chaotica by Stefanie Sigurdson

Introducting Living English!

Hello, I know I have not blogged in a while, I am spending way too much time in RL ;).

I wanted to introduce my boyfriend's new business, Living English. It is an English Language school with a focus on interaction and expression, instead of a focus on passing tests or reading textbooks.

MacBook Air!

Well, I have just bought a MacBook Air and am having a great time with it!

How Well Do We Know Americans?

I am in Washington DC right now, on the last few days of a summer holiday with my boyfriend. It has been great. We drove down to North Carolina's Outer Banks from Toronto, then drove back to Washington DC to spend the 4th of July here and see some of the sites.

The days in North Carolina were amazing. Along the way we met a lot of friendly southerners, who were nice and helpful. We spent Canada Day there, and some people with New Jersey plates yelled "happy Canada day!" at our car. How sweet.

And - the whole thing got me thinking. In Canada, we watch American TV, use their products, eat at their chains, follow their politics, read their books, work for their companies, get mistaken for them when we go to foreign countries, so in a way, we really think that we know about them. But we don't. I have always had a positive view of Americans (and my own American heritage with having an American grandmother). But, I can't help but feel that my view is even more positive now after this trip.

In general, I really don't think you can see a whole country as a concept you create through products, politics etc. But we just can't make conclusions based on that. You may think that you never do that (I know I did), and nothing about others filters your view of them. But next time you are someplace new, meeting someone from another place, see if anything surprises you. 

Sexism and Hillary Clinton

See this video, where Katie Couric speaks out against sexism. Originally found on Buzz Machine.

Touching Video

I found this touching video about buffalo saving their calf from lions and alligators. Never, ever, ever give up :).

Professionalism Getting in the Way of Capitalism

I recently had a major issue with a vendor yelling at me over the phone and forcing me to do things that I didn't want to do. That's right, I was buying something from HER, yet she was yelling, forcing, acting unprofessionally. Worst of all the situation cut into things like my sleep, my weekend and generally my piece of mind. It was the worst work conflict in about 5 years or so... and it wasn't a colleague, customer or boss - it was a vendor!

So - we are in the age of the internet with democratization of information, when anyone can say anything, anywhere right? Shouldn't I expose this woman for what she is? Warning all other marketers not to deal with her? But no. Like all industries everywhere, mine is small. More uniquely, the roles are constantly reversing, where one year someone is your vendor, another year they are your boss, the next year they are your customer. That is just how it goes.

I always dreamed that capitalism would create this lean system where people like this woman would not survive. It is a competitive world out there - and one way to be competitive is to have great customer service or at least to reach competitive parity vendors would have to treat people with basic respect. I imagined that people like this would not be able to cope with the incredibly low level of professionalism she displayed. But unfortunately, it is not really capitalism with a perfectly free flow of information. It is just a little society. Like a small town. Like a family. Like a family that is dysfunctional at times!

Scoring Your Neighbourhood

A friend recently sent me this interesting site: http://www.walkscore.com/. It allows you to calculate how good your neighbourhood is in terms of walkability. My neighbourhood (High Park) faired okay and the neighbourhood I lived in when I went to high school (Kanata Lakes) rated at under 10% - which seems about right since it was pretty much as suburban as you can get. As oil prices go up, I imagine Walk scores will become more and more meaningful in terms of real estate value. What does that mean for the 'burbs?

On Being Yourself

Regular readers of this blog know that I have been on a personal journey of sorts in the past few years to be more genuine. "To Thine Own Self Be True", a line by Shakespeare has been the theme of my whole life for the past few years, as I have been (trying to) journey from being what I thought others wanted me to be to being who I really am. So - part of that has been starting my own business and running it the way that I want. Another part has been re-connecting with art, writing, feminism, and secular spirituality. I have been holding closer to the friends that help me be true to myself, and letting go of the ones that don't. I have been taking better care of my health. Finally, I have been working on my own blog and writing that have been about topics that I am interested in even if they don't really match each other.

So - for God's sake, isn't this enough? But I was speaking to someone from my creative writing group last night about how I sometimes reach out of who I really am when I am writing in order not to appear to emotional or sentimental... but a criticism of when I write like that is that I appear too cold and distant. So - in crouching down and trying to appear to be something I am not - I am actually making things worse, not better.

It made me think about people who are not being who they really are because they are stuck in a certain role or feel that they can't show who they really are. Each person has a beautiful and unique message to send to the world, but I think so many times we just crouch down instead of standing up and shining. If there was more of that, things would sure be much more interesting.

Why We Know Less Than Ever About the World

I found this TED talk from NPR CEO Alisa Miller fascinating. She uses cost-conservation as a reason for the media covering less international news than 20 years ago. She explains that the news media covers Brittany stories because those are cheaper and easier to cover. I also would add that there is a demand issue as well. Since most of the news media are private broadcasters, they will provide a product that people want. If people really wanted hard-hitting news, the broadcasters would find a way - and you think they could with all of the new tools available today... I for one, would like to see a lot less of Brittany and learn more about the world.

Yes We Can

Well - even as a feminist who wants nothing more than to see a woman president of the USA, I just don't think that Hillary is the one to do it based on some of the things she is doing in the media. It is very hard to say that, but it is true. Hopefully Obama will turn out to be everything that he seems to be.