Monday, March 9, 2009

Recession, the Theme Party.

"It's no fun being in a recession when it weakens the quality of my favorite local consignment shop."

Words of ridulousness you randomly pick up inside your own head when overhearing the staff in the shop complain about the decline in customers and donaters since the recession.

I had noticed it already. On the shelves, which were less filled and had more familiar things then I am used to and like to see in the one place I've happily allowed myself to go on shopping sprees, and whose stuff constitutes about a fifth of my closet.

While woving to remain positive amid all the pessimism, I've been trying to think of this recession as a theme party, making the best of it by embracing second hand clothes, cheap beer, and microwave dinners. Being from Copenhagen, luckily I already find two out of three intensely trendy, while the latter serves to constitute the theme.

I can't help but feel that there's something strangely appealing about a laid back, trucker, My-Name-Is-Earl kinda lifestyle. I see myself in a dirty wife beater, cursing and laughing at dirty jokes with my equally financially strained friends, enjoying the free things in life, such as my ability to open a beer with any imaginary object available, which I am confident that I would instantly develop the second I moved into my trailer.

But then s*** like this happens. My favorite thrift store - the place where I would shop all my fabulous trashy clothes, for no more than a couple of bucks a wifebeater - is having trouble staying in business!

Ok. So I haven't - knock on wood - been hit directly hit by the recession yet. The more or less fabulous trucker life would so far be a choice and not a necessity as is sadly becoming the case for a lot of people right now.

With fear of unfairly downsizing certain people's legitimate financial woes, I think a lot of us need to remember how intensely good we've been having it for a very long time.

Ask your grand parents or even your parents about their standard of living when they were your age and whether they were able to pay a rent like yours, eat out as frequently and travel as much and I know a lot of them will be able to provide us with a reality check.

I don't know your situation or that of your grand parents at your age but I do know a lot of students, young professionals, and even older ones who bemoan their financial situation, while really living a life, which, compared to people of truly scarce ressources, is pretty damn good.

Many of my 'poor' friends have flat screen TVs, decent and centrally located apartments and go out all the time. I, myself, can claim to be no exception, and often hear myself lament that I can't afford my lifestyle without actually having to make sacrifices here and there.

But my generation is not used to having to make these sacrifices. I spoke to a friend the other day who blatantly said that even though she knew that she couldn't afford certain things, she still felt like she should have them, and if she wanted them enough, she would buy them, even if not economically responsible.

We aren't used to having to save our money or having to go without and I wonder how we will deal with the need for a change of that mentality.

I cannot help but think that it might be good for a lot of us to learn to take less things for granted and be more appreciative of the many things we have. For some of us, who have found ourselves gripped by fear of the big, bad, Recession, it would be healthy to take this opportunity to redefine a couple of values. Oh, and just to top off the preaching; give a little thought to the starving kids in hunger struck countries and consider whether our financial pain tolerance could be a little higher.

Finally and much more importantly, we should all take the time to finally acquire that free and intensely impressive skill of opening a beer bottle with a lighter, a salt shaker, a napkin, a bird...

On Facebook.

I heart Facebook.

Case in point:

Sunny Sunday, strolling around at Eastern Market and bump into this girl I know but have never met before in real life.

She and I have been Facebook friends since last Summer when I was preparing to go to D.C. for round two and was searching Facebook for others going there for internships, anticipating how weird it was going to be, coming back to a place so familiar without all the familiar faces of my fellow students long gone to their home countries.

"This might come off weird, but don't I know you??"

Forty minutes and an accompanied flea market trip later I once again find myself in enthusiastic awe of the wonder of Facebook.

This is not the first time my social circle has been expanded by this magnificent invention. I have searched for housing, gotten to know prospective roommates, bonded with coworkers, arranged parties as well as reunions all over Europe and the U.S., all thanks to a random thought in Mark Zuckerberg's head.

So besides enabling me to quote texts from the bumber sticker application and a better grasp of geography, courtesy of the World Challenge application, Facebook has made a dramatic contribution to my social life and I will continue my unfunded (Mark, come on!!) lobbying for it.

My most recent convert was my roommate who finally signed up after five beers on Saturday night, astounded and enthralled the next morning, waking up to ten messages from long lost people now reacquainted.

There's a golden middle way to every thing, and Facebook of course is no exception. It's a problem when you can't get embarrasingly drunk on the town one night without having to think hard the next morning over whether or not anybody took horrible pictures, which will end up available for viewing by not just friends and family, but as Facebook expands, also coworkers and bosses.

Which brings me to the next issue, because how do you say no to befriending your work or family members on Facebook?

"Sorry Boss/Dad/person I met at a panel debate - I just don't feel comfortable letting you see the otherwise hilarious pictures from last Halloween when I was dressed as a dirty cop or the pictures from the time when my friends had me arrested for my birthday," just doesn't have the best ring to it. Neither does a simple click on the "ignore" button for the pending friend request. "Your friend will not be notified" but they'll probably notice anyway, when they can't access your profile or aren't allowed access to anything but your profile picture and work info, don't you think?

Facebooking with coworkers and bosses can also serve as a great way to bond with each other, connecting on a more personal level, ultimately increasing the level of fun at work, but can in gross cases come back to haunt you, making you regret ever signing up in the first place, as I am sure Jon Favraeu can testify to after a picture of Obama's 27-year-old speech writer grabbing a cardboard Hillary Clinton at a party made its way to Facebook, causing quite the outcry, though quickly removed from the site.

As with everything online Facebook should be used with caution. But use it we should, for all the good it can bring.

You can send a horrible email to the worst possible recipients in five seconds, you can have your identity stolen, and you can loose your job via an inappropriate picture someone put on Facebook.

You can also position yourself in front of the Capitol, screaming for the bringing back of typewriters, cash, and the abolition of camera phones, but we'd probably all be better off, learning to maneuvre in the electronic age, making all these crazy gadgets work for us and not against us.

I'll end the rant here. Gotta message my friend back about an upcoming reunion in D.C. brought on by the glorious wonder of Facebook.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Americornization

"Your uuhm, tolerance for cornyness has been considerably raised..."

Quote from my best friend, the truthsayer, as few days into visiting me in my chosen city of residence, Washington, D.C.

I've been here on and off since 2007 and am here now more or less permanently for a job in media production. She, the truthsayer, hadn't experienced me in the city before and was struck by the degree to which I had americanized; getting goose bumps when hearing Obama speak of the whispers of the dead soldiers in Arlington, humming the Yes We Can song more often and with more of a passion than I like to admit and a penchant for deep conversations about life and love with random people on the metro.

There's nothing wrong with this development of course, as long as I don't end up with a fondness for questionable delicacies such as baconnaise, but it does strike my uncorny friends at home.

Being from cold Northern Europe, I brought with me an inherited lack of ability to strike up deep conversations with random strangers and a general mistrust for people smiling at me ín the street for no apparent reason ("you want money, or something, buddy?").

Scandinavians are known for being a very private people and not used to American talkativeness. Someone once said that Americans will open up their front door very fast but not necessarily to the other rooms in the house, whereas when a Dane finally lets you in, you're in all the way.

Hah, case in point, the random stranger who sat next to me at my local brunch spot just told me to have a good one...

I'm all about this American talkativity, smileability, and confidence in own relevance.

As a consequence of this I decided to launch this blog on my meetings with American culture, politics, and randomness. I wonder if having this outlet for my intensely interesting thoughts will render me less interesting to the people in my physical life or if they will be given a deserved break from my rantings.

Whatever this will turn out to be, here it is, the blog you didn't know you were waiting for:

Americornization.

Yeah!!