I have not taken a course in philosophy before. This Spring semester will include my first.
high adventure, fearless cooking, insight and humor accumulated throughout a 27-year journey...
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
22 January 2015
19 January 2015
The Gradual Commercialisation of the Internet
Today, I logged on to my Twitter account. It took me quite a bit of scrolling to come across a post from an actual person. I think I've become disenchanted with the Internet itself.
Reminiscing about the good old days, I do recall when the Internet was fresh, exciting, and new. I was in junior high, and the anonymity offered by AIM and Yahoo chat rooms made so exhilarating the chance to pick one's own username. My friends and I discovered a place to create our own, simple webpages for free; this proved to be a place to learn a bit of basic HTML. We'd impress each other with cool fonts, glorious color schemes, and GIFs of dancing hamsters and bananas.
In high school, the focus turned to LiveJournal and Xanga, the old-school venues for blogging. Anyone online could post jokes, stories, or plain ol' accounts of fun in real life. Friends all shared these sites with each other, but we were anonymous to the rest of the world.
In college, Facebook appeared. Its novelty was found in the disappearance of the former anonymity of Internet users. We connected with people taking the same classes as us, and posted photos of the ridiculous things we did the night before (which, by the way, required using a USB cord to download the photos off one's camera ...remember those?). Facebook was the exciting, new social media for anyone with a .edu email address.
Then, high schoolers appeared on Facebook, and it became less cool. Then, our parents appeared on Facebook, and it lost any "cool" appeal whatsoever. Then, companies appeared on Facebook, and it became a sea of advertisements and news articles.
As a "millennial" who grew up with the Internet, I find myself scrolling and scrolling through Facebook every few days, hoping to see something interesting - but there is nothing! It's become so boring recently. It's all re-postings of Buzzfeed articles, viral videos (of people I don't know), commercials, and ridiculousness. "Social media" has lost all that once was "social." It used to be about sharing stories with friends through written word. Now, our "feeds" feed us commericalism (which we consume enough of when we watch television).
The landscape of the US has been marred by the ugliness of billboards and advertisements (I so prefer driving in remote areas where no company would bother to put up a sign). We see brand marketing everywhere, from our TV and computer screens to the tiny computers in our pockets to the trash on the side of the road (even there, those McDonald's and Starbucks logos stand out plainly).
I won't tirade against capitalism, but I am tired of companies trying to get me to buy stuff everywhere I look. Marketing has its place, and gone are the days when companies just had a choice of what size newspaper ad to purchase. But trust me, dear corporations of the world, I will never buy a new car; I will never purchase a "diet system"; I do not eat fast food; I have no interest in purchasing clothing online.
I still remember the days when I'd sit down at the desk, fire up the computer, and wait for the monitor to warm up to see what new excitement awaited me. "Going on-line" was a former pastime of mine; and I'll probably continue to remember the "Hamster Dance" fondly.
However, all the noise of the new Internet does give good reason to keep investing in and spending time in books (paper books with ink on pages!); and to spend time playing outside. < / rant >
Reminiscing about the good old days, I do recall when the Internet was fresh, exciting, and new. I was in junior high, and the anonymity offered by AIM and Yahoo chat rooms made so exhilarating the chance to pick one's own username. My friends and I discovered a place to create our own, simple webpages for free; this proved to be a place to learn a bit of basic HTML. We'd impress each other with cool fonts, glorious color schemes, and GIFs of dancing hamsters and bananas.
In high school, the focus turned to LiveJournal and Xanga, the old-school venues for blogging. Anyone online could post jokes, stories, or plain ol' accounts of fun in real life. Friends all shared these sites with each other, but we were anonymous to the rest of the world.
In college, Facebook appeared. Its novelty was found in the disappearance of the former anonymity of Internet users. We connected with people taking the same classes as us, and posted photos of the ridiculous things we did the night before (which, by the way, required using a USB cord to download the photos off one's camera ...remember those?). Facebook was the exciting, new social media for anyone with a .edu email address.
Then, high schoolers appeared on Facebook, and it became less cool. Then, our parents appeared on Facebook, and it lost any "cool" appeal whatsoever. Then, companies appeared on Facebook, and it became a sea of advertisements and news articles.
As a "millennial" who grew up with the Internet, I find myself scrolling and scrolling through Facebook every few days, hoping to see something interesting - but there is nothing! It's become so boring recently. It's all re-postings of Buzzfeed articles, viral videos (of people I don't know), commercials, and ridiculousness. "Social media" has lost all that once was "social." It used to be about sharing stories with friends through written word. Now, our "feeds" feed us commericalism (which we consume enough of when we watch television).
The landscape of the US has been marred by the ugliness of billboards and advertisements (I so prefer driving in remote areas where no company would bother to put up a sign). We see brand marketing everywhere, from our TV and computer screens to the tiny computers in our pockets to the trash on the side of the road (even there, those McDonald's and Starbucks logos stand out plainly).
I won't tirade against capitalism, but I am tired of companies trying to get me to buy stuff everywhere I look. Marketing has its place, and gone are the days when companies just had a choice of what size newspaper ad to purchase. But trust me, dear corporations of the world, I will never buy a new car; I will never purchase a "diet system"; I do not eat fast food; I have no interest in purchasing clothing online.
I still remember the days when I'd sit down at the desk, fire up the computer, and wait for the monitor to warm up to see what new excitement awaited me. "Going on-line" was a former pastime of mine; and I'll probably continue to remember the "Hamster Dance" fondly.
However, all the noise of the new Internet does give good reason to keep investing in and spending time in books (paper books with ink on pages!); and to spend time playing outside. < / rant >
26 January 2014
Sunday Seven 27-1-2014
Today begins a new series - a way for me to share things I love/enjoy/recommend. Introducing... the Sunday Seven! Read on for inspirations and recommendations...
1. A book: Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us beautifully combines biology, poetry, and history (geologic history, the histories of sailing and oceanography). I read it while in Maine this summer, and it inspired me to closely examine and enjoy tiny organisms (whelks and seaweed-dwelling bugs) in addition to the vastness of the sea. Ms. Carson's writings motivate me to spend hours scouring seaside boulders, trees, and lichens.
1. A book: Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us beautifully combines biology, poetry, and history (geologic history, the histories of sailing and oceanography). I read it while in Maine this summer, and it inspired me to closely examine and enjoy tiny organisms (whelks and seaweed-dwelling bugs) in addition to the vastness of the sea. Ms. Carson's writings motivate me to spend hours scouring seaside boulders, trees, and lichens.
2. A movie: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a witty, British drama about a group of 60+ Britons settling in India for their retirement, and discovering that life's biggest adventures can whisk you away in your golden years. The cast - Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy - initially attracted my attention, and carried the film beautifully. Seeing Bill N. and Penelope Wilton play a married couple made me wonder if I had discovered an alternate ending to Shaun of the Dead.
3. A game: The Sims - using fancy, modern technology to play... with dolls.
4. A TV program: Modern Family is hilarious! Recently, I enjoyed a scene that overlaid Cam tenderly singing "Ave Maria" whilst Mitch destroyed their living room with a tennis racquet, trying to kill a rogue pigeon. I
haven't laughed that hard since the first four times I watched Arrested
Development (no, not the first four episodes...)
5. This organization: Defy Ventures, Inc. trains and equips criminal offenders to become entrepreneurs after their release from prison. Founder Catherine Hoke spoke at church this morning, and told us how the program releases her clients from the cycle of poverty, welfare, and crime; and suits them up as successful business owners, creating new jobs and pumping tax money into the economy. Did you know that in New York, it costs $167,000 a year to incarcerate one person? Check out Defy Ventures - the stories of redemption are beautiful!
6. This news article: "South Sudan ceasefire takes effect" - hopeful!
7. These cookies: SAMOAS and THIN MINTS. Thank God for Girl Scout cookie season.
20 November 2009
What to Eat
Currently reading What to Eat by Marion Nestle. She's a professor of nutrition at NYU. Cool.
Apparently she's done all sorts of extensive research on what food companies want us to think and buy, who owns food companies, why grocery stores are all laid out the same way, and what goes into genetically modified, organic, conventional, and local foods.
If you've ever been to a grocery store in North America, it probably has either flowers or the bakery section by the entrance [to stimulate appetite by smell], long long aisles of prepackaged foods [to keep you interested while walking along slowly], bright shining bins of produce [waxed over & labelled with various countries & states of nonlocal origin] and all that placed between you and the important stuff [milk, bread, eggs, meats - all located furthest away from the entrances] so that you look at more things they have to offer than you need.
The author states that 70% of grocery store customers create lists before shopping. 10% of shoppers don't buy more than their list includes.
Next time: Sugar - How invasive it is in our diets.
Apparently she's done all sorts of extensive research on what food companies want us to think and buy, who owns food companies, why grocery stores are all laid out the same way, and what goes into genetically modified, organic, conventional, and local foods.
If you've ever been to a grocery store in North America, it probably has either flowers or the bakery section by the entrance [to stimulate appetite by smell], long long aisles of prepackaged foods [to keep you interested while walking along slowly], bright shining bins of produce [waxed over & labelled with various countries & states of nonlocal origin] and all that placed between you and the important stuff [milk, bread, eggs, meats - all located furthest away from the entrances] so that you look at more things they have to offer than you need.
The author states that 70% of grocery store customers create lists before shopping. 10% of shoppers don't buy more than their list includes.
Next time: Sugar - How invasive it is in our diets.
12 May 2009
Bread Winner
Check out what I made:
Also did some tiny, roundy dinner rolls for Mother's Day supper. Caprese salad, steak marinated in flat trippel & basil, dirt pudding. Turned out to be a great meal!
I'm currently in love with this publication: The Book of Bread by Judith & Evan Jones. The authors are a homesteadin' Vermont couple who've travelled globally to bake locally. Their book is full of the very best recipes they've collected from around the world, and it includes pleasant little sketches of dough being kneaded and loaves after baking. I really like that the whole thing is printed on a creamy paper in brown ink - very pleasing to the eye and grain-oriented!
Well, I've been borrowing (and renewing) the library's copy for several weeks now, and tainting its pages with whole wheat flour. I would really love my own copy, but Greg tells me to wait on it as he comes from a lineage of baking women who have their own recipe books to share. I look forward to that - so for now I'll keep taking advantage of the library. ;-)
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