Broken things

Things break. It’s kind of what happens.

My glasses are missing a screw and held together with a paper clip. My laptop charger cable is growing more and more finicky. Yesterday a pot lost its handle as my roommate was washing dishes.

Everything can break if it’s strained enough. Relationships fall apart. Sanity snaps. Walls crumble.

There are three ways to deal with a broken thing. You can fix it, replace it, or learn to live without it. The society we live in focuses very strongly on the second option. I’ve heard a couple of theories floated as to why this is true. Two of them are pretty compelling, and a little bit thought-provoking:

1) Our capitalist economy benefits when we decide we can’t live without something.

2) Assembly lines and other mass production techniques are better suited to creating new items than to repairing old ones.

I could become one of the many college kids who rants about the evils of capitalism, but let’s be honest: I am the product of a capitalist society. While I don’t necessarily love the system, I’m aware that it’s deeply engrained in me by now. (Engrained? Ingrained? Leave a comment, this one always confuses me and I’m too tired to safely shift focus off my topic.) I am too much of a consumer to complain much about consumerism. The same thing goes for some of the methods that go into our mass-produced goods – I do my best to avoid the brands and industries that are known to have less-than-wonderful woker conditions (cough Nike cough), but that’s about as far as it goes for me.

Okay, back to the point. Broken things. Keeping the above paragraph in mind, I still do NOT agree with the common practice on this one. Throwing something out and replacing it should be the last possible option, not the immediate action when something goes wrong. A couple of reasons for this:

First, there’s the environmental angle. All the resources being put into replacing things that could have been fixed..again, this is something kids my age LOVE to rant about, so I’ll leave it. Go browse the MNN website or something.

Second (and we’re finally getting to my point now, sorry for taking so long), where’s the challenge? Where’s the sense of accomplishment? What lesson are we learning? When something I own breaks, the first thing I do is examine it, try to see what went wrong. I’ll use the example of a pen, one of the ones where the tip clicks in and out, that is stuck with the tip retracted. So my first step (1) is to tip it every which way, press the button that’s supposed to extend it a few more times, maybe try pushing the button back in the opposite direction. (2) Next, I’ll start messing with the components and getting at the inside if possible. I disassemble the pen at least part way. (3) If I see something that looks wrong here, I’ll change it and see if the problem is fixed. I tweak a spring, then reassemble the pen and see if it extends. (4) If it’s still not working, I go back to step 2 and keep trying different things until I’ve run out of ideas. (5) I call in somebody who’s better at what I’m trying to do. Like, if I thought I had the pen figured out, but couldn’t quite make it happen, I’d ask my boyfriend to try with his magical piano-playing fingers. (6) Still nothing? To the interwebs! Google knows all. (7) Seriously? Nobody knows what to do with this thing? I admit defeat. It is time to throw out th- wait! Who says I have to use the entire pen? There’s still ink in the cartridge! I bet there’s a working pen with an empty cartridge that I could put this in. (8) Fast forward three months. I have used up the cartridge, and the broken pen shell has long been thrown out. NOW it is time to throw out the last remnants of the pen.

That’s my process…maybe I wouldn’t bother googling how to fix a pen, but I usually do go through almost every step if need be. But it seems that most people skip a lot of this. Their process is closer to 1, 2, 6, 8. I ask again: where’s the sense of accomplishment? It’s the same for me with crossword puzzles – I absolutely refuse to go online for answers. That would take away the entire point. (Holy crap, I just realized that I sound like an old person. I’m 18! How did this happen?)

Wow, this came out a lot longer and rantier than intended. Wrapup time! What I’m trying to say is, please don’t just assume that because something has broken, you need to immediately chuck it and get a new one. The best things in life are worth trying to save, and maybe the littlest things are too.

-Katie

Current book: The Two Towers, by J. R. R. Tokien.

Song in my head: One Year Six Months, by Yellowcard.

Sleeeeepy

Hi all. It is currently 11:52, let’s see if I can get this posted by midnight!

Geeky story time! Background info: I play D&D with the roommates and one more friend. I play a barbarian, and the others are a bard, a druid/rogue, and an invoker. For this quest, my character and the invoker were guarding the door to a mansion while the other two snuck inside – and of course we were attacked. So I’m trying to use one of my basic attacks. First turn: miss. Second turn: miss. Third turn: miss. I decide screw it, time for RAAAAAAGE! (This attack does double my usual damage, and if I miss it still has an effect.) So I spend my last action point to roll it.

Natural 20. BOOYAH!

Damn, it’s after midnight. So close!

“That’s all from me, love from Kenny.”

Current book: still Fellowship. Man it’s long, but I’m almost there!

Song in my head: Story be Told, by Ric Denis. (You haven’t heard of him. I’m not trying to be indie, you just haven’t. He’s my roommate’s dad.)

The obligatory first post

Hi all! This is Katie, and I have no idea what to say here, so I’ll just ramble until it seems long enough.

I’m starting this blog mostly out of boredom. My interests range far and wide, so I’ll probably end up posting about a lot of random stuff – you can expect topics from music to D&D to my adventures being the only girl in a house of university/college students. There might even be some poetry/short stories from time to time, since I’m also doing this so I can get back in the habit of writing. I’ve written my share of awful songs and poetry (and tried a novel or two), but recently I’m getting to the point where my final drafts don’t make me actively want to vomit. Most of the time.

Presumably I’ll be updating every day or two, at least until I get bored. We’ll see.

At the moment, I’m working for a friend’s grandfather, doing whatever comes up in Microsoft Office and similar software. Today, he didn’t have anything for me, so it’s been a rather boring Saturday. This happens a little more often than I’d like, so if anybody knows of jobs available in Ottawa, I’d love to hear about them!

As mentioned above, I just finished first year university. I’m living with my wonderful boyfriend and two of his friends, which is going pretty well so far. My biggest complaint is that, to move here, I had to leave behind the cutest little sister in the world. Oh, right! I come from a massive blended family…I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters of varying degrees and ages. I’m the oldest (read: free babysitter), which is alternately fun and frustrating.

I am an open supporter of the GLBTQ community. I think I have more close gay friends than straight ones, and I’ve never been shy about the fact that I’m attracted to women as well as men. (Yes, I have actually dated females. No, it wasn’t a phase. Yes, I am currently happy being monogamous in a straight relationship.)

I’ve just had an idea. From time to time, I might post in the voice of one of the characters from things I’ve written. I’ll let you know in the title when I’m doing that, otherwise it could get confusing. I could never restrict myself to just one genre, so my characters include everything from highschoolers having boy drama to centuries-old angels struggling to restore their wings.

Until next time!

Current book: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Song in my head: New Math, by Bo Burnham. (If you haven’t heard it, get to youtube! He is hilarious, if slightly offensive.)