One year

It's been one year already since we lost Ryan. It's strange how large an impact some people have on our lives. I think about him just about every day: when music that he gave me comes on the stereo, when I check this blog, when I think about technical work stuff and how he seemed to have such a clear vision, when I'm hanging out in a pub sipping a beer he introduced me to.

I miss you buddy.

mec

It's funny how once you get used to something, when it changes it just feels weird, even if it's correct. For as long as I can remember, I've called mec, well, "mec". My father-in-law says the letters so that sounds like emm-ee-see. I thought to myself "silly father-in-law, no one says that". You know, other than the people that work there... as I've come to learn. I've left my ears open and I'm noticing more and more people say it like that. Was there a flyer that I missed with the correct pronunciation? Maybe something with clear pictures like they have in airplanes on how to leave in case of emergency.

It could be that everyone is trying to play a very elaborate, sophisticated joke on me. Well, news to everyone else, I'm turning the tables. I'm going to start spelling out the letters of common words. So, when you go home on the bus, I'm going to take the bee-you-ess. I know that people will realize that I now know their joke and it's pointless to continue, but they are obligated to anyways.

I'll just wink to show that I understand. Sorry, I mean I'll just double-you-eye-en-kay. ;-)

Dead trees are dead to me

On our last trip the limitations of a dead tree book really got to me. My book was larger and heavier than an e-reader, but I was annoyed because I had almost finished it before our flight had landed at the start of the trip. So now I was in a land where English language books are harder to come by, and I needed reading material. Same situation happened the trip before and it caused me to buy an over priced used copy of Jaws which was shockingly racist and not a good read at all. I ended up having to haul around the books that I had brought with me and couldn't bear to throw out. The only benefit that I can think of with a dead tree version is that it can physically bend more.

On the last trip, since we were on tours most of the time, we decided to leave our Lonely Planet at home since it is over 1000 pages (more stats if you click through on the link). We still wanted some info from the book, so I made a photocopy we took with us, but apparently I didn't copy enough pages. I would have bought the digital copy, but it felt like a scam since the chapters are so expensive - for a book that we had already purchased. I don't think that I'll ever purchase another physical copy of lonely planet (we've got 7 sitting on a shelf I can see from here). Next time I'll just buy a softcopy, dump it to Laura's phone (since we take that anyways) and print out any "critical" sections that we feel we need to have a physical copy with. That way we'll also not have to deal with another 1 kg outdated book sitting on shelves.

Before our next trip, I'm going to Go Digital and ditch purchasing hard copies. Hard copies seem especially dumb for books with a "best before" like reference or travel books were you want the most up to date. So if you see me with something that looks like a Star Trek PADD, know that I'm not going to a costume party, but am dressing like I live in the future, which is now.

Remember

Remember, remember, the Eleventh of November,
the day the cannons no longer were shot.
I know of no reason why brave men and women
should ever be forgot.

The medium is the message - and your medium is 140 characters long

Yes, that's a bit of a longer title than usual. With the popularity of twitter, facebook status, or other micro-blogging sites, it seems to indicate what's important to our society right now. "I'll read what you say, instantly, as long as it's a soundbite". Fewer well thought out articles, no real discussion, just a tiny random thought. Don't get me wrong - this blog is a source of long winded and rambling random thoughts - I understand that. I also enjoy making FB status updates as well. But if those are the primary ways that people express themselves, that's a bit sad.

The other weird thing about these social network sites is that they seem to form homogeneous echo chambers where your only options are to "Like" or retweet someone else's soundbite. It's nice to show support for someone else's contribution, but sometimes it sure would be nice to have a "-1 You're being a douchebag" option. I guess that it's just an extension of "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't [allow the users to] say anything at all.". Now is that good user design where the app limits the users to the "polite path"?

Somehow I've arrived at the conclusion that facebook is enforcing proper social etiquette and that frankly just feels wrong. That must mean that it's time for bed.