When I needed to write an essay in university, the most important step was to find the first sentence. Once I discovered the Signet Classics Shakespeare Series however, this first sentence was usually a random string of 3-5 words, usually from the critical commentary and I would write up my thesis.

We’re often so overwhelmed with employing our decision-making part of the brain that we focus on making the decision itself, instead of choosing the most beneficial or rational outcome. It’s always a daily ritual of seeming to adhere to a routine of when we’re commuting to work, socializing with our friends, or simply maintaining this same routine. However, this is not true. There is no schedule. Our choices are influenced by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. To take the first step towards a unknown, following choices can seem daunting, so we don’t. We procrastine. However, what we have done is allowed ourselves to be governed by others. We are afraid to take the first step in order to avoid it.

Science fiction has always explored this sense of philosophy and the self, and Ursula K Le Guin is no exception. She sums up this mindset in her novel, The Dispossessed, with the following commentary that ”the social conscience completely dominates the individual conscience, instead of striking a balance with it. We don’t cooperate—we obey. We fear being outcast, being called lazy, dysfunctional, egoizing. We fear our neighbor’s opinion more than we respect our own freedom of choice….Try, just try stepping over the line, just in imagination, and see how you feel.” The theme of solidarity, and it’s obstacles, is an important topic throughout the novel’s plot.

We may have invented technology to  indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time, but it will continue to flow without our interference. We should, instead, focus on our choices that will create the outcome that we desire and live our life.

I need this in my life.
Watching the spinning cosmos every so often and reflecting.

Cyborg Camp was a lot of fun this year. There were less organized talk and edits around wikis and programming code in action but that’s all right because I finally got to hear Amber give her keynote speech live in-person. Watching a live stream on SXSW or archived TEDx videos doesn’t count. Good speakers are amazing in person because they’re bouncing off of their current environment and people-energy. It’s great to watch this in action and be a part of this surge of energy.

I got to go to the conference because there was a free ticket available the night before on Twitter. This is why I prefer using Twitter over Facebook. It’s like going to a seedy, rundown thrift store that’s difficult to get to commute-wise, and the staff may not be all that great when you’re asking for help, but it’s still your favorite store because it’s the only place where you can score a $100 retail-price item for less than $30 because nobody else is shopping there.

These were the speakers for the conference. The page is a short blurb so I don’t recommend clicking that link. When I’m reading a speaker’s page, I want to know how to virtually connect with that speaker. I want to know their email address, what company they’re working for, but most importantly, I want to continue the conversation with them. This may mean contacting the person directly, or a follow-up question to a note from their presentation or from a chat at the after-party. Because when you’re at a conference, everyone is busy networking but we should really be busy learning new information about the person and initiating interesting discussions. This is the main reason that I stopped attending these events because everyone wanted to sell to investors.

I tried to search for the speakers on social media networks but almost everyone’s top hit on Google search was LinkedIn. Here, here, here, here, and here. This is why we can’t have nice things. Alex Beim and Amber Case were notable exceptions but you already knew that, didn’t you?

I also didn’t find very many event photographs other than the ones I posted on Flickr from my iPhone and Olympus Pen E-PL1. There was an album of photos curated by the people who owned the building but it’s inside Facebook’s walled garden. We have a Creative Commons license for sharing photography on the internet but end up giving up the copyright to corporations instead. If there was a wiki this wouldn’t have happened I bet. Here are some nice iPhone snaps from people who shared the hashtag on Instagram. We were trending on twitter on the day-of the conference but everyone trends on twitter eventually or you’re not trying hard enough.

All in all, it was an interesting conference with interesting speakers and exciting ideas to share. Not as good as the first Cyborgcamp during the peak of the 2009  Recession though. I’d like to help organize another conference with more of a focus on different speakers and a wider range of topics but, I hope that next year’s conference at MIT will prove to be as equally interesting as the one this year in Vancouver.

Where I have been lurking online lately (the past 8 months)

• Quora, which has sort of become my de facto for “interesting quotes to discover and analyse, publications, articles and more hyperlinks to answers of questions to questions for questions of questions.”
• Pinterest, which is where I can be found stalking the ever elusive ‘narrative yet pretty and evocative’ film-compositional photography, typography designs and prints and product designs love affairs with an overall theme towards pretty yet “unusually expensive with a style leaning towards classic mode” fashions and items and purses and shoes to buy
• Starred/Favorites on Flickr, which reminds me that there’s always a narrative to follow in photography (and life)
• Flickr and Instagram, …. seriously these are the same streams now but catering to different audiences for different devices.
• Reading.am and Google Plus as a second reminder of interesting articles to read
• And obviously Twitter where my thoughts and notions and addictions runs wildddddddd (hahaha, no)

“Which of us is not saying to himself, which of us has not been saying to himself all his life: “I shall alter that when I have a little more time”? (But) We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”

(How to Live on 24 hours a Day, Arnold Bennett)

Yesterday was the anniversary of Derek’s memorial, two years ago. Despite the fact that the nature of humanity is to ground our sense of self in the moment, with daily tasks and activites that stretch to the next, next, next endless series of days, there’s still an undercurrent of purpose to each person’s existence. It’s this unsettling search that I’ve seen reflected in the expressions, conversations and activities of each and every person I’ve met. Overall, I’ve been fortunate that I’m surrounded by family, friends, mentors and a boyfriend who love me and share an enthusiasm for the searching for an raison d’être, something that I’ve satisfied with leaning towards linguistics and Sapir Whorf.

These past twelve months have been filled with more thoughtful reveries and discussions on humanity’s purpose and existence, for which I’m grateful towards my boyfriend, Scott, and my mentor, Rob, for engaging in conversations that often led to more thoughts and questions, instead of leaving me filled with dissatisfaction and frustrations. I’ve reached the end of my second undergrad and am working in an office downtown, in a field that is not directly related towards my career goal of project management and aspirations of a design researcher.

What I’ve discovered this past year is that my determination is my strength, and flexibility, or adaptability combined, are the most important aspect of  this change. My thoughts still tend to wander to the memories of the death of Derek, who believed in my photography ‘hobby’ and was one of the first to recognize that it was my medium to express my kaleidoscope view of the world, Aaron Swartz’s suicide in the face of confronting against the odds, and Steve Jobs. The impact of their legacy is still significant in my life today. Or, if not significant for comparing their life’s milestones and legacy towards my current place in life, but to seek to emulate their drive towards changing the world, and how they achieved that by their ability to challenge prevailing notions and question the unquestionable.

(Resume / Curriculum Vitae by Genevieve Dennis)

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

I’m always more than a little horrified when people ask where they should start thrift shopping for vintage clothing and outdated fashions. In fact, when a girlfriend that I’ve known since high school commented that she enjoys shopping in the Mount Pleasant community, because of the eye to detail and decor of the independent and locally-owned consignment shops there, I cringed.

There’s something you should know if nobody else has already told you by now: “You have to think when you let people direct what you’re wearing or if you force yourself to wear what your peers are wearing to “fit in”… These people become your clothes. You are wearing your peers.“ You’re not thrift shopping in order to hunt down a bargain, you’re not thrift shopping to build a wardrobe that adheres to the culture/stereotype of the hipster, and more importantly, you’re not shopping in order to compete with a group of people based on what you’re wearing on your body.

Let’s not discuss on the topic of competing with an unknown number of people based on what you’ve edited to your physical body.

I have been wandering in the independent collection of the Mount Pleasant community since 2004. Many of the shops that I was familiar with almost a decade ago have packed up themselves up and left, relocating to other areas of the city where rent is more affordable. As a result of the rent increase, few of the family-run businesses and independent fashion designers remain in the Mount Pleasant area.

In fact, to my dismay, many of these consignment shops are focused on up-sell of clothing and accessories that I saw in a Value Village thrift store a week ago, for a much, much higher price that is sometimes 80% than the original bargain. This worries me a little, that this so-called independent collective of consignment and vintage fashion shops is relying on the same marketing plan as Urban Outfitters, re-selling low quality yard sales clothes at insane price with the label “vintage”.

My final words are this: focus on buying clothes and accessories of long-term quality and well-fitted, instead of a label or passing trend.