Making It Up As I Go Along #697

Skipped a week on the writing.  Last week came down to taking the time to blog or going snowshoeing.  No need to say which won.

The Olympics are here and I generally don’t care.  I have watched a little already and was happy enough to see two Canadians on the podium of one of the snowboarding events.  But the time difference means either lots of early morning watching or tape delayed stuff and that doesn’t work well on either front.  Also, I’m simply not buying the way they’re selling the hockey.  It’s almost coming across like we, the viewer, are so lucky to no longer have the worlds best players competing.  Now we get to hear “stories”.  This is how they’re selling it on TV.  Hear the story of this 32 year old who has been playing hockey in the German league the last five years.  The fact is, when you go about twenty years of best on best competition, going back away from that is a let down.  And the tournament is delegitimized. No matter who wins, people will be able to argue that “if only (insert names) were there”.

There’s a very busy beaver across the street from me.  Virtually every day, I see him on the edge of the ice or venturing up to the woods for sticks.  Why he is so active during the day, I do not know.  Yesterday I got several close pictures of him walking along the trail I was using.

I’m really getting tired of seeing actual news getting discussed on social media.  It’s just too simple a platform that allows emotions to run wild over facts.  When it comes to newsworthy events, social media is a den of anger.  It’s just too easy a platform for sharing.  For objectivity, you’d really need to read at least three or four differing articles from reputable agencies.  So then, if you wanted to share on Facebook, you’d have to link to each of these articles… and hope others are also willing to read each source.

Instead, we’re in a world where some person posts an opinion that tugs at the emotions of another… and they share it… and others share it… and so on and so on.

You’d think seeing Donald Trump win an election based on this method of getting news would sway people away from the practice.  But it’s the society we live in.  When it comes to social media, people aren’t interested in objective facts and understanding.  We’re interested in outrage.  We crave it.  We want to be able to pick up a phone or tablet, read something short that gets our blood boiling, and click “share”… to show our friends and followers that we’re with them.  A part of the outrage club.  In depth understanding be damned.

The internet really is an amazing tool though.  This week I watched a sci-fi, horror movie where, in one scene, a person was shot out of the airlock of a space ship and we last see them floating off into the vastness of space.

And I’m wondering “wouldn’t a person without the proper suit blow up in space?”  A quick google search brings back several articles explaining the effects of space on an unprotected human body.  Within ten minutes of seeing that scene I questioned, I had the answer.  And the movie got it pretty much right.  As a teenager, I’d have had to make my way to a library and likely ask the librarian for help in finding periodicals that cover such questions.  Now, I get the answer in ten minutes and never get up from the couch to do it.  

I am a pack rat.  I now live, alone, in a three bedroom townhouse.  And there is no empty space for stuff.  My storage room is full.  Each room has plenty of things in it and any thought of buying any new piece of furniture would more or less mean an already present piece would have to go.  Oh well, who said coziness has to be sparse?