Suits and other fancy dresses

I don't tend to care too much about what I wear. I'm not into brands or expensive clothing. I rather my stuff be comfortable than fashionable. Warm rather than cool (literally). So I walk around in hoodies and jeans/khakis. Long-sleeves that I can roll up sleeves to so I can "adjust the temperature." I happily ignored years of people telling me to insert some colour into my life until I was forced to consider the opinion. The first time I've ironed a shirt is in 4th year. So it was a rather interesting experience for me to go suit shopping. Yes, I'm getting better. -_-

Suit shopping history
My mom bought me my first and only suit. This is the suit that I brought to Waterloo. This is also the suit to which the pants to I accidentally machine washed because it looked just like all my other dress pants. This is the suit I had to replace.

New suit shopping history
Being totally ignorant of suit culture, my "fine dressing for men 101" consisted of numerous trips malls, trying on more suits more times then I've worn my original one (thanks to everyone that convinced me that non-black/white colours are wearable =P). No, this isn't a post documenting my suit shopping experience. =P

Thoughts on dressing
I've come to realize that dressing is not entirely an individualistic thing. That when I dress to go school, no one really cares if I'm in a hoodie (grad students don't tend to dress any better than undergrads, I've noted). The purpose of my school clothing is to keep me warm (and decent).

But just like there is a season for everything, formal ware is important when the time calls for it. One is expected to "dress to impress" when it comes to situations like interviews and weddings. So if I'm going to spend the time and money to find a decent suit, I might as well finish the job and find a decent shirt and tie as well. And etc. The purpose of these formal situations is no longer just for myself, but for the event/company that I will be attending.

I recently came across this article (Why what you wear matters) and I think it reconciles fairly well my not wanting to spend much time/effort/money on clothing, but still have what is needed for the occasion. Perhaps I'm the only one in my age group that needs to realize these principles. I'm working on it -_-. The points from the articles are as follows:

• Be conscious of clothing selection - Keep in mind of the situation and intent of dress. Going to a interview dressed all bummy draws negative attention. Social protocol is suppose to kick in at some point. And if nothing else, it reflects poorly on chinese people, students, christians, and chinese christian students
• Don't draw attention to one's privilege - A while ago, three of us got involved in a clothing donation run. We ended up gathering a large amount of old clothing and donating it off, to the point that it wouldn't fit into the donation box that we found in the middle of the night. It reminds me that the ability to buy clothing is quite a privilege indeed, and some thought should go into things before picking up super expensive suit when a moderately priced one would do. Or number of clothing, I guess, for that matter.
• Dress modestly, not sensually - I don't think I have any problem with this one. =P
• Dress properly, use good judgment, don't be associated with evil - I guess I don't tend to keep this in mind much. There was this one suit that looked okay-ish and was within my budget, but when I went home and looked up the brand, I found that the company was associated with child labour. I already wasn't super happy about the suit, but that was the finisher for that particular suit
• Spend wisely - Well. I could point out that I don't have much wealth, and is why I choose not to buy much clothing. But this idea should fit with the first point, so some balance is needed here

Yes, I'm learning. -_-

Religious Intolerance

I was walking from my lab to RCH the other day, mentally reviewing my latest tutorial that I was about to deliver. Around campus, there's a bunch of "Is Jesus Relevant" posters for an event a while back, hosted by mCCF. On several of these posters in E2/E3, someone took a black Sharpie and wrote NO across the poster. I was shocked about the poster for a few reasons.

1) Walking around campus, I've rarely noticed poster defacement. I can probably count all the cases on my hand. I figure most people don't even pay attention to the posters (when I did NSR, only a tiny handful of people came due to poster advertisements). Even in terms of general grafftti, I don't notice that often (other than bathroom stalls, anyway). Either Plants Ops are very good at cleaning those up, or Waterloo students are generally well-behaving. Or maybe I'm not very attentive. Either works.

2) I was reading about how there are many Christian-based laws/events being repelled these days in the name of religious tolerance. I remember getting frustrated at that, since Canada was really originally found on Christian principles, by Christian settlers. You don't expect the Middle East or parts of southern Asia to suddenly repel their religious laws as well, do you? But okay. Democracy is built on freedom of speech (well. to a degree. hate propaganda will get you arrested pretty quickly).

I feel that society is more and more pendulum-like. A few decades ago, it was for women and minority rights and suffrage. Nowadays, I've had Caucasian male friends tell me that they're most marginalized. I noticed RIM job applications asks me if I was a visible minority (Are Chinese actually visible minority? Certainly not on Waterloo campus...). I've see other companies boast that they are equal opportunities employers and etc. But I'm not going to get into gener roles and if fair = equal here...

3) I'm don't think I'm being superly biased here. A few weeks back, a Florida pastor publically announced that his church was going to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11. He later canceled his plans. I've never read the Koran, but I'd be pretty unhappy if I found out some Muslim groups were out burning Bibles. Lets stick with the Golden rule here. If you don't want other people to tell you what to believe, don't tell them what to believe. I'm in the business of sharing my faith, thoughts and ideas, not shoving it down someone's throat.

It took a while for Joge and I to hammer out, but I'm happy with NNC/BBW/Apologetics' mandate. We research ideas and questions. Present the different point of views. We add a bit to what we believe in ourselves and why we do so. That's it. You decide what you want to believe in. If I just tell you what to believe, then your beliefs are mine, and that will crumble when push comes to shove. If you decide for it on your own, then your belief becomes yours, and you learn to take a stand, and that is much more important. Haha. Sounds like that Inception movie.