Tag: critique

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2014

20 years beyond 1984. What did we think it would be like? Flying cars? Food pellets? Cars that turn into briefcases? Or just Big Brother monitoring our every move?

Well, we got one of those things. Unfortunately, it isn’t any of the cool, techie things that we thought it might be. We got the monitoring without the flying cars. I guess we can at least be happy there are no food pellets. Yet.

And, in reality, it is a techie advancement to be monitored at every move. It is an advancement that we all bought into, whole heartedly, by purchasing phones with GPS and putting our bank accounts on a world wide network that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

This isn’t meant to create panic, but just to ask, what did we expect? We want convenience and the ability to communicate at a seconds notice, but without all the extra stuff that comes along with it. Yes, that would be nice, but it just is not possible. At least, it is not possible now. It may have been possible in the beginning, but we let it go this way and now there is no turning back.

So be safe out there. 2014 is a whole new year and whole new year’s are a good time to take stock. To look back on the things we did and look forward to the future. It is also a good time to reassess exactly how much of our lives are online and ways in which we can protect ourselves from exposure.

Do you really need those 8 twitter accounts? How about the 3 Facebook accounts you have finagled? Do you need to use google wallet and PayPal? How much information does Amazon really have and do they need it all? These are all valid questions. Your answers are your own, but it is not the worst thing to at least think on them.

I have many areas of presence on the web and for 2014 one of my goals is to decrease the amount of exposure I have. At the end of 2013, my email was hacked and, with that, so too was my main twitter account. This was annoying and cumbersome to relieve. Although it did not spiral into something more, it certainly made me sstop and take stock of my online presence. It also forced me to make up better passwords. And so, it could be as easy as that. Change up your passwords. Make them so tough that you might not even remember them. As long as you have a method of reset, you are good to go.

So, good luck out there and remember. This is what we wanted, but it does not have to be the only way. We have the power to make our online experience exactly what we want it to be. Just like life, our online presence should reflect who we actuallly are. It should have openness and security at the same time. It should be a reflection of who we are as humans and we should keep it safe. I like to remember that movie the net as my reference for what could be. Let’s not let it get there, shall we?

Peace,
Chantale

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2002.8.27 – why did i ask?

How many rhetorical questions do you ask in one day?

1? 10? 50? If you work in the customer service industry, like me, you probably ask anywhere from 50-100. The main rhetorical question being, “how are you doing today?”.

This is a question that very rarely requires an answer longer than 2 or 3 words, yet many customers feel the need to elaborate. They don’t just say “fine” or “good” like we expect, but they launch into a dissertation on their life and every problem under the sun.

Being a pretty even keeled person, I tend to listen and let it slide, but some of my co-workers get extremely distraught when they trap themselves with this dreaded question.

I say, if someone is making you a cappucino, they most likely do not have their phd in psychology. Not to say that baristas are stupid – on the contrary – I know some baristas who are professional students and get amazing grades, but they don’t want to solve the worlds problems.

Here is a solution. Next to the tip jar, in every coffeehouse (and if the coffeehouse you work at doesn’t even have a tip jar, high tail it to another establishment, for tips are the cornerstone of the barista trade!), there should be a can similar to the one Lucy had in “The Peanuts”. You know, the one that she collected her “5 cents” for psychiatric advice with. After all, it is difficult enough for people to drop their 2 pennies into the tip jar, let alone dig out another 5 cents to blurt out all their problems.

This would work to the advantage of the workers because instead of rolling their eyes or tuning the customer out, they can merely point to the can and exclaim “if you want advice, cough up the dough, buddy!” Ofcourse, in theory this would always work, but in practice you could just upset people. The latter is more likely. So, if you take up this concept, please proceed with caution. You know how the yuppies get before they have their half-caff-double-latte-with-no-whip-and-extra-foam. If they only cared about the people picking the beans they drink daily, they would help out a fair trade cause instead of a local chain. see links below for starbucks info and what you can do to help the fair trade cause!

Keep this in mind. If you don’t want a lengthy answer, don’t ask a rhetorical question. It will only curtail you from the ability to read the book that you set down to wait on the customer. Hello is enough. Don’t even go to the “how are you today?” arena. The bout will take longer than you expected and you will be subject to boredom and polite rhetoric.

peace!
hippiegrrl

coming up from hippiegrrl…”my life and love canal – a 2 part series, 25 years later.”

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Keep Your Mouth Shut and Work On

A series of revelations have come to me over the past few weeks. I used to think that looking at a job as being “beneath me” was something that I should never do. That I could never be too good for anything. While this is most certainly true for most things in life, it is not necessarily true about work. Having been told that I should feel “lucky to have a job”, I felt more degraded than humbled. An additional straw was added when I was asked a direct question and before I could answer was told “no smart remarks, just answer the question”. Alright then.

With that, I have finally decided that I AM too good for a specific job. I am WAY too good for this job. I have realized that I AM above it. Being overqualified for a position is fine in the short run, but when you have been doing that same job for over a year, it starts to get old. When people start to get tired of your smartass remarks and tell you so, it might be time to move on.

The archive that I posted today was about coffee and how much we love it. Also – it deals with fair trade and good business practices. Due to my interest in these types of things and my overwhelming need to not be a corporate slob, I have decided that I will do whatever it takes to get out of my current situation. If that means that I have to give up my cellphone, I will. If that means that I have to sell cd’s, dvd’s, books, clothes, electronics, etc. to make a little bit to afford my rent, I will. If I have to take my beads out and turn my hobby into a part time job, I will. Anything to get off the corporate treadmill that is slowly sucking the life out of me.

Up until today everything was okay. It was not fantastic, but it was okay. As of today, it is no longer okay and I am going to actively do something about it. Although I was trying to stick it out, I see there is just no longer any point in doing that. There is no point in trying to make things work when the individuals around you make it super difficult to stay positive and be yourself.

In the end that is all I want to be – true to myself. True to my values, thoughts, feelings, aspirations and understanding of the world around me. Free to be who I am without being told to tone it down or modify my behaviour. Out from under the thumb of corporate culture. Away from this world of misery for a paycheck.

Peace and happy job hunting!
Chantale

appropriate links:
looking for a job?
monster
career builder
indeed
snag a job
mashable jobs
simply hired

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Technology and Disenfranchishement

When I say I want to go back to the seventies, it has more to do with technology than nostalgia.  Yes, I realize that I am sitting at a computer in a separate room from my husband, listening to a Pandora playlist online, while I type this into a word processing program.  Meanwhile, he sits on the couch in the living room, simultaneously watching television, checking the scores for a Yankees game on his iPod and texting his brother and cousin on his cellphone.  Without technology our lives would be empty.  Or would they?

This is a question I have been pondering for the past couple weeks.  Noticing that since I have left school I have less need for my cellphone, more time to read books, and less pull toward the computer.  If I could find a mid-range typewriter, something from 1985, I would be content to type on that, rather than a word processing program.  Heck, I would be content with an Apple IIe, if I could type my thoughts and then save them to a floppy disc.  I have been writing, by hand, in a journal and I am also content with that.  I do, however, notice that my hand cramps up more easily these days, since I am now more used to typing than writing.

I suppose that it has to start from inside.  This year I will start learning how to devolve back to earlier technology.  Making actual files in an accordion folder, rather than files on a flash drive.  Reading books that I can hold in my hand and turn the pages of, rather than reading articles on a computer screen.  Searching for a typewriter to collect my thoughts that come too quick for me to write in my journal.  These are small changes, but they are good.  That way, when the power goes out or the internet is suddenly unavailable, I have a way to collect my thoughts without relying so heavily on technology.  If I can do it, anyone can.

We have come to rely on this technology to live.  Not to actually exist, but to be.  Without the ability to check twitter and Facebook and the absence of email, the silence of a turned off cellphone becomes dreadfully desperate.  Without text messages to tell me that I am still breathing, however will I know I am still alive?

My iTunes playlist keeps me fully grounded in the decades ranging from the 1960’s to the 1990’s, with the exception of very few recent hit songs or underground artists.  By having the list constantly playing, throughout the course of my workday, I can be transported back to high school, Gords, or Rockwell hall at a moments notice.  As it spins to Alanis Morissette, I am reminded of my prom, not the happiest of memories, but a memory nonetheless.  Spinning to Chaka Kahn takes me back to my parents living room, sitting on the floor, as a ten year old, glued to HBO as Breakin’ is broadcast for the masses.  Trent Reznor oozes out of the speakers and I am transported to St. Catherines on a Friday night in 1995 where my best friend and I are in full Goth mode, on the dance floor, worshiping the gods of industrial music while drinking $2 blues and smoking cloves.  Everything is perfect.  Everything is new or different or just good.

Step right up, march, push, crawl right up on your knees, please, feed, greed, no time to hesitate. Trent Reznor

After reading an essay by Chuck Klosterman about The Empire Strikes Back and Reality Bites, I have suddenly realized why my obsession with the latter movie has been so strong.  I also realize that I am not alone in this obsession.  It is not a particularly good movie, but it certainly hits home.  It signifies everything about my 20’s.  I spent the bulk of that decade (1994-2004) in coffeehouses, either working or hanging out, sometimes both.  The beginning I spent in college and the end I spent in a dead end (although somewhat prestigious, in the IT department of a bank, but in the end, dead end) job.  At the very end (right before turning 30) I got married to someone who was in basically the same situation as me.  We were both in jobs that we knew we were not going to maintain forever, but they paid the bills.  We both hung out in coffeehouses and were disenfranchised, to use a sad, yet true, stereotype.  Or at least we felt disenfranchised, which is actually the same thing as being disenfranchised.  Self inflicted disenfranchisement.  This is a symptom of the Generation X group.  We have this in common, even if we do not want to admit it.  Each time a song from the 90’s is used in a commercial (which is beginning to be more and more prevalent this century) I, along with a whole generation of 30-somethings, cringe.  We are less unambivalent about this happening than our parents were.

I distinctly remember discussing this with my mother at the age of 20, the first time Pontiac used Jimi Hendrix (Fire) to try and sell their cars. I asked her, “isn’t that upsetting?” and she responded “somewhat, but what can you do?”  Well!  I say you can do a lot.  Don’t buy a Pontiac, tell everyone you know not to buy a Pontiac and begin an online campaign to stop using hippie (anti-establishment) music to sell products.  That would be my response, but hey – I’m a disenfranchised slacker – so that’s the way it goes.  I will sit in a coffeehouse and talk about protest, but how often do I get off my ass and follow through.   That was the legacy of my parents generation, so maybe they are a bit too tired to fight the good fight against corporate America.   They were too busy, in their youth, fighting for equal rights and against the war.  Obviously, there is a gulf between us, at least from this standpoint.

Well I used to stand for something, but forgot what that could be, there’s a lot of me inside you, maybe you’re afraid to see. Trent Reznor

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The Evolution of the Internet or How I Became a Social Media Junkie

It all began in 1984. Orwell could not have predicted it any better. Generation X was truly the cohort that would bring about the ways in which Big Brother could infiltrate every facet of our lives. That story is for another time though, since this story is about me and how I got to where I am on the chronological timeline of electronic history.

When I was ten years old (1984) I was placed in an accelerated grade five class. The acceleration was based on CTBS scores and such and my classmates and I were placed in what would come to be known as the honours track. One of the bonuses of being in the accelerated class for grades five and six was that we had a computer in our classroom. In the late 80’s this was a rarity. Most grammar schools were without a computer lab, let alone a computer in each, individual classroom. We were the lucky ones, or at least it seemed so. The technology was new and we were to be the generation (X) of students that grew up using these technological instruments. Word Processing would not be available for several more years, meaning that we would have to continue typing our term papers on manual typewriters until we reached Freshman and Sophomore years in college. We could never imagine carrying the internet (which was not for public consumption quite yet) around in our back pockets. Yes, the computer industry would grow by leaps and bounds in the following 30 years, but in 1984 we were happy to play lemonade stand and oregon trail in our grade five class.

As you can imagine, I took to the computer like I had been at it for years. Every gift giving holiday for the next 3 or 4 years I would as my parents for an Apple IIe. You see, this was the computer that we were given to use and we all mastered it in a matter of weeks. The computer was freedom and order all in one. There was possibility in the amber screen but also the ability for teachers to keep students interested and focused. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. We all loved the Apple IIe and from the day it rolled into the classroom I was hooked.

Due to the extremely high price of Apple computers at their first introduction to the market, it wasn’t feasible for my family to obtain one. Instead, my parents invested in a Texas Instruments computer, complete with Atari-like cartridges to play games and learn how to type. My favourite program was the typing cloud. At the age of 11 I was typing 75 words per minute and almost beat the program on several occasions. These computers had no means of saving programs or scores (much like my Atari) and so each use meant starting over again. As a child, I had an inordinate amount of patience and it served me well in the first few computer systems my parents obtained.

The next computer we purchased was a Commodore 128. This model came with a separate tape recorder (yes, audio tapes) that one could save programs on. When “playing” back each program it made a horrible high pitched noise, but we suffered through. At least we had the beginnings of being able to save things on our computer system. I had an old black and white television set as a monitor and with the Commodore I began learning how to code in DOS. My mother would bring home computer magazines from work and I would spend hours on the computer typing in lines of code. Typing in ‘run’ at the end of a 500 line code would give an ASCII coded HELLO! back and I was intrigued. That summer, I went to computer camp at the local community college and sealed my fate as the tech guru of the family, at the age of 12.

Around this time my best friends father purchased a Macintosh, the original Mac computer from the Apple company. It was tall and grey and had a slim view screen. Since there were no pictures to view, at the time, the 3 inch wide screen served the purpose of being able to write code quickly and easily. He was extremely protective of the computer (as he should have been for it’s high price on the market) and would not allow us to touch it when he was not supervising. My friend was somewhat uninterested in the computer, but I was obsessed. Going to her house began to be simply to sit and watch her father use the Mac. Sometimes he would let me use the mouse (a mouse on the table, really?) and showed me how to code in this somewhat different environment. My friend began to be jealous of the computer and told me that I could no longer come over unless it was to play with her. No more Mac. I complied, our friendship ended a couple years later when we hit high school.

As we moved through Compaq and HP and other IBM compatible computers, I continued to yearn for the ellusive Mac/Apple that had been my first contact with computers. To this day I am still using an IBM compatible laptop, but someday a Mac will be mine.

Getting back to the history…

When I began my freshman year of college I had moved my computer unit (a Compaq, still using the b&w television as a monitor, but with a floppy disc drive and a rudimentary word processing (in DOS) program) into my bedroom and discovered telnet. At Buffalo State, the professors were starting to use something they called the internet. It pales in comparison the current day Internet, but for the time it was extremely useful. Having been invented by the military to use as a source of intel sharing, it was perfect for professors doing research. Telnet was the system we used to ‘log in’ to the network. At school we also had access to email on amber screened terminal units. My best friend and I would spend hours upon hours in the basement of Chase Hall chatting and mudding on Olohof or IRC. Every Friday from 1993 through 1997 consisted of classes from 9-3, work from 5-10, Gord’s from 11-2, Towne Restaurant from 3-4 and Chase Hall from 5-8 or 9. Sometimes we would skip Towne, stop off at a mini mart for soda and rice krispie treats and head straight for Chase Hall, full goth persona, to login to Olohof until 5 or 6am.

I must stop here again to stress that at this time the internet was still just terminals hooked up to phone lines with people talking. No pictures, no websites, just chat. This was enough to keep us interested. In fact, I had been calling the school telnet line from my home computer for a few months before my mother decided she no longer wanted to see the $500 or $600 phone bills due to the 5 cent per minute charges I accrued. She told me to curb the phone use or get my own phone line. I opted for a personal phone line in my bedroom and continued to pay $500/month phone bills just to get on Olohof. It was an addiction, but not labeled as such, continued on until the World Wide Web appeared.

In 1998, I logged on to a new website called iVillage. On this site they offered free personal websites and I decided to go for it. They had templates that we could use to setup the site and I created my first online persona – bubbles fletcher (my drag name, if you must know). From there I began buying books on HTML and AOL in order to learn how to ‘code’ and ‘surf’ on the Internet. Next up I purchased a domain name, hippiegrrl.com, and started doing all my code from scratch in notepad. Templates were nice and easy, but why would someone with so much computer experience half ass it, right? To this day, I still feel that way and that is why I maintain my sites and blogs with notepad rather than Dreamweaver. Using programs to code is just a crutch. At least that is how I personally feel.

As the Internet grew, I grew with it, joining the Backwash community (in 2002) and becoming an online writer and admin for a site that boasted the tagline ‘Backwash – the Internet organized by personality’. I was in good company and we were trying to make this new phenomenon more user friendly for those who did not grow up with the technology, as most of us did. Writing articles and adding links for more information was the basis for my current day journal, all learned from being a member of the Backwash community. Fellow alum are now doing great things in the Social Media environment and I believe that the bulk of their expertise was driven by being early members of Backwash. We were not only building writing portfolios, but also learning how to manage online communities and comment feeds that would assist us on future sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

As I continue to journey through my life, I obtain more knowledge of computers and the Internet.  When I look back on all the changes over a very short period of time, I find it mind boggling how quickly everything has changed.  I began my computer life learning how to code in DOS and now I can write HTML code from scratch for a website.  I have learned how to maintain a database, how to use content management systems, how to create beautiful sites, with and without tables.  I lived through frames and javascript and flash that was faulty.  My career began in web design the day I started that iVillage page and has not let up since.  I may not always get paid for my designing, but I continue to learn and grow in the field.

Next year I will celebrate 20 years of being online and in 3 years I will celebrate 30 years with computers. I am squarely in the technology generation. Generation X might not be “the greatest generation”, but we are certainly the most malleable and the quickest to learn new things, especially when it comes to new technology. For those of us in our 30’s and 40’s the future looks bright, if we can continue to harness the greatness of the technology that we grew up with. If we can drop the petty arguments on Social Media and make it a place to truly share ideas and problem solve we could really make the future brighter for our generation and those to come after us.

Peace, Chantale (aka hippiegrrl)

appropriate link:
Internet Archive – jump in the wayback machine and take a ride to Internet days gone by.

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