Nice quote from TKAMB...

Last Sunday, I finished the last few pages of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

It was an easy read filled with simple life lessons that are worth abiding to for an entire life.

The book first came into my radar back in university. I was a sophomore then. One of my professor friends told me I should ready Harper Lee's work. Hmm, I'm wondering now why it took me this long to pick up the book and start reading it.

It had to take a recent news article that a sequel to the book will be released later this year for me to be pushed to get started with the book.

Well, I'm actually glad I finally got to read it.

It may have been published in 1960, but the values to be picked up from the book are still relevant until today and I daresay, will continue to be relevant in the next 100 years.

Above is one of the quotes that I like from the book.

I firmly believe in this quote. When I was fresh out of university, I handled a volunteer program whereby students were sent to far-flung areas in the Philippines. The students would stay with a host family for two to three weeks. The aim of the program was simple: live the way of life of the host family/community.

Prior to deployment, I had to go visit the communities/families, as well as our local partner group, and assess their readiness to adopt the students. Most communities took a whole day's journey on rough roads and the most uncomfortable modes of transportation. In some cases, it even involved a hike, crossing streams/rivers, and so on. Naturally, there was no electricity. There was no Internet. The mobile phone signal comes and goes.

In these areas, far from the four walls of the university, were life lessons waiting to be learned.

The most basic of these is this: for one to be able to better serve others, one needs to understand how their way of life is. This completely echoes Atticus Finch's words in Harper Lee's work, doesn't it?

Years after I've left that volunteer management work, up until today, I still believe in that premise that putting oneself in another person's shoes is one of the best ways to understand that person.

Think about it for a moment. One will understand why.

On another note, I'm glad that I finished a second book for 2015. I should start on a new book for March. Hmm, which title to read, eh?

Finished Jamie Woo's Meet Grindr...

While queueing for Pump class registration, I managed to finish the last few chapters of Jamie Woo’s Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect. Yeah, that’s right. Someone actually took the time to dissect the processes, the interactions, the “academic” side of this app that indeed changed the way gay men “connect.”

For any person familiar with the app, the process could be as simple as launch the app, tap on the tile of a guy, negotiate, hook up or whatever.

But through the book, Woo actually sought to “explore the unseen layers of complexity within Grindr’s design…” More interesting is his effort to analyse “the effect it had on user behavior, with even seemingly trivial decisions reverberating into unexpected results.”

The book was published in 2013. Between its publication time and now, I’m quite sure that the app itself has undergone quite a number of changes. To be honest, I wouldn’t know because I don’t really use the app. After PG Boy and I parted ways, I did install it but uninstalled it after. Last month, I installed it again only to uninstall it after a few days. Lol!

That story aside, Woo’s book was of interest to me because it compiled in one book the observations people have of the app (people who bother to think about the app and its impact to culture and society, anyway).

Some of the things he wrote are already quite familiar. Still, reading it on print was I guess a way of confirming that my thoughts are shared by other people. Haha!

Okay, here are the things I remember from the book. Grindr was not designed to be a hookup app. It was really to find friends. (Yeah, right?!) The way the app was designed was for users to stay on the app for only a short period of time. Again, get on the app, find someone, get off the app and “get off.” Haha! This, I guess, is somewhat of unwelcome news to those who claim that they are on the app to find friends.

What else? Grindr’s design is somewhat similar to a vending machine. You go online, go through the 100 tiles of photos, choose what you want and if an agreement is reached, then good for you. With this design though, guys are actually reduced to products rather than the substantial beings that they are.

Grindr’s design affects the decision making processes of an individual. One analysis given was that presented with just three or four choices, one would be able to remember his criteria for selecting a particular guy. In the Grindr environment, one is presented with 100 guys and this makes the decision making process more challenging. It becomes a challenge to a point whereby a person’s original criteria is muddled because of the pool of candidates presented to him.

Other interesting things Woo writes about are a look into what profile photos mean, different types of users, how the app impacts the society’s view of male beauty, and so on.

It concludes with suggestions on what other modifications can be done for the future Grindr. He also talks about the possible impact that evolving software and new hardware would have on apps similar to Grindr. Interesting book.

New Toy: Kino...

I just realized I haven't written about Kino yet. Haha!

Kino is my newest toy - a Kindle 4.

Yup, I'm partly switching to the dark side. A few months ago, I've been contemplating on whether I should go for a Kindle or not. Two colleagues of mine were really convincing me to get a Kindle based on their own happy experiences. At one point, I almost got in touch with a local seller to get a Kindle Touch. It was affordable. And it was practical.

However, the tradiitonal guy in me was sort of resisting to getting a Kindle, or any ebook reader for that matter. I'm one of those dorks who is still in love with the traditional books. I admit. I'm one of those fools who get intoxicated from smelling the fresh pages of a newly opened book. Haha! I love feeling the texture of the paper against my fingers.

So, yeah, I was delaying the purchase of a Kindle.

That was until Tuesday last week when PG Boy arrived from his US hols trip.

After I picked him up at the airport, we headed to his house. I brought his stuff inside the room and then went back to the living room to chat with his housemate E. I also figured PG Boy may want to rest a bit or start unpacking.

A few minutes later, I went back into the room saw a few items on the bed that made me smile wide. PG Boy was able to get the books by Michael Thomas Ford and Alex Sanchez, which I asked him to buy. These two guys are among my fave, fave LGBT authors. Aside from the books, there were also a few tees from Hollister, Gap and Banana Rep.

While I was busy smelling the pages of the new books (haha!), I didn't notice PG Boy take out a black box from his luggage. I turned around and handed over the black box. I already had an idea what it was. I opened the box and as I had expected, there it was - a shiny, sleek black Kindle.

I got excited when I saw the new toy. I gave PG Boy a big hug and ... to thank him for the present.

The next few days, I was busy tinkering with it. With the help of Google and Amazon, I was able to set it up. Thanks to my colleague, I was able to get a bunch of titles.

When I got home that night, I spent an hour or two reading about how to buy Amazon ebooks when you're outside of the US. Not only was I able to figure out how to buy ebooks, I also tried buying the ebooks. Haha! I went for a new title by Timothy James Beck (also an author whose work I loved) and another title by Jay Bell. (First time to hear of him and his book was quite affordable so I decided to get it, too.)

The following morning, I was already reading from my Kindle. And I was really loving it. The gadget was light. It was easy to use. It made me feel cool. Haha!

So, yes, so far I have really been enjoying my Kindle whom I have christened Kino.

Why Kino? Uhm, it sounds silly but I got it from Kinokuniya as a form of respect to traditional bookstores. Haha!

Speaking of bookstores and Kinokuniya, my team mates from work got me vouchers for Kino as a birthday pressie. I still haven't completely crossed over to the dark side, you know. Haha!

But if someone were to ask me whether I would advise getting an ebook reader, I think I would say yes.

Kino's no longer naked...

Kino (my Kindle) finally got his cover yesterday.

Thanks to Google, I was able to find online seller SweetEvil Spree.

Don't be fooled by the name. Well, she does seem like a sweet person. And the items she sells would make you go on a spree. But I'm quite certain that she is evil. Hehehe!

So after work yesterday, I headed to to the city to meet up with her to get the cover. The item was nice. The color I got was cedar brown. I could've gone for black, but I thought the brown was really nice. Twas only 25 bucks.

I'm glad that Kino is no longer naked. Now, I dun have to bring around the original box with me to protect him. Hehe!

Do check out the items sold by Xuan (aka SweetEvil Spree).