On cyber bullying and cluelessness of the young...

I read, with disgust, the Rutger student who committed suicide by jumping to his death due to his roommate's streaming his making out with another guy. The extent of vulgarity and cluelessness of this roommate is beyond belief. Afterall, they are not 5-year-olds, but 18. One would expect them to have learnt a bit of civility and respect to another human being. And for his friend's coming to his rescue, claiming that this roommate is just being "open-minded" in exposing someone else, be it a gay or a girl, is no excuse at all at the extent of his crime. Why is it that the teens and younger generations these days think it's so cool to expose someone else, and that spying on someone else is no big deal? The extent of cluelessness is astounding. I hope this roommate, and the female accomplice who helps him along, will do jail time.

Has writing become a dying art form?

The other day, I read an article on Sydney Morning Herald, about a million-dollar pen in pen-and-stationery stop in Sydney. I was interested, not of how much a pen can get - or even the question of whether anyone would care to put up that kind of money for a pen - but how writing has become so vintage that this store has become part of this cottage industry and niche.

In a way, I'm saddened by it. I like pens and stationery. I like reading. This is despite the fact that my writing is quite terrible, and I'm no calligrapher at all. As a matter of fact, I hardly need to write for a very long time now, since I work exclusively with just my laptop. I haven't even needed to use my printer either, so there goes anything that's remotely related to papers.

All these are well and good, very environmental-friendly. I'm sure I've helped saved alot of trees due to that, plus it frees up so much space at home (since I telecommute). Recently, I applied for another mortgage, and I was able to use all soft-copy of documents exclusively. All 2Gb worth of documents, which would otherwise have required reams of papers, ink and printing, they are now all on a tiny thumb drive that I can put away in my safebox. Isn't that sweet?

Having said all that, I still miss my pens. I have some really nice pens, some of them I used to use very often, including a Mont Blanc and a Parker that I used in my college days. You have no idea how much I long to use them again. I have tried to put them on my desk, so that I can get to use them, should the chance allow it. But they only get to gather dust, and I have to put them away in the drawer. The word vintage quite nicely describes the fond memory that good pens, but an old, broken-down leather bag, is valuable and, as such, should be treasured.

My only hope is, I might still get to use it from time to time. Hence, they are still in my drawer, rather than in my safebox. If that should become reality one day, I would be very sad. :)

From horror show on runway to wearable fashion on streets...

Since flying back from the summer trip to Asia, I've been so busy catching up on everything, including kids starting school, work and all, I can barely find time to even think of my journal, even though I have so much on my mind that I wish I could just do a brain-dump of them all.

So, these past few days, I read a few fashion-related articles, which have addressed some of my long-standing questions or feelings in general, one way or another.

One of the article is on a fashion column whose columnist obviously glows over Vera Wang, in particular, her latest runway show and collection, with pictures of a couple of runway clothes to boot. Not that I think Vera Wang's designs are all bad. Quite far from it, I see designs from her, from time to time, which looks very cute and pretty. But, by jove, how big a disconnect between fashion columnists (and their big opinions), and their readers; likewise to a fashion industry's near-obsession to use models that can only be described as death becomes her, and the loud, larger-than-life clothing that is totally unwearable, and the market audience's loathe of it. The article best illustrates these disconnects, particularly in the near-universal refute of how horrid-looking the clothing and models are, as expressed by almost all the readers' comments to the article.

So, there goes one of those things that has stayed at the back of my mind, and now I know I'm not alone in seeing how hateful the audience feels, towards all these supposedly contributions from the fashion industry.

But then, how does it justify the fashion industry going so strong, year after year, with runway shows still a yearly mainstay?

The second mystery was quite neatly addressed by another article I read, which illustrates how a seemingly outrageous runway design of a Donna Karan shirt is transformed from runway to become store-salable merchandise for everyday women. It's indeed a quite fascinating read for me, since I'm not in the industry, and obviously have no inkling of what goes on behind the scene to try to relate the runway to our fashion on sidewalk. For that, it shows how extravagant or exaggerating details of the runway design are trimmed, modified, eliminated or replaced, in order to make it a wearable clothing for an average woman.

All those are good to know for me, because I've come to loathe this whole fashion industry which is nothing but narcissistic to me. I've come to wonder how many designers it would take to translate those outrageous clothings from the likes of Marc Jacob or Jean-Paul Gaultier, into something that we can wear. But what more curiously is, at which point has this whole fashion industry moved out of steps from the classic designs of Chanel, in which every woman would dream of having "that exact same dress on the runway," into something on the runway in which we can really relate to? At what point has these runway fashion shows become just a show?