SHIBUYA! by softboiledegg

softboiledegg of the legendary egg gyaru magazine just dropped a new catchy song four days ago after sharing some behind the scenes clips on their Tiktok. I was curious how it will turn out as there were clips of gals doing parapara to a nonstandard beat in the background while two of them had close ups of them rapping/singing. Its also a bit refreshing to see a more recognizable gal makeup being worn by the main artists of the song. The song is also complete with some wild lyrics, but what could be wilder than opening your song with how fresh and clean.... you are from their song Gal is Mind?

Check it out here:

The Fine Line Between Normal and Special

Having been heavily in the gyaru scene since 2010 after being on a gaming platform around 2007-2009, I experienced moments of pseudo "celebrity". Though small in comparison to some of the well known names out there, and there were others who were cooler or more kawaii, at the time it was a big deal in this little bubble. It was thrilling at times, but the amount of progress I felt was needed, becoming a sell out, and what content should I publish to entertain hundreds of people is something I had to think about constantly.

Friend/Partner Poaching

Recently on social media, my former feed of pictures of food and statements of "its better being solo than surrounded by people that don't like you" is now filled with random stories about friendship or partner/boyfriend poaching and situations of overly humbling (or outright disrespecting (Black) women (ie. Rihanna x Chris Brown, Beyonce and Jayz, Ciara and that one guy before her current husband Russel) who are successful and the critiques on such circumstances.

This kind of poaching is regarding someone taking your friend and excluding you out of the relationship. Essentially, "stealing" your friend from you. This can also happen when you are dating or in a romantic relationship, and your friend wants to "steal" your partner from you, causing your boyfriend to cheat on you if he has no empathy or respect for you.

Apparently, women who go for married men, or unavailable men feel as if they need to "win" and be better by showing their worth by being able to seduce someone away. They get the feelings of feeling better than you, hotter than you, sexier than you, and this boosts their ego and makes them feel powerful if something is triggering them to feel less than. It is also a breach of trust if this person was considered a friend or claimed to be, and simply is a form of disrespect for boundaries, and a "power move" to become dominant and cause pain to the other party.

As for friendships, I haven't seen a lot on the topic outside of the "stolen" friend having more clout or popularity which makes them seem cool or pretty to be around them, or that the new friend has resources, money, a car, or connections to be used for their own benefit. You are left behind because they didn't want you, but what the people around you can do for them and their social status even if they cannot reciprocate.

How to NOT Dox Yourself

Keeping yourself safe is pretty standard advice.

So is making sure that when you hand your resume to someone who is a complete stranger to you to "fix" that they are someone you trust with that information. A stranger can go and see where you are working, and if you are getting out of an abusive relationship, you don't want that person knowing where you are since they are not capable of respecting your boundaries and treating you with respect.They have the potential and will/might just cause drama with the people around you and get you fired. A stranger who may be a win-at-all-costs sadistic, bruised ego type can have access to your references that may have loved you and your work ethic before, and "furnace your references".

Values, Failures, Mission Statement

Good evening! How are you? Are you doing alright after the pandemic and with all the chaos going on in the world? Are you doing alright with your work load or with the topics you are studying?

You know...this blog was generally centered around various aspects of my days throughout college, events I hosted with others, or what I found cool. However, it didn't allow much in the ways of getting to see your perspectives and such.

We deserve love - Anti Latinx/poc hate, fatphobia is not tolerated here

 For the most of us, we can all agree that we should all be able to be respected for who were are when it comes to our ethnicities, body types and for the languages that we speak beyond English and to have healthy high self esteem.

On Abuse, Jealousy and Isolation

 It’s interesting that someone can claim relationship titles or anything to justify saying awful things about you to the people who you may have stronger bonds with, even under the guise of “caring” (and never bring it up to the person they are referring to). 

And those bonds that were stronger don’t question it, don’t question the intent to why they were being talked to by someone that was not introduced properly, and don’t even get the person of the topic involved. That bond is weakened and ultimately destroyed, and the target of the conversation is isolated and has no support group after all the talking, an abusive, jealous person's favorite outcome more than just moving on and minding their business. 

Here are some clips from specialists about the dynamics of this  

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ECKkCUWDx7w&feature=sharec

https://youtube.com/shorts/LoVxuD9z-QA?feature=sharec

Anti Latinx or poc hate is not tolerated here

You know that at a certain distance, you might recognize someone or not by their gait or body type? Or if you didn’t know some groups of people could be taller or shorter and all that or that there could be similarities etc??I had an experience with that once, and it backfired on me and I didn’t have a chance to explain or even apologize or get some sort of  clarification. Especially to the people that mattered the most to me. 

Afromexican article that you must read!

 Check out this amazing article from Black Girl Nerds on AfroLatinx people and history!!

Changes

 Currently revamping things for this new year so old posts and such aren’t available at this time. 

YouTube videos have followed suit as well, but I appreciate the comments and views that I received over the years when embarking on a journey of self discovery. That included my own fashion adventures and mishaps, as well as meeting people and coordinating events and learning about what it takes to be a gyaru or be in a group, let alone becoming a leader and group manager/coordinator and understanding what that entails from the ground up. It’s a lot of work and not just super kawaii sparklyness when you want to surpass just hanging out, to something that can be self sustainable and long lasting for ourselves and the community at large.   

This has tested me in ways that I would have never known it would, as I saw the fun clothes and sparklyness and happy fun times and just had that at the forefront of my mind than just studying and making grades. 

I am grateful for the lessons learned throughout all this, even when I didn’t understand it all at the time. 

Thank you

I’ll be a Spanish Speaker

 This year, as I notice myself taking a break from learning Kanji and new Japanese words…I want to make my childhood dream come true (and maybe even try to find old telenovas from telemundo from the early 2000s til 2004) by self studying more basic Spanish phrases before I sign up for an online course. 🫡🥰

I can roll some r’s, and get around basic pronunciations thanks to Telemundo shows and some Spanish music and being around Spanish speakers in high school and beyond. Plus, there’s some similarities with French so it may even help a bit. It has been a regret that I DIDNT take Spanish class when it’s more widely used. Doh!!😣 I would have had more chances to use it often outside of class. That would have built up vocabulary and sounding less textbookish, and helped with natural speed and rhythm. 

After studying Japanese and finding out more dialects and perceptions of those languages as well as being cognizant of  English and slang and historical(racial) contexts in America…. It hinders me studying Spanish a little as there’s sdifferent forms of Spanish being spoken (Mexican, Spain’s Spanish, Ecuadorian or Guatemalan Spanish)I don’t want to just stick to the one that’s seen as “better” or more standard and unintentionally disregard other forms that’s spoken due to colonization etc etc. nor do I want to take a route that may be “easier” in terms of conjugation but it’s not usually spoken because it’s not standard (most likely due to colonization and number of people who speak it or that countries power and influence) but seeming as if I’m just lazy when the majority speaks a different and more “acceptable”(?) form of Spanish. This thinking keeps me back from diving in fully which is something I’m working on aside from just making grammatical mistakes while speaking. 

In the past, I self studied a handful of Cantonese (tones are soooo hard, and there’s like, 6?! 😵‍💫), then had French class for 2 years, then Japanese class for 1.5 in college (I could NOT do self studying with this on grade school. Well… I guess beyond words for Ms/Mr, basic numbers and yes/no. And I’m not counting memorizing songs at all despite it helping with immersion). 

I also see there’s an app for reading the language and you can poke at the words to get their meaning right in the sentence. I’d love that and will be getting that one of these days because I see it’s super handy.