Reading Jaz's journal

I live in a town. In this town there is a bookstore, and in this bookstore, there is a book. Its title is Fermat's Last Theorem and it tells a story about a simple mathematical problem that has remained unsolved for centuries. This problem is not what I want to talk about today.

Everytime I came past this bookstore, I went in, retrieved the book from its shelf and read a page or two. This went on for a number of months. I thought I'd eventually buy the book, but until then I'd like the idea of having something to look forward to everytime I went downtown.

But one day I entered the bookstore and my book was no longer there. Vanished without a trace. Another book was occupying its position on the shelf. This made me very sad as I really wanted to know how the story would end.

I still visit the bookstore every time I'm in the area. Every time I walk to the shelf where I used to find my book, hoping for it to someday reappear out of nowhere, sitting on the shelf and smiling at me as if it had never gone away.

So why don't I simply head over to Amazon, order the book and finish the story?

Maybe its a secret yearning for the days when you couldn't look up the whole fucking planet at the other end of a Google search. Every day I'm helping to build this brave new world of information overkill which makes our lives so much easier, but also makes so many things so much less special. An exact copy of every item I ever deemed personally valuable to myself is for sale on eBay at this very moment. The proof that every thought I ever had has already been considered by a dozen other people is only one click away. The Internet took away the little slice of magic that was still left for everyone of us.

One day my book will be back on its shelf again. It will smile at me and I will smile back, look for the page where I left and finish the story.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

Wow, your post made me feel truly sorry for you. I hate it when events similar to this occur.

This Loneliness won't leave me alone.

Maybe its a secret yearning for the days when you couldn't look up the whole fucking planet at the other end of a Google search. Every day I'm helping to build this brave new world of information overkill which makes our lives so much easier, but also makes so many things so much less special.

Wow, I just read about this information glut we are stuck in in my english anthology. Its called "Information" by Neil Postman. If you get a chance, check it out, you would enjoy it.

We should of brought a bag of rocks....

I just read about this information glut we are stuck in in my english anthology. Its called "Information" by Neil Postman.

Thank you, I will certainly take a look at it.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

I honestly hate the computer. Sure, there are lots of fun things out there, i.e. netalive, email, instant-messenger, etc...

but again, western civilization has corrupted a once good thing. its like movies. and books. and TV. and radio. and music. and art. and dance. and theater. and the telephone. and school. I could keep going, but let me get to my point.

everything ive listed here and more have been sexualized, demoralized, degraded, devalued, and used to spread propoganda that sex and drugs and drinking excessivly and spending all your money on cars and whores is okay. that everyone MUST have a sexy car, and a hott boyfriend/girlfriend, and a lot of money, and all the latest fashions to be a good person. the internet has been infested with pop-ups, porn, advertisements, etc... I mean, its just terrible. how these corporate big-dicks can take such a useful, helpful tool and corrupt it to conform the world.

but then again, thats just my opinion.

P.S. - im very sorry about your book. I hope you find it eventually

"Wishing on a star that's already burned out..."

This post was edited by Articulate_AzN on May 20, 2004.