Mr. Topp and the Big Bad Blog

It gets a little strange sometimes, living in the future.

My news — that is to say real news, about the world I actually live in, the news that comes by word-of-mouth, concerning people and places I care about, rather than political arguments in countries where I have never lived — my news comes most often from social networking these days. Friends say things online, for most usually on Twitter or Facebook.

In the past, this information would have travelled verbally, for the most part — face-to-face, or by telephone. “Have you heard?”, a friend would say. Perhaps they would write a letter.

Today, that news travels by Twitter, at what sometimes seems like light speed. An engagement, illness or death would once have been published in a newspaper, allowing time for the news to spread in a more organic fashion. Social networking has flipped the new spreading on its head, outpacing the more personal word-of-mouth.

I learned yesterday that a friend from high school, Mark Purvis, died on December 28th. I learned this through Facebook — the first time a non-celebrity death had come to my attention through social media, rather than old-fashioned word of mouth.

It’s strange, on many levels. The means by which the news comes to me just adds to the strangeness of the whole thing. But it’s also strange to imagine somebody like Mark to be lifeless — a person who was as full of life as one could possibly be. As I understand is often the case these days, Mark’s Facebook page has become a memorial, with people sharing thoughts and memories there.

I’m not good at sharing my thoughts at times like these — which might seem strange, given that I am publishing them here, right now. I focus them inwards, or focus my attention away from the emotions involved, towards esoteric, intellectual questions which are raised by the situation at hand, and most often tangential to it. It does not seem right to but them into Mark’s space, on his Facebook wall. I do not imagine that they would give comfort there.

The tangential question resonating in my mind at present: Is this strangeness of delivery a good thing? Or a bad thing?

As a society — perhaps as a species — we often resist change. We are tempted to label things that are unfamiliar or different as being “bad”. In this situation, it is quite tempting to do so — it feels strange to receive such an emotionally heavy message in this fashion, and the message itself induces a strong negative reaction. It is only natural to associate the emotion with the medium. To shoot the messenger.

But the medium allows an immediate and widespread delivery of the message, perhaps reducing the amount of awkwardness and unpleasantness associated with the spread of bad news.

The sender of the message does not need to repeat it until they are numb. They do not have to try to hold themselves together. They do not have to deal — directly — with hordes of people they barely know (if they know them at all) offering their condolences. They can skim over these.

Perhaps this is bad — perhaps this is part of coping with loss. Perhaps it is good. Perhaps it offers increased privacy, space and time for reflection.

Or perhaps virtual condolences can be dwelled in for a longer period of time than can verbal ones. Perhaps that is good. Or perhaps that encourages dwelling beyond what is healthy.

As somebody who received the message, I wonder how I would react right now if I had to speak to somebody who had remained close with Mark since school, or to a member of his family. Certainly, it removes a social awkwardness from my end, of not knowing what to say. I believe that the sadness I feel remains the same, either way, and cannot imagine that my condolences would be of much impact.

Finally, how much of the strangeness of a delivery via Facebook is due to the simple fact that somebody I know has died at such a young age? Much, I think.

Rest in peace, Mark. I wish I had known you better.

Tech and World, observations and opinions death, facebook, Mark Purvis, news, reflection, twitter

There are some places in the world where it is actually illegal to die. No word on what the punishment for illegal dying might be.

(by Chris Peterson, editor of Glacier Park Magazine)

Santa, it is rumoured, checks if children are naughty or nice before giving them a gift. In the United States, the Salvation Army has a different take on this — they check to see if a child is a citizen of the United States before giving a gift. Non-citizens are, I suppose, naughty by nature.

I live in London, and love it. But I also love photography and the two often do not mix. For instance, official photographers for TV shows who have obtained prior permission to shoot pictures and are taking photos of cars (as opposed to anything that could possibly be sensitive information) get hassled by the London police so much that they simply prefer to have their shoots elsewhere. Such things should be unbelievable — unfortunately, they are true.

Errata: In yesterday’s morning coffee, we reported that Microsoft had upgraded their blue screen of death to a black screen of death. The source of this information has since recanted, and it now appears that your black screen of death is caused by malware, which is presumably not supplied by Microsoft. We apologize for spreading this malicious rumour and beg your forgiveness.

morning coffee chainsawsuit, charity, chris peterson, christmas, citizenship, death, errata, glacier park, law, photography, police, ram, santa, snow, toys, Xmas

Here in London there seems to be a never-ending Body World exhibition showing at the O2. I went to such an exhibition in Toronto when it was at the Ontario Science Centre, but I have not been to the one here in London.

Body World does (or did, at least) spark controversy. Dead bodies being posed and put on display will do that, I suppose. I find it confusing, however, that people seem quite concerned over Body World, while they will happily peer away at mummies in the British Museum. After all, both involve staring at dead bodies that have been specially prepared.

I’ve spoken this viewpoint to people before — the response is often about the “historic” value of inspecting the mummies, versus the disrespect for the newly dead.

However, the same academic argument can be made for Body World and anatomy. Perhaps more convincingly, in fact, as the anatomy lessons that can be learned by staring at a Body World exhibition seem far greater (to me) than the history lessons learned by looking at a mummy.

And the people that were the bodies in Body World agreed to become part of an exhibition, and to be stared at by strangers, before death.

Mummies? Certainly not.

observations and opinions anatomy, art, bodies, body world, body worlds, curse of the mummy, death, history, mummies

I know I used to love this game back in Canada. Fun. Interesting. Challenging. If you knew the answer, you felt proud about knowing the answer. When you didn’t, you were often interested to learn the answer. It was Jeopardy. Played on a board with your friends.

However, my old, old, old Trivial Pursuit game was left behind in Canada (and sold? I can’t remember.) So, at Christmas I went out and bought a new one. UK Trivial Pursuit: Genus Edition. I knew it would be harder — I’m not terribly knowledgeable about UK television, and the music sometimes leaves me in the dark. Football (er, Soccer), Rugby, Cricket, Snooker and Darts are hardly the sports I grew up with. The majority of my history classes were Canadian, American and Ancient. World geography, Canadian geography and even US geography I can manage … naming English counties, less so.

But despite the increased difficulty, I’d learn as I went along. Probably be better for it. And still have fun.

Well … no. Not when the “History” category contains gems like Which former rock came second to Joe Pasquale on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.

This is a still-running TV show. The season in question ran in 2004. It was not something important — I can’t imagine the history textbook which would suffer to have this information included.

So why is it in the History category? And it’s not alone. I’m hard-pressed to think of an example that dates back to before 2000. I had another question which was something along the lines of “Which US President died at the same time as this UK politician that you never heard of?” Figuring that it couldn’t be that old, I was left guessing between Reagan and Nixon. I guessed Nixon, and was right.

That I can narrow down the “History” category like that is just plain wrong. You reading this Trivial Pursuit people? WRONG!

And it ruins the game. I’m not interested in knowing the answers. And I don’t feel pride when I get them right. I’m just a bit happier that the game is closer to being over.

observations and opinions canada, death, games, nixon, presidents, trivial pursuit, tv shows