Entry #4

Does anyone watch "The Class" on Channel 5? (Yes I don't have cable and have to resort to Channel 5 screening shows after midnight-DO THEY THINK I DON'T HAVE SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY?) Because it is one of the most hilarious shows in the world, and it does NOT have a sequel. Can you believe it? It has the potential to be as popular as "Friends" in my opinion (the creators of this series is the same creators that bring us "Friends") and Lizzy Caplan (first female on the front row from the left) is the coolest and the funniest actress in the entire series. Too bad it lasted only one season, to be replaced by another comedy series which is probably not as funny.

Anyway, "The Class" ended its run on Channel 5 last Tuesday on a cliff-hanger, and I am devastated to say that there is no ending to it. The show is basically about how a group of people is brought together by a former classmate, Ethan Haas (protrayed by Jason Ritter, the guy in blue on the first row) who wanted to celebrate his engagement to a girl he met in the class. However, the girl dumped him in front of the entire class. Slowly, the rest of the class got to know each other.




One pair of friends, in particular, caught my attention. Ethan and Kat are both very different individuals. Ethan is quite the sensitive romantic (as you can see from how he wanted to surprise his ex-fiancee with the class reunion), whereas Kat is the cynical, sacarstic girl who seemed oddly attracted to him. They formed an unlikely friendship based on their dissimilarity; in a way, they compliment each other perfectly. They started becoming close friends after their first meeting at the class reunion, and although Kat would hate to admit it, she really likes Ethan. In various episodes after this, she spends time together with Ethan, and eventually looks to him for comfort after she broke up with her boyfriend. Ethan obviously enjoys her company too, and formed their friendship based on this reprocity as well.

Ethan also becomes good friends with another guy named Kyle (the first guy from the right on the first row of the picture). Both of them become friends, probably due to their similar interests (they play racket ball together quite often).

Personally, I love how the show protrays the relationship between the characters. All the characters in the show are hilarious, and they managed to weave a bit of drama into these humour. The most touching scene in the entire series is when two of the characters reconciled after a setback in their relationship.

What happens in the end? No one knows. (NO THANKS TO CBS, WHO TOOK THE SHOW OFF THEIR CHANNEL.) Fans of the show campaigned for the show not to be taken off-air, but their prayers are not answered. I highly doubt that they will revive this show, as the actors for this series have already moved on to other projects. :(

Do you have any experiences in which your favourite show is taken off-air? Or when a horrible series is constantly renewed for new seasons? (i.e: the stupid, stupid "My Sassy Neighbour" show starring Patricia Mok. The show makes me hate her and it keeps having new seasons.) If you do, please elaborate why and hand it up on this post with a minimum word requirement of 5546214783 words, to be handed in latest by next week, Saturday afternoon at 1 pm. I'm just kidding.

Entry #3

This is a little NSFW, but nothing outright pornographic. This is one part of Levi's new advertising campaign, "Live Unbuttoned", called "Secrets and Lies". It is shown in Singapore on Channel 5, but only after around 11 pm and after midnight since it is incredibly good to look at, and because it is a rather steamy advertisement.
In this ad, two teenagers are confessing the truth about themselves before they decided to do the sacred act of fornicating with each other...in someone else's house.

Levi's is getting more and more blatant with their advertisements these days. This is obviously screaming "Wear Levi's Jeans, and you will get laid." Look at their body language; they are obviously eager to get it done, as you can see that they are happily unbuttoning their jeans as they go up the inviting, dark alley. Plus, in terms of their vocal nonverbal cues, the laboured, breathy panting of the two teenagers suggest that they need to satisfy their primitive urges. They maintained their eye contact throughout the entire advertisement, as they walk up the stairs to the house, and never once broke the eye contact they shared with each other. Phyiscally, they are very much in touch with each other, and in terms of proximity, they keep a very close, intimate distance that shows that they are clearly comfortable in each other's presense. All these nonverbal cues obviously shows that they want to perform the sacred act of fornicating with each other.

The twist in this advertisement, is that right before they perform this very act, they were basically telling each other that they have lied about themselves. The guy said, "I'm not really in a band," (Actually I heard "I'm not really a man," but well, I think I heard wrong) and the girl replied, "I don't really work for a label." The lies go so far as to the girl finally confessing that she did not invite him to her house to have that sort of fun; that was not her house at all.

Aren't this kind of confessions normally declared (or not at all) after you do the act? You probably will not want to talk about this kind of things before you do it, since it could deter the other person from wanting to fornicate with you. The reasons seem obvious enough; he or she might not be impressed with you, or even turned off by how you lied to him or her, therefore leading to the possibly of not having any sexual relations.

However, because the two teenagers are wearing the amazing Levi's Jeans, nothing can possibly go wrong, can they? I think you could be telling your partner, "I have this disease in which blisters grow and burst within seconds, all over my skin.", and she might reply, "I love seeing blisters growing and bursting within seconds, it is incredibly attractive." Levi's Jeans are amazing, the ad says. It does not matter what you were lying to your partner about previously; as long as you wear Levi's Jeans, you will get what you want, including the opportunity to fornicate with attractive people.

This advertisement works well. Sex in advertisments will always garner attention, whether you agree with it or not, and this one is no exception. It might backfire on Levi's, if their target audience finds it offensive, or it might influence them to get the jeans or even change the way they live their lives. Obviously, Levi's finds that it is worth the risk. Although I think that this advertisement is effective, I did not think that it is ethical. This is very blatantly promoting sexual promiscuity. If advertisements like this is shown rampantly, sexual promiscuity will not only seem acceptable, but even necessary. In the end, it is up to the viewers to be critical about what they see on the media and not take the advertisement, or any advertisements, at face value.

I will still buy Levi's Jeans though.

Entry #2

(First off, a HUGE thank you to all who had commented on my first entry, it was very encouraging. :) Please please please continue to do so for the rest of my entries if possible, and for those mysterious folks, could it be possible to let me know who you are? Because it keeps me awake at night, wondering who helped me. Thanks again so so much, I really appreciate it, and will continue to send good luck and karma along your way.)

Today, my post will be based on the article, "Pretty Scary" (Or "Busy Body", based on the cover of the papers), the "Mind Your Body" section of the Straits Times, dated September 11, 2008.

This article is about piercings, be it facial piercings or body piercings. According to the article, teenagers are into facial and body piercing because it is cool and trendy. However, doctors adviced against having too many piercings because the risk of infection will be high, whenever foreign objects (be it rings, tattoos and even eyelash implants) are introduced under the skin's surface. They also advices us on how to care for our piercings.

The reporter who wrote this article obviously has her own interpretation on piercings. She interviewed several teenagers, and even had a seperate interview on a 21 year-old young adult (the adult as seen on the picture above) about his feelings on piercings. Her conclusion? Teenagers love piercings, and do not think of the long term effects of piercings. Perhaps it is her past experience with meeting teenagers with piercings, or perhaps there is a cultural difference in which people with multiple piercings are seen in a different light.

However, is it fair for her to say that? How many teenagers did this reporter interview and quote in this article? I did a check and found out that it is a grand total of three, including the young adult on the cover. Suffice to say, she really does make a lot of teenagers with piercings sound like mindless young sheeps who are just blindly following the trend of having multiple piercings because it seems "cool".

Firstly, I would like to introduce the definition of perception: It is the process of selecting, organising and intepreting information to make sense of the world around us. One factor that affects the selection process is the mass media (i.e.: the newspaper from which this article originates). This article labels most teenagers with piercings as people who rush into decisions without consideration for their future; as one psychiatrist said, "...don't care about how their body modifications affect their future job prospects or how people view them..."

Imagine the horror of some parents after they read this article, and they have their own children coming up to them, asking them if they can have their ears, nose or lips pierced. How would you feel, if you're the parent?

Imagine if you are the owner of a huge company, and you saw someone with piercings come for a job interview. After reading the article, you might associate people with piercings as people who do not care about the long term effect, or consequences of what they do. Would you employ such a person? Of course, I am not saying that everyone are influenced so easily like that, but many people are, to a certain extent, definitely influenced by the mass media and the environment around them.

I myself have a very, very few number of piercings on my ears, and I can understand why teenagers want to pierce their body parts: some enjoy the pain, some wants to know how painful the process of piercing is, for the sake of experience, and some are just plain vain. Some piercings could even be symbolic. Personally it is more of an experience, and of course for vanity's sake too, but I definitely do think of the consequences of doing such things on my body. I did consider that I might grow out of those piercings one day, and if I do, I know that the piercings done on my ears are reversible and they will simply heal over time, if I do care for them properly. Unfortunately, tattoos, unlike piercings, are mostly irreversible, and that is why I have not, and will not, in the near future, doddle a dragon on my forehead.

There could be a possiblity that what the reporter was trying to convey was different from what I have interpreted; I could be overly-defensive. Language and words can be subjected to miscommunication. They are very arbitrary; subject to the individual's judgement. There could be multiple interpretations to what this reporter has to say about piercings in general; perhaps she sincerely cares for people with piercings and wishes to convey her well wishes to them, by telling them how to care for their piercings. Perhaps she wants to point out to the general public that people with piercings are just teenagers who are into following the latest trends, and there is nothing particularly intimidating about them. There could even be distortions of the words used in the article, that I have misinterpreted due to the different reference groups that the reporter and I have believe in. I could be a great believer in the therapeutic effects of body piercings, for example, and the reporter could believe that body piercings is never healthy for anyone.

Such things are barriers to communications, and in order to eliminate such barriers, both of us should engage in perceptive checking frequently.

In short, I do not agree with the way she has written this article, and I feel that it was unfairly written. If she has interivewed more teenagers, or done a survey, I could be more convinced.

Entry #1

I read an article on the Straits Times on Saturday, (6 September 2008) about transsexuals in Singapore. The article is basically about transsexuals in Singapore, common misconceptions about them, and how they face prejudice in their jobs and even among their own family and friends.

The common misconceptions about transsexuals are that they are mostly sex workers or prostitutes, working near Changi Village and Desker Road, when in fact many of them hold respectable jobs in law or engineering. Ignorance of transsexuality also leads people to think that transsexualism is a sexual perversion, when in fact, it's actually a medical condition.

Everyone perceive our surroundings and our experience differently, and social and psychological factors such as the individual experiences and even the culture of our society can shape our perception. In this case, transsexuality is a rather taboo topic in Singapore, and many people would think that it's embarrassing to have a transsexual in the family. There is one incident in which a woman was told by her father not to go for the sex change, or face being disowned by her family. In the end, the woman went for the sex operation in Bangkok without her family's blessings, and is now a man. Such incidents are not rare; almost all the transsexuals interviewed face hostility from their family members.

As part of the mass media, the newspaper could be one of the influences of our selection of information in our environment. I hope that it could educate and communicate to the general public about the misconception that most people have about transsexuals, and communicate to them that transsexuals are not that much different from the rest of us. Their confusion and suffering is something that not many of us can understand or even identify with, and their pain could be further compounded by how others hurt them with their stereotypical views of transsexuals. Someone named Javier started an online petition for SBS transit to ban transsexuals on buses. Imagine how transsexuals will feel if such a petition was taken into consideration by the authorities! It would only bring more pain, and the stigma against transsexuals will still prevail.

It is very heartwarming, on the other hand to hear that some people are ready to accept transsexuals into their lives. In one case, a young daughter of only 10 years old was ready to accept that her father wanted to go for a sex change. Her explaination was simple, yet very mature for someone her age; she replied that no matter how her father looks like physically, he will always be her father. Her perception was probably influenced by her social network, who is her family. Her mother, who is the man's ex-wife, was intially upset with the change. However, she joined sgbutterfly, an online community for the transgenders in Singapore, to try to understand the situation. This, I feel, is very commendable.

(I hope this is alright for a first post!)