kate_nepveu | Week in Review

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Week in Review

After working relatively late on Wednesday, we headed to Chad's parents to spend the holiday. (Spreading holiday celebrations over two weekends is hard on the dog, but driving ten hours in one weekend is harder on us.) Had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with Chad's parents and grandmother; some neighbors came over for dessert later. Spent a while working on the 1500-piece jigsaw Christmas puzzle that gets brought every year out on Thanksgiving, thoroughly kinking my neck in the process—not so smart. (I poked at it a bit from time to time after, with somewhat bad effects on my shoulders at the end, but I couldn't stop then!)

On Friday, Chad and I made the rounds of local bookstores, and to my sadness I discovered that it is, in fact, possible to have too many books. The Book Barn of the Finger Lakes is literally a barn; its upstairs (where the genre fiction is) is very poorly lit and not heated at all, and books are double-shelved, piled on top of each other, and stacked precariously all over the place. I could feel myself developing a fine case of claustrophobia to go with the despair that there might be the One Book I needed somewhere in all that, but it was too cold/dark/crowded for me to find it.

It would probably be a lovely place to visit in the spring or fall, possibly with the addition of a flashlight. (Not really the place to look for bargains, though.)

Acquisitions: Gambit by Rex Stout for rysmiel, one of Dunnett's mysteries (I have two from the middle, now, and really should read one of them to make sure I like them before I acquire more), and The Cardinal of the Kremlin as urged by booklog commenters.

After lunch, we stopped in at the Fat Cat in Johnson City, which is still a worthy sf store though it's focusing more on gaming and space for gaming (I can't speak to the quality of their comics selection). In a new development, the Fat Cat now has—cats. Acquisition: the second Exordium book, Ruler of Naught, to find a good home for, either as part of a set that I'm collecting or separately (the books are upstairs and I can't be bothered just now to go check whether I already had a spare of it).

Which reminds me—a query to my readers with PDAs: how and why do you use them, and what are the pros and cons? I see that prices for intro-level units are approaching something I'd pay, and depending on the size and weight I might be interested, but I don't know if I'd really update it any more than the paper notebook and calendar I carry around. Thoughts?

Saturday we went sledding (Chad suggested it, and I think from his tone of voice I was expected to vigorously object to the idea). It wasn't great sledding snow, being powdery and not that deep, but we had a lot of fun. Chad's father's dog, a stocky and energetic Lab, had a great time running down the hill just in front of us (well, Chad did run into him once). Pictures, about 200KB each: Kate and dog, Chad and dog.

Today we left in the morning after Chad helped his dad hang a door. Came home to a happy, well-cared-for Emmy (relieving the non-rational part of my brain, as one of my many anxiety dreams this weekend consisted of the dog sitter not coming all weekend), and now I'm watching the Patriots game (down 16-3 to the Chiefs, it's not looking so good) while Chad dozes on the couch. After the game I'll take the dog for a walk and then go restock on groceries, do laundry, all that fun kind of stuff.

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I use the address/phone book; the calendar/appointment book; a calculator, two useful freeware apps, namely a shopping list program, which has the advantage that I can skim the list of things I've entered before to see if I need something I overlooked, like toilet paper or canned tomatoes, and a delightful thing called MetrO, which provides directions between stations and often other points of interest for, as far as I can tell, every subway/metro network on the planet plus a number of bus and light rail systems.

I also use, if that's the word for it, an addictive game called Bubblet.

For me, a major advantage of the Palm over paper for these purposes is that it weighs about 4.3 ounces and can go in a belt pouch, so it doesn't strain my shoulder and I have it handy almost all the time.

Having broken/worn out two, I went to eBay and bought three or four used, well-behind-the-curve Palms (technically, at least one is a clone). No phone, no camera, screen resolution low enough I've not been tempted to load reading material. No add-on keyboard, because that would add weight and inconvenience, and if I'm at home I can enter appointments and other information through the PC and then sync the two.

I carry a Moleskine pocket notebook and a small paper calendar, which I suspect collectively weigh about the same as a PDA would; but I might update more if I can sync through the PC etc. Also a shopping list program would be useful.

(I also find myself pondering how rigid the add-on keyboard is and whether it would be good for taking notes at con panels. => )

Portable keyboards, the kind that unfold, stand up well to some law students' note-taking use. I audited a law class a couple years ago and saw keyboards used happily with both Palms and Dell's Axim line.

Yup, that's where I first saw them; I was just wondering how well they'd do spread out over my lap while sitting in a hotel convention room. =>

You guys are always adorable - especially Chad, who looks as if he expects the dog to attack at any moment. ;)

And dude, PDAs are the best ever. I'm just entering research for one after seeing a pocket PC of a coworker's that has Word and Winamp on it and he can play video and surf the web and the thing is, like, four ounces. *has vapors*

Video and web-surfing is probably more than I want for something that's an experiment, really, but if your research turns up anything interesting, do let me know!

And thanks for the comments on the pictures, though it's a very non-attacking kind of doggie.

DOGGIE!! So cute! He reminds me of Murph with his size and color.

It snowed the other day here, and Jack wanted out when he noticed. He spent about fifteen minutes barking at snowflakes and explaining whose yard they were in.

He's a really sweet dog, a lunkhead but sweet. Your Murphy had more expressive ears, as I recall the pictures, but very similar coloring and sweet faces.

Emmy likes to bound through the snow but thankfully she doesn't bark at it.

I keep a variety of text files on my PC (books for which I am looking, lists of rubber stamping supplies so I don't make duplicate purchases, and other items.) I use a Free Software product called plucker to format them for the PDA (a Tungsten T3.) I also use HandyShopper for grocery shopping, which is a freeware application (probably the one to which Redbird if referring.) My addictive game of choice is a shareware program called Bejeweled. I also keep a variety of novels on it, some in Plucker format, some in other formats. These are either public domain novels from Gutenberg or novels I have bought online. I rarely read them on the PDA, but it helps forestall that feeling of panic when you get stuck somewhere without anything to read. I also use a freeware program called BigClock, which has a variety of alarms and countdown timers.

I keep my calendar and contact information in a Linux program called Evolution, and sync to my Palm so I can use it as a reference. I like how lightweight the T3 is to carry in my purse. The T3 was a gift from my sister: my Palm III which I had used for years was getting worn out.

I shall keep those programs in mind if I get one, thanks!

Beyond the basic comes-with apps, I second the use of Plucker, Bejeweled 2 ;) and the local metro schedule app. Similarly, Plucker has helped me to read work-related docs as well as fan and pro fic. Always having something to read while traveling or riding transit is a Good Thing, since I often misestimate how much paperback material to bring....

DocumentsToGo has minor file-handlihg annoyances but produces reasonable Excel- and Word-compatible files (I use WP). DocsToGo doesn't like HTML--hence Plucker--but it displays XML fine as text, which probably isn't an issue for you. I have the Palm Tungsten C, whose little built-in keyboard let me write part of a diss chapter, revise job cover letters last year, touch up manuscript transcriptions in archives.... The keybd's slow compared with regular-sized keyboard typing, obviously, but there's nothing extra to carry and no accidentally too-hard stabbing with the stylus when the bus jolts or whatever.

Another few handy freeware programs for Palm: ToastTimer, which has been good for cooking and student presentations alike; Yaps, Yet Another Password Safe, which resembles this desktop app (http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/) a bit; Palm Tuner, which gives a few pitches and a metronome. :) TuSSH is good if one has wireless or phone-enabled internet access and a shell acct to reach.

Were I buying a PDA soon--and I might in spring, since the keys are starting to hiccup after 2+ years--I'd get the Palm TX and an external keyboard. I still don't trust Windows Mobile despite using XP Pro at home, and the Treo 650 keybd is a little small even for me, which slows typing further. Seems difficult to find a Palm-compatible with built-in keybd.

Hmm, these are all good things to think about, thanks--I really haven't gotten far at all in thinking about this, as you can probably tell.

I'm definitely curious to see what people say about PDAs. For a while now I've been wondering if one would help me. I don't carry a notebook around or calendar, so that's one thing I could use it for. But the motivation for getting one is, even more important than listing what books and DVDs I already own and which ones I want to get, is recording information about restaurants and stores: Hours, location, phone number, and what's good and what's bad. For example, "this is a good sushi restaurant, but avoid the boat: I don't like the selection".

Is there a reason that a text list couldn't do that?

The Palm Z22 is the entry-level PDA I'd heard about, and it seems to get solid reviews for what it is. I may pick one up (literally) while Christmas shopping this weekend and see how it feels.

Electronic text is good enough for me. But text on dead trees would be awkward to backup and rearrange and, depending on how wordy I am, hard to fit in my wallet.

Right, e-text is what I meant. Any PDA will do that, it seems.

Message from

rysmiel's bed of pain: "Ooh, that's nice of Kate!"

I must cross it off the paper list in my paper notebook of Nero Wolfe and Dumas that

rysmiel's looking for.

Well, when I heard that r.'d sent us a _non-spare_ copy so that we could complete our collection--how could I not look for another copy to replace it?

And I have just found your postcode in an old e-mail, so it should go out tomorrow.

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Week in Review

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