Generation AO (Always On)

That awkward moment when you actually start having work to do at work and don't have to fill the hours writing blog posts about your random opinions on life... time to take this operation to nighttime, boys and girls!

Except for today, because I'm tired of trying to please the Internet Explorer Gods with my CSS styling.

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So, I'm 22 (and a half). I was born in 1989. I grew up playing kick the can (and other less defined games) with the neighborhood boys. One epic summer, with some lawn clippers and weed killer in hand, we made a path in the woods behind our houses. My brother and I used to run around the backyard with our imaginary friends and swing on the tree vines until the tragic day when the last one broke. We went to bed when we were told to (usually) and sat in our rooms reading books or sleeping. In school, I passed intricately folded notes to my friends when the teacher wasn't looking. We either watched Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, and only on Saturday mornings.

Then, technology slowly started to happen. When I was in 6th grade, they taught us how to type. They had boxes that went over our hands. In 7th grade, my family got our first computer and I got an AOL e-mail address that my dad picked out for me. I used to send e-mails to my friends before AOL Instant Messenger got big. My dad figured out how to set up parental controls, though, so most websites were off limits and the internet shut off at around 10pm. For my 16th birthday, I got my first cell phone. I think I was limited to 200 texts a month, and I never even got close. My senior year of high school, I got a Facebook. My freshman year of college, I got a laptop. And right before my senior year of college, I got a smartphone.

And ok, so now I'm connected to the internet and all of my friends and family via an intricate network of Facebook and Google+ and Twitter and texting and (very rarely) calls and my laptop and my smartphone and my computer at work basically 24/7. And I really want to get a tablet, pretty much just because. Once I pay all these bills and student loans that are suddenly pouring in from LITERALLY EVERYWHERE.

But you know, if the electricity goes out (like it seems to be doing a lot this little Summer Of Storms we got going on), I can revert back to my childhood and still find ways to entertain myself. I can read a paperback book. I can draw with paper and pencil. I can actually talk to people, FACE TO FACE *gasp!!*. I could read the newspaper! I could write a letter! I could play a board game! I could even PLAY OUTSIDE.

Now I'm just being crazy.

But this generation coming up, this Generation Always On, will have no idea what to do if the power goes out. So I have a brother about my age, and then a slew of younger cousins who are just entering middle school. They have cell phones with unlimited texting. They have iTouches with unlimited Internet access. UNLIMITED Internet access. As elementary school students. Do you KNOW the kind of things you can Google? I only learned that stuff if I begged the kids from the bad part of town to teach me what a curse word was. They probably even have Facebooks and Twitters and stuff that their parent's don't know about. At my graduation party, the twelve-year-old introduced me to her boyfriend of nine months. And alright, I had "boyfriends" in elementary school who I sat next to at lunch and drew pictures for sometimes, but somehow I doubt that twelve-year-olds today are just holding hands. Pretty sure some are even getting pregnant, even though that is just barely possible.

 And this is just the kids born ten years after me.

So you know what worries me? What are my CHILDREN going to be like? What are my children going to know about by the time they are even out of diapers. Are they even going to have a childhood? Or will they pop out of the womb with a computer and all that unlimited knowledge already embedded into their heads? Are you going to have to create their Facebook when you register for their Social Security Number? Are they gunna ask me "ok, first name, middle name, and Twitter handle?"

I like to think that I'll have wonderfully sweet (and freaking adorable) children who will make up little games outside with the neighborhood kids and will make arts and crafts with me on summer nights and will develop great interpersonal skills that will take them far and will appreciate nature. Maybe we'll have a few video games for rainy days, but they'll be the kind of fun games that get the whole family involved. They'll have cell phones for when they need to be picked-up after band practice, and they'll use the computers imbedded into their skulls to learn knowledge outside the classroom.

But I'm really worried that this is not even going to be a possibility. I fear that the next generation, my children's generation, will be Generation Zombie. Generation I-Have-Never-Talked-To-Anyone-In-Person. Generation Dies-Of-Obesity-Because-Went-Outside-Only-To-Get-To-Car. Generation No-Childhood. Generation Kindergarten-Sex-Because-I-Know-What-That-Is-At-Age-Five.

Maybe I'll just take them away from society and raise them like in Little House on the Prairie. As long as I have one hidden outlet to charge my future internet device because, come on, I have to stalk strangers on Facebook somehow.

Staying Afloat

How do you learn to swim? First, you have an instructor who teaches you the basics and physically holds your hand, sometimes acting like they are going to let go but never really following through. They want to let you try it yourself, but they are right there to grab you around the middle if you start to panic. Once you've been doing this for a while, you get antsy. You really want them to just let you go, because you are pretty confident that you can do it yourself. But deep down, you know that you still need them there, watching from a distance close enough to quickly reach you when the water starts to fill your lungs. Eventually, they send you off to go swim in the pool with the rest of the kids. You are finally free! No one is telling you what to do! Except for the lifeguards. They might yell at you when you are running too fast or blow the whistle when you and a friend are horsing around. But they are always aware of you. Now, your instructor growing up always kept their eye on you, like a hawk. The lifeguard might get distracted by someone else, but if you start to splash erratically, if you are really in trouble and crying for help, they are there. They will save you.

Do you see where I'm going with this? My little metaphor for life? Your parents or the people who raised you being the instructor and college being the pool?

So what part am I at? I'm at the post-graduation part, the part where everyone you've ever loved drives you out on a boat to the middle of the ocean and pushes you off into the deep end. The part where everyone sees if you are going to sink or swim. If you sink, and you are lucky enough, someone stuck around to watch out for you and will reach out a net to catch you. And if you swim, everyone drives away as you swim back to shore, but sometimes you might get too tired and drown before you ever see land again.

I don't feel like I'm sinking or swimming. I'm kind of just staying afloat. I took a pretty big breath before I took the dive off the plank, and all the air in my lungs is buoying me up.

But I'm running out of air much faster than anticipated. I had the top instructors. I had the most attentive lifeguards. But I think it's just me. I never wanted to learn to swim in the first place. I just wanted to spend my life sitting on the beach making sand castles.

Now I'm stuck in the middle of the ocean. Hopefully I'll get the motivation to start doing some breaststrokes soon, because this sporadic doggie-paddling isn't getting me anywhere.

Mother Nature

I don't get scared. I'm the girl who walks home in the middle of the night after the bar without a care in the world (I wouldn't recommend this, I've been lucky). I'm the girl who follows people in Times Square to the Church of Scientology and gets shut inside a room to watch a movie and then calmly leaves afterward (that's a story for another day). I'm the girl who leaves everyone she knows while in a foreign country without a phone to go exploring, the shadier (and more interesting) an alley looks, the better. I don't get scared.

But you know what's scary? Mother Nature.

On Friday night at 1am, I was awoken to a bright sky full of lightning flashes and incessant thunder while I was in Atlantic County, New Jersey. The 75mph winds were whipping everything in my room around, so I shut the window, thankful for my fan because it was about 100 degrees in my bedroom. This isn't an exaggeration either, we were in the middle of a heat wave. Then the street lights flickered. Once. Twice. Then they just didn't come back on. The gentle whirring of everything you did not even notice, air conditioning units next door, the knocking of the fridge, and my poor, poor fan, slowed and a hush fell over the entirety of South Jersey on this 4th of July weekend (part one). The only noise was the thunder, the only source of light the lightning. I don't get scared, but that was scary.

My smartphone had some battery power left, so after wasting some of it checking Facebook and Twitter (I have a problem), I checked the weather radar. I have never seen such a large red area on a map. Especially one where the epicenter was my bedroom.

But overall, I did not have it so bad. I was hot without my fan and bored without the television. I woke up without electricity and could not open the fridge for very long while grabbing water before heading to the beach all day. My phone eventually died and I could not stalk all the people who barely matter to me. The most inconvenience I faced was having to drive through a few South Jersey towns sans street lights and traffic lights before eventually finding a Wawa running off of a generator that would feed me (and the other million people inside who were acting like it was the end of days). So yeah, I was in the middle of a state of emergency, but I didn't have it so bad.

But it did make me reflect on how little control we have over Mother Nature. We can do amazing things with technology and we can express ourselves in amazing ways with words. But we cannot stop a devastating tornado. We cannot do anything about an earthquake that kills millions and causes a tsunami that kills a million more. We are powerless to stop a hurricane that knocks trees down on top of innocent camping children (Aftermath of the storm).

In Colorado this past week (and continuing), forest fires are destroying homes, though thankfully not many lives. One of my good friends lives in Colorado, and he wrote a really great post today when he was finally allowed to return to the home which he and his family had to flee as the fire approached. You should really read it here.

There are so many diseases that can kill people. There's so much murder. There's so much famine. Suicides. Car crashes. War. But technically, that's all preventable.

But what if you live on the west coast, and an earthquake causes a vanishing act on the ground beneath you and you fall toward the earth's core? What if you live in the mid-west and a tornado rips through your home and flings you into the air? And what if you live on the east coast, and a hurricane causes the 100-year old oak tree next to your house to crash through your ceiling and crush you beneath your covers? Seriously, how can you prevent that?

You can't. You just can't. And you know what? That's just downright terrifying.

Best Idea Ever

Do you know the power unit "horsepower"? And I'm sure you can figure out that it was not named after someone, like Joule or Newton. No, it is called horsepower because it is how much power a horse can produce. Know what else can produce power? You.

I stumbled upon an article in Gizmag: New and Emerging Technology News from yesterday about this company in the United Kingdom that is creating small, free, open-air gyms that harvest the energy that the people produce.

BRILLIANT

Why has this not already been a thing? Why did no one ever think of this before? It's so, so brilliant. I love it. I want my own. Peace out, America. I'm going back to London. I miss the Underground PLUS I can work out at a free, open-air gym, get some fresh air and a tan, and do my part to help the world's energy crisis!

But really, we should have thought of this a long time ago. One of the first things you learn in physics is the law of conservation of energy. Energy is not created or destroyed, it is transferred. So when you go to the gym and burn calories, every calorie you burn transfers 4.2 kJ out of your body. Energy which can be converted into power. Power which can be used.

Currently the generated electricity is used to light the exercise zone at night, but it could be used on local buildings or more.

One person's comment really made me think about how big of an impact this simple idea could actually have on a multitude of issues:

"Imagine a world in which electric utility companies set up local "gyms" consisting of treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical trainers, etc. ... where one could actually work out, supply electricity to the grid, and maybe help cut one's own electric bill in the process. I wonder how much healthier we might be."

Um, YES?

For all of our sakes, I sincerely hope that this idea does not fail. I really hope it gets to America. People will be more motivated to exercise because instead of spending money on a gym membership, they will be saving money on their electricity bill. And while doing this, they are getting some fresh air and sunshine and exercise, all things key to good health.

Isn't there a joke about trying to harvest the energy that three-year olds have? Well, here you go.

I'm so excited to see what the future brings.

Flawlessly Brave

So here's the thing about me: I will never meet you on time, but I'll be there eventually. I won't finish that assignment when I promised I would, but I will finish it at some point. So, I may say I'm going to write MWF and not follow through, but I will write that post eventually. I was distracted on Friday. I had a date with Delilah and a vampire. :[

:)


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Have you heard about the Disney Pixar movie Brave? With the adorable little ginger girl? A lot of people have been talking about it, about how she's Pixar's first heroine and everything. It is apparently a pretty big deal. To be honest, I think it's annoying that they make it such a big deal. One of my problems with feminism and everything is that they feel the need to bring your attention to all the female "firsts." I would have never noticed that she was Pixar's first heroine character if it weren't for all the articles heralding her as such. I mean, I can see why it's good to acknowledge these firsts, but it also makes everything so much more important than it has to be. Why couldn't this just be a movie about a little ginger girl? Who kicks some ass? It's not like Cars or Monsters Inc. existed for anything besides entertainment. Why couldn't this be the same? Instead, everything must be scrutinized. Like when there is a first female Senator or a first female Vice Presidential Candidate or what have you, she cannot just stand for her politics like all the men. She also has to stand for her gender. In 2008, Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin, and currently Michele Obama, were always being judged on how they represented their gender and how they dressed. Oh, she dressed too feminine, too sexy, not appropriate. Oh, she dressed too masculine, so butch, she is not proud to be a woman. She wants to be a man. Blahblahblah now you got me started, ha.

ANYWAY

I just get annoyed because, from personal experience, sometimes I just wanted to be an ECE student. Not THE GIRL ECE student. Everything had to be made that much more important. Just let me do me, sheesh.

But yeah. Not really on topic. So. Brave. A lot of the articles about it were talking not only about how she's a heroine, but about how she just looks normal. She has freckles and uncombed hair and a quirky little face. And some nice child-bearing hips. Bam. :p

That was honestly my favorite part about her. Because I mean, I don't know, Mulan was pretty kickass. I mean she did it dressed as a man mostly, but it was also a comment on the setting and time period of the story. So it was not like I had never seen a female hero before. I just had never seen one so quirky and average looking.

So image my intense disappointment when I saw the doll they made of her. Wouldn't you love to cuddle a doll with that hair and that shape and that face? Shouldn't they make the doll look just like the animation, which they are totally capable of doing, because they do it for EVERYTHING ELSE?

Guess not:

Fail.

Bubble Girl

Not gunna lie, while I was at college for four years, most of my news came from Facebook or through a spoof on College Humor. I was sheltered from the world, both physically and mentally. Physically, my campus was a self-sustaining unit on top of a hill, separated from the city below with some seriously steep steps. Mentally, I just did not watch the news. I did not read the newspaper, unless you count the crime log of the student paper. I did not check news websites. I was very uninformed. I always figured that, if it was really important for me to know (i.e., terrorists, war, giant asteroid crashing toward earth), I would hear about it some other way. For instance, I found out about Osama Bin Laden when I finished my semester-long software engineering project three seconds before it was due at midnight and walked outside for the first time in days to fireworks and drunk kids on the quad waving American flags while Public Safety looked on. So, you know, if it was important, I'd find out.

Every once in a while, I would have moments of panic when I realized just how out of touch I was with the world outside my college bubble. Someone would mention a political candidate (a lot of my friends watched Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, so they were at least getting the information somehow), and I would realize I had no idea who they were talking about.

Last summer, I had an internship and to pass the time in between tasks, I would spend hours on Google News. I knew all the political candidates, I knew all about the Casey Anthony trial, I knew about the debt ceiling, and most exciting of all, I actually had opinions. INFORMED opinions. And that felt powerful. But then of course, classes started again and I went back to my computer programming and my Glee nights.

So now that I'm out in the real world, killing time in the morning before I feel ready to actually start working, I'm back to my Google News. I'm back to my informed opinions.

But then I decided to watch some news on TV.

First, they had one little blurb about some recent figures that stated that America contains 5% of the world's population but a third of the world population's weight. Casual. No need to dwell over that TERRIFYING STATISTIC. *puts down ice cream, picks up Shake-Weight* And THEN, they proceeded to talk for AT LEAST five minutes about how Alec Baldwin punched a paparazzi.

Um. Alright, so I may not know much, but I know that there are more important things going on in America, in the world in general, than Alec Baldwin punching a paparazzi.

Maybe, while at college, I was not as out of touch with current events as I thought I was. Maybe I was even more in touch with what is actually going on in the world than people who get theirs news solely from news stations. So I didn't know who the political candidates are. Who cares? Does it really matter what they all stand for? None of them ever follow through anyway. But you know what I did know? I knew what it was like to be homeless. I volunteered at a homeless shelter and participated in Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week. Where is that on the 11 o'clock news? Know what else I know? About all the mass genocide going on all over the world. There was an Amnesty International club at college that downright shoved that information down my throat. But you know what? I'm glad they did. Ever hear about Darfur? Or Uganda? Or Rwanda? Yeah, the Holocaust was terrible, and we would never let something like that ever happen again. Except we do. Every day. If the twenty-first century.

So maybe when I was in college, I did not know the ins and outs of the NBA lockout or each politicians stance on birth control (since whether or not I have an illegitimate child is really going to affect anyone's life but my own) and gay marriage (or as I like to call it, marriage). Maybe I did not know about each and every gunshot fired in Philadelphia or that time this celebrity and that celebrity were caught holding hands. But I did learn about people. The kind of people that the news does not mention with near enough frequency. The people dying from AIDS and starvation and mass genocide all over the world. The people in our own communities who cannot support themselves or their families, who have children going to bed hungry and waking up hungry and remaining hungry all day while their neighbor has a six dollar latte. Did you know that SIX THOUSAND children die every day because they do not have access to safe drinking water? Yeah. Let that sink in.

But you know what I really wanna hear about? Let's interview the paparazzi that Alex Baldwin punched and decide if this is a growing trend among the A-listers. Fascinating.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

You've Got A Friend In...

It's still Monday until you go to sleep, am I right?

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You know what the best part about your four (or more) years of college is? Orientation. Either some week in the summer or the week before classes start, everyone comes to the campus and basically hangs out. Learns the layout of the campus. Maybe a sexual assault or a drugs and alcohol talk thrown in for good measure. But the most important part of orientation, is that you (ideally) come out of it with a group of friends. And even if they were friendships of convenience, at least you have people to eat with at meal times for the first few weeks before you meet the kids on your floor and the kids in your classes and the kids in all the billions of clubs you sign up for at your first activities fair.

Because, you know what I've found? It takes friends to make friends.

It's kind of like that Catch-22 of getting a job or getting a credit card (you can't get hired without experience, you can't get a credit card without having good credit). If you do not have any friends, it is really hard to make friends. The majority of my friends I met through other friends. Who knows how that initial friend of mine met this person, probably through a class or a club or most likely, another friend. But at some point they invited this friend to meet me, and we hit it off. I have some really good friends that I met on my own, that I either had class with or worked with or was in a club with or lived across the hall from, but a lot of my best friends I was introduced to. Either I had a friend who dated this person or lived with this person, or I had a friend throw a party that this person was also invited to. I needed friends to make more friends.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I have no friends. :) Alright, alright, not true. But much closer to being true than it has ever been in my entire life. Your introduction to the real life is not the same as that first night of college. When I moved in, my neighbors and I did not stay up all night telling each other our life stories. My neighbors barely know or care that I exist. If I go out to a restaurant, I can't take comfort in the knowledge that the kid sitting by himself in the corner is new too and really wants someone to sit with him. Yeah, that probably wouldn't go over real well.

But I have hope. I have a handful (less than a handful) of friends living in the same city as me, and we are all in the same boat. But we also know that once one of us makes a friend who actually has ties to the city, the entire city will open up to us. We'll meet their friends who will introduce us to their friends who will introduce us to their friends just by being at the same bars or the same clubs or the same gatherings, and sooner or later, we will each find our little niche of people to become our new support group.

We just have to make that first friend. That's all it takes.

So how do we meet this first friend? There's work, but everyone is so busy, I can't just go around asking the people who look my age if they wanna hang. There's bars, but unless there is a good pool table or something on TV, it would be awkward just sitting at the bar trying to figure out which group of friends might talk to me (plus as a five-foot girl who looks about sixteen years old, this is not the safest choice). There's also volunteer groups and churches and local sports and stuff, which is probably the route I will take. At least you are there for a reason. The ice will already be broken because you have something to talk about. I spent the weekend pouring over different newsletters that different organizations in the city put out, talking about different events and stuff that I intend to go to.

But you know what it really takes to make a new friend? Courage. Courage and confidence. The courage to go up to a complete stranger and say "Hey. I'm new around here. How's it going?" And the confidence in knowing that you are completely awesome, and this person would be lucky to have a friend in you.

So for now, I'm just waiting for that magical, elusive first friend. After that, it will be a breeze.