Is there a better way to list books read?

Since I can't SEARCH this blog, it is not a very efficient way to list books read. All I can do is COUNT them and not even break them down into time periods or types. Being list obsessed, I may need to develop a better method! Also should I rank by loved it! - it was OK - did not really like it?

Torch scene (ebook) (a Reed Ferguson mystery), by Renee Pawlish. Not so great. A guy keeps doing dumb things to try and solve a mystery all the while telling people he won't do anything stupid. Was the fire deliberately set, by whom and why?

Using the internet in a not-open-for-business coffee shop downtown. I know the owner and have a key. Sitting here all by myself with the door open hoping that no one tries to take advantage of me or steal my electronics.

I think of many good titles during the day

But, now that I am on the computer, I can't remember any of them.

The Boston girl (audiobook), by Anita Diamant. A good fictional rendering of a biographical story of one woman's complicated life growing up in the early twentieth century. Born to immigrant parents, becoming modern is very difficult for the three daughters. The tale is told by a grandmother who is asked how she got to be who she is by her granddaughter.

Tales from Code blue....working with the homeless to shelter them when the weather becomes REALLY cold. I was sitting in a chair near the front door waiting for the snow to fall. It started at 11:30 PM and I realized I was listening to a really LOUD symphony of sounds.....snoring from many quarters, farting and one guy grinding his teeth (this makes a sound like a duck quacking).

Is this my website?

Should I claim this blog as my "website"? Would more people read it if I mentioned it somewhere?

Sylvia Beach and the lost generation (book) : a history of literary Paris in the twenties and thirties, by Noel Riley Fitch.
Really loved this book since I love Paris and history and since Sylvia Beach lived briefly in my neighborhood in Bridgeton, New Jersey. Of course, she left and became an agnostic and a lesbian. I find most of the semi-famous people from my town are no longer here. Oh well. Sylvia ended up in Paris and had a bookstore/lending library. She concentrated on books in English, while her long-time companion, Adrienne, had a French bookstore on the same street. They fraternized with many famous writers, artists, etc. Her main claim to fame was as the first publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses, which was considered obscene in America. Joyce was, alternately, a blessing and a curse.

Going on a trip tomorrow. Can't decide whether to car-pool with a friend or drive to North Carolina by myself. By myself I can visit Hollins University (my alma mater) to see the new library or take any other side trips that occur to me and stay away an extra few days. With my friend, I will go along with what HE wants to do and have other adventures and save money. What to do, what to do?

What was I going to say?

Interesting subjects occur to me, but after sitting here listening to an album, my brain is all afuddle. I had to access Hoopla due to fretting children in the library. (God, don't these people know how ANNOYING cranky children are to the childless?!?!?!)

Enjoying All this bad blood (album), by a group called Bastille. I borrowed it on Hoopla, available at some libraries. Their most famous song is Pompeii, I think. Interesting turns of phrase and a big sound.

Back to my weekday routine of getting online and exercising. Those two goals fall to pieces Friday through Sunday, when there seem to be a lot of conflicting events getting in the way. Was quite happy this morning when I got out my calendar to review it and found NOTHING on it for today other than yoga at 10:30 AM. Now, isn't THAT a good way to start out your week? And tomorrow nothing on the calendar except for a public meeting about CHICKENS. I am not really into that topic but it is sponsored by a group I am interested in....CAWA - Cohansey Area Watershed Association (?) Gee...I should have gone on VACATION this week. But I really do need to go to choir practice on Wednesday night. I hear we are supposed to sing some challenging music in some African languages on Sunday. Haven't been to one practice yet, due to my many conflicts.

Why the heck am I blogging?

This is kind of ridiculous. No one reads my blog. So why do I take the time to do it? Perhaps it is just a record of what I have read and done?

Finished The book thief. I have never cried so much while reading a book. It is by Markus Zusak. I read it for a book club. Avoided it for awhile since it is YA. What did I like about it? It was sort of confusing at first, trying to figure out who was speaking. A lot of jumping around (foreshadowing). You get little clues about how long a certain person is going to live. A lot of the book is narrated by DEATH. You find yourself in Germany during the Second World war, feeling kind of sympathetic towards some of the people who live there.

God, this library is annoying! Mexicans being really loud, a young boy emoting while playing some game with headphones on. Other people really annoy me. A library is supposed to be QUIET, for God's sake. Oh, I can't stand it another moment. I must log out and get out of here.

Eighth from the bottom

Having a lot of trouble with this blog. Clicked on HTML...will see if it works.

Contest over at health club. I am just not competitive, I guess because I LOSE. This time I was number 8 from the bottom. We were supposed to earn miles and get to Sea Isle City or Maryland. I think I only got to Mays Landing. Only completed 13 miles. Well, in addition to not being competitive, I have a lot of distractions, such as yoga, arthritis exercise class, aqua aerobics, swimming, and today, I just plain overslept and did not have time for ANY exercise.

I just don't GET computer stuff. For instance, I saw that this was showing the time as Pacific time. I don't really WANT that but was unable to figure out how to change it. Grumble, grumble.....

What was that thought

I had a good thought today and was going to blog it.  But now I have forgotten what it was.  Perhaps I SHOULD get a phone upon which I can blog.  Still procrastinating about the phone upgrade.  Too many decisions involved.  "Need" a new phone, perhaps a new provider and am reluctant to get into any two year contract.

Summer's last gasp today and tomorrow.  Supposed to be over 93 degrees today.  My comfort zone is under 80 degrees. 

Went to the beach yesterday.  Not so pleasant due to blowing sand.  No bugs at least.  Almost got too much sun, not quite.  Had a delicious lunch at Yanni's.  This was their third location, which I have never visited.  I have lunched at the other two locations, one on the boardwalk and one in the library.  The new 9th Street bridge is quite something but I do not enjoy driving that way due to the Beasley Point Bridge being out.  The Ocean City bridge is full of walkers and bikers.

Not so good at multi-tasking

Trying to blog AND listen to The heist album by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.  You really need to listen to the words and how he rattles them out with such great speed.   Favorite songs are: Can't hold us, Thrift shop, Same love.  I borrowed the CD from the Vineland Public Library POPULAR collection, CD 1360.  I used to enjoy BUYING the CDs for this library.  I also enjoyed listening to the CDs in my computer while working.

 Kind of miss my office, now that I think about it.  Haven't really set up a good office space at home.  Am getting tired of my itinerant ways.  Too many uncontrollable facets...annoying people, slow computers, lugging my stuff around.  This has been a bad week for computer use....too many snags.  Yesterday FORGOT my computer so had to use a REALLY SLOW one which I finally had to completely abandon.  It was hopeless trying to get anything done.

Finished a book, Obsessed : America's food addiction - and my own, by Mika Brzezinski.  OK, not great.  But I like reading books about dieting and health, since that is my thinking now.  Her point in the book is that it takes work to be healthy, but it is worth it.  She confronted a friend about her weight and writes the book with her.  OK, she told her friend Diane Smith that she was FAT.  The author resents the feeling she gets from other people that everything is easy for her.  It is not.  She has a food addiction that she keeps in check only with great effort.  She and Diane agreed to work on their issues together....Diane's goal was to LOSE weight and Mika's goal was to GAIN some weight.
The book is available at the Vineland Public Library (362.196 Brz).



Quotes: "Virginia Cha, that journalist-beauty queen who took the news anchor job I thought should have been mine, taught me a lesson that has stuck with me to this day: you have to look at what you have to offer and feel good about it instead of being consumed by what other people do or have.  It took me a long time to figure that out."  Kathleen Turner's response to people who expect her to look the same as she did decades ago in Body heat..."Yeah, I know, I looked like that.  I don't anymore.  Okay?  Get over it."

French Quarter for your thoughts

Clever name of my weekly nail polish from O.P.I.  I usually explain the puns to my Vietnamese nail technician but this one made me tired just thinking about it.  "Why did you pick THAT nail polish"?, inquired a male friend of mine.  Because I saw a picture in the April edition of Ladies home journal of many earthy tones that were "in" this Spring.

Was reading a blog by a young person who had someone die...a twin? a sister?  who died.  She was all broken up about it and lamenting about the trivial things that people complain about on social media.  That's me.  Like talking about my NAIL POLISH.

Sitting with the father of a friend today who needs watching.  Since I am a doer and a thinker, I always want to ENGAGE the elderly.  They are very hard to engage!  Asking if he wants to watch TV, read, listen to music, go for a ride in the wheelchair to look at the flowers and trees.  Even as I am saying it, I am thinking how LAME I sound, if these are the only possible activities available.  Of course, he exhibits NO interest in any of these.  Perhaps one should just do stuff and not ask?  Or just let the aging "vege out" as my friend used to say.  I do not approve of aides who talk on the phone instead of paying attention to their clients, but here I sit on the laptop while two aides bathe my ward
I don't want to bother him but I don't want to ignore him either.

Blogging humor

    
I should give credit to the New Yorker.  I have been carrying this page around since February 6, 2006.  I come from a family of New Yorker readers.  My father used to get all of us a subscription each Christmas, my mom, himself, and his four daughters.  Now that he is gone, we keep up the tradition, on a rotating basis.

Lovely morning listening to NPR and trying to get the humidity out of my house.  I even left the air conditioner on while I'm out.  Can't really justify that now that I don't have pets.  I love the sunshine but hate the humidity.

Yesterday I had a delightful birthday.  Breakfast at my sister's, gifts, flowers, dinner with my "girlfriends of the '70's" (aren't those the best kind?), phone calls, email messages, Facebook remembrances, singing.  Couldn't have asked for a better day except that the weather could have been better.  Torrential rain and drizzles with occasional brightening.

Camera displays people naked

Guy next to me on the computer is looking at that on Youtube.  I am using my free headphones I got on the airplane to use with the ipad they loaned me.  I need headphones EVERYWHERE, just like I need scotch tape, staplers, telephones and waste baskets everywhere.  Have misplaced my special ones yet again.  But I got TWO new pairs....on the way to Paris and on the way back.  And they are nice and LONG....I don't have to check out the headphone extender cable like I had to with my regular earbuds.  I had to give back the ipad but they didn't want to headphones back.

I like this cartoon in the New Yorker,since I am laboring in obscurity on this blog.

Book review: Murder, she wrote, a slaying in Savannah by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain.  Actually, I have listened to this audiobook before, narrated by Cyntha Darlow.  Amazingly, the narrator manages to almost SOUND like Angela Lansbury, who played Jessica Fletcher on TV.  As a former cataloguing librarian, these kinds of books used to drive me crazy.  Jessica Fletcher is a FICTIONAL character so how can she be writing a book?  Jessica is called to Savannah upon the death of a good friend.  The friend left one million dollars to a literacy foundation she ran with Jessica.  The money is contingent upon the solving of a murder by Jessica.  So she stays in the big house of the deceased, along with fortune-hunting boyfriends, ghost-chasing "tenants", servants who have been around for decades.  She solves the murder with a clue that sailed completely by me. 

Anonymous blogs

Wrote to a guy who HAD a blog to ask some questions.  I liked his sense of humor and his self revelations.  He immediately responded with a long email which helped me.  He started off with an anonymous blog.  The more his friends discovered it, the more he had to censor himself.  This is my problem.  So, I am going to make my blog public again but STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.  I have learned that I really don't want criticism.  That is why I don't work!

According to statistics, most people abandon their blogs after 2 or 3 months.  I still feel like writing, despite my recent crisis of purpose.

It was so great to see so many friends over the weekend.  Since Monday things not going so well.  Spent an entire afternoon struggling with the tax stuff at the library and they didn't have a calculator to lend me.  Finally had to send off an extension form even though I do not believe in extensions.  Now that the post offices all close at 5, that was my deadline.  After spending 5 hours on it, I ended up brain dead, pissed off, confused, and a bunch of other negative emotions.  Then I went to my book club and couldn't think of much to say about the book, Zuka and the fire of life, by Salman Rushdie.  Today I woke up with noises of butchering of trees.  Went outside and found out it is MY neighbors with three types of heavy equipment going a bit overboard, if you ask me.  They proceeded to destroy a quite lovely fir tree because the owner wants to put a DUMPSTER back there, so he can renovate the downstairs apartment (and thus give me DOUBLE the trouble).  I had to take an anti-anxiety pill and leave home to get away from the noise and the thinking about it.

The fish McBites diet

By the time I got around to writing about The fish McBites diet, McDonald's has done away with them!  I know that they weren't really good for me (fried and with tartar sauce) but the snack size fitted  (fat?) my budget and my calorie limits (almost).  I did read an article about how they weren't such a great success, but boy did they come and go fast.  I called it a meal.  So when they gave me the bad news (I had to drive to the first window to get it) I just ordered my "fall back"  food, a cheeseburger and small fries.  Combined with the Tastykakes (chocolate peanut butter patties) and the cereal for a bedtime snack, it wasn't such a great diet day yesterday.  But somehow the scale was down this morning.

Shall I change this blog since it is now PRIVATE?  Could be just ideas for future writing projects, if I ever get around to that.  Perhaps I will feel less pressure to write as often?  (It IS very time-consuming and for what?)  Now it can be my personal, private diary/journal.  Other ideas for blogs:
- a real fake identity with a name and all
- less mentioning of places and people?
- a better focus - reviews?
I think the problem is that I don't want to be read and critized.  It only took one criticism for me to take my blog private.  And I never really got compliments. (or readers, for that matter).  I think I have the blog idea backwards.  Most people write it so that their FRIENDS can see what they are up to.  I wish my friends would NOT see what I am up to.  I don't mind if STRANGERS know.

Here at the Vineland Public Library.  I am HOT (the prespiring kind of hot).  But it is nice to be retired and know that at any moment I can go outside and admire the flowers.   
PROS :
- can get two hours on computer (although today it is too crowded)
- chairs are comfortable with padding and good back support
- mice are nice
- only 15 cents a page to print
CONS:
- screens are small
- playlist.com will not work
- room to spread out can be limited
- have to wait one hour in between sessions if it is crowded (actually, that has never happened to me)
- sitting here with previous patrons

Going private

Trying to figure out how to take this blog private.  I am sure I saw it go by once but HELP is not helping me.

Saw my first azalea blooming today.  What a riotous week of exploding colors and hot weather.  My audiobook talked about "the wafting scent of the forsythia".  I stopped by the side of the road and I sniffed.  Just as I suspected, forsythia HAS no scent.

No luck trying to copy photos from phone over to here.  My phone automatically sends it to Yahoo email.  Copy and paste does not work.  Wanted to show some photos from Victorian house art tour I went on last night.  My friend has 3 story home and yard FULL of whimsy and beauty...art from Africa, Australia, Japan and Cumberland County, New Jersey.  Her home is in Newport, a quaint, quiet little town.

Mahogany, Marquise and Makiah

This goes against my blog policy of never NAMING NAMES.  But I found this piece of paper that I wrote on while I was working and I didn't know where to file it and I couldn't bear to throw it out.  So I am writing it down here so I CAN throw it out.  I just love these creative names that a library patron named her children, especially Mahogany.

Measures of popularity - Everything is measured now in number of friends on Facebook and number of Twitter followers.  You can't argue with the hard cold facts!  These poor late night hosts have to compare their numbers of Twitter followers to see who comes out at the top of the pack.  I guess my only measure of popularity is whether anyone comments on my blog, so please do.  I don't even know how to ASK for "followers".  And I cannot understand why anyone would want to be friends with someone on Facebook that they don't even know!?  I guess I don't get it.

Where does the time go?  I have spent two hours just organizing my computer and dealing with my email!  Went to get my new glasses and they were closed for lunch.  (There oughta be a law...why can't they take staggered lunches like we do (did) at the library)?  So I had to come in to Larry's II to use the computer.  Practically every table was taken up by some card playing group so I couldn't sit where I usually do.  It is ALMOST perfect here except there is no PLUG.  Sigh.  I wish I was in Portland (Oregon) in some cool cafe.

This is the nail polish I got today.  I'm such a GIRL.  I really enjoy my Vietnamese nail technician and trying to explain the names of the O.P.I. polishes to her.  Usually they are PUNS which are hard to explain to someone whose language is not English.  This is Charged Up Cherry.

I prefer to labor in obscurity

I guess Facebook is where it's at...and it is fun in it's own way.  Kind of interesting to find out what all my old boyfriends are doing.  But I prefer blogs.  You get MORE info from fewer people and I'm kind of scared to say anything on Facebook  And I don't really WANT my old boyfriends to know what I am doing or NOT doing nor do I want them to know what I look like.  Where in the world will my remarks be going?  At least now I know when I write my thoughts down in "my blog that no one reads".  I didn't check that out as a blog name, but I DID check out quite a few names and they were all taken, including ALL THE GOOD NAMES WERE ALREADY TAKEN.  I did decide to investigate Twitter yesterday, but when it came time to choose a name, I got stymied.  To listen to the news, you would think that everybody in the world EXCEPT for me is tweeting.  But, really, do I know ANYONE who tweets?  Don't think so.

Sick of hearing about:
- Twitter
- Immigration
- Celebrities and their bad dress choices
- Marriage (especially GAY marriage)

It is almost a full time job listening to my music.  Playlist.com has a lot of problems.  Some days it does not save, some days it gets jammed up, sometimes the songs change and sometimes the links go bad. So then I move over to YouTube.  But YouTube has problems, too.  Now I am back to playlist because the Beyonce videos to two songs were stupid.  I like some gansta' rap songs and when I have to watch the videos, I realize how distasteful they really are!  I don't really want to watch Rihanna in black leather and chains.

Becoming a new person

I am becoming a new person who exercises daily and is careful about what she eats.  So I WELCOME a lecture about getting exercise because I AM that person.  AS opposed to the days when I was only wishing I would be that person.  It takes time, that is for sure.  Time I used to spend WORKING.

Is it totally crazy to want to go down to the casinos to MAKE MONEY?  If I took a bunch of twenty dollar bills and visited a machine and walked away either when I WON a bunch or when my $20 went down to $10?  You can get a really cheap room right now during the week.  I learned this by going on hotels.com.
I did pretty well on the Hot hot super respin penny machine at Resorts.  Maybe they just make you win at first to hook you in and build up your confidence.

So I spend my time writing a blog that nobody reads.  Is is a good discipline for becoming a writer?

My home away from home

It used to be my CAR but now it is the Fitness Connection in Vineland, New Jersey.  It was hard getting through the workout today.  Now I am on to the FUN part of the day, computer time at the Millville Public Library.  Unfortunately, Playlist.com is acting up again, thus impacting my happiness.  Listened to some snippets from the movie Silver linings playbook and realized that the song I liked is called Unsquare dance, by Dave Brubeck.

Each day I look at NEXT BLOG on Google for a couple of blogs.  Seem to be a lot of religious people blogging and a lot of families.  I don't know what I am, but not those.  I also have blogs under my favorites on my computer and some on my blog reader on Google.  I try to delete ones that are not up to date, no matter how intresting they are.  A lot of abandoned blogs, too.

Happy National foreign language week (March 4-10) and National nutrition month...two of my interests.  Speaking of nutrition, made a vow to start eating more (some) vegetables.  They just happened to have a display on this topic at the health club so I picked up some handouts.  Feeling somewhat proud of myself for my lunch - grapefruit and avocado and pecans and salad dressing.  Trying mightily to not eat the OTHER cookie in the bag I cracked open.  ONE of them is 100 calories and that is my self-imposed limit for snacks.
Why do they put TWO of them in the packet?  Temptation.....

Not much to say

I think I am losing interest in this blog, along with many other things.  Is it the winter blues?

Dedicating a large part of today to reading the Sunday New York times.  I usually only do that when I am visiting my sister in North Jersey as she has a subscription.  I find the actual paper so much more enjoyable than the online version.

Managed to fit everything in this weekend.  Friday night I volunteered at a concert of Ben Williams and the sound machine.  It was jazzy and very compelling and exciting.  I should go to more concerts, even if I don't know what I am going to hear, like with this group.  Out to breakfast Saturday morning at Dodge's Market in Elmer.  A tasteful array of healthy foods.  Joined some woman friends for a lunch at a friend's house and then up to North Jersey for a family reunion of sorts.  The highlights of the evening were watching Downton Abbey (unfortunately a segment I had already seen TWICE), watching one episode of The killers and going out into the hot tub while it was snowing.

Another abandoned blog?

Losing interest in this blog.  First, all the interesting things that happened to me seem to be quite long ago.  Then, my life with stuff is falling behind, not progressing ahead.  So, I am having a mid-life crisis, as it were.

Just read an article about how Facebook is a stressful environment for some and envy causes some people to not want to be on there a lot.  Seems like there are PLENTY of people who want to put their whole lives out there, though.  Other people's vacation photos can cause the most unpleasant thoughts about your own life.  People who just lurk are, apprarently, the most disatisfied of all.

Went to an interesting program last night about Microsoft Access.  I have always been a bit intimidated by this database creator  and felt totally comfortable stopping with Excel.  But this teacher actually made it interesting and made me want to create a database or be more interested in the topic in general.  Can't attend part two tonight, but maybe someday.  I just happened to be at the Cumberland County Library when it started and thought it might do me some good to stretch my brain muscles, so I went in.  Maybe I will take all of the classes.  I feel that my computer knowledge is not advancing, either, in retirement.  No annoying patrons to force me to learn new things.