Week VIII: Georgia on my mind

I was thinking about skipping this week. I'm on vacation right now and there's been a lot of work the last few months. Now it's time to play. I'm visiting some friends on the Sunshine Coast in BC before heading back to chilly Alberta for a quick bit of catching up. I logged on with the intention of posting: "On vacation," and calling it a day. Then I started arguing with myself and lost:

  If you can post an entry every week while you're in full-time school you can definitely take a few minutes out of your completely unscheduled day to write something.

  But I'm on vacaaaaaation!! No rules, no responsibilities!

  It's going to bother you. You won't feel good about it when you hit the publish button.

  *fingers in ears* You can't tell me what to do!

I started this blog after I listened to a great podcast on how to stay motivated when you're writing. The hosts were discussing their personal methods of sustaining high volume writing. One of them described an exercise that he and a friend used to keep themselves on point while they were working towards publishing a book. They would each write a 1,000 word essay on any topic and email it to the other by a designated time every week. I don't recall the details, but there was an embarrassing consequence for whoever missed the deadline first.

I have a hard time with self-discipline. I thought that having a real, public deadline and making myself accountable to a readership would be a great motivator, and it has proved to be motivational to a certain extent. The better motivation is the thought that I might write something better this week than I did last. I started the blog as a simple exercise in self-discipline, just to see if I could do it. Now it's part of my routine and I'm trying to challenge myself and become a better writer.

There's a chronology to this thing. It's archival, I guess. There's a stylistic and topical history that gives it a certain precedent. There are entries throughout this blog that I have mixed feelings about when I read them back. Some I'm proud of, some I find embarrassing, others feel like filler. One entry in particular is my favourite piece of writing that I've done to date. Regardless of how I feel about them in hindsight, I look forward to writing them every week.

I think about this project a lot. It guides my behaviour to a certain extent. I noticed that after certain conversations, certain experiences, I would find myself thinking "hey, that'd make for some good blog subject matter." It has me thinking about how I can enrich my days by seeking out experiences that'd be fun to write about. It's shifted my perspective on how I get to know people, even on a very casual basis. Right down to a conversation with the cashier at the grocery store - what can I say to make this person's day a little more amusing?

The day-to-day of business transactions, especially in the bureaucratic domain, is boring at best. I'm taking a car home from Alberta for the summer and I had to buy transit insurance so it would be covered while I'm driving it back to BC. The document has a notes field at the bottom where the insurer can leave comments about the nature of the insurance agreement.

Part of the fun of taking a car between jurisdictions is the paperwork. The insurance must be purchased at the destination and a driving permit at the point of origin. Horray, legal documents! The agent who helped me wrote that I had been advised of this obligation and that it was upon me to ensure the legality of my drive. I suggested that she add on "...lest my soul be consumed by demons" at the end. Apparently they don't allow that sort of thing on official insurance documents. Apparently she could have lost her job for doing such a thing. NO FUN ALLOWED AT ICBC!

I wonder, is having a caution involving soul-hungry demons on your insurance any more ridiculous than the insurance itself? Here's how nutty lawyers have gone - they're now recommending 3 million dollar liability coverage. I would ague that demons are far less absurd.

If I can encourage those of you who read this blog to share an experience with me, I suggest that we all try to spread a bit more absurdity around. Consider it a mark of success if the people you come across walk away from your interactions shaking their heads and laughing, and thinking, "what a weirdo." Try to make everyone's day a little more surreal. There's more than enough propriety and uptight formal dealings to go around, we need more silliness!

I try to catch myself when I'm just going through the motions. Hi, how are you. Just fine, thanks. That'll be $23.50. Debit. Go ahead and insert your chip. Thanks. Thank you. Have a nice day. You too, bye. I've had that exact conversation a million times. I'm bored of it! So is the cashier! Be polite and goofy, its absolutely possible. Write your signature on a paper and ask them to forge it as accurately as possible on your credit card receipt. Ask them what their second favourite colour is. Do a dance while you wait for your transaction to go through! Life could be way more fun.

Hello, devil's advocate. What's that you say? If we let everybody write whatever kind of nonsense on their insurance forms that they want, the whole system will come undone? The language will be ambiguous? The conditions for coverage will be indeterminate? The validity of the binder might come into question in a court of law due to the apparent lack of appropriately stuffy legalese-type words?

Yeah, probably. But sometimes you just have to let the whole system collapse and re-build. ANARCHY! We'll start with imaginary creatures on the insurance forms and we won't stop until the hypnotoad is crowned Queen of England and every day at work starts with a dance party and pie!! WHO'S WITH ME?!

Word count: 2^10