Wanna be blonde?

I am finally recovered after four days lying in bed and fighting against bloody fever and nasty cough. Antibiotic did the trick! Imagine if there was no antibiotic invented by medical research, the previous post might have been the unexpected goodbye message from me!

After i was saddened by my misfortune of not being able to buy The Cure ticket, there another grief to bear as i also have to miss The Police Reunion Concert. For the last two weeks, i have been watching clips of The Police concert at Youtube and was thrilled to see three genius people using incredible sounds as their narratives. Superbly talented! My particular attention was drawn to Stewart Copeland, one of the best drummer in the world. Well, what can i say? I won't see them in live next year.

Now let's move on to another topic. Has anyone seen anime? This Japanese cartoon is interesting in term of creativity. Yet what makes me intrigued is that the character on this Japanese cartoon does not represent Japanese people. Mostly, in the cartoon, we can see Japanese women or men with big blue eyes, pointed noses and blonde or brunette hairs. Why their facial features are similar to what we will find in Anglo-Saxon's characters?

When i studied Japanese culture and politics at Uni, i learnt that there was a time in Japan when Japanese tried to put aside some of their cultural things and replaced them with Western ones. Kabuki, a traditional Japanese theatre was less interesting for urban society than Jazz music. Soft drinks became favourable beverage. That was back then when US arrival on Japan which consequently resulted in the opening of Japan trade to wider world. This move gave a huge impact on society.

Now after a century has passed, this anime-with-anglo-saxon-looking is kind of confusing. Is it indicating that to some extent, there is inferiority feeling within society which is reflected through this type of cartoon? Or is it just a coincidence? In real life, i often see Japanese tourists (mostly teenagers) have their hair dyed with golden blonde colour. I hope this is not because of Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, if it so, they probably will end up in jail or rehab.

Uninvited visitor!

What i call "uninvited visitor' is the virus that causes flu and cold. Yes, they are inside my body now and have been showing their generosity by giving me fever, headache, blocked nose and aching body.

I took medicine, the strong ones. It works okay so far, but i don't know till how long. I will go back posting about sexuality soon i am recovered. Even though i am not yet recovered but at the stage of consvalescence, i try to write down some stuff.

Have a good weekend! (i don't think i will have a good one due to virus bastard!)

My dad never calls me darling!

Imagine this scenario:

Two kids, one boy and girl sat down on a tram next to their father. The girl stood up on the tram seat so that she could see anything outside from the tram. To see the excitement that his sister has from seeing through the window, the boy started to push in, made room for himself next to her sister. As she was annoyed with this, she asked him to leave. Out came a gentle voice from their father try to settle the matter. "Darling, you should share with your brother", told him to his annoyed little girl. "And you, mate, you'd better not pushing in but asking your sister nicely", added the father.

Is it great? A very understanding and calm father tried to jump into his children fight over spot at the tram. Yet if we look at a bit deeper, we would find something more fascinating than how the father handled the situation. What makes me thinking is not about the type of father or how to control your children in public space. It's rather the term of endearment that he used for his children. It is obvious that girl would be called nice thing such as 'darling', 'sweetheart', 'honey', 'sweety' (or even hunny bunny sweety pie--like this one!) and 'love'. Meanwhile, the boy should be happy with the term 'mate'. Of course boys and men can be called darling or sweetheart if these words come out from the opposite sex. Interestingly, it seems to be fine to use these nice words amongst girls. Am i right darling?

Those words by nature do not have a gender category. Our social and cultural values that give gender attributes to them. Likewise, we give the meanings to the colour blue and pink. Blue itself in the first place is not males' colour and pink does not necessarily mean 'feminine'. We created such meanings to these colours and have been making them set of rules as part of our cultural products.

So what can be learnt from the scenario above? The word mate perhaps refers to the idea of masculinity that prevails within society. Calling your son or other males mate indicate the way male treating other males. So the father tried to see his relationship with his son within this context. If the words 'darling', 'sweetheart' and other nice words are used to call his son or other males, it means that the cultural boundaries are being blurred. In most cases, people seem to be annoyed if what is widely accepted as normality being constested.

Of couse, you can call your mate darling or sweety but your friend would think that you are feminising them.

Alright, this might be confusing if we know that mothers call their sons darling. Would this mean that the mothers are perceiving them feminine? No. In this respect, the meaning of darling is utterly different to what fathers might use to their sons. It is not feminising. It is rather an indication of tenderness and caring shown by their mothers. The mothers are trying to show them that their sons are the beloved ones. It is worth to remember that meanings of the words can change depending on the context. For instance, in father-son relationship it could be a way of softening the masculinity. Yet in relationship be they heterosexual or same-sex relationship, the term 'darling', 'honey' are sort of affectionate way of expressing themselves as couples.

I shall flesh out a bit more if i have a glorious chance to do it. At the moment, i have been very busy with uni stuff.

* I tried to experiment in the kitchen departement. This time i made creamy asparagus saus on Mezzaluna.

Slackness

I know i haven't updated my blog for nearly a month. To call me slack is perhaps too nice, yet i have a very justifiable reason. I've been very busy this month: organising enrolment at new uni, getting academic transcript, renewing passport, doing job hunting and having a crowd staying at my house last weekend. Busy hey? In the middle of this hectic weeks, i collapsed for awhile. Fuckin flu virus attacked me and successfully slowed down my works. Perfect!

I have to say goodbye to Monash University this semester as i am now enrolling at LaTrobe. Latrobe is the third uni that i am getting into for the last two years. I have been in Sydney University and Monash. Don't get shock first, there is no intention for me to collect student cards from uni across Australia. I would not think to be graduated with pension card in my hand is very good idea. I am just too picky when it comes to education. That's all.

Speaking about uni, one important thing to check out at uni is the food. You know food at uni is pretty simple yet simplicity does not always go along with quality. So far, i haven't found any good food at Sydney uni although i heart the uni so much. Chips and gravy is probably the best, particularly after having third round of beer. Otherwise, sandwich with average quality will be the most sensible option. If you want to do a bit effort, you can walk up to Newtown and find dozens scrumptious take away food.

Surprisingly Monash does have a good food. Several times i enjoyed my rice with selection of pork, chicken or fish. Last week i tried noodle at Latrobe. Alas, cold made my tongue numb. The soup tasted hot and a bit spicy. Nothing much.

I thought university should think about the quality of food for their students. I know students are one group within society who live with shoe-string budget (but they drink a lot). They also must work very hard to make their lecturer happy by finishing assignment on time. To finish four essays plus two presentations that are happening at the same week are obviously not easy. It asks you to stay up till late. If they were fed with crap food at uni, imagine what kind of result that they would produce. Maybe i am thinking of sending an email to Jamie Oliver. Remember when he did a campaign called FEED ME BETTER? It was an awesome endeavour. If he had a chance to do tour around Australia and checked the food, he would probably be gobsmacked to see how educated people are fed with rubbish.

Anyway, i am a bit upset at the moment as i can't afford to buy ticket for The Cure concert. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!