Time is a Terrible Thing to Waste

It's only right that snowstorms bring out unnatural feelings. It is a rare occurrence to see a blizzard here in New Jersey and when it does happen you're alienated from most of what you consider the world and left to your own thoughts.

This time around I was reminded of a lecture I once found online from one of my favorite authors, Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke, Rant), where he described how modern American society has nothing but time. With a tip of the hat to our ancestors, we don't have to forage and hunt for food, search for water, make our own clothing or worry about a plethora of diseases our vaccines laugh at. Now our system runs on dollars and, despite coming a long way to this point, we barely look back.

NOTICE: Until a snow day comes along.

Where we normally have filled the void of basic survival practices, like hunting and gathering, with data entry and synergy, snow drops a blanket of white on it all. It, no doubt, delivers a tinge of purity. It's a coercive one-way ticket back to the times of self-sufficiency but with half the danger. Food is scarce inside the home and difficult to hunt down outside. Shoveling the walkways and driveways is the day's back-breaking labor and the only transportation available is at your feet.

But when the work you do to survive is impossible, i.e. your job, you're left to those things rocketing around your head: your thoughts.

SIDE STEP: The blizzards of 2010 graciously gave me two days where survival wasn't necessary. Left to my own discretion, I found myself thoroughly enjoying what made life so unique.

I don't want to get all uplifting and inspirational because I won't be, so let's focus. Both snow days gave me plenty of time to consume whatever the television set regurgitated. Fine. It also gave me the chance to act like a giant kid again and destroy myself sledding down South Plainfield's hills. Awesome. But what I found most interesting was I was happier than most days I could remember. An ecstatic smile crept across my face and I can only attribute it to enjoying the perks of life without absolutely any worry. Food and water were available when I was inside a nice, warm house. Band-aids were in reach for when I smashed my face on some ice.

When the sun fell, though, was when my thoughts turned inward. I took stream-of-conscious notes under the influences around me and turned out some interesting developments, too many to write here.

I surged back to the Palahniuk thought. If we all have so much time, what are we doing with it? These snow days were nothing but introspective thought and sheer, childlike bliss. And while blizzards can't happen all the time, I quickly realized I wanted to recreate this elation as much as possible. I dove headfirst into all the things I wanted to do in terms of time, instead of the selfish, ungrateful boredom I felt on generic weather days.

Forget TV for a month. I could watch French New Wave films while reading gritty detective novels.

I want to mix graham crackers in mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Fly to the island of St. Croix for a weekend and enjoy the warm breeze.

Or draft the recollections of my childhood in short, narrative form

What snow has given me this winter is the return to power of using my time wisely. If we all recognize that we don't have to do all the chores we think are survival, we can use all that other time we spend being bored and make our life way more exciting. Like a kid plastered with a smile in a snowstorm.

ChatRoulette: A Cultural Evolution

I honestly believe that you can get an accurate snapshot of America if you just watch a couple of hours of America's Funniest Home Videos. You are quite literally welcomed into slivers of American homes. Tom Bergeron is your Robin Leach into the Lifestyles of the Middle Class. It's not to say we're all clumsy or silly or stupid, but we all take pride in sharing the moments that made us laugh. Laughter is an acquired reaction and when you get someone laughing you surely have their attention. We all just want to be seen on our own terms.

Enter ChatRoulette, an anonymous one-on-one video chat session online. Like speed-dating on crack and with lower expectations, you're poised to share whatever it takes to keep someone on the other side.

Ironically, the dichotomy of the ChatRoulette audience is pure good and evil. The reflection of the young, Internet-savvy America is either curious groups of kids or dicks. Physical dicks. Either people are looking for something interesting to watch or hear, or providing the most basic of entertainment: masturbation.

NOTICE: The beautiful, sad truth is the power ChatRoulette gives to each user. You have the world at your fingertips, firmly ready on the F9 key that connects and disconnects your "Stranger" on the other line.

We are all eager for connection of the right kind. Our generation has grown up drowning in media, meeting so many characters that they feel the same. And when we don't feel that we know anybody on a passive screen, we turn to the active one.

SIDE STEP: Whether or not we are losing our attention span I can't say for sure. Like some kind of cultural evolution we are expected to be of interest to the world. If someone is patient enough to be interested in your face and hear your words, you're expected to say something of interest, too. It becomes an exercise in how alluring you honestly can be.

For my group of friends, most conversations quickly became an impromptu session of show-and-tell. We resorted to how children express themselves. Through our possessions, we opened up our homes rather our minds because too often we don't have original, compelling thoughts. Myself included.

But now it makes me think that building myself into a more interesting person is worthwhile. To have something ready to ponder, discuss, analyze or rant about seems like tons of more fun than small talk. Likewise, I've always been content with the causal jeans and tee look but now I dare to wonder if changing my style is worth it to make the best of my interactions.

I think the world wants us all to be more interesting. And damnit, I'm gonna try.