The other day I had an hour to kill before seeing a movie with my dad. I had options. I could write the next scene of my short story, read some poetry, or breeze through a chapter of my current novel. Instead, I went on Facebook. Then I checked my inbox on Yahoo. Then Gmail. Then Goodreads. Back and forth, from site to site, for 60 minutes.
By the time my dad came up to pick me up, the hour had disappeared. I had actually lost an hour online. Continue reading
Well, sort of. This is what I used to take my new profile pictures:
My awesome fourth generation IPod Touch. It's white, which happens to be one of my favorite colors.
And this is the guy who I will bring along with me to social gatherings in which I will feel inclined to sit in a corner and read:
So I finally own a Kindle... I think my father owns about five of them.
And this is the interior of my new best friend. Breathtaking, I know.
Both of these I received as late Christmas gifts from my brother and father respectively, and of course I really appreciate them. My family is very technology-oriented, another aspect in which I am the black sheep – beyond Word and the internet, I am lost.
Anyway, these two devices are seriously becoming like close friends to me… not like I would know what having friends feels like. I’ve been using a first generation IPod Touch for three years and this new one has a bunch of amazing features such as a camera, a built-in speaker, and many other amenities that could eat up one’s free time if not handled responsively. I take it to the gym with me, I use it as a dictionary, heck, I even took the time to encase it in an awesome… case.
It's protected like the Mona Lisa. Okay, not really. But close enough.
As for the Kindle, I’ve been resisting its charm constantly for quite some time. I’m a fan of tangible books – books that I can hold in my hands and flip their pages, books that I can annotate with a real pencil or mark with a real sticky note, books that I can give to my friends so that they too can revel in reading delight.
Yet, when my father gave me the Kindle as a gift, I thought to myself, what the heck. It’s convenient in that it can carry thousands of books, is small enough to take with me to many places, and has useful features such as a built-in dictionary and categories for me to organize my books. While reading on the Kindle may not measure up to holding an actual book in my hands, it’s not a device that I would disparage, because the Kindle actually promotes reading, which I appreciate.
I suppose this is a good time to share my thoughts about technology. We as humans are naturally inclined to love things that lessen our workload, and though we can groan and bemoan how technology is becoming so prevalent in society, we do in fact gravitate toward these devices no matter how lazy they make us look. Obviously there’s a problem when kids are spending their time playing video games instead of reading or going outside, but, like almost all things in life, balance is key. Parents should model positive behavior that blends benefiting from the advantages of technology and doing things the old-fashioned way so that one can build character.
Though now that I think of it, if it weren’t for technology, I wouldn’t be writing this right now. Nor would I even have a blog, or a Facebook, or an email account… but then again, with that extra time I could actually live my life and make real friends go outside or sleep at normal hours. Pros and cons, pros and cons…
What do you think of technology? Did you get anything similar to what I got for Christmas? I like how I intended this post to be purely personal, yet it became a musing on technology. I suppose that’s what happens when I write these things at midnight. I hope everyone is having a splendid New Years Eve! Also, for those who don’t follow me on twitter, I’ve updated my “about me” section if you want to check it out.
This thing makes me want to cry (image via verizon-phones.org)
I wasted two hours trying to upload a ring tone from my computer onto my phone.
Two. Hours.
I could have completed so many other things in that time. I could have written my article for the school newspaper due tomorrow, studied for my AP World History exam, scanned over my SAT vocabulary, run on my treadmill, or even have read a book.
No. I spent 120 minutes attempting to download a 14 second ring tone onto my phone. It would have been worth it if it worked – but it didn’t.
I won’t bother going into the horrid details of my efforts – let’s just say I was reduced to near tears and felt like the world was ending.
Has anyone else ever had an experience similar to this? Where you just can’t get technology (or anything, really) to work for you and you just feel like a piece of dog waste? It’s funny because after a couple of weeks I’ll remember this and laugh… if I don’t start crying again first.
This was the ring tone I tried to get on my phone. If you didn’t read my review of f(x)’s album Pinocchio, then let’s just say, SO HOT FANBOY DOWN FANBOY DOWN yeah, Key’s my bias.
Who expected a boy like this to have a voice like that? (image via fanpop.com)
Expect a more organized post tomorrow. By organized, I mean unplanned and probably random.
Filed under Personal
So, I’m not the best with technology. I made a huge mistake with this blog, and this post is simply an update on what went on behind the scenes (or the screen, if you get my flow. I’m cool.)
It took me half an hour to figure out how to place a border around pictures, and another thirty minutes to add captions. One time I sent an email to myself and thought that I received an email from someone else when the notification appeared two seconds later. Am I lonely? I don’t think so. Anyway.
Sunday night, two days ago, I changed the URL of this blog. Completely changed it. What this means is that I erased my old blog address (aka URL) and replaced it with this one: (https://thequietvoice18.wordpress.com). The blog itself is the same, but all the links to my old blog address are now broken – meaning that when someone clicks on them it leads the person to a page with nothing on it. A 404 web page, apparently.
Seeing that a multitude of people view my blog through web searches, this significantly decreased my hits. It’s almost depressing that all of my dedicated fans will search for me via Google and be heartbroken when they come across a page of nothingness. And yes, by dedicated fans, I mean the awkward fan girls looking for pictures of Key…
Just kidding, I love fan girls. (image via allkpop)
This is what I’m trying to get across: a myriad of my blog links are broken, and it will take a lot of time before Google clears their cache and replaces the old address with this new one. So if you come across any links that are not operating correctly, it would be great if you could bring them to my attention. Or you can just spam all your friends and family with this blog, therefore escalating its readership and finally forcing Google to promote it. Just kidding, I’m definitely not that desperate.
Please? (image via allkpop)
Filed under Personal
the quiet voice 