Walking down the road no matter where you are today, you can be sure that the days of the Renaissance masters and Botticelli have ended when your senses and person are assaulted by the onslaught of slimming ads and the idea of beauty is to look like a stick with boobs. Waaiiiit...then again in sunny SG, it's just a stick, oh with hair - it's a walking mop! Boobs optional...mwahahahah...

I mean, what the hell is going on? It's scary when the media and the world in general perceives near anorexia to be cool and beautiful. While I admit that obesity is rising and that I've personally seen like, really HUGE people, I hold on to the notion that people and women in general should be realistic. Excercise, yes. Eat healthy but don't starve just to fit into a pigeonhole. It's not worth it.

A couple of weeks ago, a local entertainment rag ran the most appalling cover story on how the TV actresses are getting slimmer and slimmer these days, literally saying that dieting = roles = yay! All I could think of when I picked up the magazine was: gawd, is the actress on the cover suffering from a disease? The girl is literally skin and bones where she used to look healthy! And THIS is an industry standard of beauty? Hold on, is it me or isn't talent supposed to play a part in the whole acting profession? Does this mean that thinness equals talent? I'd like to state for a fact that while you can remedy the weight, if you're talentless, well, then you are a talentless walking mop.

Horrification!!!

Then I did a self assessment. Like many other women, I've been through the fad dieting, the funky ass slimming pills, creams and a whole host of stupid things in the pursuit of the ideal image. Of course, I am shallow! Like many women and a few vain men, I too succumb to advertising, suffer from esteem issues now and again but then again I've come to the conclusion that no matter how much I weight I take off, I'll NEVER be able to look like any of those bloody models or stick-thin caricatures that are so valued these days. Thank God! These people scare me.

Over the last few weeks we had one of our favourite aunties come to town to live with us and boy, did we go mad with the shopping and the baking...it's funny but it seems that whenever the family gets together, there'll be culinary adventures and masses of shopping!

But the one thing that changed this time was that my jolly mother went and got her hooked on Korean dramas...oy. While I am very partial to TV dramas, the Korean drama craze has never affected me as much or at all. Why? Because:

1. Storylines are recycled to death - boy/girl meet in orphanages, rich/poor family feud, kid exchange...
2. There is always a romantic triangle or sometimes square, circle...whatever
3. Inevitably someone dies...oftimes of leukemia sometimes of cancer
4. And then, AND THEN...the couple or a couple will find out that they ARE brother and sister! Are all Koreans somewhat related??? WTF?!! Can't anyone get it on without getting a DNA test first? And ultimately...EWWWW

It's bad enough that you tengok until buah tak jatuh, waiting for the two to get together and get it on (which by the way, NEVER happens...cos they're permanently trapped in 19-not-belum so it's lots of gazing still). Macham mana tak hati panas? And yet, the TV-twosome in my house keep watching. It's a strange, chekik darah, or rather muntah darah-and-mati-type fetish, I'll tell ya.

Am so glad that mum finally hooked up the VCD player in her room, now I can watch my DVDs and lousy Ch 5 programming in relative peace.

Oh, oh and on a much brighter and more exciting note...one of my favourite musicals of all time is coming back into town! It's the 10th anniversary celebration...can you believe it's been 10 years?! And the movie is opening during Thanksgiving this year too...Joy! Adam Pascal!

I remember watching Rent when SRT ran it in 2001. It was more affecting than Les Mis and sadder than the Phantom...and the songs, the songs! What was more heartbreaking was that I do know of some friends who could've been certain characters and that was what hit closer to home. Sure, the cast was not the original Broadway one but it was performed with plenty of heart which kept the soppier audience members like moi, tearing good tears.

This time around, we'll pull out those hankies yet again and indulge in our 'gay' sides yet again. It's funny but Jean & I have surmised that had we not been born women, we'd most probably turn out to be the most cliched gay men ever...all that boy watching, then there's the trips to the theatre and the ballet, the love for musicals, Kylie and all that cheesy music that we love...the shopping, the bitching... nuff said.

November is indeed the month for RENT. If anyone's interested, drop me a line, us kiasu people will be buying tickets the moment the box office opens :o)

I've been wanting to blog about this for the longest time but I keep forgetting...geez. Sudah tua boy...

Anyways, I recently had a conversation with Belle and she mentioned that she almost forgot about Rakhi this year. For the uninitiated, 'Raksha Bandhan' or 'Rakhi' is a special occasion to celebrate the bond between brothers and sisters. The bond is recognized by tying a holy thread around the wrist. This thread, which pulsates with sisterly love and sublime sentiments, is rightly called the ‘Rakhi’. It means 'a bond of protection', and Raksha Bandhan signifies that the strong must protect the weak from all that’s evil.

Belle mentioned that each year, she does the same for all her brothers as well as a really close friend. And judging from the bunch of guys that I hang out with these days, I'd tie that string around practically everyone... hopeless? Well, maybe a little. Not to say that the guys I hang out with are bad or sexless but, they seem more like buddies than romantic interests. Truthfully, I've been eye-ing one or two but I don't feel like there's anything deeper. They are really fantastic to hang out with and get a different perpective from though.

Maybe I am getting older and more cynical but I tend to assess the situation and the guys a little more before just jumping in these days. Belle and I used to get into little schenanigans with the guys or potential guys we liked and man, are those are tasty nuggests for the history books...While I do as the occasional guy out, it doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. Movie and dinner does not a marriage make. Wake up aunties and uncles who think that you have to marry the person you are asking out...that is just a fishing expedition. Explore to your heart's content. just don't marry the guy becos you feel like you have to...that's just wrong and stupid.

Oh and beo-ing should be an art that is taught in schools. It's subtle and discreet...oh and it's damned bloody fun :o) Hell, I still beo like nobody's business. As long as you are not dead, everyone beos. The people who say they don't, are lying.

But am I looking? Of bloody course! Just like any girl, I am always on the lookout for The One. He may not have the perfect looks (that's bloody subjective - good god, they are still laughing over the last one!) or the biggest bank account (I am a realist in this. I believe that everyone should support themselves) but he has to accept me for who I am. Warts and all. Do I have a specific type in mind? Well...no. I know of people who have drawn up lists on looks, personality, race and all the possible traits that a guys shoud posess but I would rather not. It's restrictive and limiting. For a girl who believes that anything is possible, that is just stupid.

What I am looking for is a partner, a best friend and a lover. Yes, a lover...sex is an important part of any relationship and I won't shy away from it. Hearts and flowers? Sure! But warning: This girl's no pushover and mush certainly is not welcome here. Oy, the girl may be Indian but I'll leave the dancing around the bushes to the Bollywod luminaries. When it comes to theatrics, I happen to have the best/worst of both worlds - my family's both Peranakan and Indian, do I can drama like anything ;o) So stay on your toes...heh.

Despite the madness of rushing from meeting to meeting and cranking out a newsletter and all that good stuff, the thing that really struck me this week was how much I missed writing.

Miss writing? Writing? I can practically hear the detractors yell "WTF??!! She writes everyday, it's her *(&%@ job!" Well smart-asses, writing for me certainly does not mean the stuff that I do for work. Work is work. The stuff I really enjoy is writing feature columns. Stuff like this blog. Yea, so it is terribly arrogant of me to be wanting to pen down my thoughts and air them to the world (ehco: the world, the world...) but I think it's pretty neat. It's one of the areas I get to express my thoughts, heh, not all of it but still, it's most of what I believe in.

I helped out a few friends this year - collaborating and editing scripts and even a few papers and what came back to haunt me was how much I enjoyed the work. Like many, I'm facinated by how artists put bring pictures to canvas or a song to music. I love the way words can be moulded and phrased to convey feelings. I've never been the most eloquent speaker or the most captivating storyteller but writing is one avenue that lets me be all that I want to be. Oh and I tend to fumble less with my words too.

And while I do have writing heroes, they are not necessarily like ol' Bill Shakespeare. For me, simplicity is key and I do not need reams and reams of words to convey my point. Writing heroes? The list is simply too diverse and extensive - it stretches from Oscar Wilde to Anne Rice, to Brandon Boyd, Bruce Springsteen, Jonathan Larson, Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z Brite and even screenwriters like Tarantino, Almodovar and younger writers like JJ Abrahams & Joss Whedon.

It's all about the writing, about love, about passion, the excitement of creating something enw regardless of whether it's accepted or not. It's about doing the things that I love. Idealistic? Hell yeah! Realistic? Well, I try to be...but then again, it's good to have stuff to aspire to :o)
The more I help my friends out, the more I'm thinking, hey should I just pursue the writing on my own or should I just stick to what I know and do well? I don't know. Or go back to school? That idea has been running though my head for the longest time but hmmm, thinking back on the tons of research and the nitty gritty of school life...that is a cause for a pause. What I need is a creative avenue that allows me to just be creative and maybe even get paid for it .

The one thing that I am really looking forward to is a little side project that the girls and I are doing over the this weekend and that is...well, while we do know what the final product is, the secret shall remain locked at this point of time. I mean, who knows who reads my blog anyway ;o)