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: March 2024

March is here. Will warm weather be here too? Remains to be seen. I’ve heard birds chirping recently, though, so that’s promising. Anyway, let’s march on to the meat of this post…

• The biggest news this month is I’m starting a new job! Not only is that in itself a big change, but it requires a bit of a lifestyle change too, so it’ll be an adjustment for sure. But I’m excited for this new adventure!
• Sunday curling is now over for my team, but all the ladies in the league will be getting together for a closing dinner near the end of the month, which should be nice. I’ve never been to the restaurant before, but I’ve heard it’s good.
• Easter is early this year, squeezing into the very end of March. This year, I think I may have plans both with my extended family and my boyfriend’s extended family, which should be fun and busy.
  

Not a super busy month, but that’s maybe for the best with a new job to adjust to. What are you looking forward to in March?

That’s all for now!

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Game Shows And Trivia

Game shows fascinate me. I don’t watch that many, but whenever I do, I’m so intrigued by how they work behind the scenes.

Take Family Feud, for example. They always say “we asked a hundred people…” and I always wonder how? Was it via an online survey? Did someone stand in a mall asking passerbys? Or is it just a lie and instead the internal show staff made up the questions and answers? No matter the truth, I’m interested. The concept of someone’s job being to create trivia questions and gather answers seems fun to me.

Or take the show Hollywood Game Night, the NBC celebrity game show hosted by Jane Lynch that ran from 2013-2020. My mom and I loved that show because it was fun to watch, and the celebrities seemed happy to be there. The games they all played weren’t just thinking games, there was sometimes an element of physical or skill-testing challenges. From guessing children’s drawings of celebrities to playing word games, there was always a wide array of wacky games that I would’ve loved to play. But I also can’t stop wondering how they’re made.

I imagine a team of six dynamic, creative adults just left to their own devices in a room full of toys and sketch pads just coming up with silly games. They have to test it amongst themselves and iterate on it until it’s perfect, and then they set up a meeting with the bosses and shareholders to demonstrate the games.

It’s probably not like that. What is it like, though? What’s the job description like when they hire?

There are so many behind the scenes or ‘making’ of content for movies or TV shows, but not for game shows. I’d love an inside look at what goes on and what goes into making them.

On a related trivia note, my boyfriend and I have now gone to two different trivia nights at restaurants, and we’ve had a lot of fun. Some person just leads it for the players, and that just seems like such a fun, chill gig. And I wonder, do these people come up with their own trivia questions? Is there a Facebook group for bar trivia hosts where they all share questions?

Because there is an art to good trivia. It has to be challenging to some extent. Not everyone should know it. But it has to be reasonably answer-able. Is there a litmus test for measuring trivia questions?

These are my game show and trivia ramblings. What are your favourite game shows to watch, and also what game show would you like to be on?

I’d like to be on Family Feud, Beat Shazam, or Don’t Forget The Lyrics. When a Canadian version of Family Feud was announced several years ago, my brother and I seriously looked into auditioning, but the show highly encouraged goofy auditions of people overenthusiastically showcasing themselves, and our family is not those kinds of people. But I went to watch the show’s filming once, though, so that was fun.

You can actually see me in the audience here!

 

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Is ChatGPT And AI Putting My Job At Stake?

I remember when I was applying to universities, my mom encouraged me towards communications programs saying “every company does marketing. Every company needs communications people.” She’s not wrong, and that has been a comforting thought, especially during the pandemic, when I saw plenty of people lose their jobs.

Needless to say, I was never too worried about ‘robots’ taking over my job. Until now, less than 10 years later. I can’t deny that this does not bode well for my career.

AI (artificial intelligence) is on the rise, and in the last few months, it’s actually been a hot topic. While AI isn’t new, for the longest time, it was never at a level that could really compete with professionals, especially in a marketing sense, which I’m focusing on a lot. It was janky, awkward, and, well, robotic.

In this video from only a few months ago, YouTuber Drew Gooden plays around with writing AI he saw advertised on Instagram. It’s funny to see how bad the software is. So it’s wild to see how ChatGPT has really wowed people only a few months later.

Suddenly, nearly-perfectly written articles and copy can be created in seconds. Whether that’s used as a starting point or the final product, it’s kind of scary to see. And this technology is still in its infancy! Imagine what it could be like in another ten years. My job involves writing blog posts, emails, landing pages, and more. I like to write. I think I’m pretty good at it. But can I compete with AI? Is my creativity and skills and humanity enough to save me?

Right now, yes. My boss currently is encouraging me to familiarize myself with AI and use it to my advantage to come up with ideas. I do know that it can be used to enhance my writing, so I’m trying. It’s weird.

But now let’s talk about art AI, since it’s also been a big thing recently. I am not an artist, but what’s been going on is a problem. There’s a software called Lensa that would allow someone to upload a picture of themselves and it’d spit out dozens of artsy edits, making one look like a Greek God or a fairy or whatever else, and it got very popular on social media. The problems with this was that a) they were using stolen art by real artists, b) uploading images of yourself to random sites is never a good idea, and a lot of young people were doing this, and c) people reported that a lot of the generated art was very sexualized, and unnecessarily so.

While there could be a benefit to writers like myself using ChatGPT to enhance my skills and productivity, the art side of things paints a scary picture of greed, theft, and scams. It’s these three things that I can’t seem to shake of my perception of AI. And while maybe this comes from how the media has portrayed robots and AI and maybe my inability to fully trust some things, I think there’s an element of truth to it, and we’ll see the ugly sides more and more as the technology advances.

Hopefully humans and AI can coexist peacefully. I know there are people and businesses who’ll use any tool they can to make a profit, but I hope AI doesn’t become a standard part of that. The human touch and range of emotions can’t be replaced as of yet, but I do truly worry that one day it will. And I’d like to not be a casualty of that.

 

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Working From Home: A 6 Month Update

When the pandemic started I was unemployed, but I saw and read about people having to adjust to working from home. For some, it was an easy transition, but many others struggled or felt burn out soon after. In those uncertain times (I say as if we in Canada are not still in them…) there was a lot of discussion as to the future of workplaces. So I wrote this blog post talking about how I did not want to work from home and how I thought young people would suffer in the long run if working from home was to truly be the new societal norm even past the pandemic.

But then I got a job.

I started in right away in January, and it’s completely work from home. I’ve never met my boss in person. I’ve never been to the office building listed on our website. I don’t know when I ever will. But it’s been six months now, and I actually don’t hate working from home at all.

In fact, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. That’s not to say that I don’t stand by what I wrote last year, because I absolutely still do, but I’ve had a slight change of heart and am proud of myself for dealing with this new work situation so well.

I like not having a commute. I like that I can use a stove at lunch rather than just a microwave. I like being able to sit on my bed with my laptop sometimes rather than only sitting at a desk. I like that I can play music out loud if I want. There are a lot of pros to working from home, and I’m sure if you’ve experienced it, you know this all to be true.

What also has hugely helped me manage this lifestyle is the fact that I have a decent social life set up for myself. I spend more nights on Google Hangouts with friends than not, so I’m able to get regular human interaction, and it doesn’t feel transactional like it sometimes can at work. That work-life balance is real and important.

In Canada, basically everyone should be double vaccinated by the fall, so there’s some light talk about returning to normal, returning to offices. While I was totally against working from home before I had to do it, I think I’m more in the split party now. I think I’d like to only go in a few days, and ideally those few days be for meetings or something. For people established in their role and good with technology, perhaps being in the office every day isn’t necessary. I know for me in a marketing role, I really don’t interact with people outside of the department too often and a lot of my work is solo, so it’d be more of a social thing for me, which is fine because building relationships with coworkers is valuable. I still think starting a new job remotely isn’t ideal for either party, and I still think that the younger generation could suffer without the mentorship or connections in the long run, but when you balance the pros and cons, I think in general, it’s fairly even. Hopefully workplaces understand this and are able to nicely adjust for it so that everyone can work in their ideal way and get what they need out of it.

I’m learning a lot at my job and I like my coworkers and I’m glad I have the chance to work and figure out myself from home. The fact that I’ve had a change of heart regarding this is cool and I think it makes me a better person and a better employee.

I work well on my own and am not someone antsy, so spending basically 22 of 24 hours in my room/office and 14 of those on a computer isn’t hard for me, especially once I got set up with a proper desk. My room for years was just a place to sleep, so changing it up a bit to suit work was weird, but needed. Not all of it has been changed though…I guess this is now technically my office door.

I did this in grade 6 or 7 and I love it. Click to enhance.

If working from home is my life now and will be the trend for employment going forward, I’d still like to not have ‘home’ be at my parents’ house especially because I am now officially closer to 30 than I am 20 (ew), but one step at a time. This concludes my update!

That’s all for now!

 

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