community media
The Endurance/Shackleton chantey went over extremely well at the Chantey Sing--a couple of people professed to find it quite moving, and the folks at the afterparty even requested an encore. I am always talking up the chantey sing to people, and it is awesome, but I suppose the afterparty is a big part of why I'm so enamored of it. The same couple hosts it every week, and they invited me over the first night I came to the Chantey Sing; that was right after Ben and I broke up, and I was feeling pretty awful about everything, so their kindness made a big difference to me. I don't know their last names, or phone numbers or email address, or much about them except the address of their home, and I'm even more ignorant about most of the other chantey regulars. I kind of like it that way. It's a small pocket of my life, disconnected from everything else, that contains nothing but camaraderie and singing.
I recently acquired a Kindle (second generation); the price was right, and I've been hankering after an e-ink reading device for a while. I'm enjoying it, but I find that I have what almost amounts to a moral problem with Kindle books. With an ordinary paper-and-ink book, if it's something a friend would love, I can loan it to them. If I don't want it any more, I can sell or donate it and someone else can enjoy it. But with a Kindle book, I'm paying the same amount of money--or more!--for something that only I can ever use. It doesn't seem like a good deal for anybody. Ah well; even if I just use it for scientific papers and public domain books and international access to Wikipedia, I think it will be worth it.
Also on the wireless digital devices front, I finally went and read the rules for my cell phone plan, and it looks like I can upgrade to a smartphone that's not falling apart for just $10 extra per month, rather than $40 extra as I had feared. So I may do that soon. Android, here I come!
I recently acquired a Kindle (second generation); the price was right, and I've been hankering after an e-ink reading device for a while. I'm enjoying it, but I find that I have what almost amounts to a moral problem with Kindle books. With an ordinary paper-and-ink book, if it's something a friend would love, I can loan it to them. If I don't want it any more, I can sell or donate it and someone else can enjoy it. But with a Kindle book, I'm paying the same amount of money--or more!--for something that only I can ever use. It doesn't seem like a good deal for anybody. Ah well; even if I just use it for scientific papers and public domain books and international access to Wikipedia, I think it will be worth it.
Also on the wireless digital devices front, I finally went and read the rules for my cell phone plan, and it looks like I can upgrade to a smartphone that's not falling apart for just $10 extra per month, rather than $40 extra as I had feared. So I may do that soon. Android, here I come!