The rough skin on the backs of my heels is rougher than usual this year and it looks really gross. While it is cracked and dry and stuff, I'm not feeling any discomfort or unpleasantness. It just looks ugly. I'm looking for a product that will address the aesthetic aspect.
I already pumice it regularly and use Dr. Scholl's pumice scrub.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
How the Toronto garbage strike will affect tourists
My credentials: I live in Toronto. I am not a city worker, I am not involved in city government. I am not personally inconvenienced by or otherwise personally involved in the strike. My livelihood is completely unrelated to tourism. While I understand intellectually that tourism is important to the economy, on a personal level I don't care either way whether people come to Toronto or not.
Considerations: I do not spend a lot of time downtown or in tourist areas. However, the areas where I do spend time are typical of the density of tourist areas. It seems to me that tourist areas would have greater motivation to stay clean than my corners of the city. I live in a highrise neighbourhood, and the garbage strike is more likely to affect house neighbourhoods. I'd think tourists would be spending more time in higher density neighbourhoods.
Observations:
The only sign I've seen of a garbage strike so far is that the sidewalk garbage bins seem a bit full. There's stuff sticking out of them. On occasion I've seen small piles of stuff in front of them, but that's rare. If I only saw one bin like this, I wouldn't think much of it beyond "Hmmm, that bin needs to be emptied." It would take seeing three or five bins like that to notice that something is wrong.
There's only one place where I've gotten a whiff of a smell - this parking lot that I shortcut through, behind a block of small businesses with the dumpsters out back. I can smell the dumpsters as I walk past. It isn't disgusting, but it's there. I've smelled similar in parking lots of suburban strip malls. If I didn't know there was a garbage strike, I'd notice the smell, but I wouldn't think there's anything egregiously wrong.
Privately-owned public space, such as malls and the subway, seem to be doing perfectly fine. Their garbage cans are being emptied regularly.
I haven't seen any sign of vermin - not even cute vermin like mice or raccoons.
I haven't been in any parks, so I can't speak to how they are affected.
Extrapolating from what I've observed, it seems to me that any well-run tourist attraction would be able to manage things in a way that the garbage strike doesn't affect the tourist experience. They might just have to walk past a few over-full bins on the sidewalk is all.
Considerations: I do not spend a lot of time downtown or in tourist areas. However, the areas where I do spend time are typical of the density of tourist areas. It seems to me that tourist areas would have greater motivation to stay clean than my corners of the city. I live in a highrise neighbourhood, and the garbage strike is more likely to affect house neighbourhoods. I'd think tourists would be spending more time in higher density neighbourhoods.
Observations:
The only sign I've seen of a garbage strike so far is that the sidewalk garbage bins seem a bit full. There's stuff sticking out of them. On occasion I've seen small piles of stuff in front of them, but that's rare. If I only saw one bin like this, I wouldn't think much of it beyond "Hmmm, that bin needs to be emptied." It would take seeing three or five bins like that to notice that something is wrong.
There's only one place where I've gotten a whiff of a smell - this parking lot that I shortcut through, behind a block of small businesses with the dumpsters out back. I can smell the dumpsters as I walk past. It isn't disgusting, but it's there. I've smelled similar in parking lots of suburban strip malls. If I didn't know there was a garbage strike, I'd notice the smell, but I wouldn't think there's anything egregiously wrong.
Privately-owned public space, such as malls and the subway, seem to be doing perfectly fine. Their garbage cans are being emptied regularly.
I haven't seen any sign of vermin - not even cute vermin like mice or raccoons.
I haven't been in any parks, so I can't speak to how they are affected.
Extrapolating from what I've observed, it seems to me that any well-run tourist attraction would be able to manage things in a way that the garbage strike doesn't affect the tourist experience. They might just have to walk past a few over-full bins on the sidewalk is all.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Our government might have just set a record
They've offended both the queer community and the catholic church in under 24 hours. I wonder if anyone else has ever done that?
(Random thoughts on the communion thing: 1. In the eyes of the church, is it worse to take a host and put it on your pocket, or to accept communion when you aren't catholic? 2. It seems to me that if you're a political leader whose primary strategy is to accuse his opponent of being out of touch with ordinary Canadians, you'd brush up on the protocol of Canada's largest religion before attending a state funeral in that religion's church. Especially since you have access to the services of a protocol office.)
(Random thoughts on the communion thing: 1. In the eyes of the church, is it worse to take a host and put it on your pocket, or to accept communion when you aren't catholic? 2. It seems to me that if you're a political leader whose primary strategy is to accuse his opponent of being out of touch with ordinary Canadians, you'd brush up on the protocol of Canada's largest religion before attending a state funeral in that religion's church. Especially since you have access to the services of a protocol office.)
I'm afraid to leave the country
A Canadian citizen is in jail in Kenya because she doesn't look like her passport photo.
This makes me afraid to leave the country.
I never look like my photos. In my first driver's licence photo, I had my hair down and no glasses. If I went out with my hair up and glasses on and then got carded, they wouldn't believe me. I'd have to take my hair down and remove my glasses just to get a drink.
I wear makeup that changes the relative skin tone of various facial features. Among other things, I make the skin around my eyes lighter and my cheeks and forehead darker. In some pictures (especially small photos like you'd find on a passport) it isn't apparent that this is a function of the makeup. Depending on the situation, I might travel in full makeup, or in no makeup, or in what was originally full makeup but has worn off with sleep and sweat to the extent that I look like a dead whore. Any one photo is not going to reflect all of these possibilities, and I can't necessarily organize my life so that my makeup condition will be the same every time I travel.
Depending on the lighting and what I'm wearing and how I've done the rest of my makeup, my skin tone can inspire comments ranging from "Are you okay? You look really pale." to "Where are you from? I mean originally? I mean what's your heritage?"
How can I possibly feel safe in this context?
This makes me afraid to leave the country.
I never look like my photos. In my first driver's licence photo, I had my hair down and no glasses. If I went out with my hair up and glasses on and then got carded, they wouldn't believe me. I'd have to take my hair down and remove my glasses just to get a drink.
I wear makeup that changes the relative skin tone of various facial features. Among other things, I make the skin around my eyes lighter and my cheeks and forehead darker. In some pictures (especially small photos like you'd find on a passport) it isn't apparent that this is a function of the makeup. Depending on the situation, I might travel in full makeup, or in no makeup, or in what was originally full makeup but has worn off with sleep and sweat to the extent that I look like a dead whore. Any one photo is not going to reflect all of these possibilities, and I can't necessarily organize my life so that my makeup condition will be the same every time I travel.
Depending on the lighting and what I'm wearing and how I've done the rest of my makeup, my skin tone can inspire comments ranging from "Are you okay? You look really pale." to "Where are you from? I mean originally? I mean what's your heritage?"
How can I possibly feel safe in this context?
Monday, July 06, 2009
In my bed
In the morning, my bed is the most tempting place on earth. The sheets, the pillows, the covers, the familiar shapes and textures are all the most comfortable and comforting things humanly imaginable. I yearn to just stretch out, close my eyes, and drift through thoughts and dreams and half-wakefulness.
If only I could feel that way in the evening when I actually should be getting to sleep.
If only I could feel that way in the evening when I actually should be getting to sleep.
Things They Should Study: newspaper comment thread agree/disagree rates
Some of the news media comments sections let you vote on whether you agree or disagree with the comments. I never give it much attention because I try to avoid comment threads in general, and the agree/disagree rates tend to sit there unobtrusively. Maybe if I am in the comment thread and you don't have to log in to click and I have a strong reaction either way I might vote, but generally I pay it no mind.
Today I noticed a comment thread on a Globe and Mail article where all the comments were the kind of asshattery that normally makes me avoid comments threads in the first place, and all the comments had received a wide margin of disagree votes. So that implies that the people posting comments are not representative of general public opinion.
I think this merits further study. What percentage of comments receive general agreement overall? How frequently does the consensus of the voters correspond with the consensus of the commenters? (For example, is a given article receiving a lot of pro-widget comments, but those comments are being voted down, suggesting that the broader audience is anti-widget?) Insofar as political affiliation can be determined, which political affiliations are most likely to comment? Which are most likely to vote?
Today I noticed a comment thread on a Globe and Mail article where all the comments were the kind of asshattery that normally makes me avoid comments threads in the first place, and all the comments had received a wide margin of disagree votes. So that implies that the people posting comments are not representative of general public opinion.
I think this merits further study. What percentage of comments receive general agreement overall? How frequently does the consensus of the voters correspond with the consensus of the commenters? (For example, is a given article receiving a lot of pro-widget comments, but those comments are being voted down, suggesting that the broader audience is anti-widget?) Insofar as political affiliation can be determined, which political affiliations are most likely to comment? Which are most likely to vote?
Sunday, July 05, 2009
The universe is mocking me
When I woke up this morning, I noticed that my water pressure sucked. I'd originally planned to have my coffee before my shower, but I decided to go straight into the shower so I could get clean before the water completely ran out.
So I have my shower, struggling against the wimpy spray, worrying about whether there's going to be any water for a shower tomorrow because I'm definitely going to need to have my shower tomorrow before the supers are on duty. Then, just as I'm finishing up, full glorious water pressure returns.
If I'd had my coffee first like I was planning, I could have had a full pleasant shower.
So I have my shower, struggling against the wimpy spray, worrying about whether there's going to be any water for a shower tomorrow because I'm definitely going to need to have my shower tomorrow before the supers are on duty. Then, just as I'm finishing up, full glorious water pressure returns.
If I'd had my coffee first like I was planning, I could have had a full pleasant shower.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Props to Tide To Go
My Tide To Go pen instantly removed red wine spilled on my carpet - after it had been in my purse with the lid off for months and months and months!
Fingers and toes
[reposted because my previous attempt to edit the embedded player made my blog go wonky]
Boots Or Hearts - The Tragically Hip
Posting this because a) it's running through my head, and b) I appear to be the first person on the recorded internet to come up with the idea that it should be used for line dancing. Might be sacrilege to say so, but it would totally work.
Boots Or Hearts - The Tragically Hip
Posting this because a) it's running through my head, and b) I appear to be the first person on the recorded internet to come up with the idea that it should be used for line dancing. Might be sacrilege to say so, but it would totally work.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
The other problem with all this anti-labour sentiment
It's draining me. I'm just getting so tired of hearing from all these loud people wanting to sentence others to poverty, hearing between the lines that they want to sentence me to bugs crawling out of my walls, that I'm starting to avoid news. Especially since so many other things in the news and politics also seem to be people wanting to ruin other people's lives.
Everyone should have a bug-free home, dental care whenever they need it, and to be able to grocery shop without budgeting. People's human rights should be respected. People with power should act with noblesse oblige. People should give others the benefit of the doubt, especially when it doesn't hurt them any to do so.
I don't want to be blogging about these things. They should be so obvious and inherent that they don't even bear thinking about. I should be inventing stuff, not blogging about why garbage men deserve to live above the LICO.
So here's a squirrel eating a lemon, shamelessly yoinked from the always-awesome Malene Arpe
Everyone should have a bug-free home, dental care whenever they need it, and to be able to grocery shop without budgeting. People's human rights should be respected. People with power should act with noblesse oblige. People should give others the benefit of the doubt, especially when it doesn't hurt them any to do so.
I don't want to be blogging about these things. They should be so obvious and inherent that they don't even bear thinking about. I should be inventing stuff, not blogging about why garbage men deserve to live above the LICO.
So here's a squirrel eating a lemon, shamelessly yoinked from the always-awesome Malene Arpe
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Hard Work
It surprises me that people are being so hateful about the garbage collectors' compensation in particular, because being a garbage man is Hard Work. It's physical labour outside in the elements, it's dirty and smelly, there's probably bugs. They shower after work, not before. They have enough callouses on their hands that they hold their Tim Hortons cup by wrapping their hand around it (rather than thumb on top and fingers on the bottom like us office workers). It's real, honest, hard work. The kind of stuff that Builds Character. It's practically a Canadian value - you do Real Honest Hard Work and you support your family on it. Nothing fancy, but perhaps a small postwar bungalow (rented if you're in the city), a roast on Sundays, and skates under the xmas tree. That's almost universally considered a Good Thing.
Suppose I wrote a story about my family and the jobs we've had and the what we did with the money we made. I'd start out by telling you about my grandparents worked in coke ovens and meat packing plants - dirty, smelly, unpleasant work, Real Honest Hard Work - to support their gaggles of children. Then I'd tell you about how my parents worked in the same coke ovens and meat packing plants to put themselves through university, then got white-collar jobs in offices and classrooms and used that salary to buy a house in the suburbs where each kid could have their own bedroom and we could have a car and there were vacations almost every summer. Then I'd tell you about how in my generation our jobs were more of the cash register type - be perky and look pretty for the customers - and didn't contribute as much to our tuition as our scholarships and our parents' money did. Then we finished university and went straight into professional jobs that support our habits of specialty hair products and more shoes than strictly necessary.
If you were having any judgmental thoughts while reading that story, if you were to present anyone in that story as superior to anyone else, it would be the grandparents. Because they're the ones doing Hard Work, Real Work. Their work is the kind being alluded to when trying to sell us beer or pick-up trucks or Tim Hortons or a political platform; ours is the type parodied in sketch comedy and denigrated in political attack ads. You'd spin our grandparents as hard-working and sacrificing, and us as spoiled.
The garbage collectors are doing this Real, Honest Hard Work that is usually lauded or even glamourized. So why are people so opposed to them making a decent income - above the poverty line but well below the household average?
Suppose I wrote a story about my family and the jobs we've had and the what we did with the money we made. I'd start out by telling you about my grandparents worked in coke ovens and meat packing plants - dirty, smelly, unpleasant work, Real Honest Hard Work - to support their gaggles of children. Then I'd tell you about how my parents worked in the same coke ovens and meat packing plants to put themselves through university, then got white-collar jobs in offices and classrooms and used that salary to buy a house in the suburbs where each kid could have their own bedroom and we could have a car and there were vacations almost every summer. Then I'd tell you about how in my generation our jobs were more of the cash register type - be perky and look pretty for the customers - and didn't contribute as much to our tuition as our scholarships and our parents' money did. Then we finished university and went straight into professional jobs that support our habits of specialty hair products and more shoes than strictly necessary.
If you were having any judgmental thoughts while reading that story, if you were to present anyone in that story as superior to anyone else, it would be the grandparents. Because they're the ones doing Hard Work, Real Work. Their work is the kind being alluded to when trying to sell us beer or pick-up trucks or Tim Hortons or a political platform; ours is the type parodied in sketch comedy and denigrated in political attack ads. You'd spin our grandparents as hard-working and sacrificing, and us as spoiled.
The garbage collectors are doing this Real, Honest Hard Work that is usually lauded or even glamourized. So why are people so opposed to them making a decent income - above the poverty line but well below the household average?
New Rule: never say midnight
I'm following the news of a potential Globe & Mail strike, and they're now saying that the strike deadline is midnight Thursday.
Does that mean it's 12:00 AM on Thursday, i.e. tonight either before or shortly after I go to bed? Or does that mean it's Thursday night, i.e. after I've slept tonight and gone to work on Thursday and gone home and either before or shortly after I go to bed that night?
To make things like this clear, they should use 11:59. If the deadline is tonight, they should say it's 11:59 on Wednesday night.
I also have this problem sometimes with TV schedules for Craig Ferguson and whoever is current competitor is. (Used to be Conan, but I think Conan is now an hour earlier to replace Leno or something.) These shows are on at 12:35. I don't watch them with great regularity, only when they're having a guest I'm interested in. Some sources list the show by the day it's technically on, some by the evening it feels like to the viewer. For example, I'm writing this at 1:45 PM on a Wednesday. The next episode of Craig Ferguson is on at 12:35 AM on Thursday. But if I were to watch it, it would be before I go to bed tonight, so it would feel like Wednesday night in my mind. If I'm looking to see what day a specific guest is on, I feel like I have to check multiple sources to make sure I get it right, often checking the source's listings for the whole week to see if they're counting starting on Monday or Tuesday.
They need a standard way to do this. The best way I can think of is to specify "Wednesday night/Thursday morning," but a single universal standard that literally everyone uses would work.
Does that mean it's 12:00 AM on Thursday, i.e. tonight either before or shortly after I go to bed? Or does that mean it's Thursday night, i.e. after I've slept tonight and gone to work on Thursday and gone home and either before or shortly after I go to bed that night?
To make things like this clear, they should use 11:59. If the deadline is tonight, they should say it's 11:59 on Wednesday night.
I also have this problem sometimes with TV schedules for Craig Ferguson and whoever is current competitor is. (Used to be Conan, but I think Conan is now an hour earlier to replace Leno or something.) These shows are on at 12:35. I don't watch them with great regularity, only when they're having a guest I'm interested in. Some sources list the show by the day it's technically on, some by the evening it feels like to the viewer. For example, I'm writing this at 1:45 PM on a Wednesday. The next episode of Craig Ferguson is on at 12:35 AM on Thursday. But if I were to watch it, it would be before I go to bed tonight, so it would feel like Wednesday night in my mind. If I'm looking to see what day a specific guest is on, I feel like I have to check multiple sources to make sure I get it right, often checking the source's listings for the whole week to see if they're counting starting on Monday or Tuesday.
They need a standard way to do this. The best way I can think of is to specify "Wednesday night/Thursday morning," but a single universal standard that literally everyone uses would work.
More information please
There were early reports that a five-year-old child had survived that plane crash in the Indian Ocean. Now the news is saying that the only survivor is a teenage girl.
What happened to the five-year-old?
What happened to the five-year-old?
I wonder what my subconscious's criteria for dream material are?
I sometimes dream about being a child (although in the vast majority of those dreams I'm in the back of my parents' car going somewhere boring). I sometimes dream about being in high school (although most of the time it's that dream where I've forgotten to take a class and I wake up thinking "Wait a minute, don't I have enough credits to graduate? And now that I think about it, don't I have a job and an apartment in Toronto?"). In most dreams I'm just generically myself, sometimes I'm inserted into various fictional universes, I've had one or two where I'm wandering around my middle school (but, fortunately, not a student there).
But I've never ever in my life dreamed about translating.
I've been translating for six years. I was only in high school for five years. I wonder why translation hasn't shown up in my dreams yet? I've had one dream where I was in the general vicinity of my office because my co-workers needed to show up and catch me doing something "bad" for plot purposes, but none about actual work.
And now that I think about it, university hasn't shown up in my dreams yet either. The "OMG I forgot to go to class!" dreams are always high school.
The majority of dreams have no particular setting, but the only places I've been before adulthood show up as recurring real-life settings. Which is odd, because when I dream myself into fictional universes, they're always from fandoms I've gotten involved in since adulthood.
I wonder what this all means? I wonder if other people notice similar patterns?
But I've never ever in my life dreamed about translating.
I've been translating for six years. I was only in high school for five years. I wonder why translation hasn't shown up in my dreams yet? I've had one dream where I was in the general vicinity of my office because my co-workers needed to show up and catch me doing something "bad" for plot purposes, but none about actual work.
And now that I think about it, university hasn't shown up in my dreams yet either. The "OMG I forgot to go to class!" dreams are always high school.
The majority of dreams have no particular setting, but the only places I've been before adulthood show up as recurring real-life settings. Which is odd, because when I dream myself into fictional universes, they're always from fandoms I've gotten involved in since adulthood.
I wonder what this all means? I wonder if other people notice similar patterns?
Things They Should Study: economic demographics of people who are opposed to good wages for garbage men
I've been wondering why people who think the garbage collectors are overpaid don't look at the job as something they themselves could potentially do. After all, my personal inclination when I see a job I think is overpaid is to think that maybe that's the job I should be doing. (So far, whenever I've looked into things, I find that the job is either harder than I thought, or you have to pay your dues for longer than I thought, or it doesn't pay as much as I thought.)
But today it occurred to me that the people being most inconvenienced by this strike are mostly the rich. The garbage strike affects residential collection, but not highrise apartments. In other words, primarily the house people. Houses in Toronto are expensive - we're looking at $400,000 at the very least. This is a city where a million-dollar home can look perfectly unremarkable. If you own a house in Toronto, you make far more money than I ever will. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here in my apartment not noticing anything except that the bins on Yonge St. are rather full.
As a general trend, public sector salaries have a moderating effect. They tend to be higher than private sector at the low end of the pay scale (garbage collectors, daycare workers, receptionists) and lower than the private sector at the high end of the scale (investment bankers, senior executives, etc.) Anyone who can afford a house in Toronto would be at the high end of the scale, and therefore lives in a world where the natural order of things as demonstrated by empirical evidence is that public sector is paid lower than private sector.
So here they are, being inconvenienced by this garbage strike, not identifying with the garbage men because that work is so much more difficult and poorly-paid than what the house people themselves do. Then they find out, to their shock, that the garbage men are making so much more money than the rich house people pay, say, their cleaners.
Meanwhile, the people who can identify with the garbage men, who, if they learned the garbage men made more than they expected, would be inclined to think "Cool! I wonder how you get that job?", live in apartments and are hardly noticing anything is going on.
The mystery: how come so many newspaper columnists seem to have houses? Surely journalism can't pay that well.
But today it occurred to me that the people being most inconvenienced by this strike are mostly the rich. The garbage strike affects residential collection, but not highrise apartments. In other words, primarily the house people. Houses in Toronto are expensive - we're looking at $400,000 at the very least. This is a city where a million-dollar home can look perfectly unremarkable. If you own a house in Toronto, you make far more money than I ever will. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here in my apartment not noticing anything except that the bins on Yonge St. are rather full.
As a general trend, public sector salaries have a moderating effect. They tend to be higher than private sector at the low end of the pay scale (garbage collectors, daycare workers, receptionists) and lower than the private sector at the high end of the scale (investment bankers, senior executives, etc.) Anyone who can afford a house in Toronto would be at the high end of the scale, and therefore lives in a world where the natural order of things as demonstrated by empirical evidence is that public sector is paid lower than private sector.
So here they are, being inconvenienced by this garbage strike, not identifying with the garbage men because that work is so much more difficult and poorly-paid than what the house people themselves do. Then they find out, to their shock, that the garbage men are making so much more money than the rich house people pay, say, their cleaners.
Meanwhile, the people who can identify with the garbage men, who, if they learned the garbage men made more than they expected, would be inclined to think "Cool! I wonder how you get that job?", live in apartments and are hardly noticing anything is going on.
The mystery: how come so many newspaper columnists seem to have houses? Surely journalism can't pay that well.
New economic indicator: are the bugs going to get me?
When I was writing about how I'm terrified by the loud people who don't want the garbage men earning a decent living, the best way I was able to articulate my fear in a single sentence is that I don't want to go back to having things crawling out of my walls. That's basically it. The single greatest improvement in my quality of life - the #1 example of money buying happiness - has been housing that is free of panic attack triggers. Even if I lost everything, it would still be exponentially more pleasant to be sitting hungry in old sweat-stained clothes with nothing but library books for entertainment in a bug-free space than to have all the food, wine, clothes, make-up, computers, TV, and internet I want in a space where something might crawl out of the wall at any time. Many people see wanting bug-free space as overly fussy, but now that I have this comfort, losing it would break me.
It occurs to me that everyone might have some #1 dealbreaker issue like this, some über-alles comfort or quality of life factor either that money has bought them and they don't want to lose, or that money could buy and they can't yet afford. It varies from person to person, and it might even change depending on your place in life. (For example, when I was a kid it was having my own room. If we'd had to downgrade to the extent where we had to share a room, it would have broken me.)
A truly informative economic indicator would be go get everyone to identify what their #1 thing is, then determine how much of the population has their #1 thing. How many people have gained it in the last quarter, and how many have lost it?
It occurs to me that everyone might have some #1 dealbreaker issue like this, some über-alles comfort or quality of life factor either that money has bought them and they don't want to lose, or that money could buy and they can't yet afford. It varies from person to person, and it might even change depending on your place in life. (For example, when I was a kid it was having my own room. If we'd had to downgrade to the extent where we had to share a room, it would have broken me.)
A truly informative economic indicator would be go get everyone to identify what their #1 thing is, then determine how much of the population has their #1 thing. How many people have gained it in the last quarter, and how many have lost it?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
I think smaller favours are bigger than bigger favours
Several times on the internet I've seen parents say that the difference between parents and non-parents is that parents would risk their lives to save their kid. Of course we know that isn't true - I think most people would risk their life to save a kid. A kid falls onto the subway tracks, people aren't going to stand there doing nothing. I once ran out into traffic to save a teddy bear tossed there by a baby who was too little to know better, and there were at least three people on that sidewalk also moving to go after the teddy bear. Poor kid shouldn't have to lose his best friend just because he's too little to understand natural consequences and the laws of physics.
So yeah, risking my life to save a kid, of course, no question. But no way in hell I want to have to wake up early in the morning and sit around a rink watching hockey practice.
You sometimes see similar things in the Star's Acts of Kindness section. Sometimes you get people telling stories of, for example, a little old lady who has these thuggish-looking young men living next door, but these guys totally helped her and called 911 and stayed with her when she had a fall one icy winter's day, and maybe even shoveled her walk for her after that. And these guys would probably be like "Yeah, of course, basic human decency, you'd do the same for my grandmother." But, at the same time, they might not want to turn down their music when they're having a party.
You'd totally do CPR on someone who you'd never kiss, or never even want to have small-talk with in the checkout line. If your friend had their wallet stolen, you'd totally press a wad of cash into their hand to tide them over until they can get a replacement debit card, but you'd hide the last chocolate bar in your office stash so they don't mooch it. You might neglect to look up from your book at each subway stop so as not to have to give up your seat for a senior with a cane, but if there's an emergency and you have to evacuate the train into the tunnel you will totally see to it personally that they get out safely.
So maybe the smaller kindnesses are more generous than the bigger kindnesses?
So yeah, risking my life to save a kid, of course, no question. But no way in hell I want to have to wake up early in the morning and sit around a rink watching hockey practice.
You sometimes see similar things in the Star's Acts of Kindness section. Sometimes you get people telling stories of, for example, a little old lady who has these thuggish-looking young men living next door, but these guys totally helped her and called 911 and stayed with her when she had a fall one icy winter's day, and maybe even shoveled her walk for her after that. And these guys would probably be like "Yeah, of course, basic human decency, you'd do the same for my grandmother." But, at the same time, they might not want to turn down their music when they're having a party.
You'd totally do CPR on someone who you'd never kiss, or never even want to have small-talk with in the checkout line. If your friend had their wallet stolen, you'd totally press a wad of cash into their hand to tide them over until they can get a replacement debit card, but you'd hide the last chocolate bar in your office stash so they don't mooch it. You might neglect to look up from your book at each subway stop so as not to have to give up your seat for a senior with a cane, but if there's an emergency and you have to evacuate the train into the tunnel you will totally see to it personally that they get out safely.
So maybe the smaller kindnesses are more generous than the bigger kindnesses?
Why power centres instead of malls?
I read in Spacing (of all places) that they're replacing Centre Mall with a big-box power centre.
This has me wondering why power centres are considered superior to malls. (Obviously they are considered superior, because malls were invented/popularized first. They wouldn't have come up with power centres if they thought malls were superior.)
When you go to a power centre, you're going to only one store or to the specific stores on your list. It's set up so that you're probably going to drive from store to store, and you have no particular reason to go into any stores that you weren't planning to visit.
However, in a mall, you walk past a whole bunch of stores, and they're usually open onto the common areas with the contents very visible so you can just sort of drift in and browse casually. You see a shirt you like, you end up wandering into a store you weren't planning to go into at all.
If I were a retail business, I'd certainly want to be set up in a way that encourages passers-by to come in and have a look around. So why do businesses think big box is better?
This has me wondering why power centres are considered superior to malls. (Obviously they are considered superior, because malls were invented/popularized first. They wouldn't have come up with power centres if they thought malls were superior.)
When you go to a power centre, you're going to only one store or to the specific stores on your list. It's set up so that you're probably going to drive from store to store, and you have no particular reason to go into any stores that you weren't planning to visit.
However, in a mall, you walk past a whole bunch of stores, and they're usually open onto the common areas with the contents very visible so you can just sort of drift in and browse casually. You see a shirt you like, you end up wandering into a store you weren't planning to go into at all.
If I were a retail business, I'd certainly want to be set up in a way that encourages passers-by to come in and have a look around. So why do businesses think big box is better?
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wherein I receive an education
A conversation with someone who had a bit of a different upbringing than I did led me to the following realization:
I am politically aware primarily because I read newspapers. It's more complicated than that - I take in far more political information than just what's in the Star and the G&M mostly because of the internet, a good part of my ability to dissect and analyze spin comes from my job, but at the root of it all is newspapers.
I read newspapers because my parents read newspapers. We always had them around the house, I'd pick them up to read the comics and, as I grew older, gradually expanded to other sections of the newspaper, until I was reading the whole thing in middle school.
My parents read newspapers because their parents read newspapers.
I've always been assuming a certain amount of basic knowledge about political and current event just by virtue of being an adult. But I was talking to someone - a perfectly competent adult - to whom it never occurred to seek out newspapers regularly because they'd never had them around when they were growing up so they were never normalized.
I don't know what to do with this.
I am politically aware primarily because I read newspapers. It's more complicated than that - I take in far more political information than just what's in the Star and the G&M mostly because of the internet, a good part of my ability to dissect and analyze spin comes from my job, but at the root of it all is newspapers.
I read newspapers because my parents read newspapers. We always had them around the house, I'd pick them up to read the comics and, as I grew older, gradually expanded to other sections of the newspaper, until I was reading the whole thing in middle school.
My parents read newspapers because their parents read newspapers.
I've always been assuming a certain amount of basic knowledge about political and current event just by virtue of being an adult. But I was talking to someone - a perfectly competent adult - to whom it never occurred to seek out newspapers regularly because they'd never had them around when they were growing up so they were never normalized.
I don't know what to do with this.
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