A vacation related metaphor.

We are what we eat, or at least that's the way the saying goes. And in a similar vein, writing while travelling calls up different associations from those that come to mind while at home. Which is, of course, the whole point of this column (or at least what seemed to be the point at one particular point in place/time when I found the opportunity to write), since if the travelling experience were identical to the home one, I could have written this entire column at home, and then only uploaded it while away.

But what about that vacation related metaphor? We took a day trip to Niagara Falls. It's not a long drive from Toronto, and it's undoubtedly one of the most impressive wonders of the natural world. But as impressive as the falls are, it's hard to fill up a day just observing them. Which perhaps explains why this incredible natural wonder is encased in a quintescentially quaint tourist attraction town of incredibly poor taste. So? Often I get a similar feeling about the web. The general public isn't satisfied with the "natural" beauty of the web as a source of interconnected information. Access to information is nice, but who wants to be set free in a library for an entire day (besides me)? So we have to make the web more attractive with animated gifs and flash and dubious content which is a far cry from the ostensible purpose of the web at its outset. And we'll all come out to see the Falls - for ten minutes at least, until we've had enough and move on to the tourist attractions.