I wish...

I wish Prime Minister Harper was more like President Obama.

Exhibit A:

Blackberry Pictures

So. My boss has bestowed a (dreaded, vile) Blackberry upon me. It's taking some getting used to and I'm determined not to become one of "those people." Sometimes, I can't believe that I'm the one making the clicky typing noise I dislike so much.

However! I have discovered the fun that is taking pictures of my daily life throughout the city and sending them to people, particularly Kirsty in Ottawa.

Below are some highlights from the past week:


This is me talking to D about having a Blackberry on Day 1. Clearly, I'm already stressed out.


Just some beautiful flowers for sale at the market near my house.


Pumpkins piled high in the back of a vintage pickup truck parked in front of the same market.


Toronto at sunset on the Autumnal Equinox.


Where Queen St. passes over the Don River.


Looking North over the Don Valley Parkway. That's how you get to Peterborough.

Letters of Note

I came across this blog, Letters of Note, a few months ago. I instantly loved it and got lost in the many letters published on the blog. Just as I was about to post some of my favourite entries, I was distracted, only to revisit the blog this evening.

Not only are the letters incredible themselves, but I like seeing the handwriting and letterhead of people such as Steve McQueen, Hugh Hefner, Harper Lee, Wil Wheaton and Johnny Cash to name a few.

Reading & Writing

When I was four years old I was given a tape recorder for Christmas. ( I asked for it).

When I was eight or nine, I started writing stories with protagonists with names like Charlotte and Victoria.

When I fourteen I started keeping a journal, primarily consisting of my tortured feelings about boys who didn't know I existed.

When I was eighteen my friend Danyel convinced me to start a Live Journal, which is filled with self exploration and suburban angst (the worst kind).

In 2008 I completed a degree in English.

And now, as you know, I'm blogging publically for the first time.

Needless to say, reading and writing have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember.

I have all these bits and pieces collected from my short life and together, I suppose, they give some representation of who I am. I've been digging through some of my journals (there's 20 of them!) and reading through old blog posts on LJ. This is both funny and bad for me...not only because I'm drinking wine and listening to the Rolling Stones at the same time...but because the past is just that. Past. I used to love nostalgia and spending time with relics from days gone by, but that's not me anymore. I think too much of that really holds you back.

Now, that being said, if you're careful, you can really learn about yourself by doing this too. I know I'm being contradictory, but I stand by each of my statements. So there!

I'm thinking of posting old entries from LJ here from time to time and perhaps even scanning some of my real journal entries for all eyes to see. Writing publically has been something I've struggled with for a long time and frankly, I'm done with that. Why not let my growing pains out for all to see? Ha, ha!

All my life I've wanted to be an artist and wondered if I am and what that means and what Art-with-a-capital-A means and what it means to me and why, oh why, does nothing happen when I sit down in front of an instrument and how can I have all this passion but feel no instinct as to how to express it and what happens if I never do and will it make a differene to anyone and does that matter, it should only matter to me because you have to please yourself and being self-concious about even talking about this stuff with anyone and feeling like less than I am and feeling envious and joyous for other peoples art at the same time and thinking there must be a reason I'm surrounded by artists ALL THE TIME, right?

Well, maybe it's time I gave myself up to writing. I tend to lost in words, but it looks like they might be all I have. I didn't choose words, but they certainly seem to have chosen me.

Life Online

I just read this article from last Tuesday's Globe and Mail. It's not surprising to me that digital "detoxing" is becoming a trend now. Our lives are becoming so digitized ( digitalized?) that it only makes sense that some of us are going to stop and say, "Hey, is this really good for me? What am I really gaining from living so much of my life online?"

The article from the Globe specifically talks about deleting your Facebook account, but it generally discusses the effect spending so much fragmented time online, with "tools" such as Twitter and Facebook. One of the people quoted in the article emphasizes the fact that focusing on too many things at once seriously effects most people's ability to get anything done. And once that happens, people start to lose energy and enthusiasm for their work. This point resonated so deeply with me. I have never been very good at multi-taksing and at times, I've felt bad about that. Even in conversation, I can lose my train of thought and the points I want to make very quickly if the subject is changed or if I am inturrupted. This means that fast-paced commucnication like Twitter and Facebook don't go over well with me. It feels like a lot of meaningless noise. The buzz of everybody trying to keep up with each other what's hot right now. It actually makes me wonder if we're all going crazy if this is how we prefer to communicate. IM, SMS, Twitter, FB, MySpace, email...do these mediums make people feel more connected to anyone? Really?

I think businesses are benefitting from these tools the most because it's humanizing them. Customers can directly address someone who has power at the organization they are talking to, rather than calling a automated answering machine to leave a complaint that will get lost in the great voicemail void. But I think it's working the opposite way for individuals- we're getting more and more impersonal with each other all the time. Social media is supposed to be bringing us closer together, but I really don't see that happening. Sure, we all talk to a larger number of people now, but how meaningful are our interactions?

I know there's no particular answer to these questions out there, but I think it's important that we all keep asking ourselves what we truly get out of living so much life online. The glow of a computer screen just can't compete with the sunlight.

Texting

My one and only sister is in South Korea right now and for the first time yesterday, we texted. We've talked on the phone and over Skype; we've emailed...but something about getting texts from her was really exciting. Naturally, speaking with her is always the best, but getting these little texts just felt so instantaneous and personal. It was great.

With so many various ways of communicating nowadays, certain modes of communication are considered more acceptable for certain situations than they used to be. How many people out there have now been invited to a wedding via email? Email?! I think this has become okay because email is the crown jewel of electronic communication. If someone really cares, they'll send an email. If someone sends a text or a FB message...not so much.

Here's is how I rank electronic communication, by importance:

1. Phonecall
2. Text
3. Email
4. Facebook/MySpace message
5. Twitter

Am I forgetting something?

Now, of course there are exceptions. Text and email are easily blurred, depending on who you are talking to and how much you have to say. For instance, my mother doesn't text and I obviously don't feel like she cares less because she emails me instead. (Actually, she always calls; she's the best.)

So, to bring this post full circle, getting these texts from my sister, who is oh-so far away, felt surprisingly personal. Although she and I call and email, it's hard to catch each other because of the time difference, schedules and cost. But with texting, it can be a spur-of-the-moment, sweet message. Just a quick little hello, from across the ocean, no matter what's going on. All our disconnects disappear and it's straight from her to me.

I love you, M.

Vanished!

I read an article in Wired today about a writer who intentionally vanished for a month this year. It was a test, just to see if he could, in this digital age of ours.

I won't ruin the story for you, but it really got me thinking (again) about technology, communication, the future of our world and our relationship with it and each other. I've been a reluctant internet communicator over the years. First with email, then IM, then MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc. With each one of these steps, I've been hesitant about what I really gain from each one of them and constantly log in to to change the privacy settings. What is often comes to down to is this: it just doesn't feel good. Or real. The "it" being wrapped up in online communication and social networking.

At this point, I see the value in some of these tools, but they will never replace the real thing for me. I know most people would agree with me, but sometimes I really wonder when I see people constantly checking their Blackberrys, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

I'll definitely be writing more about this topic. I think about it a lot.

In the meantime, check out the story in Wired. It's amazing. In a part of the world where people are getting carpal tunnel syndrome from using their cell phones too often, it's inspiring to read about a man willfully disappearing to see if it's still possible at this time in North America.

Photo credit: Wired.com