Self-sufficiency for Eve’s descendants

Man says to God, “God, why did you make woman so beautiful?”
God says, “So you would love her.”
“But God,” the man says, “why did you make her so dumb?”
God replies, “So she would love you.”

Over the years, I have heard again and again from different people, including those whom I thought I could respect, that women do not need to have high ambition or high education or in short, lots of money because all will be provided by their husbands. No matter how often I heard this kind of remarks, my blood boils.

Some guys today made similar remarks and I tried very hard not to retort because then, I would sound unintelligent (har har). Ok, so I was whining about university majors and future goals, and so perhaps I whined a little too much, but their remarks stung. So I told them that I need lots of money to shop  and I asked them, rhetorically, if they would be willing to provide the money (for their future wives). There are more implications of course aside from my materialist reasoning. I need to be free of my husband’s control, too and I have always somehow been reluctant to depend too much on people (so that others won’t depend too much on me, ergh, that sounds bad, what I mean is I respect a person who can fend for himself or herself more than those who are super dependent on others) And of course, I need the skills for ‘rainy days’ and I do not want to be a bored or boring wife.

Perhaps it’s my family that influences my view on this. The only man in my family is my father. And my mother has suffered from gender discrimination in her own family. And I’ve witnessed too many cases of discrimination in my big family which still largely adopts some unreasonable, archaic oriental traditions. But it does make me wonder, if I were to have a brother, will my parents treat us differently in terms of dealing with our dreams?

Oh, heck.

Anyway there’s a case of food theft on my floor. And the victim has pledged fervently to hunt the thief down and not to spare her once she caught the culprit. Ooh, scary. But how do you eliminate theft? Labelling your food as suggested by the hostel staff clearly won’t deter thieves. My solution is to provide small fridges for every room and of course, an air-con too for each room since it’s so hot and humid. (hahaha, dream on, dream on)

The Power of Daydreaming

My mom gave me this book called “The New Psycho-Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz last year (more I like I forced her to give me, she bought another new one after I claimed hers), but a fiction lover like me takes forever to read the non-fiction. So today, I finally reach page 106 (out of 430 pages) and I think the book is interesting!

It’s a self-motivational book, by the way. Apparently, just by imagining yourself to be successful, it’s more likely that you will achieve your goal. It’s like mental exercise, you keep playing over and over again what you want yourself to be like and your subsconcious mind will program your “success mechanism” to work towards that goal, almost effortlessly. WOW!

But isn’t that like daydreaming? (my darling friend guineapig thinks so too! ) And if I thought about it, it’s true that almost everything that I can envision myself in, I usually achieve it. Although I need to envision the real me, not someone completely different (I tried that and it failed).

I hope I can finish the book. My mom has undergone major change after she read the book, so I guess it does work somehow. And my hobby of daydreaming does yield some results hehehe.

Midnight moonshine

I have learnt the perils of midnight chats, heart-to-heart, girl talk, whatever it is that involves chatting and telling secrets and gossips, an important element of sleepovers and overnight camps. I love it, because I get to hear people’s dirtiest secrets and I hate it, because people get to hear my dirtiest secrets. ERGH.

Participating in these midnight chats is like getting drunk (yup, that ‘moonshine’ pun is intended). It’s like as it gets later and later, less and less controls you have and more and more secret comes pouring out. And at the moment, all your darkest thoughts, all the secrets that you have guarded oh-so-dearly, all the inhibitions are gone, gone, gone, poof! And you kinda feel good about it, like unloading all the burdens. And realising that other people are just as screwed up as you (hehehe).

Soon, enthusiastic chats turn into drawls, so you fall asleep. Then come morning, and you get the hangover: regret and embarassment over what you have publicly disclosed the night before. But unlike alcoholic hangover that can be cured with Panadol or bathroom, this hangover stays with you forever.

Luckily, you can expect that most of your girlfriends probably feel the same. So at least your secrets remain within your private circle. But beware of witches or dormant witches who will reveal their true color if you mess with them. Uh-oh.

Growing Old T_T

As usual, I’m very good in thinking too much… Today I’ve been thinking about getting old lol

I’m rather worried about growing old and not being able to click with the young anymore T_T I’m also worried about my failing memories: I remember too much of embarassing moments in my life so what if one day I can’t control my brain anymore and I just babble away my embarassing secrets? And some people told me that as we grow old, we become our childish self again. That’s really a problem because I was really fierce when I was small, so who is going to befriend this old grandmother who is angry with the world???

Bottom line, I’m going to be a lonely grandmother in the future (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!)

24/7 support for troubled bloggers

I saw this announcement by WordPress on my blog dashboard: Announcing 24/7 support.

I wondered what new service WordPress is offering now (although I roughly know, it must be something about blogging *duh*), so I clicked on the link. Apparently now any bloggers who have troubles with their blogs and would like to address their concerns can just contact the 24/7 service centre.

But you know what more serious troubles some bloggers are facing? Well, there are the suicidal bloggers, the ones deep in depression, the ones who blog professionally and is getting sick of it (literally) and many more out there who broadcast their troubles on their blogs. Phew, luckily there is this platform for self-expression called blog. But anyway, since CSR is on the rise, maybe WordPress and a dozen other blogging hosts can do something about these troubled bloggers. Like introducing a system that alerts the CSR department whenever there are constant entries tagged suicide, weapons, drugs, addictions, whatever from the same blogger? Maybe give some tips or inspirational stories or SOS hotlines…

But of course, there’s the problem with privacy. I think most people turn to blogging to express their frustration because they can remain anonymous. But well, it won’t hurt doing a little something to soothe them…Then maybe cases like that man announcing the plan to kill somebody on MySpace and really doing it or online bullying won’t have to happen so frequently.

This is again, an oversimplification of a complex reality of course. Just an idea, anyway…