So, to preface this, yes, I am a proud member of Liberal Party of Canada, and I had the pleasure and honour of attending this weekend’s biennial convention. If those two facts cause you to discount everything else I’ve got to say, then it’s your loss because what I have to say in this post has nothing to do with partisan politics and everything to do with getting involved in politics.
I’ve been interested in politics since I watched Air Farce as a kid… why did it take me until I was 26 to get involved?
What I saw this weekend, and what I participated in, was nothing short of awesome. You had a room of thousands of people consumed in heated debates, pouring their emotions into selling decisions that could potentially shape the direction of the 35 million people who inhabit this country. The stakes are high and the feeling is electric as policies and ideas are accepted or rejected in real time. It gives you a high that I’ve only experienced once before, after going skydiving. It’s that level of sensory and emotional stimuli to be in the room when those decisions are being made.
Yes, the Liberals adopted a resolution to support the legalization of marijuana. But I can assure you, having now experimented with both, the feeling of being involved in the political process, of being able to fearlessly speak your mind, to have your ideas listened to, and to have the best ideas percolate up to the point where they can have an impact on the lives of millions… that’s the better drug. It’s more fun. It’s the best I’ve ever had.
You and I may disagree on political issues, but I implore you, whatever your viewpoints may be… find people who agree or who are willing to listen and start having those conversations. Start trying to make a difference, whatever difference you want to make. It’s great when you succeed and it sucks when you fail, but in either case the journey is so invigorating that the outcome almost becomes secondary… indeed, it probably would be secondary if the stakes weren’t so high.
Stop reading this post and do something. If you don’t know where to start, email me or ask in the comments. If you think I’m too biased to give good advice (and don’t kid yourself, I am biased), use Google.
But for fuck’s sake, DO something.
- Write here more often. I used to refrain from posting anything outside the 500-750 word range, but between Facebook and Twitter, I don’t frame my thoughts on that scale with the frequency I used to. That’s not a criticism or a complaint, it just is. Expect smaller, more frequent posting in the new year.
- Use my resources more efficiently. For the first time this year… this didn’t feel particularly necessary. I was able to afford travel without watching my budgeting like a hawk as I had to in the past, but it’s not the optimal way of doing things. I can be more productive, healthier, travel more, and do more cool stuff just by spending less money on going out for junk food and booze. Yes, karaoke is fun. But the amount I spend on drinks every time I go out, multiplied by the frequency at which I go out… there’s so much more I could be doing.
- Read more books and fewer websites, if only because I’ve got a stack of the former to go through and I’ll never be able to get through all of the latter.
- Cook myself dinner every Saturday night. I’m good at it, and it’s more healthy then going out for junk. I’ve been doing better in this regard over the past month or so, but I can continue to improve.
- Work out more often. Again, I’ve been doing better at this in the past month, but I can do a lot better. I used to go to the gym 4-5 times a week. There’s no reason I can’t get back to that.
- Finish all the video games I own, but never got around to finishing. The list includes: Gears of War 3, Halo Reach, Bulletstorm, Alpha Protocol, Brutal Legend, Mass Effect 2, Dead Space, Arkham City, Call of Duty Black Ops, Okami, Final Fantasy XII, Silent Hill 2, Kingdom Hearts, God of War 1 and 2, Shadow of the Colossus.
If there’s one overarching theme in all this, it’s that I’ve got a ton of stuff at my disposal… and that whatever resources I have should be going to things that are going to improve my life. At the very least, I need to start making choices that aren’t limiting my ability to chase opportunities that are really interesting and cool. It’s not that I’m not doing well – I am – but damn if I won’t try to do even better in 2012.
I was asked to expand on my thoughts regarding the protests, so here we go:
I think they’re undermining their movement by hewing too closely to stereotypes people have about protesters being nothing but a bunch of hippies (drum circles, 9/11 conspiracy theories, etc.) and by hewing too closely to the Occupy Wall Street narrative when many of the things being protested in New York aren’t anywhere near as serious here.
It’s hard to sympathize on a lack of jobs when unemployment in Ottawa is 5.6%, among the lowest rates on the continent. It’s hard to sympathize about corrupt bankers when our banks weathered the credit crunch mostly intact thanks to strong regulations implemented over the past 20 years, though the amount of consumer debt Canadians carry is somewhat concerning.
That’s not to say there’s nothing worth protesting in this country. We’ve got a government that routinely ignores scientific evidence when it disagrees with their ideology (long-form census, Insite, omnibus crime bills, etc.). They legislate unions back to work, effectively nullifying their right to strike and damaging their ability to participate in collective bargaining, while ignoring the biggest criticism of unions: that they give poor employees far more job security than they deserve. I may be wrong on this, but I don’t believe our electoral system has changed much since Confederation – advances in technology mean we can and should be able to move to a more representative form of governance, but we don’t because no one with the power to change it has any incentive to do so.
I think that the Occupy protests have as much likelihood of effecting real change in this country as my voting in elections (which is to say not much at all), but it certainly isn’t any more futile than trying to effect change from within the system. And unlike voting, which is a one shot and you’re done affair, these protestors have demonstrated persistence, and it’s entirely possible that they’ll grow in numbers and support as time goes on and they show their resolve. With that being said, they need to do a better job of telling the public who they are, what they stand for, and why they deserve to be taken seriously.
There’s a great article by Douglas Rushkoff outlining why these protests haven’t fit into the traditional media narrative, and I agree with him that this is a different kind of protest, but it’s one that’s taking place in a world that still largely works by the rules of traditional media. I think the Occupy movements need a concise, accurate, and actionable description of their intent and objectives, because while they may not need one for themselves, people who could potentially support them do, and in the absence of one they’re going to be assigned whatever the media feels like saying.
Pardon my cynicism, but that may not be flattering.
(Source)
Ottawa’s population is just under 900,000 which is to say that after a little bit of quick arithmetic, today’s Occupy Ottawa protests might have briefly flirted with attracting 0.05% of the city’s population. To say that these guys speak for 99% of us might be a bit of a stretch.
Rest In Peace, Steve. This is a story about what happens when you don’t follow your dreams.
I’ve been web-savvy as long as there’s been a web. Okay, since Toy Story came out. Thank Steve for that too given his role at Pixar. The first web site I ever visited was www.toystory.com, after a botched attempt at typing an email address into the address bar. But I only opened a website in my own name about 18 months ago… and I moved too late on that.
It was the fall of 2004. I had an iPod and thought podcasting was the wave of the future… I’m not sure I still think this. I realize there’s a shitload of podcasts out there and a lot of them are great. I just don’t listen to them since I seldom have long stretches where I can listen to them uninterrupted. But in 2004? Hell yeah, I had tons of time. So I’d listen to Adam Curry and Reel Reviews Radio - I even recorded some movie reviews of my own that I’m not going to link but you can probably dig ‘em up if you’re that interested – I was an idiot at 18 but I still had a pretty solid voice. I piggybacked on other hosts at that point – emailing in requesting to do guest podcasts and getting my stuff online that way. I never invested in the relatively minor cost of getting my own hosting.
One Tuesday afternoon, while sitting in a dull International Studies class (fun fact: Economics wasn’t my first choice) I had an idea: what if someone had a personal podcast that started out as a normal day-to-day thing but then progressively got weirder and weirder and started introducing supernatural elements, eventually being revealed as a compelling supernatural narrative?
It was the product of taking the first few episodes of Lost way too seriously and not even remotely having the means to produce something on the level of Lonelygirl15 a couple years later (hell, YouTube didn’t even exist yet) but the horrible, hokey result exists on the internet and there’s no way in hell you’re finding it.
I never recorded a second episode, though I had a sheet of notes detailing the entire narrative that I’ve long since lost. I didn’t commit to it. I didn’t throw myself at it with full force to make it the absolute best it could be. The idea was more interesting than my ability to execute on it, but that I never even tried… in those early days just being out there gave you some first mover advantage. No one knew what the rules were and weren’t so you could experiment.
And I didn’t because paying out of pocket for web hosting and a decent mic (in the grand scheme of things, a pittance and well within my budget) was too much money.
I’m not entirely sure what the point of this story is… but I think of myself back then, and how, rather than commit to doing something at the absolute peak of my abilities… I chickened out. I’ve changed a lot in the 7 years hence, but I still feel that way about myself, quite often. I don’t go to the gym as much as I should. I eat shitty fast food instead of putting in the time and effort to cook for myself (and I’m a good cook! I swear!). I tell a customer they’ll need to wait until tomorrow to chat because I’m swamped and I don’t want to put in the extra time at the office.
I can be better than this, and there’s no reason that I’m not beyond me knowing that people are still going to be happy with me if I can kick ass on stage (which I can).
I don’t want people to be happy with me – I want them to be awestruck and intimidated by the scale of my accomplishments. I want to be Steve Jobs, and the chances of that happening are pretty slim, but they’re absolutely nil if I keep accepting bullshit excuses from myself for my inadequacies. I’m going to bed now. I suspect I’ll need it tomorrow.
Maybe it’s just me, but based on his performance last night, Dalton McGuinty is the first politician I’ve seen in a long time who seems more excited about the prospects of what he could do for the province if he’s elected than he is about the prospect of actually being elected.
I’m not suggesting that he was particularly good in the debate, though I think he handled most of the attacks sent his way pretty well… just that he was animated. Passionate about his policies. That he gives a damn about what happens to this province after October 6th.
The opposition had ample ammunition to go after him – and they did – but what they didn’t do is define a coherent vision for the kind of Ontario they want to build. Agree with them or not, McGuinty made his ideas clear: Aggressively pursue foreign investment and double down on green manufacturing.
Where were the similarly ambitious policies from the opposition?
Hi,
Thanks for visiting. I’m going to be relaunching this site at some point in the next few weeks (think early-mid October). In the meantime, stuff may look a little wonky, but you can still subscribe to get all the updates as things progress along.
Cheers,
Brian
I initially had this thought as I was walking out of Captain America earlier this summer, and let it sit for a while – to the point that it almost became irrelevant because the movie had been out for too long. This weekend’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks makes it kinda relevant again, so here we go! Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the film, what I’m about to mention is in the first 10 minutes of the film and doesn’t go anywhere near spoiler territory.
One of the first scenes of the film is Steve Rogers sitting in a theatre as the newsreels play before the movie – if you’ve never seen one of these, there’s an example here – and in that old-timey style, they talk about the home front and how everyone’s gotta pitch in make sacrifices… Little Timmy hunting for scrap metal and all that jazz.
I looked at that, and I thought about the sacrifices asked of the American people through the War on Terror, and I wondered if anything even remotely comparable was asked of the American people this time around? I remember the priority just being that everyone had to keep spending money. Hell, they even pushed through big tax cuts to encourage that, with no concern over going into deficit to fund the war effort.
It goes without saying that the two are completely different kinds of conflict, but both were sold as existential threats to the continued existence of the USA. Outside of those who’ve lost loved ones or serve in the armed forces, I wonder how many Americans feel like they’ve done anything to directly contribute to America’s success in this war, the way people rationing gas or foraging for scrap metal during WWII almost certainly did.
Considering that the US has now been in Iraq for longer than it was in both WWI and WWII combined at this point (even longer in Afghanistan), it just begs the question: Is war really hell if “doing your part” means buying a 50″ flatscreen and a new couch? How much can people be expected to demand a swift and conclusive resolution to military engagement when it’s not really having an impact on their day to day life?
Just a thought.
It’s a neat coincidence that I had a post planned out in my head when the recent story dropped regarding a young woman and her adventures with online dating and a Magic: The Gathering world champion.
I’m not going to link the story because it doesn’t deserve the ad revenue, but the gist is: boy approaches girl on online dating site, they agree to meet for a date, she loses interest because he plays Magic cards seriously enough that he’s won world championships, and then, instead of just going on with her life and chalking it up to the crapshoot online dating so often is, writes a pretty mean-spirited blog post, publicly outing him and playing herself up as a victim for having to endure dates with such a horribly geeky human being.
And coming off my annual trip to PAX, a nerdly nerd-fest if ever there was one (I got the slip of paper from my dice cube signed by Wil Wheaton!) it should be easy for me to pile on and call Alyssa Bereznak a terrible and judgmental woman. To say that it’s possible to be socially well-adjusted and play video games, or Magic, or D&D (my current geekly weapon of choice). Both of these things are true.
But to leave it at that ignores the reason why people like Ms. Bereznak have a negative impression of geeks. It’s a reason I encountered more than a few times over the course of my weekend at PAX: compared with just about any other subset of society, we’re considerably more likely to lack social skills, to let ego and arrogance run wild, to think that daily showers are optional.
“More likely” isn’t the same as “likely” – I’m not saying this applies to the majority of attendees because that simply isn’t true. But if you took 10 PAX attendees and 10 people at random, I’d bet on the rate of incidence being higher in the former group every time. It’s prevalent enough that every year I’ve attended PAX I’ve had negative experiences: A Q&A on anything turning into a personal storytelling session that makes the audience question portion of local political debates seem concise. People overestimating their abilities on the Rock Band stage and screwing my friends and I out of the song we only needed a drummer for. And of course, the several-times-daily occurrence of being overwhelmed by a wall of nerd-stink because people decided not to shower.
And I want to stress – these negative elements aren’t so bad that they ruin PAX. PAX this year was a blast – I tried new tabletop and videogames, met a ton of awesome people, and sat in on some really great panels. But on the heels of PAX, I know there’s going to be people who read that article and believe that the reason they’re social outcasts is because they play Magic, or D&D, or video games. They’re going to identify with the fairly normal hedge fund investor who happens to have a geeky indulgence that he’s absurdly good at. And they’re mistaken on both counts.
Once you leave high school, very few people look down on you for being a gamer, and the minority that do are lame and not worth your time. If you’re looked down on, it’s more likely because you smell awful, consider being unemployed and watching animé all day in your parents’ house a perfectly acceptable existence, and can’t recognize that a Q&A is a time for questions and answers, not long-winded personal stories that don’t really end in a question.
I’m okay with being an asshole for pointing this out, but if you look like you took a quick glance in the mirror before you left the house, people notice, whether you’re in regular clean clothes or an elaborate cosplay outfit. If the things you’re working on in your life demonstrate ambition and drive, people notice, whether you’re trying to launch a new collectible card game you’ve designed from scratch or putting in crazy hours at your day job because the work’s gotta get done. And if you respect that other people are busy and have a finite amount of time, again, people notice.
It’s the simplest of rules: you get what you give. Demonstrate respect for yourself and others, and you’ll find the people around you doing the same in return. Hopefully then we can stop wasting our time moaning about being social outcasts and get back to work being awesome people who are passionate about their interests, however geeky they may be.
An update seems appropriate, given that’s it’s been a few months since I last wrote.
The short version: Pretty damn good. Tomorrow’s my 6-month anniversary at Shopify, and my work there’s going even better than I expected. When I started I set a goal for myself that I wanted to be the go-to guy for Penny Arcade, one of the company’s larger accounts. Now I handle them, Angry Birds, Epic Meal Time, and there’s more in the works… this on top of the day-to-day work of helping entrepreneurs from all over the world launch their businesses online. It’s pretty good stuff.
I landed my first paid gig as a stand-up comic, and did well enough that I’ve been offered another in September (details to come). Next week I’ll be doing my first gig in the US, performing at Beantown Comedy in Boston on August 23rd (if you’re in town, grab tickets here). And hey, if you want to see me sooner than that, I’m playing Cafe Deckuf this Tuesday – more info here.
And yet, there’s some stuff that I haven’t done. I don’t think I’m defined by my ability to keep up with and deliver on my commitments, but it is something I really strive to do, and frankly, I haven’t committed the time to #GenYOTT that I should have over the past few months. With that in mind, I’ve stepped down from my role in helping organize those events. I’m really proud of the community we’ve built over the past 20 months or so, and I’ve got the utmost confidence in Japman and Jen going forward. You’ll still see me at their events, but strictly in a participatory role.
So that’s me. I’m sure I’ll have more to say in the coming weeks and months – I’ve been re-evaluating a number of my commitments and this blog is one I’d like to get back into the habit of posting to regularly. As always, we’ll see how well I can stick to that, but that’s the plan.