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Sticks are our Friends by Nicki Nance
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Location: Blogs Webster University Business Experts |
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| Posted by: Webster University |
8/20/2007 |
Sticks are our friends
I remember when books were our friends. True, they were cumbersome, chunky and delicate at the same time, but the smell of the open stacks was delicious and the silence was inviting. Going back to school meant carrying a bookbag - an ergonomic nightmare by today’s standards. Now I can get a recorded book and save it to a stick – about half an inch wide and three inches long. If that is too cumbersome I can put it on a memory card – smaller than a postage stamp, and listen to the book on my phone - convenient, but not nearly as rich as actually reading. They rob me of the opportunity to re-read a paragraph, or to run my finger along a line I want to savor.
Last week in my class a student opened a case the size of a peapod full of sticks – not pickup sticks, but flash drives. They held her family photos, her class notes, her vital statistics and a year’s worth of music to enjoy. I have one on my key chain with all of my presentations. One never knows when there will be a PowerPoint emergency.
Computers use to be backed up to tape, then to floppy disks. Many of these could fit on a CD, so they are now obsolete. Many CD’s can fit on a stick, so they, too are going by the wayside. I am trying to imagine what will replace the stick – a chip in my heel, a patch, perhaps. I do look forward to seeing how much technology will advance in the future. I embrace it, but it never will replace the sweet, musty smell of my old paged friends.
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Re: Sticks are our Friends by Nicki Nance |
By Karen Fattorosi on
8/26/2007 |
| There is reading a book and there is reading a book. Sometimes I read a book because I need the information and it happens to be in a book. Or I could look it up on a computer. Then there is the whole process of reading a book. It is a cocooning thing: Snuggled up, usually wrapped in a coverlet, reading until drowsy, or way past drowsy, looking forward to the next opportunity to become lost in a book. Sometimes it is a biography (just finished "Stella" a remarkably poignant holocaust story), a fantasy (Harry Potter #7), or a "who-dun-it" (Kellerman and Grisham are my current favorites). Somehow the vision of losing myself in a computer screen, ipod, or CD player is scary. |
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