Real books are way better!

    Few centuries ago, when the Mayans tribe made a prediction that the world is going to end in 2012, a lot of people took it seriously. In fact, there’s a hollywood movie and a few more documentaries for it. But when Bill Gates made a prediction 4 years ago that one day, all readings will to go completely online and all reading materials will be converted into digital form, many people especially the book lovers found the prediction to be too ridiculous. They said that no matter how much the technology has advanced, it can never replace the existence of books and that books will remain to stay for another centuries to come. I guess that time, everyone must be laughing at his silly prediction. But recently, the Border Groups, the 2nd largest bookstore company in America, had filed a protection bankruptcy and this incident had caused all the bookworm or buku cacing around the world (me included =.=) to finally realise there’s a high possibility that Gates’s prediction can really happen. They said that their sales had dropped dramatically since people can now purchase the digital version of the books and read them by using iPad or any other digital devices. I’m sure after reading the news about Borders, Bill Gates will be laughing in his huge office and said, “I told you so”.

    Sigh… Although I really love internet and digital thingy, for me, there’s nothing that can replace the existence of books. Reading a real book is so much better than reading in front of the bright screen. Here’s a list on why I think so:

By reading REAL books, I don’t have to worry about charging the battery or how much the power left after reading for few minutes. If I get sleepy when reading a book, I can simply throw it on the table and start my hibernation mode. But for electronic devices, throwing it on the table while sleepy is like throwing money into the longkang. It won’t last long.

I love the feeling of flipping the pages and see the thickness of the pages shifted from the right side to the left side as I keep on reading. I love the textures of the pages on my fingertips and every time I leave a bookmark inside the book, it gives me a sense of accomplishment as it shows how much I have read and how far I had ‘travel’ with the characters inside the book. For digital format, I can’t touch or feel the quality of  the pages. To turn the pages, I have to wipe the screen in one direction and by the time I finish reading the whole thing, the screen will be fully smudged with dirty horizontal lines. And no matter how much I have read, the devices will never become thinner (duh) and so, I will feel like I didn’t truly read a book.

It’s weird but I enjoy the smells that comes out every time I flipped those pages. Every books have its own aroma, depending on how the book is taken care of. There’s old book aroma, new book aroma, dusty book aroma, etc. But you can’t smell anything if you read from a digital device, and if you really do smell something from it, get ready with the warranty card and hope that it won’t get more serious than a burned processor. Reading a book without its scent is like drinking a coffee without its aroma. No matter how good the coffee taste, without its aromatic coffee aroma, the satisfaction is not there anymore. This same apply to books.  

Some things are meant to be extinct (dinosaurs, justin bieber’s songs, etc) but not books.  Books fulfill my 3 senses; sight, touch and smell while electronic version can only fulfill one which is sight.  Nothing can ever replace books! Long live the books!

 

Home Sweet Home

Just reach back home from hometown. Miss it so much ><

I miss my comfy bed and warm blanket.

I miss the leather sofa.

I miss the table where I usually study.

I miss the feeling of opening the fridge and see cans of nescafe and snacks in it.

I miss the toilet, where I only need to share with my family members only, not 12+ relatives.

I miss the kitchen, where REAl food are cooked.

I miss the television and the power sockets around the house.

There’s nothing like home. ^^

 

Happy Chinese New Year

    Here comes again, that festival season of the year.. Time passed really fast. Like always, I don’t have that enthusiasm to celebrate this festival, unlike some of my friends who always look forward for this occasion to come. It’s not that I hate this festival or anything and I just don’t know how to explain why. I actually looking forward for Christmas rather than Chinese New Year.. So, I have been thinking on why I don’t really love Chinese New Year and here are the reasons:

1) The damn firecracker. It’s ok if people play with firecracker in the afternoon or early in the night (8-9pm). But at midnight?! Boom here, boom there. Pop here, pop there. With this kind of “excitement”, I find it hard to sleep peacefully. I could have easily mistaken that I might be sleeping in the World War II era (ok, maybe I exaggerate it a little bit). The sounds from the firecracker are so loud and frequent that if there is actually someone murder other people by shooting him with a rifle, nobody would notice it. Like that’s not enough, every time the moron people play with the firecracker in the middle of the night, all the dogs around the neighbourhood will start to bark loudly, trying to compete to see who’s the loudest; their barking or the explosion from the firecracker. If there are babies in the neighbourhood too, they also join the competition by crying out really loud. Pop pop, bark bark, wahh wahh. So, I have no choice but to endure the ‘soothing music’ until I return back to the city.

2) Children exploitation. I don’t know why but I just don’t like to see the tv station used the children for their chinese new year music video, the one with a bunch of hyperactive kids (mostly girls. another form of exploitation) running around the decorated garden, singing songs and ask ang pao from the poor elderly people sitting in that garden. There will be the famous “dong dong chang” theme song playing in the background and some weird guys wearing weird mask that look like a bald monk and dance at the background, while holding a paper fan.

3) Eating time. I’m not complaining about the food served cause I’m not a fussy eater. The thing I dislike is the amount of time I have to spend at the dinner table. I don’t think I eat too fast or too slow. I consider my eating speed is at a normal level. Few years ago, when I started to excuse myself from the table after finishing my meal, there’s always somebody that has to give comment (mostly relatives) about it. “Wahh, eat so fast ah. Eat some more ah. Your grandmother cook so many nice dishes for you”. After that incidence, I always try to slow down but it always not slow enough for them. I’m not eating fast at all, it was them that eat extremely slow. I know it’s a holiday season, but you don’t have to take things that slowly. The way they chew their food is like they are trying to chew the solid stuff into a complete liquid form before they can swallow it. Have you ever see how a cow chew the grass? Yeah, it’s something like that. Chew, chew, swallow, vomit back, and chew again. (I exaggerate it again but in my mind, it seems that way)

4) 10+ family members sharing 1 toilet (for excretion purposes) and 1 bathroom (for bathing purposes). I don’t think I have to explain more about this for you to understand the complication that will arise from this.

5) Television is a fun and a great way to spend the extra time during the celebration. That is if only you have the remote control in your hand, not in other people’s hand.

I guess these are the top 5 on why I don’t really enjoy this celebration. I did try to think the top 5 on why I love this celebration but it is so much tougher and consume more brain power just to think one. To those who truly enjoy this celebration, I wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year!