So okay, first things first -- if you've noticed that my blog has been going through more design permutations than the blowout estimates for the BP oil spill (BLEH!!!) then you're right, but finally I think I have finally settled on a design (for a while anyway). Blogger has been locking down their old and new template designs, allowing only limited tweaking to each, and I kept discovering something that really irked me about each one, but I think I am going to stick with this one. Really. I mean, what better design for a librarian than one with lots and lots of books, right?
And speaking of books, I decided to finally join the e-reader throng and get a Kobo from Borders. (It was actually released in Canada much earlier via one of their massive book chains, I forget which 'cos I'm a insular Yank. ;-P) For me, the 2 most important criteria were weight [according to my eBay/postage/diet scale, it weighs a mere 5.2 oz! by far lighter than the Kindle (10+ oz) or Nook (11 or 12 oz, depending on the version)] and file formats (this reads ePUB files from the library, but the Kindle does not).
Plus, it comes preloaded with 100 classics, so while I am pondering where to spend my free $20 Borders card (essentially reducing the price to US$129 + NYC tax) I have something to read and experiment on (e.g., adjusting font sizes etc.) While the Barnes & Noble Nook (which my friend Marci bought) and Kindle (which my friends Ellen and Jackie have) may also do so, 5.2 oz trumps all. (Note: a regular mass market paperback weighs 6.8 oz. according to my shipping experiences with PaperBackSwap.) Believe me, I have been obsessing about this purchase for months, as you can see by the comparison spreadsheet I created.
You can also see that I finally upgraded my cellphone to a LG enV Touch. It comes with a full QWERTY keyboard when you open it AND has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera (!) so I can generally leave my regular digital camera at home now, unless it's for a big occasion, such as the triple baptism of last weekend (but more on that another time).
And now that I have installed multiple updates (I finally succumbed to Windows XP service Pack 3, in order to run the Kobo eReader software, and needed Adobe Digital Editions, in order to read the NYPL eBooks) and figured out how to "check out" the eBooks and sync them with my Kobo, I am off to meet my friend Sam for dinner and a show: I'll Be Damned, which is a musical comedy version of the Faust tale, except featuring a comic book geek. (No ceramics this afternoon because the MTA would have required me to take 2 subways and THEN take a shuttle bus to get to the pottery studio! Nuh-uh. Not on a heat advisory warning kind of day.)
On my way there, I will be reading my first eBook from the library, Stones Into Schools, by the man who wrote Three Cups of Tea. It's about building schools (most of them for girls -- yay!) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Think about trying to do THAT the next time you are fighting your own battles with government bureaucracy!)
Plus, it comes preloaded with 100 classics, so while I am pondering where to spend my free $20 Borders card (essentially reducing the price to US$129 + NYC tax) I have something to read and experiment on (e.g., adjusting font sizes etc.) While the Barnes & Noble Nook (which my friend Marci bought) and Kindle (which my friends Ellen and Jackie have) may also do so, 5.2 oz trumps all. (Note: a regular mass market paperback weighs 6.8 oz. according to my shipping experiences with PaperBackSwap.) Believe me, I have been obsessing about this purchase for months, as you can see by the comparison spreadsheet I created.
You can also see that I finally upgraded my cellphone to a LG enV Touch. It comes with a full QWERTY keyboard when you open it AND has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera (!) so I can generally leave my regular digital camera at home now, unless it's for a big occasion, such as the triple baptism of last weekend (but more on that another time).
And now that I have installed multiple updates (I finally succumbed to Windows XP service Pack 3, in order to run the Kobo eReader software, and needed Adobe Digital Editions, in order to read the NYPL eBooks) and figured out how to "check out" the eBooks and sync them with my Kobo, I am off to meet my friend Sam for dinner and a show: I'll Be Damned, which is a musical comedy version of the Faust tale, except featuring a comic book geek. (No ceramics this afternoon because the MTA would have required me to take 2 subways and THEN take a shuttle bus to get to the pottery studio! Nuh-uh. Not on a heat advisory warning kind of day.)
On my way there, I will be reading my first eBook from the library, Stones Into Schools, by the man who wrote Three Cups of Tea. It's about building schools (most of them for girls -- yay!) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Think about trying to do THAT the next time you are fighting your own battles with government bureaucracy!)
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