The wonderful thing about children is that their happiness is not proportional to the money spent acquiring it. They can be just as happy playing with an empty box, bubbles or even a bubble wrap, as with a thousand rupee toy.
As age progresses, money starts gaining importance and choices start getting dictated by price tags. There are some things though, cheap and inexpensive as they might be, that never lose their wonder.
For me, a bubble wrap is exactly that. No matter where I find it, my fingers can never resist having a go at it. And if decorum demands resistance, and I do manage to control myself, still it is never without sneaking at least one quick bubble burst.
But a bubble wrap is not always present. And it really would look ridiculous to keep a roll of it just because you want to burst its bubble. Well then, how about some virtual bubble bursting?
I recently discovered a website that offers just that.
Being a novelist and working on my second novel, I found myself staring at my computer screen for more than an hour. My mind was busy wrestling with ideas and characters, but my fingers were idle. Now fingers, if you notice, hate staying idle. If you don’t give them work, they will start fingering anything and everything just to stay active. Now my fingers too wanted to be active. For some reason or other, or for no reason at all actually, they started wanting to burst some bubbles. And so insistent was their urging that I actually asked my friend Google whether it had anything to quieten them down. And this is what dear Google suggested – A Virtual Bubble Wrap!
Google led me to a website that allowed me to burst some virtual bubbles, for free! Of course, the fingers had to content themselves by bursting them using the touchpad of my laptop, but it was still a lot of fun for them, and for me.
The website itself isn’t very impressive though. It needs some good makeover. As it is, it does not look polished enough. Upon visiting the website, I would have liked to see the bubble wrap on the front page itself. But all that the home page has is text and advertisements and links. And one of those links will lead you to the actual bubble wrap. Unfortunately, the adds are far more prominent than the link to the bubble wrap.
The bubble wrap itself might have been a bit bigger. It looks really cramped in the little window it opens up in. Nevertheless it still gives plenty of bubbles to burst. And when you are through with one sheet, it takes just one click to order a fresh sheet. (Only, while ordering the fresh sheet, be prepared to hear a ghostly voice echoing the wish of your heart. It really did give me the creeps!) Bursting the bubbles produces the sound of, well, bursting.
A virtual bubble wrap isn’t the only interesting thing on the website. Following the links given on the side bar, you can enjoy some good laughs at the cheekily written descriptions of various bubbles in a bubble wrap, and also the etiquette of bursting them! The website also offers users the options to add the virtual bubble wrap to their websites and blog, of course with a linkback to the original website.
Virtual Bubble Wrap Android App
Android App: Virtual Bubble Wrap also has an Android App available to put the virtual bubble wrap right into your smartphone. The App is available in both free and paid versions and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. It’s a very simple app. It just spreads out a sheet of bubble wrap across the phone screen and times you as you pop the bubbles. You can pop the bubble one by one, or several at a time by choosing the Manic Mode. You can also choose the size of the bubbles from among the three options available. I personally liked the largest size best as it was more easier to see in the large size which bubble had been burst and which not. And oh, if you order a fresh sheet on this app, you will be greeted with the same ghostly voice as on the website.
However, before you instal this app, you might as well take a look at the other options available. Several other android apps also seem to offer the same kind of bubble bursting joy. Can’t tell you about them though as I did not bother to try them. For when it comes to bubble bursting app, I already have a long time favorite. It’s simply called Bubbles. It looks and feels really polished (which the Bubble Wrap app does not), and is far more relaxing and fun. The first picture in this blog post is a screen shot of this very app.
When you start Bubbles, it greets you with a black screen. But as soon as you put your finger on the screen and slide it here and there, big and small bubbles rise up and float upwards. Burst them before they float away! I also like its bubble bursting sound better. Perfect app for the most idlest of idle moments when you don’t feel like running even a temple runner!
*****
Jyoti Arora
Author of Dream’s Sake, Samsung Mobiler
www.jyotiarora.com
DREAM’S SAKE