Friday, June 19, 2009

An opening post

I’ve already got an EV blog, but this one, I think, will be more personal, and/or perhaps related to other ideas that take my attention.

So, to start with, Audiobooks rock. I have an Audible account, but I’ve not bought anything from them for a LONG time. When I was living in Essex and working in London, commuting in by train, it was a very simple matter to load up my Diamond Rio 500 MP3 player (64MB storage! Supporting up to 256MB expansion via Smart Media card!), and listen to a book a week or so being read to me by talented readers, or indeed the author themselves, as I made the hour and a half commute into, and back from work each day.

Now, however, my Rio 500 is lost, along with the cables and the like for it even if I did have it, and I have no finances, nor particular “waste time” to spend listening to books on the go.

However, I have found I can listen to books when I have some downtime here. I can’t listen to books or podcasts and code at the same time (listening to the voice breaks my concentration, whereas music is more of a general surrounding that helps. Odd, I know.), but I can listen when I have to take a break for fresh eyes on a problem.

If I was working and commuting, perhaps I could justify an iPod of some description, or some other PMP that supports Audible format books. But I’m not working right now (Something to do with being an illegal alien), and even when I am working, commuting isn’t going to be that much of a problem, at least around Regina here. This city isn’t big enough to have a long commute to anywhere. Though I suppose if I got work in Moose Jaw, aside from having to have a car and a driver’s license, then I’d have a book-worthy commute.

So, that’s that. Not bad for an opening post, I suppose.