Tag Archive: Library


Support Your Local Library

Filed under: Technology — 2 Comments
January 15, 2012

Two things I love about reading. One is library books. I love them because they are free, so if you get a book that is a total waste of paper, at least you didn’t waste any money. I’ve been fortunate in that every place I have lived there has been a library accessible to me. Even in Buffalo although I abused the privilege and kept the book for a year, and when they sent me the overdue book letter with notice of a fine that was more then the book was worth, I just dropped it in the book return. I can probably never get a library card in Buffalo again. In the Hudson Valley, not only was I within driving distance of 4 libraries. I could request a book from any library in the Hudson Valley Library system.

The other thing I love is my e-reader. It is so convenient to have all my books in one little device I can carry about with me. So imagine my joy when I discovered you could borrow e-books from the NYPL. Yes I was jumping up and down, well I would have been if I had wanted to actually get off my couch. Which I don’t have to do now to get my books from the library.

There is one little problem. The last time I borrowed a book for my e-reader, the quality was not good and I could barely read it. However, Kindle books are available and I have a Kindle app on my iPhone. I went in on NYPL mobile site and requested the book. Not downloadable through their mobile site. I had to go online with my computer and download the book. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but when I clicked to download the book I was redirected to Amazon and the book was sent to my phone. I would be able to read it the next time I synced my Kindle app. Except it didn’t. I synced and no book. However, when I went to Amazon on my phone, the book was available for download in my ‘digital purchases’, so I was able to get it on my phone and read it.

Also, with the Amazon cloud reader I am able to read Kindle books on my computer. How cool is that? I know, I don’t really like reading books on my computer, but the print is so big and at this stage of my life, the bigger print the better.

Advertisement
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Comment

Tired

Filed under: Health, Technology
February 10, 2011

That is the only reason I have for not posting. Not writer’s block, I have all these great ideas. Then I look at my computer, and just don’t have the energy to get it out and turn it on. Yesterday I was home and got an e-mail from the library that my book was in, so I went to the gym, then I went to the library to get the book. I took my computer thinking that would be the perfect opportunity, but the wifi wasn’t working. By the time I packed it up and got home, it was time to get Em.

So tonight, as I was playing with my iPod, I got the idea to write about my favorite apps. Since Verizon now has the iPhone, I will probably be getting one in December. Here are two of my favorite apps.

Groupon (free)
Groupons are coupons you buy online, then print out and take to the company that issued it to redeem it. They are for restaurants, spas, museums, classes, bike riding in Central Park and so on. K and I use them all the time when we go to Manhattan.

This app signs into your Groupon account so you can see what you have, you can sort them by ones close to you or in order of expiration date. You can use the app to redeem the Groupon if you don’t want to print it out. You can also buy the current deal through the app.

Starbucks Card Mobile (free but you need to have a Starbucks card)
This has got to be the coolest app ever. I absolutely love it. If you have a Starbucks card, first you need to register it online. Then you get this app, add your card to it and then you can pay at Starbucks with your iPod or iPhone. After you pay, the app updates and give you your new balance. This is my app, yes I have $80 on my Starbucks card. Don’t judge me, yes I’m addicted. It’s a gold card and everytime I get 15 stars I get a coupon for a free drink. I have received a lot of coupons.

I would say these are my favorites, but I have to also mention I have game apps besides Words with Friends, I have Angry Birds, JewelMagic, Spider Solitaire and Word Warp. I also have the following apps iBooks, Kindle, Kobo.books and Nook for reading e-books. I have apps for Weightwatchers and Chase bank, my iPod keeps me pretty much connected with the world and makes my life easier.

Tags: , , , , ,
Comment

>More on Today

Filed under: Uncategorized
January 10, 2011

>With all the running around Saturday I forgot to go to the library. Sunday I had to catch the train before it opened. Today someone from the library called me. It was in response to an e-mail I sent about being on the waiting list for a book I requested. Apparently since Beacon owns the book, and I am picking the book up in Beacon, that puts me on a ‘preferred list’. I’m second on that list, I will probably still have to wait a few weeks for the book, but I have all the other books I requested, which I forgot to get on Saturday.

During the course of the conversation she mentioned my books needed to be picked up today or they would be sent back. “GULP” There was no way I could get there before they closed. Even though I felt horrible today and wanted to come home early, I wasn’t sure I could get anyone to come get me or take me to the library afterwards. She did me a ‘favor’ (I think) by checking them out for me and I will just be able to pick them up tomorrow. I have a couple of theories why, one being I don’t know how much work it is for them to take the books off the shelf and send them back or two, of all the books I have requested, this is the first time I haven’t been it to get them. Anyway, hopefully I will able to get my books tomorrow.

Tags: ,
Comment

>Did you know?

Filed under: Uncategorized
January 7, 2011

>You can borrow e-books. I knew you could borrow them for the Kindle, but I didn’t know about other e-readers (I have a Sony e-reader). So I started looking around on my library site and yes, they offer e-books for borrowing. You download them like you download audio books. Unfortunately, the book I mentioned in the last post is not available for borrowing as an e-book, just as an audio book.

Then I wondered if there were other places you could borrow e-books so I googled it and found an article in the NY Times. It even has links to places you can borrow e-books, such as the NYPL. They don’t have Room available as an e-book either, just as an audio book. So I am stuck waiting for the ‘hard copy’ to become available.

I also wanted to mention that I tried to post about going to the library last night, but for some reason Blogger wasn’t working. That is why I have two posts right in a row here.

Tags: , , ,
Comment

>Visiting the Library

Filed under: Uncategorized

>Someone recommended this book to me. I am not recommending this book, I have not read it yet. This is the summary of the book.

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
To five-year-old Jack Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack but to Ma it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination ingenuity and fierce motherly love Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Told entirely in the language of the energetic pragmatic five-year-old Jack ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

I have read another book by Emma Donoghue called Slammerkin.

There were some other books I wanted to read so I went online and requested them from the library. I got e-mails about the other books but not this one so I checked on it. Apparently, I was not the only one that got a recommendation about this book. There were something like 76 requests, but only 34 books. I got the bright idea that maybe the NYPL (New York Public Library) would have it. So I went online there and put in a request, there were 93 requests but more books. So I requested it. I was told I couldn’t put a hold on the book, there was ‘something wrong’ with my card. My card expired on 1/1/2011 and I had to renew it in person at the library. Oh crap. Now when was I going to be able to do that?

As it turned out, Wednesday morning my alarm didn’t go off. Stitch told me he wasn’t sure if this was the Wednesday I worked or was off so he didn’t wake me. I got ready and he took me to the train station, but I told my boss I would be in at noon and used the extra time to go to the library. After I renewed my card, I went on the computer and put a hold on the book. I stopped to chat with two very nice ladies that work/volunteer at the library and told them what I had done. One of them said, “You know they’ll both come in at the same time.” Then there was a flash and they started to look around, “Someone is using a flash.” Flash photography is not permitted in the library. So I asked them if they want me to go hit the person with my cane. To which one replied, “YES! VERY HARD!” Nice to know I’m not the only mean old lady.

Tags: , , ,
Comment

Phone not working

Filed under: Health, Technology, Weather
August 14, 2008

Well, not really, I just have problems if I go online. I thought it might be because I now have 1,000 messages in my AOL inbox, but when I signed off and tried to send a text, the phone froze up so I had to take the battery out to use the phone, I couldn’t even turn it off. So now I am just killing time because I am so tired and I just want to go home.

It was raining so heavy this morning the backyard looked like the everglades. Except no gators.

When I got home, Tigger wanted to look at my phone to see what it was doing, of course, it didn’t make the lines across the touch screen when he was playing with it. No, couldn’t misbehave for beloved Tigger could it?

I am almost done with Murder in the Adirondacks. I have finished the account of the murder and trial and execution, now he is writing about how the novel “An American Tragedy” came about.

Got the score for the football game: Steelers 21, Bills 24

And Cookie sent me an e-mail, could it be Grace is taking a supplement and that is why she is losing so much weight? I mean, 25 pounds in 5 weeks. I keep forgetting to ask M about it. I am sure she would have an opinion. I told her about the Chipotle flavored olive oil, so of course she had me get some for her, then she put it in her oil mister thing so she could spray it on her popcorn. I didn’t try any, but I am sure it is delish.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Comment

grr

Filed under: Health
August 12, 2008

up this am. hope its just water.

Well I ate too much today, I ran through all my points and then some and got a tummy ache. Then I was too tired to go to Allsport. Tomorrow is meeting so I won’t be working out. I will have to Thursday and Friday. I have to lose this weight. I started Murder in the Adirondacks last night. It is very interesting. I was afraid it would be like other true crime books I have tried to read, I mean not Ann Rule, but it is very readable. He does not embellish things, he reports the events as near as he can determine, if the facts are not available, he states that. It is a throughly investigated book. In the preface he describes what he went through to get the necessary information. I can’t wait to finish. I also can’t remember the next book I requested. I will have to check that out for you.

It is Whistling in the Dark. About a serial killer that preys on little girls. Should be interesting.

Tags: , , , ,
Comment

Just One Look by Harlan Coben

Filed under: Uncategorized
August 1, 2008

I actually read this book twice, I kind of skimmed through it, then put it aside and when I finished my library books I picked it up again and read it through, no skimming or skipping. Even knowing how it ended I still couldn’t stop reading it.

Just One Look by Harlan Coben

The Barnes & Noble Review
Photographs are a way of putting memories on paper and, like memories, they can be precious — or dangerous. For housewife Grace Lawson, the ordinary act of picking up a pack of family photos sets an extraordinary sequence of events in motion, and the danger builds momentum with every turn of the page.

Among prints of a happy family vacation is one photo that doesn’t belong — a picture taken 20 years ago of a group of strangers, including someone who looks remarkably like Grace’s husband as a young man. Before Grace can get her husband to explain, he disappears; and her search for the truth behind this glimpse of an earlier time involves digging into past secrets and tragedies that trigger a deadly series of all-too-current events. In Just One Look, award-winning suspense writer Harlan Coben has created tantalizing and terrifying interconnected mysteries. Sue Stone

And somehow, he makes it work, you think, there is no way all these different story lines and people are going to come together. The ending is “WOW” and somehow, believable.

Tags: , , ,
Comment

Herman has gone too far

Filed under: Weather, Work
May 22, 2008

Cold, gray damp morning has changed to raining buckets. I was going to the deli but changed my mind and came to the diner, it wasn’t just the rain but the wind was blowing like crazy. Huh, now the sun is shining. Go figure.

Finished Playing with Fire on the way home from work. I am going to try to write a review but not right now. I am just going to insert the picture and then go do some errands. I had to restrict the viewing of this blog. I was so mad this morning I almost cursed at H. I am going now to make my previous posts visible since he won’t be able to see them anymore. I hope.

Yes so now only people I invite can view this blog, that means the ladies on BTF that have been reading it can no longer do so. Well, I got an AOL e-mail address and created a Google account with that and they can use that if they want to.

Playing with Fire starts with an arson, two people died. It turns into a murder investigation when it is discovered that one of the victims was drugged with a date-rape drug. The other victim was unintended. Then there is another fire, also murder. There is also follow up with the boyfriend of the other victim, investigation into allegations of abuse, Peter Robinson does a good job of continuing the two story lines in a logical manner. The characters are not cookie cutter and are very believable. He must do an incredible amount of research. I also like that each novel in the series feels like a stand-alone. He does not do the same plot, same ending, different guest stars with each book in the series.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comment

Vacw

Filed under: Family N Friends, Work
May 19, 2008

VACW stands for very annoying co-worker and it is Herman, he knows who he is. He is upset because someone has been putting plants in his pot and now he thinks I know who did it, I don’t but I know who had some cuttings from the big tree that used to be in the stairwell, the big tree that scared me, but I am not telling him, why? So he can go annoy them? If he thinks he can get me to tell he doesn’t know me at all.

I was going to say something else and it totally slipped my mind when I had to sign back in.

OK so the VACW is upset about this post and wants me to delete it, I said “No.” He says he will post a comment. Fine. He can do what he wants. He has been coming to my desk all day, now he wants an upgrade, he wants to be the EACW. Extremely Annoying Co-Worker.

Talk about annoying, Fred’s friends are under the deck and screaming by my window and it is annoying me. Alot, mainly I am afraid to change my clothes with them lurking about outside. M. was telling about the seniors pulling a prank and that it got interrupted by the police, they were going to use plastic forks to make 2008. However, someone ruined the flowers by the flagpole, that is just mean.

Finished this book today, another good novel by Peter Robinson.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comment