i never expected so many cars on the federal highway at half past 5 in the morning, despite it being a early sunday morning after what could be a long night on the town. it's been a while since i've driven this late during a weekend...erm...unless you count paolo's new year's day party, and that'd be dumb 'cause it was already the 2nd of january. anyway, i was at paolo's house playing on my dreamcast. he had edwin over, and...well...three guys, lots of food, and video games. 'nuff said. at about 12:40, we decided that we needed more food, so we rushed [RUSHED] to tesco [which closed at 1] and got there in time, with a few minutes to spare. cheap thrills, maybe, but i bought a bucketload of cheap pastries for myself that're with me right now. i couldn't finish them...i guess i'm not that much of a pig...or am i? we didn't play that many games...just the two basketball games, street fighter zero 3 and...erm...chef's luv shack. not bad for four hours. i guess most of the time was taken up by the basketball games...and i've learnt something about myself: i suck at video games. i thought that i was good...well, i know that i was good once upon a time...but i've totally lost it. it's just so annoying when someone beats you at street fighter continuously and you know that you could've just kicked @$$ a while back. i've lost my timing, my patience...i've lost my edge. it does seem rather pathetic to be whining about a downward slide in video game playing ability, but when it's something that i used to pride myself in...then i guess it's worth the whine. maybe i should talk about the food at tesco? prices for the pastries are cut by almost 50% after 12...or something like that. according to paolo, everything becomes incredibly cheap...he found that out today when going there, i think. stuff in tesco is even cheaper than carrefour. but...i live right next to carrefour while tesco is just...a long, long, long way off. i complain about paolo living all the way in puchong for one reason: it's too damn far.

there's this homework question that i have for marketing...it's a rather fun question, and i've seen it before in the textbook but i can't remember where it is. basically, it runs along the lines of why men can't accept flowers to be the practical gifts for various occasions as opposed to women, and how the attitude of men towards flowers can be changed. now, mr. liew, our lecturer, came to tell us about how men gave men opera/ballet/whatever performers in russia flowers, as a token of appreciation. that's all good and all, but that's europe...the rest of the world doesn't really fancy it. i don't think men who give other men flowers are gay or whatever...and i'm not against any gays...it's just that i can't picture myself giving flowers to another man. it's just...weird, i guess. macho instinct crap. and i doubt that mr. liew's story about the flower giving has changed my mind at all. flowers. men. don't mix. i don't mind giving flowers to hannah for valentine's day/birthday/any other day. i don't mind giving my mom flowers, just that she'd throw them away. i don't mind receiving flowers from a member of the opposite gender when i'm sick. but...not from men. and i doubt that most of the guys i know would want flowers too. "...flowers in the window..." fran healy can be such a twit sometimes. that's a joke. i love travis as much as everyone else, but you have to wish that things weren't so bloody soft sometimes.

so...why do men have the problem with flowers? well...i'm assuming it has to do mainly with upbringing. i don't know why i'm against the idea...my parents never really conditioned me to think that flowers were a bad thing to give...it's just that...i never really saw much use for them. also, i guess it could also come down to my peers...how many other guys do you know give flowers away for presents? mmmph. society around us has made men, and boys, the victims of stereotyping. when we're boys, we need to play with our trucks and gi joes and whatever...girls have their dolls, their tea parties...what happens if all this goes wrong one day? what if guys start losing their aggressiveness and the girls get hard? it's already happening. the current generation of kids are a hard lot to figure out. have we been so concrete in our thinking that we can't be open to something new? i think so. we're prejudiced because we've been made that way; that's the only way to explain it. it's going to take generations more to unlearn what we have learnt. what'm i trying to say? that some people, due to a particular form of upbringing, may never have open minds.

for example, some look down or frown upon smokers. they assume that they're possibly evil people, with cruel intentions, without anything good to offer. it's a fact that some people think about it; in the end, it's the heart, but appearances matter. you can be an angel on the outside, but you're satan incarnate on the inside. the same goes for it the other way; the smoker might have a heart of gold. but some of us would be too blind...we'd just get the first impression a go.

ugh. i sound so...brown-nosed and cheery. come. let's make a bonfire, hold hands and dance.

anyway, it's got to do with the changing of mindsets. i guess. the second part of the question asks how men can be loosened up to think that it's okay. well...i guess we can do a few things:

#1: "give a flower" campaign - featuring various male, macho celebs like george clooney [the rugged look], tom cruise [the cool one] and harrison ford [gets to shag calista] in various poses of flower-offering, showing plain men around the world that if they can do it, so can we

#2: "giving a flower is positive for the health" campaign - highlighting the health benefits of offering flowers to men and how it increases potency without pain or drugs

#3: "women dig it" campaign - feature how women see a man who offers flowers to another man as a new-age, sensitive kind of guy, and how it increases a man's desirability and how it raises a woman's mojo

#4: "new age man" campaign - underscores that fact that men in today's world need to get in touch with their softers sides, and that flower giving is the first step in a long journey of spiritual discovery and redemption

we can only hope. but in the meanwhile, i'll just stay non-commited to the whole thing. it's only homework; it doesn't mean that i have to live by it. besides...if a man can't have his mind changed by anyone besides himself, what's the point? flowers by the window, yes; just not at mine.