Do we create image or image that creates us?

I just read the newest entry in Mijung's blog. Unfortunately, for some of you, it might hard to understand as she wrote it in Indonesian. Anyway, she said that she got this dream about went home to Indo where everyone greet her and happy for her. But one thing that made her sad, thing that we sometimes do not realize. It's the assumption from most of the people that being small, or skinny is the most ideal body size. For this, we might ask, whose fault is this? Is this simply because we feel being challenged to keep our body slim and sexy? Or is it because we only have clothes in S size? I'm fully agree with her that it's the media's fault, especially magazines.

We've been reading magazines since what? 10? 12? 15 years old? How many, let me rephrase, how many hundreds times we flip over pages in a magazine and seeing slim, skinny ladies in the newest fashion? How many times we stuck at a page looking at some cute skinny women in their colourful dress? Maybe it's nothing, flipping over pages of magazines might only take 15 to 25 minutes at a time. It feels like nothing, but without our consciousness acknowledging it we are being shaped by them. We are being transformed. Our mindset has been constructed. We -maybe most of the female readers- will think that if they don't have skinny or slim body, they couldn't wear pretty dresses. Not wearing pretty dresses means that we might attract unpleasant staring or presumption. And nobody will gonna have crush on them. :) That is silly isn't? If you think it through, it is indeed silly.

Do you really think or believe that if you buy those fancy, cute and colourful in the magazines, then you can just wear it in daily occassions? You can wear it to visit your old granny in that? Or attending a seminar about Global Warming in those funky dresses? Think again. You're not gonna apply those many skin foundations or lotions to your face, are you? That will show that your face has layers just like a lasagna you had for lunch the other day. Most probably you wouldn't have enough time to wear so much make-up (unless you work as a clown in a local circus) =P No, I'm not being harsh to females. I just want to make them to start realize, to quit dreaming of things that are sold by marketing people. This is their jobs, they are paid to create image. To create such an imaginative promises and dreams to the readers. Of course, those marketers smart @ss can't be blamed. It's now our turn, us as readers to start moderating ourselves.

We create images, so many of them that shape our acceptance, our understanding of someone's appearance. We follow images that sometimes we treat ourselves and others based on that simple judgement. Be aware that sometimes images also tackle us, giving us wrong direction, false impressions about our own images. Images should be no more than marketing tools, that is used by so many business establishment to raise their profit up. Society itself is the one who should control images, which society? Who is in a society? You, me, they, us. We are as the creators, the readers, and the consumers of images should have a grasp. Like Mijung said in her blog, "What is it for you to keep reading magazines that will only give you guilty feeling?" Guilty for not being slim, that makes thousands of females and women -as young as Year 9- are crazed about diet. Wrong diet. For most of the females I know, diet means eating as least food as you could. And this, most of them, will give bad effect such as long term damage to their stomachache, or feeling weak, some have pale face in the most of the days. No, ladies. That is wrong. The real diet is limiting yourself not to consume things like saturated fat from unhealthy food or food with excess oil. Further more, the conception of today's youth is supporting those false images. How many times we saw someone is left out by their friends because they don't have a build, muscular body, or don't have good curves and slim in size? Sometimes we force ourselves to follow the "trend" in the local friendship network just to be accepted as a 'member'. We deny and stubbornly accept that this is how it should run. Fat = ugly = no friends = weirdo. Can we blame on those type of friendship? No, they are also the victims of false imaginary dreams. That to make a better friendship, everyone should be slim.

Why torturing ourselves just to satisfy some people on the street so they can stare at us? Our images shouldn't be limited by curves in our body. Magazines that offer strict dietary is only a guide for those who might exceedly overweight and need a support or guidance. But don't take it as strict rule or requirement that if you don't do it then you're not cool or as trendy the rest of the readers. So, the bottom line here is, don't be afraid to eat. I'm not suggesting you to drink a full glass of fat or to eat a big lump of steak full with fat. Just be moderate. Limit and balance your dietary with healthy stuff, fruits, and of course regular sports. After all, why we should follow someone else's created images? Or some magazine's images? Isn't nice that we also can make our own images? And by the end of the day, you could simply ask yourself that do we really create image or that image creates us?

"The more vivid your imagination, the more dangerous the world becomes."
Matthew Lotti

Scribble, scribble

First, congratulations for Irwan who just won a basketball competition. We have a brand new champion in this town! Rock on dudes! Hehehe... He is so happy when came home bringing back the trophy and his medal. He has every right in the world to be happy and proud. His hardwork to assembly such a strong and solid team, even to take them to be a winner was not easy. Indeed he is a good motivator and speaker (even sometimes he can act and looks like no different than my 15 years old cousin lol). So, anyway, now he can sleep sound and easy as this winning was one of his goals in here. For the last three days he keeps staring at his trophy and I wouldn't be surprised if one day I'll find him sleep while hugging the damn thing hehehe... His team is The Jerks Jetz. :P Sorry bro, I'm just joking ok, I don't want to open my front door and finding your whole team standing right there holding baseball bat. =P

Anyway, so far I haven't been discussing about one of my sacred hobbies... eating. Yes, food is like music to my tongue. Especially after I met my spouse. Before that, I was just a skinny boy who only eat if I feel hungry. Hehehe.. Believe it or not, in the last two years, I've been gaining enough weight to sink a small steamboat to the bottom of the lake. Jk! For the last two years, I've been throwing away about 12 jeans, 6 or 8 baggy trousers, a good kg of fine clothes and God-knows-how-many underwear. Why? Because I had been a good settlement for another 22kg of my body. I went from size 28 or 29 to staggering 33! Yes, you got that right, I've gained about 22kg for the last two years. No wonder all my friends in Indo - who hadn't seen me for 4 years - almost drop their jaws when they saw me. But by gaining this much of weight, I'm not only gaining fat alone, but confidence. Hehehe.. All credit goes to my spouse =P

So, I've been enjoying new habit, eating. I used to enjoy cooking tho even I don't have many recipes to share but at least I can tell the difference between spring onion and lemon grass =P Being a food lover is not an easy task. Some of my friends have the same hobby too. One of them is Mr. Z. Standing tall at 195 cm and weighs about 150 kg, he is the real man for the job. Steaks, Sushi, Pizza, Pasta, Chinese cuisines, you name it. This dude will do the job and finish it well hehehe... We talk about food like others do about cars or footy =P Sometimes we go down to Northbridge (our small Chinatown) just to have a full-loaded, heavy dinner or just to spend time over a complete and satisfying Dim Sum. I wouldn't be surprised tho if one day he show up at my place turn out to be a Chinaman hahaha... I even sometimes suspicious that he speaks a fluent Mandarin =P

My another favorite type of food is steak. Which steakhouse? I'll answer it would be the only one, Hog's Breath! If you are happen to live in a town in Australia where you can find one of Hog's Breath's branch but you never tried or visited, then you're really missing something good. And you're entitled to get a free slap from Mr. Z, unless you're a true vegetarian or a devoted member of CRPA (Cow's Rights and Protection Agency, if there's such a thing tho) hehehe..

Lemme tell you, Hog's Breath has been known for their juicy and succulent steaks. I lost count of how many people I took there for dinner or just a quick lunch, and every single of them said the same thing by the end of every meal: "Oh, my, that was one awesome steak" And maybe I also responsible for their increasing profit margin for the last two years hahaha... jk! After their first visit, I'll later find out they have become the dedicated worshiper of Hog's Breath =P It has one of the best steak I ever tried, the creamiest mashed potato -that melts in your mouth- (the fries is great too but I'm not a fan of combination of fries and steak), and the coolest restaurant design. It has a very good atmosphere that you could bring anyone there in any occassion. Be it your mates to talk about next weekend's fishing tour of duty, or your colleagues, your in-laws, or the girl next door that you're trying to hit on. It will always be a good place to dine-in*

Ok, I think I have enough scribble here. So, listen to my soul, brothers. Go there, experience it yourself, then you can decide. LOL. I sound like I work for them, don't I? Hehehe..

* The standard of services and cute waitress will vary from one branch to another. Please refer to the closest branch in your area. =P

Ancient Dynasty plus Hergè

For the last two weeks, I've been drawn to ancient timeline, building deserted towns. Designed housing for 2,000 people with their prick needs, ruling it to be one of the finest place to live in. Then moved on to other towns, tried to make a path for my career to be the greatest emperor of all time. Hehehe... No, it's only literally. I've been playing Emperor: The Rise of Middle Kingdom. It's basically a city building game, where you are given an area that where you can build things like housing, mill, farming area, brothel etc. It's a bit like Sim City Series but this time with goals which you have to fulfil to continue your journey as a dynasty ruler.

The game looks good, for me it's the best so far. Has more details than the rest of the games in the same genre, such as Pharaoh, Zeus, Caesar III, etc. The funny thing was, that one day when I was playing it, our housemate, Irwan saw it and he wanted to install and play it in his laptop. Then off he went. For the next four days or so, he locked himself up in his room. God knows how many hours he had for sleeping or how many days he haven't seen sunlight :)

Anyway, if you like computer game and love playing city building game, Emperor is a must for you. It has a wide options such as invading other towns, paying homage for heroes aka gods, defining your tax, your alliance, etc, etc. The game has a good skin and coloring. It even has some funny animations. Talking about animations, recently I just bought myself a full series DVD collection of Tintin. I'm very sure that most of you that read this actually know who Tintin is.

I've been reading comics about Tintin since I was 7 or 8 y.o. It's one of my favorite comics. There are some distinctive characteristic in him. For me, Tintin has represented himself as the basic and primary of the most modern hero in our time. Of course Tintin is the simplest cartoon hero I've ever seen. I'm talking about those who are in human shape. Look at his face, only two dots for his eyes, cute little nose and funny hair. Tintin is James Bond minus the hot chics or sexy sidekicks. Tintin is James Bond minus the weird and kick-ass gadgets but Tintin is as brave and lucky as Bond. Tintin is Indiana Jones minus the whip :), Tintin is MacGyver minus his magic Swiss Army Knife. Tintin also Ethan Hunt minus the Impossible Mission Taskforce (IMF). And the list could go on and on. Tintin might be only a young journalist travelling with his wits dog, grumpy-short-temper Capt. Haddock (he has a quite broad ermm defining curse words), clumsy twin Thompson & Thomson, and almost-deaf scientist Cuthbert Calculus.

Tintin is not only smart (he spoke more than 3 languages perhaps), he also brave and honest. Of course in the movies, most of the time he is saved by his lucky angel. But hey, it's a comic. No difference from those James Bond and Indiana Jones' adventures tho. Anyway, I gotta finish this off. I'm at uni atm, and the Internet is freaking bad. I'm sure some f*ckwits are downloading sh*ts from the net. At this times, the lab sometimes full of people who wouldn't bother to turn their mobile off or at least put it on silent mode. And they like to talk loud. It's a lab for God's sake, you should keep your voice down. *sigh* Oh well.. Take care, everyone.

Here's the picture of Tintin & friends:


The picture is © Herge Moulinsart.
(Click here to enlarge)

Oh, if you claim yourself as a hardcore and die-hard fans of Tintin, here is a good trivia quiz about Tintin and everything that relates to him. Good luck!