That's such a snappy headline, that I'm surprised I haven't used it before. After all, there are recurring themes in Jakartass, a reflection of my lifestyle and obsessions, one of which has long been on folk who love conspicuous consumption.
For example, what can you say to someone like the acquaintance of mine who has just bought a BMW car so he can commute into the city's traffic jams?
Or to someone who uses two handphones at once?
Is that one for each ear?
No doubt these folk are regular readers of Jakartass. After all, I do regularly find links to sites that can improve their self-image, albeit by fucking up things for everyone else.
Here's a site that these delusional folk should bookmark.
Bottled Water of the World
The voice for bottled water connoisseurs and their accompanying lifestyle. With a keen attention to the epicurean life, FineWaters provides information on the products, places, events and passion that define the purity of fine living.
Water is Life - Enjoy It
One such product is Ice Rocks which are secured ice cubes made from spring water and ready to be frozen. Ready to be frozen ???? By whom? Decisions, decisions. What should the rich and infamous do? Presumably rich Indonesians and expats here can employ a pembantu whose sole responsibility is to freeze the 'secured cubes'. One can be employed for about the cost of two cases of 10 Thousand BC which is 'ultra-premium' water derived from an environmentally protected glacier.
I'm not sure what that blurb actually means. "Derived water" could mean that it's taken from one of those rapidly melting glaciers we keep hearing about or is, in fact, taken from down stream. And is any glacier actually "environmentally protected"? Aren't they melting because we humans have caused global warming?
Whatever, this supposedly 10,000 year old water (only?) costs $54 a case of 12 and furthermore it is bottled and corked to the sound of inspirational music -- much like playing Mozart to a baby in the womb -- and served to aficionados who shudder at the thought of table water containing more than four parts per million in total dissolved solids.
Wow! Music tastes better when bottled with inspirational music?
Such as? Handel's Water Music?
Or Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival?
(An appropriate song for the 1.1 billion people without access to potable water worldwide might be CCR's Have You Ever Seen The Rain?)
Or ....? (Suggestions welcome)
I'll let Stephen Lower, a retired professor of chemistry from Vancouver, debunk the mineral industry claims. "All water is about 4.5 billion years old, having been liberated from the rocky material that accreted to form the Earth," says Lower. "That some of it may have been tied up in glaciers for the comparatively tiny span of 10,000 years strikes me as inconsequential."
See? Their claims just don't hold water.
Footnote
Thong sandals may have been deigned (sic) as beachwear, but that is hardly the only place they are seen these days. Casual and comfortable, they are great to have around in spring and summer as a quicker, cooler alternative to trainers. The only real drawback to thongs is that it can be tough to find a stylish and high quality pair, especially for men. The Louis Vuitton AIX Thong is one possible solution. It is made of ultra-soft black calf leather and has a padded insole for comfort. The sole and the outer strap both bear the Louis Vuitton signature logo. Price: $420.
So, do Asian wearers of these scraps of shoes overcome their ingrained generational habits and direct the soles of their feet at all and sundry?
