Looking for some Liberty

The trek through IKEA is rather stressful.  They've laid out the place like a course that they want you to follow.  Rather than go up and down rows based on my needs or desires, they would prefer that I follow their meandering course so that I pass every single thing they are selling.  Imagine if all stores and places were like that?

What if YouTube didn't allow me to search for videos that I wanted?  What if I had to do things there way instead of mine.  Okay, actually, they seem to be changing YouTube to force me to do thing that I don't want.  Maybe they took a page from Apple or Microsoft and decided that it's their way or the highway.

But I digress....as much as they will let me.

I just want some liberty.  We talk about freedom, but we really don't seem to have it.  Maybe Rousseau was right.  Stay inside the lines, have your quarter for your shopping car deposit, no substitutions with your combo meal, no you can't have those channels with that cable package.  I grant that none of these things is really that oppressive..... but they kind of are.

I don't think freedom is about doing whatever you want.  I do think freedom should not allow you to harm others, or even bother others.  If I believed that you should do whatever you want whenever you want without regard to anyone, then I wouldn't mind those annoying people on the bus whose crappy music bleeds out of their earphones.

No, I just want freedom from the people who could so easily give it to me.  I want to choose the channel I can watch.  If nobody wants a crappy channel, then it will go out of business and free up advertising dollars for someone else.  If I want to quickly blast through IKEA without checking out every piece of unpronounceable furniture, that should be my right.  If I want to have multiple names on my YouTube account, leave me alone.

No Video No Cry

 

 

The last blockbuster store is closing.  Should I weep?  I don't think so.  They should have seen the writing on the wall.  They should have known their business model was almost finished.  They, along with DVD distribution companies, soaked us long enough.  They had their late fees, and high prices for new releases.  They got their money, they just forgot to get out of the game while the getting was good.

Now we have Netflix, or other semi legal (and semi illegal) options.  There is another option.  The one I use is the library.  The library has lots of DVD's right now.  This may not last forever, but it should be good for a while.  Unfortunately, nobody cleans the DVD's at the library, and people who get things for free don't treat them well.  Why respect anyone property if you don't have to (insert sarcastic indignation here).

What will the future bring?  Good question.  I don't know, but I do know I will not be weeping because Blockbuster didn't adapt to the times.

Where's Your Poppy

 

I have overheard a lot of people calling Monday a holiday.  No, it isn't.  A holiday celebrates something.  Monday is Remembrance day.  A time to mourn, a time to remember sacrifices people made so that things as mundane as this blog, or things as bizarre as Rob Ford, or even things as everyday as offering your opinion could happen.

Wearing the poppy means you understand and respect that others died fighting for freedom, fighting for the rights of others and fighting for a way of life.

I have heard people question if we should honour war.  It isn't about war.   Most of the people who fought would not tell you they liked war.  They didn't enjoy killing.  They didn't want to rob anyone of their life.  They did it because they were sent.

Monday is about the people who fought.  It isn't about the politicians, or oil companies or anything else.  It's about regular people who didn't know if they would come home or not. 

Donate money and wear your poppy proudly. 

PIles of Flyers

 

I hate to say it, but I think they distribute too many flyers.  I hate to say it, because I like looking through the flyers.  I enjoy hunting down a deal.  I go over most of them, but I wonder if I need as many as I get?  More than half hit the recycle bin without even a glance.  I usually only keep the ones for food.  I might keep the electronics ones if there is something that I am planning on buying.

I don't want to put the printing guys out of business.  That is no small thing as it is a big business in my town.  I know that most of the flyers and catalogues are printed locally, but I am just wondering where that business will be in ten years?  We will all have probably gone digital and I will have to view the flyers on my tablet.  Most stores no longer deliver catalogues, and only a few of them have them if you ask.  I actually like catalogues and have kept the last Canadian Tire catalogue as a reminder of how things used to be.

It sounds far fetched, but the flyers are available online now, so how long before they stop delivering them?  How long before they become library collections.  Actually, Canadian Tire donated their complete catalogue and flyer collection to my University, and they had to build another building to house it all.  Someday, somebody will do their dissertation on the effects of Canadian Tire money on the Canadian economy.

As I write this, I realize, I had better not wish the flyers away.  I don't have a tablet and until e-flyers can turn their pages as quickly as paper ones can, I will not be satisfied.

Calendar Conundrum

I am looking at one of those desktop day calendars where you rip off the day once it is done.  This happens to be one of those learn a word a day types.  I can't say this is completely wrong, but I can't say it is completely right either.  I feel so conflicted.

I received the calendar as a stocking stuffer last year.  I appreciate the gift because it does, in fact, seem very suitable.  I am an English teacher, I like learning and I like words.  This last point is evident because I am writing a blog and I do crosswords almost every day.

There are two problems with this calendar, though.  The first is that I really don't look at it every day.  I look at it once a month.  I attribute this to the fact that it sits in the corner of my desk I am least likely to look at, or most likely to ignore.  I cannot, in good conscience, blame the calendar for this.  I could put it in a more conspicuous place on the desk, though no space seems to be offering itself.  The problem is that once the month is gone, am I gone to look through thirty or so words?  Most likely, I will rip off the stack of words until the day in question.  I might glance through them, but will study them?  I have used the word unlikely already, so I will answer that it is improbable.

The other problem is that most of these words are not new to me.  As I said, I am an English teacher who does crosswords.  Yes, I have learned a few (sanguine, for one, which really didn't mean what I thought it did) and I have come across words that I had no idea existed (October 16 was ailurophobia--and now Microsoft's spellchecker is rejecting it).  Will I remember these words?  Does glancing at them mean that I have somehow absorbed them?  Can I learn through osmosis (no, I didn't get that one from the calendar, but there are still two months to go).

Christmas is soon upon us, and perhaps I will get another one of these calendars.  While I cannot say I would reject getting one, I would say the idea of it doesn't thrill me.  As I gather up these papers and prepare them for the recycle box, I wonder if I should give one to the person who gave me this one.  Retaliation--that word was in the calendar.