A Better World

Do not judge a book by its cover.

Blah blah blah, we’ve all heard this before too many times. It’s cliché by now, but that does not eliminate its legitimacy and significance in this world. And yet, I’m sure most if not all of us still do judge people based on appearance; it’s our inherited instinct to make general assumptions about people simply because of their appearance. People generally associate positive human traits with an attractive face; negative traits are associated with an unattractive one. Researchers believe because back in cave times, men and women had to be able to distinguish who they can trust. Since attractive people were associated with positive qualities, they are treated better. But I don’t even need to really explain any of this, everyone living at the moment or have ever lived would come to know this as true from personal experience.

But why?
This is not a rant on beautiful people, haha. But can anyone really explain why we treat attractive people better? What is it about an attractive face that can alter people’s attitudes towards that person? Surely not everyone commits to beauty bias, many people treat everyone equally. But for the remaining 99% of the world population, we favour beautiful people. Why?

Beauty bias appears to me to be more prominent for males than females. Men instinctively put more emphasis on physical beauty when looking for a potential mate than females because we associate a woman’s beauty with more potency in reproduction. This is instinctive to men, some can fight it; but most will succumb to a pretty face. What does this mean for guys? Don’t worry you don’t have to look like a prince; just focus on building your character! And for the ladies? Sorry, the ugly truth is the pretty girl will probably have an advantage over you in terms of winning over your dream man.

So where is this all going? Since we can’t seem to change our instinctive nature to associate positive qualities with beauty, what would make this world a better place? The proposed solution: have people’s physical attractiveness directly proportional to the beauty of their inner soul. Yeah, it is pretty much impossible. But if such natural biological law existed in this world, then finding the beautiful people – both body and soul – would be almost trivial. Concurrently, it would be just as easy to avoid the, let’s just say “bad people” for a lack of a better term.

Why is there such a need?
Most of us will learn in our lifetimes how to deal with many different kinds of people and will also discover how diverse this world really is. There is a complete gradient of people that exist in the world, ranging from extremely virtuous to extremely vicious. When meeting strangers, it’s very hard to discern their intentions and personality. Sometimes it’s scary when you start realizing people’s façade, especially if you THINK you know that person. What’s worst is that attractive people can get away with it a lot of the time. A beautiful face is essentially just a physical mask, basically the starting gear our parents gave us. You will never know the true contents of their heart and soul until you take enough time to get to know them. But guess what? You will encounter people who can totally defy your perception of them no matter how long you’ve known them for or how well you think you know them. Why is that? Masks are worn by people all the time. The best actors in the world are not those on the stage or in films, but people all around you who can put on a spectacular deceiving performance.

If only people’s physical appearance reflected off what kind of person they are on the inside. This would allow everyone to know publicly if you are a good person or not. As for the unattractive people? That’s because you’re ugly on the inside too! But that’s okay, if you change, you can become attractive too. If only such world existed…

But we all know such world cannot exist. People’s physical attractiveness has ABSOLUTELY NO correlation to their true basic nature. People should understand that a person’s physical exterior and their soul are completely separated with minimal to no relationship between them. So don’t judge a book by its cover!

But as we all know, in the end physically attractive people win. Fuck you beautiful people!

iRiddle

Just came up with this on the spot =P. Can you guys guess it?

Those that dry, end up to die
Such a shame they couldn’t survive.
Those that live, offer to give
New life, a joining of two.
Combination of love, without a glove
Just natural life from above.
Those that are swallowed
Its nutrients will sure follow.
Those that end up on your face
Well that’s a disgrace
You shouldn’t be messing with it!
What am I?

Rebirth

Oh I haven't updated this since ... MAY 2009?!?!? Haha wow. A lot has happened since then... like how I was in San Diego for the whole four months of summer! =D

Anyways I figured I'd restart this blog with a really interesting quote I found when cleaning up my room.

"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure!
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.

We ask ourselves: who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented or fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us – it is in everyone.

And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears our presence automatically liberates others."

- Nelson Mandela

Sex Ed Rocks

I actually found this video a while ago on Youtube and decided to post it up now. This video is pretty jokes and what really threw me off was the song. It actually sounds good, I was surprised. The guys from Smoosh teamed up with I Set My Friends on Fire to make this video, but the song was written by the band. The lyrics are actually pretty funny.

Thanks Hollywood for stealing all Asian ideas and making them into movies

Astro Boy in HD

This is the trailer for Astro Boy. I'm sure most of you might at least have an idea of who Astro Boy is. At least it's animated and doesn't look as terrible as Dragon Ball did. God, don't even get me started on Dragon Ball. =__=

Is there anything Japan doesn't have?

I introduce to you, The Wine Spa

What else can I say? If you look at the picture thoroughly you would first notice there's a bunch of people gathered in a spa that is filled with red wine. The spa claims that this wine spa has health benefits such as "relieving fatigue, moisturizing action and anti-aging". It must be true! Look at that huge wine bottle! Also, wine is given to the bathers several times a day as you can see in the picture.
But wait, there's more...

Introducing the green tea spa! Yum! If you thought green tea was just good for drinking, try bathing in it! This spa can be used for "preventing rough dry skin, whitening or effects for cold constitution". Remind me to buy a crapload of green tea so I can bathe in it at home.

This one is my favourite, the "let's get our toes nibbled on by small carp fish" spa! Bathers are to keep their feet in the water for about three minutes to have small carp nibble away at cornified layers of the skin. That must tickle.

Credits to UPI

Ovaltine Biscuits

I remember eating these as a kid. I don't really think it tastes like the drink, but it's still hella good! Damn I wish I had some right now...

Epic Pillage - Settlers of Catan

In an age where technology and graphics are advanced enough that people can basically live in the virtual world (OH HAI MMO-ers), board games still hold their place in this world of entertainment. Nothing is more exciting than competing with your friends over a buncha cards and wooden figures that represent settlements and cities. Welcome to the world of Catan, where domination of land and harvesting of materials is fueled by the thirst to win. In the future kids will boast about how awesome their video games are and how realistic they look. I will reply, "Ya well did you get to build little wooden cities and collect cards that represent resources?" In the world of video games, board games have sadly been neglected. I hope more people can begin to appreciate board games again.

Fashion Tip #3 - KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Most of the time people over complicate their outfits with a gazillion layers and different textures and colors. You do not want your outfit to be so busy looking that it would take people a good 10 minutes to look you from top to bottom just to see what the hell you're wearing. This is why we want to keep things simple. Most of the time when I see someone's outfit having a clash of too many elements usually means they don't know what the hell they're doing. No, it's not fashionable to mix and match a buncha crap to confuse people. That's not fashion. I always think what look I want before I leave the door. Don't try to mix too many looks into one. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. Remember you want to look good, not look like a thrift store.

I don't know if Emily Strange stuff is for girls only, but these are some sick dolls. Not too pricy either at $24 USD.

Fashion Tip #2 - Matching Colors Cont'd

And here we go again with the color matching. This time it's plain to see that my primary color is light neon pink! However, I've also incorporated another theme into this outfit. If you haven't guessed it by now then you might as well give up on life and go back to kindergarten where you should rekindle your love for superheroes. Batman has and always will be my favourite hero. I don't care what anyone says, Batman is one of the most badass super heroes out there.

So pink is my primary color. Black being secondary and white would be my third one.

In terms of secondary and third color, it doesn't matter how much of each color you want in your outfit. Both should complement your primary color well and not cause any conflicts to the human eye. As you can see here I have a white T-shirt (Batman and Catwoman) and have used a pink scarf to keep the focus on my primary color.

Fashion Tip #2 - Matching Colors

A very simple technique I like is to match colors. When I dress I usually think about what color I want to be the main attraction. Usually I would try to restrict my outfit to three colors only. The primary color is the main attraction, what I want others to see first or take notice first. The secondary color should complement the primary color well. The third color usually serves to complement the second color or maybe it just ends up being there due to the items I'm wearing. For example, looking at the above picture you can easily see that baby blue is my primary color. The baby blue in my shirt and my shoes is what I want people to notice. The secondary color would be black as it goes well with anything. And my third color would be white since you can see it in my shoes, shirt, shades. Usually you can't go wrong if you stick with only three colors that work well together - mainly one strong vibrant color and two other neutral colors to complement it. That way you can be sure that the items you want to stand out will definitely get the attention they deserve without worrying that it clashes with any other item.

If you look closely, my shirt shows the head of a Gundam. XD Usually I choose to have less surface area of my primary color because I want it to stand out by being small and different colored, not dominant. However, in this case my whole T-shirt is my primary color and it worked out alright. Sometimes you wouldn't want your primary color to also be the most dominant color of your outfit in terms of surface area, it just wouldn't look that good. You wouldn't dress yourself up in primarily one color right?

Fall 2009 Looks?

Apparently, Kakashi (oh hai Narutards) likes to dress up in a nice suit too once in a while. The idea of wearing a turtle neck under a suit is not bad in cooler temperatures. But I'm definitely not feeling those gloves.

I'm not much of a Tommy Hilfiger fan mainly because back when I was a kid it was too played out. However, this suit is to die for. It is a very subtle double breasted jacket that looks very slim fitting. Goes well with the turtle neck too.

On another note, why is Yohji Yamamoto designing clothes for hobos? Although the clothes look very warm and I wouldn't mind using it as a blanket, this look just doesn't fly with me. Gomenasai Yamamoto-san.

Iron Man Figure by TK

This is sooooo sick.

Original post is here

Why I love sleeping

Not only is sleeping awesome because my bed is hella comfortable, but also because sleep is crazily essential to us. Sleep deprivation can really do some damage to us.

According to this site, deep REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep - meaning when you dream - stimulates regions in the brain used in learning. Sleeping is important in retaining memory and archiving information received during the day.

So for all you people out there who pull all nighters for certain things maybe like tests and exams, you're just gonna screw yourself over. I've done it a few times before and it IS DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY not worth it.

Also, you know how usually people say you require 8 hours of sleep on average. Well the amount varies between people, some need less and others need more. In a person's sleep cycle, they will enter REM sleep about 3 times a night. The best way to know if you've got enough rest is to let your body wake yourself up. Also, if you wake up in the middle of a dream then chances are you do not have enough rest yet. A person's sleep cycle should end with no dreams (meaning not REM). Furthermore, for every hour of sleep you miss it will accumulate into a sleep debt that you should make up for. Sleep deprivation can cause some serious short term and long term effects that are discussed in said article.

Well anyways, the next time your parents or someone yells at you for sleeping too much tell them to eff off because sleep is really REALLY important!

Fashion Tip #1 - Matching material/textures

Mini self shoot I did today, featuring tip #1 - same material/texture. I'm not really a mix and match kinda guy, I prefer having a certain theme/look that I want to convey. What's important in this look is having leather texture. Since my Y-3 shoes are made of leather I had to find another item that is also leather to match them. I chose to wear a leather rider jacket because I felt it went very well with the look I was trying to achieve. The upper body leather complements the leather shoes. However, when matching materials/textures you do not want to over do it. Like you wouldn't plaster yourself all in leather from head to toe now right? Sorta of when you try to picture a typical Harley's motorcycle dude all decked out in leather - it just doesn't look good. Therefore if you choose a certain material/texture to be the main theme of the look, stick to 2 or 3 items of same material/texture only. Anymore and you'll just look silly.

I realized a lot of people's self portraits are boring. I wanted to have fun while taking pictures, so I tried some different poses. Erm... if you're gonna hate on this, I'll tell you this now "just because you're afraid of doing things in this world does not mean others aren't, so either respect it or fuck off - or suck my dick, that'll work too".


Attempt at bicycle kick FAIL. CATFAIL.

I probably would have looked cooler doing the matrix pose.

The running man pose. XD

My Anti-Smoking Campaign photoshoot

I figured I would make my first official post something more meaningful. A month or two ago I wanted to take pictures of my perspective when I go outside for a smoke. However, I decided I wanted to quit and I might as well take this photoshoot opportunity and transform it into an anti-smoking campaign. I'm not that good with my Canon Rebel XS yet... still lots to learn... but hopefully I will sell this and buy the T1i when it comes out.

Ey yo ma what up

It wouldn't be right to start a blog without a small introduction about myself. Well actually there's not much to say other than I like a lot of things. Thus, you will find a lot of seemingly random posts that don't actually correlate with one another. Aside from that, I will take my friend's suggestion and incorporate a "fashion blog" into this... meaning I will posts some tips or whatever I see fits.

So why's this blog called Hybrid Collections? Well as an Asian living in a western world, we must be hybrids in certain aspects in our lives. And this blog will be a collection of many different things... =)