overheard by a friend

"Yelah, you sorang je betul, orang lain semua salah, you sorang je pandai."

 I dont get it. I had said nothing offensive, at least I don't think so. I didn't cuss or abuse, I didn't even raise my voice, but apparently I had said something wrong.

"and you thought this because?"

 ...she started speaking in Malay, she never speaks Malay unless she's upset. Its always a bad sign when she goes full Malay.

It's like the time she played with scarves, and started wearing them like tudungs on her head, and then asked, "do I look nice? Do I look pretty?" Next thing I knew, I was at lunch with her parents, no warning gave.

I really have no idea what ticked her off this time.

"Why do you bother with these kinds of characters? I thought you used to hate these plastic folk?"

I dont think I ever liked them, but I dont know, maybe its because they're shiny, and attractive?

Or maybe Im shallow, I dont know.

"As a friend, let me remind you what you seem to have forgotten: you're not them, and they're not you. You're forcing yourself to feel miserable day in and day out, just to fit in.."

You know what it feels like? Like a knife scraping off every single bit of myself from my bones, every morning I feel less and less like myself.

"So stop" I cant stop. "of course you can" I cant.

"May god guide you"

In the end, it turned out that he could stop, but not before he lost all respect for himself.

He realised that he was clawing the bottom of an empty well, and looked up, and saw the blue sky through the narrow hole overhead.

His calls for help was heard by a thirsty passerby, who helped him out.

Don't think like I did, he told the traveller, and fall into a hole chasing after a glint you see at the bottom.

They then made their way back to their normal lives.

simply decide

faced with difficulty, we sometimes offer people excuses.

But we also offer those same excuses, and maybe more, to ourselves.

We blame the world, god, the universe instead of rolling our sleeves and doing the hard work of finding our way out of those difficulties.

One day, you'll run out of excuses to give out, even to yourself.

It'll be very sad if that's the only person left on that day to hear them

there's good strange, then there's bad strange

a good friend keeps reminding me I'm weird
not that I'm bothered by it, though I wish he didn't have to point it out so frequently.
hmm

self-deprecation aside, 'normal' is boring, tired and plain lazy
here I mean the culture of consumption that is the 'norm', the way of life for many people

fun fact: did you know that Superdry in Australia is a brand carried by the Pacific Brands conglomerate, the same company behind Bonds underwear and Razzamatazz hosiery?

bet you felt all smug buying that cool pair of skinny jeans, differentiating you from the masses

too bad they're mass-produced

if 'cool' comes manufactured by large multi-national companies, that's not really going (in this case buying) outside the box
it's not bold, it's not your statement to the world, its a marketing campaign to make you feel good

you've been duped, bamboozled, given the run around, to think that piece of expensive mass-produced fabric gives you status

which it can have, given enough people believe in the idea

Question is, do you really want to be reduced into the purchasing masses?

rant on deodorants

can anybody explain why men's fragrances have to smell so sharp?

I feel like my nose gets pierced every time I'm in a change room. The smell is horrible.

And teenagers. They smell really bad.