Hit Me Like A Ton

A really, really nice thing about being an employed person is that you get paid. Luckily, that's not the only upside for me because my job is fabulous and wonderful, but it's a big plus. The nice thing about being paid is that as long as you don't waste it all on frivolous things, it builds up. Especially when you still live at home and don't have to worry about living costs or silly things like that yet.

What I'm trying to say is that I have money saved up. Quite a bit, actually, which means that I can actually consider buying a nice camera a realistic option! Especially with the Christmas season, which simultaneously blesses retail with glory and prosperity and also makes retail its bitch, coming I'll be able to afford something that nice. That really excites me, because I've wanted a really fancy camera for quite a while now.

My primary standards are that it has to take really nice still photos as well as really good HD video, because eventually I want to enter the world of YouTube, specifically vlogging. Or something like that. And I'm also getting really annoyed with the constant flow of grainy pictures whenever the natural light isn't precisely perfect for whatever camera I'm using in that moment. I'm at a really exciting time in my life, and I'm facing really big moments and milestones, and I want a good way of capturing all that.

My preference, right now, tends towards the Canon Powershot SX40. Whatever my camera ends up being, I definitely think it'll be a Canon. I've had Canons all my life, I understand them, I really like them, and based on my experience with my mother's camera, I really distrust or am just not comfortable with Nikon. That might be foolish, naive or stupidly biased, but I just really want to be very comfortable with my camera. That's very important to me. The alternative would be the Powershot SX50, which is a tiny bit nicer and quite a bit more pricey. They both have turn-around screens, which is important for me because of the vlogging thing and obviously the selfies that are apparently inevitable in high school. Geez, am I thinking about how best to facilitate people hi-jacking my fancy camera and taking weird pictures of themselves with duck faces? I am a troll-enabler.

For the SX40 (I've already become dangerously attached to it; I'm trying to fight the urge to internally refer to it as "baby") I'm thinking about Costco or BestBuy so far. I actually saw it on the display at Costco, and BestBuy has it for a very similar price. It's a wee bit higher at BB, but it also comes with a mini-tripod. Yikes, I'm shallow.

In other news, I found the perfect Christmas gift for my best friend today! I can't say what it is, though, because she's literally the ONLY person that reads this blog. Honestly, I think she'll flip for it. My mom agrees. I just hope nobody else gets her the same thing. Or, Heaven forbid, she gets it for herself. *runs into all local bookstores and hides all other copies* Oh darn, I gave away that it's a book. SHOCKER.

More geeky and exciting news will be forthcoming soon! I can't put everything in the same post or else I'll have nothing left to talk about later!

This post is brought to you by Spoon, because there was never really any question as to what song I would choose, was there?

Redefining Happiness and Truth

I knew it would only be a matter of time before this blog inevitably came back to books. We've just read Brave New World in English and now we're discussing it. It's one heck of a strange read, let me tell you, but there's a lot of interesting concepts that can be drawn from it. There's nothing like a strange, futuristic world that has nothing to do with you to make you reflect on your own situation.

A big topic of discussion in today's class was the concept of dystopia versus utopia. Of course, over all, to us, the novel is definitely dystopic. People are enslaved by their conditioning and their own contentment, meanwhile human nature is being systematically denied and controlled, and the entire world is run by 10 World Controllers. But to the majority of people in that world, is it really bad? If happiness is all we live for, why should they fight a government that serves to make them happy? Can they be truly happy if they don't know what it's like to not be happy? If all the factors for happiness are present, and they're told they're happy, are they actually happy? It's a mind-boggling concept. And of course, what makes truth? If we believe something to be true, does that make it a fact or only a belief? People believed the world was flat once, and accepted that to be true. And why shouldn't they? Who knows what humbug we believe today that future scholars will laugh at us for? Maybe the sky isn't blue. Who ever looked at the sky and said, "That's a nice colour, I'm going to call it B-L-U-E. Bloo. That sounds good." To be honest, "bloo" is a strange word. We believe our planet exists in a system of planets that rotates around a giant, burning, glowy orb, and yet most of us have no concrete proof of it. Sure, reliable scientists tell us there's proof out there, but we've never seen it for ourselves. We believe it because we've been raised to know it's true.

We found it very hard, in class, to separate ourselves as readers from the perspective of Brave New World's general population. To us, their world is an incomplete, machine-like place. But to them, there's nothing wrong with it. As individuals, they have a good life: They're happy, safe, entertained and healthy. It's only at the larger level that things start to get problematic, and the sacrifices, dangers and hypocrisy come to light. That's why Huxley's imagined government would be so effective: On a whole, they wouldn't have to control rebellion very much, because nobody would have any motivation to rebel. Of course, there are exceptions, but that's what the book is there for.

It's been an interesting topic, and book, to discuss. And it's only gonna get more crazy from here, kids.