Chivalry and Independent Women

Let me say this now. Chivalry is not dead.

It's not that all guys are forgetting to be prince charming. Sure you may have your pick of guys who do not hold the door open for the ladies or pull their chairs out for them. But trust me when I say this. Guys are normally all for being chivalrous to girls, especially if that guy has an interest in you.

Chivalry didn't die. It's being stuffed in a bag and being tossed aside as old-school. Girls these days don't want to be a liability. They want equal treatment. Again, I can't say all girls. I know so many girls who would hop at the first chance to pay for their own bill. If a guy is willing to pay for your bill, why shoot him down? This is why girls think chivalry is dying. You girl will not give us that chance. My sister once asked me whether she should split the bill or let the guy pay when she went on her first date with her first boyfriend. That kind of mentality is what's putting chivalry in the backseat.

Let the guy treat you to the first dinner. Let him pay for your movie ticket. As you two progress through your relationship, you can work out who pays for that date. But the guys want to be that manly man. Don't laugh at our pride and pay your half of the bill. If we insist, just be grateful and enjoy yourself.

Dream Line and Clay Weekends

On behalf of the chocolates and flowers being passed around today, here's a video from my favorite WongFuProduction's series, The One Days: HK.

This was the first weekend I spent actually engaging myself in work. I know. I sound like a lazy college student. Well, I am. In the year and a half I have been at Syracuse, I have never spent a weekend doing homework. Most times, I spend the Sunday night/Monday morning doing last minute work/procrastination. This was a first for me. I spent the entire afternoon until around 7 PM on both Saturday and Sunday cooped up in a classroom for my ceramics class. That's about ten hours of my weekend not napping.

My entire Saturday consisted of making these two pots. I finished the smaller one (about 7 inches tall) that day and added about 4 inches to the larger one).

The large one in the background turned out to be a massive failure. I had no idea what I was doing. Glad to say, however, that I learned from the mistakes in the big one to make the smaller one a lot better.

I spent Sunday afternoon right after church rushing through the last two of my 6 inch coil pots. I narrowly finished it in time before I had to go attend to other plans at 8.

I really like this one. You can obviously see where I got lazy. The top is inspired by a spile. That and it took like a minute to make. It tacked on two inches that would have taken much more time to add on using clay coils.

Inspired by The Giving Tree. I was too pressed for time to add leaves, so I guess this is when the tree had nothing left to give to the boy.

Relationships and the Internet Age

It took an article written by Ashton Kutcher to make me realize it. Well, I guess I've always known it, but it's never been brought to my attention like it has now.

Romance is dying. Ok, let's not jump to extremes now. Not dying, but changing.

I've been raised in a society thinking that asking girls out online or over the phone is cowardly. It's been implanted into my mind that any other way besides face-to-face in real time is unacceptable. We live in the age of Facebook and Twitter now. All means of communications basically run through them.

She said yes.

This goes against everything that society has drilled into my brain. The comments following the picture were all in favor of this calling it "adorable" and "beautiful". I'm sitting here thinking "Does this actually work?"

Do you realize how easy a guy's life would be if all hardships in starting a relationship worked all the time through the internet? All those hours, days, maybe even weeks thinking of how to ask a girl out would vanish. All those lines we run through our heads the moments leading up to the actual asking out of vanish. All those heart-beating seconds that seem like an eternity waiting for the girl's response as you awkwardly look at her vanish. Instead, you type a few clever lines and sit in your seat as your stare at your computer screen in anxiety.

Flirting has now been replaced by e-flirting. Include that happy face at the end of a text. Play the right words in the right order. E-flirting makes the world take notice. Anyone can see on their news feed those playful, cute remarks two people exchange. But flirting in real life cannot truly be replaced. The whole world isn't there to take notice. It's more intimate. Those awkward glances at each other. Only the two people involved truly take note of it. Sure there could be a few people around who notices the behavior, but it's not flaunted on one's news feed for all to see.

I refuse to believe in these relationships forming over the internet. There's no real hard work put into it the way doing it face-to-face takes. Of course, I'm no expert in relationships. But I suppose I can put in my two cents.

Haha and Internet Talk

"Haha" has become the new "lol".

There's always those times you just use the term "lol" to fill in space in an online conversation. They don't mean anything. It used to mean "laugh out loud", but now it's just there like a punctuation mark. Actually, scratch that. Punctuation marks serve a purpose. Well, now that I think of it, "lol" can be used to lighten the mood of a message.

"Sorry I ate the last Hot Pocket in the fridge lol"

The sentence can function properly and deliver the same message without the "lol'. I know it's not only me who thinks this way. I had talks about this with a few people. Here's how my instant messaging lingo works:

"haha" is when something makes me smile.

"LOL" is when something makes me chuckle.

"HAHA!" is when something makes me laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" is when something makes me gasp for air.

"lol" is when I have nothing else to say.

But, now I've been seeing "haha" in sentences when it should be "lol" in that context.

"Sorry I just ate the last Hot Pocket in the fridge haha."

I know I'm overreacting, but I actually use "haha" when something is amusing. Not to fill in space. That has been "lol"'s designated role.

I promise to post up something better next time. I wouldn't call this a good post, but just something I wanted to express on my blog.