There are not too many careers in the way of modern-day workplaces, viewing careers as a pivotal gain to cultural anonymity, that actually prize the weight gains — and encourage that.

There is the classical *warrior class* of: heavyweight category in boxers, sumo wrestlers, scottish highland-game tree-throwers, rugby, football, and olympic weightlifting super-lifters.

Why would being overweight be prized for sport?

And what we thought was fat — is actually a massive weight accorded to muscle mass, and that was the big OH, since under all that massive clothing, there lurked the sinews of a muscular group unbenownst to the most of us that were quite okay with our ectomorphic ways, and to know that those even existed.

Pecto-what?

Lean mass, and heavyweight fat-lean-fat mass are a super-geography that i didn’t collaborate on topically finding when you didn’t know the technicality of the sport that needed those to work properly.

The brain, although a muscle —has a different sport but why does it incite the same area of fascination?

People who brain much, muscle less everywhere?

This was clearly a clichéd assumption that failed - as all the muscled men I knew, were pretty much hefty elsewhere.

Do we attribute this to a nation’s capacity for rapacity or convention? The ease at which people seemed to convey that it was easy, or something attainable for mere reading people, was as eroneous as a lex luthor-ian sizing-up-of-superman-as-an-equal anomaly.

But he tried.

And, though we get to write about it, in fair referential manner, i don’t think history looks too kindly upon the genius-methodologies of super-megalomaniacs who had it all - until a superman came along.

But, we can actually -funnily, enough- seriously sympathise.

Imagine being a fully capable, human and then one day, be deleted -from all signs of your everyday life- and expected to function as if that was nothing, as if nothing happened.

Are you Lex-Luthor enough to categorically fight the supermania, and try to subject him to all kryptonites available in your arsenal, or simply find that all attempts are futile, and throw in the towel?

Because of the internet, and all-that-information being shared en masse, do you think that there are More Lex Luthors now, more than ever? Imagine a conference hall filled with brainiacs year after year - attending the mobile world congress, after congress - would make quite a scene.

And probably, less Supermen - who could crunch more study, and enable them to carving out more barbell time? Maybe, the world is gaining superiority with this shift. And if Lex thought of making more Supermen, so he is no longer as unique, i think that validation - of having more people in sports now, and when Wimbledon not having the same champion in a row - is made real.

In a tiny 1% of that little corner of the brainy world though, in that respect — Lex was definitely someone’s very specific hero. (“,)

Can i have that in a /Large/? was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I started the year much-anticipated Dragon Year 2024 with a send-off from Singapore, at Novotel/ Mercure - that we were staying in. It was magical stay for 10 days in Stevens Rd. - lounging in the pool while writing, and eating in the surrounding areas. It was like being a balikbayan. (*Only i was Singaporean.)

And afterwards, appealing to my sense of adventure, and planned to travel very extensively - also known as an introduction to the state of Semi-Retirement - and planning what the rest-of-year looked like, compiled a way for my tiny nest egg to grow. In the options that followed the lifestyle choice i opted into, which outlined when i live out-of-country (which i could really only peruse on-foot, at-hand, and while actually living there!), i realise that the downturn accounted to socially being nil, while still being able to afford comforts that i have been used to (a silly moisturiser, or a cheeky haircut here and there).

So, with this headstrong trait kept on a down-low, i find that it was exactly at the one year mark (23–24) and half of drumroll-dragon year, that i got my “Downton Itch” and started shopping for a place to stay so i could nest properly - where any sort of portfolio was appropriate people will say put down your money where you will later on sip your tea - and mostly, from a desire to have a place for everything (again).

But alas, the Dragon year 2024 came and went — and i had gone to visit old country, in place of a focuss on the two-year shout out time-out for “the rental recovery project” - and sunk my 401k to a non-mortgage option. Which loses my UEN, and everything social that i have actually laid out the 20 year-span of startups/ corporate work i have had for a lifetime (or what actually seemed like it).

Flipping the pages of the “Classifieds”- i only actually checked out all the Rockwell Land projects, and hadn’t looked at the ones in the Taguig City areas, where the WeWork had properly set up in (three closely held together buildings in the CBD, called Uptown, RCBC & Menarco bldg.), i quickly spied all that was (coffee) brewing in the lively city as much as I could, and tried to imagine living in this area - or maybe, this area (checked out the Estancia areas as well, where the PotteryBarns and weekend markets were situated) or that area - I liked the Salcedo area, where most of the advertising agencies started out in.

It wasn’t at all to plan: the apartments were shoddy where i could afford to pay for them, and the work-arounds were as obstinate as the clarity of my 90s engagement ring. It can’t be.

I am surely all out of options!

Heart sank, and the “design website sabbatical” on the run It was honestly an inconvenient thing -(considering i was already having an awful shoddy time here), apart from the beaches, and the tail-end of finding health resolutions to teeth (dental) and a blood test/ general health checkup since CoVid lockdown in the region. Also, to two apartments that was half of what we had 20 years ago, which clearly meant - twice the stuff (massive boxes, luggages and solid wooden furniture) that occupied it more than people (to also save on all the 25 year storage-hub facilities)!

I would like to keep writing, but it wasn’t generating money income or anything positively social - in a capitalist estate, the community wasn’t quite as relenting to being a pseudo social-activist-celebrity (*not the other way around, being a celebrity who turns into an eco-activist).

Oh wait, i was already in greenpeace since college.

I would like to think that somehow - or someday, i could get back to Singapore (or not) after deciding that the option of bearing only an American Passport was a clear dud to pursue.

Well. Is it?

— — — — — —

@TheNamesNotJane — is also writing at /TripleTrep/, a monthly newsletter for LinkedIn. (*Apart from being 1/2 of the “Of Hothouses and Breadcrumbs” publication since 2014).

/Where/ else do I write? was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

To all the approved writers in Hothouses and Breadcrumbs, or those who wish to add their stories in the mix or contribute fresh thoughts on post-Covid world of business/ mompreneurships/ solo or social trepping — kindly read this.

And thank you for your stories.

1/ Caps and non-caps - as it’s an arts and science journal into Treps’ minds and social or non-social businesses, write as you wish - but mind your p’s and q’s.

2/ Write reasonably legibly.

3/ No racial or commentary on public news -we avoid to be political or over-demonstrative towards one ecosystem over the other.

4/ If you had to promote something without PR permissions, kindly keep that to the details of a picture you include - to avoid marketing penalties in the ether (wherever you might be staying at the time of post-edits publishing/ edits are made before publish).

5/ Write to editors for clarifications, in case your article isn’t published, or have a conversation in the chat boxes. (*Are there AI chat boxes on the editor-to-writer pages?) Either way, when in doubt of process or digress — strongly urge you to email.

Submission Guidelines. was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I must say, i hate not writing.

I had tried to spend a three-week all-me vacation, and my sneaky laptop inched up & out of my rucksack, got right past the biscuits and tumble of convenience store provisions, past the ruckus of all the remainder of makeup, through the disorganised array of sunnies - that signalled it was time for a change (of style, and possibly, colour because a new decade has now gone past), and landed right smack into my vacation time - and started demanding me to write something - anything.

That laptop had taunted the life out of my privacy, and threatened the promise of a tauntless next-decade: if I write, i will get read and popular and the people in my life would get “allergic to me” a side effect of the media, and if i don’t write, what else would I do?

I had spent a stop-writing get-awayfromyourdesk with a desk away from my desk. And tried other things, apart from working/ writing. I tried cooking, painting, sewing (i don’t knit), chatting incessantly with women dates, and workspace-hosting. Nothing.

I wish it were a bit simpler, and i could compare it with fishing - that seems relaxing, (not rowing on the thames, or the potomac) — more of a pace, than a mad race to a goal, end result should be something of a calmed persona inside - instead of stressing a bit more. Perhaps i was in the wrong genre? Or the wrong focuss, or milieu - no tech stuff, please - i hear my past life whispering loudly in my ear.

Or maybe write elegantly, like all the classical writers on my shelf! A good parallel is this — from Create Academy: pressing flowers - (by @JamJarEdit) where, it’s more of a hobby, & not a stressful artform that we misle our (otherwise) sensible selves into perfecting.

That’s not how writing actually works.

If anything, commercial writing is very different from editorial. Copy/ brand writing is more - on command (as it is actually really paid highly for), and has loads of “talk points” or pointers from brand people, and left to the writers to “polish up” in the style of the brand helm to keep it in the Corporate Identity, as well as Media-Formatting — but editorial writing, is from the heart.

So, when you have nothing on today - heed this: Anyone can be a writer. (Just like anyone can be a pressed-flower artist).

My friend from Proctor & Gamble (in the Marketing Department), had declared ages ago - to me, while i was holding a non-screaming 2-month-old baby in the cradle of my arms, that she wanted to actually be in Advertising, specifically in Creative. So, take heart and learn that it is never too late to be anything. David Ogilvy became an Advertising Person in his forties, and i think it is never too late to garner an award or two when you think you are really “past your prime”. Think Paulina Porizkova, but for advertising. I think that is quite possible, and will prove it by being something else myself (at way past its perceived prime).

Oh wait, this is actually *That.

Writing - is, like any form of art (but mostly, with a serious deadline):

• Writing is a discipline, especially if it is your career path.
• The discipline spans a few prospects: digital, and copywriting (tv, media, print), as well as in-house everything (as in Creative Directors that work in media houses).
• And then there is the: Corporate Communications people.
• Is Marketing writing? Not really — it’s email. (Poke!)*
• Theses writing, is writing. (Research and development briefs and then, eventually issuing a presentation of findings to client).

I was about to polish up a goodbye letter - but then realised, even when my 2016’s testing out Medium-platform-and-CMS-products turned eventually into: “Of Hothouses and Breadcrumbs”, is now prematurely, indefinitely closed - it (the writing about life) never really is done.

*I am a writing from a Marketing perspective today, or as this profile’s simplified edict - (Since we know people don’t actually SCROLL the pink tabs that does exactly that.) — and will specify at some point -if i had a writer hat, or a commercial hat, an editing-design, or a more stylised marketing hat on.

To all the aspiring writers.. was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

/Noughties/: noughts, or oughts ’00. The (exactly 10) years that came after the millenia (2000). The 10’s (2010–2020) & 20’s (20–24, where we are now).

— —

When i had my first job in Advertising, i figured that was a cop-out thing. From Science school — i had three scholarships in Science, and one in Tokyo for Liberal Arts (which could easily be a science bachelors if i ousted myself, and put my foot down to pedal the metal).

But, it was a pleasant surprise. A hidden gem. An unexpected oops. A non-bee sting, in the middle of a poppy field - if you will.

I am not entirely going to detail that- but this is why 2014 Apps (is all i can say).

“The Noughties” are expired 14 years ago, in our mid-twenties. But it is a good Decade, a good name, and good things happened. I am investing that in the next millennia, (which we are not going to be a part of, darkly) -but seeding all the good things about it, might bring awkward pause in case everything turns out really badly, from the planned SDGs 2030. (Again, darkly.) All my creidt and debit banks cards, say 2032. And that quite alarms me, we are at full speed ahead.

In the Noughts, things were pleasantly slower.

Advertising didn’t slow down, the pace at which we created them did. From tri-media to just the Print Ad, please, was kind of traumatic.

This caused the pivot to …. other things. There was FinTech, there was marketing. And there was FinTech Marketing, or Tech AND Marketing, and then there was Startup Marketing, and Product.

(Which was what i left in 2000.)

But for tech.

And then, there was tweeting, and digital things -which created spaces, and platforms, and this - which was a relief!

Imagine going from person to person, getting their emails, and then email to all them into oblivion? That would be gross. And insane.

So, having a proper place to read or write (medium). And then pointing them to read them at (@thenamesnotjane, @krissn on twitter) would be the perfect pairing for a straight-shoot on what you need to say, and read, without being a 2-hour session somewhere on a TED talk. THis would be the nano-précis (french for summary) of that.

So, wheels in my brain turned, and after 3 years of tweeting at events - on the side of life, created a MacbookAir-free (2014 Mavericks screen that got fixed) & the Macbook 11" (2016 Sierra) made me believe in the world again.

Conversions to creating an app for that ensued shortly afterwards….

And attempts to find both Space & Time, are an idea that I wouldn’t dare actually discover to announce as the ultimate severance pay — to a lifelong injury, as would “the shaded” would be accompanying in their surrounds. My assumptions, are always widely thrown, and finickily tested. And i wouldn’t conclued in an offshoot of bitter, clouded, bland, whiskey-less misery (which, in all brevity actually happens to all of us). It just looks worst on the ones who are beheld the most -or the front of house, or the name on the CEO charts, or the owner of organisation - whether it applied to everyone or not.

The story ends (thus far) in a zoom iPad call from the Uncommon founder, in apartment number 7 - to join in their advisory team (but them advising me), which i found a little hilarious.

Maybe, i stopped learning? Maybe, i need to un-learn to be uncommon, and learn differently to be acceptable - in a different acceptance grid perhaps? In my alarmed state-of-post-pandemic (skin) emergency, being lectured by a young Indian-Canadian CEO about the merits of my being, as an upstart to both community, and business ecosystems are - I realised, just after a Network effect, in calling my number.

Also, quite distressed to find out that they expected to ‘charge me’ with actual dollars to “join”.

Appalling.

Maybe, they needed all the “Free Advertising” and didn’t know how to Hustle an exchange?

(Would be my second guess.)

— — — -

Advertising in the noughties. was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Sometimes, i haven’t the faintest idea how to work out why we process the way we do.

Maybe the bandwidth of being from someplace — that grew up in another, and then being nowhere at all, is a Third Culture thing. But, what is That?

“Can someone shed light on this?”

My email once said, a few decades ago - when Harry Potter was a thing to read and behold. (Still now).

It’s like saying, what is a movie, versus a painting, versus a formula written down -made, and then actually after its various applications, actually viable.

But, whether it was an angle in which we try to understand -like food, it’s how we imbibe- is it via our hands, our chopsticks, a fork and a knife, or just a spoon? Sometimes, we collaborate with the strangest of people -who, in mild social antiquities, wouldn’t be “right” -who is to say what’s right? And what led to “all this”?

We couldn’t for the life of us, work it out.

Should i mansplain this? (Press A), or Should i skip the hullabaloo on any of it, and write on anyway -without heeding the “feedback” or the youtube mania following, considering it really isn’t Facebook, or youtube. But, i think it wasn’t a real social if it wasn’t on any of these, if not All, these platforms? (a la 2010 onwards?) Remember when we passed our Social exams -and tested our mobile heft towards applications? And remember when it was no longer a “thing” — (or what is then, and now referred to as “trending”).

Sometimes, the art -when consdered unviable- is not perceived as valuable, or art-like in manner or spirit, when it doesn’t quite make it to the pages- but sometimes, rather than often, art is imitated by - and professed to be commuted as so - to be imitated with life.

So, Mona Lisa wannabes - since we can’t find anything to talk about, i’ll entertain you with the pictures. :) (smiley emoji, format format, space, dragon emoji)

(**Ode to Dragon Year**, where running a full cycle has indeed beehoven us.)

Also, is the Dragon a bird, or a reptile?

Who’s your Cinema-ma-maa? was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For this post — sharing this re-post from dotboop.social, read more here.

Managed to scribble something this year — and mostly, it’s a simpler thing to collate on svbtle, and move here. (Cross-platform posting since 2014.)

You could read this article, here — on this link, or scroll the pink bar above, for all the latest articles. (Easier.)

Qualifying for Context * the * /dotboºp/ * social

For this post — sharing this re-post from dotboop.social, read more here. was originally published in /Of Hothouses & Breadcrumbs/ on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.