Social Media has RUINED my dreams.

When I was younger and the internet didn't really exist throughout mainstream society (yes that time did exist kids, and not that long ago), I wanted to be a journalist. After working in student newspapers and literary magazines that quickly got erased/deleted. Apparently i don't do well with authority, and by authority I mean authority (editors telling me what to write).

After that ordeal I remember reading an article in the New Yorker (yeah I'm that kind of pretentious) about working at Hallmarks Shoebox gift card sector. Needless to say it sounded like paradise. Writers and producers spent the entire day going to the cinema, watching tv comedies and trying to make each other laugh with short and snappy messages. It sounded like a gold mind. So from one minute to the next I wanted to become a Greeting Card writer.

So what happened? well Social fucking media...the journalist in me became a blogger (and a shit one at it) and the greeting card writer became the snappy tweeter/Facebook poster, but somewhere in me the dream of becoming a balls to the wall journalist or a clever and quirky greeting card writer still exists...the only question is, do those jobs even exist?

Discuss...

My Scarlet Letter is "F" for "Food"

So, I'm not quite sure how to tell you this, and I don't want you to get upset...hear me out before you say anything, please...Ok...

I've started another blog.

But I love both of you the same! It's just I love you both in very, very different ways. I know this is a lot to take in, but hear me out. You both mean so much to me and make me so incredibly happy. I can't think of life without you...well either of you. It's just you two are so different, I can't even begin to compare you. Where you keep me on my toes and keep me focused on both my work and life, they know my passion and bring out a side of me that I didn't know existed...I know this sounds bad, but I don't know how else to do this.

I've tried all kinds of Social media out...You know this. Twitter, Facebook and yeah I've been hooked for a day or two or more,but since being with you my whole life has changed. I never thought I would be here right now, but because of you and because of being with you I find myself happier than I've ever been. This is going to sound crazy but you inspired me to find them. You always taught me to say what I think and be myself. You gave me the confidence to build new relationships...I just didn't think this was going to happen so soon.


Don't even think about making me choose between you two. I can't, I won't. I need both of you and if you'll have me I'd like to be able to be with both of you...I know you might need some time to think about it but I want you to know that It's me, not you! And that no matter what happens I want you to know that you'll always be my first.

Don't ever forget that...



...Check out my new (IMAGE based) blog on what Yuppies like me eat on a daily basis: yuppielunch.tumblr.com

Technaccident.

In my university days (like most people’s “university day’s”) alcohol and going out took up some/most/a lot of my free time. Even without the effects of alcohol I’m generally a really clumsy, accident prone person. I insist that “Murphy’s law” should be changed to “Dominique’s law”. Over the course of one year I lost my passport twice, my wallet twice, broke about three to four phones and generally managed to lose or break anything I touched, including accidentally kicking my friend’s mobile into the Seine River in Paris.

Before the iPod domination there were other mp3’s and I went through them like a 2 dollar Bangkok prostitute. I had bought and broken everything from Creative’s, iRiver’s, Sony mp3 players and more...Don’t worry if you don’t recognize them, this was back in the early 21st century. I must have been around 16, but after a while I saw myself as the professional tester of mp3 players, my parents saw me as a clumsy little girl. In conclusion I have an iPod touch...for now.

I was a bit more obsessed with being ahead of the curve and always updated my contract to get the newest and sleekest phone out...but with drinks spilling (alcoholic and non) and my ambisinistrous ways leading phones to drop like rain, many didn’t last me long either. The insurance providers on my phone contracts started becoming suspicious of my tendencies. Explaining to them in French how my blackberry slipped from my pillow into a glass of cranberry juice was needless to say not only difficult but embarrassing. “C’est bizarre je sais!”

But my worst experiences have been with laptops...I was a dedicated PC user until I went to university and got myself a beautiful MacBook. It was so white and sleek and pretty, I still remember it as if it was yesterday, packing up my room, excited about the future, ready and confident that I could take on anything with my handy laptop. I had my mobile in my pocket and took it out to be more comfortable while packing, I eyed the bed where my MacBook was on the bottom left corner, arms length as it played music, and I threw my phone on to my bed on the other side on to my pillow, thinking there was no real danger to it.

GOD DAMN goose feathered pillow catapulted my phone right on to my laptop like a crazy scene out of the “angry birds” phone app game. It shattered my screen along with my hope of having the picture perfect start to University.

Fast forward 4 years to my last year in university (at this point I’m on my 3rd laptop) and my friend and I decide to watch the horror film “30 days of night” on my laptop while enjoying a nice glass of white wine.

NOTE TO EVERYBODY: DO not drink anything near your computer while watching a horror film!

After a god damn vampire jumped through a window and pulled a screaming woman out to feast on, the rest of the scene went blurry due to the liquid dripping down the screen into my keyboard. I tried to get the liquid out as quickly as possible but the damage was done. Every key from below and right of the number 7- all the way through the Ctrl key - did not work. I used an external keyboard for the rest of the year until that one got spilled on as well, and a new one had to be bought.

I am not only accident prone I’m technaccident prone. If you give me a piece of technology or gadget the odds of me breaking it are high...Yes I have gotten a bit better throughout the years, but now whenever a new piece of equipment enters into my life, the cases and sleeves I buy with them just become a little more intense.

I’d like to think that “testing” and breaking those mp3 players was the beginning of my technology and human computer interactions obsession and honestly most of you might have had similar experiences as well. The breaking of an mp3 player or mobile might just have been your first hit of the heroin-like-addiction that new technology and their developments is.

So when I saw the images of the iPhone 4G (or HD) prototype that was lost in a bar I literally went back through my memory to make sure I wasn’t the one who had lost it somehow. Like most people, I hope that whoever lost the phone got laid that night, for there is no doubt in my mind he got laid off the next day. From a fellow fuck up, I salute you.

End Notes:

1.Although Watches are not exactly considered technological gadgets, I have broken my two watches around 4 times, although they are deemed “unbreakable” from their makers.

2.Technological equipment I possess now:

MacBook pro: 1 year
Blackberry Bold: 2 years (2nd back case though)
iPod Touch: 1.5 years (had the previous iPod for 3 years though)

The iPad [Insert joke here}

VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread - iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

I won’t bother going through the options and technicalities of what the iPad has to offer, as by now everyone and their mothers have tweeted about it. However recently the discussion on whether or not it will save the publishing industry or be the final nail in its coffin has regained a bit of steam. With recent examples as how magazines could reinvent themselves by integrating features the iPad makes available, I might have judged the iPad a little too quickly. Along with the clip below, Wired magazine has given it’s take on how their print publication is going to look like on the iPad. And being someone who frowned upon the iPad when it first was introduced, I found with examples such as these I’ve started to actually become a bit of a believer. The look is incredible and I finally see how this and the iPhone is taking storytelling to a new level.

Innovative as the reinvention of storytelling via an iPlatform is, I think where the iPad really will find their audience is if they target families and in specifically children. With various educational and child friendly apps already available for the iPhone an iPad, it seems like a perfect “shut up and look at the shiny thing” gizmo your little one might be entertained with while you enjoy your chardonnay at the rest of your dinner party.

Put some extra protective (bouncy) padding and voila! The educational apps available are simple yet brings storytelling to a younger more ADHD prone generation (just YouTube “cat in the hat iPhone app”).

So you heard it here first, the iPad is kinda cool. Will I get one. Probably not. Do I think it will save publishing. Hopefully. Would I buy one for any child who annoys me at a restaurant/tube ride/waiting room/etc? Hell to the yes.