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I've met a lot of really neat people on Twitter in and around Pittsburgh. That's sort of a lie because I haven't actually met them yet, but we chat all day and it's fun. We are all slowly meeting each other via Tweetups. People keep asking me what Twitter is like, and for me it feels like an IRC chat room. Totally communal like that. However, most of the people asking this question don't know what IRC is either. I don't know what to tell them, mostly because they already have their minds made up that it's dumb. You can tell by how they ask.
Due to following a bunch of local people I also started reading their blogs. It's a little voyeuristic knowing so much about a person without having ever met them and having this information shared more intimately. I'll get over it I guess, since everyone can find out just as much about me through my blog. I'll share now: I *need* to load the dishwasher in size order. I *will* rearrange plates The Boy has put in. I *know* it doesn't much matter.
Having friends means going out; going out means happy Beth. This is good because most of the people I meet during my day are younger college students. That's fine, I have some really good friends in my classes. But their lives are way different. Their worries are in a different place. I joke and say they're worried about what party to go to on Friday and I'm worried about loosing all my old photographs because my basement flooded, again.
I have noticed that most of the people I've been chatting with more are parents, moms specifically. I know, I has Teh Baby Fever!! There are a few more obstacles in the way before I can start with the babies though. I just think it's funny that I've already attached myself to people with kids.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Summer Time or The Too Long Reading List
And the living is...well not easy but at least it's not difficult right now either. I decided to not take classes full-time this summer. I am not completely slacking because I know that would drive me completely insane. The one class I will be taking is Victorian Gothic Lit. I think it's going to be fun, it's mostly books I've read or wanted to read. All of them are available in the public domain (expired copyright), which means I can download them legally.
I'm really a huge fan of Feedbooks. The Project Gutenberg site is also good, but the formatting can be icky sometimes. People are, after all, doing it for free. It is loads better than spending money on books that I'm not sure I'll keep. I have plenty of books around the house already. If I end up liking them I can still pick them up somewhere.
Bonus points for having free apps on my iPhone that allow me to read the books I've downloaded. Amazon has a Kindle app that lets me find books on Amazon and download them (they also have a ton of books that you can buy). They won't let me import other free books I've found though, so there is a drawback. Stanza is by far my favorite app for reading books on my phone. Not only can I search through the app, it also downloads them and I can push them back and forth from my phone to my laptop. It'll keep track of my place in the book, no matter where I'm reading it.
You'd think that the text would be so ity-bity, but you have complete control over the size, color, background color, etc. I've tweaked mine so it's really comfortable to read. I'm still going to have to print out the pages to bring to class because I just can't imagine any professor being okay with reading from a device yet.
This other site I've known about for a bit, but never really utilized. LibriVox is a site very similar to Feedbooks in that it's done by normal people for free. Instead of these people transcribing the books they read them. You too can read a book and post it for others to listen to. How cool is that? So far I have all of the books I need in Stanza and two of the books from LibriVox.
This is significant for me because I take the bus to work, 15 minute ride each way, and I cannot read in a vehicle. (Apparently thinking about it also makes me queasy.) Instead I've been listening to books on my way to/from work. The added bonus is that I definitely can't read a book while walking. I walk into poles when I'm paying full attention.
Currently I'm listening to the Harry Potter books. Yeah, yeah, shut up. It's not great literature, fine. I'm sucked in to the story. It's cute and the most important point is that it's not for a class. It's just something fun to read and I'm enjoying it. It'll be a nice transition into the books that I need to read for class once I'm done with HP Book 7, which should be this week. (I'm a slow listener...keep falling asleep!)
As an added geek factor I picked up a book at Caliban on S. Craig St called A History of English Literature. I'm sure the chapter on Victorian Lit will be interesting and helpful.
I'm really a huge fan of Feedbooks. The Project Gutenberg site is also good, but the formatting can be icky sometimes. People are, after all, doing it for free. It is loads better than spending money on books that I'm not sure I'll keep. I have plenty of books around the house already. If I end up liking them I can still pick them up somewhere.
Bonus points for having free apps on my iPhone that allow me to read the books I've downloaded. Amazon has a Kindle app that lets me find books on Amazon and download them (they also have a ton of books that you can buy). They won't let me import other free books I've found though, so there is a drawback. Stanza is by far my favorite app for reading books on my phone. Not only can I search through the app, it also downloads them and I can push them back and forth from my phone to my laptop. It'll keep track of my place in the book, no matter where I'm reading it.
You'd think that the text would be so ity-bity, but you have complete control over the size, color, background color, etc. I've tweaked mine so it's really comfortable to read. I'm still going to have to print out the pages to bring to class because I just can't imagine any professor being okay with reading from a device yet.
This other site I've known about for a bit, but never really utilized. LibriVox is a site very similar to Feedbooks in that it's done by normal people for free. Instead of these people transcribing the books they read them. You too can read a book and post it for others to listen to. How cool is that? So far I have all of the books I need in Stanza and two of the books from LibriVox.
This is significant for me because I take the bus to work, 15 minute ride each way, and I cannot read in a vehicle. (Apparently thinking about it also makes me queasy.) Instead I've been listening to books on my way to/from work. The added bonus is that I definitely can't read a book while walking. I walk into poles when I'm paying full attention.
Currently I'm listening to the Harry Potter books. Yeah, yeah, shut up. It's not great literature, fine. I'm sucked in to the story. It's cute and the most important point is that it's not for a class. It's just something fun to read and I'm enjoying it. It'll be a nice transition into the books that I need to read for class once I'm done with HP Book 7, which should be this week. (I'm a slow listener...keep falling asleep!)
As an added geek factor I picked up a book at Caliban on S. Craig St called A History of English Literature. I'm sure the chapter on Victorian Lit will be interesting and helpful.
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