The patch for the Nook is here! The patch for the Nook is here!
(And there was much rejoicing!)
The new patch for the Nook came out yesterday, and that was my evening. The patch installed flawlessly, and then I happily went about investigating and utilizing the new organizational tools for my collection. Previous to this patch, one could not sort downloaded books by genre or self-organize them in any fashion because there were no folders within the library--everything was listed about willy-nilly, with only a few sorting options (sort by date, by title, etc.).
Now, I can search for things, I can put books onto "shelves", and I can sort my shelves. Most importantly, the shelves work more like tags than discrete folders--I can list a Fantasy/Adventure story on both my "Fantasy" and "Adventure" shelves instead of just one or the other. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that shelves created in either "My Documents" or "My Library" carry over to each other! HUZZAH! I cannot express my joy as a librarian to be able to sit on my couch (and later my bed) creating categories for all of my books and then going through them and putting them into the newly created categories. I can now find my Horrors, Manuals, Scientific Articles, Adventure, Romance, Work Related, School Related, Science Fiction, Cookbooks, Short Stories, etc., in discretely organized locations! And I will say it again: HUZZAH!
The update also fiddled the power management (better battery life), page turn speed (noticeably faster), took the web browser out of beta (now official), and granted syncing of reading locations across the available apps, and password protection (prevents unauthorized purchases from the device and can be enabled to lock on idle). Barnes & Noble, I have one further request for you: my shelves are still distinct to either the Documents or Library. Can you patch this so that when I display content from the "Science Fiction" shelf, the content from both the Library and my Documents is shown together?
Also, I finally finished downloading the latest patch for World of Warcraft, and a video played where dragon popped out of the middle of Azeroth, causing much destruction (yes, I know all about Cataclysm and resulting natural disasters). He's now perched atop the burning wreckage of Stormwind on my log in screen and I can't log in because it's Tuesday Update Time! AHHH! When is Azeroth scheduled to change for the new game content? I am going to miss old Azeroth. I hope I like the changes enough so as not to be put off by them.
Alula
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
More Montana...and Maine?
Well, I was wrong about the population of the town in Montana. I had quoted the population for the city and two surrounding counties. The actual population of the "city" we could potentially be moving to is about 30,000 (half of the town I currently live in).
Mr. Borealis went to his interview in Minneapolis for the position in Montana yesterday. It went well, though he said they kept stressing the point that the position was "in Montana", and he had to sign a waiver acknowledging that he knew the position was in Montana, and he would relocate there, if he were offered and accepted the job position. Apparently it's hard to get people to move out there, and they wanted to make it clear in his mind that he would, in fact, be living in Montana.
I ask you: Does it make a city more or less of a place if it qualifies for listing on ePodunk.com??
He also got an email on Monday from the folks in Maine. (Did I tell you about Maine...?) He had previously been turned down for a phone interview because he didn't want to pay his way to fly out for an in-person interview (the Minneapolis people paid for him to fly out). They later sent him a personal note apologizing for not being able to accommodate his phone interview, and then the email came saying they had held on to his resume and wanted to talk to him about a different position.
I have decided it's more likely than not at this point that we are moving out of state; don't know where, don't know when. Dodging one bullet is a feat, but now I've got two coming straight at me. I am thoroughly stuck halfway between two worlds: one where I am a hard working professional with my career laid out before me, and one where I am exhausted and doing terrible things to my health by taking too many hours at work and school (both fueling each other at this point--need student status to keep job, need job to pay for school), waiting for Prince Charming to take me away from it all before I hurt myself.
I need advice. Badly.
Alula
Mr. Borealis went to his interview in Minneapolis for the position in Montana yesterday. It went well, though he said they kept stressing the point that the position was "in Montana", and he had to sign a waiver acknowledging that he knew the position was in Montana, and he would relocate there, if he were offered and accepted the job position. Apparently it's hard to get people to move out there, and they wanted to make it clear in his mind that he would, in fact, be living in Montana.
I ask you: Does it make a city more or less of a place if it qualifies for listing on ePodunk.com??
He also got an email on Monday from the folks in Maine. (Did I tell you about Maine...?) He had previously been turned down for a phone interview because he didn't want to pay his way to fly out for an in-person interview (the Minneapolis people paid for him to fly out). They later sent him a personal note apologizing for not being able to accommodate his phone interview, and then the email came saying they had held on to his resume and wanted to talk to him about a different position.
I have decided it's more likely than not at this point that we are moving out of state; don't know where, don't know when. Dodging one bullet is a feat, but now I've got two coming straight at me. I am thoroughly stuck halfway between two worlds: one where I am a hard working professional with my career laid out before me, and one where I am exhausted and doing terrible things to my health by taking too many hours at work and school (both fueling each other at this point--need student status to keep job, need job to pay for school), waiting for Prince Charming to take me away from it all before I hurt myself.
I need advice. Badly.
Alula
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Montana???
Well, ladies,
Yesterday my husband texted me late in the afternoon while I was still at work. He said he got a call back from a job he applied for in Montana, and they were paying to fly him out for an interview. The job is a highly paid one for the government (Federal), and the interview is in Minneapolis. Apparently the position in Montana is hard to fill, owing to the fact that the city it is in is small and does not have any nearby major universities to turn out employees in this field of work.
He's been called for interviews before. He's even been flown out for interviews before, and didn't end up getting the position (this is pretty standard for fed jobs--they fly out a few of the well-qualified candidates before hiring). But this time, when he texted me, I got a feeling like he'd just told me we were moving. I think he's going to get this job, and it's making me a little sad and nervous and excited.
The city we would be moving to has a population of just over 70,000. For reference, my (our) hometown in Colorado has a population of almost 55,000--and that's our hometown, ladies, not Denver, which has a population of about 610,000. We're talking about living in a place where the closest major city is just barely larger than the current town that we live in. The town we are looking at living in out there has a population of less than 1,500!
Think about it: no traffic. Small town lifestyle. Wilderness. Sounds great.
Sounds lonely. FYI, the city out there does not have a Qdoba, a Barnes & Noble, or a Hobby Lobby (they do have a Michael's on the far north side). This is a place where you have to buy an engine block heater and turn it on an hour before you plan to drive, or your car may not start. The average daily high does not get above freezing during December and January, which I have no qualms with because I like the cold and snow, but good grief that's cold--the average lows that time of year are single digit.
We're looking at finding a foreclosure out there on some land. About ten acres. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, looking out the windows in my living room at snow blanketing the meadows and forests with a clear starry sky and moon. A white Christmas...with all my friends and family back in Colorado.
Mr. Borealis expects that I will find a similarly successful career out there as I have here. But let's face it: he expects me to find a fantastic federal career job in a city of ~70,000? I've been scoping out the libraries and jobs out there, and have yet to find anything like what I have here. I've told Mr. B this, and he's conceded slightly that if we move, it represents a shift in focus towards his career. I don't know what that means for me. I'm sure I'll find something, and I can run some of the web oriented stuff for our business from out there, but it feels like my education is going down the toilet--it isn't exactly a hotbed of information science out there.
Alula
Yesterday my husband texted me late in the afternoon while I was still at work. He said he got a call back from a job he applied for in Montana, and they were paying to fly him out for an interview. The job is a highly paid one for the government (Federal), and the interview is in Minneapolis. Apparently the position in Montana is hard to fill, owing to the fact that the city it is in is small and does not have any nearby major universities to turn out employees in this field of work.
He's been called for interviews before. He's even been flown out for interviews before, and didn't end up getting the position (this is pretty standard for fed jobs--they fly out a few of the well-qualified candidates before hiring). But this time, when he texted me, I got a feeling like he'd just told me we were moving. I think he's going to get this job, and it's making me a little sad and nervous and excited.
The city we would be moving to has a population of just over 70,000. For reference, my (our) hometown in Colorado has a population of almost 55,000--and that's our hometown, ladies, not Denver, which has a population of about 610,000. We're talking about living in a place where the closest major city is just barely larger than the current town that we live in. The town we are looking at living in out there has a population of less than 1,500!
Think about it: no traffic. Small town lifestyle. Wilderness. Sounds great.
Sounds lonely. FYI, the city out there does not have a Qdoba, a Barnes & Noble, or a Hobby Lobby (they do have a Michael's on the far north side). This is a place where you have to buy an engine block heater and turn it on an hour before you plan to drive, or your car may not start. The average daily high does not get above freezing during December and January, which I have no qualms with because I like the cold and snow, but good grief that's cold--the average lows that time of year are single digit.
We're looking at finding a foreclosure out there on some land. About ten acres. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, looking out the windows in my living room at snow blanketing the meadows and forests with a clear starry sky and moon. A white Christmas...with all my friends and family back in Colorado.
Mr. Borealis expects that I will find a similarly successful career out there as I have here. But let's face it: he expects me to find a fantastic federal career job in a city of ~70,000? I've been scoping out the libraries and jobs out there, and have yet to find anything like what I have here. I've told Mr. B this, and he's conceded slightly that if we move, it represents a shift in focus towards his career. I don't know what that means for me. I'm sure I'll find something, and I can run some of the web oriented stuff for our business from out there, but it feels like my education is going down the toilet--it isn't exactly a hotbed of information science out there.
Alula
Monday, November 1, 2010
E-readers: Revitalizing the Art of the Short Story?
Anyone who has downloaded free content from the Barnes & Noble online catalog can tell you that one of the more annoying aspects is that some "preview" books do not advertise themselves as such. One sees that they can download a book for free, but what isn't realized until the "book" is downloaded is that it isn't a free book--it's a 30-40 page free preview.
I have nothing against free previews--free previews are a great sales device on the part of Barnes & Noble; it takes away the apprehension of buying blind by allowing a reader to sample and then decide. Free books promote sales by introducing readers to authors they may not have otherwise picked up. The only thing I am complaining about is when a free preview goes masquerading as a free book--to me, that's false advertising, and it makes me very frustrated when I open a book and see the "book" is a grand total of 37 pages in length. Worse yet is when I don't notice the length of the free "book" until I go to turn the page and nothing is there. This ranks on my top 5 list of annoying surprises in life, knocking out interrupted monkey piling:
1) flat tires/car trouble
2) unexpected visits from Aunt Flow
<-----------Biblio Interruptus goes here
3) unannounced visitation from in-laws
4) dreaded pop quiz (either at school, or in the form of impromptu meeting with the boss)
5) Interrupted monkey piling
Recently, I was reading what I thought was a book, and then, about 35 pages in, the story ended. And by ended, I don't mean prematurely--I made super sure that I had not downloaded a preview. The story was told and done in 35 pages because it was a short story.
I haven't ever really read short stories except in school for class, and I was left with with the thought that I might not have downloaded the piece had I noticed it was a short. However, after the initial shock wore off, I found myself reflecting that the short hadn't been a bad experience. I enjoyed the short, and I can think of a few places where I might enjoy a good short story to my usual novel picks. They're the perfect size to get through on a bus ride or a waiting room stay; you can get through the conclusion in time to not feel like you're on a cliffhanger, avoiding the common malady of just hitting the good part of a novel and then needing to put it down.
In the past, there was no question in my mind that I was more likely to haul around a novel instead of a book of short stories, though now that I can have both, I believe that I will start toting more short stories in my nook. I have to wonder if e-reader technology will show a resurgence of interest in short stories in the general public of e-reader owners.
Alula
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