me – an Innocent Life

Why I dont like reading digital books

I don’t think I will ever abandon the physical book for a digital one in the long run. Granted that when travelling, an ebook reader makes more sense than a suitcase of books but it’s not the same thing when you want to curl up and read it in leisure at home. I bought a tablet last year to read ebooks while on the go but since then I’ve read less digital books than the fingers on one of my hands. I somehow find the act of reading an ebook cumbersome. First of all, there’s the trouble with powering/charging up the device. Ebook readers that I am aware of just do not seem to replicate the size of the book or the number of pages accurately. To me, the physicalness of the book is something very intimate to the experience of reading. With the move to the digital, this gets lost. Further more, I am often distracted trying to keep a track of the number of pages I finished reading on the digital book but I hardly bother doing so when reading a book. Coffee table sized books look bad on a 7 inch screen and their non-existent weight makes me feel disconnected. Searching through the book is probably easier but where you once used your memory you now end up resorting to a dumb search to find that elusive sentence. Bookstores are slowly disappearing and don’t even get me started on new book smells. The physical book is truly a wholesome sensory experience and sorry technology, but you are not there yet.

Image Credit: Jose Hernandez

8bit Tribute

Sometime in November 2011, after some contemplation i decided to buy http://dsouza.im, then i after much dawdling i finally uploaded version 1 somewhere in february. My main intention of buying the specific domain is for using domain name hacks making my personal site having a url: http://kenneth.dsouza.im Very existential.

So version 1 was just something i pulled online without giving much thought. When i got shortlisted to NID second round, i decided to code a portfolio using deck.js and uploaded it.

Essentially, i havent yet done anything much on the domain that i would be proud of i.e., until now. Work has been hectic and in between 12 hour days and work on Saturdays i somehow got a Sunday for myself and spent it reading manga. Sunday evening was when i decided to code something new onto the domain.

I like pixel art. I use Gmail’s High Score theme. I grew up playing cartridge video games. The love for the 8 bit is ingrained in me. So here’s my personal tribute to video games.

First, i stole background images from Gmail for use. Please be excusing my plagiarism. So i coded up a design that had been growing in my head.

Then i needed a pixel font. So i went ahead and tried out using @font-face for the first time.

Finally. A video game tribute would be incomplete without having a Konami code* reference. So a quick google found me a library which was widely used to recreate konami code.

So now with that out-of-the-way, i finally release http://kenneth.dsouza.im on this blog. Please head down there and then enter the Konami code for the pixel version that i am proud of.

*Konami Code: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A Start(Enter)

Fonts used: My Logo: Pacifico, a Google Web Font. The Text is Silkscreen via fontsquirrel.

Greekalicious

Some people consider me as an ideal example of a person who lives to eat. I love hogging out every now and then and my bank balance will tell you the story.

Way back in College, Way back when we started watching Highway on My Plate.. i had this dream of having a job of travelling and reviewing food. Man vs Food introduced us to food challenges. What a life i thought, even though it had its own pitfalls health wise. But nevertheless everyone has a dream job and this is one of mine.

I’ve been in Chennai for the past one year and i’ve been loving the food here. When me and my friends initially got placed in TCS and booked our tickets to Chennai, our friends and relatives were apprehensive about the food in Chennai. They talked about stereotyped food everywhere and this scared us a bit. But surprise, surprise..our gastronomical journey so far has been awesome. True there have been ups and downs but generally i’ve had some really good food. It helped that i have a group of friends who love to eat as well. In the past one year, i’ve eaten at more than 60 restaurants in Chennai and my Burrp! profile is proof of that 😀 We also had this little side project titles ‘ Experiments and Food ‘ going for sometime until it became too tough to gather pictures and upload them to one place.

Now the fun part came when Burrp! emailed me and asked me if i was interested in reviewing Azulia, where a Greek food festival was taking place. THIS was BIG! I was so surprised!! The email said that i could take a friend so i called up @Nievu as she’s accompanied me to most of the restaurants and also because she could offer a vegetarian perspective to the food.

So the date was set, 11th November was the night and boy was it fun. Except for the part where we paid 400 for the cab to drop us back, the night was epic! Wish i could take part in more such ~~free food~~… erm Food Reviews.

FYI: You can read the Review here.