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A crossroads, a break, the end, who knows?

Sep 07 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

I’ve been putting off writing my annual blogversary post — my fourth — for weeks now. I have to confess it’s because I have no idea what, if anything, I am going to do with this blog going forward. I feel as if I’ve run out of steam, and I have a sense that taking a break won’t help. I don’t know how other people feel when they quit blogging, but for me, it’s really hard to look back at four years of posts, of friends, of conversations, and of visitors, and just abandon it all, especially when more people are reading RRR than ever before. But it shouldn’t be about all the effort I’ve “invested” over the years, but about the pleasure I get from doing it now. More importantly, you’ll all still be tweeting and blogging, and I don’t have to stop talking with and learning from the wonderful people of the book blogging community.

I’m not sure if it’s a hiatus, a sabbatical, or The End, but am sure that I’ve had a great four years here, thanks to you.

Thank you so much for reading!

Edited to add: You can still find me on Twitter (@RRRJessica). Cheers!

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Update: What I’ve Been Up to

Jul 16 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

Just a quick personal update, hopefully to get me warmed up for writing a few real posts this week:

I’ve been traveling a lot with family the last few weeks. First we went to Florida, as we do every year, and finally got to experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal. I was the only person in my family to enjoy the butter beer. It’s like cream soda with an extra buttery thick head of foam. I’m also the only person who loves funnel cakes (I actually call them doughboys, but I seem to be in the minority) as you can see here. My son took about ten pics and this is the only one in which I am not covered in powdered sugar.
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Seeking an alternative to iGoogle. Any ideas?

Jul 05 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

In November of 2013, Google is discontinuing iGoogle, which has been my homepage for years. With iGoogle, I had all these useful widgets: Calendar, Reader, Gmail,Weather, To Do list … right on my homepage where I could easily access them. (I may also have had useless widgets like Pet Turtle. Not that you’ll ever know.) I realize this is a lesson in how evil Google is: that it won’t support something that doesn’t make the company lots of money, and that I should never count on a big corporation to help me organize my life. But I still find the company’s explanation weak:

“With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time,” he wrote.

I compute at my desktop 95% of the time, and don’t want to open a new page or an app every time I need some quick info. With iGoogle as my homepage, all of that info is there in front of me.

Here’s what it looks like:

I realize I have over a year to make the switch, but I’m so annoyed I want to start now. so… any ideas?

22 responses so far

My son Max’s latest literary venture

May 31 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

Some long time readers might recall Max’s turtle story, the one that got him in trouble with his third grade teacher. A year later, he’s almost finished fourth grade, and he has a new story — BACON QUEST – to share. However, as his agent, I’ve decided to post only select pages.

In his author page, Max notes that he “goes to school, where his brain becomes useful” and “now has a no-pay job as a writer.”

I’m happy to report that Max is right on top of the newest literary trends… appropriating other authors’ established characters:

With apologies to Mr. Conley

Have you noticed kids today can make a character out of anything?

Some of Max’s trademark humor:

To find out whether BACON QUEST* was successful, buy the book. BACON QUEST will be available for $299.99 on Smashwords after content editing, copyediting, and graphic design. By which I mean: look for it in 24 hours.

*Max has been a vegetarian for exactly one year.

9 responses so far

My new Kindle Touch (what I’m reading ON now)

May 12 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

In March 2009, I took the e-reader plunge and bought a Kindle. It was the white keyboard with the bubble keys. I still have it and it still works great. A friend “borrowed” it about 6 months ago and I haven’t seen it since, but it’s ok, since in December 2010, I purchased a newer model, a graphite Kindle keyboard, for my son for Hanukkah. That’s the one I’ve been using, since he tends to use it only when he’s forgotten his book at school and begs me to download an e-version so he can get his homework done on time (most recently? Lord of the Flies, which is surprisingly very expensive!). It has a leather cover with an integrated light, and that one works great too. This spring, he’s been bringing it to school, and I do hope he uses it more. He says he reads faster on the Kindle, and that has been my experience as well.

I asked for, and received, a Kindle touch wifi 3g for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.

5 responses so far

Twitter hiatus, productivity tools, what I’m reading

Apr 30 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

1. I decided to take a break from Twitter, so I deactivated my account. I believe I’ve got a month to reactivate it, but I don’t mind starting over if need be. I love Twitter, but it’s too much of a time suck right now. How do I know this for sure? Well, I signed up for Rescue Time, a free program that tracks what you are doing on the web. Suffice to say I did not like the results over the past few weeks. The thing about Twitter is that it always feels like a really short break. But adding up those many short breaks a day is a terrifying thing.

I’ve been trying out some other productivity tools. Freedom is a good (free) program, for Mac users, that turns off the web for a set amount of time. It’s great when I need to write a draft of an ethics consult or a syllabus (For PC users, Self-control does the same thing).

When I’m writing a paper or presentation, though, I need the internet. So, I downloaded Anti-Social, another Mac program, by the same people who brought us Freedom. Anti-Social, which costs $15, blocks a predetermined set of known time wasters (the usual suspects, including Twitter and Facebook), and then any other sites you enter in, for a set amount of time. The nice thing about Anti-Social (as opposed to browser specific programs like Leechblock, which only works when you are in Firefox) is that you can’t get around it by opening another browser.

I do have Leechblock, and one nice thing about it is that you can set it to give you a certain amount of time on a specific site. You see the timer counting down in the right hand corner of the browser bar. After that, you can’t get into the site until the next day. Or… you just open Safari. (You can see why I needed Anti-Social)

This article from The 99 percent lists a few other productivity tools.

Anyway, I did not expect my break from Twitter to alarm so many people (who then emailed me). I’m sorry I didn’t tweet about it first!

18 responses so far

Adventures in Makin’ Bacon

Apr 15 2012 Published by Jessica under Navel gazing

When our friends asked us if we would join them for bacon making classes, our first reaction was, “You are members of a top secret meat club and ARE ONLY TELLING US NOW?!” After we calmed down, they told us about the Bangor Bacon Club, which is a small informal club dedicated to traditional ways of curing food, mostly meats, but some seafood as well, in the basement of a house located very close to Stephen King’s. We were slightly nervous when we received an invitation instructing us to bring a cutting board, a sharp knife, and our children. But when it ended with “use the side door to enter the house. BYOB,” we knew we were in good Mainers’ hands.

The bacon club is the brainchild of a local man who has taught himself how to make bacon, pancetta, salamis, beef jerky, corned beef, gravlax, and seafood sausage. In the basement of a lovely old giant home (witness my awesome architectural wisdom!) , several stainless steel workstations are set up. We picked out our pork belly (being a romance reader, I naturally went for the one with the rosy nipples that could cut glass), and got to work.

Instructions were provided on a chalk board:

9 responses so far

What I’m Up To, Politics Fatigue, and Links

Mar 07 2012 Published by Jessica under Links, Navel gazing

This is week two of my two week uni spring break. I’ve been working pretty hard and not breaking at all, but it’s nice to do so without teaching at the same time. The only day I’ve taken completely off was yesterday, when I dragged an arm chair in front of the wood stove and sat with a cup of tea, my pets, and my kindle all day. It was so nice.

I got a call from the hospital yesterday (where I work as an ethicist, and am always, more or less, on call). The doctor asked, “Are you here right now?” in a tone I know well, and I knew I could either say, “No, I’m not” in my apologetic voice, or “No, but I can be there in ten.” I went with option A, and am still feeling a little guilty about it today. But I know there are others who are well-equipped to help him with his issue, and I wasn’t reneging on my “day off” promise to myself.

It’s that time of year in Maine when you’re really ready for spring, but it’s a good month away. It’s sort of gray, the snow is still in dirty piles everywhere, but receding enough so that you can see that you really ought to have protected your dangling and wilted shrubbery a bit better. It’s not quite freezing yet not exactly warm, but you’re so sick of your overcoat that you’d rather freeze without it. It snows an inch or two every few days just as a reminder that one more big storm may yet happen. The family’s winter gear is covered in mud and needs a good washing, but you feel winter is almost over, so it can wait.

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There’s a lot going on online. Responding to the latest data on gender bias in books journalism, Jennifer Weiner wrote about the need for an all girls book network at The Guardian. Then she did some “rom fail” style tweeting E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, and some tweeps who liked that book responded negatively to her. So Weiner tweeted that she just wasn’t going to say anything negative about other women’s books, which I thought had to be a joke, until I read her blog post, that confirmed it. This is all happening at the same time the romance Fever by Joan Swan is getting a lot of criticism for featuring a racist character who uses racist language in an objectionable way. See the review that started the discussion, Mandi’s at Good Reads (which the author gave her some grief over), and then see Jane’s review at Dear Author. Over at Something More, Liz has some thoughts on How Mean is Too Mean When We Talk About Books?

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If you are interested in pursuing the fan fic question around Fifty Shades of Grey further, here is a good post and thread by PNR author Jami Gold.

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