#Earthquake?

I was sitting at my desk working on something for Mooney On Theatre when I first felt the tremors. Growing up in India I had experienced a few earthquakes, usually not much more than a very short faint sensation of the ground shaking beneath my feet. Often I thought I had dreamed it.

However, today was different. Besides the obvious, that I am in Toronto and not in New Delhi India, the tremors were more powerful than I’d ever felt before, and seemed to last a lifetime. Also that tightening of my throat, that feeling of panic tends to be slightly more intense when you’re alone in your 20th floor condo than when you’re on the second floor of a family home.

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Working Through Distractions

One of the most formidable challenges of working largely from home is managing distractions. If you’re me this could be anything from food, to laundry to open Firefox tabs, beckoning me away from my interview transcription (usually transcription is when I am most vulnerable to temptation) and towards creeping random people’s facebook pages (to the point that these are people I am not even really that curious about) and yesterday my discovery of the power of twitter.

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My First Tweetup

I approached the large table deep in animated chatter, on the patio of Caplansky’s with some hesitation. Although I didn’t really know what any of these people looked like IRL (in real life), I was pretty sure this was the group I was looking for.

I spotted Joallore, the Twitter guru who’d invited me. I said hello to a few of the people taking a seat quickly.

“What’s your handle?” was one of the first questions I was asked. Handle? I couldn’t remember.

“I think it’s @msaraf,” I replied suddenly uncomfortable that my lack of skill with the social media application that had brought these people together was blaringly obvious. When I said I was writing a story, they all joked around saying they didn’t know that “media” was invited. But if there was judgment the group was too kind to show it on their faces.

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Charity

I was at the Hasty Market below my building for an emergency Tide run yesterday when I encountered the woman with no fingers. I ignored her on my way to the back aisle where I know the laundry detergent rests flanked by cat litter and dish soap, staring into over-priced Tropicana juices (often leaking ever so slightly).

I grabbed the little red bottle and checked that it was not the extra bleach version or some strange variation, and headed towards the cash register. All of a sudden, as I placed the liquid detergent on the counter, a bunch of finger stubs invaded my field of vision. It was then that I first actually paid attention.

Though I had some trouble understanding her accent, I could make out the words “two dollars, two dollars.” It appeared she was demanding that I give her $2 of my change. When I told her (quite truthfully) that I didn’t have a job that paid, she asked for a dollar instead.When I refused again, she left in disgust.

I don’t know whether I was right or wrong to refuse her. The poor woman obviously couldn’t work due to her mutilated hands. But my defense naturally rise when someone demands anything of me, and that’s the real reason I said no.

I don’t know if I did the right thing. But my neighbourhood is cluttered with people just like her: pregnant, mutilated, with gaping holes in their smiles. Where do you draw the line? How do you decide who is worthy of charity and who isn’t? Especially when like me you are already, for bank account purposes, unemployed?

I’m back

My last blog post was January 16: over six months ago. So much has changed and happened. I started and finished an internship while taking three classes and completing a 60-turned-95 day yoga challenge. I got the opportunity to write more than I hoped, and learned so so much.

I still feel I have so long to go, and so much to learn. But I’ve felt alive, everyday of this absolutely bizarre life that I have led over the past six months. More alive than I ever remember feeling while in the 9-5 grind.

I got the opportunity to meet interesting people, interview the Prince of Pot, write a feature for TalentEgg (who I still write for quite regularly) and cover a panel discussion at the Canadian Journalism Foundation. In addition I have become the assistant editor for a theatre website called Mooney On Theatre, where I’m learning tons!

The most exciting thing that’s happened to me though happened only last week. After an intense (and quite educational) interview/recruitment process I was accepted into the internship program at The Walrus. I start in July, and I’m so so excited.

I’m not sure where I’m going to take this blog, but I am going to start experimenting a little bit, so bear with me, and hopefully keep reading!

Toronto City Guide & Other Updates

Hey Everyone,

I was working on this Toronto City Guide forever…it was a very intense project but a tremendous learning experience. You can read it here.

I also am going to be interning at Eye Weekly starting at the end of March! So it looks like things are finally coming together.

I will keep you posted on my small victories over this strange new life 🙂

Mira

New Gig!

So I haven’t updated you guys in a while…hopefully someone out there still is reading this.

I’ve been writing steadily for the yoga website. I’ve gotten out about an article a week, so I now have my own section that can be found here.

I’ve also been hired on as a Freelance writer for a website called TalentEgg. They are an online magazine dedicated to students and recent grads. I am writing both for their Launch (lifestyle) magazine and their incubator (career) magazine. I just got my first article published. You can read it here.

There is a new student blog called Grope TO, which I will be contributing weekly to as well, but it is not yet fully up and running. I will provide details when I have actually published work on there.

Enjoy! At least I am now writing about more than yoga.

Update & Yoga Article#3

Time for an update 🙂

I’m doing my first paid assignment – this website needs as many articles as I can write before Dec 27 about a whole bunch of different topics. It is only $8 per article but it’s better than nothing. I will keep you posted!

I am also supposed to be writing for this Toronto Art & Culture Blog aimed at University Students, but I won’t be able to tell you guys anything more till next week when I meet the girl who’s starting it.

My 3rd yoga article is up and can be found here. I have my own section now! A fourth that I wrote earlier (on relationships) should be up soon too I think.

Next I have to start looking at internships. And register for my classes – that would be a good idea!

Seppukoo

At the beginning there was Friendster. Then Myspace, then Facebook, the boom of blogging and finally Twitter.

Then came something that almost brought it full circle, something that nearly marked the end of an era. Then, for a briefly, came Seppukoo, the worldwide virtual suicide network.

While I was in the midst of discovering Twitter I discovered that a new Internet phenomenon emerged for those that want to leave their online identity behind. The website allowed you to commit virtual suicide from Facebook, as a more dramatic alternative to simply de-activating your account. Unfortunately for my curiosity, it looks like Facebook has caught on and blocked it, and also blocked any sharing of Seppukoo links with other users.

Seppukoo was inspired by the Japanese Samurai act of ritual suicide or Seppuku. Rather than die at the hands of their enemies, they preferred to die by their own sword.

Besides the obvious concern that the website promotes something as troublesome as suicide, the concept is quite amusing. You enter in your login information and you receive a memorial page where you can choose your backdrop, you may enter last words and people can leave you final/goodbye messages. There is a top 100 section as well listing the people who have influenced the most friends to commit virtual suicide. Apparently, and fortunately for the indecisive (like me), resurrection isn’t a problem. You can just log back into Facebook and without the need for any sort of superhuman powers, you are a live social networker once more.

Whether Seppukoo will return or not to full operation, it has in some way shape or form, made things come full circle. The most ironic part of all is that you can follow Seppukoo on Twitter.