Matt Elliott’s Online

Shaking a fist at Christmas

Oh god dammit. I’ve been stymied by life once again and my internet writing career has surely suffered as a result. But I need to press on. Here’s what’s been taking up my time lately:

• Work. It’s a little known fact about me that over the last two years I managed the design and development of EmployerRegistry.ca from a chart paper concept to a fully-featured web database that has so far resulted in over 600 Ontario employers stating or restating their interest in experiential learning programs. Not that I’m bragging or anything.

  It’s still a work in progress, but websites always are. In fact, if you’re a Mac user — like me — don’t try to visit the site until later this week. It’s then that we’ll FINALLY be offering Safari support. The government has very little love for Apple computers.

• My OTHER blog, yworking.com, which still isn’t updated very often but I think has a nice little archive of posts. This past week, I was interviewed by the Editor-in-Chief of IT World Canada on the topic of Facebook (and other social media sites) at work. I also got sent a book to review. These all seem like things that are legitimizing. At this rate, the blog will be successful in roughly forty years. At which point I will be completely out-of-touch.
• Twitter. Twitter is the greatest. I know that still not a lot of people really know what twitter is, and even amongst those that do, not a lot of people understand it at all. But trust me. Twitter is fantastic. It’s inexplicable and it envelopes you slowly, but eventually you will do nothing in your life without first checking twitter. Sign up. Seriously.

  The only downsides? People keep asking why I update my facebook status so much. (I don’t! I never do!) And, also, the 140 character limit makes it impossible for me to really execute my favourite style of humour: the type that involves several long paragraphs and very little pay-off. Unfortunate.

• Christmas. I was going to link to christmas.com, but apparently that’s little more than a domain squatter site. Someone is missing out on making a ton of money selling trinkets and crap through that domain name. You’d really corner the holiday market as it pertains to web users whose browsing style involves thinking about whatever it is they want to see and then typing that in followed by “.com”. And there are a lot of these people.

  In any case, Christmas (the holiday) isn’t really taking up THAT much of my time, as I eschew the more time-consuming customs (Sending out cards, having a tree, baking things, smiling at people, etc.) in favour or kicking back and buying most of my gifts through amazon.ca. (Don’t want a book or a DVD? How about NOTHING? Would NOTHING be an appropriate gift for you?) But still there is something about it being almost Christmas that makes putting serious effort into anything almost counter-productive. Who’s going to take notice of things NOW?

  No. Better to wait until January. 2009. That’s when things stop being polite and start getting real.

• TV and Movies. I’m still a media junkie, though less so than before. Thankfully the Fall Season produced zero new shows that I actually watch, so all I really bother to catch these days is The Office (Still good), 30 Rock (Bad start but getting better), How I Met Your Mother (delightful), Prison Break (Almost literary), Heroes (Terrible) and House (Mostly boring). Plus my secret shames which include ER, The Hills and the nobody-likes-it-but-me Canada’s Worst Driver. I also watched The Shield and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which both had fantastic seasons, but they’re done now.

  As far as movies go, it’s an exciting time for me. As a self-appointed member of The Academy, I expect to see all sorts of Oscar-worthy movies this season. Looking forward to Milk, The Wrestler, Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and so many more. This past weekend Erin and I saw Rachel Getting Married which was seriously great, even though more than half of it was little more than people dancing to World Music. Don’t go see that movie if you hate the idea of people dancing to World Music.

That’s about it for now. I’m sure that seems kind of lackadaisical and lackluster (and… lacking?) compared to people who do important things like save lives or fix teeth, but it’s my life and it’s the only one I have. As always, I apologize for everything.