Words and supermarkets

[sartorias]

madrobins says it so very well here:
http://madrobins.livejournal.com/191374.html

I am an extremely fast reader, but wow, I am more behind every day.  I resort to cheating on my timer, then am furious with myself for not getting to my list of tasks, but people are so fascinating, and it's all right

Comments

[asakiyume]

I worry about things like L.A.'s rescue, too--I worry because I don't really understand how it all works (not just L.A., but the U.S. economy at large, and beyond that, the world economy, such as it is)--and sometimes I feel as if my lack of understanding will make it fall apart.

How's that for megalomania?

It's kind of like drifting off to sleep in the passenger's seat of the car, then JOLTING AWAKE because OMG, I'm losing control of the car. But of course I'm not. Because I'm not the one driving... and yet, I feel as if somehow my consciousness is contributing to keeping it on the road. (Drifting off to sleep when I'm the driver is another matter...)

Maybe I think... if I **could** understand it** well, then I could help make it better... don't know, really.

You're right, reading and commenting are what make the LJ community work... which is why it depresses me when I can't do either as much as I'd like.

**"it" being the economy...

[sartorias]

Yes--you've got it. I guess that's why I just can't comprehend the liking for horror--there's so overwhelmingly much of it in the world already, who wants more of that sensation?

[osprey_archer]

I suspect that part of the reason people appreciate horror films and books is because in that form horror is controllable. It can be turned off and put away whenever you get tired of it, and it offers the illusion that the horror in the real world goes away in the same manner.

[sartorias]

Yes--I've been told that, and I accept it intellectually, but I cannot emotionally comprehend enduring one more second of anxiety and terror than one already gets in life's jolts and shocks. Ah well! That's why there are 31 flavors.

[monder]

f we could ever get out of debt, I'd like to get a palm reader. I could catch up on so much of this stuff while sitting in the high school parking lot, or at red lights, or in traffic jams going to LA, in waiting lines everywhere. Of course that's where I get a lot of my reading done these days, though my hands have gotten bad enough that it pretty much has to be paperbacks.

I loved my Palm reader, but I have found I prefer the HP Ipaq's for versitility and ease of obtaining books. When I had the Palm, you could only read Palm formated books and occasional adobe offerings. I can read ebook, txt, html, and adobe on my Ipaq, and moving books is a drag and drop process in my computer. Plus the scalability of the type and the multiple options for controls to "flip pages" seems to be superior. Plus, you have all the calendar, word, excel, and other programs as well

[sartorias]

That sense of not throwing away usable things is a tough one.

ipaq--that's the one I'd get, if fantasy became real, and I had discretionary income.

[starshipcat]

>We've been trying to balance the rigidly installed rules of >thrift "NEVER, EVER, throw anything away you can reuse, with >practicality of not having every bit of free space taken up >by bits of twine and rubber-band balls, and folded up pressed >paper, and clothes that might fit someone again someday

[sartorias]

*shudder*

I get major claustrophobia surrounded by piles of crud. There is conflict about that in this house, as the spouse is a packrat. We've declared zones. *g*

[tamaranth]

aside re Palm reader: if you are prepared to slum it in monochrome, you could pick up a Palm-clone (Handspring Visor or similar) for <$10. Good for e-books and can cope with LJ via Plucker. When I commuted by train this was what kept me sane (ish).

[sartorias]

I think the ipaq would be easiest on my eyes (I have sight issues) but...some day! Thanks for the suggestion!

[david_de_beer]

but the thing that makes it work is interactivity--commenting

zactly; this is what I've been missing out on more and more, because my list of places to go and read just got too big.
And, too often too many of them are just repeats and linkings to each other. One simply doesn't need to be everywhere, and one can't be everywhere.
Def. not this one.
So I'm keeping it smaller now but I'll have the time to be more leisurely and interactive-y.

[sartorias]

Yeah--I was actually thinking of your post, and the fact that I'd had about one minute left on my timer, so it was either comment saying stupidly "Me too!" or try to read a few more posts. I ended up reading.

[sartorias]

Trader Joe's is pretty good on that stuff. So is Costco. Those might not be easily found in the City--I don't remember seeing either of those when I was in Manhattan.

[sartorias]

I didn't know that! But then my yearly consumption of alcohol can be measured in a teacup or two. It's just too expensive, and feeding teenagers isn't leaving much in the budget for luxuries.