Modern Materialism

I see Louis Vuitton literally everywhere now - on the bus to uni, at uni, on the streets, in supermarkets, in high schoolers' pocket, on my prac tutor's waist etc. I don't envy them, nor do I dislike them in any way. It's simply the fashion trend nowadays that even those with no income own a designer brand of some sort.

 

I don't see why some people find the need to break the brand name obsession in people, especially in young girls like me.

I, personally am a designer brand lover, not only of Louis Vuitton but many other things as well. Louis Vuitton may seem too high classed for me because I do not have rich parents and I buy these luxury items using my own money. At the moment I admit I could not afford a Louis Vuitton handbag, but I do own quite a lot of labels, like Louis Vuitton (wallet), Chanel, Dior, Coach, Levi's or Lee, Polo Ralph Lauren, Tiffany&Co, Converse, Adidas, Nike...  I buy into brands simply because I like their cutting edge fashion design and style much better than those label-less items - be it handbags, shoes, clothings etc. Taking handbags for example, I simply do not see anything I like in Collette, Mascotte, Strandbags etc and I doubt their quality. I'm not snobby, that's just my preference and fashion choice, there's nothing wrong with that, is there?

I know these things can be overpriced. But I am not just blindly paying for the label. I reckon a designer product is worth every cent because of its quality, durability and timelessness and I'd like to just briefly share my experience that led me into thinking this way.

As I've said, I don't come from an incredibly wealthy family, neither of my parents buy into brands. For the both of them, shopping for clothes for example means to go to places in Taiwan like hangten, gap etc, just those really general brands out there in the market. And of course, at the time my wardrobe constitutes of these mediocre brands as well. Then I figured that these either shrunk or fade over about three washings. Most of them were thin and scratchy, poorly made, a bad fit or don't hold their shape after several washes. Then there is this corner of my wardrobe which constitutes of the clothes my aunt bought me (she doesn't have a daughter, and she loves shopping), and they never go bad like the clothes my parents buy. Then I found out that the clothes she bought me were all from department stores like sogo, shinkong mitsukoshi etc. So then I started to think that these cheap artist clothes available in the market are simply not quality identical dwellings compared to the brands.

It is believed that designer handbags will boast better durability. Nobody can really answer to what extent this is true unless they went on to do an experiment by taking a brand-less wallet and a Louis Vuitton wallet and make use of them for the same amount of time, then compare the results. I doubt anyone would do that, though. However, surely Louis Vuitton as well as many other brands have been well-recognised for their durability and can outlast non-branded products. Louis Vuitton claim that all of their products made in the French house have been machine-tested for their ability to withstand stretch. And a lot of consumers who own Louis Vuitton bags say that theirs last for a decade or two and it's still in good condition. I know for the fact that whether or not you can use the bag for ten years depends on how you take care of it. And exactly, if you bought it expensive, chances are that you will take better care of it, hence it lasts longer.

There are heaps of preowned Louis Vuitton bags out there that people are selling and the price are usually still quite unfriendly, unless it's very old or fake. Genuine designer brands do not drop in their dollar values. They never go obsolete. They are make good investments compared to other bags.

A lot of people think I own designer brands to flaunt, to show off, to get this sense of pride and stuck-up confidence within myself. Get over yourself man. I love them for their quality that comes off with the designer styles: classic monogram or young Damier, signature C...... I admit I also like the fact that these labels just never lose shine among the masses but I do not own them for pride and I'm not superficial or snobby. I don't despise anyone in anyway for whatever bag or clothes they wear. I only care about what's on me - what I wear, what I walk in, what I carry in my hand. I wear Levi's jeans not because I want the logo displaying on my ass, I want its durability and quality. I've worn this pair of Levi's for four years now and it's still in good condition compared to this other pair from Carrefour which is stretched and faded and it's only been in my wardrobe for 1.5 years. I don't think Levi's, in the case of jeans, is an unwise spending nor is it wasteful in any way. Only the best material, threads, zippers are used to leave a powerful statement for many years.

Yeah, so the thing with going designer brand, there are people on polarised ends of the opinion scale with one end saying it's definitely not worth the money and that it is WASTEFUL.

Think: Does buying ONE pair of Levi's jeans seem more wasteful than buying THREE pairs of Kmart jeans? I think the latter is more wasteful, and I can say this from my own experience. Not only are you wasting your money on something that's not of good quality, but also your time in shopping and trying out those jeans at Kmart. In environmentalist's perspective, you are definitely taking up more factory labour and resources as well as putting more pollution into the environment associated with manufacturing that three pairs of jeans you buy.

We all have an idea of what's "wasteful" but what might be wasteful for you might not be according to my means, and vice versa. Just because you would feel like I was wasting my money if I bought that stuff doesn’t mean that there isn't any value in it.

A waste of money can be defined in three ways.

1. Something becomes a waste of money when it is bought but never used.
If you bought a Xbox, no matter how much you wanted it at the time, if you hardly play on it coz you realised you have no time or w/e, then it's money down the drain. If some girl bought all these handbags but never use any of them, she'd be wasting her money (unless she was into collecting them). I do not exercise consumerism waste because I take my Coach bag out; I wear my Chanel earrings.
Hmm, I also think my designer bag has the versatility to be used with a number of outfits in a number of different situations - be it for casual outings, parties, dinners or w/e. 

2. Something is also a waste of money if bought it when you can’t afford it.
If I was going into some kind of financial debt for a Louis Vuitton, I would be wasting money. That money would be better used to pay down debt, buy necessities, or save. But I'm not going on an overdraft to get any of these, so it's not wasteful.

3. Something is a waste of money when you buy it just because everyone else is but you don’t really love it.
Louis Vuitton seems to be the trend now. If I didn't really like it but just bought it to fit in with the trend, I would be wasting money. My money would be better spent buying something I love, not something I'm “supposed” to love.

I love everything I own.

What is a waste of money to one person may provide a lot of value to another. We cannot judge something as a waste of money just because we don’t understand it. Only the people who own the item can judge whether or not they wasted money on it. So when you’re out amongst your friends and you see something that you consider a waste of money, bite your tongue and don’t criticize. They may be thinking the same thing about your most treasured possessions.

I'm only using Louis Vuitton for most the examples because despite what everyone had to say about the brand, Louis Vuitton’s rich history and influence on the global luxury market cannot be disputed.

Sorry this is such a long rant, but hope I've made my point across and hope you enjoyed it hahaha.

random things i wrote on the basketball court

He was such an excellent outside shooter. He tended to send every ball arcing towards the basket with his toes just shying away from the three point line. I never took my eyes off him – afraid of missing any impressive shots. My heart bounced with the ball, pounding hard and intent. The clung of the rim, bounce of the board never came. His skills were too good to be true…

what i do in my spare time

I am on the Nigahiga-craze again.

There are millions of videos up on YouTube. But the only one that catches my full attention and gets me addicted far worse than chips or chocolate is the greatest YouTube comedian (in my opinion): Nigahiga :D

Nigahiga comes first on my YouTube celebrities list out of all the others like Jayesslee, Smosh etc and Kevjumba (I will come back to him later).

So why am I all obsessed with Nigahiga?

The first video I watched of him is when the Bieber Fever was around. He made a video saying how much he dislikes Justin Bieber and I just found it absolutely hilarious at the time (still do now). I just love his good humour, his facials and the way his videos are made. Then I fell in love with him lol.

His YouTube name is also pretty goofy just like the way he is. Nigahiga. Ryan Higa is his real name; the combination of his last name Higa [heega] and the Japanese word niga, which is a colloquial meaning to rant, tells us all about him and his videos: goofy and witty. He rants a lot in his videos with depictions of funny situations and the way he presents his ideas is nothing but hilarious. I love those "how to" instructional videos like how to be a ninja, how to be a nerd or a gangster etc, and his "movies in minutes" series in which a shrunk version or a parody of a popular movie as the name suggests, like Twilight, Titanic. Oh, and his lip-syncs LOL they are a crack up. His videos just strike me every time in making me literally laugh out loud in my room; he never fails to make a funny video.

I can literally watch a dozen of his videos at a time. If I get bored of his (hot) face (which i normally don't) I change to Kevjumba.

Kevjumba is nothing short of a YouTube sensation. Just like nigahiga, his humour catches a lot of people so like nigahiga, he is now making millions of dollars out of those clips he made as well. Kevjumba isn't less than nigahiga, in fact, I also love the way he presents some controversial topics like racism and stereotypes with a hint of comedy. He declares that although he is Asian, he doesn't "eat rice and egg rolls everyday", isn't a nerd, but he is cool with social life and that he is not cheap lol. Although he just doesn't get as crazy as nigahiga or do as much skits as other YouTube comedians, the topic regarding stereotypes against Asians in America, or any other countries is pretty realistic. I'm sure there is a whole bunch of Asian audience who can relate to what he's saying too. That's why I don't mind watching KevJumba and I quite like him too haha, but he just doesn't beat nigahiga in my opinion.

Oh and I found out that KevJumba is also Taiwanese! woohoo Taiwan pride :D

I wonder what both of them are like in real life and I also wonder if their friends get trolled around heaps by them like in the videos.

Anyway, I LOVE the two of them (especially nigahiga) and I highly recommend you guys to go check out their videos on YouTube to understand what a person with excellent sense of humour is like lmao.

Through The Lens of iPhone

A lot of you would know I am in fact a very, very boring person, and it's mainly just because my life is basically just eat, sleep, study and friends. Luckily, I have been able to find a hobby to lighten up my boring life, and yes, it's PHOTOGRAPHY.

Just playing around with colour splash there.

The ferris wheel at South Bank.

This is probably the best you could do with an iPhone for night shoots.

 Light trails are so cool :)

Food photography.

I only fell in love with photography about a year ago or two. Before that, photography was just about taking photos at a special event like a party, ball or whatever, for the purpose of capturing that moment and evoke emotions and memories. It was the objects/subjects in the photograph that was important, not really the quality of the image at all. Like those high school ball photos...because the venues were always dark so the photos taken were complete fail, now looking back at it :(

I remember it was this photo that inspired me to learn photography.

It's a night view of the Mt Cootha look out - it lets you see just how beautiful Brisbane is at night time :) It's just from Google image and I dunno who the photographer is, sorry. 

The first time I saw this photo, I was truly astounded. How can shooting under low light be done so beautifully? Whichever camera it was, it sees a better world than my eyes do. Just the quality of the photo - stunningly beautiful, and calm. Then I started wondering if I could take photos like this as well.

The other day my brother was telling me off for even thinking of getting a DSLR.

Outsiders just do not understand that quality shots can only be done by DSLRs' offer to a physcially much larger sensor, changeable shutter time, wide array of lenses for close-up, mid, long, wide-angle shots, shallower depth of field, superior low-light performance, autofocus, richer colour reproduction, image pixels of like 20megapixels and more etc etc.  Night shots become a piece of cake apparently, if you are familiar with the shutter speed, exposures, lightning and taking advantages of surrounding objects because these often help compensate the light and create amazing output.

But you wouldn't go on top of mountains every night and take photos there. When it comes to photos of everyday life, like if I want to take photos of family, friends, food, or even selfies, things like depth of field becomes important. Being able to position the objects/ subjects at the right place on the grid, as well as fiddling around with surrounding objects all become important, as the ones I took for these macarons and Mina the Maltese. These features make ALL the difference between a crappy photo and a good photo.

I really wish I had a better camera with higher resolution zzz.

 Pets are extremely tricky to take as they move so much! This was a lucky shot of my friend's dog - snapped just at the right time.

Ever since DSLR came into my life I got really picky with photos people take. I do not like people taking crappy photos (might as well not take them :S). This is what I called a crappy photo when compared to the one above; it's the same night look out at Mt Cootha.

Albeit DSLR is an important tool, a decent one is just too costly for me :( So now I'm just practising my positioning of things so everything looks right and nicely positioned for attention-grabbing, comfortable-viewing purposes. iPhones are only 8 megapixels which is like a 2 or even 3-fold reduction in pixel size compared to DSLRs. Sigh. All hobbies cost I guess. And photography is definitely an expensive one. I have now a full page of apps all related to photography, or the so-called 'iPhoneography apps'. It shows how much I love photography haha :)

I just love photography now because it allows me to create art from reality.

Yes, I still take photos because I want to capture moments that would otherwise just blend into all the other moments that have passed. The capturing of the moment encapsulates a moment in time, forever frozen though real life moves on and forgets. Photography allows me to freeze time in a way and be able to look back at it over time, reliving those moments in memory. Our memory is flawed, but the evidence of pixels is hard to deny. They might not be as clear or all-encompassing as actually being there back in that moment, but sometimes just a nostalgic reminder is good enough.

I am so glad to have come to appreciate photography as a truly amazing technology as well as the valuable part for chronicling my own life. Cameras have certainly helped me to revolutionise the way I see my world and my surroundings and I am going to share this world of mine not through words, but the photographs I snapped through the lens of an iPhone (for now), right here. :)

Sex and The Sexist

That’s right, my first rant is about sex. 

It's really something that I have A LOT to say ever since I understood what sex means. If you are already feeling uncomfortable, I do encourage you to read on because you might want to get over that barrier some time in your life. There is absolutely no need find it dodgy or feel embarrassed about because most of us would experience it at some stage in our lives and it’s really not that much of a big deal. We should all build on positive thoughts about sex so nobody would feel bad or judge anyone just because someone is sexually active.

So this once I was talking to one of my guy mates about ‘sex’. I admit I am pretty close to him but we have never talked about anything ‘dirty’ until that conversation. I think I was the one who started the whole thing about sex, and I think I began with the question: Do you prefer Asian or Caucasian porns? At first, he didn't feel exactly comfortable in answering me because he thought I was a girl, and not many girls feel okay in talking about this with guys. He said whenever he talks about sex with his guy friends he’d have to be careful if there are any girls from the group around. He doesn't like it when girls throw those ‘looks’ at him. It’s the look that reveals disgust, embarrassment, awkwardness, dodge etc. Not only do they throw those looks at him, but also act as if they don’t understand what the guys are on about.

My only reaction to that was wtf, those girls are so damn pretentious.

Who on earth, having lived for 18 years of their lives, still don’t know what sex is about.

Why are they acting so innocent? It just annoys me so much when I see girls like that. Do they seriously think they are ‘better’ than everyone else because they are pretending that they don’t know anything about sex, implying that they are obviously virgins? It just seems like those girls are looking down on those who understand too much about sex and feel comfortable in talking about it with guys, especially those who aren't virgins. I get that she was trying to show that she is ‘breaking the mold’ or w/e but it just comes off as condescending and pretentious to me.

I might sound like I am overreacting but it’s only because it reminds me how so many people, including my parents, put all this stigma on sex, especially if the girl isn't a virgin did it because she loved her boyfriend or something. This is the stigma which in our society is the underlying factor of gender inequality and prejudice. By suggesting that sex is somehow "wrong" is to go against basic human nature. Thing is, sex is not even a bad thing; it is the way to ensure species survival in all biologically living things, and as humans, it is also a way to show love and affection for another person. Why would social constructs aim to go against evolutionary values? Why have we been conditioned to view it as something dodgy and ‘dirty’? It sadly reminiscent of the kind of prejudice that I see all the time. And yes, it does piss me off. 

When it comes to sex, the situation is in fact very simple. You either choose to A) have sex with your boyfriend or B) not have sex with him. It is this simple and there is just no difference between the two. If you choose to have sex with him because you love him, good for you. If not, all good as well. It’s not like there is a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ choice. It’s like choosing to write your exam paper in blue pen or black pen. Some use blue and some use black. You wouldn't and shouldn't judge them differently for choosing something different to you, especially if it doesn't concern you in any way what colour their writing is in. How’s it different with sex and virginity? So, girls who throw those looks, don’t ever think that you are ‘better ‘ just because you are (probably still) a virgin kk?

Just the whole thing about girls needing to be chaste as well – it puts a lot of pressure on girls but never guys! As according to that guy friend of mine, they are all good when it comes to the topic about sex, porns etc. Why is it always girls who put so much emphasis on sex? Because our sexist society dictates it. Why can’t all girls stop being sheep of society and just start thinking about what sex really means.

I suppose another possible explanation would be because their parents, just like mine, taught me to avoid the topics about sex and only have sex when I grow up, with the person I’m gonna marry. 

...wtf.

Why is women seen to represent something pure and untainted. It’s like how men are seen to be the leaders and protectors -- a stereotype that has good roots, but there is so much diversity in today’s society that we desperately try to enforce these old gender roles, and the result is more and more revolt. People want to be different, to be individuals. Putting a taboo on sexuality is like telling people not to steal; it’s going to happen anyway. So what if it a woman has sex with someone who isn't necessary going to be her lifelong companion? As I've just mentioned above, sex is not even a bad thing...

IF I were to tell you, I've had seven boyfriends in my life so far and I've slept with five of them, what would be your reaction? Firstly, would you label me as ‘ promiscuous’? Since when is someone’s preference to sleep with a lot of people bad? It’s not like I've contracted AIDS or STIs – even if I have, it’s not your place to judge me? It’s something some people just can’t get over, I know. I'd like to think that what I decide or not decide to do with my own body is my own choice, and that other people can get on with their own lives without judging me for what I do with what's mine. I mean I could choose to whether eat noodles with chopsticks or forks, nobody would care. Why is virginity any different? Also, just because a girl has had a lot of boyfriends doesn't make her a bad person. In fact it should be an indication that she is a lovely girl whom a lot of guys want to be with. I dare say for most people that relationship is just something that gets better and better with experience. For all of you who view sex as some biggie, I really do encourage you to think outside the box and think logically too. Stop stereotyping so much!

I hope this blog entry changes someone’s opinion in some way. Even just a tiny little bit will do, ‘cause maybe it will all become clearer when you meet someone.

Oh, women. Sometimes the things you say and do make me see where the misogynists are coming from. And it really makes me question if I’m just as dumb as you :/

Hello.

So I started my new blog, here.


I have had so many attempts in writing out things that are on my mind in hard copy diary books, note books, iPad notes, lecture notes, Facebook, LINE timeline etc. But some thing just doesn't feel right.
 I want to share my thoughts somewhere to someone but not everyone. And Facebook has no secrets - if you don't change your settings to '限本人看到 (yeah my Facebook is in Chinese, and I dunno what it's called in English)', people see it. That includes my mum, my brothers, people I know but not really friends with, people who used to be my friends, people who can't understand English and think I'm a stuck up etc. Unless I go into all the trouble of grouping people into 'acquaintances', randoms see it, and I don't like that. Plus, nobody really puts emo stuff or serious talks on Facebook either. LINE timeline is just full of posts that are not understandable. Wretch, Weibo are just too Asian, and it's strange to post English there.

I want people to see what my world is like, but only those who are close to me.

So, I'm starting a new blog life here. :)

I might seem like one of those girls who cares only about being pretty; those Asian nerds who care only about grades; those emo who care about relationships. But that is not true.

I am full of ideas and thoughts for/ against certain topics, and I can be quite opinionated at times. But I have this problem with not being able to express my thoughts well, I think :/. So this is going to be somewhere that provides an insight into Tina Wool and also somewhere for me to practise my writing I guess.

Yeah.

Enjoy :) !