Old School

I wonder why, in the midst of today's tech advances, the phrase "old school" has been going around a lot.

I welcome technology. It has allowed us to fore-go situations and huge time lapses, and eliminated hassles and misunderstandings, for starters. I recently re-read Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", which I liked when I was younger. I didn't feel the same way the second time around. I realized that an enormous chunk of the book's crises is irrelevant today because we can now call, text, send emails, and travel by car. Situations resolved within hours, if not minutes. Actually, even better, no situation at all. Technological advances could've saved the day for Jane Eyre had she lived in the last decades. Imagine what challenges we are living without all because life has been made easier. 


But there are still some things best done or best appreciated the old way, and maybe that's why people still say "old school" a lot. I love and marvel at how some of these things are still done the way they're used to, and I'm not referring to proposing, breaking up, and other life-and-death situations, but those I encounter everyday.

Here are my top 5's:

Making coffee 

Imagine having no filter paper, no electricity, or no coffee maker but needing the caffeine buzz. Here's proof I can still have a good cup, thanks to a coffee group who gave this old school "coffee maker" during one of their media junkets. Ok, it's not the best way, but it works and I'm so happy I'm not left with too many components to wash.

Writing on paper 

Can your paper & pen crash? Will you need to log-on, sign-in or remember a password to access your work? Nope, and the worst that can happen is your paper gets lost, wet, or burned. That's the same as soft files getting deleted, password forgotten, content corrupted, or a program or *gasp!* computer crashing. Just for added security, you can easily choose acid-free paper and ink as easily as backing up your files in an external drive or CD (which can get damaged). Now filing and storing paper -- that's another discussion altogether.

Filing, storing, and viewing photos

Although I love being able to amass, view, and store digital photos with clicks of a mouse, I can't get this nagging feeling that they are so vulnerable to the vulnerabilities of technology as well.  Apart from having to turn on a computer, a mobile phone, or needing to go online, what happens to digital photos once the storage place is gone or corrupted? How can one view photos when there's a power interruption? When you bump into a friend and want to show photos of your family? When you want to look at old photos but the computer is busted? How can one safely store digital photo files? Why are my grandparents' photos still in good condition and my daughter's disappeared when my computer crashed?

Reading books

I just love books.  *sigh*   I might soon get into electronic book readers for the ease of access to titles upon titles of published work, but there's just something comforting about opening paper pages, not needing to adjust the glare, not needing batteries or power, etc. 

Playing board games

I play a lot of backgammon online. I know some who play monopoly and other 'interactive' games online as well. I don't know about them, but I do it because no one else wants to play the game with me at home. I prefer actual board games with live human players because it's more fun and you get to interact with real people. Oooh, I just hate it when a computer creature or avatar makes fun of me when I lose. And I hate losing to a computer. 

Still, I'm not one to chuck technology . It happens to be one of my top luxuries and interests in life.  So, as a sign of appreciation, I'd like to acknowledge technology with the top 5 ways it has saved my life. In my next blog entry.