Why I'm Like Becky Bloomwood But Nothing Like Her As Well

When speak of the book or the movie Confession of a Shopaholic, one can't stray from mentioning the protagonist of the story - Rebecca Bloomwood. The book did peak my interest but the movie sold me, but I have to confess that I enjoyed the movie mostly because of Isla Fisher. She was a genius in the movie. Until today, now that I am starting to reflect back on my life and on myself, I realized that I could have learned something about Miss Bloomwood because something about her and the things that she highlights in the her story, is heavily similar to me - my bad habits and my lifestyle. 

It's been, what, almost 8 months since I blogged and it's not because I have nothing to blog. I just put priority on other matters and what is worse, matters that are not important to me. What a good person of my position right now would have done is worked hard and focus on my current job and try my best to do better for my family and of course, just be completely honest with the people around me and especially with myself. Sounds very much like Becky, doesn't it? And just like Becky, I too have a problem with spending unnecessarily. I don't even know why I am blogging about this because what I'm doing to myself is literally exposing myself, I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing but I am praying that this will result in something good in the future. Let me break it down.

Becky Bloomwood is an avid shopaholic but what drives her to shop unlimited-ly is her desire for luxurious goods and of course one cannot deny that the act of shopping is actually very fulfilling. Just like everything else. Like reading, fishing, drawing etc. Shopping is an act of hobby for Becky, and like any other hobbies, it takes her to this world that is not her reality because her reality is far from calm and peace. I get that. My world is tight and flustered and money don't come by easy so when I do get access to cash, I splurge - which is wrong because I have splurge on money trusted to me to spend on other things that doesn't benefit myself alone except what I splurge on myself is usually food. And just like Becky, I dream of a life of luxury. Of course not crazy luxury like the Kardashians or the many millionaires out there. You see, by earning millions it means you got to pay millions in taxes as well so I rather just earn enough to help my family and ensure we live comfortably. 

Getting over this bad habit of mine should be easy. Becky Bloomwood sure makes it look like that. But that's a life of a fiction and that is another bad habit of hers that I have. I'm trying my best to just stay grounded, put my feet on the ground and really focus on just getting better and improve but just like many Muslims out there, the whispers of Satans is a lot louder. Not that it is an excuse as acknowledging this is sure enough a clear message to myself that I have to figure it out. While the world of fiction makes things looks possible, the real world is really not that easy. This is where Becky and I draws our difference but just like Becky, I have to make things right. Just unlike Becky, I have to use my own logic and the logic of this real world, to try and get better, right?

BTW, if you have never read the book, Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella, well, I recommend you should. If you are an avid reader, it's a good way to spend that free time, imagining yourself in a world of material goods and quirky personalities. If you love Chic Flicks, oh this book is definitely for you. I'm not one who loves Chic-Lits but I do enjoy reading this. 

Let's Talk About...Zoella, One of My Favourite Blogger, In the Past

Zoe Sugg - once upon a time, back when I started blogging there was a blog that I followed religiously. A simple yet fun and quirky blogsite that posts about everything she could love. That blog is called Zoella and the person running the blog is Zoe Sugg. From a teen blogger who blogs about lifestyle content back in 2009, Zoe is now a social media influencer and vlogger who also happens to write three fictional books that was inspired by her journey of blogging success and a non-fiction lifestyle book. She started blogging and vlogging in February 2009 and by the end of the same year, she had thousands of followers. Bear in mind, this happen before Instagram came into play. Her first few posts was mostly herself sharing her musings around her hometown and today, as we know it, Zoella, is a lifestyle magazine website - that I assumed is still owned by Zoe but I don't think she posts much there. 

Anyways, why are we talking about Zoella or Zoe Sugg. Well, the reason I want to blog about this because, this was one of the many blogs that I came across back in the day that truly was what I wanted to do back in the day and also now. But back then, I have always had this mentality that because I am not financially able, I am unable to blog much about lifestyle. You see, until today, I barely leave the house because not only do I not have the money to do it, I don't really know where to go or what to do when I am outside and with what I have, it's not much that I can do if I do go out. Nonetheless, Zoella was one of the many blogs that I followed and I truly wished I had done something similar. Not to say I don't have the opportunity to do it today which is what I want to do from now on. 

But Zoe Sugg is no longer just a social media influencer and vlogger. She is also a businesswoman with a beauty line of her own and numerous collaboration in her resume. Just like my other favourite businesswomen out there like Lauren Conrad, Whitney Port and Kristin Cavallari. Yes, I know being a Malaysian, why can't I just follow another fellow successful Malaysian bloggers or influencer. Not that I don't want to but I am still looking for someone that I can vibe with in terms of their contents. So far, I haven't found any but I am keeping my mind open. Just so you know, I still follow Zoella, the website, and also Zoe on her social media platforms and she too inspires me a lot in terms of what I want to achieve in the future for myself. Take a stroll through Zoella's website and you can also find Zoe Sugg on her Instagram and YouTube. I believe both accounts are very much still active. 

Book Report; K-pop Confidential by Stephan Lee

 As a K-pop fan, whenever I see anything related to K-pop, well I click or flip and in this case, I actually picked up a copy of a book written by Stephan Lee about the extravagant and controversial world behind the glistening K-pop universe. Not that I don't know about the dirty, dirty secrets of the Korean music industry, I mean I am a big B.A.P fan. Nevertheless, I believe it is worth it for me to actually read the book and maybe find a new insight although I am well prepared mentally that this book might exaggerate some details just to be more dramatic. Spoiler ahead if you are reading this post and interested to read this book.

Before we begin, let's talk about the author of the book - Stephan Lee. Here's what I get from his website which is the same excerpt from Amazon and Goodreads, so here goes,

"Stephan Lee is a journalist, author, and multi-fandom K-pop stan. He currently works as Senior Editor at Bustle after a five-year stretch covering books and movies at Entertainment Weekly. At EW, he traveled to Seoul for three weeks to write a feature about Korean entertainment’s world domination, interviewing K-pop idols, filmmakers, and drama writers. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing at The New School.

If he’s being really real, Stephan moved to New York because of Sex and the City, went into magazines because of The Devil Wears Prada, and wrote his debut novel, K-POP CONFIDENTIAL, out of his lifelong love of girl groups."

In short, Mr Lee started writing K-pop Confidential entirely for his love of K-pop and I guess we can believe that he has made his own research about the industry while he was travelling to Seoul. As he has confirmed, his story was written based on his research on teenagers working and training in sports industry and of course watching relevant documentaries and videos about K-pop. Now, I don't have anything against anyone who writes about a story without being part of the industry especially when it's a fictional story. The beauty about fiction is that everything can be totally made up yet relevant to the real world and that is the beauty of K-pop Confidential.

The story of this book revolves around the life of Candace Park, who grew up in America like almost every Asian children all over the world - strict parents, all study, fun later in life. Well, Candace can't do well in studies because she is not made for it and that is totally normal. So, after secretly audition for a K-pop Search, she realizes that she was chosen amongst thousands to travel to Seoul and begin her training as an idol to hopefully debut. Majority part of this book chronicles the journey of Candace's training process which involves everything good, bad and ugly. 

So what do I think about the book? This is entirely my personal review of the book and just to note, I am not a professional reviewer or writer, just someone who has an opinion about everything in the world. As much as I love reading and I was highly anticipating that this book will be one of those great book that I read, it started off real slow. I believe up until Chapter Four, it was a snooze for me mainly because the story started about Candace and her life in America where there isn't much adventure. Things took a whole new turn that was nail-biting as her training begins. Up until the last chapter, things got really exciting with the story but I have to admit, parts where it was about Candace meeting up with a fellow male trainee that she is forbidden to meet, did not excite me. As a matter of fact, I think at some point, I skipped those parts. No shade but I was more interested to read about her training process and the people that are involved with the process. What made this story interesting is of course Candace herself. Quirky and doesn't seem to fit in at all in any mold which is both sad and good. In America, Candace is considered part of the minority since she is Korean American. After moving to Seoul, in the beginning, Candace felt like she was part of the majority because everywhere she goes, everyone looks similar to her and her family. That was until she started at S.A.Y Entertainment, where she was again not part of norm. You see, as we K-pop fans understands, K-pop idols seem unreachable to many of us mainly because of how we look. Even though they are Asians, they still seem so far away from us and this was beautifully written by Stephan. He may not blatantly put it down but we can definitely read between the lines what he means and that is the standard beauty in K-pop. Where this fact was well written in the story, what was missing for me was the impact, the real tragic it has on those teenage girls that is training to be idols. Moving all the way to the closing parts for the book, I love how Stephan write Candace as a symbol of courage and hope, standing firm in her stance of being herself and breaking the K-pop standard norm where dating and falling in love is prohibited. Well, I kind of agree with the dating thing especially when the trainees are underage but once they reach adulthood, they can do whatever they want. But that's the issue K-pop idols face isn't it? There is this unwritten standard that they have to strictly follow where they can be placed on a pedestal putting them further apart from the norms like us who happen to be their fan. This is the sad reality and I just wish that entertainment company would stop with this tragedy and start making K-pop idols more relatable to their fans. 

What I do learn from this book is that, as well put by Stephan in his interview with The Nerd Daily, when it comes to living your dreams, it is both good and bad. Good because you're living your dream and bad because this is the time where you have to put in all the hard work you could think of in order to hold onto that dream. It sounds morbid but what Stephan int hat interview is true - when you love doing what you're doing, no matter how tired and challenging it is, we do it because we enjoy what we are doing. This is what I want in my life right now. I want to enjoy working both the easy and the difficult side of it. I would totally recommend this book to those who love K-pop especially for those young people who enjoys reading. This may not be a great piece for adults although I know some of us would truly enjoy it like I do, but I am sure, young readers out there who love K-pop and some rivalry and teenage love adventures, this is definitely for those of you. 

Journalling; Starting My Bullet Journal Journey

Making notes and listing down daily tasks has not been my thing because I just never find it fascinating and even though many have advised me to start writing down the tasks that I need to finish, I'm just to lazy to try. Just like myself going back to blogging - I kept making excuses that I have writer's block but truly, I just don't have the will to do it. Yes, I am that lazy of a person and I have been procrastinating because I just don't like to think about it but that is my bad habit and I really want to get rid of it. So I try my best to take one step at a time and one of it is bullet journaling. 

  

I thought long and hard about doing this and mostly because I just don't want to do it because it's the trend and because people says it helps. I needed to really understand the purpose of it and see if it truly will help me. I quietly started bullet journaling and looking up the internet, I found a few inspirations. And that's where I got everything wrong. So many of my research comes to the result of how bullet journal should be designed. That's not quite the purpose I was looking up for and definitely not what I had hoped it would do. 

 

Do keep in mind that in no mean do I think these bullet journal designs are ridiculous. It just feels so cluttered and distracting because the main purpose of bullet journaling is to keep thing organized and clean. Again, I do not think lowly of these inspirations. There are some bullet journal designers that deserve to be recognized for their creative designs like Amanda Rach Lee and Jeniffer from Life is Messy & Brilliant. Nonetheless, not everything that is fancy and pretty is made for everyone or like what most people would say, different strokes for different folks. 

After some more research and just kept on going with bullet journaling, I found this video from Claudia Kai about How to Start Bullet Journaling and what I love about this video is Claudia kept it real - she highlighted some issues that was bothering about the bullet journaling and it made me feel more confident into keep going. I think after three to four months of trying out bullet journaling, I finally found my rhythm. I'm still at the process of keeping this a habit which so far seems positive but I'm still in a learning journey. However, I am excited to share my bullet journal journey with the masses starting this month (cause it's my birthday month) and I kept with the one inspiration that have always made me energetic - K-pop. 

 

For the month of March, I decided to use my favourite K-pop boy group as my bullet journal inspiration - B.A.P. But to print and cutout pictures of the boys is just too much work for me so I decided to use their mascot, Matoki. Again, to draw each and one character will also be too much work for me so instead I just use their colour and symbol as my design inspiration. Perhaps at the end of the month I will be able to share my complete journey of bullet journaling in written (blog) and video (Youtube) forms.

Photo credits to all owners.

Inventing Anna, Am I An Accomplice To Glorifying A Failed Con-artist?

 

When it comes to something that is interesting, a luxurious lifestyle where one gets to lay down for a few nights in five stars hotels, dine in the most expensive restaurants and travel to exotic countries and add in creative selfies and witty captions, is definitely considered interesting. And that my friend is what attracted many people especially those from the New York elite crowd towards Anna Delvey - or that's what I think it is. But what about those who knew about Anna Delvey through the currently No. 1 original Netflix series? There is an ongoing argument that by watching and following the real-life person whom is the inspiration behind the series, is nothing but glorifying a criminal so I wonder if it includes me?

 

For those of you who don't know, Inventing Anna is a Netflix original series that was produced by Shonda Rimes and it follows the journey of Anna Delvey, a known con-artiste who fake her identity as a German heiress and trick her way to gaining access to the doors of the rich and the elite in the big apple. Believe it or not, I followed the story because I was merely intrigued how a 25 years old young woman with no working background or even any academic achievement, regardless if she was an heiress or not, was able to fool a bunch of people who are known to be part of the big, rich and elite. People argue saying that her gender was a big reason of her failure but even if it was, I still couldn't wrap my head around how she was able to con these bunch of people with whatever it is that she carries in her belt or bag. 

Indeed, I would not disagree how the show did put a limelight on her, Anna Delvey or originally known as Anna Sorokin, and giving her more followers and exposure .In my previous post I did state how the show proved to me that some of the elite in New York City, be that they are held highly for their finances and accesses, are not very smart or intelligent. However, what the show did and how the show translate the story does not have to be what the viewers take should be. I mean, if the show aimed to prove that Anna Delvey is innocent, which she is not, well, as a viewer, I didn't believe it one bit that she is innocent. She may not have the access of the millions that bank wanted to grant her but she did use some of the overdraft access and she also did trick her 'so-called' friend, Rachel Deloach Williams. Her friend Rachel, I have a lot to say about that, the person in the show and in real life.

The thing is, no, I did not follow Anna Delvey on social media, even though I linked her in my posts because I don't think she is a good example for life success that I should follow. The one thing that do fascinates me about her is her ambitious character. Anna Delvey had a great vision. One that is only accessible to the rich and the elite, not something that I cared about. Nonetheless, it was still a big and great vision. She wanted to be part of the NYC elites, the go-getter and trend-setters. She didn't want to be a celebrity. She wasn't hungry for fame. She wanted fortune and respect, the kind those of the elite group earned. I could sense that in her and I could also empathized with her on the lone fact that she has nothing to support and back that ambitious dream of hers. One thing that I have too - a big ambition but nothing to back it up, financially speaking of course. And I assumed when you're 25, that dream is a must for one to achieve. Maybe in Anna Delvey's world that dream could be achieved that way but it is farfetched and a crime truly. 

I do learn later on in life that as long as one takes the accountability and responsibility for their lack of judgement and mistakes, life could get better. I have my fair shares of mistakes and misjudgments and I learned to take accountability for it which I had thought after being released from jail, Anna would have learned that too but fame got to her and now with money being accessible, she can truly start to build that ambitious dream of hers. Well, that is now a maybe since she is caught and held in ICE as she had overstayed her Visa. I don't think she will be welcomed back to the States once she arrives back to her hometown but the future is beautiful for one reason, we just never know what will happen. 

So back to the real reason why I post this, I have seen a lot of people speaking up on the issues of people talking about Anna Delvey and painting this picture that she is a role-model to young women. I for one, do not think she is a role-model for anything. She has great ambition but that is as far as she goes in my book. Talking and reviewing the show itself does mean she gets exposure but the context of what is written or spoken about could be something good or bad for Anna. Hence, this is why I felt like Miss Williams should just kept her business and opinions to herself. She doesn't have to force on people that she is innocent in this whole Anna Delvey scheme of conning people. People know she is innocent and she was used but the circumstances does not favour her position and what can she do with it. Her trauma, her struggle was her own experience and she knew what she had to go through and she had written about her experience (I need to get that book, really). And there should be her last contact or discussion about her friend Anna. 

I guess in a way, I don't think it is wrong to write or talk or even tweet about Anna Delvey and about the show. I don't think it is wrong to be discussing about it openly either. People all have their own opinion and their are entitled to it. What is wrong is when people judged the conversation into siding with Anna Delvey or indirectly being an accomplice for the con-artiste to live her life as recklessly as she is doing now. Well, how Miss Sorokin lives her life today is her own choice, people can opt to follow and admire her if they want, I don't there is anything wrong with it. But when one chooses to commit a crime and con their friends, well, that is when it is wrong.