You’re What You Own

Go to any garage sale and you’ll find piles of DVDs for sale. Everyone’s getting rid of their collection. With streaming being so commonplace, no one’s turning to their hoards of disks for entertainment, so now getting a dollar or two for them is the way to go. Obviously, clicking play on Netflix is easier than finding the disk on the shelf, turning on the DVD player, zipping through the menu, and then pressing play, but that really only works when the movie you want is on the streaming service you have. What happens when it’s not? We’re at the mercy of whatever deal(s) the movie studios have with the streaming service(s). Yet for the sake of convenience, everyone’s giving up ownership.

And this isn’t unique to DVDs. Subscription models are popping up everywhere, and it’s resulting in a world where people don’t own anything anymore.

I’m not against the concept of subscriptions as a whole. Do I think that people should own a hard copy of every single movie they ever want to watch? Not at all. Netflix and Prime and all these other platforms are a great way to access media in a way that makes sense for the average person’s budget,  physical storage capabilities, and viewing habits. But clearly, streaming has influenced consumer culture so much that stores aren’t even selling hard copies anymore. Best Buy, for example, announced recently they’d be phasing out the sale of DVDs and Blu-rays, and I completely get it.

But as I said, then we’re just relying on streaming services to provide us with that content, and now we’re seeing that not only is physical media disappearing, sometimes digital media is too. Streaming services can just fully wipe content off their platform. Disney+ is doing it all the time, which is angering fans who now have no way of legally watching the Disney content they want to watch. And yeah, I said ‘legally’ because there’s always a good chance it was downloaded and put on some pop-up-riddled illegal hosting site, but some people (not me) have morals.

And since we’re on the topic of illegal activity: 90% of the music on my iPhone was ripped illegally from YouTube over the past 15 years. Those mp3s are stored on a hard drive, so no matter what happens to music streaming platforms, I own them. I use Spotify for free all the time at home, but my personal library is too precious to put behind a paywall.

We’ve seen even the most successful companies go down in flames over time, and I don’t like the idea of being left with nothing but credit card statements to show that I at one point had something. We can trust in companies and longevity and whatever you want, but when you don’t actually own anything, it’s a risk.

A subscription model for something like Netflix makes sense. You don’t need to actually own most movies to watch and enjoy them, and if you ever find the library unsatisfactory, you can cancel without disrupting your life. But when it comes to many other things, the loss can be significant. No productivity or access to files if you lose your Microsoft Office subscription. No family photos if you lose your cloud storage subscription. No ability to print stuff if you lose your printer ink subscription. Because yeah, printers now come with subscription services! It’s so fun!

Companies realized that they could make more money and over a longer period of time with the subscription model over a measly one-time payment so now everything has a monthly fee to keep you locked in. It all comes back to corporate greed!

So we’re just left owning nothing and figuring out which of the hundreds of possible monthly payments are worth it.

Of course, maybe it’s a good thing we don’t own anything. No one has a place to put our belongings in anyway. My generation can’t afford a house, so we have to rent…and what is rent if not a subscription service?

Look at me, bringing the post to a close with the mention of rent, when the post title is from a Rent song. Who caught that reference?

That’s all for now!

 

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Volunteering

This past week (April 14-20) was National Volunteer Week in Canada. I had to prepare some social media content for this because the company I work for has a lot of dedicated volunteers. During the week, I’d occasionally scroll through the hashtag and see various organizations thanking their volunteers and highlighting exemplary individuals, as they should.

Clearly, the volunteer community is alive and well, and I’ve seen this firsthand through work, but as I scrolled, it hit me that I don’t really know anyone in my immediate life who volunteers much in a real humanitarian way. When I think of volunteering, I think of food banks and raising money for good causes, but I don’t know anyone who goes out of their way to give back in those ways, or in other community-benefiting ways all that much.

I technically volunteer at my curling club by managing communications for the biggest league. I’m part of the committee, and the club itself is a non-profit. As I don’t get paid for it and no one’s making me do it, it is volunteer work, but I barely consider it so. I just think of it as just helping out. Besides, I if don’t do it, some boomer will, and I simply cannot take any more correspondence with people who “write like this !!”

As a youth, volunteer work was forced upon me, though. In Ontario, you need to do 40 hours of community service to graduate high school, and I think I needed to do 10 hours to get Confirmed (the Catholic thing) in elementary school. Volunteering wasn’t so we could be dedicated members of society, it was so we could look good to universities and employers. It was completely selfish.

But okay, I was a kid with limited options. What about the adults in my life? Well, my mom would volunteer to help in my classrooms sometimes, and my dad coached my brother’s hockey and was on the parent council in my high school. That was about it, as far as I can recall. Even my friends’ families weren’t out doing a bunch of selfless volunteer work that I was aware of. Was I just living in a very selfish mind-your-own-business bubble? Because I see the social media posts of people who dedicate hours and hours of time on the reg, and I just don’t identify with that.

Of course, my parents back then were working and raising kids. They didn’t exactly have oodles of spare time, and I acknowledge that. Between work, family, chores, commutes, and your own hobbies, people don’t exactly have tons of time open for volunteering. And if you did, you’d probably look for a second job, because in this economy, it’s helpful. Like I said, I don’t know anyone in my life who volunteers simply because they care, but I do know people with side hustles.

We are as a society more self-centered now than ever, and that’s unfortunate, but understandable. I can’t even end this post by advising you to now go find some organization to volunteer with because it’s not that simple. But I will say this: if you do ever find yourself able to give back, there are some great groups out there genuinely working to make a difference. You’ll be underappreciated by many, but you will be a part of something special. A hashtag like #NationalVolunteerWeek can only do so much, but it can at least bring some good groups to the surface.

Do you volunteer much? Brag on yourself if you do.

That’s all for now.

 

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Friendship Despite Adult Schedules

I have a small friend group of five people, all spread out across southern Ontario. For the past two years we’ve picked a weekend and gone camping. Though the snow has barely melted, we’re already planning for this year’s trip.

Step one was to list out every weekend from early June to late September in a shared spreadsheet and identify when we might be free. Between jobs, family obligations, and whatever else, we don’t all align until the end of the summer.

Step two was to pick a campsite. My boyfriend and I took on this task, and when we had a plan, I brought it to the group because we want everyone’s go-ahead before we book.

Step three is to discuss as a group and confirm things. At the time of writing, we’re currently stuck on this step, because once again, the complexities of adult schedules make this very hard. I think 4/5 of us may be the best we can do in the next week.

Even once we book, we’ll need a few more meetings down the line to sort things out like packing lists and itineraries. Only time will tell how easy it’ll be to arrange those.

This is a classic adult conundrum. We’re all on different schedules with different flexibilities. I’m glad my friends have busy, productive lives. I just wish our free time aligned more, and that we lived closer to each other, so planning get togethers wasn’t such a project. Because I’m sure all this will only get more chaotic as we continue to live our lives.

But it’s in this chaos that you realize how meaningful the friendships are. It’s the people who are willing to put up with the back and forth planning and actually put in the effort that are worth it.

I think about all the friendships I’ve lost over the years, and most of them fell apart simply because one or more of us were unwilling or unable to put in that effort and maintain the relationship once it required a level of finessing. Losing connections like that is a part of life, but it still sucks. Especially in this digital age when it’s easier than ever to stay connected virtually.

Does anyone have the Friends lifestyle where their closest circle all live within a few minutes of them? I’d think that with the cost of living being so wild and remote jobs being common, it’s more likely that people are all over the place. So we’re stuck putting in considerable effort to hang out.

And you hear about the ‘loneliness epidemic’ we’re facing, and yeah, it makes sense. If I didn’t have this friend group willing to jump on Google calls or plan weekends to hang out, I’d be much, much lonelier than I am.

If you’re reading this, this is your sign to appreciate your busy friends who still make time for you. And to congratulate yourself if you’re the busy one who can still give your friends the love they deserve. As painful as it is to find time for all of us to hang sometimes, it always results in a great time together, and that’s what matters.

That’s all for now.

 

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Life On The 401

I’d spent my adult life thus far doing my best to avoid driving on the highway. If I had to go somewhere that was beyond my city limits, I was either getting a ride from a parent/friend/boyfriend/coworker or I was taking public transit. I did not want to drive. I did not like to drive. And I barely had the means to drive anyway as my brother and I share an old car, and he was already taking it to work.

But recently I got a new job, and I knew I’d be a fool if I passed it up just because it involved a drive on the good old 401. I needed to break out of my shell (and hometown) and learn to face my fears.

Me getting into the car.

And I did!

Nearly every morning, I am one of thousands of people who get in their cars and embark on a journey on Ontario’s biggest highway. I’m driving faster than I’ve ever driven before. And also slower. Because traffic is awful!

Rush hour is rush hour. People have places to be, and I get it. I just wish Ontario had better infrastructure. We’re constantly promised expansions and new roads and transit lines and all these things that either never come to fruition or take years (if not decades to complete). So this is life. In good traffic, the drive should take me 25 minutes, but I’m lucky to do it in 45 on any given morning or afternoon. Sometimes it takes closer to an hour. And that’s all a step up from the nearly two hours it’d take on public transit.

But I’m working on getting those numbers down. I think I’ve figured out the sweet spot of when to get out of express and into collectors so I can eventually get off the highway and not get caught in the slowdown. And if I get onto the highway the next city over instead, I can bypass a weird slog there too. It’s these little tricks that I’m mad I have to think about, but I guess are all a part of the 401 commute life.

And you know what else, as I learned, is part of the 401 commute life? Lies. I am lied to constantly on that highway. Every so often, there’ll be these big electronic signs listing out some upcoming exits and how long it will take to get there. Those numbers are egregiously false. 16 minutes is really like 40. 7 minutes is more like 15. I am bamboozled by how wrong those signs are every day during regular rush hour traffic. And one time, I saw a sign saying that express was moving well while collectors was slow, so I made the choice to stay in express as long as I could, and that ended up also being a mistake as I found express to be even slower than usual.

I always assumed people’s road rage was directed at other drivers, but I think I’m developing it solely towards the highway itself. So far, I haven’t seen any idiot drivers doing reckless things. I just see unnecessary slowdowns and a road system that seems kind of broken for the volume it sees every day. I can only imagine what the 401 was like before the pandemic when everyone was in-office five days a week.

But whatever. My commute isn’t that bad, and I’m very proud of myself for pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I still don’t like to drive, but as long as I’m safe and get where I need to be in a somewhat reasonable time frame, it is what it is.

In related news, I’m thinking about listening to audiobooks on my drive. Goodness knows I have the time, and it may be a more realistic way for me to get back into books. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Good idea for an audiobook noob or ineffective way of consumption when focused on the road?

That’s all for now.

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Monthly Look Ahead: April 2024

Welcome to April! Usually, this month is the real start of spring, which I do like, but last year, we had a wild heatwave in early April that messed up curling playoffs for us. So fingers crossed that we can get through that this year without trouble and then crack out the jorts.

• As mentioned, curling ends in April, and to close out the season, the Mixed League that I’m in always throws a party. I’m wary of big curling events now because they always seem to lead to some illness being passed around, but I’m thinking I’ll make an appearance and celebrate the end of the season for a bit.
• My friends and I got tickets to Canada’s Wonderland, which is a huge amusement park north of Toronto. I haven’t been there in over a decade, so I’m excited to go back. Hopefully the weather cooperates that day too.
  
• My boyfriend and I are hoping to go to an art exhibit about light this month. We went last year and really enjoyed it, so we have to find time this month when the weather is nice at night (as that is the best time to see light-up art). Does anyone have recommendations on how to spend an afternoon in Toronto beforehand?
• My new job (which is going great so far) has an AGM coming up, and I will be in attendance. It should be a good way for me to learn more and meet more people.
• Billy Joel’s 100th show at Madison Square Garden was filmed and will be televised on the 14th. I’m a big fan of his music and would love to see him in concert, but this may be as close as I can get, so I will be tuning in for sure.
  
• Taylor Swift’s next album comes out this month. I’m only a casual fan, but I’m sure it’ll be decent, as her last handful of albums have been.

Hopefully everyone’s April is sunny and warm and no one is bamboozled by any April Fools Jokes. I’d love to hear what plans you have, though.

That’s all for now!

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