super generic girl

the awesomely average life of a girl like all others

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No such thing as a free (photo of your) lunch

If it hadn't been for Instagram, the world would never have found out what I had for dinner last Saturday. I'm so worried they're going to pass this image onto a pasta sauce company. Not.

If it hadn’t been for Instagram, the world would never have found out what I had for dinner last Saturday. I’m so worried they’re going to pass this image onto a pasta sauce company.

One of my favourite ways to break up a run is to take photos of what I see along the way. As of a few months ago, I started using Instagram as yet another way of sharing them (not the only way). As shown above, I’m also often guilty of the food picture internet sin. It makes me happy, whatever.

Yesterday, the internet got its virtual panties in a bunch over a change to Instagram’s Terms & Conditions (to come into effect in January). I have been trying to figure out what people’s problem with it is but I think I’m failing. From where I stand, it looks like people complaining about Instagram handing their photos over to third parties expect to use the Instagram service for free. Instagram T&Cs don’t actually say they are going to sell your photos anyway.

When exactly did Instagram become a charity? Instagram is a business (owned by Facebook but still a business), it employs people and it needs to somehow make some money so that those employees can afford luxuries such as food and other stuff. Why shouldn’t we pay to use it, whether through a joining fee, advertising or any other way? Because we don’t wanna? Sounds a little whiny.

The number of paid apps I have ever downloaded from the Android App store (it keeps changing names, I can’t keep up) amounts to around about zero. Instagram is just one of the many free apps crashing my phone on a regular basis. Since I’m not willing to pay for it but still want to use the filters and sharing capabilities, shouldn’t I be charged in some other way? Absolutely. What a self-entitled prick would I be otherwise.

Perhaps the solution would be to offer users a choice – a different set of T&Cs for those who agree to pay a fee to use the service. I know I would rather allow Instagram to hand my photos over to whoever wants them, especially because chances are no one wants dozens of photos of my cat anyway. And please, for the love of all #catsofinstagram, stop saying Instagram wants to hand over your photos “without your consent”. By using a website, you abide by that website’s set of terms and conditions (in case of supergenericgirl.com, there’s only one condition: no bad words about cats, brownie or Ryan Gosling). It’s not Instagram’s (or any website’s) fault that we’re lazy users who never bother to read those things.

One way or another, we should all pay for the services we get to use. Stop expecting free shit. If you want to #quitinstagram or #boycottinstagram or #whateverotherangryhashtag, go ahead. Plenty of other services out there you can use. But don’t be silly to think that there is such a thing as a free lunch. Or a free snapshot of your lunch.

Also, aren’t we all supposed to die on Friday anyway? Chill out, internet.


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a running update on all the running I haven’t been doing

rip, dirty old shoes. lets hit the trails, you pink beauties!

Oh hi, glad you’re still there. I know, it’s been a while.

Remember how I had a super-sucky half marathon in Wellington last month? Well, what followed were three weeks of a whole lot of nothing, with a couple of shameful single digit runs and a distinct lack of motivation to go any further.

I tried to cheer myself up and rekindle my love for running by spending more than I’d like to admit in a long overdue pair of running shoes. My faithful Mizuno Wave Nirvana 7 saw me through a handful of half-marathons, a 35km in the bush and numerous other training runs in a little over a year. In total, I calculate they did about 1200km (or slightly over that), much more than the recommended distance for a pair of running shoes. I loved every kilometer in them (ignore the big fat exaggeration for the sake of the nice obituary for the shoes – I actually did flat out hate some of those kilometers) and it’s now time to let them rest in peace. I’ve upgraded to the Mizuno Wave Nirvana 8 (same type of support, different colours). They’re pretty, too pretty, and I’m desperate to get them dirty.

While busy not getting any running done, I also signed up for the superlong course of the XTERRA trail run in Whitford on August 12 (21.8km with a not to shabby elevation chart and a toughness factor of 9/10 as rated by the organisers). I’ll be happy to bag another half marathon (and a trail one!) the day before I turn another year older awesomer. In the mean time, I’ve also guaranteed that, should I go completely nuts between now and December, I have a spot on The Goat run. I signed up for it because it sells out quick (in fact, it did not long after I got my registration in) but I’m yet to commit 100% to it. You see, it’s in Tongariro National Park (which just yesterday was in the news due to abnormal seismic activity), it starts at pretty high elevation and has a 1000m ascent over some of the toughest terrain to run on. No, you don’t have to tell me how silly that sounds.

Note that the trend here is that I’ve been spending a whole lot of money on running-related stuff but not actually doing any running. If the total number of dollars spent actually compared to the number of kilometers run, then I wouldn’t be feeling like such a slob.

Until yesterday. A short 5km with S., who’s also been on a running hiatus, led to the decision to shape up again. We want to enjoy the upcoming trail half marathon and want to go back to feeling like we can actually do this sort of stuff. So stay tuned because the bright pink on the new shoes should not stay bright for longer.


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Bread

Here it is – my first fully successful loaf of high fibre bread. I used a friend’s recipe that I had tried before (but a slight problem with the water temperature made my first attempt look and taste a bit more like a cake). This time, I got it right. The crust was crispy and the crumb was nice and soft.

I don’t have a bread maker nor a mixer capable of kneading the dough so the whole process was a real workout. It’s incredibly simple to make and only requires flour, water, olive oil, yeast, sugar and salt (pretty much all stuff that you probably have in your kitchen at any given time). The only thing that puts me off is the 15 minute workout. On the bright side, I’m going to get arms of steel if I make this more often!

It was still hot when we had the first few pieces with butter for afternoon tea.

The boy gave it its stamp of approval and had several pieces, included some toasted ones. Shame that he had to ruin the bread by spreading marmite all over it. Yuck.