The Avatar Must Die
A few years back, we took a trip from the Bay Area all the way to British Colombia. Near the apex of our journey we saw the most incredible sights. Orca whales, swimming at and under our boat. Brown-colored Black bears (yes, the distinction matters) by the side of the road. And on a mountain near Whistler – the place where I really learned to ski many years ago (such as a boy from San Diego can actually learn to ski) – we saw a huge totem called an Anukshuk. Built of huge Stonehenge-style rocks, it was perched far up the mountain. I liked it so much that I started using it as my avatar on a number of sites.
Yes, I know that it is one of the mascots of the 2010 Olympic games. I thought it would be so cool to make use it, long before the rest of the world associated it with anything other than me. But now, as the date (February 2010) approaches, I wonder when – or if – I should replace it. I’d like it to be a gradual process – but that is not usually the way these things work. You replace one image with another. Whoosh. Done.
And so I ponder. But as I ponder, the Games come closer. And with the date getting closer, it impacts The Locals more and more. To house and feed and transport that abrupt influx of humanity that is The Games, there must be changes. A streamlining of transport. A building of hotel rooms. A “regooding” of the now-deemed-blighted sections of the city. A streamlining of the food establishments, to cater to the oh-hey-theres-a-Starbucks-right-there crowd. Consistency is chosen, time and again, over flavorful melange.
But these Locals speak our language – by gosh they’re almost ‘mericans! Some, like the quirky observer William Gibson, use a delicate turn of phrase to create new words for the process that is unfolding. Others, like Tim Bray of the Urban Geek persuasion (no, I don’t know what that phrase means either) point us toward articles detailing the decline of the locals under an onslaught of progress and, later, of the fights and Pyrrhic victories. How soon until we see articles about the replacement of family owned businesses with multinational conglomerates? And do I want to be associated with all that through my avatar?
Stay tuned!