A final thought on this assignment

This week I continued some of the random websurfing on pages like TVTropes.org and caught up on the local paper and the new issue of Post Magazine, which is a trade magazine about video editing and computer animation. One of the random pages I read on TVTropes.org referenced Mark Twain's “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court” as being “one of the first stories to show history being changed by the time traveler's actions” (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UrExample). It was kind of cool that the first Google book I randomly chose for this class was an early example of the premise of so many time travel stories. I'll definitely finish that book when I have more time in larger periods rather than a few minutes here and there.
I learned a surprising amount from reading strictly for enjoyment and to take a break from reality for a while. With two early posts, I learned that one can post on Blogger from a Kindle. I just learned that Google Docs works like a mobile version of Word so one can write something from a mobile device and later edit it from a computer or vice versa. I even learned a lot about some of the confusing memes and web shows the kids enjoy for some reason. One of the most interesting things this blog experience taught me is just how much one can accomplish in those few minutes of spare time that usually gets wasted. I took different mobile e-readers with me various places where I always seemed to find a few moments that I might otherwise have spent being bored or wishing my phone had more games. This class was long enough to have made this reading into a habit I’ll likely continue, especially since I’ll have a lot more spare time when I’m working full time. Taking four master’s level classes, being a substitute teacher, working on the foreclosure house we bough this summer, and dealing with family issues while trying to make sure the kids don’t forget who the person at the computer in the back room is has been exceptionally challenging.

Imponderables, IMDB, and more randomness

I'd meant to spend more time reading one of the books I got from the $1-a-bag book sale at the library. What little I did read of David Feldman's "Imponderables" was interesting, though not as humorous as Cecil Adams' "Straight Dope". The short encyclopedia-like entries make either of these books great spare-time reading, plus one gets to learn how evil spirits and roses influenced the colors of baby clothing. (Blue was considered most protective since ancient times, while pink was the color of the roses baby girls came from in a European legend centuries later.) Instead, I ended up reading IMDB entries for some movies that were on this week, followed by a lot more information from tvtropes.org. Despite the spoilers which are generally identified, IMBD is good to check before watching a movie because it tells what goofs to watch for and other trivia. Even a boring western was a little easier to tolerate knowing that there would be so many errors. The few scenes I paid attention to included people using guns that hadn't been invented until decades after the movie setting, a German man playing a Commanche by speaking Navajo, and people running up a hill in Monument Valley Utah and running down a hill over 600 miles away in Bronson's Canyon in California.
Finally, I spent "Horton Hears a Who" following links from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HortonHearsAWho after checking out its IMDB page. This page added to the trivia from IMDB as well as explaining a lot of cliches and memes like the "Dreamworks Face" http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DreamworksFace Horton makes on the movie poster. This site has a lot of info on things that people assume incorrectly http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OlderThanTheyThink, mentioned several of the people from a website the kids visit almost daily http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/, and the "Music" portion of this even linked to Cracked.com where I had done a lot of random reading last month.

Turkey and stuffing some reading into that spare time

Holidays are a good time for cramming a lot of random reading into various chunks of time. For instance, waiting on the turkey fryer to actually heat up despite the recipes promising 15 minutes gives one enough time to find out what's going to be on sale for Black Friday at just about every store that's ever printed a sales ad. While the turkey's actually cooking for a supposedly 45-minute period much lengthened by the wind blowing the flame, I continued reading how the Connecticut Yankee is getting along on his quest. The high point for these chapters was when the sorceress Morgana had been about to throw him in the dungeon until Sandy identified him as "The Boss". Perhaps he'll be slightly less annoyed with her excessive talking now that it has been useful. Later I had time to read a few websites ironically including an essay on buying local rather than falling for the hype of Black Friday. Particularly interesting were the American Library Association's Banned Books pages the related information I found on why many of the books were banned. Some of the reasoning is laughable until thinking about how it led to censorship and book burnings, then it's just asinine. It's crazy that some people are still so small-minded that they think reading books with swear words or about two male penguins raising a baby together will harm students.

Archie and the Tweets

The latest issue of Life with Archie isn't much like the old digests at all. Each one is divided into two stories that need to be read in one reading break each or preferably together. In contrast, the digests have much shorter stories that can be squeezed into a commercial break. Rather than leaving it unexplained due to being “just a story,” this series is getting into quantum mechanics to explain how Archie is simultaneously married to both Betty and Veronica. It's definitely not something that would have come up in the old issues.

As for most of the rest of my reading time this week, I actually looked at Twitter. It wasn't my goal, but I saw a news article about the “Six-year project to tweet the Second World War" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8877167/Six-year-project-to-tweet-the-Second-World-War.html and checked it out. “WW2 Tweets from 1939” https://twitter.com/#!/RealTimeWWII was actually more interesting than either a book of the same information or a stereotypical Twitter account where people talk about random things that don't matter to anyone but themselves. It was nice that there were links to pictures and videos from the era, usually described as “live” to emphasize the illusion that this was all actually being tweeted realtime from 1939. It was annoying that you have to click on every picture rather than it just being posted inline, but I guess that makes it easier for people to load on their phones without using up their data plan. The information being broken up into short “tweets” with links to break up the reading further made it easier to read over the course of a few breaks. I ended up spending around an hour on this site all together even though I wouldn't have spent that long reading the same information presented differently. As an added bonus, one of the clicks had an ad for Cracked.com's Twitter page, https://twitter.com/#!/cracked to waste a lot of time with. This page is only links to articles that aren't all safe for work or family-friendly, but I read at least another hour's worth of articles like “The 7 Dumbest Things Students Do When Cramming for Exams,“ “17 More Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped” featuring the Kansas City library http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/kclibrary.asp#photo which I drove past a lot but never went to since I tutored at a nearby branch.

The Continuing Connecticut Yankee

This week I took advantage of some longer reading breaks while waiting on people to pick up their items from the auction I helped with at a former school. It was surprising just how much more I was able to read in four days of long reading breaks around than 30 minutes each than the usual 6-7 days of 15-20 minute breaks. I might literally have spent half of last week's reading time re-reading to remember what had happened earlier in the chapter I'd left off in the day before.
The story continues with the eclipse having had its desired effect and riches being offered to the former prisoner. He rambles even more about little details before destroying Merlin's tower using science in the guise of magic, takes on the nickname "The Boss", starts secretly effecting change through building factories and simple subversion, finally being pushed into going on a quest. The most amusing ramblings were in the middle of chapter 12 when he realizes he can't take off his own helmet to get to the handkerchief he'd left there, and he's unbearable becoming drenched in sweat in his suit of armor. It went on for several pages like a lot of the other overly-described scenes, but it was too funny for that to get too annoying. He's finally able to be helped out of his armor, has more subversive conversations with the locals, and gets back on the road with traveling companion Sandy, who is meant to be guiding him to his quest but provides him a lot of annoyance with ramblings of her own. It was definitely a lot easier to keep track of how the story was progressing when I had enough time to read at least a chapter at a time. However, I think I'll go back to shorter stories until I have more opportunities to read for longer than 15 minutes uninterrupted.

Checking Out a Free Google Book

Trying out the free Google Books this week, I chose “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain. I didn’t pick it totally at random, but it was the first free book with an author I recognized. So far, it has had its moments and a few funny jabs at the political and religious leadership. Some of the descriptions of the settings are detailed to the point of slowing down the story. The narrator has finally realized that he isn’t dreaming or in an asylum and is planning to use an upcoming solar eclipse to convince his would-be executioners that he is a more-powerful wizard than Merlin. The only trouble I have with reading this in my spare time rather than in a longer chunk of time is that it’s hard to get back into the story the next time I read. Despite reading a few pages whenever I got the chance every day, sometimes it was tough to remember just what had happened on my last reading break and I spent too long checking the pages before to see who was who. I think the story would be better and easier to “get into” if one tried to read it all at once or at least not while waiting on classes and other short breaks like that.  

Ghost stories

This week was the perfect time to spend a lot longer than I'd intended on reading random web pages. One day during a couple of Halloween shows and later over the course of a fairly dull 1940s movie I managed to read a few “top 15” type lists with descriptions of the best family Halloween movies followed by a long collection of ghost stories. The lists I found while searching for ideas for movies to project on the side of the house for Halloween and most of them mentioned movies I thought we had, “Coraline” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, as well as the Sponge Bob and Peanuts specials. While we were watching the black and white movie that was on after a decent but forgettable ghost story movie, I looked up some ghost stories that had to be better than the one on TV. Some of the more interesting things I read were about haunted sites in Kansas such as Atchinson and Stull. I read more about the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado that “The Shining” was written about and wish I'd known about that when I was in Estes Park; now I want to go back there for a weekend trip. One website was having a contest for true ghost stories, and I noticed that 16 of the 23 entries were stories either people remembered from childhood or experienced with their kids or grandkids. A few of the stories even described the same type of red-eyed shadow figure as had been on an episode of “Ghost Hunters” this week. I didn't think about it at the time, but after writing about how so many children were the focus of these ghost stories, it made me wonder what would happen if these children happened to mention their experiences at school. How would the teacher react to a child's unwavering belief that he or she had experienced something supernatural?

"Cow and Boy" is no "Calvin and Hobbes"

That's a good thing though. I finally finished this book on today's "regularly scheduled reading break," just in time to post about it before I lose internet access again. Apparently Centurytel losing service here is just as regular. Anyway, to change the subject away from regularity back to this week's book, I'd expected it to be so much like Calvin and Hobbes that I almost didn't buy it at the library book sale. (Yet another plug for library book sales: for just over a week now my local library has been selling books for $1 a bag, so it's good time to stock up on things one might not otherwise read.)
Obviously I don't much care for Calvin and Hobbes. I did like this book though because it managed to stay funny even in predictable storylines. For example, it was obvious how the boy's wondering why he always has a cowlick would turn out, yet the ending was still funny because of how he said it explains why he had grass in his hair. All of the storylines are short enough that this type of book is even more ideal than Archie comics for very short reading breaks. Most of the jokes are subtle enough that I doubt many people would laugh out loud at them, but they're entertaining. The drawings are fairly simplistic but not at the expense of expressions or important details. It also should appeal to a large age range because the jokes won't go over most people's heads yet they still sometimes have intellectual or popular culture references hidden among them. There are even characters and conflicts people can relate to, such as when the boy's father tells him to quit playing with the cow and go make some non-bovine friends. All in all, "Cow and Boy" was a good example of why one literally shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Alternate reading materials for short breaks

In situations where one doesn't want to have expensive electronics subjected to excessively damp atmosphere, Archie Comics are a surprisingly good choice. I've been reading the most recent two issues for 15-20 minutes a day for a little over a week now. The first thing I noticed about these comics is how they're a relaxing retro diversion with an art style that hasn't changed much since the early years of the comic. It's a comforting way to take one's mind off the day and spend some time in a small town that's perpetually stuck in the 50s despite a few silly efforts at modernization. A couple of these really take the reader out of the story; for example, Reggie says he has as many MP3s as "a record store" and Archie says he will go to the Katy Perry concert if he can "put the touch on" his dad. The weird juxtaposition of dated phrases with modern terms seemingly added to old comics is the only real problem I have with them reusing old comics as part of new issues. Even with the few problems of trying to match the old with the new I still think these are great additions to the household reading library.

An unexpected source of free reading material

One of the classes I substitute taught for two days was performing "The Monsters are Due  on Maple Street" so I did a search for more information about it (after hearing it was a Twilight Zone episode). I found a pdf file of the script and emailed it as an attachment to my "@free.kindle.com" address while the Kinmdle was on wifi. Although the pdf wasn't as clear and easy to read as actual Kindle format books, it was a good way to have a copy of the script to read without killing a small tree to print it.
As for the script itself, it was interesting, especially to follow the stage direction of the original script. If one had never seen the show,one could still get a very good idea of the timing and feel of each scene and be able to visualize what it would be like enacted. I also knew exactly what to expect at the next class presentation.

Getting started

The first thing I bought for any of my classes this semester was a Kindle e-reader. I assumed I'd be able to get my textbooks on it since the college website showed they were available as ebooks, but the bookstore site neglected to mention that the books were only able to be downloaded onto the computer. Even a laptop isn't portable enough to take advantage of every available spare time moment of reading.
This brings up my next point: there are some situations where you might have several minutes to read but just don't want to use an electronic device to do so. To put it mildly, one wouldn't want liquids near one's electronics if, say, one liked to read in the bathtub for instance. This calls for alternate reading materials of little monetary or personal value, preferably ones made up of short stories.
A final thought: Reading library books in the bathroom is just wrong. Altough I suppose it'd be a good idea if one had purchased the books from a library sale where they often cost between $1 apiece and $5 a bag.