Lost In Translation

To the boys in the hood. A question to pose for all ye to hear.

How did the iconic figures of masculanity we once knew in the late 80's-early 90's take such a drastic turn to what it is today? What ever happened to heroic men portrayed by the likes of He-man, Conan the Barbarian, and even the G.I Joes turn into Cody Banks or Alfie??

After much research and meditation, I finally came down to the root of the problem. Okay. So maybe "problem" is too harsh a word. As twisted as machoism is today, I'm not one to condemn. But the source of all this hoo-hah is truly non other than... the female species. Yep. The conniving xx chromosomes, guys.

How, you may ask? Now that is a very good question.
Well, I'd imagine the scenario to be somewhat like this:

About just close to 10 years ago, some smart (and possibly reasonably hot) girl, let's call her A, decided that she wanted something more than her current stereotypical category of men. Instead of the usual dinner and movie night, she'd crave for something more personal; something with more effort involved, something which would work a man to his knees before her. And so, she decided to make it publicly known that she'd prefer a personal home cooked meal by a man (must be classy of course) rather than a typical dinner outside.
In comes dumb guy B. The loser of the crowd. Probably a Star Trek freak. Thinking "Oh, finally, it's my chance to prove my worthiness to A", he decides to pick up cooking. Luckily for him, he happened to be a quick learner in the kitchen. The next thing you know, he invites A over for dinner at his place and he's prepared a candlelit 3 course meal with the finest of wines.
Surprised by B's ingenuity and culinary skills, A was impressed, thinking "Hey, this crap actually works".
Dumb guy B, thinking he's in already hence logs on to mIRC the following weekend. There, he brags about what he's done and how he's "discovered a way to get chicks".
A on the other hand, knowing that she's got B in the grasp of her hands already hence heads over to coffee with her girlfriends the following weekend and spreads the gospel on how to do so with their men.
Next thing you know, it becomes a social theory. And when put to practice, surprisingly, results came about. As the number of experiments increased, the weaker the power of the man's status became. And thus, from their pedestal-high clouds, men were dragged to the bottom to become servants instead, with the pleasure of a woman's acceptance as wage.

It is clear, really, how evidently this had become a cultural revolution in the early 2000's. Movies like 'What Women Want' became such hits as it explored the "inner woman" (or so to say) in all men, and what it really meant to love a woman truly. How to understand her. How to really get it right in bed. And how to ultimately please her. "Genuinely" at all a times, of course. But guess what? That cult hit was actually directed by a WOMAN! Another clear manipulative sign of the previously proposed scenario in action. And the thing is that MEN actually BUY IT!

Not to say that this concludes that men are dumb or anything. But women are definitely smart!

So really, folks. What have we become? What does this radical change in the ways of our lives mean, and more importantly, how will it look like in the next decade or so?
Please don't get me wrong. This is not male-chauvanism at play here. Like I said before, I'm not one to condem. Because at the end of the day, it all comes down to our survival instincts, and what most of our survival instincts tells us to do is to basically adapt. Just because we doing so, doesn't mean that we shouldn't question our positions in this world and how our identities have changed so drastically over the mere decade.

Because as long as there's a guy like B out there with his killer survivor instincts, they're bound to come running and saying "Well, at least I still get some at the end of the night. You ler?"

edit: k. as you can see, this was written late. and i am in the middle of completing 3 assignments due the same day next week. kinda stressed. which begs the question i myself am pondering upon. what on earth possessed me to post this entry?!

I've never had so much to do with so little time to do them all my life.
Can't wait for the week to come to an end.

Warning!
Language may offend.

KNNCCB!!!! Limpeh know it may be the World Cup season.
But clear your calendars and make way for time, folks.
wa si kambing home!

Due to my lan jiao not knowing when my lan jiao exams are going to be yet, I oredi only gort about 25 days to spend back home. Arriving on the 26th of Zoon and wa si heading back here again on the 20th of Zoolai.
Hopefully within that short period of time, wa si able to catch up with as many peepur as proshibber. Sure, the World Cup is against me. Everyone would wanna be home at night watching football. In the daytime, liao liao lang would be asleep. But wa si sure wa lang can accommodate somehow. Like... tak giu over mamak? Limpeh dunno.
Oh well. When the time comes, we'll see.
But till then, remember the dates.

nb: LoL. Translation courtesy of kennysia's benglish translator.

I don't know why I called this post "a week". It has nothing to do with a week at all. In fact, it has nothing to do with time altogether. Oh, maybe it's just the fact that it's been a week since I blogged. But it feels way longer for me, like I haven't done this in ages. I wonder why. Am I addicted to blogging? Is this thing taking over my life and becoming some sort of a second nature that when I don't do it for 2 days I just start to itch? Why am I asking these questions? Am I probably just typing more to make this entry look long?

Anyhoos. The crazy assignment week is over now. It was so bad that I missed all my classes last week. Now I'm suffering the burden of studying this week as well as last week's material at the same time to catch up. To make matters worse, my tutor of a tute I missed last week caught me in the library on the day I missed class.

"AHA! You didn't come to tute today!!"
Me, acting dunno, "Huh? Oh... why?"
"What do you mean why? You should've come."
"Oh. Heh... Hehe."

Crap. So he picked on me in tute this week instead.

"David! I'm asking you all the questions today cuz you missed class last week"
"What?!" (looking through the attendance sheet. it seems that i was not the only one who missed. in fact, some of them didn't even attend the following week)
"Don't what me. You're presenting."
"Waitaminute... You're not picking on me cuz I missed class last week. You're doing it cuz you saw me in the library! And I was doing my work!"
"Oh. Yea. Nonetheless, I'm picking on you today."

Double crap.

Oh well. It wasn't so bad I suppose. I got to learn more that way. Right.
But yes. Back to the fact that it's been a week since I blogged. It's amazing the amount of junk comments I get in one week. I logged in a couple of days ago to find 53 junk comments. Thankfully zakky's got our mt version changed or something like that and there's actually a junk filter compared to last time. Nevertheless, it's incredibly dumb getting messages like:

"Hey man... sorry I missed the party" linked to some Bingo site,
"Holla and Happy Thanksgiving! (which so happens to be every Monday)" linked to a Viagra site,
and my pick of the week,
"Impossible, how GOOD your work is. I am really surprised" linked to some so-called 'spanking stories' site.

Honestly, how do they expect me, or any reader as well, to respond to that?!
"Oh, boy. I'm so flattered. I wonder where this kind gentleman's from. Let me check his link out."

Sigh. Idiocy.

Anyways. It's kinda late. And I have a 9:00a.m class tomorrow which I rarely arrive at on time. I should hit the sack now. So, till I write again.
Goodnight. And good luck.

Oh, I'm tired of growing up.

"Behave. Be responsible. Give. Work. Sleep. Eat. Exercise. Smile. Lick boot. Go to church. Make friends. Go to church events. Be nice. Study hard. Save money. Plan. Be secure. Laugh at the joke. Read. Be up-to-date with current affairs. Attend your classes. Don't swear. Don't lose your temper. Do what you're told. Resist. Even if it's not your fault."

The sad thing is that as I reread all this above, I notice that most aren't even expectations from other people, but myself. My list of "shoulds" and "should-nots". But I'm tired of them. Well, most of them, at least. I want freedom. From the daily routine. From the hypocrisy of it all. The fake smiles thatI know; that I can see through.

I want to travel. I want to go somewhere new. I want to see places. Like Europe; rich in culture, colour, and history. I want to explore. I want to be with my friends. I miss my friends. People I can talk and have real conversations with. The ones that could go for hours and we'd laugh till we cry. And again. People that are missing in my life now. I want to take a break from uni. Maybe work. Maybe travel. Just not uni. I want to take photos. And learn to be better at it. Maybe arm myself with better lenses so I can muck around with it more. I want to write again. I want to learn a new skill. I want to pick up a hobby. I want to start playing the bass again. Or maybe learn a new instrument. I want to do volunteer work. I want to help the poverty-stricken kids all around the world. I want to show them that there really are people in this world who care.

I want to live a life that's full. Without terms.
But I guess that doesn't exist, hey?

All the wants I've listed would either be impossible or would revolve having to resort to my first list above to make them work. Like a vicious cycle.
I know. Maybe I could win the tattslotto. Man. If only. That would be so good.
What would you do if you didn't need to worry about anything? If you didn't have obligations to fulfil. If you didn't have responsibilities. If you were so rich you didn't have to worry about your finances. What would you do? Politically, by right, the answer to these questions shouldn't have to be affected by these worries. And yet I know I am. And as a result, I can't.
But if I weren't worried, you now know what I'd do.

I wish I could be more honest than this. But I can't. Which sucks. I never really get things off my chest, as a result. But I don't want to offend.
Is that a good thing?

Sigh. Why of all times, now, when my exams are nearing, that I feel this way?

Look outside.

The sky was clear. The sun was out. And yet the breeze was winter cool and the temperature was a beautiful 15 degrees. The birds were chirping and people were taking their dogs out for a walk in the garden.
What a perfect day...

TO SPEND $430 ON MY CAR TIRE!!!

It's the second time already in less than half a year, where some dickhead had to put a nail in my car tires. The firs time round, two of my back tires were punctured. The problem was that some idiot had been going around putting nails in random cars across my apartment's shared carpark. This happened to another 5 other cars as well. After numerous complains, the body corporate said that they'd take actions. Surveillance cameras would be installed and they'd find the offender.

Later on, upon following up on their progress, they say that they couldn't catch the offender. But they've found out that these cars being punctured do not belong in the spots (as in they're outsiders parking in other people's spots), so what they've done is given out notices to these invaders to move their car out. But come on. Are you telling me that 5 different carpark owners got pissed at the same time and decided in accordance to puncture their invaders' tires?? Plus, my car is at its rightful spot!!

Nevermind. It was over and done with. The damage had been inflicted and the last time it cost me almost $600 to change my tires (as they could not be fixed). The puncturings stopped.

But not for long, I suppose. With a nail stuck in my tire as I've just discovered last night.

And the thing is, I found out only when I was driving up a roadhedge and I heard something funny at my front left tire. As a result, my wheel (as in the alloy rim) was cracked from that rough climb. So today, not only did I have to change the tire, I had to dispose of that wheel as well as it was useless already and get a new one. Which didn't come in cheap.

As for now, within this past 5 months, I've spent up to $1000+ solely on my tire. And what frustrates me is that these are unnecessary expenditures. I don't understand what joy whoever this dickhead is gets from puncturing people's tires. But this is too much. And it doesn't help that the body corporate isn't doing much at all about this. So as of now, I guess I'm gonna have to move out. At the rate things are going, it is too costly for me to stay on here.
This is pissing me off.
Whoever this fella is... I hope he gets it in the end and gets it bad.