Category: updates

Crazy

~ EMM

I might be crazy.

This fall I…

  1. started a new job…
  2. crammed one third of one semester’s worth of MIT OpenCourseware’s Intro to Comp Sci class into one week…
  3. started Coursera’s Python class (a ten week online course)…
  4. started a Writing Skills Workshop offered by UC Berkeley Extension as part of their Post-Bac Certificate Program…
  5. joined a gym and started going two to four times a week…
  6. signed a lease on an apartment and moved all our stuff out of storage…

To say I’ve been busy is a bit of an understatement.

But I like to be busy. Inertia is bad for me. Once I stop, it’s hard for me to get started again. So, best to dive in and start swimming and not stop.

Still, at times I have found myself wondering what the hell I was thinking. It’s not like my job is a nine to five gig. I’m sort of never not working… Yet, balance is good and, since I can’t really talk about work, I need to have hobbies to talk about, right? Or is that just me rationalizing my crazy?

Whatever. Everyone else my age is busy raising kids. I have a wonderful hubby, but we decided not to have kids. Instead we have jobs and hobbies and certificates. We like certificates.

I am a Certified Supply Chain Professional through APICS, and I’m certified in Wine Fundamentals by the International Sommelier Guild. Why not work for a Post-Bac Certificate in Writing from UC Berkeley? I’d love it if my coding classes would earn me a certificate, but I’ll settle for being able to code…

Tonight I should be wrapping up my final paper for my Writing Skills Workshop (I’ll get to it when I’m done here…). I have only two weeks remaining in my Python class. I should be excited about wrapping things up and taking a little break from busy.

Instead, I just signed up for two more writing classes.

I told you. I may be crazy.

The first one doesn’t start until the end of January, so I’ll still have a break (maybe enough time to finish that MIT OpenCourseware class I started?). The second class only overlaps the first by a few weeks… it doesn’t start until mid-March. I seriously hope I don’t come to regret this moment of insanity…

Books read in 2012

~ EMM

The year is winding down so I decided to check my reading stats for 2012…

I track my reading on Goodreads. My “bookshelf” of books read in 2012 is here. I’ve finished 30 books so far this year and abandoned 3 — impressive, considering how much else I’ve had going on… You can view my book stats on Goodreads to see how this compares to other years.

Details:

  • Finished 17 fiction / 13 non-fiction (the 3 abandoned were all non-fiction)
  • Read only 3 “young adult” fiction (Bitterblue, Divergent, Ender’s Game)
  • Kindle FTW! 32 of the 33 were read on Kindle… (the only non-Kindle book was Fluke – fitting?)
  • I still ❤ the library… 7 of those 33 were library books for Kindle. I have one more in-progress which I expect to add to my tally.
  • I only gave 3 books 5-star reviews (The Night Circus, Quiet, The Getaway Car)

I am still reading 3 books which I hope to finish by the end of the year. I like to wrap up all reading loose ends before midnight on December 31st… However, one of the books I’m still reading is The Complete Sherlock Holmes… So, that loose end may not get tied this year. But the other two I’m sure I can finish (A Feast for Crows and Once You’re Lucky…). That will bring my total books finished in 2012 to 32.

Best books of 2012?

I’m no judge of “best”… I just know what I like. So, instead of “best,” I’ll tell you my favorites from 2012.

My favorite of all the fiction books I read this year was, hands down, The Night Circus. I loved it so much that I just spent $20 to buy a hardcover copy for my bookshelf. Since I got this from the library, now I have a copy of my own to re-read as many times as a like.

This was a good year for new authors in the fantasy genre. I stumbled on two new authors / series (Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor) that I really enjoyed. I am eagerly awaiting the next books in these series. I was less than impressed with A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It was okay, but I’m not rushing out to read the next book in that series.

My favorite nonfiction book was definitely Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. If you are an introvert or you know/love one, you should definitely read this book. If you think introvert = shy / antisocial and that introvert is a negative characteristic, then you should definitely read this book.

I also gave a 5-star review to The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life. This Kindle Single by Ann Patchett provided little nuggets of writing wisdom and insight that made me happy. Moments where I sat up and said “Yes! That’s it exactly!” happened on almost every page. I could have underlined the whole short thing.

I have to say, this was a good year for reading. And, I love my Kindle — possibly my best electronics purchase this year. I had the Kindle app on my iPad before ordering the Kindle Touch. The iPad app is okay… but I’m constantly distracted by all the other things I can do on the iPad. The Kindle is much more like reading a book. Since it’s just the books, I can get lost in it without thinking about checking my email or surfing the internet or shopping for shoes on Zappos.

Reading on the Kindle is still not the same as reading on paper. I’m one of those readers that remembers things visually – where a particular passage was positioned on the page and in what part of the book. I also like to flip back and forth in a book (yes, I sometimes flip ahead to the end for spoilers when things get tense so I can sit back and enjoy the reading without worrying that my fave character is going to die or something). These are things that are difficult to impossible to do on the Kindle. I worry that my reading retention is degrading — especially with non-fiction books — because of my inability to flip around the way I like to do when reading. But still… the portability factor outweighs these minor inconveniences.

Now I better go finish up my homework so I can get back to reading my book!

Details, Details

~ EMM

This week started off with a crazy downpour that made me regret my conviction to take public transport. I skipped going to the gym, opened my laptop, surfed over to Amazon, and ordered myself an umbrella.

In all my years living in the PNW, I never owned an umbrella. PNW rains don’t usually warrant an umbrella, and carrying one just makes you look like a tourist. I relied on my high quality parka to stay dry. Not stylish, but it gets the job done. Of course, after ordering the umbrella and splurging on next day post, the rain slowed to a manageable drizzle, and I haven’t needed to open the umbrella once, even though I insisted on carrying it to work most of the week.

In case you are curious, I purchased a “bubble umbrella.” It’s clear plastic except for a black nylon band around the bottom edge. I love clear umbrellas. Since I’m short, it’s hard for me to see where I’m going if I have an umbrella over my head (yet another reason I’ve avoided owning one). With a clear umbrella, I’ll know if I’m going to run into anyone. I’m also hoping that I will be a bit more visible in the evening than I would be wandering around with a solid black umbrella.

Enough about umbrellas, already.

I am halfway through my Writing Skills Workshop (aka Grammar class). I still suck at comma placement, and I still love my long sentences. But I think I’m getting better. We had our grammar mid-term on Wednesday night. I didn’t have time to study for it. We’ll see how I did when the teacher hands it back on Wednesday night. (Ugh. I hate that we have class on Halloween and that I will have to miss all the little trick-or-treaters.)

I finished the book I started last week (A Discovery of Witches). The book ends on Halloween night, so that was timely. There is a sequel, which I will probably read…eventually — I’m a little sick of every author deciding that their book needs to be a trilogy. Trilogies are really on trend right now. In case you are interested, the book borders on being an “adult Twilight” in that the love interest of the main character is a vampire. But that is about where the similarities end. The main character is an adult, and a witch, and nothing like Bella Swan. The book-world is complex and rooted in history (the author is an historian — I think this is her first novel). This makes the book more interesting than your standard vampire romance, and it works well with characters that are centuries old (like vampires) or with long family histories that date to the Salem witch trials. But the romance part has a been played, repeatedly, in recent books of this genre, and it’s getting stale. Pros. Cons. Sigh.

Instead of jumping right into the sequel, I may pick up Mr. Penumbra’s 24hr Bookshop (recommended by Preston, and written by an ex-Tweep). The author recently visited Twitter to talk about the book (and hang out with his old co-workers). He read from several sections — different sections than what he usually reads. I think it will be similar to J Pod (which is not a bad thing).