Today I felt as I always do around 11 in the morning, bored. Finding myself at work with no appointments until after lunch and with my most productive period of work having passed between 9:30 and 10:15, I turn to the internet to pass the time. You remember those games you used to carry around in your pocket? The ones where you have to get all the loose metallic balls into the corresponding slots around the board. That is sometimes how I think of the internet works. It's a massive time waster, very addictive, and ultimately getting the balls in the holes doesn't really give you any sort of lasting satisfaction. Anyhow, regardless of how much I've become an internet junkie, I wanted to write a little about the life of a blogger.
As a blogger myself I understand how calming it is to simply write about your day without having to think about other people listening. It acts almost like a therapeutic session on a psychologists' couch, plus is doesn't cost anything. This has really taken off, especially with young women who, lonely in their room, and who, I figure have trouble connecting to people outside of their bedroom, can talk without fear of being rejected. I know that sounds a bit harsh, but more and more it seems that communicating over the net is just easier and faster than actual face to face communication. Not only that, but blogging allows you to be your own celebrity, if someone happens to come upon your blog, your life suddenly becomes public. I find there might be a limitation to blogging like this, the most glaring problem is that you have to write it, and consequently someone has to read it. The great thing about these video upload sites is that it skips that tedious step entirely. Anyone with a webcam can just rant into their camera and then upload and hope that somebody will care. Surprisingly this has made a star out of a few people like lonelygirl, who I think has got her own tv show out of it.
Today, I spent the day watching some peoples video blogs and was surprised at how boring some of them are. On the other hand, I was really drawn to few characters like purplepunkage on youtube who's video blog I strangely found myself subscribing too. Some of the enjoyment you get out of watching these peoples blogs is not knowing them beforehand and suddenly being thrown into their world of fears, love, hatred, etc. It is really interesting to watch and learn about someone else's life so voyeuristically. However, its gets kind of strange when the people uploading their personal video blogs are people you actually know. My friend Sam just started uploading her own personal videos which you can find at:
http://bebo.com/watch/4316290587
Now I started to watch her, and I got really uncomfortable. Here is a relatively good friend of mine who I've known since Uni, and who is suddenly disclosing loads of information about her personal life I never knew, and frankly, it makes me severely uneasy. I mean what do I say to her? Oh I've seen your blog, I regularly subscribe, I'm a freak who is obsessed with you... you see! It's almost like you can't bring it up without sounding like a Shady Stu. So I'll just keep it to myself every time I see her, which thankfully is only once or twice a week and hope I can keep my mouth shut and not mention the fact that I know about her sex life and issues with her parents.
It's truly amazing the amount of social dilemmas a little time wasting on the internet can actually lead to. In any case, thanks for reading and hope my blogs don't cause you any strain.
...and remember.... stay true to your car (and your blog)!
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Why are pirates so hot?
And I don't mean physically, I mean culturally all I hear about these days is Pirates this and Pirates that. I was in the bookstore the other day and they literally had a shelf of books just dedicated to pirates. To be fair, half of the merchandise was Pirate of the Caribbean related, but the other half was just a mix of various pirate novels and children's treasure hunts, with pop up pirates, strange blue parrots, and no real treasure other than some gold looking paper cut outs.
As a child I remember loving everything about pirates. I loved that they weren't conformists, I loved that they sailed the open waters with no cares other than stealing other peoples money, I loved that they made their own rules and hid things like treasure in places that were hard to come by. Sure, maybe I watched the Goonies too many times, but I always thought it was an interesting subject to learn about. When I watched the first of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy I felt like a child all over again. There were the swashbuckling pirates, the massive ships, the buried treasure, and the humour didn't hurt as well. I walked out of the cinema with a big smile and throughly enjoyed those two hours. And, as a massive film fan, you might much guess I simply enjoy the act of going to the movies, but no, I don't always enjoy heading to the cinema. (i.e. when my little brother forced me to go see American Pie 2, where since seeing it, I pray every day to get those two hours of my life back.) No, cinema going is not always a guaranteed satisfying escape from reality. But, not knowing too much about the film to begin with, I stumbled upon Pirates by accident, as the film I was going to see was sold out, and thankfully my childhood days of digging for treasure in the garden and making my dog walk the plank into a local pond was all brought back in an instant.
The problem however, is I think that they started to take the Pirates thing too far. For instance, the excessive shelfing of as much pirate related products as possible into one section of a bookstore in the days leading up to the release 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean, is a bit much. Now I did happen to catch the second film, liked it, but wasn't as excited as my first Pirates experience, and perhaps went into it with too much expectation. So for this 3rd installment, I'm going into it with no expectations other than the hope to see ships, swords, and sea. Who knows if it will make me feel like a kid again? I guess only time will tell!
Thanks for the read, until next time... stay true to your car! (or ship in this case)
As a child I remember loving everything about pirates. I loved that they weren't conformists, I loved that they sailed the open waters with no cares other than stealing other peoples money, I loved that they made their own rules and hid things like treasure in places that were hard to come by. Sure, maybe I watched the Goonies too many times, but I always thought it was an interesting subject to learn about. When I watched the first of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy I felt like a child all over again. There were the swashbuckling pirates, the massive ships, the buried treasure, and the humour didn't hurt as well. I walked out of the cinema with a big smile and throughly enjoyed those two hours. And, as a massive film fan, you might much guess I simply enjoy the act of going to the movies, but no, I don't always enjoy heading to the cinema. (i.e. when my little brother forced me to go see American Pie 2, where since seeing it, I pray every day to get those two hours of my life back.) No, cinema going is not always a guaranteed satisfying escape from reality. But, not knowing too much about the film to begin with, I stumbled upon Pirates by accident, as the film I was going to see was sold out, and thankfully my childhood days of digging for treasure in the garden and making my dog walk the plank into a local pond was all brought back in an instant.
The problem however, is I think that they started to take the Pirates thing too far. For instance, the excessive shelfing of as much pirate related products as possible into one section of a bookstore in the days leading up to the release 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean, is a bit much. Now I did happen to catch the second film, liked it, but wasn't as excited as my first Pirates experience, and perhaps went into it with too much expectation. So for this 3rd installment, I'm going into it with no expectations other than the hope to see ships, swords, and sea. Who knows if it will make me feel like a kid again? I guess only time will tell!
Thanks for the read, until next time... stay true to your car! (or ship in this case)
Monday, 4 June 2007
My deal with hybrid cars.
I just read an article that hybrid sales have been doubling over the last year and frankly I'm a bit shocked. We all knew petrol prices would be an ongoing problem into the future and it only seems reasonable that the demand for energy efficient vehicles would eventually rise, but I was a firm believer in the hybrid car 'catch 22'; whereas people wouldn't buy the cars unless they were cheaper and more popular, and manufacturers wouldn't be able to lower prices until the demand for them necessitated mass production. Will these new sales statistics change all that? Maybe.
I think the reason sales have surprisingly increased has been a combined effort of increased media coverage and political support for global warming issues, along with the environmental movement becoming more accepted by the general population. The media coverage, political agendas, and general knowledge of the public all go hand in hand. I think a lot of vehicle manufacturers were probably scared to approach 'outside of the box' thinking in terms of changing consumer attitudes until the general population began to change, then they could easily follow suit and ensure themselves profits.
It's tough in a lot of ways because many of my friends love cars and hate these new hybrids, saying they are a joke, and there isn't anything like a proper petrol filled engine. Granted, they might not fully understand how hybrids work, but I think there hesitancy to accept new technology is a sort of an out of date mentality that hopefully is becoming less and less frequent. I, for one, love new technology, and can't wait to buy a hybrid when I have the cash. Who knows in what cool ways I will be able to customize it, hah! Maybe I can make a hotrod out of a hybrid! I'm sure that once I've figured out the engine there will be no stopping me as to what kind of boosters I can add to her,... all environmentally friendly of course!
Thanks for read, until next time... stay true to your car!
I think the reason sales have surprisingly increased has been a combined effort of increased media coverage and political support for global warming issues, along with the environmental movement becoming more accepted by the general population. The media coverage, political agendas, and general knowledge of the public all go hand in hand. I think a lot of vehicle manufacturers were probably scared to approach 'outside of the box' thinking in terms of changing consumer attitudes until the general population began to change, then they could easily follow suit and ensure themselves profits.
It's tough in a lot of ways because many of my friends love cars and hate these new hybrids, saying they are a joke, and there isn't anything like a proper petrol filled engine. Granted, they might not fully understand how hybrids work, but I think there hesitancy to accept new technology is a sort of an out of date mentality that hopefully is becoming less and less frequent. I, for one, love new technology, and can't wait to buy a hybrid when I have the cash. Who knows in what cool ways I will be able to customize it, hah! Maybe I can make a hotrod out of a hybrid! I'm sure that once I've figured out the engine there will be no stopping me as to what kind of boosters I can add to her,... all environmentally friendly of course!
Thanks for read, until next time... stay true to your car!
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