While I often have a theme or focus for posts when I write, today I have a few things that have been bouncing around in my head and I thought I’d share them starting with a few things I think about you, my readers:
I came across this article earlier in the week – I’m not sure where, but quite possibly it’s from Metafilter where I’ve been finding tons of good reading that feels like browsing the Internet 20 years ago when there were no algorithms and people just posted what came to mind that made them excited. This one talks about how the mainstream Internet is now, toxic and algorithmic and designed for rapid fire reactions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s positive or negative, it just better be big. But years ago the internet was made up of sites where people just expressed themselves, posting about their passions or how their day went. But now so many are saying how terrible the Internet is in the same way that they talk about how the world used to be – I dove into that one a couple entries ago and the crux of that one is that I think that is nonsense. The world has a whole lot of data but how we experience it is determined in great part by what inputs we choose. And for that reason I’m finding blog reading and especially writing really fulfilling. (And a bit of a spoiler for the article I linked above, they also really think blogs are the way forward toward a better Internet).
I used to feel a bit of pressure here, wanting more readers, wondering what the secret was to building my readership or getting more people to read and subscribe. But as you might’ve seen in this entry, once I experienced “going viral” even on a small scale I realized that perhaps this wasn’t the golden ticket I once thought. It came with trolls and irritating people to the point that I eventually took down the post. It wasn’t worth it at all. I’d much rather have a dozen or two thoughtful readers than 18,000 people, many of whom were there just to stir things up.
And I think blogging really discourages that. Short form content and posts on social media platforms require very little of the consumer. A 45 second video takes no more than 45 seconds to watch and then maybe half that to write a nasty comment. On the other hand, I rarely have had any sort of trolling here because the investment is too high for the “fun”. You might have to read for 10-15 minutes. So it’s self-selecting.
Many like to look back at the early net with nostalgia. I did for a long time as well. But much of what made that experience great was the active choices being made. People would go online and decide that they were going to post a cooking blog or a serialized memoir or photos of trees in their part of the world because that was what got them excited. Then on the flip side others would find these blogs by searching for those specific interests – or following a link from someone with similar interests. For me, being online in the late 80s and 90s was also a matter of choosing to find more like-minded people than lived around me. But it was an active search. Now we’re encouraged to just take whatever is in the feed – which is no different than my living in a small rural town and just going to the town’s bar hoping to find like-minded people. I might, but I might also have to deal with a lot of nonsense. Today the bar is Facebook, TikTok, or X. It might work to have interesting experiences or meet cool people but more likely it would work like it would have for me to try doing Depeche Mode karaoke in the tiny Missouri town we lived in. Maybe someone would like it but mostly people would not be interested and voice that with varying degrees of rudeness.
So thanks to all of you for being here – I appreciate that you appreciate my weirdness and I appreciate your uniqueness.
Now that I’ve said that I did almost the total opposite twice this weekend. Instead of our usual Zoom Hindi class, we went live on YouTube. It was such an interesting experience! We had anywhere between 2-10 people come by with questions and comments and a bit of dialog in the chat and they were so nice! As a class exercise it was really good as it kept me on my toes – I couldn’t hesitate and had to respond right away. 1-2 times someone might come in and be a little rude. For example one person said “Yaha buddha kaun hai!” (“Who’s this old guy?” – usually my teacher is alone or with her puppet on her channel) which actually made me laugh but even the other commenters in the chat came down really hard on them and they left soon after.
So while I might not be someone to do a YouTube live chat on my own, this was a lot of fun. It felt a little bit like writing an exam, though and even that night I found myself doing it in my dreams. In some ways it felt like mental exercise in the same way that going out in India and talking to people feels more challenging than just a simple Hindi class or conversation with someone I know. Good practice for sure. It won’t be the last time for sure.
A couple of years ago I went through an exercise of looking at the cost of various types of vacation: trips to India where the flight costs a lot but lodging and food are cheaper, trips to Europe where everything is expensive, local trips including camping and cycling where everything is cheap, or trips to Europe where everything is expensive. From that I calculated a relative cost per day for the trip so I could compare. As it turned out, going somewhere like India can be cheaper for me per day than even going to Montreal. (The tricky part with going that far is that I have to take more time off and as I work for myself that’s without pay so I might go without 3-4 weeks of pay which is the most expensive part of any trip it turns out.) In the end that time the question was moot. A few weeks later we were in lockdown and I wouldn’t even get in a motorized vehicle or travel more than 100 km from my house for 18 months! But the exercise is worth looking at in a world where our social media feeds are filled with travel bloggers and influencers. Lately, though, I’ve been taking that pre-pandemic exercise one step further. What if we boiled it all the way down to where we talked about cost per “fun unit”. What gives the most fun for our dollar? Looking at it that way, it turns the whole thing on its head. Take this weekend’s outings:
Yesterday Sage and I went out for brunch and then after that went to browse and buy a few books at a lovely bookstore in Toronto, Book City. The cost was, as you might imagine, a fraction of the cost of a day on any vacation. The fun level was very high, so it was definitely really cheap fun and came with four good looking books! And there was a bonus – we happened to end up on the holiday train on the way home:
Then today I went grocery shopping by myself (Sage is not a fan of grocery shopping). So in this case it was like being a “solo traveler”. When I go grocery shopping I usually take the subway a couple stops away to a supermarket with discount prices. Part of my routine which also keeps me from buying too much is to stop by the food court in the building where the grocery store is and grabbing something for lunch. Unlike, say, the food courts at mainstream malls like Eaton Centre where there are national chains, burger joints, pizza, Canadian-style Chinese food and a few other slightly more interesting options, this one has no chains. In here you can get food from many different Chinese provinces – noodles, lamb soup, fried bao, rice bowls and more, there’s a Caribbean place, one that sells poke bowls, another that sells sushi, kebabs, and two Indian restaurants: One that sells primarily north Indian food, and another that sells biryani and also roti which in this case means a wrap made of a large roti with a curry inside). It’s all really high quality and also quite cheap. I might spend only $15-20 for a nice and filling lunch. But again, the experience of eating new and interesting food is so enjoyable for me. So again, the cost per “fun unit” is really low. I get so much enjoyment from this.
Pork and hot green chillies – with pickled cabbage and turnip cubes. A delightful mix of textures and flavours
I think this is why I really love going on long bike rides near here. There’s the fun of riding itself, of seeing interesting places and often of eating interesting foods along with any other adventures that might happen along the way.
Speaking of cycling, after having the flu I think I’m back to feeling fully myself again. Where I could only ride 15 minutes before having a coughing fit on Christmas, yesterday, after seeing a social media post that said “If you see this, you must do a 50 km indoor ride”, I thought, why not do it? So yesterday afternoon I got on the bike for almost two hours. I don’t think I could do two hours on a trainer alone or even with a movie, but having Zwift keeps the scenery interesting and hundreds of others riding together (so you know you’re not alone) and encouraging one another makes it a joy. Two hours passed by so quickly!
Finally let me leave you with something I should probably warn you about. I found this puzzle near the end of 2025. It’s simple in concept: There are 2025 words/phrases on the screen that you sort into 45 categories. I started it around 6PM. A couple hours later I showed it to Daegan and he and I were out in the kitchen doing this together. In the blink of an eye I looked up and it was already 1:00 AM. In the end I was up until 3 and gave up with it probably 90% done. He stayed up another hour or so and got it all done. It was immensely satisfying to figure out and I have to say it’s been decades since I’ve been so hooked on a puzzle that complicated. Sage told me later how funny it was when she woke up and saw that we’d had a few snacks and sparkling water. When many families have a late night there are often alcohol bottles/cans and maybe even ashtrays filled (this was my family in the 80s for sure) but for us what kept us up half the night was doing puzzles and drinking sparkling water.
What’s the cost per fun unit there, I wonder?
Number of people who engage in disruptive or destructive behavior is increasing worldwide.
I liked reading your pist Todd. I love blogging. It is an important part of my life.