Cynical Kitten Has A New Address

Cynical Kitten has moved to this address: www.noodlesoupchan.wordpress.com

What can I say? Everything is so much easier there!

How to Wear Make Up Without Feeling Like a Clown

The above mentioned problem has been an issue with me since the beginning of my high school years. I have always felt like I'd done something wrong, and that my blush or eyes shadow were too bright or that my eye line was too thick and uneven when I applied them. I kept thinking "Argh, I look like a clown! It's not natural!" And for this reason I refrained from wearing make-up all through the years. In fact, even today it is not often I wear make-up, unless I'm going to a party (but nowadays it is because I'm just lazy).

But everything changed a few months ago when I was bored and didn't know what do to on the internet. I went on to Youtube.com and searched for make-up tips. And I came across this great tutorial! ^^ The tutorial is about how to put on make-up so that it looks natural on you (i.e. not clownish!). I encourage any girl who wants to wear make-up, but does not have the confidence that you are applying make-up correctly to watch the video below.

Of course, you have to take the tutorial as a quideline, so don't go thinking that you should copy everything step for step. For example, as it turns out mineral concealer does not take away my Rudolf he red nosed raindeer nose color, so I had to experiment with different concealers and finally came to the conclusion that liquid concealer worked best on me. Another example is that since my eyebrows are so dark and full I don't need to fill them in. Also that liquid eyeliner is really friggin' hard to use, so instead I use eye pencil. And I always skip the eye curler since I think they're scary and could actually hurt my eye. So find out what tidbits work best for you and use them, but think critically because what may for her may not necessarily agree with your skin combination!

If you need advice on other things, such as how to go about plucking your eyebrows without over plucking, or how to use foundation (and extremely informative video, btw), or how to cleanse your skin check out her youtube profile.

Culture Shock

I have lived in a few different countries in the course my short life. No matter how many times I move to (and fro) a different country I always manage to experience what people call a "culture shock". The following are my inner ramblings upon the "different" cultures of dealing with calling customers/ over the counter customers and some acquaintances in the UK and in Sweden.

Three years in the UK are not helping my adaptation to Sweden. I remember when I first arrived to the UK: I found that I got tired because I was always having to be polite to people. Upon returning to Sweden again I get worked up every time people are rude— which is very often. But unfortunately getting used to rudeness is harder than getting used to politeness. It is hard constantly finding yourself being reduced from the status of a creature capable of human feeling to that of a machine. It can't be helped, Sweden is a highly developed country with an all-embracing welfare system (you can't escape it!), and government authorities are more concerned with quantitative facts in order to efficiently process a person's needs.

It stuns me when regular humans treat other fellow humans as machines, and I get annoyed… until I remember that most of these people have lived in this country their whole lives. Because they are so used to dealing with a system which requires them to be impersonal it becomes natural for many of them to treat other people the same way. But should crude human interaction be the price we have to pay for development and a high standard of living?
With such an efficient welfare system that provides for all our individual needs, are we forgetting that we need other humans as well? Are we forgetting to treat other people as we would like to be treated?

However, I must say that I'm making progress with my re-assimilation into Swedish (youth) culture. Since spring, I have had to make many phone calls to different government authorities and companies. At first I was annoyed at the fact that the people I talked to were so rude and unhelpful. Yesterday, however, I realized that when I called enquiring about my apartment I was actually surprised that the person I spoke to was so polite and patient! This is not something I am proud of. Will I soon forget how to play nice with other people?

Make or Break?

My graduation ceremony was yesterday. I decided not to go to it, but now I hold a Bachelor of Laws (I'm hoping the diploma will come in the mail soon so I can frame it or whatever). This is the moment I have been dreading for some years now; I do very well at school but I'm not sure about how I will fare in the real world. This is my make or break moment!

Having a first degree in Law and Politics offers me little comfort to the confusing that is inside my head. What am I going to do with such a degree? I feel small and I'm not ready to take the step towards a career.

Some of my friends from university have already been accepted as trainees in law firms; I admire them. Very early on in my studies I decided that being a Solicitor would be my Plan Z, so I guess I have snubbed that career path.

So what happens to people like me? I've been told that I can do almost anything this degree… Studies have shown that too much choice is bad for people. And I seem to fit right in with those studies: I do not know what kind of path would fit/ please me. I have spent many sleepless nights pondering, and it looks like I'm going to have to look forward to many more such nights.

For the moment I have found a way to push my decision off until tomorrow: studying French can only do me good! But my increasing study debts are telling me that I should make myself useful sooner than later.

Maybe I should just find a rich person and get married. That way I could have all the time in the world to think. But how does one find such a person? And when found, how does one go about convincing them to marry me? This task seems just as arduous as choose a path.

Life can be so depressing…

"That's Right, Bitches, I'm Back!"

(ok, that was more Britneytastic than I'd hoped...)

This is my first post in a very long time (1 year 3 months 4 days to be exact), and it is long overdue. Upon reactivating this blog I feel that I should discuss the focus of the blog (which is also my aim with all my writing).

Cynical Kitten is about taking on contemporary society with a critical mind. As suggested by the phrase "Pop the Culture", I will be "busting chops" as well as "popping forth" issues and things which in my opinion deserve attention.

I believe that it is important for every person to contemplate, question, assess the society we live in. In fact, it is our right and duty as humans to do so. Thus, my aim is to bring out the 3rd or 4th dimension to many of the issues which are prominent in modern society... all in good fun, of course!

Thus (in the spirit of Star Trek):
"These are my not so careful documentations of life as I know it. My lifetime mission: to explore strange, questionable, intriguing but not necessarily new aspects of society. To seek out personal growth, make fun of all things silly, and hopefully give y'all one or two things to thinks about for an average of 4 minutes. To boldly go toward where all men will ultimately go!"

The Arrogant Rich

This is a comment on the article "Hätskt på föräldramöte" from 24th March in Sydsvenka Dagbladet.



As I understand it, the reason for Kroksbäck students to join Linnéskolan is that the school is under renovation. Hence, my surprise with parents opposing this move, considering resources from Kroksbäck would be transferred to Linnéskolan.

I could not help but to get the feeling that Linnéskolan’s hostile parents think of children from Kroksbäck as second-rate breed of humans. It seems that they’re trying to protect their children from the stupidity and social deficiencies that these creatures from Kroksbäck might bring. It is hard for me to ignore the disturbing prejudices, and narrow mindedness that these parents seemed to suffer from. And thus, I would like to challenge their views on 4 points:

1) The article does not explain why parents from Kroksbäck were not invited to this meeting. Do they not have equal rights to this discussion as the Linné parents? And if so, is it because of the class difference?

2) The children involved are between 11-13 years of age (6th and 7th grade). I do hope that the parents are aware that their children are ONLY in primary school, and that both school follow the same Swedish national curriculum. At this level, the difference in knowledge is rather inconsequential. Unless, of course, the parents are implying that the Kroksbäck students are intellectually challenged, and thus cannot learn as well as their children!

3) What kind of morals are these parents teaching their children, by trying to justify bullying? Is it not their duty to show their children that no matter what clothes others wear, they’re still human and thus of the same worth? If anything, bringing children from Kroksbäck, if they are so different from their own as the parents suggest (which I seriously doubt), could be a valuable life experience for these seemingly spoiled children at Linnéskolan.

4) A parent suggested that it is already too late to integrate 11-13 years olds of different social and cultural backgrounds. In my point of view it is a reflection of his own prejudices.

It is sad that reasonable adults from a well off part of town, who are presumably educated and informed of society’s problems, should have such a discriminatory and elitist view of children’s welfare. I think it’s fitting to remind them that just because they live in a “rich” part of town, does not mean that they are superior beings. It seems that social consequence and arrogance has impaired their skills in reasoning and compassion. This sort of disdain over the less fortunate and/ or immigrant is unacceptable in modern day; it constitutes discrimination and racism.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder...

So, I found this strip, and thought that it was rather funny, and quite fitting to that old saying... I mean, what one might find cute, another might find down right deadly.



This strip is not done by me and the rest can be found here

Police Quiz After Club Sex Party

This is an actual tabloid headline. It's from "Echo" here in Cardiff, some time around November.

*click on picture to make it larger*

Tall Dark Hunky Male Wanted!

So, to Pheasant's horror there is a huge black spider in the bathroom. Since we all are dead scared of black spiders we figured the best way to get it killed is by calling a guy over to do the job. Partridge and I contemplated calling one of Pheasant's male friends... one she sort of likes. Here's how we imagined the text messages:

"Hello ------! Can you come over and help us kill a spider?"

We figured that in the mind of a guy this would translate into "Come on over, let's have sex!" since, who needs help killing a spider, right? So we made some improvement to it:

"Hi ------! Can you help us kill a spider? All four of us have arachnophobia and we can't get to the bathroom! It's an emergency..."

At this point, we realized that we should give up. Anything we write can and will be used against Pheasant. ... ... ... Maybe the spider will combust and disappear by tomorrow morning...

I guess next time we should update from an all girls type of house sharing to a mixed gender one... I am starting to see its potential advatages.

Ignorance isn't always bliss...

So, I was surfing around on bash.org when I found a few funny "quotes." For those of you who don't know, Bash is a site full of quotes from various IRC channels... (if you don't know what IRC is, I advise you to use either Google or Wikipedia)

Quote 1

#244321 +(18095)- [X]

(Cthon98) hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars
(Cthon98) ********* see!
(AzureDiamond) hunter2
(AzureDiamond) doesnt look like stars to me
(Cthon98) (AzureDiamond) *******
(Cthon98) thats what I see
(AzureDiamond) oh, really?
(Cthon98) Absolutely
(AzureDiamond) you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2
(AzureDiamond) haha, does that look funny to you?
(Cthon98) lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******
(AzureDiamond) thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that
(Cthon98) yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******
(AzureDiamond) awesome!
(AzureDiamond) wait, how do you know my pw?
(Cthon98) er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw
(AzureDiamond) oh, ok.

Quote 2:

#202477 +(5115)- [X]

(Mootar) morons.
(Mootar) these people who live in my apartment complex are connected to my wireless
(Mootar) they must think they’re super-cool hackers by breaking into my completely unsecure network
(Mootar) unfortunatly, the connection works both ways
(Mootar) long story short, they now have loads of horse porn on their computer

And so there you have it, you should always be careful of strangers, especially on the internet, "where men are men, women are men, and little girls are FBI agents" (a quote I got from somewhere). And next time you leech off of someone's wireless, don't be surprised, if somewhere, sometime, somehow, you have horse porn on your computer.

All out from Quasi Mortuus.

Films Worth Watching!

Becoming Jane
This is the number one movie I want to see! Here’s why I (and you too) should watch it:
1) It’s based on Jane Austen’s life! She’s my favorite author all time!
2) Anne Hathaway
3) Nothing Says ROMANCE Like The Early 1800s Period costumes!
The movie’s is out on March 9th in the UK!



The Good Shepherd
A cold war secret service movie, which brings flashbacks of “A Beautiful Mind”. I (and YOU) should watch it because:
1) Starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie (in reality there’s no need for other reasons to appeal to male and female population!) and Robert De Niro (I love him!)
2)’50s clothing worn by Angelina Jolie! *drool*
3) Cold war paranoia suspense, gotta love those kinds of movies!
The movie’s out on the cinemas on February 23rd in the UK! (March 9th in Sweden)

The Good German
Another suspense movie on my favorite 20th century history topic! This time it’s the beginning of the cold war. What is the wartime correspondent’s old girlfriend hiding? I’ll watch it because:
1) George Clooney (swoon-worthy) Cate Blanchett (not so interesting) Tobey Maguire (urgh!)
2) It’s in black and white! Everything looks better in black and white!
3) The late ‘40s fashion! (yes, obviously the costumes counts as a reason! So you can have something to look at in case the story turns out to be crap)
Catch this movie on the March 9th in the UK!

The Illusionist
A movie about magic, love, und conspiracies at the turn of the 20th century. For me watching it:
1) Edward Norton! (Jessica Biel is in my opinion not a reason to see this movie at all)
2) I am being coerced by my friend, Pheasant, to watch it, seeing as she is obsessed with it. Trust me, if she had mind control powers, she’d make sure everyone watched this movie.
3) Romantic costumes (although not as fun as the costumes in Becoming Jane)
This movie is out on Match 3rd in the UK!

Feminism Ain’t! And This Time Women Are To Blame!

versus

We’ve been having such rainy weather lately (after a long spell of nice weather you sort of start to get used to the idea, if you know what I mean).

Apropos rainy weather, it’s interesting how the female mind operates. For circa 150-200 years women have been fighting to establish the fact that they are equal to men in society. By achieving this, new opportunities opened up for women, especially in the clothing department. In the beginning of the 20th century they conquered the territory of men’s clothing, which is an advantage over men since they will not be seen in women’s clothing.

Some feminists say that high heels are the patriarch’s way of suppressing women; I don’t agree. I think this male invention enhances a woman’s situation in two ways:

1) makes women, who tend to be shorter than men, taller and less puny and weak

2) makes women’s legs look better, thus equipping women with an added potential asset (i.e. beauty/ distraction of males).

However, I believe that trousers/pants have become the new tool of suppression of women. And this one can’t even be blamed on the males, seeing as women, by themselves, decided to start wearing trousers. It’s the “everything you can do I can do better” obsession that caused women to chain themselves when it comes to clothing.

It is very sad to see how widespread the use of trousers is among the female population. There is an extent of truth in the argument that the above-mentioned garment is comfortable, but surely there must be situations where it can be an inconvenience (these will be listed further on). What is even more pathetic is the fact that some women have become so indoctrinated that they cannot even think of themselves wearing a dress or a skirt (for casual/work use) without a horrified expression. That is stupid and distressing for a few reasons:

1) from a feminist point of view; if women will not been seen in women’s clothing, what message does it send to the male population? Yes, that, in fact they wee right all along! Becoming like a man is not the point of feminism (it gives the opposite effect). “Womanly” clothes should not be made obsolete; instead the goal is to give them the same status as “manly” clothes.

2) there is also the practical point of view; a good example is when it rains. Why would any woman want to wear a pair of trousers when it’s raining? Why not settle for a nice just-below-the kne-pencil -skirt and the boots? I don’t get it!

• trousers tend to become wet and/or muddy by the feet, since they are in contact with the ground a lot more than a skirt. Soggy, muddy trousers don’t benefit one’s health in any way, shape or form: they can lead to a cold, or other diseases caught though contact with dirt.


• if one is wearing boots with the skirt, a woman doesn’t need to act girly and go out of her way to avoid stepping on puddles. She can just walk straight and not get wet… and in the process please her inner child who is dying to step on the enticing puddle.
  

It might seem silly to rant about clothes and feminism, surely it goes much deeper than appearances, but it’s important to remember that human’s first impressions of each other is by what they see. What one wears is, thus, as important as everything else. And to me trousers and feminism is a combination that just does not make sense!

source of pictures: http://movies.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=362166&stab=2

Collection 2000

My friend, Pheasant, last Friday decided to buy something on impulse while we were running around like headless chickens at Boots looking for “Lipcote”. She decided to buy a nail polish, of transparent-ish color for £ 1.24. I have had the priviledge of trying it on my usually nail polish hostile nails, and I must say that "Collection 2000 Manicure 322 French Pink" has my full approval. Here are the reasons why:

• It doesn’t crack; it is usually so that my nails love to break nail varnishes’ spirits as soon as it dries. Often ten minutes after I’ve put 2 or 3 coats, my nails look like an oil painting from 500 years ago! But this one was able to triumph: it’s a spunky one!


• It makes nails hard and strong; now my nails are long but are not assuming their annoyingly bent shape, and they don’t give way as soon as I poke them on something hard (like, say, someone's flab). This is varnish must have super powers.


• It is quick to dry; not many nail polishes are, not even the ones that say “express” or “quick to dry” on it. When you put on 3 coats as you’re supposed to, they all take forever to harden, while this one only asked for about 6-7 minutes of my time. It is well-bred and doesn’t make a nuisance of itself.


• It last for ages; I’m on my 4th day and it is still not showing sights of coming off, and the edges of the nails as still shiny, unlike with many other varnishes where after two days the edges are chipped off. It lives long.


• And as an added bonus: it gives the nails a nice French manicure look!

The only drawback that I can think of is that it’s a genteel nail polish, and thus it thinks the idea of washing dishes by hand everyday repulsive and vulgar… and it will most likely want to come off your nails.

Stay The Night

Recently Virgin Radio has been playing such a good song! It’s so chilled that it’s stuck in my head… I keep randomly going “take a chance… staaaay the night” or “it’s four o’clock in the morning...” and passer-bys keep looking at me like I’m a crazy person…

It’s called “Stay the Night” by a new London band called Ghosts. The singer has such a sweet voice, and the synth-like melody in between the chorus are wonderfully engaging! I’m so obsessed with this song that I even wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to listen to it… *I’m kidding*
Anyway, after that rant I hope people will want to actually listen to the song so here goes: it’s up on their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/ghostsuk or you can just click on the YouTube video below!

Music and Lyrics and Tiny Sepuku for Valentine's

Just came from watching the movie Music and Lyrics, starring Hugh Grant and Drew Berrymore. It's such a Valentine's Day movie! Anyway, it was nice and fun and full of really witty (other people find them lame) dry jokes, which I loved! Honestly, Hugh Grant is really good at playing loser-type characters *snigger*.

Due to my student helpline volenteering last night, Valentine's Day was nothing but a sleepy haze to me. By now people should know I love Tiny Sepuku, and should be telling me to get over it (and show some other comic already), but I couldn't help but to post a very cute Valentine's Comic Strip (click on image to make it bigger):