Everyone time I see a senior citizen who is seriously bent over, I immediately roll my shoulders back, take a deep breath and look up. Now I’m noticing very young people with this same posture. This is anecdotally of course, but on the bus, the skytrain, walking sitting on a bench, in a cafe, restaurant…in short pretty much everywhere.

How will we evolve?

I imagine there has been a rise in massage therapist, physios, chiros, and other practictioners in treating folks with neck issues. I blame it all on the smartphone.

My monitor recently got fried. There was an electrical failure in the building, which is a designated heritage building (code for old and wonky) and right in the middle of a deadline….
[a post about leaving things too close to the deadline is for another moment]

Blink. No Fade. Just Black.

I had to adjust. There was a deadline. So I had to, gasp, use only my laptop.

My programmer tells me that what’s happened in an old and wonky electrical is that there are frequent minor power surges, and that zaps my fancy schmancy power surge protector, and gradually over time, it depletes the protector, until one day, kaput.

I haven’t yet purchased a new monitor.

Why? Besides time, research and all that jazz. Primarily because I’ve enjoyed experimenting with only using the relatively small screen, (a macbook pro retina) and adjusting the position depending on where I’m working. So at the studio it’s perched upon a clear stand, with and external keyboard plugged in, and here, at the pseudo-office, it’s on a bright pink laptop stand.

What I’ve noticed is three things:

1. My neck feels better. I think it’s the variation of posture that the flexibility of where to sit with a laptop allows, brings more constant micro adjustments. The big monitor is big and usually just sits there in one position.
2. My mental focus is a bit sharper. With the big screen, I have the luxury of multi-tasking, having many projects open. I can do that on the laptop, but the clutter gets a bit too much, so I start closing tabs down. I’m going to retain this as a habit.
3.  Many websites are designed for big screens, even if they have a mobile friendly site. I was on the phone with a big company getting some support and they kept referring me to look in the upper right hand corner, but I couldn’t find the link they were pointing out. Eventually I realized that was because it was outside the viewport of my screen. And this was a big company, with lots of bucks to spend on mobile responsiveness…

I’m not going to delay the purchase of a big screen forever, it’s pretty much essential for coping with 156 layers in photoshop, etc etc. But for now it’s been a surprisingly welcome shift in my viewpoint. Also, it’s a good reminder to step back, raise my head up high and look at things with a fresh perspective, with less noise.

I’m welcoming fresh perspectives lately, in order to change, to be bored, to be un-bored, to shift, to develop better habits, or even to embrace some bad habits—it’s all about making, not judging.

“Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.” —Corita Kent
(also attributed to John Cage, but he has enough press.) From “A List of Rules for Art Students”. Sister Corita Kenta, circa 1968

[P.S. I’ve done it too, texting while walking down the street, being mesmerized by the little screen. It’s a habit I’ve broken. I encourage you to do the same. And, it goes without saying, biking and texting (WTF?). Driving & texting is for _________< /endrant>]