Tom’s Opinion

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile folks. Moving to Norway has really taken much of my time and energy. However, I have managed to start a travel blog.

Check it out.

http://norwegiansaga.com

What is Liverpool ONE? Good question. I could go on about what I think it is… actually I will but a little later on.

Some of you may have heard of it. Liverpool ONE is a massive shopping district, still under development I believe. Some of it has opened to the public. The stats are impressive of course, 3000 parking spaces, 42 acres of shopping space, four storey department stores etc etc. It’s a shopping experience in other words. Moreover, other cities in England are following suit by building massive shopping complexes as well. Part of the problem for some people with these things is that a portion of the city centre becomes privately owned. These shopping centres are private and shop owners have to rent out space from some rich corporation.

Shopping is good for the economy, we all know that. But someone has to ask: how can this constant need to shop can be sustained? Here’s what I think (I told you it was coming): the British economy has turned from, or is turning from, production to service. That’s probably obvious to anyone with half a brain, and I hope that’s the kind of person that reads my blog. I do think though, that service economies don’t have much of a future. It seems to be a temporary solution to the problem of innovation stagnation and market saturation. The individuals who try and push these shopping complexes are seizing the moment and making a huge profit on the plateauing of the economy. These real estate magnates know the economy is slowing down so they’re going to attempt to take as much as they can and when the profits stop they’re going to sell out. The city and small businesses, as well as consumers, are the ones that lose out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradise_Project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/image_galleries/john_lewis_gallery.shtml?1

So this brings me to my second point. Has materialism and consumerism replaced the arts? It seems that by erecting and allowing the erection of these complexes cities and citizens have allowed consumer values to overtake artistic ones. Just think about the location of Liverpool ONE; the city centre. Admittedly, I haven’t been to Liverpool to see this thing myself but the centre of town has been, throughout history, the place for arts, administration, and religion. To be sure every medieval town had some form of sales in the downtown but more often than not stores were kept to certain quarters of the city and markets were held in large wide open areas.

With Liverpool ONE and all of it’s supposed offshoots in other British cities it seems that shopping is taking over as the centre of the town, and metaphorically, life. I’m not quite sure if such a thing is happening in Canada yet, I haven’t bothered to do any careful study of the facts, and I’m not making any judgments about England because I know even less about that country. What I am asking is has materialism taken over the finer things in life like art and culture? It seems there are more stores than theaters/galleries opening at any one time.

Reading an article on BBC just surprised me that’s all.

So going back to the issue of email I’m now considering dumping an email address that I had for a long time in favour of my Gmail account. I always get to wondering what are the privacy policies of these webmail outfits. Can they be trusted? Are they spying on me? On the other hand, if I use my personal website email (tomsopinion.com) how do I know the server company isn’t going through my mails the same or moreso than Gmail? The answer, of course, is I don’t and can’t find out in any way.

This question has been playing on my mind for awhile. What is the perfect email solution? Seems there isn’t one.

As a result I think I’m going to move my email entirely to Gmail. Gmail has POP access so I can use Thunderbird, which I love. Gmail is web accessible unlike my webhost mail. But, Gmail has a feature that I dislike somewhat , and that’s the organizational system; the idea of labels and conversations. I’m old fashioned, everyone knows that, I prefer separate mails and folders. However, for all of the benefits I suppose it’s worth it. I’m not awesome enough to write my email software and have my own global telecomm system to put it on so I’m going to have to use something other than the perfect solution, which in my opinion is Gmail.

Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

Hello all.

This is the second iteration of my blog, it’s under a new name now. Kgang was just beginning to sound strange to me, tomsopinion while also strange was more me.

I’m probably going to write something later on today, I just wanted to get this hello out as this is technically the first official day of tomsopinion.com.

Yay!

Oh and let me know what you think of the theme. Should I switch back to the old one? Switch to something else? Or leave it?

There’s a few events in my life that have transpired over the last six months that some of you may not know about.

As many of my friends know the study of history is important to me. If I can, I want to pursue it as a career. I’m also the kind of guy that craves security and comfort. I enjoy routine.

A few months ago, as I was nearing the completion of my undergraduate degree, I became worried about the future. It’s one thing to plan and pretend to be ready for a possibility and quite another to be faced with it. I had always told myself that I knew what I wanted and I would chase it no matter what.

My plan (yes my conduct my life by plans and lists), since 2002, was to study and live in Europe. Let me go back a little further. I had applied to physics and history when I was entering university. I got accepted to both and I chose physics. Why physics? For the same reason I do everything else, it’s interesting. My interest in it soon gave way to interest in history and in the middle of my second year I found myself fumbling my courses to try and switch programs, from science/physics to arts/history.

I completed three years at university then discovered (amazingly) that I needed money. So I went off to work for twenty months. And I hated every single day of every single one of those twenty months. You might ask why I stayed with that employer for so long. To be honest I don’t have a good reason other than laziness. It was a well enough paying job for someone with a resume full of “fluff,” as some would call it. I had resolved however, to finish the history degree because I knew I wanted my life to progress in that field in some way.

I got back to school and finished the final twelve months of the program and earned that 4 year BA in seven years. Not all of my courses from physics could be used for the history, that’s where the extra year comes in, for those trying to keep up with the math.

It was during the final month or two of the BA however, that I began to worry. And what worrying I did. Here’s what about, “the choice” as I like to call it. To either follow the yearnings of my desire and heart or to submit to the cold reasoning of my mind. You see, I applied for graduate school in two places; the University of Oslo, Norway, for an M.Phil in Nordic Viking and Medieval Culture and to Wilfrid Laurier University for an M.B.A. (hence the post about the GMAT). As luck would have it I got accepted into both. Each application was strategically enacted to correspond to one of my two choices, the life of a scholar studying Scandinavian medieval history or the life of a business professional wheeling and dealing in the skyscrapers of tomorrow. It’s not that I was more interested in one part of medieval Europe over another (though I am now because of subsequent reading and self-directed immersion, Viking law is where it’s at), or that I desperately want to be a financial adviser to some large company though that would be cool too. These are just the areas of greatest interest to me. I frequently think about the notion of a never-ending life and more and more I realize I would like to be around a long time to see and learn, there’s so much to do.

Anyway, the choice has been made. I was helped greatly by those at Laurier who told me that since I got accepted once, I would almost certainly be accepted again. I’ve decided to attend the University of Oslo and then if needs require it return and complete the MBA. If I should happen to win the lottery while in Norway of course I won’t be returning to do the MBA, or working at all for that matter (at least on someone else’s clock).

My ultimate goal is to live and work in Europe, as a leader of some sort, for social change. Both academia and business allow for this and that’s an added benefit. Though I suppose almost every line of work allows one to become a champion of society. It’s just that academia and business can easily put one out in the forefront of public awareness. There’s also a reason I choose Norway specifically and that’s because there’s a girl there I’m very much in love with. That story though, is a post for another day.

That friendly fella Josh, from System13.org has invited me to share seven random things about myself. I guess in the internet world they’re called "memes."  I prefer to call them… surveys.  Though since they’re random things I guess no one is really asking them and therefore it’s not really a survey, however, I maintain it’s a survey.

1. I’m obsessively organized. I’m not sure where this comes from or even why I like it so much. When things are organized they’re quickly accessed and used, when that happens tasks become EASY!!!

2. I LOVE maps, the older the better. I could spend hours staring at them (as I could at paintings). I just get lost in them.

3. I want to become a history professor.

4. I love science, specifically physics and astronomy. When I was younger I wanted to become a theoretical astrophysicist. Neutron stars and naked singularities are just cool. I also love science fiction but that’s another matter.

5. My favourite TV show growing up was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; I hated Michelangelo and disliked Raphael. Donatello and Leonardo were my faves.

6. Subtle humour, understatement, and wit are the forms of comedy that tickle me most. I’m usually the only one in the room who bursts out laughing at a subtle joke. I don’t know why but I just love that kind of humour.

7. I honestly believe that reading is the best hobby a person can have. Anyone who reads is automatically (and probably mistakenly) raised a few rungs in my estimation.

Well, that’s seven. These things kind of make one kind of take a look in a mirror don’t they?

I had a friend who taught me how to play chess. Unfortunately, I’ve lost contact with that friend, it’s something I wish hadn’t happened.

The story begins with an amateur chess club in the seventh or eighth grade. I can’t quite remember what year I began playing and to be honest I don’t think it was ever an official club of any sort. We would just stay in and play during recesses and lunches.

Before that though, I had no clue how to play chess. I mean people tried to teach me at various points in my life but it never stuck. For some reason, when I became friends with this certain fellow, chess became much more appealing. You see, he played chess and his enjoyment and passion for it made me want to play it. I guess somehow we got to talking about chess and I must have expressed my interest enough to convince him to teach me and patiently play with me until I could offer some modicum of challenge.

In the eighth grade we were asked by a teacher if we wanted to participate in a city-wide chess tournament, it was only for elementary school students. By that point, with my competitive nature, I felt I was ready for it. My friend jumped at the chance, he’s like that. The school transported us to the game site and there the few of us chess-heads played.

The tournament didn’t have teams, we didn’t represent a school or anything, it was every man for himself. There must have been about 30 or 40 competitors. My friend and I were placed in different groups. I can’t quite remember but I believe there were four or five players in each group. I managed to defeat all of those in my pool and it seemed that my friend defeated all of those in his pool. Somehow, we ended up facing off at the final game.

I had never defeated my friend once to that point. He was a much stronger player. But we played nonetheless, the match began and my friend made many stupid errors. I won that game. I smile about it now, because it was the first time I had defeated him and it was such a grand circumstance in which to do it.

However, in my heart I knew I didn’t really win. You see, we were under unfair time pressure. Games were timed of course as they usually are in chess and we had expected a certain length of time to play that game. The tournament officials told us otherwise though, we had much less time to play, the end of the day was drawing nigh. The errors my friend made were simply the result of people standing over his shoulder telling him to hurry. He was a gracious loser though and always claimed that the victory was fairly mine. To him a game was a game was a game, regardless of time or audience pressure. I disagreed with him then and still do. But I will never forget some of the details of that day. It’s funny how you remember certain people with certain events in your life.

Since that eighth grade tournament until about two years ago (say 10 years or so), I have won two games against this friend, and he’s wiped the floor with me more times than I can count. I only have two other friends that play chess, both out of the country though one is coming back in July. It is a little sad that I don’t really have anyone to play chess with though.

It stands for Graduate Management Admissions Test.

I wrote the GMAT on the 11th of June. I’m considering business school you see and almost all business schools require a certain GMAT score as part of the admissions process. I got 610 out of a potential 800. The average is 530 and most schools require 550. The nature of the program I applied for demands a slightly higher academic component to make up for the lack of business management work experience (which I have little to none of).

Writing of the GMAT requires, in most cases, fingerprinting and a photograph as well as a signature, don’t ask me why. Check out the fine print though:

You have agreed to the terms and conditions set forth in the GMAT® Information Bulletin including without limitation those related to testing; score cancellations; exclusive remedies for testing/scoring errors; examinee misconduct/test irregularity policies; privacy policies; collection, processing, use and transmission to the United States of your personally identifiable data (including the digital photograph, fingerprint, signature and video recording collected at the test center), and disclosure of such data to GMAC®, its service providers, any score recipient you select and others as necessary to prevent unlawful activity or as required by law.

I don’t know if the US government having this kind of data would bother you, but it bothers me. Funnily enough, there’s no way around this. It’s possible to not take the GMAT. If you want to apply to business school you have to take it, in Canada and in many countries of the world. I think that’s crappy.

Hopefully I won’t have to rewrite it. If the competition is strong enough I might have to I suppose, alas I won’t worry about that now. In about three week’s time I should know better whether I’ve been accepted or not. I will keep you posted.

What does honour mean to you? I use the Canadian spelling to loudly (in writing) announce my nationalism.

Seriously though, if you had to define honour how would the definition read?

For a long time I’ve tried to think of a complete, solid, all-encompassing definition for the word but somehow always fell short, and still do. As I see it, this leads to a few conclusions. Allow me to elaborate (as if you have some say.)

One of the possibilities, that I’ve thought of, is that there is no definition for the word. It’s a metaword of some sort that simply encompasses a huge amount of more precise words; kind of like the word furniture. Of course this doesn’t help because it relegates honour to a class of words I dislike: imprecise. Bad, bad, bad. The point being that the word itself has no meaning, it’s a pointer to other words or a lazy man’s escape from concision and precision. If this is true then the adventure kind of ends there doesn’t it.

On the other hand, it’s possible that I haven’t come across the definition of honour yet. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. After all, I haven’t yet seen a space shuttle with my own eyes but I’m convinced they exist. The Oxford Concise English Dictionary (I can’t yet afford the 20 volume set) gives a definition so long it’s as good as useless. Of course this makes it a little bit more fun because it means the search can continue, think Indiana Jones in the world of words, I always do. Though somehow if the OED can’t seem to give me a good place to start I’m not too certain what a non-linguist avid reader can do. No matter though, this world of adventure is one that can be put down and taken up whenever one pleases, words don’t disappear, they remain forever, somewhere or other.

So, what does honour mean to you?

I have underestimated the power of, and need for, editing. When I look back at some of the posts in this blog I’m disappointed. I don’t like revisionism on one hand, but I dislike blatant and obvious errors in writing as well.

As a result, and among other reasons, I’m going change the posting schedule to once a week on Saturdays (while reserving the right to post more often) in the hope of providing higher quality, more interesting content. I’m in the process of a number of other web projects all of which take time. However, quality is the main reason for the “cut backs.” I want to provide provocative, well-argued pieces that I can be proud of putting my name to.

In the end however, all of it may come out differently in the wash when my other projects come to fruition. If you must know, I’m in the process of putting together a site, with the help of Joomla, where I can compile all of my individual works. I’m making a Tom Centre as it were. The blog format doesn’t allow me to post things in parallel, doesn’t allow for easy news feed posting, longer written works etc. I want MOAR!!!

I guess my mission with this blog has changed somewhat and this is the result. My paranoia of the interweeb though is still a formidable force within me so nothing may come of it.

Carry on then.