Hobbit Days
One day we’ll be gianormous. Living life like elephants.
We see it everywhere. Bowed out shower curtain rods used to cheat the system... keeping our girth within bath tubs, even though we’re spilling out over the edges. Claimed space by simply pushing the curtain out.
It’s not just us. Everything is big. Trucks of today are called mid-sized, but that’s only done to make us feel okay about it all. Today’s mid-sized would have been yesterday’s tank.
And it takes time for things to catch up. Parking spaces, be it at malls, or businesses, or home, have not grown. Yet the cars within them are like those bodies in the shower. We need to yellow lines to bow out in shower curtain ways. But they don’t, and it’s a rare sight to see parked cars at malls that sit within the lines.
Within the cars, our cup holders also feel the strain. A large drink bought at the movie cinema will not sit within the cup holder of my car. The funny thing is that the large drinks bought some twenty years ago would also not fit within my cup holder. They’d be too small and would tip and spill all over. Yesterday’s large fast food cup is about the same as today’s small. And, in fact, there are places you’d go today where the small isn’t even an option. Regular goes to large and small has become extinct.
I live alone in a space that’s about equal square footage to a home for four during the 1950s. And yet I would hesitate to move into anything smaller.
Single beds are to be rolled out of. I sleep within Queen sized comfortably and would likely even wake on the edge of oblivion... inches from toppling to the floor... if I slept in a twin or double.
In the world of sports, also massiveness. Football players of today make William “the Refrigerator” Perry appear average. And we won’t have to wait much longer to see the first 300 pound hockey player carving the ice.
I remember being astonished back in the days of Willie Huber (defenceman from the 1980s). I wondered how someone so big was able to keep up at all. Huber was the biggest player of his day by far... and was 6'5", 225 lbs.
Today, there are several players bigger than Huber. Zdeno Chara is 6'9", 255 lbs, Derek Boogaard (6'7", 258 lbs), Hal Gill (6'7", 250 lbs), Andy Sutton (6'6", 245 lbs), and Alexei Semenov (6'6" 235 lbs) are just five of many.
There are attempts at control being made. Smart Cars exist. They’re little more than enclosed golf carts. And the Hummer is no longer in production for civil uses.
It makes me wonder what the future has in store. Not only will we be elephant sized... we may be living fossils. I actually read something recently that said it’s possible that people born today may live to be a thousand years old. In fact, just by googling “live to 1000" I see an article where they say it’s possible that people who are currently 60, may make 1000.
Will we be ten foot tall, six hundred pound, thousand year olders? Will today’s mansions be seen in museum settings with our great great great great great grandchildren holding our hands asking “how did you live in something so small?”
We’ll be there at future movies, a family reunion attended by several thousand people... with parking lots that are acres large as we sit in a room the size of a soccer field, eating bath tub sized containers of popcorn and personal supply hoses of soft drinks.
People of today will be short lived hobbits living in tiny villages. And the Hummer will come back...as a compact.
MONDAY...
— Day shift. First time in a while. I don’t do too bad with it. Slept ok the night before and leave at 1:30 for my physio. Lunch with Shannon and Annick is fun and, in the morning, I’m actually asked to go back to evening shift for the rest of the week due to a lack of space for the people. Good stuff for me.
TUESDAY...
— Evening shift again. AFIS work with Scott and his team. Pretty quiet night and I listen to some music for a while... not too bad.
— Check the MEC catalog for this Spring. They’ve got a folding bike! I always wanted a bike I could fold up and put in the closet and carry down over the stairs with ease. Much more of a city bike than what I have but it does look cool and seems like it would be easier. And folded in 15 seconds. Ohhhh, makes the $800 tempting. Although my knee says no bike for most or all of the summer anyway... and there’s nothing wrong with my current bike either. Ah to be rich.
WEDNESDAY...
— TV on the PVR is nice when I get home. Thai food with Scott is fun at work. Physio was normal in the afternoon and I slept in today... not getting out of bed until close to 11:00 for some reason. There you have it, my day in reverse.
THURSDAY...
— New license plate sticker before work. Pizza with the boys at work. Some TV after work. And Edena and family’s birthday gift in the mail when I get home. More Future Shop gift card... ready for the Play Station 3 to soon be purchased.
FRIDAY...
— My birthday. Fairly normal day though. Physio... work... Get a nice birthday card and cup cakes at work. A&W for supper... home a bit early.
— Lots of emails and facebook messages through the day.
SATURDAY...
— Logy all day today. Barely able to keep my eyes open. Tonight it’s a night with Phil, Sarah and Jamie. Phil’s hot tub followed by food and UFC PPV at my place. Good night.
— Read tonight that Eva Markvoort died this morning. In the Fall I watched a documentary about her fight against Cystic Fibrosis and, since then, I’ve occasionally checked her web journal. Quite a courageous story and she was very open in her writing.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Making It Up As I Go Along #408
Facebook Fame
It used to be that you’d get famous in a limited number of ways. Growing up, I saw fame as being obtained through either a mention in the newspaper (I still have papers kept from the sports sections where I had a homer in a game or three hits), or by time on the radio (where you’d scurry to get a tape set up in the deck to record the memory), or, the biggest of the big, by getting on TV.
The problem now is that it’s too easy to get put in the public eye. The internet brings blogs, websites, and Youtube. Pictures, videos, article comments... you can weigh in or show yourself with ease. The question is, does this make you famous? Or does it just pander to our desires? I guess a third option is that it’s a really good way to share with a select few and you hope the information is hidden in the internet world of facts, figures and photos. Sort of a version of a tree in the woods. Yes the tree that is your website, blog, or facebook page is out there to be discovered. But out of the millions of trees, how likely is it that yours is going to cause much fuss among anyone other than those that look for it.
Back in the day, parents would take pictures of their children in compromising positions. What child doesn’t have a picture of themselves, sprawled out in a bubble bath, with suds hanging from atop the head? Pictures of spaghetti encrusted faces and hands dripping with birthday cake have also been taken for generations.
The difference was, back in the day, only a select few ever saw these pictures. Girlfriends would get the show on their first visit to mom. Grandparents would pay a buck to grandchildren for the privilege of seeing them at such a cute stage of life. Aunts would fawn and uncles would yawn.
Perhaps a few neighbours would be included among the few. But that was it.
Today, Facebook and Youtube are likely the two most intruding tools of a child’s privacy. From infancy up to about the age of twelve, a child has very little say in regards to how their image is portrayed on the internet. I often see the words, pictures, and videos of proud parents and feel that they should pay the child royalties.
And all dignity is brushed away. Today I saw a Youtube video while on Facebook. A video of a baby from five years ago... sitting in his booster seat with his hard plastic trough bib on (those bibs that catch 85% of fallen Cheerios before they become dog snacks). The entire minute and a half is of an unseen dad making beep and boop noises, causing the infant to laugh like an 80 year old man who smoked too much of his life.
I don’t know the kid. I don’t know the father. Yet I got to see this moment because it’s been passed around the internet for years. It’s one of those videos that has gone “viral”.
But I’m left wondering... in another fifteen years... will that child carry a form of resentment towards his parents for giving him cute celebrity status as an infant?
New borns are the worst hit. Every moment of their lives are thrown onto the web for all to see. Sprawled out on their backs asleep... that’s an internet moment. Dressed up like a pumpkin at Thanksgiving... you know that’s an internet moment. Nakedness in a washtub... why of course baby’s first bath deserves to be put on the net.
A child’s only hope for privacy is to be lost in the shuffle. If every parent does this, there will be so many millions of baby bath time pictures that finding any particular one would be like looking for the needle in the haystack. But I pity the young of today. When it comes to those embarrassing shots only a select few saw, even as recently as ten years ago... today’s infants and children will have to live with the fact that millions of strangers from all over the world can see them.
MONDAY...
— Work again. A little uncomfortable with the knee injury. The brace is sore after four or five hours and then, when taken off for a bit, sitting at a station is not great either. Still, things are alright. With the brace on I do a 15 minute walk at break.
— Pre work physio is fine but looks like sports will be a ways off. Most of this summer will be full of walks and not much else.
TUESDAY...
— Greek night at work. Not as good as normal for me. Got to stay away from the Donair wrap next time. Feta and Olives still make it worth while.
— Watch Blazing Saddles in the morning. Never sat and watched it all before. It’s ok... sort of dated now. Two or three very funny scenes.
WEDNESDAY...
— Go to physio in shorts and t-shirt. It’s 16 degrees today. Nice stuff.
— Keeping up with the walks at break. I’m walking slower than normal but it isn’t hurting the knee any.
— Republic of Doyle is getting better and better.
— Groceries and gas after work... and putting out the trash and such... it ends up being an hour and a half from the time I leave work to the time I’m ready to relax. Blah to that.
THURSDAY...
— Long day at work. Just not in the mood to be there. In fact, nobody seems to be. Two left sick... and one took some vacation time. In the end, there were only two of us in my section.
FRIDAY...
— Slow night again. Just too much certification for one week. Good times at supper with some pizza and good laughs with Roz, Janice, Annick, Anne-Marie, and Wade.
— More knee physio earlier in the day. It’s going alright... slow going but always a bit better.
SATURDAY...
— Lazy day with some TV and naps. Mostly hockey on the tube. I’ve tried watching snow board cross since the Olympics. The problem is the regular tour’s coverage is awful. Not in HD... called by some guy in a studio... and tape delayed enough that there are no interviews and no between race talks... plus guitar riff background to the race is very unnecessary.
It used to be that you’d get famous in a limited number of ways. Growing up, I saw fame as being obtained through either a mention in the newspaper (I still have papers kept from the sports sections where I had a homer in a game or three hits), or by time on the radio (where you’d scurry to get a tape set up in the deck to record the memory), or, the biggest of the big, by getting on TV.
The problem now is that it’s too easy to get put in the public eye. The internet brings blogs, websites, and Youtube. Pictures, videos, article comments... you can weigh in or show yourself with ease. The question is, does this make you famous? Or does it just pander to our desires? I guess a third option is that it’s a really good way to share with a select few and you hope the information is hidden in the internet world of facts, figures and photos. Sort of a version of a tree in the woods. Yes the tree that is your website, blog, or facebook page is out there to be discovered. But out of the millions of trees, how likely is it that yours is going to cause much fuss among anyone other than those that look for it.
Back in the day, parents would take pictures of their children in compromising positions. What child doesn’t have a picture of themselves, sprawled out in a bubble bath, with suds hanging from atop the head? Pictures of spaghetti encrusted faces and hands dripping with birthday cake have also been taken for generations.
The difference was, back in the day, only a select few ever saw these pictures. Girlfriends would get the show on their first visit to mom. Grandparents would pay a buck to grandchildren for the privilege of seeing them at such a cute stage of life. Aunts would fawn and uncles would yawn.
Perhaps a few neighbours would be included among the few. But that was it.
Today, Facebook and Youtube are likely the two most intruding tools of a child’s privacy. From infancy up to about the age of twelve, a child has very little say in regards to how their image is portrayed on the internet. I often see the words, pictures, and videos of proud parents and feel that they should pay the child royalties.
And all dignity is brushed away. Today I saw a Youtube video while on Facebook. A video of a baby from five years ago... sitting in his booster seat with his hard plastic trough bib on (those bibs that catch 85% of fallen Cheerios before they become dog snacks). The entire minute and a half is of an unseen dad making beep and boop noises, causing the infant to laugh like an 80 year old man who smoked too much of his life.
I don’t know the kid. I don’t know the father. Yet I got to see this moment because it’s been passed around the internet for years. It’s one of those videos that has gone “viral”.
But I’m left wondering... in another fifteen years... will that child carry a form of resentment towards his parents for giving him cute celebrity status as an infant?
New borns are the worst hit. Every moment of their lives are thrown onto the web for all to see. Sprawled out on their backs asleep... that’s an internet moment. Dressed up like a pumpkin at Thanksgiving... you know that’s an internet moment. Nakedness in a washtub... why of course baby’s first bath deserves to be put on the net.
A child’s only hope for privacy is to be lost in the shuffle. If every parent does this, there will be so many millions of baby bath time pictures that finding any particular one would be like looking for the needle in the haystack. But I pity the young of today. When it comes to those embarrassing shots only a select few saw, even as recently as ten years ago... today’s infants and children will have to live with the fact that millions of strangers from all over the world can see them.
MONDAY...
— Work again. A little uncomfortable with the knee injury. The brace is sore after four or five hours and then, when taken off for a bit, sitting at a station is not great either. Still, things are alright. With the brace on I do a 15 minute walk at break.
— Pre work physio is fine but looks like sports will be a ways off. Most of this summer will be full of walks and not much else.
TUESDAY...
— Greek night at work. Not as good as normal for me. Got to stay away from the Donair wrap next time. Feta and Olives still make it worth while.
— Watch Blazing Saddles in the morning. Never sat and watched it all before. It’s ok... sort of dated now. Two or three very funny scenes.
WEDNESDAY...
— Go to physio in shorts and t-shirt. It’s 16 degrees today. Nice stuff.
— Keeping up with the walks at break. I’m walking slower than normal but it isn’t hurting the knee any.
— Republic of Doyle is getting better and better.
— Groceries and gas after work... and putting out the trash and such... it ends up being an hour and a half from the time I leave work to the time I’m ready to relax. Blah to that.
THURSDAY...
— Long day at work. Just not in the mood to be there. In fact, nobody seems to be. Two left sick... and one took some vacation time. In the end, there were only two of us in my section.
FRIDAY...
— Slow night again. Just too much certification for one week. Good times at supper with some pizza and good laughs with Roz, Janice, Annick, Anne-Marie, and Wade.
— More knee physio earlier in the day. It’s going alright... slow going but always a bit better.
SATURDAY...
— Lazy day with some TV and naps. Mostly hockey on the tube. I’ve tried watching snow board cross since the Olympics. The problem is the regular tour’s coverage is awful. Not in HD... called by some guy in a studio... and tape delayed enough that there are no interviews and no between race talks... plus guitar riff background to the race is very unnecessary.
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