The deleting of my Twitter account happened yesterday. I don't even have anything against Twitter; in fact, I probably have less against Twitter than I do against Facebook. However, Facebook at this moment is a necessary evil and deleting it would mean severely limiting the contact I could have with my beloved Americans. Twitter, I enjoy, but it's a purposeless enjoyment. It might bring me a laugh or two on the daily, but I've found that I mindlessly scroll through my news feed too often, just because I am bored and feel like I have nothing else to do. Then, I post things that I could just write on this, or keep to myself, or tell someone in particular. I just realized that I don't really feel the need to broadcast my thoughts to everyone who follows me (not like its really much of a crowd).
If I keep more things to myself, maybe they will turn into greater things later that can inspire a greater thought process, rather than being an immediate splash of words for me to get off my chest and have others glance at momentarily, if noticing them at all, while I forget them completely.
Plus, I just kinda want to distance myself from this desire for social media and constant interaction. For almost a year I was completely devoid of any of it, and I enjoyed that. But when I came back to Facebook, I went all in and got a Twitter soon after, then a tumblr, and then a Pinterest. Well, I don't use tumblr anymore, and I won't get rid of Pinterest because more than anything its just USEFUL! and fun. so many recipes that I actually try, and it provides me with inspiration for art and such. But, the point is, I need to limit. Eventually I hope to get rid of the Facebook again, life was so much better and less wasted without it. But not yet, for now I must wait.
These ramblings were actually written last night, and hence, it is hilarious that for the second week in a row, my Sunday contemplations have led perfectly into issues brought up in class on Monday:
Mondays are setting a trend for being thought-provocative days. My Digital Age class again caused a fire to swell inside of me. Not this time with sentimentality towards the written book, but with a (I now see it as a truly American notion) vigor to protect and maintain my liberty and privacy. Big Brother is at it, all over Europe, but more so the UK apparently, and people are okay with this?! "CCTV" is watching people at all moments in public, on buses, on the streets, and in the universities and schools. "To protect the citizens and work as a preventative measure, for keeping the peace" or whatever, but now they're implementing audio tracking as well! So that hateful/prejudicial speech can be monitored and stamped out.
Maybe it's just me (and in my class today it was), but this view that cameras and recordings are the best way to keep a society in line is complete ridiculousness. A society should be able to function through the character of its own citizens, aka if someone is being a racist jerk, then the people around should be upstanding enough to tell that person directly, not wait for The All-Seeing Eye to send a minion out to swoop down and punish. This practice seems to be a demoralizing one. Why would people continue to feel responsibility in standing up for their convictions and for the Good, when they think someone else is already in line to do it for them, someone sitting behind a TV monitor...
This discussion was included in the broader discussion that the world is becoming more visible in all ways. People disclose their lives or most parts of it on Facebook, Twitter, and other ways that are seen by hundreds of "friends" and possible others, too. My teacher was saying that in ten years we will be laughing that we thought "audio recordings of our actions in public was something to be hesitant about" and saying that everyone will be used to having their lives in the public domain, it will just be written in their minds that it is "normal."
He was making the point that everyone wants to be normal, so if it is normal that everyone is hooked into social media to such a great extent, then everyone will do it. Likening it to the fact of everyone having a mobile phone now: if you don't, you aren't normal, you are strange; cell phones have become basically necessary since it is how everyone communicates. He then asked the class "who wants to be strange, or doesn't mind being excluded from society or regarded as normal?" I raised my hand. To hell with Society! Bah!
This is making me almost choose to not get a cell plan over here at all. Who WANTS to be normal? Not I and especially not on the platform that it means being so plugged in to the digital environment that I am losing touch with the REAL WORLD AROUND ME. The lands I travel to, the BOOKS I READ, the sights I see; if they are all seen through a lens of virtual existence then what even IS there?!
I hope that as a global community we don't continue to slide down this slippery slope, and that people will realize technology is a tool not a lifestyle.
Showing posts with label multi-cultural. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multi-cultural. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Day 19: Pasta is Cheap and Pasta is Good.
Sunday, a day of rest.
Yes, indeed. I slept in.
I watched many episodes of Arrested Development. Which I also did yesterday.
I went grocery shopping with my last 14 pounds and now have 57 pence left. Alas, have no fear, for my bank account is opening, so I just have to transfer my money, shrink it, and boom it'll be ready to use!
I then made some bread and some pasta, left the dough to rise and the pasta to sit in the 'fridgerator, while I made my way to St. Mary's Cathedral for the first time since I've been here, to go to my second mass of the weekend and my second choir. Yes, that's right, I've found myself included in two choirs now.
Tea at the church after mass with a couple "already" friends and several new ones was nice. Zoli was a-playin' on the gee-tar. All the Indians were yelling in different languages and making fun of their respective states and laughing, while me, the American, Zoli, the Hungarian, and Martha, the Czech, plus Evelyn, the Old Lady, were left in unawares. Good times. We were eventually shooed out of the church when we found ourselves right outside in a brief sing-along session to Adele, Train, and the likes. We are currently in the planning stages of a karaoke night to come.
We walked back, and I popped the bread in the oven and ate my pasta. And I just have to say. Pasta is good without doing much to it. Carlay, I'ma give you a shout out, because I know you are Patron of Meager Toppings, and I can appreciate that. Some cheese, garlic and olive oil was all I had-- and all I needed-- to fully enjoy my dinner. Being poor isn't the worst. Just gonna be carb loading for a while, ya dig?
Now I suppose I shall do some work or something.
Good night. Good weekend.
Hello, Week.
Yes, indeed. I slept in.
I watched many episodes of Arrested Development. Which I also did yesterday.
I went grocery shopping with my last 14 pounds and now have 57 pence left. Alas, have no fear, for my bank account is opening, so I just have to transfer my money, shrink it, and boom it'll be ready to use!
I then made some bread and some pasta, left the dough to rise and the pasta to sit in the 'fridgerator, while I made my way to St. Mary's Cathedral for the first time since I've been here, to go to my second mass of the weekend and my second choir. Yes, that's right, I've found myself included in two choirs now.
Tea at the church after mass with a couple "already" friends and several new ones was nice. Zoli was a-playin' on the gee-tar. All the Indians were yelling in different languages and making fun of their respective states and laughing, while me, the American, Zoli, the Hungarian, and Martha, the Czech, plus Evelyn, the Old Lady, were left in unawares. Good times. We were eventually shooed out of the church when we found ourselves right outside in a brief sing-along session to Adele, Train, and the likes. We are currently in the planning stages of a karaoke night to come.
We walked back, and I popped the bread in the oven and ate my pasta. And I just have to say. Pasta is good without doing much to it. Carlay, I'ma give you a shout out, because I know you are Patron of Meager Toppings, and I can appreciate that. Some cheese, garlic and olive oil was all I had-- and all I needed-- to fully enjoy my dinner. Being poor isn't the worst. Just gonna be carb loading for a while, ya dig?
Now I suppose I shall do some work or something.
Good night. Good weekend.
Hello, Week.
Day 17&18: Ice Cream Factory
Thinking of names for these blog posts has become the bane of my existence.
Friday was a good day: class, then I went to choir practice, and then to a "movie" with some of the St Peter's young adults. Except the movie wasn't actually playing when we thought it was playing, so we settled for Pizza Hut after a long period of indecisive wandering. I had already eaten dins, so I got the "Ice Cream Factory" which is just all you can eat ice cream and toppings from their ice cream bar. Two bowls did me good. That was the first true ice cream I've had since I've been here, and I needed it. Hanging with Christine, Harin, Bruno, and Sean was quite fun, too. They got a little taste of my ridiculousness, loud laugh included.
Saturday, I literally did a whole lot of nothing, until I had to leave to get to vigil mass. I sang with the choir up in the choir loft, pretending like I was someone, except we hadn't even practiced the vigil hymns, so I didn't know them, except two which I knew just from growing up Catholic. But yeah, I caught on and blah di blah. We then went to the BISHOP'S HOUSE. Like, this is something that happens commonly over here. These kids, they just go and chill with the bishop. I mean, it was a designated event with adoration and a talk, but still, he knows all of them by name and is always around, and it's crazy. I guess their diocese (is it the same plural?) are just smaller over here because it's a smaller country, so there can be more interaction as such.
The talk was given by Sister Andrea from I-forget-the-order-name, but they help women in Crisis pregnancies. Good talk. On Sex and Babies. Always a good topic, eh? And I guess it was fitting given the readings for this Sunday, all that "men-and-women-shall-not-be-separated" stuff.
There was an intercession in the middle where we stopped for tea, and Bruno and I ate like 400 pounds of sour cream and onion chips, but it was just so good, because you know when you reach down to take a potato chip, assuming its Regular and that it will only be mildly good, but then its Sour Cream and Onion and the next thing you know you are in Chip Heaven and you JUST. CANT. STOP. YOURSELF. Well, whether you've experienced this or not, it's what happened.
Also, if anyone is wondering how I so casually didn't talk about getting involved in the church choir, thennn, yeah. I guess it takes me flying across an ocean to decide to want to sing for anyone. It's weird though.
Friday was a good day: class, then I went to choir practice, and then to a "movie" with some of the St Peter's young adults. Except the movie wasn't actually playing when we thought it was playing, so we settled for Pizza Hut after a long period of indecisive wandering. I had already eaten dins, so I got the "Ice Cream Factory" which is just all you can eat ice cream and toppings from their ice cream bar. Two bowls did me good. That was the first true ice cream I've had since I've been here, and I needed it. Hanging with Christine, Harin, Bruno, and Sean was quite fun, too. They got a little taste of my ridiculousness, loud laugh included.
Saturday, I literally did a whole lot of nothing, until I had to leave to get to vigil mass. I sang with the choir up in the choir loft, pretending like I was someone, except we hadn't even practiced the vigil hymns, so I didn't know them, except two which I knew just from growing up Catholic. But yeah, I caught on and blah di blah. We then went to the BISHOP'S HOUSE. Like, this is something that happens commonly over here. These kids, they just go and chill with the bishop. I mean, it was a designated event with adoration and a talk, but still, he knows all of them by name and is always around, and it's crazy. I guess their diocese (is it the same plural?) are just smaller over here because it's a smaller country, so there can be more interaction as such.
The talk was given by Sister Andrea from I-forget-the-order-name, but they help women in Crisis pregnancies. Good talk. On Sex and Babies. Always a good topic, eh? And I guess it was fitting given the readings for this Sunday, all that "men-and-women-shall-not-be-separated" stuff.
There was an intercession in the middle where we stopped for tea, and Bruno and I ate like 400 pounds of sour cream and onion chips, but it was just so good, because you know when you reach down to take a potato chip, assuming its Regular and that it will only be mildly good, but then its Sour Cream and Onion and the next thing you know you are in Chip Heaven and you JUST. CANT. STOP. YOURSELF. Well, whether you've experienced this or not, it's what happened.
Also, if anyone is wondering how I so casually didn't talk about getting involved in the church choir, thennn, yeah. I guess it takes me flying across an ocean to decide to want to sing for anyone. It's weird though.
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