When everyone has easy access to their favorite diversions and every diversion comes with a rabbit hole’s worth of extra features and deleted scenes and hidden hacks to tumble down and never emerge from, then we’re all just adding to an ever-swelling, soon-to-erupt volcano of trivia, re-contextualized and forever rebooted. We’re on the brink of Etewaf: Everything That Ever Was—Available Forever.

I know it sounds great, but there’s a danger: Everything we have today that’s cool comes from someone wanting more of something they loved in the past. Action figures, videogames, superhero movies, iPods: All are continuations of a love that wanted more. Ever see action figures from the ’70s, each with that same generic Anson Williams body and one-piece costume with the big clumsy snap on the back? Or played Atari’s Adventure, found the secret room, and thought, that’s it? Can we all admit the final battle in Superman II looks like a local commercial for a personal-injury attorney? And how many people had their cassette of the Repo Man soundtrack eaten by a Walkman?

Now, with everyone more or less otaku and everything immediately awesome (or, if not, just as immediately rebooted or recut as a hilarious YouTube or Funny or Die spoof), the old inner longing for more or better that made our present pop culture so amazing is dwindling. The Onion’s A.V. Club-essential and transcendent in so many ways–has a weekly feature called Gateways to Geekery, in which an entire artistic subculture–say, anime, H. P. Lovecraft, or the Marx Brothers–is mapped out so you can become otaku on it but avoid its more tedious aspects.

Here’s the danger: That creates weak otakus. Etewaf doesn’t produce a new generation of artists–just an army of sated consumers. Why create anything new when there’s a mountain of freshly excavated pop culture to recut, repurpose, and manipulate on your iMovie? The Shining can be remade into a comedy trailer. Both movie versions of the Joker can be sent to battle each another. The Dude is in The Matrix.

When I was a kid – and I hate to be starting a sentence like that now that I’m 30 and officially old – I had subscriptions to EGM and Nintendo Power, went to the comic shop every third Wednesday of the month to get the latest X-Men comic, and, yes, I had even listed out my Top 10 Fantasy Novels on a sticky note on my bedroom wall. I was a bonafide geek, as much as I hated to admit it back then, and I got a lot of flack for it. But despite it all, a certain level of dedication and genuine enthusiasm for these once-dorky subjects were required to claim interest in those things back in the pre-internet days. And like a true geek, I persevered in spite of the social stigma geekdom carried. And now I make websites for a living…

But I digress.

Like Patton Oswalt describes, it was that hardcore nerd dedication that helped push a lot of innovation in a lot of areas, however small and however dorky. These days, everything comes way too easy. Read a couple articles, listen to a Podcast or two, and BAM, instant self-proclaimed otaku — but without the drive or love of the subject to push it forward or even continue with it long-term. Everyone thinks they are a geeking out on something, and maybe they are in their own 21st century way, but I just find it all so passive and non-committal.

For the record, to this day, I still read comic books, still play RPG’s (and only RPG’s) and board games, and am currently juggling between reading The Magicians and A Song of Ice and Fire books.

Susan Cain makes a powerful and important case for why the world needs introverts:

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

Another amazing TED presentation. I really needed to hear this right now.

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do.

At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves – that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestice setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.

If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.

- Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel

I guess I should back up, though. What is the “1.5 generation” anyway? Wikipedia’s entry on immigrant generations (is there seriously a Wikipedia entry for everything these days?) describes it as:

The term 1.5 generation or 1.5G refers to people who immigrate to a new country before or during their early teens. They earn the label the “1.5 generation” because they bring with them characteristics from their home country but continue their assimilation and socialization in the new country. Their identity is thus a combination of new and old culture and tradition.

Writer Isagani Cruz put it best, I think, when he wrote:

My wife is the English language. I married her, making my marriage vows to her, my credentials, my MA and PhD in English, at the Ateneo and at the University of Maryland. She cooks my meals, gives me sustenance, by helping me participate in meetings for which I get paid. She bears my children, which are my English columns and books. I come home to her, I rush back into her arms when I want to feel secure. I love her. I love English.

I have a lover, who is female. My girlfriend is the Filipino language. She is much sexier than my wife, because she has all these terms for taste, smell, and touch – the senses that I use when making love. She is much younger than my wife; English was born about 1,500 years ago, but Filipino was born only in 1973. My girlfriend’s mother is Tagalog, but her father is Spanish and her grandmother is Chinese. That is why she is so attractive, because she is down to earth like the Tagalogs and practical like the Chinese, yet she speaks the language that God speaks. You know, of course, as the Spanish people put it so well, that “children speak in Italian, ladies speak in French, God speaks in Spanish, and the Devil speaks in English.” Yes, my girlfriend thinks my wife is a devil.

It’s an interesting dilemma because whenever I go back to the Philippines now, I very much feel like an outsider who doesn’t fit in, whereas I do not feel that way at all here in Vancouver. Is it too late for me to get back to my Filipino roots and feel totally comfortable in the Philippines? Has my ‘marriage’ to Canada and the English language confined me to one life and one future? Do I really only just view the Philippines much like an extra-marital affair, only yearning for it because it’s something different and exotic now?

Everyone’s chimed in by now on the life and death of Amy Winehouse. But, really, what could be said that truly encapsulates Winehouse that could not be explained by listening to her voice? Regardless of her unfortunate personal problems and battle with addiction, this voice is not easily found. She had probably introduced countless young people to jazz and blues (myself included), and for that alone, her legacy in music should be and needs to be remembered.

It’s a shame that the design profession is so grossly misunderstood by the majority of people. Somehow, somewhere along the lines, the design profession has been transformed to mean little more than pixel-pushing, Photoshop air-brushing, mindless drones of their “Make My Logo Bigger“-demanding clients. This, of course, is a huge misconception, because the tools used in design (eg., Photoshop, InDesign, etc.) and the methods (HTML, CSS, etc.) are very much secondary to the problem-solving that a designer is tasked to do. And, yes, in a broader scope, problem-solving is exactly what a designer has to do to create something that is effective. These days, the problems at hand usually relate to communications (ie., marketing and advertising), though there are other forms of designs that are equally as high-profile: architecture, fashion design, web design, and – more recently – interaction design, among many other forms. Take a step back, and all involve research, planning, conceptualizing, testing — all before they start to branch off into their own respective sub-categories of design. This is called design thinking, and that is the topic – and name – of a documentary currently in production.

Put together by four designers from Taipei Design Center U.S. and media studio Muris Media, Design Thinking‘s goal through the documentary is to give a voice to creative thinkers and shed light to both the term and the methodology. Though it’s become one of today’s buzzwords in corporate boardrooms – along with Web 2.0 and social media – the concept of design thinking is not in fact a new one, and though the term may change as time goes on, the methodology will always stay the same.

The creators of the documentary have a page up on Kickstarter to donate money to their project. The higher you donate, the more incentives you receive if they reach their goal, of course. Check out the trailer above, because if the quality of the trailer is any indication, this will be a documentary that needs to be seen and will spark some discussions that will hopefully push the design field forward.

So, a lot has been written and said about last night’s post-hockey game riot here in Vancouver. Some insightful, some emotional, some ignorant, and some satirical. I won’t even begin to pretend I have the wisdom to assess the why’s and the how’s of the insanity that took over Vancouver last night, nor do I really wish to share my disappointment and shame in the events and my fellow Vancouverites.

Instead, I want to focus on more awesome things: Game of Thrones. I haven’t been keeping up with fantasy novels since I was a teenager so I never heard of the books until HBO’s television series started. But what an amazing show this is. I’m completely obsessed with the plot, the dialogue, and the characters. And the production value is amazing. I think the Lord of the Rings films set the bar pretty high for all following fantasy productions, but Game of Thrones really steps up to the plate and kills it. Amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Sunday is the Season One finale, which has me both incredibly excited but a little anxious knowing I won’t have my weekly Game of Thrones fix until next season (and who knows when that will be?). The last episode was pretty crazy, and the preview for the finale promises a lot more developments. I can not wait.

Want to say ‘thanks’ to someone quickly and easily online? Still in beta phase, giftee is an online service that works with Twitter to send real-life gifts to show your appreciation. Small tokens of thanks such as redeemable virtual gift cards for drinks or snacks at participating stores and restaurants can be bought online through giftee, and then tweeted to the recipient.

As the purchaser, you can browse through nearby participating retailers to select an appropriate gift, and pay online using a credit card. When finished, it’s as easy as tweeting a message to your friend with the giftee link, which the recipient can then access and show to the retailer to redeem their gift. Best of all, unclaimed gifts will be donated to various charities, including Coffee Kids, which helps support families of coffee producers in Latin America. Unfortunately, giftee is currently available to people in Japan — although, really, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a huge success all over the world.

giftee is truly one of those projects which make me think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” What a simple, amazing way to expand on the ‘social’ aspect of social media and combine the offline and online. It’s quite the contrast to ultra popular Groupon which encourages impulse spending on yourself for things you normally wouldn’t buy anyway. (Though I am highly suspect of the long-/short-term popularity of Groupon and how sustainable its current business model is…) It’s essentially a literal realization of Facebook “gifts” which are purchasable but are just virtual icons — really kind of pointless, if you ask me.

I’ve seen a few tweets on my Twitter feed already with people I follow sending giftee presents to each other, and it makes me happy. Here’s hoping giftee makes its way to North America soon.

There’s a great article today in The Guardian in which Lucy Siegle argues that fast fashion, which encourages consumers to buy more for less, is unsustainable for the environment, your closet, and – despite all logic – even your budget.

In 2008 the average amount we spent on clothing and footwear went down to a record low of £21.60 a week, representing 4.6% of our total weekly budget. It’s worth reiterating that we have been buying more and more clothes for less money, filling 40% of our wardrobes from value retailers using just 17% of our clothing budget. It might seem counterintuitive in these cash-strapped times, but the questions to ask are: is our budget big enough, and are we directing that money to the right places?

I would suggest that if you are on an average income, the answer on both counts is no. I would even dare to say that you should beef up your budget if at all possible, spending nearer to 6% of your total weekly income in a bid to secure a more socially just wardrobe with superior staying power.

Read the full article: Why fast fashion is slow death for the planet.

Yesterday, as with the end of every month, I logged into my Rogers Wireless account to pay my cell phone bill. I’ve had a data plan for my smart phone(s) for a couple of years now, and it had consistently been in the $70-$80 range. So, of course, I logged in to pay my bill, expecting to see the same amount. After all, I don’t use my 3G data nearly enough to go over the ridiculously low and over-priced 500MB data cap that my plan came with. In fact, I’ve always hovered around the 100MB data usage range because I’ve always been paranoid about reaching the 500MB limit. Needless to say, I was surprised to see that my bill for the month of March was $200 — all due to some inexplicable 2GB (gigabyte!!!) data usage. Apparently, my data usage for the month of April is similar (which would mean the two months would be at around $400). Insane, right?

Surprised, I called Rogers’ support from my wireless phone, only to strangely be connected first to their cable tv department. Not sure why, but that’s what happened. I was transferred to the wireless customer support department, who then transferred me to the wireless technical support department, then transferred again to the smartphone technical support department (why is this a different department?), then over to the billing department, and once more to some man in an unnamed department. I was on the phone for over an hour being passed around from person to person because there was not a single person who could explain to me where these charges were coming from and why I have to pay for these charges when my past wireless usage history clearly demonstrates this is not normal activity.

Imagine if the same thing happened with my Visa, with someone fraudulently using my credit card number and racking up charges on it? Would I have been passed around so many times? Would they have accused me of actually charging all these things to my card? Would they have neglected to offer any concrete solution to preventing this from happening? No. My card would have been cancelled immediately (and replaced with a new number) and the charges would have been disputed and reversed. So why wasn’t this the case with Rogers?

Oh yeah, because the people are Rogers (and Telus, Fido, Bell, etc…) are so far from customer-focused that they don’t give a shit — and why should they? After all, if all the major wireless service providers provide outrageous pricing and lack-luster customer “support”, there’s nothing to worry about, right?

It was a very disappointing and frustrating issue that went from me calling in to question the data charges, to me cancelling my entire Rogers account because of incompetent customer service — at an additional price of $250+ because I had to cancel my contract. So, somehow, I went from expecting to pay $75 for my cell phone bill one moment, to paying $600+ and not having a cell phone account the next. Luckily, I have an unlocked Google Nexus One that I can use with any other wireless company. Still, I’m very wary of signing up with any other phone company simply because I know they are all equally horrible for pricing and customer service — and the new ones (Mobilicity, Wind) just aren’t there yet in terms of actual service (don’t know about their customer service though).

In a time when more and more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet, it’s unbelievable that I was even paying $75/month for basic phone service and a paltry 500MB of data. And the fact that customer support and technical support seem incapable of actually supporting problems/questions with data usage is absurd. Is it too much to hope for a day when a new wireless service provider comes along and provides the reliable wireless service and infrastructure of the horrible Big 3 (Rogers, Telus, Bell) but with reasonable pricing and competent customer service? Actually, I don’t even need reasonable pricing as long as I know I’m paying a premium for customer support (think Apple products and their “Genius Bar”).

Is that really too much to ask?