Posted on by Miss Brook$

some things are universal

Drafted when I lived in Singapore, so sometime in 2009/10.

Children act like children, though the children in Singapore are generally better-behaved than children elsewhere (and Asian babies are so cute!).

Saw an ad for a local children’s daycare. All these cute little Singaporean kids and the one token white girl.

Gyms still pressure-sell and everyone gets suckered in, then regrets it—as evidenced by some discussion forums I’ve looked at.

Cabbies add unexplained charges to the meter, pretend to not understand you or just act lost.

Women, no matter naturally tiny they are, still want to lose weight. As evidenced by all the weight-loss products and advertisements here. Or maybe all this stuff really works and that’s why they’re all so skinny. Or maybe not.

Women with straight hair want curls, women with curly hair wish for straight. Take this one to the bank.

Asians flock to stores to buy branded goods, the more expensive the better. Westerners flock to markets looking for knock-offs, haggling for the best bargain.

Nobody likes illegal immigrants working in their country. And yes, the browner-skinned people are always the “immigrants.”

Technology is imperfect around the world.

Hotel maids move my stuff around too much for my liking no matter where I am.

Regardless of where I am in the world, when I travel alone, I invariably end up in the next room to a fighting couple. She always starts crying. Then he either leaves or starts hitting her. Eventually, it stops. In case you’re thinking this leads to hot make up sex, it doesn’t. Sex never follows these hotel-room abuses. Fortunately. I’m not sure I’d want to hear the sex that follows abuse.

non-universal opinions

I’m still not used to the metric system. It’s utterly meaningless. What is 100g of something? An ounce? A pint? A teaspoon? It’s just a number divisible by 10. Okay, so I’m very Imperial. I’ve been told Australia successfully switched to metric in recent history and I don’t believe anyone died. I still like Imperial. It means something. It was created to measure real-life scenarios. It’s not sterile.

The only metric measurement I know is the weight of my checked bag. I can guess it to within a kilo, though I still can’t guess its weight in pounds. My goal was 10-12kg, but it regularly clocked in at 12-15kg. No getting around it no matter how I tried to skim the weight down. Even now in the US, I’ll check my bag’s weight and ask them to change the scale to kilos for me. But I can’t weigh anything else in kilos, if it’s not my bag, then I have no idea how much it is in kilos (and really, not a very clear idea in pounds either).

I still love US greenbacks. They feel like money. They smell like money. They sound like money. I think we have the sexiest currency in the world, but maybe it’s just what I’m used to.

Australia and Singapore and other countries have plastic money. It’s slick but not papery. No smell. Singapore’s currency is graduated by size, each denomination is radically different in color, it has a clear plastic window on the bills (which is cool) and a Braille system so the blind can easily handle it. It’s as progressive as currency can get. But it’s not sexy.

Posted on by Miss Brook$

longer tweeting III

This has been sitting in the Drafts folder for so long that I no longer remember what I probably intended to say.

Created March 23, 2010
Tiger Airways is like Southwest but with fewer frills, like a jetway and legroom.

If you’ve ever flown Tiger Air, you know what I’m talking about. They’re even more barebones than Southwest or Spirit or Ryanair, as having all the parts of the plane is irrelevant while flying. They get bad reviews (though I can’t say I ever experienced anything I didn’t expect from a budget Asian airline), and funny reviews.

Tiger flew out of the “budget” terminal in Singapore (yes, they differentiate their terminals that way) and the security was so cursory it was clear they didn’t give a damn if the cheap and/or poor people got blown to bits. The terminal was basically an indoor hawker stand, and boarding was a mess. You walked outside to the stairs to the plane; they weren’t going to bother with weather protection of any kind, or a climate controlled jet bridge. Not for the lower class people having the temerity to fly. At least we were all leaving the island. I’m sure that was viewed as a good thing.

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Posted on by Miss Brook$

reactions v

getting paid on time

One thing sex workers have going for us is that we get paid on time. Smart ones get paid upfront (this is standard for most, but not all, of the world). While I’ve often compared mentally freelance writing work with sex work, they’re only now catching up to the pay-upon-completion model. Not the same as pay-upfront, more like pay-as-you-go but for a legal occupation, it’s a huge step forward.

make an authentic logo

Too funny! Hipster logos!

speaking of authentic

Yes, that guy I mentioned in the first section did indeed make another one of his damned “authentic” posts. I cursed at the monitor for subjecting me to it, then unsubscribed. I’ve added a couple new non-sex-work blog subscriptions and am much happier. Thank you, non-authentic bloggers, for writing more of what I like reading.

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Posted on by Miss Brook$

photographing food

“Interior of a Hong Kong Pizza Hut” by me

After reading Blake’s fun post on food photography, I’ve pondered just how much I’ve photographed my meals.

That would be once: for StuffSexWorkersEat. Not only did I forget to take my camera to breakfast several days in a row, when I did finally bring it, I forgot not to eat my food before taking the momentous picture. A food photographer I am not. I felt even more furtively creepy taking pictures of my unsuspecting, innocent meal than I do taking pictures of people who willingly pose for my camera.

I have photographed a few menus, like at the mango dessert shop and Pizza Hut, both in Hong Kong. I’ve sometimes taken pictures of the interior of a restaurant, for various reasons. But the food? I just eat it.

The first time I ate at Enso Kitchen I wished I had brought my camera, but my friend kindly took photos with her phone and later emailed them to me so I could have a memory of that meal. Honestly, every meal there was photo-worthy, but I never again asked for documentation.

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Posted on by Miss Brook$

reactions iv

authentic

Tired of “authentic” as the new buzzword. It’s either being used by completely inauthentic people, or it’s being used in a such a way that renders any true authenticity meaningless. I’m following one blog where the writer has decided to “be authentic” and if I have to read another one of his vague and presumably powerful posts about something supposedly authentic in his life, I’m going to scream and unsubscribe (and I’ve read his blog for years).

As for escorts — find a new word. Though at least authentic is better than zest. Don’t get me started on that escort trend-word. (I would love to write an escort ad that includes the line “I’m authentic, as well as genuine and real.”)

“authentic” as a “lifestyle”

This is even more irritating, as supposedly there is only one way to live authentically: eat certain foods, wear certain clothes, believe certain things, practice yoga and/or trail running, and yammer on about how it’s all changed your life on every social media platform you can find. Ideally, you’ll also sell ebooks about how everyone else can live just like you, especially if your readers are white and/or male. (Taking it further are those who have sold all their possessions and live out of a suitcase. I’ve found it’s an overrated way to live.)

The authentic trend bugs me because I do not think the word means what they think it means. It’s a good word, getting used into meaningless dust. Can’t everyone go back to using zest in an irritating way?

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