For the Love of Books! (But the Hatred of eBooks)

I recently acquired an iPad. I say acquired because I did not purchase it, but rather it was a bonus for paying the $3,000 that week for the bar review course I was already going to pay for (on a side note, how frustrating is it that I have to pay about $150,000 for my law school education, then $1500 or thereabouts to take the bar exam (including $500 for an FBI criminal background check) and THEN $3,000 for a course to make sure I pass the bar?-- bogus). Back to the point, so I now have an iPad. For the record, I never really wanted one. I have a MacBook and I have an iPhone, so my life was complete. I didn't need an iPad and I didn't want it. Now that I have it though, I have to say, I love it. It's nice, it's convenient, it has a good battery life, and it's fun to play games on, and I've also discovered ebooks. Which brings me to the real meat of this rant--I hate ebooks.

I do not welcome the day we switch over to this newfangled electronic generation where printed books don't exist. And while I openly admit that I have some ebooks on my iPad, I will say I have not paid a dime for any of them (they were free books from the iBooks store) and I will not pay money for ebooks. I don't know how many people out there are like me, but when I say I'm a bibliophile, I mean I love the PRINTED page. Yes, ebooks are convenient. Yes, it's nice to have them all "at the touch of your finger" and if all my books were ebooks, moving would be a more pleasant but still annoying task. However, in my opinion there are few things better than the feeling of a book in my hands. As a kid who coveted the library Beast had (in Beauty and the Beast), I cannot imagine a world where said library wouldn't even be a fantasy.  To this day I still want a huge castle in the French countryside (or maybe English because I don't speak any French) with a huge library just like this:

I can't imagine a better room. I love everything about the printed page. A printed book is glorious. I love the smell of a new book, so crisp and inky; just begging to be read and known. And the way a well worn in book smells, too, is fabulous; musty and full of history. The look and the texture of books, too, is wonderful. Each one is different. Different binding, different cover art, different pages. Smooth cut pages, rough cut pages, tiny compact paperbacks, or big chunky hardback. Printed books are interesting. I also love how tangible it is. There's none of this variety with an eBook. They're all the same, only the "reader" makes any difference. There's no real shelving the books, there's no real turning of the pages, there's no smell, there's no wear. You can't look at an eBook and tell any history. You look at a real book and you can tell a lot about the owners. The well worn spine of a favorite book, read and reread, can't be seen in an ebook reader. The coffee stains, the dog-eared pages, and the ripped corners-all which add character and tell another story all together- can't be seen on an e-Reader. And this is what we lose when we switch to the electronic age. When we only buy books in such a fictitious format, there's no passing the book down. There's no writing a personal message on the inside cover to a loved one, hoping they'd enjoy the book as much as you did. Printed books are communal, meant to be shared, enjoyed, and eventually passed on to the next generation. Can you do any of that with an ebook? No. So while technology pulls us together in unexpected ways through facebook and other social media, with the transition to ebooks, part of our community may be lost. I can't imagine this. I love the printed book and that is why I will not buy an ebook if I can help it. My iPad is for books I already own in real form or books that are free or books I don't care to ever own or pass on. I just hope someday that any children I may have will know the joy of a printed book so that they too may dream of having Beat's library, because I still do.

Girl Talk

So last night I went to see Girl Talk at the Palladium in Hollywood. I've always loved Girl Talk and I was super excited to finally get to see him in person. What made it even better was a ton of my friends wanted to go too! Nothing is better than going to dance concert in a large group.

The two openers (whose names I don't remember) were duds. The first was unremarkable, they played a movie at one point in the background and the singer's voice was grating to say the least. The second opener was a dj who also sang but everything he played sounded like bad 80s synth combined with Michael Jackson falsetto. I was extremely happy when Girl Talk finally took the stage and it was everything I thought it would be. Dancing in a sweaty mass of people was fun, besides all the sweat, that was actually really gross.  But there was an awesome wall of lights and fun novelties like balloons! It was amazing.

At the end of the night, I was covered in sweat, probably smelled a bit like all the weed being pass around, and happy. It was good night.

Just Another Thursday

Before we get started, yes, I know it's Friday, but seeing as this post is about my life yesterday, the title works.

Anyway, so yesterday was Thursday and it was just another Thursday. I got up a bit late, forwent taking a shower because if I did I'd be even more tardy and consequently I would not get a parking spot on campus close to the law school (stupid undergraduates), and hurried out the door before 9 am. I had taken my civil rights book home with me the night before with every intention on being 100% productive in my evening and actually read for class. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Instead, after grocery shopping Wednesday night and coming home and making chicken tikka masala (which was delicious), I did the dishes and then promptly lazed about. Well, in fairness at about 10pm I did start cleaning my room and got pretty darn far with it. But that aside, I still wasn't as productive as I thought I would be.

On the bright side, I survived the class I was ill prepared for. Thank goodness for google. Then, both of my usual afternoon classes were cancelled so I got to go home at noon. Again, I intended on being productive, especially because I had basically six extra hours to be productive. Instead, I sat and I read for five hours. Oh, well reading is productive you might say, but I wasn't reading for class I was reading for fun. Not really what I needed to be doing then, c'est la vie.

The one "productive" thing I did was make coq au vin but not with red wine but a riesling. I have to say it was amazing. Seriously, I think everyone should add coq au vin to their recipe repertoire. It was seriously delicious.

  Other than making that delicious dinner, I was further "productive" by watching NBC's comedy lineup. Oh well. Overall it was typical Thursday. If you're interested in the recipe for the delicious dinner I made, let me know and I forward you the link.

Long Time...yeah, yeah.

I have come to the realization that I am a bad blogger. I just can't make myself regularly update and write about my life. I simply get caught up other things or nothing. Who am I kidding? I usually just fall asleep. Well, here's the thing. I need to keep up with my friends, though I doubt they will actually read this; but if they want to, the option is there to read about my life and keep in touch in a way.

Right now, for instance, I am sitting in a class about civil rights. We are talking about Memphis Schools v. Stachura deciding whether or not juries can consider the subjective value of someone's civil rights when calculating actual damages for a violation. If that sounds interesting to you, then maybe you should check out law school (or not, because it's seriously expensive and kinda difficult). If it sounds confusing or boring, then stay away from law school (you'll be happier that way).

Maybe after class I'll write an actual update and try to be entertaining. Only time will tell.

So True....

My brother sent me a list of random thoughts. Here are some of the best and truest ones:

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't
work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all
know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards
or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and
suddenly realize I had no idea what the fuck was going on when I first
saw it.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the
spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.


I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to
have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and
sticks when they've invented the lighter?


Love it!

Rilo Kiley Portions For Foxes



I love this song so much. I was reading for Trial Advocacy and this came on. I was instantly in a better mood. Oh, Rilo Kiley, you rock.

Tragic

This is possibly one of the saddest things I have ever seen in my entire life. They (CNN and other news sources) that this woman's name is Neda (though this cannot be affirmed) and she was murdered by Basij forces (Iranian militia). The video is VERY graphic and terribly sad--beyond words. I pray that this conflict is over soon and that the people of Iran are heard by the government that seeks to oppress them. I hope the Iranian people prevail.