Ok...

I'm not too sure how to respond to a person who acted with a particularly negative sentiment towards me acquiring a new technological device that I really particularly needed quite badly. Mind you, I did not flaunt this in front of their faces at all but rather hinted but did not say anything until they asked for further details, quite vehemently at that too. Well either way, I'm not too sure that such a profane word can be used so casually to reflect their dislike towards my newly acquired item or rather directed towards me. Yes, "holding a grudge" towards me for having a new item is alright but I'm not too sure it warrants them to call me a 'bitch' just because of this. I hate this person right now- wait let me rephrase that, this latest outburst just completely heighten my dislike towards this person. From today onwards I am just going to try to lessen the amount of communication between this person and me as well as meeting arrangements.

I'm not a very direct person I know but I hate confrontations and/or conflicts. Personally, I do not like it because it will just make relations between people that little bit harder to make and truthfully I don't particularly want to be bad-mouthed by others either. Unless of course I can afford to be completely ruthless, which I have never had to do before (thank goodness). But either way, I still do not like the sudden outburst using such a language to my (not per se) face for something that seems so trivial. I may have been thinking in such an old-fashioned way for my age and generation but I think it is also partly because I normally befriend people I 'thought' was within the same wavelength as me. Perhaps I need to review my friendship-o-meter better next time 'round.

New User Interface? Why not, I say!

I do not understand why people despise technological changes so much. I mean, I do understand that changes are perhaps inconvenient because sometimes you would need to relearn certain things in order to get back into the rhythm. But I adore and embrace technological changes. They are exciting and provide absolutely new possibilities and potentials.

Well I suppose before I delve more into the argument I should state that what I refer to are mainly new operating systems, navigational systems and basically all aspects of interactivity between user and the system. Unfortunately, I do not have the cerebral capacity to store the technical aspects of machines or codings so I can't exactly comment on that. But for the most part companies, inventors, designers, developers and engineers would create something that users would be able to interact with ease albeit with a little bit of learning. What I do not get is that after all the time and effort they have put into it some users are reluctant to relearn something that was modified for faster operational system and efficiency.

Take for example the Deviant Art V.7, the newest (and according to the developers, faster) system that Deviant Art has to offer its community members. I browsed a couple of deviants' pages and read journals that seemed to express utter hatred towards the newest version but personally, I quite enjoy knowing that everything has been modified to promote the artwork and reduce clutter. With the newest version it means enlarged versions of the images are viewed individually without flash ads on either side for greater appreciation of the artwork. And to be honest, I am more than happy having individual buttons for favouriting artworks or to download rather than having a dropdown menu that you would need to wait for it to appear before you can favourite or download.

I do not get the negative sentiments of the people who rather stick to older user interfaces. I suppose it's the sentimental nature of people who would rather stick to something they are already familiar and comfortable with especially when dealing with the ever changing aspects of technology. But I say, embrace it! Adore it! Love it! For technology will never cease to continue to advance into the ever distant future.

One thing I can never understand perhaps are remote controls. Again, that's a whole new argument worthy of its own post. Perhaps next time.

New Book(s) to Read

After a very long 2 months trying to read The Corrections and finally got the end of it I can rejoice and once again delve myself into the realm of fiction. To be quite honest The Corrections is perhaps not the kind of book that I usually read though it is an interesting insight into human nature. What I particularly like about the book is perhaps how the end doesn't necessarily tied up the loose ends of the characters' humanity but rather ends it with a satisfying sigh.

It wasn't the plot that makes the read interesting and engaging (though they usually do towards the end of each 'chapter') but rather how the author delved so much into each character and their histories. I have to say though the author did a far better job towards retelling the male characters' stories compared to their female counterparts. But either way there was almost a sense of redemption from each character as the family members come together for one last Christmas dinner.

Anyway, besides that very amateurish review the next book on the list to tackle is The City & The City by China Miéville, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I'm rereading The Great Gatsby that I last read during highschool and I have to say at the moment I probably appreciate it a lot more compared to then when I hardly understood the words yet alone the meaningful content. As well I have read the Life of Pi previously and have enjoyed it thoroughly and decided to make that as our newest book to read before our next book club meeting (the selection was done not out of my own preference but through unanimous approval because most who haven't read it wanted to read it). Life of Pi is perhaps another book that I would not mind rereading and am looking forward to rereading it.

So. Juggling three books and no life shouldn't be too hard. Meanwhile, if they all get to be too demanding I always have the complete Sherlock Holmes collection to keep me entertained.

Another Day

I just realised how long I haven't updated this particular blog (not that anyone ever reads it really) and I thought I should update it once in a while. ... I don't think this will be a very long entry since I have nothing in particular to say or comment or complain about.

But, on a side note, I'm currently trying to read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. So far so good!

NB. HAH! I love Firefox! I only needed to type in "amazon the corrections" and pop the browser to the actual page. *hugs* No more remembering web addresses!

A Universal Language?

I just finished reading a blog of a teenager ranting on a dominantly English community based website how much they don't like other people writing and posting in their own languages and they keep reiterating (for a number of times quite clearly) that they are not racist and that they are merely barraging the people who read their journal that they want their opinion to be stated and acted upon. Now, after reading such a thing the only thing I could think of was that they were indeed not racist but merely prejudiced against people who do not have English as their first language or proficient at it. It is the same in any language as it is in English, you want to be able to convey a certain feeling and emotion when posting your particular post by using your dominant language. If the work was to be translated into broken English or other broken languages the meaning will be lost and you are merely left with traces of what could've been a beautiful work.

Of course, for someone who is fluent in only two languages, one being a dominant language and the other being in a very small minority I do have frustrations over reading something that is written in neither languages but they are merely passing remarks that is hardly what I would call passionate dislike. Even if I do not know the language I rather pity myself for not being able to understand such a beautifully written work than blaming it on the artist who have done their work in their language. It is a pity that some audiences aren't able to appreciate the beauty of language even if they are not spelled using English letters. Of course this is merely restricted to those which are involved in using artworks in conjunction with written words as dialogues etc. Even if I wasn't able to understand what the words mean I do understand the artist's intention (albeit there's limitation but it's still recognisable) through the art. I mean, I don't really want to complain too much about this particular person, they did express that they were not racist, and I can see that, but to my mind they are discriminating against people who want to express their own creation in another language. If you aren't able to appreciate such a thing then you are a selfish audience.

And another thing, it seems that a lot of today's teenagers are simply very selfish. From what I have been able to read through their blogs and journals it leave me with a sour impression on what today's teenager's all about. I'm pretty sure I was behaving like them when I was younger but not perhaps to the extent of being as demanding as they are. I guess in some parts they do behave in such a way due to the social pressure in schools and their communities and not to mention being thrust into the business world by working part-time jobs at such a young age. I often do wonder where my younger days have gone, not for myself, but for the younger people of today.

A Reflection: Freedom

It is a pity that we are a society that has to abide by the rules and regulations of mostly the government and bureaucracy but for some parts common sense do serve as a catalyst, for us as individuals to know how to behave with one another. I know that the main purpose of such rules to exist is to maintain order and peace. But it is such a pity that since we are young we have been forced to accept rules and regulations set by the paper, common sense or traditional values are almost always extinct in today's society. We have laws to 'protect' us, we have rules on how to 'behave', we are not allowed to be extremely 'outspoken'. It is almost like the rules that were meant to protect us has robbed us of our own freedom. It feels like there is no such thing as trust between each human beings when we can 'abide' by the rules and play the games in (legal) courts.

Of course I can understand the dilemma of not having these rules; criminal activities would rise, people with too much power would roam free and the world would be in constant chaos. Which is truthfully not far from what it has been today and probably what will become in the future. Our society's value has changed considerably as you grow older, in the past I used to value everyone else around me, giving a helping hand, being kind, respect the elders, help the society to be a better place to live in. As you grow older you started to realise that our existence are merely a facade, a way for the modern society to function like an industrial factory. Occasionally there are those who are genuinely kind, which are a rarity amongst the majority, the rest of us are selfish individuals with nothing in common except perhaps the thought of protecting oneself from being sidelined by the rest of society. There are of course rebels who constantly try to bring chaos into order, some succeed with positive results others often failed and become outcasts.

But still, the rest of us feared retribution from not being able to abide by these rules and regulations. It was never a choice to simply live life to how we want it to be. I don't think I was aware when I was younger how much society has embedded within each of us a perception that rules and regulations should be followed to the absolute. It was simply the older people are the wiser they are therefore follow their footsteps and their advices. But again, those people who are older in the past have been embedded by the same rules and regulations we have to abide by. It is a neverending cycle of constantly being bound by the same thing we want to break free from. Freedom was never a choice, freedom never existed in the first place.

>:(

Capitalism has just gone ridiculously absurd.

Link: SMH/Technology/"Russian Trademarks Winking Emoticon"
Source: Sydney Morning Herald