Tom's Opinion

After missing yet another Saturday, I’ve decided I’m going to put Tom’s Opinion on a different schedule. Not that anyone is particularly bothered by this but I feel an odd sense of duty when I say that I’m going to post weekly. So now I’m saying that I’m going to post irregularly and without any schedule.

There, now I feel better .

The reasons:

My travel blog and thesis are just taking up too much of my time. I’ve always tried to keep this platform a place for my mental masturbation (not a journal of daily events). As it is now, I simply haven’t had much time to think. Hence the schedule change.

Cheers.

I’ve left this place post-less and unattended for too long and I apologize. All I can say is that I’ve been busy. Alas, the wheels of thought have resumed turning and I have once again ideas to write about.

Let me tell you something about myself. I’m very interested in the concept of efficiency. I’m probably mildly obsessed with it in fact. The desire to make things “better.” What’s the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) moto? “We don’t make things, we make things better” or something like that. Sounds like an ideal place for me. The point is I love efficient things. However, I don’t think I’m the only one.

It seems to me that it’s a trait all of humanity has even if individual persons do not. What’s my evidence?

Let’s start with biology. An aspect of our existence we have no control over. Nature favours efficiency. You don’t have inefficient designs. When our species stopped brachiating our shoulders and upper bodies changed because it was a hindrance on the ground. The giraffe and it’s neck, the turtle and it’s shell, a duck’s webbed feet, etc. etc. The point is that nature seeks the most efficient design for the required function, not the most inefficient.

Let’s move to something more tangible; human societies. It seems that people always want to make things more efficient. Clay pots were always made to be more comfortable, sleeker, smoother, tougher. The tools to make those clay pots were also increasingly made to be more efficient. The tools and weapons in general of all primitive societies were made to be more efficient. Sharper edges so cutting could be faster and… yeah, more efficient. Stronger hafts so they wouldn’t break as often so that they didn’t have to be made as often because making the same tool over and over is… yeah, inefficient.

Consider how modern companies function. What’s the driving force? Profit right. Well what increases profit? Seems to me like the answer would be efficiency.

Cars on the road are made more fuel-what? Efficient.

The human obsession with “more” of everything and anything is always fed by an increase in efficiency. The question is whether the obsession is a desire for “more” or simply a preoccupation, known or unknown, conscious or unconscious with efficiency.

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile folks. Moving to Norway has really taken much of my time and energy. However, I have managed to start a travel blog.

Check it out.

http://norwegiansaga.com

What is Liverpool ONE? Good question. I could go on about what I think it is… actually I will but a little later on.

Some of you may have heard of it. Liverpool ONE is a massive shopping district, still under development I believe. Some of it has opened to the public. The stats are impressive of course, 3000 parking spaces, 42 acres of shopping space, four storey department stores etc etc. It’s a shopping experience in other words. Moreover, other cities in England are following suit by building massive shopping complexes as well. Part of the problem for some people with these things is that a portion of the city centre becomes privately owned. These shopping centres are private and shop owners have to rent out space from some rich corporation.

Shopping is good for the economy, we all know that. But someone has to ask: how can this constant need to shop can be sustained? Here’s what I think (I told you it was coming): the British economy has turned from, or is turning from, production to service. That’s probably obvious to anyone with half a brain, and I hope that’s the kind of person that reads my blog. I do think though, that service economies don’t have much of a future. It seems to be a temporary solution to the problem of innovation stagnation and market saturation. The individuals who try and push these shopping complexes are seizing the moment and making a huge profit on the plateauing of the economy. These real estate magnates know the economy is slowing down so they’re going to attempt to take as much as they can and when the profits stop they’re going to sell out. The city and small businesses, as well as consumers, are the ones that lose out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradise_Project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/image_galleries/john_lewis_gallery.shtml?1

So this brings me to my second point. Has materialism and consumerism replaced the arts? It seems that by erecting and allowing the erection of these complexes cities and citizens have allowed consumer values to overtake artistic ones. Just think about the location of Liverpool ONE; the city centre. Admittedly, I haven’t been to Liverpool to see this thing myself but the centre of town has been, throughout history, the place for arts, administration, and religion. To be sure every medieval town had some form of sales in the downtown but more often than not stores were kept to certain quarters of the city and markets were held in large wide open areas.

With Liverpool ONE and all of it’s supposed offshoots in other British cities it seems that shopping is taking over as the centre of the town, and metaphorically, life. I’m not quite sure if such a thing is happening in Canada yet, I haven’t bothered to do any careful study of the facts, and I’m not making any judgments about England because I know even less about that country. What I am asking is has materialism taken over the finer things in life like art and culture? It seems there are more stores than theaters/galleries opening at any one time.

Reading an article on BBC just surprised me that’s all.

So going back to the issue of email I’m now considering dumping an email address that I had for a long time in favour of my Gmail account. I always get to wondering what are the privacy policies of these webmail outfits. Can they be trusted? Are they spying on me? On the other hand, if I use my personal website email (tomsopinion.com) how do I know the server company isn’t going through my mails the same or moreso than Gmail? The answer, of course, is I don’t and can’t find out in any way.

This question has been playing on my mind for awhile. What is the perfect email solution? Seems there isn’t one.

As a result I think I’m going to move my email entirely to Gmail. Gmail has POP access so I can use Thunderbird, which I love. Gmail is web accessible unlike my webhost mail. But, Gmail has a feature that I dislike somewhat , and that’s the organizational system; the idea of labels and conversations. I’m old fashioned, everyone knows that, I prefer separate mails and folders. However, for all of the benefits I suppose it’s worth it. I’m not awesome enough to write my email software and have my own global telecomm system to put it on so I’m going to have to use something other than the perfect solution, which in my opinion is Gmail.

Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?