Last year, the gym I go to replaced all of the old equipment with bright shiny new machines that had TVs attached to them. This has its drawbacks (we are all working out together in isolation), but there are many benefits to this as well. One is that you can watch whatever you want without inconveniencing anyone else.

From what I’ve observed in the several months that we’ve had them, men in general watch mostly sports or CNN, young women watch MuchMusic, MTV or Slice, and older women watch HGTV, FoodTV or Diva. However, the one channel almost everyone has in common is TLC.

One afternoon a few weeks ago, I went to my usual machine, started my routine and then began to flip channels until I settled on something I wanted to watch for the duration of my workout. After a while, I look around to see what everyone else is watching, since it was mostly women in the gym at that time. The vast majority of them were watching “Say Yes To The Dress” [1. It's a show about a wedding dress boutique in New York. ], while a few were watching the news. And what had I settled on?

The Empire Strikes Back. NEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDD!

A few weeks ago, a friend and former library school classmate posted about acquiring a Kobo e-reader. I have seen these things in person, and they are as easy to use as she describes. They are light, portable and the screen is easy to look at. The other nice thing about them is that you can read any document (or ebook) which is in the PDF format – meaning, you can purchase ebooks in other places as long as they are in the PDF format and use them on your Kobo.

(This was always my beef with the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader: the books were in a proprietary format which couldn’t be used on any other e-reader, and you couldn’t read ebooks that weren’t that format on the Kindle. Oh, and it wasn’t available in Canada. Now it is, and now you can read PDFs on it, but you still can’t read Amazon ebooks on other devices, as far as I can tell. Also it does have a wireless connection, so there’s that too.)

When it comes to ebook readers and platforms, I’m something of an overachiever. I have a Sony eBook Reader (more about that in a sec), three separate ebook readers on my iPod (Ereader, Stanza [2. Which I hardly use because earlier versions had lousy formatting. ] and Kobo) and two e-reader platforms on my laptop (Adobe Digital Editions and Mobipocket). It would take charts, spreadsheets and interpretive dance to explain what works with what, but here goes nothing:

• Ereader and Mobipocket don’t work with anything else. Ebooks I buy in those formats can only be read in those programs, but since I use each program for different reasons on different devices, it doesn’t really matter.
• Mobipocket is intended for handheld devices, such as Blackberries and Palm Pilots, but I only use it on my laptop. The advantages are that I can make it full screen, and change the size of the font to make it smaller or larger, and make the layout whole page, two or three columns. Primarily, I read books on here when I’m knitting because it’s easy to make the text a readable size and go to the next page without having to put everything down.
• Adobe Digital Editions works with almost everything. As long as I purchase a book in a PDF format (secure or otherwise) I can read it in this program, or load it onto the Sony.
• In ADE, I can make the book almost full screen, but not quite. I can’t change the number of columns displayed, only the number of pages, and I can’t increase or decrease the size of the font, only the amount of magnification. This is slightly annoying because if I want to display two pages on the screen, the type is crazy small, but if I want to be able to read the text, I only get a few paragraphs on the page.
• I really, really want to like the Kobo platform. Really. I tried reading an ebook on it and got more than slightly frustrated with how long it took to “turn” a page – 3 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it takes less than a fraction of a second in/on other devices, it’s a big wait. Plus, you think maybe you haven’t tapped the corner/side hard enough so you tap it again, and suddenly you’re three pages too far.
• My favourite platform for a non-laptop is Ereader. I can change the size of the font, the colour of the text and background (you can also do this in Kobo), and the orientation on the page. Yes, it’s a tiny screen and it takes getting used to. However, since I always have my iPod with me anyways I don’t have to lug around a separate device.

As for the Sony eReader: while I like that I can have many books on it at one time and can purchase books from a variety of sources (not just the Sony eReader Store), it does have some drawbacks:

• It is a battery hog, and takes forever to charge.
• Maybe it’s just my laptop, but when I plug it in to synch it with the Sony program, my laptop goes a little crazy. “Hey – there are ebooks on here!” it tells me. “Wait… there are also sound files [3. I can also put audiobooks on the device, but since I'm not a fan of audiobooks, I don't. ] – want me to open iTunes?” it says in a puzzled tone. “Hold on a sec… there are pictures on here! Can I open a photo editing program for you?” By now, it’s got that puffy-eyed look that small children get right before they burst into tears, and I want to hug it and tell it that it’s okay, don’t open anything – just synch with the Sony program – but by now it’s melting down and the whole thing freezes and I have to throw my hands in the air. [4. Yes, I assign human characteristics to my technical devices - doesn't everyone? ]
• It also takes forever to turn a page.
• Apparently, you are supposed to be able to take notes with it, but it’s never worked for me.

However! Other positives of the Sony: it has back lights, so if you’re reading in the dark you don’t kill your eyes; there are two card slots so you can add a lot more memory to it; and it has a stylus you can use to tap the screen to turn the page, instead of using the page turn buttons on the bottom of the screen.

AND! In case you thought I had run out of things to talk about (yeah… not happening), my library will soon be offering downloadable ebooks. I don’t have the details because the librarian who’s in charge of it won’t get off her ass and get me the details so I can start downloading them [5. For the record, that librarian would be me. Um. ]

Now, to answer the question everyone [6. Again, both of you. ] is asking: are paper books dead? Absolutely not! While I’m surrounded by devices great and small, my default book format is paper. I don’t have to worry about it running out of batteries, when I’m done with it I can give it to the library or give it to a friend to read without violating copyright and as much as most of us would like to think that technology is universal, it isn’t. There will always be people who don’t have/can’t afford/don’t have access to computers or devices, and paper books will always be there for them.

If you’ll excuse me, I have two rows of knitting needing to be done and I’m in the middle of a good chapter in my ebook.

It’s pretty par for the course today. Computers and technology, my bread and butter, are conspiring to make my life one big voyage on the cruise ship Failboat. If you want to see a grown woman turn into a seething mass of incoherent rage, ask me how I’m doing with the test server I’m setting up for our new system at work. The short answer is: not well.

I’ve been told again and again by a very patient friend who’s helping me with it that making mistakes is good, and that we learn from them, and it will all be fixed eventually. I know this, and when I’m not parked in front of the test server [1. It actually has a name: Galactica. It was someone's old desktop computer which was being decommissioned (aka replaced) until it was drafted into emergency service. Except I can't quite figure out who the Cylons are in this scenario. ] pulling out my hair in frustration I completely understand the wisdom of it.

So, pictures and updates tomorrow, then.

Okay, now I’m hungry. Awesome.

In all fairness, it’s been a busy few weeks.

The Family Day long weekend was lovely and relaxing. I’d get up in the morning and change out of my night pajamas into day pajamas, and then spent the day knitting, watching TV, or going to the gym. It was the first Family Day I didn’t have to go into work because some major systems update/server migration absolutely needed to be done and since the library was closed, it was an ideal time. I’d also like to mention that both times I had to do this? Whatever we were doing ran into unexpected obstacles that required a tech who wasn’t in because it was a holiday [3. The official techs were located somewhere in the States, and I walked through it here in Ontario. The tech were usually someone over in the IT department who were smart enough to say "Hell to the no!" when I asked if they were going to be available. ]

Then there were the Olympics, of which I need to say no more. Y’all know how it turned out. I did participate in the Knitting Olympics and successfully finished a pair of mittens for my sister.

I lack just enough modesty to say these are pretty awesome, considering that I designed the pattern and knit them up in just 17 days. In retrospect though, because I can’t resist the urge to punish myself for my lack of modesty, I should have made the pattern on the back a mirror image on each mitten instead of the exact same pattern. Normally that’s not a problem because the motifs are symmetrical, but these are asymmetrical and should have been flipped between the two.

Last week I was in Toronto for a conference where I:

• Ran myself ragged for five days. Sit-down meals were a rare luxury, and food was mostly eaten on the fly. Fortunately, I seem to have made it through with no ill effects except for a desire to catch up on my sleep, while my boss is suffering through his annual post-conference cold.
• Sat through a session about programing with Perl, which is complete Greek to me. I compared it to looking at a lace chart which makes no sense at first, but once you know what all the symbols and lines mean, you know what to do. Actually writing and editing the code is like learning how to knit, and one day I will get there. [4. When I made this analogy to a group of the coders, they gave me blank looks, much like I assume I was giving them during the session. ]
• Had fly-by visits with three groups of friends, with whom there is almost no overlap. Julie, who also shared a room with me, knows some of my Sudbury friends, so I was able to combine some of those encounters.
• Didn’t get to the Mexican restaurant, which has been our conference tradition for the past few years. Instead, we went out for delicious Thai food, so I’m still happy.

I will begin the following post-conference story by telling you up front that my sister and her friends are fine, the place they are staying has very minimal, if any, damage, and she will be coming home sometime next week.

Saturday, the last day of the conference, my mother was supposed to come up and we were going to go for lunch before heading home. However, she hasn’t been feeling well, I was exhausted, and the weather was kind of craptacular. I called home to tell her not to bother coming in, as I would be heading out after the session I was presenting [5. Oh yeah, I also was a co-presenter in a session. ]

Mom: “I hadn’t planned on coming because I need to be here in case your sister calls.” (My youngest sister is on holidays in Chile with some friends and they were staying in some kind of conservation area.)
Me: “Why? What’s wrong”
Mom: “Have you seen the news?”
Me: (blood running cold) “No – what. happened?”
Mom: “There was an earthquake in Chile, between Santiago and where she is. It was bigger than the one in Haiti. We haven’t heard from her and we don’t know how to find out if she was okay.”

Everything after that was a bit fuzzy. I think I suggested she call the Red Cross, but I don’t remember what her response was. My mom sounded pretty calm even though I knew she wasn’t, and I managed to hold it together until I got off the phone and burst into tears in front of Julie, who then offered to go to breakfast with me instead of going to the plenary session like she had planned. I called my mom back and gave her my cell number, and told her to text me if she heard anything (fortunately, my sister had taught mom to text before she left.) During my session, I got a text from her telling me that they had heard from one of the other girls in the group, and that they were all okay, except the power had gone off. You can imagine how relieved we all are that they are okay, and that the greatest hardship they suffered was that they didn’t get to watch the gold medal hockey game Sunday night because they went to see the penguins. Yeah, I kind of hate her too.

When she gets home, we are confiscating her passport and not letting her leave the country until she is at least 40.

I expect there will be fun, frivolity, and, if things go all to hell, shenanigans.

Now, here it is almost 11pm, and I’m just slightly wired. Which is the story of my week – stress and running on caffeine. I had an awesome [2] work-related stress dream the other night where I finished doing up the work schedule for the next few weeks and then someone asked if I’d remembered to add the new employee in my department to it. “Of course,” I replied, knowing that I’d spent so much time making sure that everything was in order. “No, not her – the other [woman with same name].” At which point I realized that not only was I not in my library, I didn’t know half the people waiting to look at the schedule, meaning that the schedule I’d been slaving over was completely wrong.

Sunday night I dreamed that I was smoking two cigarettes at once. Just so you know, I don’t smoke, nor have I ever been a smoker [3]. I think it’s a sign I need to chill out.

[1] On Wednesday, I go into work in the afternoon and stay late, so I usually pick up a latte on my way in. It’s become a ritual, and something to which I look forward.
[2] And by “awesome” I mean “nightmare.”
[3] I have smoked cigars on a couple of occasions. That can be chalked up to two things: grad school and the awesome cigar bar in Halifax.

Tuesday:
Up at 4:30am to catch the bus to TO. Normally, I’d take the train, but the train doesn’t get there until 7pm, IF it runs on time. Getting up at an ungodly hour to take the bus means I get into the city by early afternoon, leaving me enough time to do some sightseeing and shopping. Which I did – I walked up Spadina to Queen West, and hit Americo Yarns. Then I wandered into Kensington Market, went to Lettuce Knit for yarn and help [1]. I also found a cool artist’s market, and bought a print for in my living room [3]. Caught the subway back to the hotel, ditched my purchases, and set off to Jorge’s. I finally got to meet Mrs. Jorge and Olivia, both of whom are adorable. Quite possibly the funniest line of the evening was when Jorge described Olivia’s reaction to the vacuum cleaner: “She went all Leonidas on it.”

Wednesday:
An all-day pre-conference session. More people than had signed up were there, so we were pretty packed in. There were a few people I knew from other meetings, Facebook (Hi Joanna!), or through other friends (Hey Debra!) Met some new friends for drinks and dessert, and then hit the opening reception to find Karen and Steve [4]. Also ran into a couple of librarians from up this way (Hi Leslie, Shelly and Rebecca!) and Jennifer, who was making the big move to Montreal and wouldn’t be convening my session [5].

Thursday:
First official day of the conference! We [6] started it by heading out to our traditional conference breakfast spot for our traditional conference breakfast, which consists of waffles/crepes with fruit and chocolate and/or whipped cream. Delightful! Then onto the first session of the day, which was about getting and using user feedback. Then onto the session I was convening on open source software in the developing world, and a stint in the AskOn booth after that [7]. Finally, I met up with a bunch of other librarians to go see a taping of The Hour. I could spend a great deal of time talking about how cool it was; instead, I’ll give you these pics:

Friday:
Seriously, it’s kind of a blur, it was that busy. However, I do remember the most important part of the day – going out for dinner! The same group of usual suspects went to the Mexican restaurant Karen, Steve and I found last year. We were worried that it wouldn’t be as good as we remembered, but that fear was completely unfounded – not only was the food as spectacular as we remembered, this year they had a mariachi band! Afterwards we hit the Indigo flagship store, then headed home.

Saturday:
Checkout! Fortunately, I do it early enough to avoid the crush. Then off to a session, and then to my presentation. There’s not much to tell about it, at least not much that wouldn’t bore most people to tears at this point [8]. Except to say that it went well, and I didn’t make any egregious mistakes. Walked down to meet my mom and sister for lunch, and then headed back home with them – hell, I’d come that far, I might as well take a day or two to visit the folks. Had a great supper, and polished off many bottles of wine with my sister and cousin while playing Settlers of Catan, at least until I started falling asleep at the table and my b-i-l took over for me.

Sunday:
A big family outing to celebrate my dad’s birthday and retirement. The neph was adorable, and flirted with all the waitresses. Then home for more Settlers of Catan, and sitting around watching some football game. Are they still playing at this time of year?

Monday:
Home again, this time by train. Again, slept most of the way.

So, there you have it – my week down in the T-dot. It was fun, and I’m already looking forward to next year.

[1] I started knitting a sock on the bus when I wasn’t sleeping [2]. At some point, a whole lot of stitches fell off the needle and started unraveling. The kind and friendly woman there picked them back up and put them on the needle for me.
[2] Which was most of the time.
[3] Once I get a frame for it.
[4] Or as I started calling them, The Nickel City Posse.
[5] Yeah – I was also presenting at the conference. More on that later.
[6] By “we”, I mean Karen, Steve, Joanne (from TBay) and her sister Cathy who’s also a librarian.
[7] I’m one of the friendly AskOn operators, by the way.
[8] Maybe some other day.

Whenever anyone on our public computers sent something to the printer, it printed immediately. Then there were discussions/arguments about what the person had to pay for, and sometimes the exchanges were heated. Or, someone would print something and never pick it up, so at the end of the day we were stuck with a stack of paper no one wanted.

The company who made the reservation software we have on the public computers also makes a piece of software which will hold print jobs until the person comes to pick them up, thus cutting down on arguments and wasted paper.

So, yesterday, the rep was coming to install it on our computers. We’ve been corresponding for weeks about network setups, system requirements, blah blah blah. Monday night she sent me a confirmation email, making sure that the computer I wanted the control software installed on was able to print to the printer the public computers use.

Which is when it hit me: the circ computers don’t use that printer. In fact, they can’t see it at all because the public computers are on a completely different network, so they wouldn’t be able to control the print jobs. In the three months we’ve been corresponding about setting this up, I somehow managed to forget this minor, but key, detail.

In the end, our IT folk came up with a workable solution, and basically saved my ass. I’m still reeling from how foolish it was to overlook that last bit, and how much stress it put on me and the IT folk. There’s no excuse for this, and the only defense I can offer is that I’m currently overseeing three other major projects, all of which are coming to a head this month, not to mention all the day to day details, like scheduling and vacations and overtime.

Fortunately, today I was back to my usual self. Not quite brilliant, but far from the idiot I felt I was Monday night.

The weather has been spectacular lately, which has given me a chance to play in my garden. Last week, I got to play the game every new homeowner gets to play in the spring – Weed or Plant?

Weed, I think. I can’t remember what was there in the fall.

Easy! Plant – irises! And they’ve doubled in size since I took the picture.

The tulips in the back are finally starting to bloom.

These are going to be sunflowers, once they start growing.

On Saturday night, I looked out my back door and saw this.

I thought, How the hell did Bing get past me when I went outside? Turning to go get a can of cat food to lure him back in, I tripped over the real Bing. Since then, I’ve learned this guy’s name is Chicklet, and he belongs to the house around the corner.

The hat is a hatband away from being finished.

The yarn is splity and twisty, and I wouldn’t use it again. For anyone thinking of making this hat, I’d suggest you go with something comparable instead of the recommended yarn. Also, I’m thinking of adapting it to make a baby hat. (To my sister: calm down, not for you!)

And, I got new glasses!

I love them! (Please don’t ask me what that expression on my face is. It’s not quite a smile, not quite a wince of pain. It may actually be both.)

The only thing missing is a picture of the heap o’ papers on my desk at work. It’s almost the end of the month, with all its associated administrivia (statistics, board reports, timesheets, etc.) I’m also working on a presentation I’m doing at a conference next month on all the fantastic technology projects we’re doing at the library. In all honesty, some of them are pretty cool and I should share them with you someday.