Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on October 2006
When a person becomes a prize
I got accused of being ‘hao lian’ (arrogant) over the fact that the boyfriend is a law student. How it came about was that I was saying some legalesey thing the boyfriend told me, and when the other kids didn’t believe me, I said “No really, my boyfriend’s in law school and he told me this.”
Upon which they erupted in catcalls and jeers. One girl said “Yeah we know, you hit the jackpot with him.” Others were more straightforward: “Oh, you’re just looking for an excuse to mention that your boyfriend is in Law.”
You might not believe me, but that’s not really what I was going for. I don’t need to put up with any lawyer jokes, much less be accused of being a golddigger. I was merely stating an opinion and telling them my basis for having such a view (which I realise qualifies as hearsay in a court of law, I know). If we had been talking about plants and the boyfriend was a botanist, I’d have mentioned that. If we had been talking about the best kinds of pipes to have in your house, and I was dating Luigi (the green one), I’d say that my boyfriend is a plumber.
So it just so happens that the boyfriend is in law school and we were talking legalities. The interesting thing here is actually their reactions, not mine. Firstly was derision. They mocked me for ‘hao-lianing’ (the verb form) about the potentially big-bucks-earning boyfriend. Then they said that just because they were all single, there was no reason for me to flaunt my attached status.
In mitigation, I would like to state that I didn’t know they were all single. Even if I did have such knowledge, it wasn’t something conscious. I never set out to make them feel bad about being single, simply because there’s nothing bad about being single. They’re all lovely young people, and I never meant to say otherwise.
What really makes this blogworthy is that THEY think lawyers earn big money and people dating lawyers or future lawyers have, in the words of the girl, “hit the jackpot”. I didn’t make him the prize of a lifetime. They did, by their perceptions and assumptions. I do take pride in the fact that he’s in law school, but that doesn’t mean I think any less of others who pursue other professions. They were the ones who reacted to his status, not me.
In this case, who’s to blame for the hao-lianing? I made a statement, and they coloured it with their sentiments. A little bit of Freudian projecting going on, perhaps?
So before you call someone a golddigger for having a rich husband, or an SPG for having a white man as a partner, think about the assumptions you are making, and whether the rich man or the foreign talent is being objectified not by the woman, but by you. Who’s the shallow one who sees only the money and the skin colour? Think about it.
In which Life is just a Game
Life can be envisioned as a game.
Most of us make it to Level 60 and above. Some really awesome ones make it to Level 120. We haven’t yet found any strategies or cheat codes to get beyond that level.
Some of us never make it past the loading stage. Some of us have a tough first few levels. But if you can make it past the beginning, you might have a good long run.
Some of us start out armed with cheat codes for infinite strength, mana or gold. If life is an MMORPG, these people are the higher echelons. But not to worry, just because they got there first, and more easily, doesn’t mean you can’t do the same without a cheat code. But the way games are evolving now, those cheat codes seem less like cheats and more like necessary criteria for full enjoyment of the game.
Some of us do stupid things like rush a high-level monster or play with weapons we can’t totally control, and it’s an early “Game Over” for us. Sometimes we get griefed by others. Sometimes we just get corrupted software and it’s a long hard struggle before the end.
Some guild leaders are assholes who do nothing but plot how to bring down other guilds. Especially if a guild is large and powerful, they can go around messing with the way other people play their games. Not nice. When the little guilds gang together to protect themselves, they’re derided as a minority of n00bs and persecuted.
If you set up your game in a nice peaceful server, good for you. Other people can always migrate over and join you anyway. They may cause increased lag time and whatever, but it’s a free world and switching servers is a time-honoured survival tradition.
Most of us have a good game run. We accumulate our weapons and gold, flirt with a few beauties, and after a long hard session, we look back and say “Good game.” And then we log off with the satisfaction of knowing that nothing matters in the end except one’s own happiness.
It’s a lonely week.
Monday: Pageant Interviews
Tuesday: Charity Movie Screening
Wednesday: JCRC Investiture Dinner
Thursday: Pilates and MELA Concert
Every day thus far this week, I’ve had enforced interaction with more people than I usually have in a whole month. Interviewing pageant nominees requires me to be at least a bit tactful and friendly in trying to understand their personalities. The movie screening put me in a movie theatre with what seemed like 200 other Eusoffians, and in close proximity with one or two so I had no choice but to interact, otherwise it’d have been a long ride home. JCRC dinner means one has to socialise with the people at one’s table, or risk being seen as aloof. Especially if those people are acquaintances and colleagues, and not just “hall people”. At the concert, and a meeting after that, more socialising since these people are my friends and I didn’t want to be a wallflower.
I’ve said so many compliments, and hi-and-byes and silly little comments this week. I think the collective term for them is “small talk”. It’s tiring. And I feel lonely, immutably lonely, despite the funny jokes and sarcastic wit I throw about. How is this possible? The more I mix around, the sadder and more alone I feel.
I’m like a little cookie with all the sprinkles and icing on the surface but a big empty air pocket in the middle, that no one can see until the cookie crumbles and falls apart.
The Inevitable Puppy Love Pun
Everyone, stop blogging! Just stop! What you really need to get those angsty emo feelings and angry rants at inconsiderate drivers off your chest is a Nintendo DS Lite and a Nintendogs cartridge! No, really.
The boyfriend got a DS about a month back, and it’s been happy times ever since. (Except for that period where he had to take care of my puppy.) Unlike him, I’m not big on Mario and racing games. All the games I play are stylus-based, as opposed to his keypad-based games.
I’ve hit age 20 on Brain Age (which shouldn’t be surprising since I am indeed only 21-going-on-22) and got an A on the Big Brain Academy test. Yes, I’ve noticed that I’m very fond of brain improvement activities. I am actually quite fond of Big Brain Academy, it’s the cuter and more fun cousin to Brain Age. The activities are more cartoony and more varied, whereas Brain Age mostly focuses on reading and maths.
My big brain wins the ultimate prize!
Nintendogs doesn’t feed your brain at all. In fact there’s nothing you do in Nintendogs you can’t do in the real world. Except maybe train your dogs to do backflips and breakdance. Haha!
My puppy is a beagle named Hazel and she is the sweetest thing in the world - when she listens to me. Otherwise you feel a bit silly calling “Hazel, Hazel” repeatedly into the microphone and getting only a nonchalant look. And you do get a lot of nonchalant looks in the beginning. When I first started, she would tire of being trained and after a while she would turn her back on me and walk away. If I still dared to call her back, she would bark angrily. It just takes patience to build up trainer points and get closer to the dog. Once I got her fully trained, competitions were ours for the taking.
In between, you have to do mundane things like feeding, watering, walking, picking up poo, getting out of dogfights and buying doggie items. As is the nature of most simulations, it gets a tiny bit repetitive after a while, and the only thing to look forward to are the contests. I’ve got Hazel trained to do basic tricks as well as some bizarre ones like “Turnaround” (spin while begging) and “Handstand”. You mean real dogs can’t do handstands?
And if you’re wondering how some pixels and a touch screen can replicate the feeling of owning a dog, the answer is “quite well”. The movements are smooth and natural, and the dogs interact just like real ones do. Case in point: Yesterday I was holding on to a friend’s dog when another one came along. They started gambolling around each other and I caught myself thinking, “Holy cow! This is just like Nintendogs!”
So yes, to repeat my earlier point: Buy a DS and live happily ever after! No more nasty gothic emo blogs! Only rainbow-filled posts about puppies and super mushrooms!
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