Blog guilt and off on a tangent...

OK, now there's a cool, self-reflexive thing to have happen &emdash; I have come back to edit this post a day later, and now the Blogger system has kindly let me back into the title field.

If I had been speaking, it would have been like stopping in the middle of a sentence, then having suddenly been triggered to continue speaking a day later - the software has, in effect, allowed me to complete my thought...scary, or maybe just for me who likely thinks about these things far too often for the average bear.

It also means that some of my rantings below are a tad deflated, I guess. But maybe you'll find something interesting nonetheless in my fatigue-inspired rambling.

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[July 10 original post]
OK - first I must say there's been a technical difficulty: I began to write the title, and was then kicked out of the Title box, unable to click into it. Grrrr. Just shows how 'emancipating technology' sometimes traps us into saying things we didn't mean to.

I wrote a paper once on how the reliance on e-mail communication for a decision-making process could sabotage even good communicators' best efforts. People just aren't responding spontaneously to one another in an authentic two-way encounter when they use e-mail. In fact, I'd argue that e-mail is often the tool of choice precisely in those situations where you really just want people to hear and respond to your message at a later point.

But when it comes to potential or actual sensitive issues, it was easy to misunderstand each other's intentions in a group e-mail exchange. It was then that we'd resort to spending the money on long-distance calls.

Communication is threaded through so many of our experiences - and clearly, by having this blog, I spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Agape in wonder at the most primitive of code systems
This weekend, with the Toronto-area weather even more humid by this time than normal (and with the irony not escaping us), my husband and I watched Live Earth. As cynical politically as I might be about this event - this ain't the forum for it, I don't think - I was still in childlike awe of all the communication vehicles that had to converge on this event before it happened, and all those that were being used to deliver it to us.

I am old enough to clearly remember watching Live Aid some 20 years ago. But then, we didn't also have the option to watch it on computers (what, those things in Star Trek?), telephones and portable screens of all sizes; or have special content transmitted to us through the data lines across the world via the Internet.

But more striking still to me was the little theme that bookended the broadcasts before and after commercials -- no, not the Madonna song (not nearly one of her most clever, IMHO) -- it was the use of the SOS and Morse Code.

Imagine, before all of the stuff we use now: a simple . . . - - - . . . (dot-dot-dot-dash-dash-dash-dot-dot-dot) conveyed a piercing urgency to those alert to the those needing saving via the most elementary of early airwaves. Again without getting too political, I have less use for many other legacies the military has left us than I have for such a brilliant, pure way of transmitting only the most needed information. I wish I could write as well as Morse spoke code.

The first few times, it sounded like a song. But then I saw the displayed text as above. Wow! Am I the only one who still finds this communication system just stunning?!

OK, so onto the title topic...


So I'm feeling guilty for missing a week with my blog. And, for being lazy in the last post and not adding a photo.

Hang in there with me, all 2.67 of you. I plan to give CTEM (like my nifty acronym?) a facelift soon. Be well until then, and come back again.

Once the label's off it's all dog's breakfast

As with many couples, my husband and I each have a few habits that drive the other nuts. We've been a couple for almost 20 years, and fortunately, we've retained our ability to tolerate being annoyed by one another for the sake of the positive parts of our relationship.

One of those things that makes me crazy is that, once food has been put into refrigerator containers (notice I avoided using the popular brand name!), food in our fridge becomes persona non grata to him.

Being overly practical, as I noted in my last post, I don't like to waste things. And it's hard to buy food in the exact quantities you need. Plus, I don't like eating out too often - both packaging and an empty wallet irk me.

So if there's leftover food in the fridge, I try to bring it for lunch or eat it again for a day or two. For my husband, the same food ends up as a biology project.

Yesterday, we figured it out. He forgets about food in the fridge unless it's been bought recently...and STILL HAS ITS LABEL (all caps intended - it freaked me out that much).

He's often thought we had "no food!", when I could see lots of possibilities in the fridge and cupboards. It turns out that, besides not loving the idea of leftovers, he's got the mental model that food is not as appetizing when it is not packaged.

Thank g*d he doesn't feel that way about women =:->

Turning labelling on its environmental ear

Along with thinking waaahhhyyyy too much about what everything around me means, I spend lots of energy on finding ways to re-use common products.

My motivation is not all planet-motivated, though that's a much more trendy way to position it these days. I have been an ardent re-purposer of things since far before it became trendy.

I don't aim to brag, as this quirk is partly also motivated by my overly practical - some have said neurotic - need to put everything to good use.

Finally, it's been more motivated of late by my commitment to simplifying my life; my system involves not bringing any more stuff into our home. This year I proclaimed "Make the most of what you already have" to be my mission statement for '07. It's a spiritual mantra, but I also mean it literally.

Prodded on by debt and lack of free time (I have a 3-year-old - nuff said?), I need to cut down on the cash I spend on stuff it turns out I usually don't need - hence the word "already".

That toddler I mentioned brings with her the need to manage a whole other whack of stuff besides my own. So, I am simplifying and - with an attitude of gratitude - making the most of what is already here.

And so to the point...
In a roundabout way, this brings me back to the title and its photo.

One of the ways I re-use or re-purpose things is by finding creative ways to re-use product packaging.

Since so many more types of product now enter my home - the kid again! - I have more colourful options from which to choose. So I'm finding new re-uses, too.

The Hello Kitty bookmark above is but one example. It's torn from the insert on her Size 3 underwear (of which she currently goes through scores per week). I also use the rigid cardboard box illustrations as "buddies" for my daughter; we laminate or stand them up for her to act out little plays with. Or, we give them to her to draw, colour or put stickers onto.

Thumbing the nose at - or propagating - the Brandish Invasion?

I once saw a 60-minutes about a guy in the U.S. who had written to every marketing company he could, in order to begin receiving sacks of junk post. The segment took you through the time he spent writing to these firms, and walked you through his shed, where he kept most of his "winnings." Only at the very end did we find out that by guaranteeing this mail he had secured all his home heating material for that winter - and then we pan to him feeding flyers into his woodstove (you almost can hear the maniacal laughter in the background).

So my little revolt is not quite at that level. And indeed, I might feel rather smug at having thumbed my nose at the product's original makers by ripping its package into fragments of its former likeness.

But then, you could also argue that I am only working to further propagate the company's brand - and even placing the product in unexpected, and therefore, effective, places.

But either way, I still think it's better than sticking it in the recycling bin.