during one of several group meetings today, one of my group members rhetorically asked (after we showed him the website), "Is wikipedia the Bible?"
of course, we laughed it off initially, then very seriously, my other group member turned to him and replied, "well, it's right...pretty much...ALL THE TIME."
later i got to thinking about my great love for wikipedia. it's one of my bookmarked buttons on my IE dashboard. i use wiki as a verb very liberally and as a part of everyday speech. i read the wikiHOW section on my iGoogle homepage countless times last summer at work (i even read about how to throw a middle school, themed, slumber party. yes, i wasted a good 45 seconds of my life). currently, i read wikiTravel before i ever commit to buying a lonely planet book, and of course, INVESTOpedia saves my life everyday in finance class. all this love taken into account, i'd say it's never a question of whether or not i'd access wikipedia on a daily basis, but rather, how frequently i access wikipedia on a daily basis.
then the latter part of the question was rather sad. yes, i wholehearted believe that the Bible is the living word of God. i don't question the legitimacy of its words. still, though, reading the Bible for me is an odd practice. first of all, it's a practice i skip out on all too often. i think i love prayer a lot more than the Bible, and i've been trying to increase the latter for quite some time now. secondly, reading the Bible is either like a beach read or Shakespeare to me - i can skim it easily and in my mind, it seems like fairy tale after fairy tale, OR, i can attempt to chew on it and pause and ponder upon it and give it time to sit and soak in slowly. again, i'm still trying to increase the latter. regardless of what i try, however, i realized the very sad statistic that i certainly do frequent wikipedia more often than my Bible.
have search engines and online resources become the new bible
since day two of my arrival in singapore land, i've noticed a pattern in my everyday living. no, it is not just daily sweat baths due to humidity nor the constant carrying of an umbrella in anticipation of the 3pm showers. it is the trend that my material goods, especially the pricey ones, are all degenerating, dying, and dead.
let's see the list, shall we.
- my laptop. the good o' dell inspiron 700m i've had since pre-college has served me well throughout the past few years. i've spilt water on it, attempted to blowdry the damage via ruby's overheated hair dryer, melted off the keyboard, and begged dell's customer service to repair the poor thing. i've shoved in various bags, purses, crevices around the room, left it to burn in my backseat in the Texas sun, and even gotten some sand under the keys while attempting to be productive on the beach. alas, the little thing is fighting for its last few solid breaths as each day, there will be some sort of seizure-esque flashing of the screen to solid colors, scrambling of color pixels, or the best one - a complete automatic restart.
i considered making a mac-switch [esp. since stephanie and i had the same laptop before, and it's only a good idea to continue the tech twin trend, right?], but i think i'll end up with a thinkpad [preferrbly x61] when i'm back on US soil. hopefully, this little guy will make it through the summer, and hopefully, lenovo will acknowledge struggling college students in america & offer some sort of back-to-school deal that probably won't be a hefty discount, but one that i would go after anyway.
- my ipod. i never watched felicity [where she strolls down an east coast street with the theme song playing, and you can practically see the emo wheels turning in her head] but being one of those people who often imagine a soundtrack to his/her life, something does feel missing when i'm walking down a street alone or sitting by the window on a long bus ride without a song of the moment coming through those white ear pieces. i've also had my ipod since pre-college & it's had its fair shares of bangs and bruises. many times i've received the little picture asking me to take it to the mac doctors, but each time, i've simply refused & believed ferventy in the vitality of my piece of white&metallic. this semester, however, my itunes kept on asking me to restore settings to default and detecting a corrupt ipod :[ i guess it's time for goodbye. ..and a new hello. which version is still yet tbd.
- my phone. born sometime between high school and college, this black samsung has fought a good fight. it's bounced back from cement, concrete, brick, tile, grass, and carpet, regardless of how often or high i've accidentally let it loose. i noticed, however, when i was stuck in the san fran airport for 10 hrs due to a delayed fight, pre-singapore, that when i text, the address book is only able to load half the A names, and if i do ever dare tor desire to send a msg to anyone whose name begins with any other letter of the alphabet, i'd better commit their number to memory. that, and the screen also enjoys freezing every two hours or so. i'm looking forward to its replacement though - blackberry curve ftw.
- my sunglasses. i've bought countless pairs of cheap aviators from ny's chinatown, malaysia's chinatown, singapore's chinatown, etcetc, you get the point, but they all break. the lens falls out, a leg will break, a screw will get loose, i'll realize that the $5 pair of plastic & bendy metal is all too bendy, etcetc. the reasons are numerous and plentiful and i've still yet to learn my lesson to stop buying these cheap sunglasses which don't really fit my face in the first place. through all these temporary bad purchase decisions, i've always loved housing the knowledge that when they all fail, i still my trust pair of burberry sunglasses from 2005. they've gone through a whole lot with me, and just yesterday morning, as I stuffed them in my bag, i had a silent moment of gladness and appreciation of its classic endurance and dependability. little did i know. little did i foresee that after a few hours of biking on pualu ubin (jungle-island off of singapore), the left screw of the sunglasses would give out, and off comes left leg :[ farewell, beloved sunglasses.
- the ricoh. the ricoh was a needless & extravagant purchase. my previous camera [a canon sd, one which everyone & their mamas had] was functioning fine, i had just bought a dslr, but no, i was just greedy. so i spend a good amt on this ricoh, and little did i know that after taking it to the beach, leaving it in the sand, and accidentally falling asleep for a good half hr, the lens would be damaged. whodathunkit? not i. now it's costing me about 2/3 of the price to repair it back in good o' america.
well, this post has been needlessly extensive and detailed.
a more riveting capture of my life in the days to come...
an internal debate
FOR: i'm in singapore, traveling around southeast asia for five months. i probably should document this.
AGAINST: regardless of geography, i still feel pretty bland most times.
FOR: i have awful, very atypical non-neat-asian-female handwriting. my journals are usually chicken scratch that i can barely read with eyes squinted [more so than the usual asian width].
AGAINST: do i really need another reason to further myself towards carpal tunnel, worsened eyesight, and lessened sleep due to internet activities?
FOR: why the heck not.
that last argument was quite winning, wasn't it.
as aforementioned, here is an update on what i look like right now. i'm in asia...so...slightly more asian-fied....
i'm bahhk. [the unnecessarily added h sound really makes it more dramatic, i'd like to think.]
