Friendship All A-Twitter... or Some Other Equally Meaningless (Yet Clever Sounding) Title

Over the last few days I have spent a little of my time revisiting Twitter, which was once one of my favourite websites. These days, however, Twitter just isn't quite the same for me. I joined the website sometime in 2009, I believe. At the time Twitter was just beginning to catch on; word of the 'site was just beginning to creep into mainstream media. At the time that I joined most of the activity on Twitter was between ordinary, everyday people. It wasn't until shortly after I joined that the corporate world took an interest in the website.

During my most active time on the website I met lots of great people – though I will say very few of them have kept in touch with me, nor I with them to be fair – and spent heaps of time talking with friends I had already. I enjoyed using the 'site immensely. However, over the past year and a half or so my interest in the website has diminished. Many of my friends and acquaintances have long since quit using the website; only a few now remain.

There is no doubt Twitter has many positive uses, many of which are much more important than simple conversation between friends; there are other websites out there that are much more suited for that purpose. That being said, I very much miss the experience the site offered me when I first began using it, though perhaps what I really miss is all my various friends I have made online over the years whom I so rarely encounter these days. Unfortunately we are all just busy with life to talk as much as we used to. That's just the order of things.

Having revisited the website lately I have found myself wanting to reconnect with many of my online friends. Though I don't often have the opportunity to catch up with most of my friends, at least part of the problem is that I don't often make the effort to seek out my old friends enough. It's not that I don't want to make that effort, it's more that I usually have other things on my mind and simply don't spend much time online compared to days past. One thing is for certain, though, if I do find myself reconnecting with my various online friends I really should at least try to keep myself from becoming too re-taken with one or two of the lovely ladies I have come to know, especially since said ladies are almost always oceans away, but knowing me, I should probably just accept defeat in that regard now.

 

My Many Faces: A Reflection Upon the Different People I Have Been

This entry is about change, but more specifically about how we as people often change over time. It is something, I think, we don't reflect upon very often, but I think most people can say that, if they take a moment to think about who they are now as opposed to who they were when they were of a younger age, they have certainly changed in some way that is obvious to themselves, at least. For me, anyone who can say they are the same person at the end of their life as they were at the beginning (as a young man or woman) isn't being entirely truthful, or at least not being properly reflective upon their life past.

I can only use myself as an example. Whether or not I stand apart for from others in all the changes of personality, opinion, and habit I have experienced over my short life or not is not obvious to me; I know myself more than I know others. Anybody who is familiar with me knows I am a man who certainly has his eccentricities, but in truth there was a day I would argue I was even more so. If you were to sit down and have a conversation with my 15 year old self I think you would find yourself talking with an even more blatantly strange young "man" than talking to me now. Even from my own point of view, looking back upon who I was then – the way I thought and felt about things – is strange even to myself. How is it I could have changed so much? Perhaps these changes are most evident to myself. After all, only I can truly know the extent of how much my thought process has changed since those days.

By the time I had turned 17, I had already realised I had changed a great deal. Entre: A politically minded, idealistic teenager, his ideas often narrow-minded, and (sometimes) ignorant, but still relatively well informed for his age, in fact, I would argue well informed for any age these days. This boy was sure of what he knew, and he was sure he knew more than you. He saw things the average person didn't. He had the answers to so many problems. They were so obvious; why didn't people see them? Well because they weren't as clever as him, of course, that's why, or so he (I) liked to think.

Actually, the ways in which this boy thought were present in him during most of his teens and persisted until he was about 19, but it was when he really came into his own, during his late teens, that they were at their most strongest. But, despite his somewhat arrogant confidence in his own opinions, this disposition was doomed to fail in him from the beginning because of a seed that was planted in him long before: a thirst for knowledge, and something his father had instilled in him for as long as he could remember (with a little help of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol): a healthy awareness of the ills of want, and especially ignorance.

My disdain and loathing for ignorance has shaped who I have become as a person a great deal. I have never been content to form one opinion and stick to it out of principle. That is asinine. It's pathetic, and it's not enduring, despite the common consensus that you are somehow unprincipled if you don't stick to your current principles forevermore: a trick often used by those with morally questionable opinions or objectives who want to shame you into supporting them for as long as possible despite any second thoughts you may have about doing so. Social pressures are a lot stronger than we sometimes want to admit, but I digress.

My strong opinion that ignorance is the root of most of human beings' social ills and suffering meant that I wasn't content to have simply formed a few opinions and stick to them blindly without consideration. I began to read quite a lot more than I had when I was younger, but what would come to have the most effect on me was the many different perspectives I gained from watching various debates and educational videos on YouTube. There I learned that I wasn't quite as clever as I had allowed myself to believe, and over a very short period of time my way of thinking changed drastically.

I was drawn to YouTube mostly out of a desire to watch content concerning Richard Dawkins after having watched an interview he had appeared in concerning his book The God Delusion, which was of great interest to me given my strong disdain for religion during that period of my life. A disdain that has in no way left me, but is also in no way an important aspect of who I am as I perceived it to be in those days. During those days I found that many of my interests changed. Suddenly I wasn't content to simply read and learn about military history as I was before. I began to form a stronger interest in the sciences, even physics and, though I can't say I can make heads and tales of it most of the time, quantum mechanics. These interests persist in me even to-day, but I would say they were strongest in me from the age of 19 until around the age of 22.

Oh the things I have learned since then! Not only facts and knowledge, but valuable lessons and points of view that I feel sure will be with me for a long time to come. Lessons such as the fact that it is much more beneficial for someone to be of an open minded disposition and willing to reconsider their long-held thoughts and beliefs if better arguments win the day. That education and understanding of the world around you is much better than living in ignorance of the world around you. What the overall benefit of that is in one's life is, I don't know. How I am better for the knowledge I have gained over the past 5 or 6 years is in no way obvious to me. I can't say it will have any significant positive effect on my life as a whole one way or another, but I can say it feels good to have a thirst for knowledge as opposed to going through life with no interest in anything truly significant.

Still, I have changed yet again. Though I still have a strong thirst for knowledge, a lot has changed. The young man who was almost totally consumed with the issues of religion and politics isn't nearly so as he used to be. There is no doubt I have strong opinions, but unlike the days I have just written about, I am not quite so vocal about them. Though my opinions on politics and religion are still there, I am not nearly as quick to express them, and the great interest I used to have in immersing myself in those two issues has nearly disappeared. These days, when I visit YouTube to catch up on a few videos now and then, I find myself quite tired of the same old, repetitive arguments of the various Richard Dawkins-like Atheists, and various other vloggers such as Pat Condell, whose material just doesn't sit well with me anymore as it did when I was younger, slightly more idealistic, and ready for contention at every turn. They just don't have anything new to say. I can't say they are flogging a dead horse, but I can can say there is a horse, and it is being flogged, whether or not it's dead or not I'm not certain.

There have been many significant changes in the way I think politically, though I'm not going to go into them other than to say that the main change has been that, unlike in years past, I have lost all faith in the political process, whereas once I honestly believed it was broken but had great potential. That's all I'm going to say about that. Once upon a time I wanted nothing more than to express my opinions of such things. Now, I can honestly say I thoroughly dislike making any mention of it, especially to a potentially broad audience. I don't care if you like my opinions, I don't even want you to know them. I don't want to hear yours. I don't want to talk about them at all, and that is a night and day difference from how I used to be just a few short years ago.

This aspect of myself, I would say, has come about since I joined the military. I have long been of the opinion that as a member of the military I am of course entitled to my opinion just as anybody else is, but I am not at liberty to share my political opinions quite as freely as I once did. That's not to say I don't from time to time, because under the right circumstances I do, but I don't with other military personnel, that much is certain. All that aside, it is harder for me to understand how I've changed since I joined the military. I have changed so much in the past 3 years, but unlike the changes I've gone through in the past, it is less obvious to me how I have arrived at who I am to-day. In many ways I know how I've changed, but I can't tell you why. I am at a particularly unexciting point in my life when it comes to my thoughts and opinions. I guess I've just settled down and "matured" perhaps, whatever you want to call it. Personally I find this maturing business to be alot more like having your soul bludgeoned to death by the world to kill off any remaining excitement and spirit you might have still have left over from your youth, but what do I know? Whatever the case, we have arrived at the end of my reflection on the different people I have been. I say "different people" because sometimes it honestly feels as if who I've been at different periods of my life is in fact completely different than who I was before, even if that of course isn't entirely accurate.

Good Riddance CFB Borden; Hello 14 Wing Greenwood!

Over the past two and a half years I haven't put much effort into keeping this blog. To be honest, though I have had plenty of free time to sit down and write, I haven't at all been in the mood to do so. Given the fact that I have spent the past two years in training, first in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec for my Basic Military Qualification (BMQ) course, and then in CFB Borden, Ontario where I spent 9 months awaiting my Qualification Level 3 (QL3's) course to begin, and a further 14 months on said course, it's a wonder I even wrote at all. Thankfully, after many long months on course, I finally graduated back in March. Now I will spend the next 18-24 months completing my On the Job Training (OJT) package; the last step I will need to take on the long journey I've taken over the last two and a half years to become a fully qualified Aircraft Structures Technician.

Having finished my QL3's it was finally time for me to receive my first posting, and much to my delight I was posted to 14 Wing Greenwood, Nova Scotia. Finally, after years of bullshit in Borden and my life being on hold, I can begin to lead a somewhat normal life again. Before leaving Borden I arranged to begin living in Personal Military Quarters (PMQ) here in Greenwood, and was lucky enough to be able to get a 3 bedroom PMQ (house) to live in while I am posted here. The quality of life I have here is a world better than what I left back in Borden.

Now, after having been here in Greenwood for nearly 4 months, I am finally beginning to feel like doing many of the things I used to enjoy. I have begun to spend more time reading again, which, no matter how hard I tired, I was never able to focus on while I was in Borden. Not only am I reading more, but I'm beginning to feel the urge to begin writing again, and going for the odd walk, as well. Everything I used to enjoy but had lost all interest in is beginning to interest me once more, which is definitely a positive change in my opinion. 

Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippy Dream by Neil Young

I've never really been very interested in Neil Young beyond his music. Though I've always recognised his talent and enjoyed his music, the man himself, his life story, was never particularly something I felt compelled to learn more about. I can't say that at some point in my life that wouldn't have changed, I've found myself become interested in learning about many different people over the last few years, but Neil Young has never been one of them. So when I unwrapped a gift on Christmas morning to find Neil Young's new book Waging Heavy Peace it was certainly unexpected.

When I finally got some time to put my nose in it's pages I couldn't put it down. There's nothing worse than picking up a biography that is so full of information it is difficult to retain most of the information you encounter within it's pages, but from the very beginning I found Neil's style of writing both easy to retain and, at times, humourous, which I quite enjoyed. I soon found that, contrary to what I had believed, it wasn't so much a biography of his life per se, more his reflection on certain cherished memories and events of his life.

To be honest it is a bit difficult to say who would be interested in this book. Obviously if you are a big Neil Young fan, you are likely to enjoy this read. In my case, as I've said, that wasn't the case for myself, but I have a general interest in learning about the lives of significant people in history and culture. If you are similar to myself in that aspect I think you will enjoy this book. It's not for everybody, but it was a great read.

 

Digital Book Burning: A Reflection on eBooks

No matter how much I try I can't seem to embrace the idea of eReaders and eBooks. I can scarcely think of a more obvious scam. Those looking to buy as eBook will likely pay about as much as a paper back edition of the book they're interested in simply for the right to access the content only? You don't get a copy of the file, and the company selling the books can simply flick a switch at any moment and deny you access to content you've payed for, which has already happened in the past, I might add, when Amazon flicked a switch and thousands of people saw their "copies" of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell simply vanish from their Kindles. For those who are well read I don't think I have to point out the irony of the fact that it was these two stories that people had removed from their eReaders.

Can nobody see what this is? It is a deliberate effort to remove the opportunity for you to actually own a hard copy of a medium. What will be next? Movies? Is the day approaching in which we will no longer be able to purchase latest DVD or Blu-Ray of our favourite movies? Will we have simply only be able to purchase access to the films we love through the internet or our televisions? And if that is the case, will we be forces to pay every time we wish to view the content, or will we only have to pay for the content once only and be able to watch it as many times as you want? Ask yourself wish is most likely.

Buy the physical book, folks, otherwise, in 20 years, who bloody well knows if there will be any new physical books left for you to buy even if you wish to do so. And even if there is, there is no guarantee you will be able to buy them at a reasonable price. If a day when eBooks sales become the overwhelming majority of book sales comes,  I think it likely that to buy a physical copy of a book will become no more than a novelty and will become grossly overpriced. Almost as buying your favourite band's latest album on vinyl has become.

The publishers want to be able to have complete control over the written word. They want to be able to take it away from you and they want to be able to make sure nobody can view it unless they buy it, after all, how many people are going to lend their eReaders to somebody so they can read a book? Not many. It is nothing more or less a scam by big publishing in hopes that you will all fall for it, that you will completely put control of the written word in their hands to giveth and taketh away as they see fit. And there is another danger. As a society we have come to recognise book burning and everything it represents as a truly despicable act. If our society comes to completely embrace eBooks, who's to say that "digital book burning", so to speak, won't become as easy as somebody saying: "Publisher, turn those books off."?

A Reflection Upon Empathy

For some time I have found myself quite frankly disgusted with the society in which we live. In fact, I think you can disregard that statement; I have been disgusted by the entirety of our species. Not that I hadn't always been, I suppose, but lately I have felt thus quite a deal more than I am accustomed to. I have become inextricably aware of how horrible we as human beings treat each other. And in this case it is not my intent to draw attention to the obvious atrocities to which we are all aware: genocide in Africa and brutality in the Middle-East. No, I speak of the way we treat each other on a more communal level, the way we treat "thy neighbour".

On a near daily basis I can find several examples of somebody, even those whom we may consider decent people by to-day's standard, treating their peers, family, or complete strangers in a manner that is reprehensible; their intent to wound others on an emotional level evident. Decent words cannot describe the disdain I have for people of this nature. The unfortunate consequence of which being the fact that, as such a large number of people act in this manner regularly, I have little desire to make their acquaintance let alone foster friendship with them.

It would be unreasonable, I think, to suggest that each and every person who has at some time or another found themselves moved out of hurt or anger to wound a stranger, a friend, a family member, or a lover with unkind words is deserving of society's abhorrence; we are all guilty of those moments. It is, however, I think, not unreasonable to say that those who actively seek on a regular basis, or even on an irregular basis, to wound and belittle those around them for no discernible reason other than perhaps their own pathetic need to feel superior to those around them, are the most indecent of people among us save the absolute worst of us for which our justice systems have the harshest penalties.

Having been a witness to this on so many occasions, one begins to ask himself "Why? Why do so many seem to have such a need to belittle and hurt so many of the people around them?" and I think, after careful thought, I have come to a personal conclusion as good as any. Empathy; a widespread lack of empathy. This emotion above all others is meant to guide us to treat others as we would have them treat ourselves, with civility and compassion, and yet, I find it lacking in great number of those I encounter. Empathy, it seems, is in short supply. Is it any wonder our society is so full of so many vile, indecent, mean spirited individuals?

Nostalgia

Last night I was talking with a friend of mine online and we both mentioned that we had recently watched a video I made a few years ago in which I incorporated bits and pieces of silly videos I had filmed of himself and all our friends back home in New Brunswick. It seems that being away from home has had us thinking about many of the good times we had back home back in "the day" so to speak. I myself had actually just watched all our old videos just hours before and found myself feeling quite nostalgic. I found it quite a coincidence that we would have both been reliving our memories by watching this video within a few days of each other.

After I had finished talking with my friend, who also lives outside of New Brunswick now, as well, it occurred to me that the days we filmed some of the clips in this video are either over, or nearly, five years old now. It was at that point I had a classic "Where has the time gone?" moment, as people often do when thinking back on days past. It's just so hard to believe how long ago these days where. I'm sure before I know it I'll be looking back on these videos again realising it's been ten years feeling exactly the same as I do about it now. In one sense those days do feel like they were a long while ago because so much has changed in my life since then, but on the other hand I still can't believe some of them were filmed nearly five years ago.

It is sad sometimes looking back on one's memories and realising that no matter how hard you try you'll never be able to relive those days. The best one can do is make the best of to-day and hope they will be remembered just as fondly in five years time. That being said, like it or lump it the good memories of years gone by are past, and your life will never be as free as it was back in the days you had few responsibilities and nothing to worry about other than keeping out of trouble and what silly video you're going to film next...