Viva Forever

April showers bring May f-FREAKING INTERNET CONNECTION!!!! Yes, the start of the month means my bandwidth gets reset. Ugh, it was so bad having to be surfing at 28.8kbps for a whole week. :( Still… it partially helped me procrastinate that little bit less so I was able to concentrate better on the last essay. Talk about draining! No holidays, three big assessments in two weeks. So mentally exhausted, can’t even think. :( Have you ever gotten that just “blanked out”, fuzzy feeling in your brain?

Anyway, I’ve been notified that my zombie poem has been entered into a poetry competition. The prize is a flash stick, and I don’t have one (hooray floppy disks!) so… vote for me, pretty please? No pressure though, there’s a bunch of nifty poetry that’s more thought out than mine. :P

The following thought occurred to me at around 3:30am this morning, a time when everything is 50x more cooler and more significant sounding than it actually is.

I was just thinking, in about five years I would start being able to say things like “I was blogging BEFORE you were born!” (I started blogging in around 2001, and the youngest bloggers seem to start from 11 years old and up). Or even, “I was around BEFORE the internet went public” and gradually this fact would become more and more impressive as the years roll on.

Although I imagine the novelty would wear off. Would I one day be those people who continually reminisce about the past? Rather than boastfully saying “when I was your age, Pluto was a planet!” I can imagine myself saying that rather sadly, while morbidly entertaining thoughts about my mortality. But then I would most likely kick myself and tell myself to stop being so emo. Hooray for being born in a generation that proliferated such a concept! :P

What? Wordpress has ANOTHER new update?! -_- I can’t be arsed, I’ll update when there’s some significant release.

Man, I’m sick of e-drama. Not necessarily happening to myself, but lately I’ve encountered sites and e-people who seem to love actually causing drama for the sake of it. Now I for one love constructive criticism (people like Vera seems to give it really well) but I cannot stand much of people making fun of others under the guise of helping them out.

So to clear up some of the bad e-vibes, here are a few sites I’ve encountered that either really amazed me or just tickled my fancy. Nothing but compliments to them!

• Nuwen - The site just screams “I was made by someone incredibly proficient at CSS!!!” Everything is just so neat and non-clashy! A real joy to just browse through. Who would’ve known that nifty layout placements can be so fun to look at?
• Dragon Rain - I don’t visit anime graphics sites as much anymore but this is definitely the cream of the crop. I’ve found that it’s really easy for people to slather huge anime graphics around and end up looking rather tacky but Dragon Rain looks fun yet professional! I’ve always wanted my blog to be like this; heaps of awesome content alongside the personal aspect. But I lack the skillz. Many of the wallpapers are gorgeous too. Mmm eyecandy.
• Wild Farm - This is the one that absolutely tickled me. Sure, it’s not as popular as the former two sites but the concept is ridiculously cute (and cheeky!). I like to interpret it as a subtle parody of those many angsty sites that feature incredibly expensive ball-joint dolls who just sit around looking sad. The use of old stuffed animals give it an adorably contemplative feel to the whole thing. I’d love to do something like this.
• Shinjite, Peach Arrow, Time Stranger, Fenali, Fake Wings - Yay, anime/gaming collectives! The first three are relatively old collectives that are still being updated (they were a big inspiration to me when I was into making sites) and the latter two are sites that are relatively new but are still gorgeous. From just the quick link hopping I’ve done, anime/gaming collectives have somewhat diminished but somewhat making a comeback? The styles are different too and have changed into something I really like; many utilise more “web 2.0″ looks with neat organisation and patterns but still retaining the anime/gaming creativity that I love. It’s very different to the flamboyantly colourful (and while very creative, impractically designed) sites of yore, and I don’t mind it at all.

Speaking of anime, I haven’t watched any in quite a while. Tara’s dream about one day owning an anime cafe sounds so awesome. It sucks that I have so much work to do in the holidays (in fact, I have an essay due tomorrow that I have yet to start writing >_>). I have The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which looks to be a wickedly delightful anime (I’ve heard so many good things about it!) that I haven’t had the chance to finish watching (and it’s only 13 episodes!). I especially love their special ending dance… hilarious!

And lastly, I don’t know if anyone here can understand Cantonese but if you can, do listen to this radio clip, it’s hilariously sobering. It’s about a 16 year old girl who calls in, states as a matter of fact that she’s racked up some HK$10,000 in phone bills and doesn’t seem fussed about it at all. She’s thinking about getting a job but won’t part with her Gucci, Burberry, Lois Vuitton bags. The two DJs’ reactions makes it great.

And now… I should get to work.

For those who have attended or is attending university/college, does anyone find it a little annoying when if someone’s phone goes off in class (or even a lecture), there’s bound to be at LEAST one person there who’d snicker at it? This is even it’s not because of a funny ring tone or anything. It’s already automatically embarrassing for the person with the ringing phone, especially if they have to frantically dig it out of their bag to stop the ringing, and with the lecturer/tutor staring at them disapprovingly, but is that actually funny? It might be different in a high school environment (at least mine) where ringing phones are rarer and treated with harsher penalties, where an unexpected ringing phone might trigger a laugh or two, but in Uni?

_{10 points for whoever can pinpoint who I’m quoting in the post title, without using google.}

All the good WPRs are gone (only a couple left) and there are no good ones. I have no idea how active yoursite is since the reviews don’t have dates on them. What do you guys think if I set up some kind of informal reviewing/feedback section as an addon to this site? Or are WPRs just not good ideas anymore?

Today I came across two entries on Yingna’s blog to do with long entries and “fat” people and looking “best”. Firstly I applaud her for speaking her mind, and rather controversially at that, but that’s about as much applauding as I can go. For context, she was also the person who expressed, what I thought, were rather thinly veiled racist remarks on a messageboard mentioned here (sorry the board thread has been removed since then). I feel bad to be seemingly targetting her, but if it’s any disclaimer, the following criticisms aren’t supposed to be personal attacks on the the blog writer, just her opinions, with my own opinions. At the end of the day, this is just an extra opinion on the matter. With that said, I am going to rip into her “observations”.

Regarding her first post
Firstly, I can’t help but note that she uses the word “fat” in two different lights. Contrast:

My denotation of fat may not be the same as yours.

and

Since, people with excess fat are usually overly sensitive to the topic…

If she really has a non-pejorative, specific definition of “fat” why does she go and make the overarching statement that people with “excess fat” are “overly sensitive”? Does she mean “excess” according to her definition or what is objectively considered “excess fat” (i.e. overweight -> obesity range)? In fact she goes on to say,

What this means is that when the girl is wearing a shirt and standing, bumps can be seen around her abdomen area. Any muffin top. Many times, the people who I consider fat are only considered chubby by others.

I don’t think most people who are merely “chubby” or even have a muffin top are “overly sensitive”. Heck, I’m developing somewhat of a muffin top, especially visible if I wear tight pants, and I’m 44kg (around 90 pounds). Does that mean I have excess weight? Umm, how about no? Even with my increasing potbelly, given my height (around 152cm -_-) my BMI is around the bottom ranges of “normal”. According to her definition, given my APPEARANCE (totally dependant on the tightness of clothing too), should I be “oversensitive” about my “hamburger shaped” body?

Another point is if the girl [presumably a "fat" one] writes that she is emo. I’ve only started to hear so many people utilizing the term emo in blog entries and descriptions of themselves. A few years ago, this word was not as popular.

Because of course, there weren’t any “fat” people before a few years ago. A few years ago (if I am to assume, two to three), blogging was never as popular as it is today anyway. The writer is linking “depressed”, “emo” entries to “fat” bloggers. She wrote in her comments that these are her observations, but did she note that maybe her observations are skewed to confirm her existing biases? Being depressed and emo is generally a social, teen problem and it doesn’t sound much more than just prejudicial to say that it is mainly correlated to a weight problem.

Days pass by and only the computer remains on, the screen never flickering as fingers type madly away at the keyboard. And then, a year later, when the girl discovers she’s gained another 10 pounds, no, maybe 20 pounds, will she give up the Internet? Most wouldn’t. Girls don’t give up opportunities to rant their little hearts out…

Yes, because girls don’t eventually have to go to high school, graduate, find a job or go to college/Uni. While it IS a problem in Japan with young adults (fat and NON-FAT ones of both genders) being incredibly anti-social, in the Western blogs that she seems to use as a stereotype, that is not the problem. She’s created this exaggerated, pessimistic, almost downward pit of anti-socialness that “fat” girl bloggers seem to necessarily descend into, without acknowledging that most of them would be forced by their environments to go out and change their lifestyles in some way. Oh and of course, we’re talking about girls with muffin tops. And finally, her advice,

Take a diet. Look better.

Not sure what she means by “look better”, but since when is a muffin top not good enough? Why take a diet when you can just eat healthy? Because I personally think there is a difference between telling someone to eat healthy rather than going on a diet. I think what most angers me about her post is the idea that girls can’t be comfortable with the way they look, muffin-top or no. Advocating for HEALTH is a good thing (e.g. with exercise), but her advice of “dieting” and “looking better” smacks of incredible superficialness. I guess it comes back to her definition of fat being no way connected to what is healthy amounts of fat (e.g. with BMI), but simply any fat that one can see.

Regarding her second post
Her first few paragraphs sound reasonable so there’s no need to comment on those. But I balked at her statements,

So, if a girl wants to win the heart of some boy, she will have to look her best.

Wait, WHAT? The easiest (non-ranting) way to put it is that it’s simply not true. There IS this thing called personality. Studies have found that knowing about a person’s behaviour can influence how you think of them. Pictures of the exact same woman, could get an “ugly/bitchy” or “pretty/kind” verdict depending on what subjects were told the woman in the picture was like. Even if one “looks their best” that would not necessarily win the “heart of some boy” (unless you want to date someone who’s going out purely by your looks). Yes, first impressions last but the first impression would very much depend on how down-to-earth, approachable, friendly, open you are. People who get together based on looks… I don’t think that’s a very viable solution.

By having an attractive figure and knowing you are attractive… this will help raise self-esteem.

What’s attractive? One can argue that someone who might not have model figure, and IS plump and chubby (I guess what she defines as a “hamburger person” -_-) does think of herself as attractive. Furthermore, her statement of course assumes that you need to have an attractive figure in order to raise self-esteem. What if already you have high self-esteem because you’re accomplished in academic/work and have a great social network; couldn’t that in itself boost your view of yourself and your appearance? Even if it doesn’t, if you’ve already got what you want, why would you need an “attractive figure” to raise self esteem?

Looking good can also lead to better health. There are many times when girls feel overshadowed by others because of their image. If the girl just started by having a good diet and exercised regularly, she wouldn’t be faced with the problem of being considered fat…

GUESS WHO ISN’T HELPING THE PROBLEM?!?! I find it odd that her conclusion to teen insecurities brought on by social standards is to simply conform to those standards. What happened to fighting back against cookie-cutter stereotypes and simply being happy with one’s body? Why isn’t the answer to teen girls being depressed about being overshadowed to reach out and tell them it’s okay for them to be the way that they are, rather than saying that they should try not to be what society (and the writer) calls “fat”?

Another reason for being good looking is just because of opportunities. You will gain more opportunities if you look your best. People would rather hire a slimmer girl than a fat girl for a job.

If I was a smart employer I’d hire someone who can do the job, not someone who looks a certain way. Unless you’re a modelling agency, if you’re looking to make money by hiring someone to perform a task, you’d want someone who’s capable, smart, a team player, a good learner etc etc. I’d think the profits made in a company overrides any notions of “appearance”. I really think the whole idea that the prettier/slimmer girl gets the job is probably decades old and the writer’s opinions comes across as mysognistic in the reasoning. If the writer believes in such archaic stereotypical notions, I wonder if she’d also think that men would get hired over women (not true as much anymore these days, thank goodness) because hey, that’s what happened during the “Industrial Revolutions of America”.

Phew, long post.