than jogging and lunges are better than squats.  30-45 minutes of smart workout works better than 2 hours.

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Do you think everything is perfectly fine?

This concept was inspired by T.W. Ayers, one of the author of "Power Dads".

In the eyes of a child everything seems perfect.  If we, parents, don't teach our child the good ways who will?

Children live by examples.  Getting them ready to their future starts from a home-sweet-home.

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How to know if a person has an iPad?

There were so much talk about iPad since its launching.  The Apple company is taking it more seriously and now there's a new casing to fit it in.

This is just my funny impression about the new technology product.  Have a good laugh!

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How to know if a person has an iPad?

There were so much talk about iPad since its launching.  The Apple company is taking it more seriously and now there's a new casing to fit it in.

This is just my funny impression about the new technology product.  Have a good laugh!

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Super Kids. The New Generation?

What do you think is the future of this type of kids?

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Who's the real PRO?

I remember an event where I was invited by a client to take pictures of their special menu. I was honest enough to tell them that I do not own a nice camera. However, she didn't mind because she just needed a simple documentation to upload on facebook. That night, she lent me her Canon EoS 400d (I'm not sure if I got the model right as it was my first time to operate and handle SLR).

The event was attended by high profile individuals as well as bloggers and photographers. Most of whom were totting big lenses but there were some who slung simple ones. I couldn't determine who the pros were but I it was obvious who could "afford" and those who were there for the passion of it.

I admire the humility of experienced photographers who do not judge you according to your accessories but the sincerity of your efforts to improve your skills in photography.

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This clearly explains Men and Women's brain

Just to exaggerate things but most of them are true.  

Husband and wife should compliment each other and not to criticize one another.

Do you know that women need to burst out 8,000 words per day while men 2,000 vocal words are enough, sometimes less.

Women talk a lot and want everyone to listen, men want peace and quite.  

Try to ask a boy "how's school?", he'll probably reply "Fine".   Ask a girl and she'll tell you in details what they did, what time, the name of the teacher, and so on.

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When was the last time you heard your child say "I miss you" ?

I was inspired by the phrase "Never wait 'till your children stop bothering you."

Every afternoon is an awaiting game for our 2 incredi-boys.  They both love wrestling and ball games.  

Our small house is like mini kids-gym full of obstacles - punching bag, monkey bars and climbing rope.

But they see those things useless without me.  I have to be around and be the monkey, sometimes monster, sometimes robot.

Active children need active parents. 

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Dumb blonde - Is it a dumb joke?

I just read an article "Why Blondes Have High Fertility" by Allan & Barbara Pease. I also did a little research about it.

Do you know that blondes have higher oestrogen levels that give strong attraction to man? It is likely the explanation of the phrase "Dumb blonde" and was more exploited by commercials and media.

They say that blondes have higher fertility but very low mathematical reasoning, but after a blonde's 1st baby is born, her hair darkens because her oestrogen level drops. It darkens even more after her 2nd child. Therefore, we hardly seen pure natural blondes at the age of 30 and above.

My own explanation to this is, blondes become smarter after giving birth because they have learned their hard lessons. I think that is also the reason why many popular blondes end up as single mothers.

It is funny to realize, why Asian women are spending so much to color their hair blonde. More funny to see men doing this. Are they trying to look like dumb or they already are? :)

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Why most inventors are men?

Psychology always fascinates me.  Let's observe young children. Boys love toy cars, robots, building blocks and experiment things, while girls love toy make-ups, stuff toys and barbie dolls.

Men invent and repair things and women keep them and make the place tidy.  Men don't plan but can see the dangers ahead - and always proud of that skills.  Woman always love to put on her "princess shoes" and think of the "happy ever after". (Speaking of shoes - I never knew a woman who has only one pair of shoes that lasts for a year and matches all sorts of clothes.)

I agree that men always think of "sex" (though not the explicit act always).  Men tend to notice the opposite sex - first the woman's face, then the shape of her body.  That proves that men are very visual and women want to be noticed and always yearning for commitment.  Men also notice other men who look superior to them and release the "defensive and territorial hormone". They will try to control that feeling and observe, but that "ready-to-fight" feeling is always intense.  Women notice V-shape men and trendy women too but they are more concerned about what's happening around, latest fashion and gossip.

If men think most of the time about sex, who invented sex toys?

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