selling out... NOT!

*rant*
Someone please slap me.

I don't know what came over me this afternoon: what made me walk into Banana Republic as I drove past Stanford Mall, in Palo Alto. Two fancy dress shirts, two pairs of pants, some socks and US$367.00 later, I walked out a complete sellout, a mall clone, and a FOB archetype.

A billion "Thank You"s to my housemate for waking me up.

Screw this.
All of these are going to be returned next week.
I will not sell my soul, my identity--me--to blend in with, impress, or gain the respect of, others.
I am more--much more--than that.
I am neither a cheap suit nor an empty one.

Come what may, I will be... me.
*rant off*

As a student of postcolonial literary theory, I can't help but observe ironic parallels between former practices of the British Empire in coercing natives in the tropics to conform to the attire worn in England (shirt, pants, tie, coat, hat), and the almost pathological need to "dress up to the nines" in the FOB and Asian-American population in contemporary America. And then, of course, then there is the inane regulation in NUS mandating full-length pants and covered shoes for male students. All in 86-93 F / 30-34 C heat and 80-95% humidity.

Read V. S. Naipaul's Mimic Men. It will open your eyes to the well-dressed frauds walking around you.


Postscript:
It's not the money. FYI, I spend more on breathing gas (Helium, Nitrox, and 100% Oxygen) on a single technical diving trip. Try shelling out US$400 to fill a pair of twins with Trimix (Helium, Nitrogen, Oxygen)--that will only last one dive--and then come talk to me about being a cheapass. Awww hell, I spent more than that on gas (petrol) driving to Las Vegas and back in my Supra... And then there's always my US$5800 Merlin mountain bike... (I have 4 mountain bikes: 2 in Singapore, 2 in USA. All of their prices in 4 figures, US dollar). Try comparing that with your Armani Exchange rags, bitch.

While you are still playing dress up, I am piloting one-man-portable life-support equipment in physiologically-hostile environments. Go home now, your fancy clothes might get dirty, and mummy's calling...


This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. (William Shakespeare)