doh

A year ago I transcribed 90% of a set of letters from a great great uncle who died at the Somme.  Then I went back to work & didn't get back to it.  Since then my computer has died, but thats ok, I had back ups.  So I thought I'd pull it up, finish it off and format it this break.  Unfortunately the only back up I can find only has the 1st letter  typed up plus the start of the second.  There's 17 pages of this stuff.  Let all go back to square one.  Pausing now to back up again.

While backing up, I found a backed up folder that was titled "manually backed up files" the date is post the transcribing of the letters....and I backed up the family tree stuff, but not the folder with the transcribed stuff in it - sigh.  

I'm sure I used to make gingerbread houses in 2 days

I still haven't finished.  One is almost done (sans chimney) and I ran out of royal icing.  The other is missing the roof completely.  I have been working on and off on them all day.  (In between swimming, taking my academic dress in to be dry cleaned, shopping and getting a photo with Santa)  Wait, maybe that's the problem.

urge to do stuff...waning

Day 3 of my holiday and I wake up foggy headed, with a dry tickling cough.

Yesterday I went for my first proper "go to the pool and swim (aka flounder, breathe water and powerwalk when my arms give way) for 1/2 an hour"

I then made a couple of gingerbread houses (or at least made the components) and got in a little shopping on the side.  Turducken anyone?  Our local award winning butcher is making them.  They have as of yesterday, a standing order to make over 90 more for next week - I just bought one of the frozen ones, since it was just going to come home and be frozen till next week.

I went to bed with good intentions to swim again this morning and then decided to minimise the chances of turning the cough into something worse.  So, instead today I will walk the strand.

In addition, one more trip to the shops to pick up a christmas present, do the decorations on the gingerbread houses, go to the graduation (I'm in the procession as I have some students graduating).  I'll walk after that, since the graduation is near the strand - though I may change out of my academic dress first.  Somewhere in there I need to list some houses to look at next week.

I think thats enough for a day when I'm only perking up after coffee.  So it won't last.

26oC at 8am - joy.

first day of annual leave

So I had a massage.  I was also going to make gingerbread houses, but the new fridge was turning up, so I didn't want to be doing stuff in the kitchen.  I also downloaded 8 books from Baen books, because I need some holiday reading AND THEY DON'T DRM!!!...hmm I'm sure I did something else.  Oh wait, I mowed the lawn this afternoon - for an hour.  How did that slip my mind?

To do

I came in early to hose out the freezer part of my office fridge before turning it off for the christmas break – berry juice leaked in there when it partly defrosted & if I leave it one and the power goes off while I’m away, magenta coloured  ice will stain the carpet.When I sat down at the computer I found an email with some information that I can now send onto some students (I enquired about this yesterday moring) so now that’s done & now I’m going through my to do list to clear up some more jobs before I leave.  

1.      Discuss some student results (nope, needs someone else to be here)

2.      Hand over some grad student reports (nope, needs grad student to give me one more form)

3.      Write promotion stuff (nope, waiting on some paperwork I need to analyse to grind through someone elses hands)

I’m noticing a trend here.  Now looking on my to do list for stuff that doesn’t require anyone but me.  I really am not a team player.  Give me stuff to do that doesn’t depend on other people.  I’m much happier.

Now finishing this blog post after spending the whole day setting up an online resource for undergrad students.  This didn’t require anyone but me.  Glee and satisfaction.

new rule for my sony ereader

No buying DRM books through the Sony Store till I can figure out how to strip the drm before I put it on my Sony reader.  Sorry bookstores, you're out of luck.

Once again, I've had the waiting circles freeze my ereader mid book, requiring a reset and another sync with the desktop app to get the reader to recognise I have the right to read these books.  Maddening.  And what do I do if this happens on holidays when my computer with the downloaded rights is not available?

I must try a drm book on my kindle and see if it happens there too.

In comparison, I've read 30-40 books on both platforms that weren't drm'd and I've had zero problems.

Go Baen and Smashwords!

saw this on kickstarter

This looks interesting - watch the video - I really like the USB sticks near the bottom of the page.  I have a soft spot for steampunk.

2nd Solar eclipse

I have seen the 2nd solar eclipse of my life, with fine blue skies in a zone where it was about 94% total.  Normal cameras just blow up sun.  Taking  a photo through welding goggles produces a crescent though.

star wars memories - quality free commentary

I remember in high school, all the rumours, and gossip that there would actually be 9 star wars films, 3 before the orginal trilogy and three after.  The general conclusion from those who actually read up on the more reliable information was that there were only 3 more to make...the 3 prequels...if they ever were made.  Then, eventually, they were. 

And now!  On the new owners site - release date for Star wars VII - 2015.  Seriously, I'm counting decades from the original conversations! 

In the words of Winston;

“Never, never, never, never give up.”

 

[refraining from adding quality judgments to any of the situations above, since that's not what this post is about]

Related to royalty!

Well, if you trust someone elses family tree work...and you track back to 1000AD via my mothers paternal Grandmother..and then forward again via a sibling.

It seems I am related to Jane Seymour, wife of Henry the 8th.

I've had a look at her paintings and I don't think we look alike at all.

gaming

soo many games where this would have been handy.

Another attempt at an ebook

I have been slowly reading through some of my old books again and found a couple by Ann Maxwell; Dancers luck and Dancers illusion.  I once again really enjoyed them, so I looked up the author.  Sadly, although the story was well and truly set up as a space romp series, Dancers Illusion was the last one written.  I'm missing Fire Dancer, the first book.  Now, Ann Maxwell has written a fair chunk of books in various Genres, so I decided to see if some of the other sci fi was in ebook format.  I looked up Timeshadow rider and yes, yes it is.  Unfortunately, the sites I could find want me to download "download manager software"  ??? I don't need this for a simple ebook file.  Or they want me to become "a premium member" of their site, pay money and probably give them my contact details.  Or they just look really dubious and I'd want to scrub the file with all sorts of malware/virus checkers.  I'm not a team player, I'm dubious about joining anything.  Just let me paypal a one off book and I'm happy.  BTW One of my sony shops briefly pops up the book before it goes on to say 1-0 of 0 books....hmm.

urge to buy ...waning

I was rereading a book called orphans of chaos by John C. Wright.  I never bought the next two in the series, but thought "you know what?  I'm enjoying this.  I might buy the next one.  I'll buy it as an ebook".  Off I go to look at the sony shops.  They only have physical versions.  I'm trying for an ebook so I go wider.  Nothing on Smashwords, google only has hard copies.  Then I find a US site that sells ebooks in epub (though I have a kindle too, so it doesn't matter that much) version.  Its there!  I go through the process of signing onto the site.  The author has said no DRM, so thats always good.  But I can't buy it because its only allowed to be sold to US people.  ><  Apparently author rules (or perhaps authors publishers rules).  So I go to the kindle store...this edition is not available for Australian buyers.

Why? 

It can't be a price import thing.  I would have bought it locally using the Aus Sony shop by preference...but they didn't have it.  They have a physical copy for not much more than they charge for ebooks, so its not that they can make a bunch more from the physical copy.  Since they HAVE a physical copy, its not that the book can't be bought here.  I can't figure this one out.

Now I could buy the physical version.  But I just don't feel like it at the moment.  If there hadn't been an ebook anywhere I probably would have and thought myself lucky it was still in print, but I feel like I'm being offered a digestive biscuit, while everyone else is offered a chocolate biscuit.  I find my appetite fading under those conditions.

spending money too fast

I've had about four things that were serious sums of money (for me) in the last couple of weeks, all at once a couple were christmas related).  I'm trying to increase the money in the bank, but timing wise, putting any of them off would seriously inconvenience me, or stop me spending it at all as my window would close.  Sigh, I like to spread these things over one thing per pay fortnight, it looks better when the bank wants to see if I can live within my means when I get that house loan. This now means I have to act like a pauper for the next six weeks to get back on track.  No...More..Spending. 

rereading

With a few ereading exceptions (written by people I know), I've been rereading some of my old books.  They are really degrading fast.  I see the day when I'll have to replace them with digital versions.  Some even have odd stains that I assume were made by food/drink that I thought I'd cleaned off.

I won't talk about them all, just a couple that I made some new conclusions about.

There are two novels by Lyndon Hardy in my collection:

Master of the Five Magics and Secret of the sixth Magic.

I always get excited when I'm about to read these and then struggle with the characters, none of whom I like.  Every time I wonder why I remember the books with such fondness.  This time it hit me.  Its the world building.  The ideas in the book are so novel to me and so well described, that my logical mind spends all of the time I'm not liking the characters figuring out the universal rules.  I always end up with my mind just a little stretched.  Having made that realisation, I stopped trying to empathise with the protagonists, ignored their opinions as dumb, and just wallowed in the world building.


Speaking of picking up some ereader versions, I'm thinking theres a few prolific authors I'd like to get the "complete works of" digitally. - one day when I'm on holidays - I need to be organised about these things.  I must have lists.  I must tick them off.  I may also be finally ordering some sony ereader stuff through the ereader store - I'm not sure when it became available, but the link is there now when I sync my reader on my computer

LOTRO horse

One of my alts won a PAX Prime steed on LOTRO.  I've doen this before with another alt too.  Its never my main that wins the rare horses..but I'm not complaining.  I just need to level these guys up now.

up down up

I had a high, low, high day today. First I got to help lift a couple of 100kg turtles, one of which is being released back into the wild. I also got to hold its head to calm it down during the move (very cool). Then I had to deal with a negative email about something that could have been handled in other more positive ways. Short fume before I decided that I have more important things to do and moved on. Then I got a phone call to say I'd won the set of pipettes from the display that had been held the day before. Woohoo! 10-100ul, 100-1000ul and 1ml to 10ml, plus a stand, some tips, a usb stick and a pen. I've immediately loaned them to someone who's going to do some work in PNG next week, because he needed some more for his training trip.

Now i'm going home on a high note. Thus dodging the second down I'm due.

latest Game

I played secret world for 5 hours yesterday...It reminds me a bit of skyrim. I think because of the realistic graphics. I also thought the movement on the screen looked a bit similar, but no nausea - I must retry skyrim when I'm feeling particularly well & see if it was coincidental nausea.

I love the puzzles. I love the "no pressure to rush through and grind" because you have to stop and think.

I'm glad I played for a couple of hours on my own before hooking up with A&C, because I worked out what combat worked for me. When i joined up, the combat style changed completely. Then when they got off (with warnings of, now you are on your own expect to die a lot)...and I died in 5 minutes. Then I remembered my solo combat style and only died twice the rest of the day - I love being able to do combat moves while moving. Going back to "plant your feet, wait till the induction finishes, run out of the way" other games is going to frustrate me now.

must figure out how to do this

People are still hitting my matryoshka limit blog entry. Which is interesting given there's usually only two people who read this blog. The latest one suggested I graph the number of hits on my blog vs the position that a search on Matryoshka limit put my blog on over time.

Anyone (out of the two readers of this blog) know how to find out the latter? I can get the former easily.

its been a hard month

Hence its been over three weeks since I blogged...but while the next week will also be very busy, I see light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm also going to the show tomorrow - yay!

The reason I'm blogging tonight is I want to say how fantastic an author Patricia McKillip is.  I'm re-reading the riddle master of Hed series and she just writes so well.  Her characters have such dignity, warmth and personality.  She writes the small (and large) tragedies of life so well. 

It may also help that I've been reading some fiction that seems whipped off in a hurry, trying to get through events with scant regard for the characters, few of whom struggle with the right thing to do.  And if they make hard decisions, don't suffer from the regret it causes.

Of course, if I could write better, this would be clearer.

next books

Books to get;
Quiet:The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking  By Susan Cain

I saw this reviewed at the link above & thought it might be an interesting read.  I've been thinking lately about the pressure society places on people to be extroverted.  I was going to ebook it, but I have the feeling this one is one I might loan out to people, so I'll look for a physical copy.

Some thing else I can't find again....I saw a link to a novel on a webcomic advert.  I thought it looked interesting and was purchasable on smashwords, so off I went, only I was on a computer away from home and couldn't remember my user or password.  I thought I emailed myself with the link...but no, I didn't & now I can't remember book, author or even which webcomic it was.  bummer.

Edit:  aannnd found the book:  The house of Yeel which i am carefully linking here so i can go off and buy it at a convenient time.

thats right, May is over

So now, to my books of May..almost all of which were box sets;

All the James H. Schmidt novels that came free from baen books (ebook), the last of which I don't think I'd read - ah, good times

Tamora Pierce Songs of the Lioness series - the first Pierce novels I ever read & the author who introduced me to the young adult section of Dymocks.

Lloyd Alexander:  Chronicles of Prydain - a lot closer in style to Lord of the rings than much of what I've read fantasy wise, but also a lot closer in date.

I had family visiting for 1/2 of May so that's all I got through this month.

I haven't been playing computer games because I've had guests - I've been outside, having barbeques, eating fancy ice-cream and fantastic coffee, panning for gold, nipping up to Cardwell for a Jessies' pie.  But they've gone now : (  So tonight I finally cleared up the backlog of other things enough to think I'd like to play...and both my online games are patching - doh.  I did consider skyrim but I haven't played for a month so its likely to want a long patch too (and it made me queasy last time).  So I thought I'd reinstall sims medieval...now it's taking its' sweet time to load.  Sigh.

Writing - sometimes I have to.

I just finished my first assignment for a grad cert subject that I'm doing (annotated bibliography).  I estimate it took me 20 solid hours to write about 2500 words.  I did have to find and read and assess articles prior to writing which is included in that time.  Now I have another assignment to submit in another 14 days - worth twice as much for the same word count, and another one 14 days after that worth as much as this one. 
I have some concerns about getting them done as well as editing two theses for grad students, teaching a 3rd real time PCR and writing the assessment and updating the practicals for an intensive subject I'm teaching in 5 weeks.  I'm planning on having a little melt down after the intensive.

Google is trying to take over

Hmm. My very common browser is no longer being supported by blogger. They suggested using Google Chrome. I wonder who runs blogger...oh wait, thats who. I'm all for companies getting bigger due to better service provision. I'm not fond of companies getting bigger due to making it hard for you to use brands other than their own...must look at independant blog providers. I tried google chrome and didn't like it.

This may be a first

I've started several books this month that I gave up on, for various reasons. Yesterday I found another pile of half read books under the bed that I lost track of and look at now with a feeling of meh. I think I'll give them all away half read.
Sherrilyn Kenyon: Born of ice (also born of night). Scifi romance - Ive read some of her novels and enjoyed them. I think these got a bit samey for me & I couldn't empathise with the characters
Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell: Vox - too kiddy  
Carol Berg: The spirit Lens - I think this is actually a good novel but I just could not get into it.
Cassandra Clare: Clockwork Angel - its a prequel to a series I found interesting, but none of the characters or the story particularly grabbed me or held me  
Johan Harstad: 172 hours on the moon - horror masquerading as scifi (I just don't enjoy horror as a genre, it makes me itchy)
Robert J Sawyer: Watch - I did enjoy the first one in the series, but the main character explaining her point of view to the audience got monotonous - story line please. I don't remember the first one having quite so much in it.

 Theres a couple I finished, but I won't be keeping
 TC McCarthy: exogene - interesting idea and viewpoint, very violent, never really could fit myself in with the heroine.
Galen Beckett: The magicians and Mrs Quent - rip roaring storyline and very Georgette Heyer in style (I like Georgette Heyer) but I struggle with books that run parallel storyline where the different groups of people barely interact (and some of them I quite disliked). I may get the second book anyway, as there may be some long term plan top have the characters join together more.

Theres a few I read and will keep (some came from my bookshelf)
Robert Buettner: Orphans alliance - less original now I'm at book 4 but still good hard war sci fi
Pittacus Lore: The power of six - I'll be reading ther rest of this series to see how it turns out. This is book 2  
Tamora Pierce: Tortall and other lands - I never used to be a short story reader. I found them unfulfilling, but as I get more busy, I appreciate the small bites of time. Particularly in a unverse I'm familiar with already. This lead me to pulling out a couple more of Tamora's books and buying a new one.  
Tamora Pierce: Terrier, Bloodhound, Mastiff - I bought mastiff on Saturday and read it last night and today. I was doubtful as it had been savaged a bit in the reviews, and yes, there's some treachery that could have been subtly forshadowed a little better without giving the game away, but it sucked me in and kept me reading well past lights out. So I feel a bit off today - need sleep (had a nap). I actually liked it better than Bloodhound. I think Terrier is the best. The treachery is very well done in that.

Thats it for April. Off to do some gardening so i don't feel guilty about the computer games later :)

The human spell checker

I spend so much of my time marking reports, that I can't read anything without mentally circling the typos. And yes, I do recognise that I spell atrociously myself - mainly due to the two finger typing (looking at the keyboard), followed by immediately hitting the enter key. And no, that doesn't mean you can send me your writing to check it for you.

TMNT

Can I still use an image of the teenage mutant ninja turtles on my point mutation lecture? What if it doesn't make sense any more? Maybe now I'm inferring the aliens are involved. These are the things I think about while writing lectures.

my poor computer

I tried to fix it, gave up and sent it into my repair guy. He thought he'd fixed it but i couldn't get back to him Friday, so it sat there over the weekend. Called him Monday and he said he turned it on Monday and got new error messages (after installing new hard drive and sata cables). I really hope i didn't corrupt the motherboard in some way. It all sounds very connections related. Anyway...still in the shop.

Edit: back now - new load of windows on new 1TB hard drive. So I'm updating the few things that didn't get swapped across. They did remarkably well, vent has been copied across & kept the passwords and logins - as has firefox. I'm also doubling the ram - but it wasn't in stock so when they get it, they'll drop by and install it at my place. Must remember to make bed that morning and make sure there's nothing embarrassing lying around.

Lotro needs a slight update, doing that now....SWTOR needs a new download of the installer. Guess whats not available right now.

new computer monitor

Most of my blog posts start with 'I'. This has nothing to do with the title, I just noticed it. It's not surprising since this is a purely narcissistic blog I write about me...and the weather. Hmm, Most of the weather blogs don't start with "I". Perhaps I should start using the royal "We" as variation.

We bought a new computer monitor today because SWTOR on a 19 inch monitor is tricky in group fights - too much HUD to click on the action. We were planning on 22-24 inch, but they either had shiny screens (yuck - much prefer matt) and/or didn't have the DVI cable option (only VGA). So, since it was on a $100 off sale, We now have a 27 inch screen. It doesn't have the 2ms refresh rate of the old one, lets see how long an LG lasts, but they set up skyrim on it and I couldn't see any difference in the quality with the character doing fast battle moves. This is as big as we can go and still fit the monitor and computer together on the desk.

We had to go back and correct all the accidental first person wordage in the paragraph above.

March Books

I doubt I'll read another one today. Too much to do, sp here they are...some with a 1 line comment! I like to ensureyou have enough feedback.

Wen Spencer : tinker – attracted by the bright pastel cover colours, stayed for the story
Garth Nix and Sean Williams: Trouble twisters – a little young for me I think, I couldn’t relate to the main characters
Rick Riordan: The throne of fire – OK book number two in a series I haven’t read # 1 of, so I can’t judge too much, it may require #1 to set the scene
Gail Carriger: timeless – enjoyed it. I really can’t see the issue with the dominant male thing – the female lead justs blasts straight through it
Kristen Britain: Green rider and first riders call – good books, I recommend the series
Orson Scott Card: The lost gate – book one in a series – looking good

Plus what I read at Andreas’
The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko
- Psi High and Others
- Diving the Wreck
- City of Ruins
- Boneyards

Edit:
OK, so much for not reading another one

Garth Nix: A Confusion of Princes - very good, read it in one sitting.

skyrim nausea

I have just come to the conclusion that the way skyrim is interfaced makes me nauseous. I played it a few times when I first got it and felt off afterwards. Then I played it again tonight and I feel distinctly off again. I think its the way you change direction with the mouse. Its too randomly floaty. Queasy now so off to bed.

The things they make..

I bought Bertie Botts every flavour beans from my local lolly shop the other day. The soap flavoured beans actually taste like soap, the dirt ones taste like dirt, the vomit ones taste like spaghetti bolognaise (which I think smells like vomit anyway). I think I'll pass them round the tea room this morning.

Last night I had the strangest dream

I dreamt I was participating in a bike race, underwater, in canals..I think there was scuba gear involved, but we could have just been holding our breath. Then I was teleported to Antarctica and was hiking through the snowy wasteland looking for people to save me when I came over a ridge and there was a large, green mossy field with Mawson's hut at the front and a huge industrial complex behind it. I wandered up and the surprised employees got me to wait out front while they figured out what was going on. I remember looking down at the light jacket, shorts and cloth shoes I was wearing and thinking "I should be colder than this".

What did I eat last night? There was no cheese.

Power is back

we have the electricity back on. Its not all cleaned up yet. I've been hearing chainsaws all morning and every time I drive to and from work the roads/lanes that are closed have changed as they work on powerpoles and debris. So lots of interesting meandering routes to work

next pic

Did I mention, shortly after the storm we started hearing the sirens, I thought it might be one home...until daylight

tornados now

What next?
I was woken at 5:10am this morning to huge winds and thunder and rain going sideways into the house and what i thought was my parents closing windows loudly and banging on my door. In retrospect, they hadn't shut anything by the time i got up to close my window, so it must have been the sound of roofs being ripped off nearby.

I shut my window and then did a double take because there was still rain getting on me...through the wood panels between the casement windows. the rain hit the bathroom louvres and sprayed in up on the ceiling. At least the fly screens are clean now. The ceiling isn't.

My budgies are traumatised and we lost an eggplant bush, and nearby there are fences and brick walls and gates down..but the cross treat is worse.Not far away theres a house where the roof came off and all thats left are the beams and another where they lost the roof and half the walls (see piccys above). A road was closed nearby & they used roof panels as part of the road closed sign. Apparently there were no houses in that area that didn't lose their roof and some houses in Townsville have been completely demolished - though i haven't seen the evidence yet.

February books

and it took me till 1/2 way through March to list them...March may be difficult because I inhaled some of Andreas books while visiting and didn't make notes of the titles.

Neil Gaiman: Anansi boys
Sylvia Kelso: The moving water, Everran's bane
Rick Riordan: The son of Neptune
Misti Wolanski: Driven by the deadline
Selena Fenech: Memories wake, emotionally chraged
Kristine Kathryn Rush: The white mists of power

On other news I joined goodreads, but it seems to upload my database of just under 900 novels requires I have the ISBN numbers...the only information I don't have. There is a barcode reader at work. Perhaps one day I'll borrow it and resort all my books using the scanner...or one week.

Sydney conference

I managed to have a conference in Sydney on the wettest day they've had in 25 years...and it was at its worst at rush hour when I was travelling. I had to wade through the summer hill station underpass. Unlike the locals I didn't take off my shoes..and I waited for someone else to wade to be sure there weren't any potholes. Then I had to catch a taxi. Nobody was answering their number so I went to a taxi in the street which was in a traffic jam - cars everywhere. He was letting off a client at the station because they couldn't get across Parramatta road which was shut due to flooding. We took a long detour, which still should have only doubled my 7 minutes taxi ride, but the traffic jams were so bad, it took 50 minutes. The rain was tropical during the taxi ride and we went through some flood waters that I wouldn't go through in a sedan at home.
I was only 1/2 an hour late for the conference. It was very good btw. I'm taking some ideas home & I met lots of interesting people.

no wonder I felt blah today

I have a bit of a scratchy throat & an eye strain headache & by 1pm I was had it for the day & went home sick at 2pm (it took an hour to get through everything enough to be able to walk out the door). Then I realised I hadn't eaten anything since 6 am., hadn't drunk anything since 8am and had worked solidly since 7am with 3 hours of lectures thrown in...no wonder I felt bad...and I'd worked almost a full day before I left. So, after painkillers for the headache. ease-a-cold and gargle for the scratchy throat a drink of juice and a piece of cake for lack of sustenance and a nap...I feel somewhat better

Cranky day

And it started well, then someone changed a protocol and didn't tell me till the last minute...well, 5 minutes before I was supposed to teach it. Not happy Jan. I don't like other people changing things I'm supposed to be in charge of without consultation. Enough said.

Gaming confession

I am not a platform gamer. I have always sucked at platform games. I do not have the right hand eye coordination to jump over a box while ducking under something else...on an angle with one foot in the air. Or at least, that's how it feels to me. In the past, if there was some sort of manual dexterity jumping scenario, I would either hand it to someone else, saying "get me past this part" or give up on the game. My little brother is good at this. Unfortunately he lives on the other side of the world now.

Which brings me to the point of this post. SWTOR has some really cool easter eggs in the format of datacrons. Now, I love puzzle games. I will happily spend an hour figuring out how to get to one of these gems...so long as there isn't some hideously long path with multiple fall off and go back to the start points. At least the latest one I tried didn't kill me every time I fell. One of the first ones did. I'm still giving them the 3 strikes and I'm not trying again. But its so maddening even when you don't fall to your death when jumping up a series of boxes can result in multiple fails before I get to the top...sooo datacron near camp 27 on Nar Shadaa...even though you have a stat I want, I'm turning my back on you...at least till my brother comes to visit.

I feel obliged now

Dave listed the books he read in January...and reviewed them - I'm not that enthusiastic, but at least I'll list them. Most of them are paperbacks I bought at Pulp Fiction (while on Holidays in Brisbane in January) I think the only ebook I read in Jan was the Gratuitous epilogue. I may even keep up my list through the year. I fully expect the number to plummet by March. While my reading has been strictly sci fi and fantasy, I've been enjoying the variations in styles. Beuttner was definitely the hardest Sci Fi.

Robert Beuttner
Orphanage
Orphan’s Destiny
Orphan’s Journey
Gail Carriger
Heartless
Kylie Chan
Heaven to Wudang
Jasper Fforde
One of our Thursdays is Missing
Mercedes Lackey
Werehunter
The Sleeping Beauty
Intrigues
Andrea Host
Gratuitous Epilogue
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Mouse and Dragon

left handedness

I just got a left handed keyboard at work - ah - so much easier to work with...except for the long pause looking at the keyboard trying to find the delete button.

ereader update

If you've read below you'll see there are two main issues I have with the ereader
1. Its really sensitive and holding it with the cover closed can result in pages turning (I fixed this by tapping the power key as I close the book. It goes to screen saver (and requires a power tap to turn back on - no nasty page turning.

2. when you swipe to change pages, it occasionally thinks you want to look at a word in the text, highlights it and gives you options for dictionaries, google etc.

I just popped the ereader on my computer to sync it with the reader for PC to download a new book and it pops up "would you like to upgrade your software to fix (problem described above)". Yes, yes I would. Lets see how this goes.

SWTOR - everyone has a twin

My mum thinks my smuggler on SWTOR looks like my little brother. And except for the bald with horns bit, she's right. I didn't see it till she pointed it out. Now I'm going to look for other people in my alts - perhaps its all subconscious.

ereading

I've now read 4 books on the ereader (guess which 4, Andrea) and have discovered how to stop the annoying page turning while the cover is shut. Tap the off button and it goes into screensaver mode - this will cause it to be be unresponsive till you tap the power button again. I dropped a crumb on it one day and it just kept flicking pages till I removed it! Hows that for sensitive! Most of the "my hands are used to knidles (I just can't type Kindle without being dyslexic)" issues are over. I think the Kindle may be a little faster (or smoother) on the turn, but I should put them side by side on the same page.

On other news, Brisbane was fun for a week - no computer meant I had a chance to rest my computer induced tennis elbow. I had a photo taken of me with a python at Lone Pine Sanctuary and it wasn't till I got home that mum mentioned that she'd had one taken about 50 years ago at the same place - I've seen that photo! She's skinnier than me in it. The snakes looked the same though.

Not looking forward to going back to uni - sigh.

kindle vs Sony ereader

I've read all of one book on the sony & so far I find it much easier to do things -the touch screen is intuitive & having had a smart phone for a while, I instinctively want to touch the screen. The down side is that the touch screen can sometimes be too responsive. There have been occasions when I turn pages only to have the dictionary function activated because I've somehow lingered on a word. This usually happens for several pages before my fingers remember how to work it. This morning I found that my floaty sleeves will also turn the pages if the fan blows them over the screen!

I like the computer reader that the sony can install on your computer. It syncs automatically and you can play around with storage as well as read on your computer - I do my manual reading on the computer while playing with the ereader.

Big plus for sony - it tells you the page you are on like a normal book - and adjusts when you have changed font size and type - I did this in seconds without looking anything up! The kindle is set up with % through the book - maybe you can change that, but I haven't found out how. Its harder to get back to places in the kindle.

I haven't played with collections etc yet on the sony, so I can't compare that..and there is no australian sony store (unless its started since last I checked). So far not an issue for me as I get my books from smashwords.

Covers (mine are the ones with lights)
I like the light more on the sony case. The kindle light set up makes me think I'm going to pull it out too far and break it & its non-adjustable, though in a good position.
I like the elastic strap on the kindle case, which case keep it shut in transit, though I have yet to have the sony one open up.
The biggest issue with the sony case is that it has a softer cover than the kindle - I often pick up books by the bottom and I find that I auto forward a couple of pages because there is also a forward and backward button at the bottom of the ereader. This shouldn't be an issue as the ereader insets into the back cover, so a firmer front cover would avoid the problem.
The sony comes with a stencil since you can write on the screen (fingers work too), but there's nowhere to store it. I was slipping it over the top of the book cover, but I lost it once that way. Perhaps a compartment for it would help.

Overall so far, the sony seems looser and more flexible, the kindle is more rigid and controlled - steps to get to places take longer, but I am much less likely to do something accidentally.

And lastly,
Having two different ereaders is resulting in me trying to page forward by pressing the non-existant bottom right button on the sony and touch the screen on the non-touchscreen kindle.

So, I'll be doing a little more reading on the sony & determining whether I get over the sony paging issues or whether it drives me nuts. I should also try getting books from a few more sites & determine whether one ereader is easier to get books for. I also need to put some journal articles on the sony to check how good it is with reading science articles - and annotating!