The Writing Experience - Digital Vs. Manual

Up until about a year a year after I got out of high school, writing with a pen and paper used to be my preference. I felt like I was able to have better flow with my writing when I manually wrote down my words, versus when I would type on the computer.  I would just get distracted by all of the gadgets and formatting options that went with working with a word processor.  My spelling also used to be a lot better when I was to write things out by hand.  However, it wasn't the computer that destroyed that for me - it was auto correct on my cell phone.  It has gotten to the point where I don't even have to think about that i am trying to spell.  I now rely so heavily on the crutches of digital technology, with both phones and computers, that it takes away from the writing and grammar abilities that I used to posses.  I feel like it has actually "dumbed" down my writing abilities.

Back in the time that Helen Keller wrote her book, she did not have the option of writing with a digital interface.  There was no choice but to write by hand or with a type writer, meaning that she did not have the luxury of the editing programs that we have now.  This does make it a little more challenging, but it isn't always the best thing to have.  These tools end up being used as a crutch for lazy writers.  Other than the obvious inhibiting factors that Helen Keller had to go through, from my personal experience, I find that working on a non-digital medium is better for writing integrity.  

Being Anonymous Online

I was looking at some You Tube comments recently and the common theme that I saw was that the people commenting have no filters with what they post.  Why is this? It is directly related to the fact that these people are posting anonymously, allowing for people to be brutally honest (and even rude in some cases) because nobody knows who you are. Being a faceless person on the internet, people have more confidence to say what is actually on their minds when they would usually be to scared to do so. In a face-to-face conversation, you cannot get away with the same things as if you were to post a comment on YouTube or talk to someone in a chat room.  It allows people to be more truthful and more “themselves” when they can post as person without an identity. However, by having this anonymous voice with no consequences, people can say some pretty mean things to people.  For example, if you have ever seen the Rebecca black video “Friday,” it is kind of crazy what some people can say to other people when their reputation isn’t on the line.  In a face-to-face situation if you say something controversial to somebody it can lead to you being reprimanded or judged in a certain way, which not many people enjoy. I can guarantee that if these people were to talk to her face-to-face, most of the people who said those things would keep it to themselves.
 

The other thing about anonymous posting is that, when nobody knows your background, age, or gender, there isn’t really any pre-judging on the comments beforehand.  For example: if you want to voice your opinion on a certain subject, you could be some twenty year old college student or a forty year old man with a masters degree, and until you read the post, you wouldn’t be able to judged the author from their qualifications.  I understand that you could probably decipher which person posted which, but it equals the playing field of the judging that would happen beforehand.  This also can do with gender and race as well.  There are still many people in this world that will judge people based on their gender, and race for how valuable their opinions are. With the ability to make posts anonymously, nobody will know who it is so they won’t be able to pre-judge before they see the post.  There is a video on YouTube of a person posting anonymously, where he states, “I just want to discuss topics… because if people knew who I am, they may not be as inclined to talk to me about these things.”  It is a perfect explanation on how being anonymous can help get their word across, no matter what age, race, gender or background they have, they can still get their point across without being judged. This allows the people who are posting to be more truthful and honest with how they feel. 

What is Happening with the Calgary Music Scene?!

I am writing this rant because I am sick of how it seems that whenever there is an all ages venue for music in Calgary, they always seem to get shut down.  I'm not sure how many of you guys may know, but the City of Calgary has shut down two all ages venues in the past year or so, and they are working on their third.  “The Area” was about a year ago, and then just recently “The New Black” has announced their closure. “The Alibi Room” is the next in line to possibly close in the same fashion.  This is not a new trend either; there have also been other venues that have opened up in the past that have gone through the same issues with city regulations. It seems to be that these places are only open for a short amount of time, until the city finds some sort of reason to shut them down.  There is also the combining factor that without alcohol sales, these places don’t make enough money to support the amount it takes to keep the venues operational.

This topic makes me really upset because unless you are a big band that can afford to host a show in a venue such as Mac Hall at UofC or the Saddle Dome, there are becoming fewer ways to have an all ages show in Calgary.  This affects both the up-and-coming bands in high school and all the fans that haven reached the age of the majority.  I feel like that kids under the legal age should still be able to enjoy the live music scene like the rest of us because as a musician myself, without these kinds of places that are being shut down, I would’ve never been able to accomplish what I have now.  Although it doesn’t affect me as much anymore, seeing as how I have been legal for a few years now, I still want to want younger generations in the Calgary area be able to have the same opportunities that I had.

It seems that we are trying to make the music scene in Calgary “18+ only” which is not the way that it should be.  The fact that in order for venues to be able to make enough money to keep these venues afloat is to have liquor sales really bothers me.  What are we as a society trying to support here?  I’m not saying that I am against alcohol consumption here, but I feel like there should be more support from the community to be able to have places for kids to go to have a good time as well.

I have placed a link to the situation below if anyone is interested in taking a read for themselves.  I really hope that this isn’t the end for local all ages venues in Calgary.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/swerve/our-town/Black+Centre+Music+Inglewood/8959653/story.html

Spontaneity

My friend and I have this relationship where we feed off each other, resulting in very spontaneous endeavors.  These acts of spontaneity range from jumping in a car and driving out to the middle of nowhere to camp for the night, or driving out to Banff at 4:00 in the morning because we are bored.  The most crazy of our trips so far happened about a year ago, when we decided to take a trip to the casino at about 11:00 at night.

Lets just say that about a year ago I used to like going to the casino... a lot.  My friend was never really much into it at first but every once in a while he got the "itch" - a feeling that I myself was very accustomed to.  I would usually just go by myself to play poker, but it was always nice to have someone else tag along every once in a while.  We both brought a couple hundred dollars with us, and we sat down at the poker table.  My friend was not very experienced in the game, so after about an hour, he ended up losing half of his buy-in so he just ended up cashing out.  I however, being the more experienced player,  was doing fairly well so i decided to stay and play for a bit longer while my friend watched from the sides.

About an hour went passed and i had built up a generous amount of chips on the table; what was originally a $200 buy-in, turned into a $1000 chip stack.  Usually I would cash-out at this point but I decided to stay in the game for a little bit longer - approved by my friend of course - who was excited seeing the amount of money in front of me on the table.  There was one other person sitting at the table who had also built up a generous amount of chips, about $800 to put it in context.  We ended up getting into a hand together were we both went all in! This was a little nerve racking for me because as the cards were laid out, my hand started to look worse and worse.  By the time it was time to show the cards, I thought that i was dead in the water.

"All this work for noting," I thought to myself.

I reluctantly turned over my cards showing a single pair.  I look over to my opponent and to my surprise, he looks down at his hand, up at the board and then back at his hand.

"Good hand", he said as he threw his cards away into the muck.

I won! I was now sitting with about $1800 in front of me and i knocked out the second biggest stack at the table.  I decided to play a couple more hands and then decided to cash out.  As we were driving home my friend and I were talking and I thought to myself.  "Wouldn't it be fun to go to the airport and just buy to tickets to the first available flight out of here?" Because we had just won the money it seemed like the right thing to do, so we turned off at the exit for the airport,  went up to the counter, and said. "Give us two tickets to the next plane out of here!"

The Person sitting at the desk gave us a really weird look, but when she saw that we were serious she went on to her computer and looked up the available flights.  The soonest flight out of the airport ended up being to Toronto.  We bought the tickets, boarded the plane, and within a few hours of decided that we wanted to take a trip somewhere we ended up in Toronto!  It was a very strange yet exciting feeling.

Not knowing what to do, we ended up just going to downtown to tour the sites around that area. Neither of us had been to Toronto before, so it was a completely foreign place to us. We went to a museum, dined at the hard rock cafe, saw a movie, and ended up hitting the bars after as well.  We ended up meeting a couple of really cool people there and they were able to show us around to some of the cool bars and spots to hit at night.  It was a blast!

We ended up staying the night sleeping in their house because we blew all of our money, and flew out the next morning.  All-in-all it was an amazing experience.  We haven't been able to do something quite that extravagant since, but next time we hope to leave the country on a random trip such as the one i just described.  If any of you have a chance to do something like this,  I would highly recommend it!