Awesometown

my annual reflection once again. somethings never change like how time keeps flying by more and more faster, so fast that the days blur together. but then there are things that have changed. Like for instance the new costco by my house. (hey it doesn't have to be a big change!) I don't think I'm that different from a year ago, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. if it ain't broke don't fix it. This is silly but the biggest let down for me this year was the ending of the adam carolla radio show. He has the podcast, but it just hasn't been the same. My greatest accomplishment would be teaching myself not to give up so easily in the things I pursue. Enjoy the rest of the day/week/month/year/decade.

Wow, I just spent the last two and a half hours designing menswear--ironic. GD is totally my muse right now XD

Actually, it's also stuff that I wish guys would want to wear. Honestly, a lot of the menswear on the runway is completely bizzare and unconventional but I love it when guys take risks with their clothes.

Love this fierce bitch~

This post is brought to you by:

Yesterday morning, model Daul Kim, 20, was dead in her apartment in Paris. According to the police it was an apparent suicide (they found her hanged). People (read: bloggers) have been speculating that the criticism that Kim had been receiving from the Korean media for posing topless in an iD photo spread contributed to depression which ultimately resulted in suicide. Although I do follow fashion, I admit that I am not very familiar with individual models but Kim's suicide is a tragedy. In March of this year, a Korean Actress, Jang Ja Yeon (from Boys Before Flowers) was also found hanged in her apartment and last year actress Choi Jin Sil also committed suicide.

Again, I admit that I am not familiar with Korean actors and actresses, but this trend is extremely troubling. The World Health Organization reported that South Korea has the second highest female suicide rate in the world (14.1% in 2006), following China (14.8% in 1999). The third in terms of women's suicide rate is Japan, at 13.2% in 2006. If we look at suicide rates of the total population, WHO reports that in 2005, South Korea had the highest suicide rate among the top 30 countries at 26.1%, higher than 23.7% in Japan (2006).

I think it is also important to note that in 2007, it was reported that among Asian-American women 15-24, suicide is the second-leading cause of death (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/16/asian.suicides/index.html). Also, according to the article, Asian-American women have the "highest suicide rate among women of any race, ethnicity for that age group." These statistics also bring to mind an incident that happened years ago.

When I younger, I lived across the street from a family that had two daughters. Both of them had attending the same elementary school as I had. When I was in 5th grade, I would go to their house and get help with my homework. Both of them were incredibly kind and intelligent. When I was in junior high, the elder sister, who was in high school at the time, committed suicide. She parked her car in the parking lot of the local community college and downed a bottle of pills. The police found her the next morning. The news was terrifying--especially because it was someone I had known, someone who had helped me a lot when I was younger. Not even her mother nor her sister knew what, in her life, made her resort to suicide.

I feel that this is important because many of the people on my friend's list, are Asian-American and/or have many friends that are Asian-American. Not that being Asian-American automatically means someone is going to commit suicide--and I'm not saying that someone who isn't Asian-American isn't going to contemplate suicide either...

I guess what I'm trying to say is, please be aware of the people you care about. If something is off, talk to them about it and encourage them talk to you and seek medical/psychiatric attention if they are feeling depressed. Speaking from personal experiences, I know what it's like to be depressed beyond all hope(that was a long time ago though) but I also know how terrifying it is to see someone you love and care about going through that kind of pain.