Ok. I’m back. Took a whole month off, plus I wasn’t exactly prolific during June either. But it’s time to start thinking about bidness again. School starts on the 25th. Not exactly tomorrow, but I do have a new prep this year (8th grade!), and I think I might see some friction this fall as I’m thinking about staging a coup and becoming department head. More on this soon. I’m sort of starting to regret that extra week of spring break. Plus, we all know how quickly vacations can slip away. Especially when they go like this:
“On the first day of my summer vacation…I woke up. Then I went downtown…to look for a job. Then I hung around in front of the drug store. On the second day of my summer vacation…I woke up. Then I went downtown…to look for a job. Then I hung around in front of the drug store. On the third day…”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Sister Mary Elephant
(I share this one with the kids every year. It makes them feel naughty that we’re listening to Cheech and Chong. Plus, then they get it it when I say, “Thank You” in that voice.)
Notice how “I got up” is like, an accomplishment. Something he did.
My vacation hasn’t been quite like that, but…
I. Vegas. A week. A suite. Pinball Hall of Fame. Skating in 100+ degree weather. Rocking the guitar shirt.
Seeing Cheap Trick do the Sargent Pepper album live. Did I mention Pinball Hall of Fame? (I went 5 times.) Winning four dollah after 6 nights @ the craps table. It took me a week to recover from that week.
II. Camping in the back yard for a week. We were supposed to go to Refugio Beach, but the weather was foggy and dreary there, so we popped the tent trailer in the back yard, lit up the fire pit and the bbq, loaded the coolers with ice, and opened up “Camp Coward” to the public. Sixteen people came and went. We only cheated one night; we came inside to watch Wipeout on tv. It took several days to recover from that week as well.
III. Now we get to the Lotus Eaters part. Most of the rest of the summer has been more like this:
On the 27th day of my summer vacation, I got up (@9:30). I made coffee. I puttered around the house/yard/computer. I read my book. I took a nap. I skated. I played Wii pinball. I puttered. I went to bed late. On the 28th day of my summer vacation, I got up (@9:30). I made coffee…
Seriously, my goal has been to try to take a nap every day. I’ve only missed a couple.
Of course I have done other shtuff. As noted above, I have done some reading. I have been using my “old” (6 years) Palm Zire 72 as an e-reader. I have all my format converters and whatnot all dialed in so I can read pretty much any format. (More on that next post.)
Ever since I saw how they read books on the old Star Trek – the words hovering in the air at just the right angle (for some reason, the only people shown reading seemed to be those recovering in Sick Bay), scrolling by at whatever speed you could devour them – I have wanted to replicate that experience.
Especially the autoscroll.
I haven’t experienced a Kindle, with it’s simulated page turning, but I think I would find it annoying and slow. I read pretty fast, and for me, having to turn pages is one of the down sides of real books. Why would you want to imitate that?
What I like best about using my Palm as a reader, aside from being able to carry hundreds of books on an SD card, is the autoscroll feature. Comfy in bed, blankies just right, “book” propped at just the right angle. Ahhh. I don’t have to disturb the comfiness by having to turn another page every minute, and try to settle back in.
Autoscroll, I love you.
More manana. Really.
