Book Meme

I got this meme from Flitting through Canadian Fiction and it looked fun (since it's about books), so I thought I'd answer it and pass it on.

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down? I'm pretty picky with my books, so bookmarks only. My daughter and I like to make beaded ribbon bookmarks (I'll post some pictures on here).

2. Do you lend your books? Rarely, unless it's a duplicate copy.

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS! Absolutely no writing in books. I cringe when I see some of them where I wrote my name or embossed them with my initials back when I started buying books.

4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off? Always leave the dust jackets on.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book? I much prefer hard cover when I can get them. They're so much more durable and most of my books I keep forever.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines? No particular order, except I try to keep authors together, but it isn't always easy. My signed books I keep in a special shelf in my room, though.

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later? Libraries as much as possible, unless it's one they don't have, or I'm collecting the author.

8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp? Never, since I learned that it devalues the books.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications? Both. I buy bargain books, book club editions, library sale books, but I do have some signed editions of special authors that I collect. I've told my kids that these are the books they should keep if I croak.

10. Page edges - deckled or straight? Straight - deckled edges feel kinda funky to me.

11. How many books do you read at one time? I'm a 1-at-a-time person so I can make sure I keep all the details and characters straight.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book? No, although I have owned (and still do) books where the pages are falling out due to broken spines.

Celtics vs Bulls Game 5

Tonight is Game 5 in the Celtics - Bulls playoff series, back at Boston. I hope the Celtics win the next 2 games and close out this round. Rajon Rondo has been outstanding. And yes, I'm crocheting during the games, so I'll post an updated picture of my rag rug (attempt 3) later.

I don't always follow the NBA during the regular season, but I enjoy the playoffs. It's much more intense and fun.

I kinda do the same thing with baseball season, except that I do like to watch the Boston Red Sox, especially when they play their rivals the Yankees and now the Rays.

Photo courtesy of http://celticsstore.seenon.com/, but I'm not affiliated with them in any way.

Adgitize

I keep finding the coolest sites while surfing EntreCard. I've seen blog posts about Adgitize, so I decided to check it out and of course, I joined.

I put my Adgitize button in the sidebar under my EntreCard button to make it easier for bloggers who use both systems, since they do complement each other.

Adgitize works on a point system where you earn points for visiting the advertisers' site (clicking on the ad shown in the Adgitize box), for updating your blog(s), for other people visiting your blog(s), and more. Then the points are converted to earnings.

I'll keep you updated on how it goes, but after the first week, I'm pretty impressed.

Rag Rug (Decision Point 2)

I wasn't totally pleased with the dimensions on my 2nd attempt on the rag rug. I wanted it to be more rectangular, but as it grew, it was becoming more square. (That's a yardstick on the 1st picture to let you know how long/wide it was).

After consulting with my family (they got to vote on rectangular or oval shape), I decided to unravel the whole thing and start over. This time, I made my foundation chain over 2X as long (12 for the 1st rug, 30 for the 2nd).

Now that the basketball playoffs have started, I'll crochet while watching Boston Celtics games.

Earth Day 2009

After 8 years, I've finally almost met my goal of saving almost 2000 books from being shredded. I started RescuedBooks in April 2001 after I found out that leftover books from our local library sale were going to the recycling center to be sent out for shredding. I LOVE books and I couldn't stand the thought of them being destroyed, especially since some of these were out of print and no longer available.

You can read the rest on the site, but after 8 years, it's time to close. I'm thankful to everyone who has bought the books over the years, and it's really been a labor of love for me.

Fantasy Farm

I just found about Fantasy Farm on Facebook last week and I decided to try it. Like I really need another addictive, fun activity to make me spend more time on the computer.

You start with a farm, and you plant crops, harvest them, sell them, buy more seeds, etc. As you take care of your farm, you earn points and levels.

Also, if you invite friends to play with you, you can steal from their farm and send them gifts. I'm not that far along yet, and only my sister is playing so far.

Cornelia Read

I finished the mystery "Field of Darkness" by Cornelia Read, which is the 1st book featuring Madeline Dare. The setting is Syracuse, NY and Madeline is a local newspaper journalist who's trying to find out if her cousin might be involved in a 20-year-old unsolved murder.

I enjoyed the book and want to get the next in the series (thank heavens our local library has it). Although I guess it's technically not a series yet since there are only 2 books, however she is writing the 3rd. When I get attached to a main character, I like to have MANY books to read sequentially.

YouData Gadgets

Ok, I want to play with some more blog gadgets or widgets or whatever. I joined YouData after seeing it on a couple of blogs (while surfing EntreCard), and they've already paid me $3.70 so I'm happy.

There's a YouData widget you can add to your blog (called a Recipient Account) that I'm going to try over in the sidebar. If you have a YouData account and come to my blog, you can login to your YouData account and view ads (I get paid a small portion if you view them through my blog).

Anyway, I'm going to add the script and try it out, so if you have a YouData account, please let me know if it works for you. Or if you want to join, that would be great, too.

Notes from the Universe

Since I mentioned the Law of Attraction yesterday, I'd like to also suggest these "Notes from the Universe" by Mike Dooley. It's free to sign up and you'll get a new note by email every day (Monday - Friday). The script I've included to the left will display a new note every day, so I might eventually move it over to my sidebar. Let me know if you like it.

Jury Duty and LOA

Chalk this one up to the Law of Attraction. I was reading at a blog I found while surfing on EntreCard, and I thought the eJury program sounded kinda fun but I decided to bookmark it and decide later.

Then a week or so later, I get called for Jury Duty. Actually, it's a period of 2 months (starting next month) where I can be called at anytime. Coincidence or LOA ?

The first time this happened to me, I was reading Richard Bach's books about flying, and then got a free flying lesson in the mail from our local airport. This was before LOA was really mainstream, but it was very eye-opening to me.

MyTweeple

Ok, this will be my last Twitter post for awhile, but I've really appreciated all the suggestions from you all. So far, the app that most closely matches what I want it MyTweeple.

What I wanted was to very quickly see the latest updates from people that I'm following. My Tweeple lists everyone (you can select following, follower, or all) in alphabetical order, then has the coolest View button where you can mouseover and see their latest tweets.

The only other feature I'd love to have is a way to mark people I'm following as "Favorites" so they're at the top of the list, but that's just a "nice to have" idea.

TweetDeck

I'm still continuing my quest for the best way to use Twitter, so I tried TweetDeck since I saw that alot of the twitterers use it. I thought it had some nice features, but overall, I thought it was just as easy to use regular Twitter. And maybe it's my imagination, but it seemed that it slowed my other computer applications (requires alot of memory to use?) So I've uninstalled it.

What I'd really like is an app that would let me select 5 - 10 people that I follow and show their updates on the screen in columns. Right now I have to click through them one by one (or open each one in a new tab) if I want to see ONLY their updates. If anyone knows of an app like this, just leave me a comment.

Kroger Design A Bag

Kroger is having a contest to design a reusable shopping bag, so for fun, I created a bag online and entered. You can vote for my design by clicking on the bag picture or by clicking here And of course, you can design your own !!

The top 10 designs will be featured on the site (I'm assuming Kroger.com), and every Shopper's Card holder who enters the contest will get a free reusable shopping bag.*

* 5 Runners Up will receive a $100 Kroger Co. gift card.
* 4 Finalists will receive a $250 Kroger Co. gift card.
* 1 Grand-Prize Winner will receive a $1,000 Kroger Co. gift card and may see his/her bag in stores.

I'm not affiliated with Kroger in any way

TwitterFeed

Although I'm still trying to understand the best ways for me to use Twitter, I really do like the TwitterFeed application.

I use TwitterFeed to feed blog posts (like this one) to Twitter. I have it set to check for new posts on all my blogs, and it updates Twitter for me automatically.

It meets several of my criteria:
it's very easy to set up and use,
it's intuitive,
it's reliable,
it's free.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin

I just finished "Exit Music" by Ian Rankin and I'm feeling very conflicted. As you know, I love mystery series, and this is the 17th and possibly last in the series featuring DI John Rebus.

The reason for the conflict is that I don't want it to be the last. In this book, Rebus is finishing up cases with his retirement days away. Although Harry Bosch in the Michael Connelly books retired and then was asked to return and work on cold cases, so maybe the same will happen with Rebus ?

I still have other books by Rankin to read featuring Gordon Reeve (where Rankin is writing as Jack Harvey).

National Championship

Call me superstitious or something, but I feel that I have to post about the national championship tonight (I just hope I don't jinx the Lady Cards). The game will be on soon so I'll go watch it, but just wanted to wish Louisville well tonight in the game.

Rag Rug (Second Try)

As promised, here's my second try on the rag rug and I'm much happier with it. In this picture, it's about 2 feet by 3 feet and I'd like it much bigger (maybe 5 feet by 7 feet).

And congratulations to the Louisville Cardinals for making it to the National Championship !! What an exciting game - I'm definitely glad I had my crocheting since it came down to a last second shot.

Louisville vs. Oklahoma

The women's basketball Final Four is played tonight and Louisville will play Oklahoma. I will definitely be rooting for the Lady Cards and cheering for them.

And yes, I actually do have another crochet project started (although it didn't help the men's team, but I did try !!) I've re-started my rag rug crochet and I'm making it rectangular, but in the round instead of rows. I will post a picture tomorrow so you can see - I'm proud of how it's progressing so far.

Big Book of Holiday Crochet

I bought this book yesterday at Crafts 2000. As a Plus member, I received a coupon for $10.99 off any book, so I've been considering this one for awhile. After the coupon, it cost me $4.53, so I was happy.

I've been interested in this book 'cos of the patterns for different shapes, not necessarily 'cos I want to make a Halloween witch. I'm still a beginner, but I like seeing how the stitches combine to form the 3D shapes. And I like combining patterns to make the shape I like. That's how I learn (and I'm not shy about unraveling everything and starting over !!)

Lightworker.com

I love this site and have been reading these updates from The Group for many years. I find these messages (in the same vein as Esther and Jerry Hicks, Sylvia Browne, etc) to be very uplifting and empowering. The most recent one I found to be quite intriguing, especially as it does appear that humanity is taking a big leap forward in personal responsibility.

I'm not affiliated with Lightworker.com in any way

Thomas Perry

"Runner" by Thomas Perry is a long-awaited (at least by me) novel in the Jane Whitefield series. Jane is a "guide" who helps people disappear from situations where someone is chasing them, usually with intent to harm. She gets them to a safe place and helps them establish new identities so their enemies can't find them.

The previous Jane books were great, and it's been several years since the last book. I haven't read any of Perry's other books yet, so I'll put them on my reading list. Maybe that would make an interesting blog entry: my reading wish list !!

Top Droppers for March

Thank you so much to my top droppers for March. If you want to know more about this, please visit EntreCard

Singapore Draws
Eating in New Zealand
Art Joolree
My Heart Voice
Serian Man
Moshi & Kibo's Dog Blog
Personal Finance Management Guide
Gems by Jerri
Yarn Hall
Three Fates Design - Beaded Jewelry
The Novice Master
Wonderful Things in LIfe
Confessions of a Psychotic Housewife
Split Rock Ranch
Dallas Marketing Services
Betty Mae Artistry
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles
Life In The Fat Lane
Life With Roxxymetal
Hello Kitty Gifts
First Door on the Left
Boutique Flair
Stuff and Nonsense
The Work From Home Mother
The Frugal Housewife