Making It Up As I Go Along #618

Social Media

Social media.  It enables us to basically treat all things in life the same.  No matter the issue, we can all just pull out our phone, open the Facebook app, and share.

Maybe this is a good thing.  But it often doesn’t feel like it to me.  Too often it either elevates the mundane to the standards of the extraordinary.  Or brings down the important things in life to equal footing with the forgettable.  It promotes the mentality of sheep.  And makes it hard to decipher between sincere thoughts and ideas from just going along with the crowd.  

And again, maybe this doesn’t really matter.  Perhaps it’s a good thing to be able to share with friends and family so easily.  It’s just… there’s always something to jump on board of.  And again, this just seems to cheapen the important things.

As for examples.  The big one over the last year or so must be the ALS ice bucket challenge.  Yes it was for a noble cause.  Record amounts of money was raised to fund research into the disease.  But it became too much.  I couldn’t log on to Facebook or Twitter without seeing someone else dumping a bucket of water over their heads.  Sometimes the dumpers failed to even mention why they were doing the dumping.  And you could only assume that they actually gave money to the cause.

But after a while I became uncomfortable with the amount of first world waste that event brought.  I kept imagining third world people learning about the cause.  And the shock on their faces when they were told bags of ice were purchased in stores… brought home… poured into a bucket of water… and immediately dumped over the purchaser’s head, left to melt on the ground.

The cheering of sports teams is another example.  I watch sports.  I cheer for particular teams.  And if something substantial happens in the game I may also post about it on social media.  But really… “Go (insert team name here) Go!”  I really don’t need to see a dozen Facebook friends posting that on my news feed.  

A quiz can be fun sometimes.  And usually they sprint through the social media feeds pretty quickly.  Plus it can be a quick amusement to find out what Game of Thrones character you would be… or who your best friend on Facebook actually is.  

No, for me, it’s when the important aspects of life get the Facebook treatment that causes me cringes and sighs.  Because suddenly a life threatening disease takes on the life of hockey team support.  A claim of supporting the troops is equal to finding out the answer to the above mentioned Game of Thrones character quiz.  

An all encompassing platform simply becomes too much.  On one log in to your news feed you can see how one friend is wishing prayers to the family of a slain police officer while the next friend is sharing a video about cats.  The next friend is telling all about the death of a parent while the one after that is talking about how exciting it was to be a part of their “bestie’s” wedding.  I love this hockey team… I hate immigrants… share this if you support the troops… like this if you remember the Flinstones.  

So many conflicting thoughts and ideas.  You can be sad, happy, excited, or angry all with the swipe of your finger as you browse your news feed.

That’s why, when this week I started seeing people turning their profile pictures into rainbow hued images of gay marriage support, I couldn’t help but think “here we go again.”  The avalanche of rainbow coloured friends had begun.  And my first thought was towards the Simpsons.  When, at a baseball game on pretzel day, irate fans began pelting the field with their salted, breaded treats.  First one… followed by thousands.

Personally, I don’t care if two gay people get married.  I also don’t care if two heterosexual people get married.  And, in Canada, same sex marriage has been a thing for ten years now.  Sure I can understand the significance of the United States finally coming on board with the idea.  But I can’t say I was jumping over the moon about it.  I mean it’s been ten years already.  I know same sex couples.  I don’t see them any differently than any other couple.  So I’m hardly going to take part in the rainbow extravaganza on Facebook now simply because a foreign country has finally caught up with the times.  

And after the wave of rainbows, I begin to see my newsfeed become infused with angry same sex marriage supporters.  Angry because there are people out there who aren’t excited about this event.  The celebration of love suddenly became hostile.  The lovers trying to shame the rest for their lack of enthusiasm.  

So it’s safe to say that social media leaves me conflicted.  I enjoy its ability to give me a snapshot of what a friend of family member is doing or thinking.  Last week I was able to watch the reaction of my cousin as he sat second row at the 18th green of the US Open… and I laughed as he “Oooo’d” in shock at Dustin Johnson’s missed putt.  

I enjoy seeing images of home.  I like watching a video of the birds eating seed in a miniature pub.  And I find it interesting to see friends at concerts or to hear their thoughts on events in the news.

But at the same time, I hate how social media can trivialize everything.  How it’s made as easy to show support for something important as it is to show a picture of what you’re having for dinner.  And I don’t like the sameness social media can create.  This I dislike the most.  To see dozens of people all falling into line.  A world of sheep is a pretty boring place.

What I did enjoy, in regards to the same sex marriage news, was the few stories shared by some.  Those stories that make it more human than a rainbow filter on a picture.  Where senior parents of gay adult children leap with joy at the thought that their child can now have the same rights in love that anybody else has.  Share that kind of story all day long.  I won’t get tired of that.  

I think if social media was a place where nobody could “share” links to other people’s stories it would be so much better.  If all you could do was write your own thoughts or show pictures and videos of your own experiences (and no, a selfie in front of a landmark is not an experience of that landmark), wouldn’t a tool like Facebook be so much better?  I’d sacrifice knowing what Game of Thrones character I’m most like if it meant I could see the true thoughts and experiences of the people in this world I most care about.  That’s the social media I want.

MONDAY…

--- Skip ball this week to rest the hamstring.  It’s improving but not where it needs to be.

TUESDAY…

--- Not much out of the ordinary.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Skip the Wednesday ball as well this week.  Hamstring getting better each day but still not enough.

THURSDAY…

--- Want to do a walk after work today but just too tired to do it.  Haven’t slept in for months now… though do sleep at least six hours each night (on CPSIC shift I’d be more like a four hour sleep during work and seven hours on days off).  

FRIDAY…

--- Got to cave in and put on the headphones at work today.  In CPSIC, I grew accustomed to not listening to music and podcasts while I work.  Too many other things going on and I never wanted to risk missing a phone call due to headphones.  But now, in Latents, I’ve got to do it again.  Too many people talking and too open an office concept.  You can easily hear a half dozen conversations at a time from either my department or the one next to ours.  I have no idea why anyone in management thought it was a good idea to pair up work that demands concentration with an open office concept.  Somebody was really not thinking this through.

--- Get out walking around after work.  Funny how I’m usually more energetic on the Fridays each week rather than the Thursdays.  Order Chinese food for supper.  They’re getting pretty bad at delivering the food.  The last time they were a good twenty minutes late bringing it.  This time they tell me it’ll be 45 minutes.  It ends up taking an hour and a half.  Good thing I didn’t have any plans.

SATURDAY…

--- Afternoon baseball on TV.  Left over Chinese for supper.  A walk as well.  A relaxing day.

Making It Up As I Go Along #617

Bird Chatter

What say the birds

Atop sun drenched branches

Looking down upon green meadows

Under a blanket of blue sky

Is it songs of joy?

Pleased for the summer sun

Calling to neighbours in song

“What a glorious day it is!”

Are they  songs of alarm?

Warning those on nearby trees

While rushing back to nestlings

“Intruder! Intruder there! Look out everyone!”

Maybe territorial disputes?

Happy sounding tweeting

Actually heated arguing

“This tree is mine! Get out of here crow!”

Most likely it is all of these things

The sounds of an avian city

The chatter of life

Gossip, love, fear and happiness

My favourite songs are the distant ones

Drifting from deeper within the woods

Where the birds sing unaware

Knowing only of their neighbourhood goings on

As I eavesdrop and wonder about the tree top conversations.

MONDAY…

--- Pull a hamstring at softball.  Not too bad but enough to get me off the field and call for a pinch runner after jogging to first when I hit.

TUESDAY…

--- Hamstring improving already.  Some ice after work and taking it pretty easy.  

WEDNESDAY…

--- Skip the Wednesday softball to work on the hamstring.  Do a half hour walk with no problem but it’s still tender and a bit tight.

THURSDAY…

--- Forty minute walk today.  The hamstring continues to improve.

FRIDAY…

--- Tired after work today.  Swing by the grocery store after work and am surprised to run in to Sarah there.  In a bigger city, running in to anybody that you know is unusual.  Doing it with someone you consider a friend is a little treat in the day.

--- No walk today.  Nap a bit and mow the lawns after I get home from the grocery store and work.

SATURDAY…

--- Wake and glance at the clock thinking it says 8:55.  And I have a relaxed sigh thinking it’s nice to have my first sleep in since leaving CPSIC and shift work.  On second look, I see that it’s actually 6:55… but there’s no rolling over at this point.

--- Go for an hour and fifteen minute walk.  It’s perfect out.  Blue sky, light breeze, 22 degrees.  Take a few pictures and several videos in the creeks where tadpoles and fish are active.  There’s something great about being outside in a place where people and machinery are not the dominant noise makers.  Instead I hear the birds through the trees and long grasses, the scuffling of my boots over the hard baked dirt, and the gentle breath of summer air into my ears.

--- Afternoon baseball on TV.  Saturday afternoon Blue Jay games are almost too painful to watch from the point of view of the distraction around the game.  The game is almost secondary on Saturday telecasts.  Instead we get constant reminders of Junior Jays Saturdays… with kids on TV as much as the game on the field.  We hear kids posing as public address announcers and have in stand TV guys interviewing prostrate cancer survivors while the play goes on.  When I was a kid, it was enough to simply take us to the games.  We didn’t need to be thrown on TV or given a microphone.  And yes, prostrate cancer is a cause worth taking on… but I don’t know why a sporting event is so often chosen as a platform for such causes.

--- Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of Jaws.  It’s actually being played at the Mayfair this afternoon.  Maybe I should have gone rather than have a relaxing day around home.  The Jaws sequels were unnecessary and silly.  But the original is a terrific movie.  Sure the mechanical shark doesn’t look real and the story is unrealistic.  But the cinematography and acting is amazing.  And little gems… like a shooting star that was caught while filming.  I’d think the original Jaws is one of my five favourite movies.     

 

Making It Up As I Go Along #616

The Things I Miss

Vacations are just not plentiful enough.  Too many choices have to be made for people in situations like mine.  I  live in one city alone… have parents and family in my home city, thousands of kilometres away… and a sister and her family in another city, even more thousands of kilometres away… in the opposite direction.  Choices have to be made.  Two visits can not be combined into one.  And there are limits.

This year, thanks to carrying over some extra time off from my CPSIC days, I’ll have 6.5 weeks of vacation time.  And that sounds good.  Seems like plenty.  But when I plan things out, it whittles away quickly.

I’ve booked two weeks off for September.  A flight home is already purchased and reservations on Fogo Island made.  And, with that, I’m down to 4.5 weeks of vacation to go.

Set aside another couple of days I plan to take off for a five day weekend around Canada Day, and I’m pretty much at 4 weeks remaining.  

Christmas will take a bite.  At least one and maybe two weeks will go towards that.  Leaving me with two or three weeks for the rest of the year.  The parents are likely coming in October and some time will go towards that and a week will likely be used up in the height of winter drudgery, either for snowshoeing or a get away to the sunny south.  

All of this sounds fine and good except for the fact that I haven’t visited my sister yet.  And when is the time to do it?  September, October, December are all accounted for from a time off point of view.  Do I dare try to squeeze in a week or two during August?  Or am I resigned to wait the better part of another year… and next spring’s thaw?  

There simply doesn’t seem to be enough vacation days in my bank, nor months in the year for me to arrange that extra trip.

And all of this leaves out the consideration of travel.  Heavy duty environmentalists would hate me.  My average year probably has three, sometimes four trips in it.  All these trips taking place via plane.  I sometimes imagine the burnt jet fuel that has been sacrificed for me.  

It all brings me to the things I miss most.  They are little things.  Not brought about by the fireworks of Disney.  Not breaking into scheduled TV programming to be shared as soon as possible to the throngs.  

I miss the simple visits of family.  To pop by the parents house on a Sunday afternoon, check in to see that all remains well… stay for a ball game on TV… decide to stick around for a home cooked meal.  All family time that costs virtually nothing.  No booking of a flight.  No sacrificing of valuable vacation time.  Just a few hours of family, slipped in to the routine of life.

I’ve barely had such times with my sister.  The great majority of my adult life has been spent with us on opposite ends of the continent.  A Sunday pop by has never happened between us.  All visits have had to become routine stopping events.  Flights must be planned.  Time off booked.  Guest rooms made up.  

Our visits are always good, happy occasions.  But I’d love them to be able to become routine.  To be bored at home on a Sunday and decide to pop by.  Or to casually suggest a lunch on a Tuesday… just because.  

It isn’t just the routine of family that I miss.  But the routine of place as well.  I love where I grew up.  The hills that surround St. John’s.  The smell of the sea air.  The maze of hilly streets downtown.  

I also miss more.  The barren lands just outside the city.  Where car and house sized boulders are left strewn about as reminders of its glacial past.  The constant foam of sea that breaks just outside the harbour mouth of Joe Batts Arm.  Even the reddish tinge of the dirt in and around Botwood.  I’d remember seeing that dirt from my backseat window on drives to my grandparents and it would tell me that summer was here… that evenings would end with bowls of fresh picked blueberries, drowned in milk and topped with sugar.  And mornings would begin with my grandmother gently suggesting I start my day with some home made porridge.

I miss the casualness of an exploration of Fred’s Records.  Where it would be ok to pick up some music.  But also a fine time even if I don’t.  To just flip through CDs and LPs and listen to the music playing in the store speakers.

I miss movie nights with long time buddies.  And Friday evening phone calls with friends where we would just say “why not come on over.”  

My trips home are much less routine and much more planned events now that I no longer live there.  Reservations are made with friends for lunches or evenings together.  I’m no longer a part of their regular life routine and so my times in town must be announced and fitted into schedules.  

A checklist of things to do is often discussed and planned with mom and dad.  A trip to Bidgoods for a nice lunch.  A drive out to Cape Spear.  A visit across town to uncle Wince’s.  Or a pop in to the closer uncle Wayne.  

Most trips home include a few days on Fogo.  Where I can check to make sure the sea still foams outside the harbour and relax, for a few days, with memories of warm bread and jam tart, while my grandmother puttered about the kitchen.  

That kitchen remains, but in a strangers house now.  These days, we have to book reservations to stay on Fogo.  Calling well enough in advance to be able to get our rooms.  It remains good and something I treasure.  But I miss the ease and casualness of those family visits there, decades ago.

And Botwood often is cut out of my plans entirely.  For a two week trip home only comes with so many days.  I dislike the need of prioritizing actions while home.  To have to try and balance the amount of time I spend in St. John’s versus going out into rural Newfoundland.  To try to fit in family visits with those of friends.  

In fact, I almost have to go about scheduling quiet times around the house on visits home.  Those times where I go nowhere.  Where I sit in the living room and look out at the old neighbourhood… with memories of long gone dogs, propped up on the back of the sofa, next to me, watching the world go by as I scratch their backs.  Where I wander the back yard with thoughts of soccer matches with teams of neighbourhood kids and games of catch when only a few of us were about.

It’s those quiet times around the house I miss.  Because it is then that a trip home seems almost routine.  And it is then that those trips feel most like home.        

MONDAY…

--- Softball looked like a rain out for much of the day.  But things cleared a few hours before game time and we got it in.  8-7 win with me on the mound.  A tight game is always more fun than a blow out.

TUESDAY…

--- Not much going on other than work.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Where Monday looked bad all day but turned for the game to get in, today looked good much of the day but then turned to rain us out.  

THURSDAY…

--- Not much once again.

FRIDAY…

--- Take it easy around the house after work.  Do a 40 minute walk right after work but then it’s just some TV and napping.  

SATURDAY…

--- Get the driveway sealed.  And pop over to Harley and family’s place for supper in the evening.  Stay around in their backyard talking until after ten.  A nice evening.

Making It Up As I Go Along #615

Grackle Invasion

It was a Robin neighbourhood

With muted chirps and songs

Gentle hops through grasses

As couples raised families among us.

Smaller visitors would scoot through

Warblers and wrens 

Popping by for a quick visit

Before continuing on in chirpy peace.

But the Grackles have moved in

Robin family evicted

Replaced by the trash

Chacking loudly from rooftop perches

Where Robin mates longingly beckon

Grackles are teenage thugs

Street cornered on fence posts

Pausing from Grackle smokes

Long enough to catcall passers by

MONDAY…

--- Blown out in ball.  First lose of the season between two different teams… so not the end of the world.  But not a game that’s very enjoyable.  And it always drives me nuts to give up a tonne of runs and then have a player on the team talk about how we played pretty good defensively.  Just too stupid.

TUESDAY…

--- Regular work day.  Not much else going on.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Wings with Christine before our ball game.  We even go to the field early and hit the ball around a bit.  A good game.  We probably won as big today as we lost on Monday.

THURSDAY…

--- Much like Tuesday.  

FRIDAY…

--- Exhausted after work.  This latent work runs me down through a week.  It’s pretty intense.  Just relax in the evening.

SATURDAY…

--- I can’t sleep in anymore.  A problem with the switch to straight days instead of mixing in the overnight shift.  I’m up by 7:00 this morning.  Awake even earlier than that.

--- No walk today but I do mow and weed the lawns.  The mowing isn’t much of an effort on so little grass but when the weeding is added to the mix, it tires me out some… and I spend much of the rest of the afternoon snoozing on the sofa.

--- Out to the movies with a few friends tonight.  The new Mad Max movie is a load of action and quite entertaining.