There might be hope for regulation type books yet.
A visit to the Estevan Public Library on the weekend left me with some assurance that printed words on paper pages are still acceptable. Those of us who still embrace actual newsprint newspapers may feel comforted.
According to head librarian Kate Lee Donohoe, even young parents still like to spend quality time with their kidlets by handling real books, rather than e-readers.
Kids get to touch, turn pages, look at the pictures and son-of-a-gun, pop-up books are as much fun as a two-inch app on a screen ... at least in the eyes of a two-year-old.
Besides, a regulation book can withstand being grabbed and hurled across the room unexpectedly at least 20 times before it loses its fun factor. I don't know how many times a two-year-old can toss an Android or Blackberry across a room without endangering its effectiveness. My guess is maybe two then it's back to the electronics store for a replacement, while the battered book, even with its broken spine and torn pages lives on to serve the purpose after bath time. Try repairing your iPhone with duct tape.
It seems students like stuff on paper too, she informed me. You know, they like to underline and highlight to impress upon their minds the things that are important. What better way to do that than by reviewing a hard copy of written material, underlined in pink or yellow!
So that means fax machines and photocopiers are going to be with us for awhile along with books and foldable newspapers that can be used in the aftermarket to help house train your puppy. Who knows, there might even be a typewriter comeback story.
What the heck. I love to embrace technology. That's not to say that technology always shows me the love in return. It can be a fickle mistress when deployed by the unexamined user, but isn't that the purpose of the electronics? They are put there to first frustrate and then serve us ... exactly in that order. None of it is designed to be user friendly. It exists to test our patience and to tabulate exactly how much time we have in each day to unravel its daily mystery.
Me?
I give it 48 seconds. If the miracle doesn't happen within that time allocation, I have a tendency to walk away and tackle something more important like clipping my fingernails or finding a home for mis-matched gypsy socks.
I have one final thought on the recently completed Super Bowl, or more correctly, the Super Bowl halftime show.
Madonna was the headliner, but MIA received all the publicity when she apparently flipped the finger to the audience. I guess she didn't like us.
So what happens?
Well, the NFL immediately issued an apology, as did the network, saying that its seven second delay system (read computers again) failed. The agency that produced the show apologized as did Madonna.
But nowhere was anyone demanding or expecting little Miss MIA to apologize ... you know, the person who did the flipping. She wasn't expected to apologize, express remorse or offer an explanation.
Seemed weird to me. Everyone took the blame except the person who did the flip.
Maybe MIA was just wanting everyone to know that the Super Bowl (which was paying her thousands) was No. 1 in her books, and she just miscalculated the finger count.
If you care to contact Park and his computer is working, try normpark@estevanmercury.ca
Otherwise you may phone him and he'll use one of those old fashioned listening and talking devices with wires attached to communicate with you. It can be so much fun!
