A Commentary on Comments

Comments are an interesting part of posting online. They allow others the space to tell you what they thought of your post, if they agree or disagree etc. However, I have found that comments also allow people to cut you down. This I don't understand. I realize that when you post online you open yourself up to whoever is going to read it. Yet, I cannot believe that a person will comment simply to hurt you. This goes way past the usual hacking and stupid jokes. This is actually hurtful. Now I know I'm going to get told here if you can't take criticism, why are you posting online. But that's just it! The comment I received on my live journal was a malicious criticism, not meant to be constructive, not meant to be helpful, but hurtful. I know it's not from a random person, because whoever wrote this feels they have some kind of understanding of my writing style. I'll quote it for those of you who don't read my LiveJournal.

Honest opinion (Anonymous) 2006-02-18 07:11 am
To be honest your writing is good, technically speaking that is. However you lack charactor behind what you write, there is no personality to your writing. In your journal entries you explain everything as though it were to go into an resource manual.

Ouch! And considering that this post was a comment on an entry in which I was feeling a little more than disillusioned with myself and my writing...It did nothing but confirm my fears that university has drained me of all creative ability.

This is what gets me. This person is supposed to be my friend! No one but my friends would bother reading my journal! Here are the two points that grieve me the most: it's anonymous. If you can't put your name beside what you are writing, if you aren't proud of what you are writing, if you know you are going to hurt, piss off and anger the person you are writing and can't take credit for it, should you be writing it!? The second point is that this person also feels they know my writing and the style of my writing, well enough to criticize it anyway, but what authority do they have, especially when they spelt character wrong!? What are they basing this on? My journal? Bravo...it's barely fucking edited!

I know I'm going on about this and it seems like I'm beating a dead horse, but you just don't know until you've been cut down like that. It feels so unfair that this person...this inconsiderate, presumptuous, obtuse individual...gets to criticize me on something I hold very important in my life, my ability to write, and I am not able to make any direct defense. I am so frustrated by this cowardice. I hope someone does this to them, in some form or another. I hope they get kicked when their down. I hope they look to their friends for support and find nothing but a kick to the stomach. This is the exact reason I hate meeting people. This is the exact reason I don't like many people. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the more people you know the more people can stab you in the back.

I think I can let this go now...thanks for bearing with me while I vented...

Ahhh, Valentine's...I love the smell of commerce in the morning!

I'm not a huge supporter of Valentine's Day. I could really take it or leave it. I think it was a good idea, but somehow it just didn't really work out. It as become this commercial holiday (well not even a "holiday" because it's not a stat) which dictates that unless you get a glittery card, chocolates, flowers and a dinner your relationship is doomed, your boyfriend doesn't care...etc. Of course, us sane people know it's all a sham inflicted on us by the card, flower and chocolate corporations. Hey, at least they're working together!

The bitterness in people today really just makes me laugh. I don't understand how people get so worked up over this. These are people who know and believe that Valentine's really isn't anything but a commercial holiday and yet they have the bitchiest things to say today...either on their blog or perpetually on msn. There is nothing like the subject of Valentine's to make perfectly happy women irrationally upset...myself excluded (!). I've noticed this in my friends. For some reason they get attached to and fixated on the notion that if they are alone today, they are unworthy, unhappy, losers. It's insane! If I hate Valentine's it's for no other reason than it turns all my girlfriends into very angry people...

The Real Thing

I do not think many realize how much a photograph distorts a work of art. Today we rely on photography to study and view works of art and architecture in other parts of the world without a thought to how this effects the art itself. We believe so wholly in the notion that a camera can produce a realistic and truthful representation that we do not stop to consider its limitations. A photograph cannot substitute the real thing. We lose so much of the experience including colour, texture, detail, scale, and presentation. A photograph can alter all of these aspects of a painting, which may not seem so crucial at first but consider this. A bad photo can alter the colour to look completely different from the original. Just do a search for a painting, I'm sure you will come up with several colour variations for the same work. In a photo we cannot see the brushstrokes and the texture they create on the canvas, which is so important for artists such as Claude Monet who uses thick blobs of paint that stand out from the canvas. His water lilies are nearly 3 dimensional! The scale is one of the biggest distortions. The scale of a work has an incredible influence on how the artwork is viewed. An example of this is Jacques Louis David's work Coronation of Napoleon.

It is not very impressive at this size, but in actuality it's 20 x 32 feet! That's huge! Presentation also has an effect. Where is the frame in this image? It's been completely excluded from the image. A frame has a major role in how a piece of art is viewed because it borders the painting and compliments the work. A dramatic or minimal frame will produce different effects. Similarly, no frame also has an effect. Considering how much we lose in a 2 dimensional artwork, just think how much detail we lose when looking at a photograph of a 3 dimensional sculpture and buildings!

I feel such a frustration for those people who do not see what they are missing. I wonder at them. Why would you not want to experience these amazing pieces of artistic expression?! I realize not everyone is as enthusiastic about art as I am, but I believe that is due, in part, to intimidation. A lot of people brush off art because they feel they don't understand it; especially modern art. Many people don't know what to think when confronted with it. I understand that. But what I don't understand is how this prevents someone from appreciating it.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you are able, go and see the art and architecture of the world. Don't rely on a photograph to show you the art of the world. It won't do it justice!

Art for art's sake, with no purpose, for any purpose perverts art. But art achieves a purpose which is not its own.

- Benjamin Constant

Individuality in a Cup of Coffee

It seems odd that one can find their self in their coffee order these days, but it's true. For $3.95 +/- a few dollars, depending on how complicated or simple you want it, one can purchase a unique identity. No foam, extra foam, whip, extra hot, no water, skim, soya...latte, americano, mocha, caramel macchiato, cinnamon dolce latte...The choices are endless. A person can be identified by their caffeine selection just as easily as they can be by their cell phone's ringtone or their clothes. As I see it there are 3 types of coffee customers:

1) The Tim Horton's Simpleton: This is a person who just wants coffee. Mochas being made with a shot of espresso and chocolate is beyond their understanding or desire. I cannot count how many times I've had to explain that hot chocolate and coffee does not a mocha make! This coffee is simple and fast; which is just what the clientele wants. Quality is not really appreciated in this crowd when you have to pay over $1.55 for it. It amazes me how one could call this good coffee! I admit sometimes all you want is a basic coffee...but please don't think this is the best out there!

2) The Starbucks Heretic: These people are worse than the Tim Horton's crowd. It may be better coffee, but the devoted customers are insane. They won't go to anywhere other than Starbucks. They will choose Starbucks over everything else. They consider everything else lesser than Starbucks. And do you know why? They didn't come up with this by themselves (oh no!), but because popular opinion has brainwashed them. Thus they are heretics. Starbucks is better than some, and good when there isn't anything better (like in CR) but by far not the best; especially when what you're paying for constantly tastes a little burnt. There are things I won't order at Starbucks because it just tastes bad! And for $4 it better be done right.

3) The Moka House Gentility: This is the upper crust of coffee. It also proves I'm not against chains, because this is one. Sure, it's pricey...but it's so worth it. It will satisfy any coffee craving. It never tastes burnt. And it's not thought good by the general public because of relentless advertising, but because it really is good! Imagine that.

So, now that you think I'm a completely pretentious coffee drinker, I dare you to disagree with me! This was a pointless point, but I wanted to make it anyway. I thought this whole thing up while sitting in the Moka House today for God knows how long...all afternoon anyway. People watching should be my next entry. I say a guy wearing Jackie-O sunglasses today and another guy trying to drink his apple cider through the cinnamon stick...interesting approach, but I think it's just to give the drink flavour since it's not very functional! I almost died laughing. Anyway...

I'm going to end with this quote they had chalked up on the board. Not because it really adds anything to the post...I just like Blake (even though he can be a little strange).

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

- William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

Something different

I've decided to start a new blog...obviously. I know I have 2 already...but my other Blog is too bitchy to share with the general public, and my livejournal is just not turning out the way I wanted it to...thus a new one starts. I'm not sure what I plan to do with this one; however I'm hoping I can do something different. We'll see.

I admit I stole this title from Emily Carr' s book of journals. I couldn't think of anything myself, so I borrowed. Much like any other writer would. However, I didn't do it thoughtlessly. I would try to explain it, but Emily does so much better.

Why call this manuscript Hundreds and Thousands? Because it is made up of scraps of nothing which, put together, made the trimming and furnished sweetness for what might otherwise have been a drab life sucked away without crunch. Hundreds and Thousands are minute candies made in England - round sweetnesses, all colours and so small that separately they are not worth eating...It was these tiny things that, collectively, taught me how to live. Too insignificant to have been considered individually, but like the Hundreds and Thousands lapped up sticking to our moist tongues, the little scraps and nothingnesses of my life have made a definite pattern.

So we'll see what happens. I want to use this space to be a little more creative than just recounting the grievances of the day. Although I never seem to have much time to do anything more with my writing. University has not only ruined my handwriting, but also taken every original thought out of my head. I feel I've been stripped of the ability to just talk about something I find interesting. My mind is too tired from analyzing novels, articles, epic poems...It is such a novelty when I get to read and write what I choose! Maybe that is why I have 3 blogs now...all for different purposes. It makes sense to me at least...