Sunday, September 23, 2012

Am I missing something?

We have come full circle. Where once men were "all powerful" and women were only "meant to be seen not heard", times have changed. I'm all for woman's rights but when the knee-jerk reaction is to shift the balance too far the other way, I am compelled to get up on my soap box and talk about men's rights.  For instance, I have noticed an interesting trend to degrade men in ads nowadays. Take this ad, for example:


It starts with a woman breaking up with a guy by stating that he is boring (... boring ... boring). Post break-up, he proves that he isn't by buying tickets to look at pictures in a museum (which could still be viewed as boring by some), getting spoon-fed by a female cooking instructor (like a baby) and then going to an Alicia Keys concert. Well, at least he's finally out of the closet. If Citibank was aiming to get people excited about their private pass, I'm pretty sure that they failed ... at least for men. Despite the protagonist of this ad being a guy, I would say the target audience for these private passes is women not men. 

I would summarise the moral of this ad as teaching men that the only way to not be boring is to buy stuff, which seems to go against all sense of logic (unless you have a bottomless well of money) but, if you're in the interest of people amassing large sums of personal debt, it makes sense. He still doesn't get his lady friend back but, hey, at least "he's shown her" that he's not boring anymore ... to himself. Assuming he spent outside of his means, like most people, he'll be on cup-a-noodles while he pays off that debt ... but only if he has any intelligence remaining. And then the cycle continues.


 Well played, Citibank.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Is it just me?

When I am reading a book, or watching a film, I become engrossed. If it is well written, I become the person to such a degree that I am no longer just experiencing the story, I'm living it. It gets to a point where I sometimes have to consciously separate it from reality.


Sometimes I will have dreams that wouldn't look out of place in reality. While I am still in the dream I will find myself considering the repercussions of my dream persona's actions; mapping a path out of the mess that I have created. I cannot tell you how relieved I am when I wake up and realise it was just a dream. I think I have always been like this. When I was about four years old, I first questioned whether I truly existed. Did I have any effect on the world around me? I then hatched a devious plan to test this by cutting holes in the skirting of my bed. My mom soon proved to me that I did. 

I now believe that everyone impacts the world even if that impact is not immediately apparent. Your world is ruled by your perceptions and interpretations. You have the ability to be happy, angry, start wars, make friends, do nothing. Not everything is measurable but you will know from your internal barometer whether you have made a difference. Change is realised internally before it is ever perceived externally. The mere notion of questioning whether you have an impact on the world is enough to do just that. Every great person has started with a dream that they have chosen to share with reality. So pay attention to your dreams as it might just hold the key to ruling your world.