Worth a Repeat

There’s a new periodical on the block, one that is engrossing, entertaining, and enlightening—in short, well worth your time and money:

Check it out. If I see you, you can borrow mine.

The Starbucks Challenge

I tried to not like Starbucks. I really tried. But I didn’t succeed.

My neighbourhood in downtown Vancouver is saturated with coffee shops. On nearly every street corner around for blocks you will find a cafe that serves some combination of espresso, pastries, and desserts. A staggering amount of coffee options are available, all within minutes’ walking distance of each other.

Fancying myself a grassrootsy guy, I try to support local independent businesses whenever possible. And coffee shops can be found aplenty in both large chain and independent varieties. So over the last couple of months I made it my mission to find the best latte available in a local indie cafe and settle on that for my semi-regular caffeine fix.

After the eighth or ninth flavoured latte that tasted, well, burnt from the li’l localites, I gave up. While I try to root for the underdogs as much as possible (I sell Mac computers, for goodness’ sake) I just could not for the life of me find a latte to match the wondrous taste and texture of one from any Starbucks. And since my wife has turned me into a coffee snob (thanks, hon), I simply cannot bring myself to spend money on anything less than perfection when it comes to my drug of choice.

There’s an inevitable point where one’s ideology collides with reality. For me, this occurred over a cup of coffee. It seems I’m no activist after all.

(My apologies to all those little shops that could. I may still pop by now and then for a muffin.)

More on Technology, or, Moron Technology

Technology is making people morons. The shorthand (read: inexcusable grammar and spelling errors thinly disguised as hip type-speak) that far too many people use for chat rooms, instant messaging, and e-mail is proof:
“how r u?”
“g00d, u?”
“gr8”
“blink182 r00lz, yo!”
“yah. well, g2g. c u l8r”
“ttyl, w00t!”
Disgusting.

Yeah, yeah, I know—this is a well-worn rant by others. But I’m making it my well-worn rant. This is just one of the many factors leading me to believe that computer technology may be doing more harm than good to society.

Here’s a question: How many hours per day do you spend catching up on internet news, e-mail, chatting, and other monitor-and-keyboard-related activities? One hour? Two? Five? Ten?

My answer is: far too many. This is quality time (all time has some sort of quality) that could be better spent with a loved one, in nature, in reading a good book, or in even writing a good book. The fact that most of us have to “catch up” with our daily e-mails and news headlines means there is something amiss.

Before the internet even existed, C.S. Lewis advocated severely limiting one’s time with news periodicals. Even then, there was far too much useless information in the world with which to fill one’s head. Now we have the internet, and the quantity of information available has increased exponentially.

So here’s my challenge to you, dear reader: turn off your computer right now and go do something else (not including TV). Don’t even bother adding a comment to this article—it’s a waste of your time.

Dry Heaves

What are dry heaves? Do they represent what I want to do but can’t—or what I should do but don’t? Sounds like the biophysical equivalent to Saint Paul’s moral struggle.

Why do I write about dry heaves? Because they are part of the reason that I am up and writing at all on this early morning. A great way to pass the time while sick and/or insomnial is to read and/or write. I am bored with reading, so I have resorted to writing.

This makes me think: if writing on my blog is about the last thing I will do to waste time, is then reading my blog about the last thing that others will do to waste time? Is blogging in general just a big waste of time?

There are only a handful of Web destinations that I visit with any regularity these days. With precious few exceptions, I find the Web to be a massive waste of space and time, and I must ruthlessly limit my online behavior to prevent the inevitable black-hole-like sucking of my time and relationships with non-virtual, three-dimensional beings (most notably, my wife). I like to gain information, but this raggedy stuporhighway called the WWW seems to go no place in its lofty goal to visit every place.

The big buzz online now is “Web 2.0”—a more socially-oriented and interactive approach to doing things via internet. Blogging is a part of this so-called revolution, as are services like del.icio.us and flickr. The ironic thing is that these types of sites are praised as being pioneers in a more communal and “real” environment for people online, yet all they do is basically consume more time and energy in people’s lives that could otherwise be spent face-to-face in healthy relationships among breathing humans. We’re two steps forward and three hundred steps back.

But back to my personal quandary. Do people read what I have to write? If so, then why? I know why friends and family come: to “keep in touch” (through touching the keyboard and mouse, I guess) and perhaps get amused by my antics that they know and love. But is there any compelling reason for others to browse my personal sayings and linkings?

I ask this because I wonder if embarking on the Great Challenge of writing a book would be a waste of my time. I’m sure all first-time book-writers ask themselves this question. They must then either conclude that people will care, or they must simply not care themselves and trudge forward nonetheless. I think I’m somewhere in-between.