Of My Moleskine Notebook

1.  Visit Cotton On.
Multiple times. In the same week. For four weeks in a row. Proceed to splurge on high turnover, ethically dodgy, mass produced low-quality shoes you do not need.
One pair of flats costs from RM19.90 to RM39.90. 2 x RM39.90 shoes for RM60.

2.  Do A Britney.
A-Saloon provides free computer and internet services as you get your hair done. Rates are as low as RM33 for Junior Stylist Cut and RM50 for highlights. Shiseido Fuente Professional hair products are used throughout the whole experience.
The salon is located at the Blue Atrium, First Floor. Ask for Jenny Yong. You can ask her for an ‘Ainaa’.

3.  Read Kerouac’s On The Road.
Appreciate an American classic road trip book as a means of escapism from your kiasu Asian life. Revel in the staccato prose of jazz, poetry and the phosphorescence of youth as Sal travels from the East Coast to the West and back again.
Restrain self from dropping out of A-Levels/University/Life to find that odd un-Asian notion of self-actualization.
Also, check out James Franco’s reading of a short excerpt of the book, here.
Big Bookstore Taipan has a selection of old stock Penguin Classics (Silver) Kerouac for RM16.90. The new 2008 print of silver Penguin Classics are stocked by reliable bookstores for RM 60.50.

4. Watch a selection of inspirational and soul crushing foreign films.
A good place to start would be Louis Malle’s Le Feu Follet (1963) where we follow our protagonist, Alain Leroy, a fellow suicidal depressive (yes, just like you) through his last day in Paris, visiting friends and old haunts, lighting cigarettes in well cut suits, looking to find a reason to keep living. Enjoy the cinematography, the philosophy, and the oh so terribly beautiful ennui of being suffocated by youth and privilege. Because just so you know, he doesn’t find that reason in the end.

Le conseguenze dell’amore (2004) will amaze you with its unique storytelling chronology. Set in Lugano, Switzerland; the story starts you off with a million and one questions and fills in the gaps slowly through the arduous Antonioni pauses. Need to be mentioned cinematography includes watching a slow motion 360 overhead camera spin, cool as fuck driving in a BMW 7-Series from hotel to Credit Nationale in less than 5 minutes, and watching an Italian man light cigarettes in really well cut suits.
It’s much deeper than that. But you’re depressed so we don’t need to get there do we?

Das Leben Der Anderen (2006)
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (2008)
Le scaphandre et le papillon (2007)
And finish your depressive cinematic romp with yet another beautiful screening of
Reprise (2006)

5. Create two playlists to get through periods of Self-Loathing and to kick start The New View.

Self Loathing Recommended Tracks:
The Veils – Lions After Slumber
Cat Power – Hate
Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day

The New View:
John Mayer – Vultures
Florence + The Machine – Blinding

“No more dreaming like a girl so in love so in love / no more dreaming like a girl / so in love with the / wrong world.”

6. Maintain Good Karma.

Reply back dated emails, return long due phone calls, and send simple text messages to people you should really be speaking to on a more regular basis. Renew ties you have long forgotten, and maintain the bonds that you should keep. Fulfill promises you made years ago, and eat humble pie in instances that you know you did wrong. Return others’ books and things, buy birthday cards and candy canes, and remember to call your grandmother.

Be thankful for what you have, count your blessings knowing that you’re only ever accounting for the tip of the iceberg. Enjoy the simpler things in life. Realize the amazing blessing of seeing the sunrise every morning.

And out of your darkness, when you do find moments when you can feel something that may be the faintest hint of happiness, embrace it.

So when others breach on areas that may overlap or hit you hard with issues surrounding your breakdown: answer graciously, and truthfully. Then move on.

7. Drown yourself in frozen yoghurt.

Recommended selection includes quarter large red tub of Original Tart flavour, quarter Death By Chocolate, and a variation of either Taro, Pomegranate and Strawberries. Load up on the oreo dust and kiwi fruit and finish off with a drizzle of muesli.
Tutti Frutti Frozen Yoghurt stores are available around the Klang Valley.

8. Pray.

That you’ll make it through this. And you will.