Blogs
I started reading the following blogs:
Neither of these sites has a short “about” blurb to copy here. I hope you have enough curiosity to click and see whether these sites are worth a read.
Books
Melissa and I went to the Hillsboro Public Library on Sunday. She was looking for a book on Karen Carpenter for her psychology class. I printed out my list of interesting books to see which ones were available. I found and checked out two:
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition. I don’t think I’ll read this book straight through, but it is certainly scan-worthy. If I did web design, I’d likely be more inclined to read it.
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. I already returned this to the library unread. This book is long and I’m already reading a long history book. Maybe later.
I finished reading:
- Contact. I re-read Contact by Carl Sagan, I think for the third time. Now I want to watch the movie to see the differences. A couple of favorite quotes:
“Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.”
Palmer Joss
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
I started reading:
- Roadside Geology of Idaho. I love the roadside geology series. I have them for Oregon, Hawaii, Idaho, and Yellowstone. The Idaho book is by far the best. ‘Course, that does you no good if you’re wanting to know about California, but… I don’t plan on finishing the book. I just read the first couple of chapters which give an overview of the geology of the Northwest and a bunch more (even India).
- Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples. I bought this book probably four or five years ago on a recommendation from Hugh Hewitt. So far, so good.
I discovered:
- Dragon’s Egg, thanks to a comment from Roy Gardner. The local library has a copy when I have the time.
- Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time. Okay, I didn’t really discover this book, at least not for the first time. Art King recommended I read it. Earlier, brother Bob recommended I read it. On my interesting books page, it goes (or will soon).
Travel
I went to Folsom for a day trip on Wednesday. It’s amazing walking into the building before 8 am, working a full day, and getting home around 7:30 pm.
Blog stuff
Never one to leave well enough alone, I like to experiment with my blog.
- I tried the Intense Debate commenting system. It lasted all of about one hour this time. I’d rather keep the control that WordPress’ native commenting system provides me.
- I’m experimenting with Publitweet in the sidebar instead of Twitter Tools. If Publitweet stays functional, it will likely stay in my sidebar. It does have some strangeness. It doesn’t let me configure with it shows @replies. Worse, it seems the only @replies it shows are those with Publitweet.
- I’m also experimenting with Apture. It’s the bar that displays at the top of your browser when you scroll down. It’s a nice idea.
Other
- If you’re on Facebook, you should try http://likebutton.me. It’s an easy, compact way to see what your friends are sharing. Better yet, it lets you add other sites, say, your blog, and see how your posts are being shared and liked.
Update. It appears that Publitweet is having a hard time scaling. I’m back to Twitter Tools, at least for a while.