Do You Believe in Magic?

                                                                                                                                                                         Photo By Thong Vo via www.unsplash.com

But seriously, do you? Yes? No? Maybe? Well no matter your current belief, the all mighty internet has made it clear that magic is real….and it can be yours by visiting www.getmagicnow.com .

As a kid, I would have used magic to make me taller (didn’t happen, vertically restricted to 5”2), to make me a movie star (me? Wanting attention? Never!) and to move my family back to Toronto after living in Winnipeg for 2 years (it happened, dreams do come true).

But what I’m talking about now is magic for grown ups. Those things we wish we could just snap our fingers and *boom* it’s done. Things like having our online shopping order picked up from the post office and delivered when we’re actually home. Or having someone trustworthy show up and clean our apartments while we’re out so we can return home to a palace of order and cleanliness. And for those on the job hunt, having someone write us exceptional cover letters for all those online job applications.  There is now a service, called magic, that can do all this and more!

How it Works?

All you have to do is text “HELLO” to the number 83489 to get started. Text in your request and Magic will literally do anything for you, as long it’s legal.  Unfortunately you’ll still have to keep those shady friends on your contact list for illegal habits.  Magic will tell you how much your request will cost and if you agree to the price well, let the magic begin my friend. With your first magic request you’ll be asked for your credit card information (because nothing in life is free) so they can charge you for your requests.

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Am I a Horrible Person?

Now I personally thought this idea was really cool until I told my friend Corey about it and he made me feel like an awful human being with his response. His first reaction was along the lines of “what has humanity come to?” while mine was “oooh exciting new thing!”. He makes a valid point but I figure we live in a time of instant gratification and if you’ve got the means, why not magic your worries away.

Only In America

Seriously, it’s only available in America right now. Wonder if it’ll come to the great white north, we’ll soon see!

Magic is provided by Magic, Inc. located in San Francisco, CA. 

Life in the Fast "Self-Driving" Lane

Illustrations by Bratislav Milenkovic

The other week it was announced that Ontario will be the first Canadian province to start the on road testing of self-driving cars. I’ve always been a proud Torontonian which I guess by default also makes me a proud Ontarian, and boy did this news add to my existing provincial pride. I'm sorry, but how cool are we? We're going to have the first ever self-driving cars on our streets! Sorry rest of Canada, Toronto has done it again in claiming its rightful space as "centre of the Canadian universe". (joking, obvi)

Apart from the "cool factor", how exactly do I feel about the entire “self-driving car” idea? Well, let’s see. First you should know I am a downtown commuter. To get around the city I use the TTC (ugh), my bike, walking, taxis and ubers. I have never signed up for autoshare or zipcar simply because I’m too lazy to fill out the application, otherwise I’d probably be using that service as well.  So knowing that there will soon be self-driving cars to pick me up and drive me places is....well..... amazing.

Now I could go on and explain the economical and political implications of this decision, but that's not why you're here reading this. So, here are the ways in which self-driving cars are going to enhance my (and likely your) life.

Chat & Judgement Free Zone                                                                                                                             Yes, uber has been helpful in driving down the prices of taxis in this city, but everything comes at a cost. We've been provided with the option to pay less for a ride BUT now we have a new issue, we have to talk to our drivers. I know, I know, big bloody first world problem. But don't go pointing your finger at me on this one because I know you have felt the same at one point! You get into an uberx and your driver starts up a conversation and all of a sudden evening = ruined. So here is where self-driving cars come to the social rescue. These cars will completely 100% eliminate the pain and agony that comes with making small talk for 10-15 minutes. ALSO, and possibly more importantly, self-driving cars will allow us to bid farewell to the embarrassment that comes with asking a taxi driver to take us either through a drive through or to pull over to buy snacks. Never again will we be judged by our late night cravings. Goodbye cruel human car driving world. 

Self Driving Cars Can't Text                                                                                                                                 This one is pretty simple. The number of distraction related car accidents has dramatically increased in the last 5-10 years due to texting while driving. This is an extremely dangerous habit that most people will continue to do until something bad happens to them (unfortunate but true). Self-driving cars will have one task to focus on, and that is driving. Again, to go back to the taxi reference. It seems that cab drivers are always on the phone. I'm not sure who they're talking to. Who even talks on the phone anymore these days? Better yet, who are these people on the other end of the line willing to ramble on for over 8 hours? This will always remain a mystery. So by taking out the human need for connection via text and phone calls I would like to believe that these self-driving cars will eventually make our streets safer. 

A World of Possibilities                                                                                                                                        Self-driving cars coming to Canada is going to open an entire world of technological and digital possibilities. Once we become comfortable with allowing these cars into our daily lives, think of what else we may be open to! To whoever started the self driving car movement I would like to propose future projects for your consideration: 

• self-cooking ovens

• self-grocery shopping fridges (amazon is kind of already doing this with their Amazon Dash button)

• self-cleaning bathrooms

• self-laundry-doing washing machines self-writing homework

• self-measuring food

• self-birthing babies

• self-checking for murderers in your closet apartment closets (I could guarantee you one purchase)

Risks?                                                                                                                                                                    Yes, obviously I’m kind of nervous for the introduction of self-driving cars into the place I call home, who wouldn't be? Im nervous because I feel like there are certain things humans are better at than computers. Specifically, reflexes. I think these cars will be great for following GPS dictated routes and avoiding traffic that only the internet can see, but what happens when a kid dashes into the middle of the road chasing after a ball? Between a computer and a human, who would be quickest to react? I truly don't know the answer. I think this is going to be a really interesting transition in our community and culture and it will definitely come with some challenges. 

Looking Forward                                                                                                                                             What’s most interesting about this news is that the testing of these self-driving cars will begin as early as January 1, 2016!  Pardon me? That it basically two months away. How do I even prepare to share the streets with robots and what will I wear for my first ride?

For more details on this big announcement,  check out the entire article from the Globe and Mail  here.

To Swipe or Not To Swipe?

The other night during my usual pre-bedtime tinder swipe-fest I came across an unusual “profile”. It was Tinder himself! (Herself?) Aged 25, 1km away and as of now, was active 1 week ago. I’ve included the three profile photo screenshots in this post for your reference. The profile asks, “Have a cool tinder story?”. I was intrigued, so I swiped right.

To give you some backstory, I first joined tinder back in 2013 when I was working as an associate producer on CBC’s “Steven and Chris”. My brother had just recently met his girlfriend on the app and suggested I also give it a try.  She seemed lovely and they seemed to hit it off so I thought why not. I would say back then I’d give my entire tinder experience the average rating of being “fine”. After going on one or two tinder dates that ended up feeling like a bit of a waste of time I deleted the app. I was busy working on this fast paced show during the day and was preparing for the GMAT at night, so to be completely honest I probably shouldn’t have been going out on dates anyway, let alone expecting anything to come from them.

So, fast forward about two years later and I’m finished the first year of my MBA (yay, passed the GMAT, Smart!) I can finally breathe again and am being reintroduced to my social life with a summer free of classes and assignments. Mind you, I had a summer internship with Etsy, but it generally left my evenings and weekends free, prime dating times! So I reinstalled tinder with little expectations and the simple goal of going on a few dates. Dates that without the help of this app would probably never happen because Toronto is a cold, anti-social, cliquey city and meeting people out at bars and social events just doesn’t seem to happen. I hope other people feel the same way, otherwise….awkward…

So tinder it was! And this second time around I saw a massive change in the app. First of all, after only two years there were soooo many more tinder users. Also, I was coming across people I knew IRL much more frequently, and it seemed that I shared a mutual connection with every other person I swiped by. I found people to be much more forward with their purposes for going on tinder (dating, hookups, threesomes, swingers …if you can name it, its on tinder) and in the end I met some lovely people and had some nice dates. I also met some gross people too but that’s for another type of blog I think or for when I have too many drinks and think they're funny stories to tell. 

Anyway, fast-forward to last week when I came across this tinder profile asking for my tinder stories. It has me wondering, what is tinder up to? Apparently if you email them a cool tinder story, could be anything about “friends, dates, adventures, marriages, travel and everything in between” you can win free tinder gear.  I highly doubt Tinder is doing this freebee giveaway out of the goodness of their hearts. They are up to something! So to find out, I’ve emailed them a story and I’ll let you know if they get back to me (and what likely useless tinder gear I get). But aside from possible prizes, what I’m most curious about is why Tinder is collecting these stories? My television producing background makes me think they’re developing some sort of show, which given the level of garbage on the air these days, could be very likely. Is tinder writing a book? Starting a radio show or podcast similar to “the moth” where real people tell real stories, but they’re all focused on tinder tales? I think this initial call out for stories could be a number of things. Could gathering casts and stories from dating apps like tinder be the new way of casting reality television programs? It may sound crazy but I could definitely see it happening.

All in all, I wouldn’t say I’m bothered by tinder’s request for stories but I am definitely curious to discover the end goal here. Let me know what you think might be going on!