Digital Reading

Many out there are playing the scales game with print and digital reading. To me, it is not a matter of what is better, it is the preference and the benefits that each have. You do not have to totally move to one side, I have a Kindle (LOVE IT), but I also enjoy reading my little library of books, though my wife would rather have the space for other things (which I think is the reason why she got me the Kindle...). Anyways, there are many surveys and studies out there about the benefits, trends, preferences, and uses of print versus digital (and vise versa). Most of the articles use 'online' instead of digital; I think digital is more of an over-encompassing term, referring to both reading online (internet, via a device) and reading just on a device (a smart phone, tablet, e-reader, etc.,), without the use of the internet. Also, many articles discuss habits or reading strategies of a people that an article would study over. What most of the articles conclude is that technology is evolving as well as the readers (some with inclusive and others evidence of what that particular article's thesis is concerning). Yes, many of these articles are also focused towards the educational benefits or disadvantages that the researcher (of an article) found with technology in reading.
You can find these articles (maybe not all) on google scholar by typing "online reading [stratgies/preferences/etc.,];" Below are a couple of suggested articles; Poole is one of the leading researchers in this subject.

Poole , A., & Mokhtari, K. (2008). ESL students’ use of reading strategies when reading texts online and in print. In K. Mokhtari and R. Sheorey (Eds.), Studies in first and second language reading (pp. 197-214). Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon.


Amer, A., & Qaboos, S. (2010). Student teachers’ perceived use of online reading strategies. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology
(IJEDICT), 2010, Vol. 6, Issue 4, pp.102-113.


Poole , A. The relationship of reading proficiency to strategy use while online: A study of US college students. Journal of College Literacy and Learning.

Please comment, with a discussion I will be able to answer questions and have a nice debate.

Ode to the Bubble tea

It's not very often I get a bubble drink. Mostly due to availability; though there is one (maybe two) places near where I live that does sell them (yet their's is not really good). I have to travel 1.5 hours (to and back) to get a real bubble tea. For those that don't know what a bubble tea is, well it is a unhealthy smoothie (unhealthy for the most part, due to artificial flavors and sugars, unless they make with real fruit/juice), usually green or black tea, cream, and a choice of juice and/or blended crushed ice. The picture (as well as more information) is from Wikipedia; but essentially this is what most bubble drinks look like, especially in Asia, or places that stick to this portable plastic style. The round black things on the bottom are the tapioca balls, pearls, or bubbles, that you suck through the abnormally large straw and chew. You can have (if the establishment offers) different things to put into the drink, like crushed coconut jelly (I know by the Chinese name yeguo 野果, though it is also known as nata de coco), which is supposed to be healthier than the tapioca. Though typically unhealthy, it is still very popular in Asia, and with many Asians and Asian oriented people in non-Asian regions.
Yesterday, I had my first bubble drink since... I guess it was five months ago; that is so long for a bubble tea fix. I had (yesterday) a passion fruit smoothie with tapioca pearls; my wife had black tea with papaya flavor and tapioca pearls... it was a minute of blissful heaven.
You can make your own, which is always a healthier and better (depending on your effort and the materials you use). Like I said, bubble teas are essentially smoothies with (or without tea) with tapioca pearls (WuFuYuan - Tapioca Pearl (Black) - Net Wt. 8.8 Oz.).
My favorite flavors are, passion fruit (smoothie), taro (smoothie), green tea (without or with passion fruit or lychee juice) and cream (hot and cold), and honeydew melon (smoothie).

Literature's Beginnings [Excerpt] of "The Hobbit" by JJR Tolkien

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats-- the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill-- The hill, as all the people for many miles round called it-- and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.
[This excerpt, for my 'Literature Beginnings' series, is from first paragraph from the first chapter of The Hobbit. This story is my utmost favorite story of Tolkien's works. Additionally, the beginning is not just a classic, it is the epitome of literature beginnings (as I discussed in the previous post on literature beginnings) for two reasons, 1) it is the most memorable do to the emotional, sentimental, cozyiness that Tolkien puts into this passage. 2) Out of all the beginnings passages of his writings,  none have such a connection and set-up as this passage. Within this one paragraph, readers are introduced to hobbits, not just to one, Bilbo, but also to practically all of the hobbits, as well as their architecture and culture. From the descriptions alone (of this paragraph and the rest of the book, mostly the chapter), we now know the setting of Hobbiton for the book "The Hobbit" but as well as "The Fellowship of the Ring" and at *SPOILER* the very end of "The Return of the King."
What I mean by culture, is that with the descriptions of The Hill, Bilbo's underground manor, we can see what hobbits find important, what they value. In terms of comfort, hobbits prefer underground instead of above ground (for the most part), to be rounded instead of boxy, and based on what was considered as "the best rooms" were ones with windows that faced a growing living garden. From this we can assume (both from this and other statements made further in the chapter) that hobbits find more value in growing things (as well as food, drink, and smoking pipe-weed) than adventure, coin, or anything that of the "big-folk." The first line (the first two sentences) alone, is my all-together favorite line of all literature. That one line states the entire paragraph, the rest of the paragraph is just an adverbial non-defining relative clause of that one line (simply, an elaboration), if you will.