Buy my life

Technology has enabled human´s need to boast as never seen before. This afternoon, as I started my quite ordinary laptop of a label that shall remain unknown and waited as it connected to the net.. or should I say “as the internet connected” or “switched on the internet”? However, as I entered cyberspace, I came to think about the importance of a thing as minor as status updates. Social networks allow people to provide informations of their everyday life more frequently than it´s physically possible. I´m cycling to uni now and saw the tiniest dog ever. /Sitting in the lecture hall, boooringgg... /In the canteen: should I have peasoup or peesoup? Ha ha/Toilet roll is out...

Reason for human behaviour can often be found in the pre-historic times. Did cavemen in the Stone Age have a similar urge as modern humans to share their life excessively with just about anyone who is willing to listen? Did they hang bones and skulls of animals they had hunted outside the cave so that everyone could see their success? Was it important to seem like an interesting persona?

Meet my new bike. 

There´s technology and there´s Facebook. It´s easy to show off in this time of plenty, money and material. New eyephones and exotic holidays in Trinidad and Tobago make us feel good and boost our self-esteem not to mention slick comments on your photo album in (anti)social networks. Is it really working though? You´re just one pathetic person in somebody´s list of 400 friends. How to stand out and get a two-figure number in that tiny red square in the top bar? Better go up close and personal.

Do you want to buy my life? I have taken a tattoo. I was in a crazy party last Saturday. Today I´ve written an essay, rowed 5 miles, made a cheesecake with chocolate sprinkles on it and watched all seasons of Desperate Housewives. Do you want to know more before you decide? My relationship status is “complicated” and my favourite quotation is “Live fast, die young”.

Never before have humans had to know so much about themselves. And others. There´s a brooding feeling to define yourself. Even the infamous Finnish modesty has turned into universal gloom of pride and uniqueness. And why wouldn´t you be proud for being so special? You don´t want to be one of those ordinary people who aren´t even on FB and whose highlight of the day is finding ten cents from the street! Even if someone did write about finding ten cents from the street it would be for the crowd to have an ironical laugh where as the poor fellow himself is actually just rubbing salt on the wound...

One just wonders if there´s such thing as privacy any more. The answer is yes. It´s called privacy settings! And it´s privacy that keeps you from knowing that this morning I had ryebread with cheese.

Hope you enjoyed my newly found italics.

What are you laughing at?

One of the most awkward moments is when after a punchline of a joke you´re grinning like an idiot while others are exchanging unsure looks. Why is it that people have different senses of humour!? Must have something to do with the up-bringing but it is frustrating indeed.

It´s hard to describe one´s sense of humour. I like to think my sense of humor is rather dry and sometimes I enjoy really off-the-wall absurd jokes. Monty Python is a good example and they have songs aswell!

Usually I like British sit-coms because they´re warm and somehow effortless. Where as American jokes can be aggressive or too obvious. Although I have to say there were some amazingly funny bits in The Due Date even though I otherwise disliked the movie. Another ever-lasting love of mine is Frasier of which the core and heart lies within the characters. I can´t get enough of the snobby brothers and their sarcastic daddy.

There´s not much good stand-up comedy about I really enjoy. I will have to look into Finnish stand-up more because as far as I know - it´s horrible. My favourite comedian, though, is an Australian bloke called Tim Minchin. Actually he´s more than a comedian - he´s an artist. I´m sure everyone has sometimes come up with a funny song, made up new lyrics to an existing song or something like that. Tim Minchin has taken it onto a whole new level. His songs are beautiful, witty and often have a devilish twist.

I think most people laugh at unexpected happenings or breaking taboos. Man dressed as a woman used to be the funniest thing on TV and kind of shocking because manhood was something not to be questioned. Today it´s just banal. But a news presenter falling off a chair? Hilarious! Talking of banal, what´s the deal with slapstick comedy? People seem to like it. Why else would they make so many Home Alone- sequels?

I don´t usually laugh at traditional jokes such as “A norwegian, a swede and a finn went to sauna...” That kind of jokes have a clear patter and thus are predictable That´s the very reason I can´t think of anything when I have to think of a joke. I can tell funny things that happened to real people, funny spelling mistakes in the paper and so on. Now I´m asking you to share your best jokes with me! Don´t worry, my lips are sealed...

P.S. I hate it when people make a jokey comment and then add as to be sure: “It was a joke.” You can be certain of ruining the joke as well as my mood.

Hi, I´m Katja. I´m an infomaniac.

Finally I got myself a copy of Enough – the groundbreaking book by John Naish. It introduces a lifestyle of less. Less information, less money, less stuff etc. We live in a world where people are encouraged to get more and more which is propably the very reason for westerners´ unhappiness and mental problems. Not to mention obesity and environmental issues.

I´ve read the first chapter about ”infomania” - the excessive consumption of information and media. Naish surely has a point. We are voluntarily surrounded by commercials and adverts, we use social networks, surf on the net, listen to the radio or watch tv. Very often we do several things simultaneously. And who doesn´t have a mobile nowadays? It all has a huge impact on us. It makes our brain dull and blunt and steals the time we could be using in far better ways such as socializing with real people or developing ourselves.

Naish has a healthy philosophy on mobile phones. Nowadays it´s normal and even expected to be available or atleast in reach at all times. Naish himself doesn´t own a mobile and he prefers e-mail because it leaves him a possibility to think about his reply. He refers to phone calls as interruption. I agree in a way and I do actually hesitate when calling someone because you never know where the recipient might be at the moment. (Maybe you guessed already; I don´t have big phone bills.) Of course you can always choose not to pick up.

I think this infomania is something we don´t even realize and it´s a good thing to bring it up. I don´t even want to start on shopping...

My infodiet starts now. I won´t open the telly unless there´s something I specifically want to watch. I log on to Facebook and check my e-mails only once a day. I can peacefully ignore latest celeb gossips and news of that kind as there´s nothing in it for me. Actually I don´t need to keep up with the news at all. I stop being obsessed about the calls I receive. It´s very unlikely that unknown number is from a gallerist who wants to buy all my doodles for skyhigh prices...

Start a real life this year! 

P.S. Ironically, now that I´ve been reunited with my laptop, I´ve started using pictures again. So I´ll be spending even more time on these blog entries...