My mom declared that there shall be no reunion dinner this Chinese New Year. Which was very un-Chinese, so I decided to hanker on with one of the traditions anyway – cleaning up the house!

I managed to garner 4 cardboard bags full of old magazines and leaflets. Home alone, I took 4 trips across the neighborhood playground to the recycling bin. On my 3rd trip back, I saw this mom and son carrying old clothes to the bin (which also doubles as a donation box for old clothes.)

On my 4th time there, a car was in my way – a macha had loaded 3 of my bags into his front seat! He asked if I was carrying more books. Yes, I said, and I passed him my last bag.

Bless him for doing his bit, and bless him if he gets money out of it.

I wanted to take a picture of my 4 bags lying near the bin to declare “PAPER IS DEAD TO ME!” but I was a bit too late.

My housemate (if you read my blog, you’d know who he is) came back, and we hauled out 6 more bags to the neighborhood recycling bin! This time an older couple was throwing out their stuff. It’s a nice feeling seeing people recycle.

Seriously though, I don’t see the value to paper anymore. What did I throw out?

– old college books that were outdated and irrelevant even when I got them
– newsletters
– computer price lists
– newspapers
– annual reports (my housemate is a massive hoarder)

I did not throw out my massive stash of:
– Guitar And Bass
– ROTTW (Rhythm Of The Third World)
– TONE (yeah man!)
– KLue

All of this information, is better in digital format. When you have no use for it – delete it!

I have no romantic notion with print. I don’t read books on the bus – instead my mind wanders to a random curiosity and I read Wikipedia on my Nokia N70. (I’ve been doing this long before all you iPhone yuppies!) If you have a stash of annual reports you can bet that finding the information under a big pile, with dust, is not as convenient as a digitized format.

Even if digital formats do die, the information is probably of less relevance by then.

Oh, and Happy Chinese New Year everybody! Happy Valentine’s Day, and Singles Awareness Day. I have to say the SAD nights are more fun because they’re not so expensive.

* the picture above has nothing to do with the recycling bin.