[ Me ]
Nickname: Ursula
Birthday: 7th January 1985
Zodiac: Capricorn
Where From: Singapore
Laidback, sensitive, fickle, easily-tickled, fiercely loyal
Manga and anime lover, enthusist, collector and critic/ Coffee lover, addict and expert maker/ Aspiring future wife of famous culinary chef/ Aspiring future wife of a 1.8m tall hunk
My Friendster link:
http://www.friendster.com/vivis
[ Likes ]
Sleeping, dancing, books, manga, anime, chocolates, coffee, Jap food, Italian food, Ayumi Hamasaki, people, my sister
[ Fave Books ]
Harry Potter series, Artemis Fowl series, The Inheritence Trilogy series, The Da Vinci Code, Memoir of a Geisha, I Don't Know How She Does It... and all my comics n manga!!!
[ Currently Reading ]
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
Inkheart
by Cornelia Funke
The Well Of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie
Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Seduced The West
by Lesley Downer
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
by Milan Kundera
The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
[ The Wishlist ]
My Amazon.com Wishlist:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=yourlists_pop_1/103-2401787-9502236
Phillips MC235 Thin Stereo Microsystem
Kathy Van Zeeland bag
(saw on amazon.com going for bout US$65... Why dun Singapore stock her goods??! >.< I wan it in Topaz colour~!!!)
The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Inu-Yasha Theme Song Collection
12 Kingdoms/ Juuni Kokuki anime VCD sets
GUESS bag (darn, i dun have the $120 required to buy it now and i noe it'll be gone soon, Guess always changing their apparels every month or so u_u)
DKNY gold and crystal-studded watch (very ornamental, more a dress watch then an every-funtion watch. still, pretty~)
Mphosis pale gold SLIPPERS (i run through my shoes and slippers like they cost nth X/)
The BodyShop BLUSHER in Golden Pink
The BodyShop blusher BRUSH
Shiseido eyelash CURLER
Full-length wall MIRROR(s) for my room
A new big every-purpose BAG
Pretty SHOES
A Digital CAMERA
A bloody new PC or laptop with the speed of light and a gazillion GB of memory!! =[
The Sims 2 (PC game edition)
[ The Memories ]
Thursday, December 08, 2005
We are who we hang out with
Maybe becos i've been so busy introspecting (if u can believe in such a word) and haven been people-watching or taking too much notice of my surroundings in recent years, but i recently come to notice how much pple validate their existence by broadcasting the pple they know, especially in the latest emergence (ok, i'm a dinosour) of frenship-networking concept websites such as Friendster, Friendshipnetwork, Multiply and wat not.
What does it say of their individuality, not to mention self esteem, when they have to prove who they are by the pple they know.
Scenario:
oooh... this person has such hot frens! he/she must be really hot himself to to have such pple gravitate towards him! let me make frens with him so i can let pple think i'm hot too!
Scenario:
oooh... this person has attitude man. i really admire that. let me jus add him to my friends list so pple noe i'm not the sort to be fucked with.
Scenario:
wow...this gal is gorgeous. let me try my luck adding her. let my male frens ponder how we noe each other/ how close we are/ how we're related.
Scenario:
wow... this gal is our national basketball player. jus look at all her pics in her glory! i noe her. let me add her so pple will noe i noe her.
Scenario:
wow... i jus found fiona xie/ jamie yeo/ vernetta lopez/ mark richmond/ tay pinghui/ taufik/ sylvestor's profile! let me add her. she has so many 'frens' anyway that she wun mind the difference, but i can tell pple i noe her. woohoo! celebrity power!
Scenario:
woohoo! i've jus taken photos with stefanie sun/ tanya chua/ taufik/ kelly poon/ lee ang/ ziyi zhang/ keenu reeves/ meryl streep! let me put it up for the whole world to see that i've met/ worked for/ worked with/ befrended them! aw shucks. y not jus throw in the group photo of the whole cast n crew too! let them guess/ know how important am i!
(Of cos, many other scenarios and reasons for frenship networking comes to mind still, but they are no less cynical, so i wun expound on it already.)
Ok, they're quite an exaggeration of the normal expressions, but u get the picture.
Unfortunately, we'll never really noe wat are their agendas n blindly get impressed either by these attention-drawing 'frens' or the sheer number of the 'frens' they noe - i.e. Scenario: wow! this person has 476 frens! she must be a really popular n great person!.
And then, the above situation (of having 476 'frens') will then also merit the person of being known as a popular, well-liked n well-connected social butterfly.
And u add the person, and ya 'frens' increase n increase, and the cycle continues.
At least, thats the concept that Friendster, Multiply, etc are banking on to continue the success of their websites.
Ego-masturbation and competition (i.e. i have more frens than u, haha!) aside though, its all a very nice way to keep count of ya frens, network n keep in touch if u wan to go back to the basics.
Of cos, there's a lot to be said for having the photos u put up express ya individuality too. Its a nice visual outlet to let ya frens know how u're getting along, how nice/beat-up u look recently, wat interesting functions u've been to, wat funky pple u noe, the galfren/boyfren/lover u're currently attached to, the good frens u're proud to have, etc etc.
(ok, if i go on further, i'm jus bringing back my arguement bout the whole validating-ya-existence-with-the-pple-u-noe syndrome, so i'll stop here with all the more sanguine reasons.)
I myself have a Friendster account anyway so i may have unknowingly exhibited some of the traits illustrated above (as i'm sure i have, being the imperfect human we all are) and am trully in no position to judge others.
In fact, if i really do know some pretty colourful pple, let it not be said that i find these pple lacklustre n insult the believability of their magnificence (not trying to be sarcastic here, as in, really).
Ultimately, its an underlying consensus - whether fairly or unfairly - that we are who we hang out with. Pple look at us n judge everything from our background, family history, character, attitude, and even affluence n social standings from the pple we are seen with.
Which is a whole load of bullshit actually when u think of it, cos since when do we actually hang out with jus one group of pple (or maybe i'm jus speaking bout myself if u arent like that), when are the 'correct' type of pple deemed 'correct', or when are pple ever who they seem anyway? Who determines the frens u shd have anyway?
Looks like i'm fighting both sides of my own arguement, lolx!
The next time u log in to Friendster and Multiply and Friendshipnetwork, keep an open mind and u may start seeing things in a whole different perspective.
+ Ursula r e m e m b e r s again + 11:45 PM
