Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Hello sir, can I help you?

I love window shopping. That's the one thing I can do to kill time, just wandering around the mall looking at stuff, considering which is worth buying, and which isn't. But window shopping for clothes, that's another story.

Usually I'd just walk into a store and look at the stuff, and buy something if I want it, and leave the place if I don't. It's that simple. And I like it like that. But clothes? No, there are complications. Somehow, most clothing stores have really super helpful staff that will go out of their way to give you a hand.

They start with that question, and that's all it takes to rattle me. Yeah, I know. It's weird for me. I hate it when they come up to me the second I walk into their premises and ask that question. And being the nice guy that I am, I'd just smile and say "just looking." And that's when I feel guilty. It's like when they ask, you're supposed to tell them what you're looking for, so that they can help find it and you can buy it from them. I know there's no obligation on my part to do that, but this whole process makes it feel like I do. I mean, why tell them what I'm looking for if I'm not really sure about buying anything? Like I said, I'm just looking. If I tell them I'm just looking, I may end up looking like someone who can't afford their merchandise, or I have other plans, like robbing them or something.

So why can't these people just leave me alone? Just let me walk in, look around and take my time. If I want your help, I'll ask. If I don't, I'll just walk out. Maybe I'll come back, maybe I won't, but it's not their problem. That works for me. I know, I know. The super friendly staff are there for a reason. They're supposed to serve us customers, including acting really nice when you walk in. It's all part of the customer attraction process. But please, if I could tell them I don't want their help without feeling bad or having it come out insensitive, I would. This is why I love going to the video store. I could browse there for hours and nobody gives a damn.

These days it's hard for me to find anything in my size. For a guy, I am rather small. I do know I'm taller than Ira and Anouk (at least I think I am). Most of the clothes I find are too large. I guess I should eat more. I should talk to Michael about this.

So excuse me while I heal from this cold. Crap, I'm missing everyone again.

Monday, April 2, 2007

What A Wonderful World

For a good part of today, I was humming this song. What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. It was playing during the end credits of the film Twelve Monkeys. This film is about a convict from the future who travels back in time to 1996 to stop the release of a deadly virus that is destined to wipe out 5 billion people on earth. Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt all put in excellent performances for it. I shall write a review on this for FF as soon as I can.

It's odd and also ironic that director Terry Gilliam chose this song for the film, since the world in his movie is anything but wonderful. It often looks bleak, apocalyptic and pretty much on the brink of self-destruction. Perhaps the song was meant as the perfect antithesis for his story.

And in a way, the song may hold a lot more meaning in our world today. The world is anything but a sane or safe place to live. Chaos and discord are everywhere. We have hostage situations, terrorism, separatist violence, earthquakes, war and a murder of a cricket coach. The earth is not a nice place to live anymore. But I guess it's been that way for a long time. In my opinion, the main reason for all this happening is mankind's own selfishness. We care too much for ourselves, and we hate others for fear of them taking away what's ours. The thought of sharing scares some people to a point where they have to do what they think is necessary to survive. And this usually involves violence or injustice of some kind, and quite often the wrong people suffer for it. The world has become too small for us to live in together, and now a lot of people want to kill each other so that they can go on existing.

But perhaps someday mankind can evolve and be better than they are now. Someday perhaps they will live for the pursuit of knowledge, instead of wealth. And by then, the need for war and destruction will finally come to an end. Yeah, I know this all sounds like Star Trek. I am a dreamer after all. But it might come to pass, we just won't be around to see it when it does. And then finally, what a wonderful world it would be.

(There's a new addition to this blog, I'd like to thank Ira for helping me make my choice.)