I finally finished a book … 288 page Patrick Macnee biography, Blind In One Ear. It was pretty good though 1/3 of the darn book takes place before he’s 20 years old. That was a little much…
I’ve also finished about 100 pages of an ebook, so that’s not so bad.
And, I took a 20 minute nap.
#readathon – 9 hours in Read More »
What a fun mini-challenge! Here’s my list:
1) The snacks. It’s fun to splurge on snacks and easy to prepare/eat foods that we wouldn’t normally buy. And then to eat them all day and night long, lol.
2) Filling a day of reading helps pad my yearly books read count. Heh.
3) No errands to run on #readathon day.
4) No housecleaning on #readathon day.
5) #readathon is a great time to catch up on some of the “from the stacks” books that I never manage to get to.
6) I always read a bunch of children’s fiction/non-fiction from my Cybils shortlist challenge, which helps me make a big dent in that challenge list.
7) The mini-challenges are fun. A lot of fun.
8) Finding new book bloggers who are participating in #readathon is awesome. I always have a few new blogs to add to my feedreader when #readathon is over.
9) I always find a few new books to add to my TBR list after hearing other #readathoners talk about the books they are reading.
10) Reading all day long, never even getting out of my PJs, is the best, most relaxing way to spend a Saturday.
Top 10 List of Things to Love About #Readathon Read More »
It’s that time again, time for another #readathon (yay!) and another intro meme (yay?) – I’m looking forward to this time next year when I’ll have new things to say in the intro meme, haha.
1) Still reading in Chicagoland, from the bed, with the three dogs and my partner.
2) I can’t decide what I’m most looking forward to reading. Maybe the non-fiction book from my stacks, Patrick Macnee’s Blind In One Ear. I didn’t do a great job of pre-selecting my books this year. Ah well, any book is a good book for #readathon and I have plenty to choose from.
3) Mariano’s for this round of treats. Mmmm, all the snacks. I want them all, right now but I’m starting with my beloved fruit loops donut and cantaloupe. I’m looking forward to some interesting cheese later in the morning and some veggie eggrolls in the afternoon and… all the snacks, I want them.
4) This is going to be a hard #readathon because the #Cubs are playing tonight and we will have to try and listen while we read. Good thing I have some children’s books that will make it easier to do that. #letsgo #cubs #flythew!
5) Normally I recommend starting off with a somewhat easy to read book but because of the Cubs game this evening, I’m diving in fast and hard and saving the light and easy stuff for the end. That’s the best tip I can give you… be flexible. Think about your day, any obstacles to your day, and adjust as needed. Just have fun and go with it.
Happy reading!
#readathon Intro Meme Read More »
Church of Marvels was good but a little long in a couple of places, for me. It seemed to take forever to move through part 2 of the story.
I think the author did a nice job with the trans character and all of the characters, actually. I’m glad I read it, even though I wasn’t saying that a couple of days ago when I felt like it was just dragging.
How I love Christopher Moore. Secondhand Souls was a long time coming but so worth the wait. I actually liked it better than Dirty Job and that’s saying quite a lot.
The Little Paris Bookshop is a very pretty book. Love and loss and all of the feelings…
“Time. It rubs the rough edges that hurt us smooth.”
“Love is a house. Everything in the house should be used – nothing mothballed or ‘spared.’ Only if we fully inhabit a house, shunning no room and no door, are we truly alive. Arguing and touching each other tenderly are both important, so are holding each other tight and pushing the other away. We must use absolutely every one of love’s rooms. If not, ghosts and rumors will thrive. Neglected rooms and houses can become treacherous and foul…”
Little Paris Bookshop Read More »
After many years of looking longingly at MacBooks, I took the plunge and bought a MacBook Air. It was a bad Windows update that killed my beloved Toshiba that pushed me over the edge. I had to buy a new laptop and I was so annoyed at Windows that I sucked up the extra price of the MacBook and I just bought it. And, immediately felt guilt over having done it.
Whatever. It’s done. Moving on. Money grows on trees, etc. No big deal.
The learning curve, my friends, has been great.
Besides the weird trackpad scrolling that I haven’t turned off because I mostly like it and just haven’t completely gotten used to it, I am constantly struggling to figure out how to do things. It’s particularly annoying when I’m doing a screenshare with other people. I’m pretty sure I look like I need to go back to remedial mousing classes because I have no control over my cursor. And, if I’m training someone to do something or showing someone how something works, I’m pretty sure the other person is wondering whether I really know what in the hell I’m doing (I DO, just not with the Macbook) because holy hell, it’s hard.
All of the times people have said that Macs are so user-friendly and intuitive… yea, not so much really. Or maybe not so much if you’ve lived on a Windows machine for a zillion years. I certainly find the iPHone and iPad to be more user-friendly than the MacBook.
Programs I’ve used forever in Windows don’t look or behave the same way on the Mac. (WHERE THE HELL IS THE TRASHCAN IN EVERNOTE ON THE MACBOOK? I can find it on my Toshiba. I can find it on my iPhone. I CANNOT FIND IT ON MY MACBOOK. WHERE THE HELL IS IT???) I have no idea what I’m going to do about image editing. Maybe I don’t need to edit images for work anymore? (I have a new job, yea — I’m sure I’ll never need image editing again. So I’m just going to not think about that at all.) My desktop is a mess because I can’t figure out how to easily move shit into the folders I want them in. The process seems so damn difficult all of a sudden.
OK I’ll stop now. I do love my MacBook. I also love not worrying about corrupt Windows updates. I’ll get used to it. Sassymonkey says so. I believe her. Mostly. I think.
I really liked Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future. Do not drink bats. Also, the whole loophole in the Fair Pay Act thing scared the holy hell out of me. I can see some asshat white dudes with power thinking this is a good idea.
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future Read More »
I hit a KonMari wall and am just now trying to recover.
We did manage to look for joy in an entire room full of old electronic items and we found very little joy. Those items were moved into a rubbermaid bin and that bin is still in the dining room. Because my back hurts and I shouldn’t lift it but also because I think some more things need to go in there but I haven’t figured out what.
The things that spark no joy are still in the bedroom because I can’t figure out what to do with them. Should any of them go to Goodwill? Or, can they/should they just go to the electronics recycling station? And, there’s also the problem with my back. Some of this stuff is heavy and I probably shouldn’t be lifting it, even with TW’s help.
There are some things upstairs that need to go but again, too heavy to try and maneuver down the twisty metal stairs, so… we’re at a standstill.
We’ve also got 15 laptops/desktops that we need to figure out how to clean and/or retrieve data from.
I’m hoping we can get all of this electronic stuff sorted out this month.
In the meantime, we’ve moved on.
Before I went to visit JMP, I cleaned out a cabinet in the laundry room that’s full of… tools. Hammers, screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, nails, and fasteners. That sort of thing. There were many things that I don’t even know the purpose of. I ditched anything obviously junk and then put it all away neatly into the cabinet. TW went through the cabinet today and got rid of some things. I was hoping she’d get rid of more but apparently having 15 differently weighted common head screwdrivers brings her joy. Whatever. That category is done.
Then, I went through all of the household cleaning supplies. Why we have 500 old washcloths and dish towels/hand towels is beyond me. Whatever. Not much joy there, except in the organization and in learning that we have more lightbulbs than we will ever need and that we have a lot of Pledge multipurpose cleaner (thanks, BlogHer Con).
Next up… kitchen items. This is a big one and I think we’re both looking forward to it. I want this category done by the end of this month, too.