It was once a sign of prominence to be literate. In modern times however almost all people can read, and although the basic grammar still remains relatively similar, the way in which a person reads something has drastically changed. Books or document have always been read from the same device. Be it Homer’s Iliad or an issue of Mad Magazine we have always experienced their stories on paper. In the past few years however people have begun reading books electronically. First on a desktop then a laptop and now there are even eBook readers. These readers allow a person to carry around a device the size of one novel that is capable of storing thousands. Technically an eBook reader like Amazon’s Kindle is superior to paperback books. It is more compact, there is a built in dictionary, and one never has to worry about the dreaded paper cut. Paper books however are loved by people for nostalgic things like their smell or the feel of the pages on their fingertips. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with enjoying the smell of dried ink, but I would say the main reason people would probably choose paper over electronic is due to emotions. When they open a book for the first time, and smell that aroma they can’t help remember the good times they’ve had reading. It is that nostalgia factor that we hold on to, and that will make us keep paper books around. With that being said however, I do not believe eBooks will die down. On the contrary I believe devices like the Kindle will only grow in popularity simply for its convenience. Sure it may not be quite as effective for some people, but when the first washing machine was developed I’m also sure that hand washing was probably still more effective than the machine…But I bet it was damn helpful.

The United States is one of the few nations in the world without a standard language. This stems from the country being a land for all immigrants. Though there is no standard, English has always been the common language of the country. Throughout the centuries things change, and language is no exception. If one were able speak with someone from the past it might be a little difficult, but most defiantly possible. However, this difficulty comes from the change in language over the years. When speaking with someone in a professional setting a person is more apt to use formal language. When I think of formal language I think of it as a classical way of speaking. It is the intelligent manner in which one person addresses another. However some of the words used in this intelligent manner of speaking were probably at one time in the past considered slang. As a slang word gets older it becomes more mainstream. It seems that when something is new it is often disregarded, but if that thing can last a couple of decades it will become more widely accepted. This is also the case with something like punk rock. When it first came about in the nineteen-eighties those who listened to it were considered “outcasts”. Now however punk rock is completely normal with bands like Green Day and Blink 182 being global stars. I do not know if things become more acceptable just because they grow in age, or is it that the people who used those new words or listened to that new type of music got older, and are now in a position to make it acceptable. I do not think slang is necessarily bad, but I do not also want to read “yo” instead of hello in a paper. Times will change and some slang will become acceptable, but overall I feel we will still be able to read the same book a person did two-hundred years ago and not be completely confused.

Womp-Womp

So my first few weeks of college have finished. I suppose there was nothing really spectacular about it, but I can’t think of any reason for there to be. I remember after I graduated from High School imagining what college would be like, and so far it’ pretty much how I imagined. At least the actual classes and the work I’m being assigned is how I expected it to be. My least favorite class is probably European History. The class focuses mainly on the time from the French Revolution until World War I. I suppose the reason I don’t really enjoy it is because it’s like taking Global Studies again. For me at least I get bored when I hear the same stuff repeated. The professor is decent, he seems to have great knowledge of the source material which is cool, but the class is fundamentally lame. It sort of reminds me of that Seinfeld episode when Jerry is dating that woman with all the retro toys so he puts her to sleep every night with turkey and wine while he proceeds to play with her toys. Well to me that class is a giant pile of turkey and I just can’t stop myself from eating it and a box of cheap wine that I cannot help but love. I’m probably making it seem worse than it actually is. I doubt Ill get to the point where my professor starts sounding like the adults from Charlie Brown (I think Charlie had a hearing impairment). So as I try to finish off this blog post I can’t help (well that’s a lie) but think about how long its been since I’ve seen Charlie Brown. Yes, I do know they show a CB movie every holiday season I just never watch them yet I want to…It’s a paradox as intense as the one Fat Bastard suffers from, “I’m fat because I eat, and I eat because I’m fat”.

I love The Hills!!!

Keeping a diary or a journal had never really appealed to me. I don’t know if it was that I was do lazy to write a log on a frequent basis or that I just did not care enough. Writing had always seemed like work. I go to school and I write. I do my homework and I write. It was never an enjoyable action, but at the same time I can’t say that it made me miserable either. Writing was just something I had to do. However, though I personally would never choose to keep a journal I know that many people do.

My knowledge on diaries comes mostly from television. It usually consisted of a teenage girl having her diary read by an obnoxious younger brother. Said brother would then proceed to tell the boy of her dreams that she has, “...like the biggest crush on him” thus causing her to hate her life. These last two sentences were not just for increasing my word count, but more to demonstrate the belief I had that a journal is something private. It comes off as an intimate extension of someone’s feelings. Although in more recent times, individuals have forsaken the archaic paper and pen for the more modern blog.

Blogging is not technically the “new thing” but it’s new enough. People go online to reveal (sometimes) their most intimate details for anyone who cares to see. Though one could say that even blogs can be made private is anything truly private once it’s reached the internet? People from Kentucky can unknowingly share their views with someone from Japan (if they spoke the same language). It opens avenues of life experience that a great deal of people could have never had. For example I would have never known that, “She's back! Kristin is in full force this coming season of The Hills”. LIKE OMG WAT! Imagine if I never found that out…In all seriousness though blogging is to me less of a personal diary and more of a way for people to communicate on a grander scale.