My lack of discipline and an update on David Copperfield

 

Heron with a mouthful of fish

🌿🍃🌿🍃🌿

After some hesitation, I transitioned to the Kindle version of David Copperfield, and I did so for the following reasons:

    1. My aging, hardback edition is fragile; a couple of pages already came loose.

    2. The hardback edition is too heavy for my purse and takes up too much room.

This move results in the following advantages, in addition to saving wear and tear on my precious book:

    1. Highlighting can be done electronically, which means I can stop marking Mr. Dickens' cleverness with pink and orange and yellow sticky notes. 

    2. With the touch of my finger, a phantom elf spits out word definitions on the spot, permitting my weighty dictionary to remain in its place.

    But like prescription medicine, reading on a hand-held gadget has side effects and drawbacks. This is what I am forfeiting by reading via Kindle:

    1. The illustrations. My vintage edition contains pen and ink illustrations, which I enjoy, and the Kindle version does not, but there are no complaints here, because I downloaded the Kindle version for zero dollars and cents.

    2. The experience. The feel of a vintage book in my hands is a reminder of its age and historical significance. 

     3. The truth in numbers. My hardback edition has nine hundred-plus pages, and the Kindle version has more than eleven hundred, so like a card trick's sleight of hand, I have more pages to read, but not really.

    I am on Chapter XXXIV, and I hope to reach the end of Copperfield's saga by Halloween. In the meantime, my TBR list is growing longer than the tobacco rows on the farm where I spent my childhood. I will never read all the books on my list. When I watch a video of Chantel Reads all Day, I marvel at how Chantel reads all day, and how she reads hundreds of books a year, and how I wrestle to read a book every couple of months. How does she do it?

    I wrote a note to myself the other day that said this: "You are so undisciplined," but I am being too hard on myself. I am extremely disciplined when it comes to eating only one homemade chocolate chip cookie per day, instead of two, or three, or four, but I am realizing that in order to solve the lack of reading time problem, I must change my way of thinking. Traditionally, I have thought of reading as a pleasure to be done at leisure, after the chores are done, and therein lies the fallacy, for chores will never be done. There is always one more dust bunny, just as there is always one more Chantel video. 

    My priorities are out of whack. I need to stop thinking of reading as a pleasure to be done after all the chores are done, and start thinking of reading as essential as a chocolate chip cookie. Thomas Jefferson said, "I cannot live without books," and neither can I.

➖➖➖➖➖

    

    Back to David Copperfield, I just knew that Steerforth and Emily would get together; I could feel it in the weight of the book in my hands. When Steerforth went under the radar (which is improper terminology, because radar had not yet been invented), and Copperfield saw neither hide nor hair of him, I knew he was chasing Emily. I hope they are happy together. I will find out more as I turn the pages, or, to be more precise, as I swipe the screen.

🌿🍃🌿🍃🌿

David Copperfield, sticky notes included

The show must go on, no matter what

Hooded Mergansers

🌺🌹🌺🌹🌺

Barry and I drove about an hour and a half south of where we live to see Dailey & Vincent in concert. We found our seats in the first row and sat down to wait for two of our favorite bluegrassers. In a little while, Darrin Vincent and the other band members walked onto the stage; that is, all the band members except Jamie Dailey. My breath stopped short, and probably everyone else's did, too, when half of the duo did not appear. We were all wondering, where's Jamie?

    Darrin stepped up to the microphone and announced to curious minds that Jamie would be absent. His parents had been in an awful car accident, and he needed to be with them. My compassionate heart reached out as my enthusiasm fizzled. To be brutally honest, I did not expect Darrin to do his own job and Jamie's, too. First of all, Jamie is about as replaceable as my miniature poodle, Josie, rest her soul. Some people and canines cannot be replaced, and that would apply to Jamie, a powerhouse of fun, energy, and tenor timbres. I thought the show would be a flop, but I had been wrong before.

Only the Strong will Survive AI

Kermit relaxes

🌸🌹🌸🌹🌸

My best friends in the nineteen nineties were folds of cotton fabric, spools of thread, and a thimble. In my enthusiasm during the quilting phase of my life, I subscribed to a couple of magazines devoted to the craft. One was Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, and I still have all the back issues stored in plastic holders in a cabinet. In my on-going attempt to purge outdated and unnecessary items from my possession, I am thumbing through those magazines, in the hopes of reviewing useful information and extracting pertinent patterns, prior to giving them away or donating to the library. 

    One article caught my attention. It was published in the April 1996 issue and is titled, Your Computer Quilting Neighborhood: Online Services and the Internet. Written by Betty Rovedo and Jim Burchell, it is not only a history lesson but an eye-opener as to how far computer technology has traveled in a short time.