My dad would go insane and ground me if he saw any of my bikes laying down on the ground rather than propped up properly by the kickstand.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Have you ever been to California?
I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in Southern California.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Thursday, May 13, 2010
What exactly is the difference between bipolar and manic depressive?
None. They are same words for the same condition its just Bipolar is now the "accepted" word by people in the Mental Health Field.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
ohh woww. thats cool! :D I wish i was that short. my friend kelsie is 18 and she's 4'10 and she gets to use a handicap sticker cause of how short she is. i think its great. (:
heehee well I never have struggled really with it so I suppose I've been lucky. I have always gotten the short jokes. Always struggled for decent length pants. But otherwise I'd never realized that I was technically a dwarf. Its neat. Can't let life get ya down. But its taking nearly 29 years to realize that.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
"You’re away at camp and homesick, do u stay or call home crying?"
Um if I'm gonna bum everyone else out I'd just slink home to do my emo-stuff in private. Of course thats not the point of emo though exactly is it? Emos are depressed and sad but what everyone to know and care. So I'd probably go home ashamed but get over it and still have a good summer.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
What’s one thing ur scared of doing?
Sky diving. I don't like the sensation of falling. I can't make myself ever see that I could do that!!!
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
What’s ur X’s name??
I've been with the same man for nearly the past years. But the one before him I suppose would be Aaron. Biggest life lesson EVER.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Monday, May 10, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
are you a midget?
Dwarfism is generally defined as an adult height of 4 feet 10 inches or less (147 centimeters). Proportionate dwarfism. A body is proportionately small if all parts of the body are small to the same degree and appear to be proportioned like a body of average stature.
I am 4'10. I've never lived as a "midget" or really saw myself that way because though short I have normal proportions. And also my great grandmother was also 4'10. People have always teased me about it--but its true! Thanks for asking this because I just realized I AM a midget lol. That is so funny. Great question Anonymous!!!!!
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
I usually agressively smack at the button then I may attempt to kick/Shake it in rage....then I'll decide between taking the loss or going into the business where the vending machine is by (like a grocery store or the movies) and demand my money back.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Being A ChaCha Guide: A Scam or Not A Scam
Being A ChaCha Guide: A Scam or Not A Scam
Being a ChaCha Guide has been described by some as a scam. I find that interpretation to be a little amusing. The only way you could come away thinking that it is a scam is expecting to make a full living out of being a Guide for ChaCha. That is highly impractical. It pays just enough to give you incentive to supplement your income. But still a lot of people were under the impression that it'd be the big work at home pay day of their dreams.
I've been a ChaCha Guide since 2008 (off and on due to not having a steady computer and Internet connection) now and I have found it enjoyable. I learn things all the time that are just nuggets of useless trivia knowledge. I also get to ponder on the mysteriousness that is human nature. So its not an activity that is ever boring. You always are doing something different even if some questions are the same. I'm constantly amazed about the content of a majority of the questions.
I googled ChaCha and was surprised to see several articles bashing ChaCha. Now that I think about it I shouldn't have been surprised at all. When you first hear about ChaCha your mind wanders to "work at home" scams that often con you into buying into a program with many promises that never seem to pan out. When you read about being a ChaCha Guide on ChaCha's official website it sounds too good to be true. In 2006 I believe (but am not for certain--could have been a year earlier or later) I saw ChaCha being profiled on Good Morning America. Immediately after seeing it I tried to become a Guide. I received no response to my first applications. I was under the impression from the Good Morning America story that this was a definitely legit way to make money working at home from your own PC. So I chased being a Guide when the thought hit me till I finally got accepted in 2008. This was right after ChaCha had morphed into a Text Answering service which is why I suppose they were looking for more Guides.
I was very excited to start doing ChaCha. For a lot of us homemakers, working from home is a kind of Holy Grail. ChaCha was the only way I'd found you could work at home and set your own hours that wasn't a scam or a total waste of time. But I still had a lot to reconcile with. I still had the impression that the Good Morning America show left on me with regard to ChaCha. It could have been my own skewed perception or it could have actually just happened the way I thought. I willing to believe either is possible. I had still had it in my head that doing ChaCha was going to be like having another income in our house. It was naive to the extreme and I do think ChaCha did nothing to stop this impression then.
I went and completed the lessons at ChaCha's "Search University". I practiced a lot before I took the final test--and then I was finally a ChaCha Guide. After a few days of being a Guide I became initially very disenchanted. I had expected to make a little bit of money. Okay, I expected to make a little itty bit more than "a little bit" of money if I'm going to be honest. At the time I lacked 24/7 computer access to really put in the time that was required to make that little bit of extra income I was hoping for. It was disappointing to me. Eventually I only did ChaCha occasionally. I walked away feeling that I was slightly misled about the money to be made being a Guide. But I've since realized that though ChaCha may have slightly encouraged this impression, I developed it all by myself with my desire to be able to add money to income every month. So I became inactive as a Guide for a long time because I didn't have regular access to a computer to put in the time necessary to make being a Guide worth it in the long run for me.
Last month we got a new to us Laptop. I thought of doing ChaCha again but was afraid of getting my hopes up for something that doesn't exist. That is when I searched Google for recent posts on the Internet about ChaCha and ultimately decided to become an active Guide once more.
As I said at the beginning of this blog I was surprised to find people calling ChaCha a scam. ChaCha is definitely NOT a scam. The only scaming that could be done is to yourself. ChaCha has even come out and posted that ChaCha Guiding isn't meant to replace a normal full time income of any job. ChaCha Guiding is meant to be a supplemental income. I think if it would have been described more in those terms to me I'd not built up delusions of grandeur around being a ChaCha guide.
When you are a ChaCha Guide you don't have to pay ChaCha.com anything for your training or for software. Most work at home scams always require you to buy really expensive "requirements" of a wide variety so you can "buy in" and "own" your new "business". With ChaCha they provide you all the tools you need to do your job free of charge.
Another facet to the work at home scams is getting you to suck other people into also buying into the scam. It is a classic pyramid scheme tactics. You end up spending so much money yourself and find that your business hinges on your ability to suck in your own friends and strangers a like. ChaCha doesn't require you to sell anything. All you are required to do is log in and do your job which can be searching for answers and typing them up, expediting questions, and transcribing questions. And then ChaCha pays you for it.
Some have complained I saw that ChaCha doesn't pay a fair amount. Well, when you think about what it is you're being paid to do--you should feel lucky to be getting paid at all. Yahoo has a question service. So Does Ask.com. But they don't give you instant results and they also don't pay the people who answer the questions to answer them. So I'd love to point out to some complainers that it merely depends on the way you look at it.
Now that I'm able to Guide again and on a more a regular basis I find myself very pleased with ChaCha. The system has its grumbling points but in the end you're not standing to lose anything. So if you've got the time to devote to being a Guide then you should give it shot because other than time--you've got nothing else to lose!
Being a ChaCha Guide has been described by some as a scam. I find that interpretation to be a little amusing. The only way you could come away thinking that it is a scam is expecting to make a full living out of being a Guide for ChaCha. That is highly impractical. It pays just enough to give you incentive to supplement your income. But still a lot of people were under the impression that it'd be the big work at home pay day of their dreams.
I've been a ChaCha Guide since 2008 (off and on due to not having a steady computer and Internet connection) now and I have found it enjoyable. I learn things all the time that are just nuggets of useless trivia knowledge. I also get to ponder on the mysteriousness that is human nature. So its not an activity that is ever boring. You always are doing something different even if some questions are the same. I'm constantly amazed about the content of a majority of the questions.
I googled ChaCha and was surprised to see several articles bashing ChaCha. Now that I think about it I shouldn't have been surprised at all. When you first hear about ChaCha your mind wanders to "work at home" scams that often con you into buying into a program with many promises that never seem to pan out. When you read about being a ChaCha Guide on ChaCha's official website it sounds too good to be true. In 2006 I believe (but am not for certain--could have been a year earlier or later) I saw ChaCha being profiled on Good Morning America. Immediately after seeing it I tried to become a Guide. I received no response to my first applications. I was under the impression from the Good Morning America story that this was a definitely legit way to make money working at home from your own PC. So I chased being a Guide when the thought hit me till I finally got accepted in 2008. This was right after ChaCha had morphed into a Text Answering service which is why I suppose they were looking for more Guides.
I was very excited to start doing ChaCha. For a lot of us homemakers, working from home is a kind of Holy Grail. ChaCha was the only way I'd found you could work at home and set your own hours that wasn't a scam or a total waste of time. But I still had a lot to reconcile with. I still had the impression that the Good Morning America show left on me with regard to ChaCha. It could have been my own skewed perception or it could have actually just happened the way I thought. I willing to believe either is possible. I had still had it in my head that doing ChaCha was going to be like having another income in our house. It was naive to the extreme and I do think ChaCha did nothing to stop this impression then.
I went and completed the lessons at ChaCha's "Search University". I practiced a lot before I took the final test--and then I was finally a ChaCha Guide. After a few days of being a Guide I became initially very disenchanted. I had expected to make a little bit of money. Okay, I expected to make a little itty bit more than "a little bit" of money if I'm going to be honest. At the time I lacked 24/7 computer access to really put in the time that was required to make that little bit of extra income I was hoping for. It was disappointing to me. Eventually I only did ChaCha occasionally. I walked away feeling that I was slightly misled about the money to be made being a Guide. But I've since realized that though ChaCha may have slightly encouraged this impression, I developed it all by myself with my desire to be able to add money to income every month. So I became inactive as a Guide for a long time because I didn't have regular access to a computer to put in the time necessary to make being a Guide worth it in the long run for me.
Last month we got a new to us Laptop. I thought of doing ChaCha again but was afraid of getting my hopes up for something that doesn't exist. That is when I searched Google for recent posts on the Internet about ChaCha and ultimately decided to become an active Guide once more.
As I said at the beginning of this blog I was surprised to find people calling ChaCha a scam. ChaCha is definitely NOT a scam. The only scaming that could be done is to yourself. ChaCha has even come out and posted that ChaCha Guiding isn't meant to replace a normal full time income of any job. ChaCha Guiding is meant to be a supplemental income. I think if it would have been described more in those terms to me I'd not built up delusions of grandeur around being a ChaCha guide.
When you are a ChaCha Guide you don't have to pay ChaCha.com anything for your training or for software. Most work at home scams always require you to buy really expensive "requirements" of a wide variety so you can "buy in" and "own" your new "business". With ChaCha they provide you all the tools you need to do your job free of charge.
Another facet to the work at home scams is getting you to suck other people into also buying into the scam. It is a classic pyramid scheme tactics. You end up spending so much money yourself and find that your business hinges on your ability to suck in your own friends and strangers a like. ChaCha doesn't require you to sell anything. All you are required to do is log in and do your job which can be searching for answers and typing them up, expediting questions, and transcribing questions. And then ChaCha pays you for it.
Some have complained I saw that ChaCha doesn't pay a fair amount. Well, when you think about what it is you're being paid to do--you should feel lucky to be getting paid at all. Yahoo has a question service. So Does Ask.com. But they don't give you instant results and they also don't pay the people who answer the questions to answer them. So I'd love to point out to some complainers that it merely depends on the way you look at it.
Now that I'm able to Guide again and on a more a regular basis I find myself very pleased with ChaCha. The system has its grumbling points but in the end you're not standing to lose anything. So if you've got the time to devote to being a Guide then you should give it shot because other than time--you've got nothing else to lose!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Tonight's Comfort Food Experiment: Beefy Potato Volcano
Tonight's Comfort Food Experiment!!! Every once in a while I love trying something new. And this is tonight's! I'll substitute some of the ingredients like the vegetables with not canned ones but fresh ones. I also will be using ground turkey instead of regular hamburger so though this will be a diet nightmare I'm going a little bit more healthy than otherwise. =))) And maybe tweak the recipe in others way--but the result should be a filling and hopefully tasty dinner tonight!
Tonight's Comfort Food Experiment: Beefy Potato Volcano
http://allrecipes.com/Reci..pe/Beefy-Potato-Volcano/De..tail.aspx
Beefy Potato Volcano
Ingredients
* 3 large baking potatoes, 10 to 12 ounces each, preferably Idaho, washed and dried
* 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
* 1 pound ground turkey or lean ground beef
* 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
* 1 (8 ounce) can peas, drained
* 1 (8 ounce) can sliced carrots, drained
* 1 (8 ounce) can cut green beans, drained
* 1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
* 1 (15 ounce) can beef or turkey gravy
Directions
1. Preheat the conventional oven to 450 degrees F. Place the potatoes in a microwave-safe, oven-proof glass baking dish, such as a pie plate, that fits in the microwave oven. Microwave the potatoes at full power for 10 minutes (the amount of time it takes to preheat the oven). Transfer the potatoes to the conventional oven and bake until tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Ten to 15 minutes before the potatoes are done baking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook until lightly browned, chopping and turning as needed with a spatula so the turkey browns evenly, about 5 minutes. Add the seasoning to the skillet, followed by the peas, carrots, green beans, tomatoes and gravy to make the stew. Stir gently to combine and simmer for 5 minutes. Keep warm.
3. To serve: Cut each potato in half across its equator and set each half, cut-side down on a plate so that it looks like a small mountain. Cut a slit in the top of each potato half and squeeze the sides gently forcing some of the potato to 'erupt' from the top. Ladle 1 cup of the stew over each potato to resemble flowing lava; serve immediately.
Footnotes
*
*
Tip: We know there's nothing new about microwave-baked potatoes, but the technique in this recipe is a little different and gives much fluffier results. The problem with microwaving baking potatoes is that microwave ovens don't really bake – they steam – so the potatoes come out damp and dense instead of light and fluffy. You can quickly and easily get the best of both worlds by simultaneously preheating a conventional oven while the potatoes start cooking in a microwave oven. Then, when both the potatoes and the oven are hot, you place the spuds in the conventional oven, and they finish baking in about 20 minutes. The results are identical to oven-baking, but cooked in about half the time.
Tonight's Comfort Food Experiment: Beefy Potato Volcano
http://allrecipes.com/Reci..pe/Beefy-Potato-Volcano/De..tail.aspx
Beefy Potato Volcano
Ingredients
* 3 large baking potatoes, 10 to 12 ounces each, preferably Idaho, washed and dried
* 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
* 1 pound ground turkey or lean ground beef
* 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
* 1 (8 ounce) can peas, drained
* 1 (8 ounce) can sliced carrots, drained
* 1 (8 ounce) can cut green beans, drained
* 1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
* 1 (15 ounce) can beef or turkey gravy
Directions
1. Preheat the conventional oven to 450 degrees F. Place the potatoes in a microwave-safe, oven-proof glass baking dish, such as a pie plate, that fits in the microwave oven. Microwave the potatoes at full power for 10 minutes (the amount of time it takes to preheat the oven). Transfer the potatoes to the conventional oven and bake until tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Ten to 15 minutes before the potatoes are done baking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook until lightly browned, chopping and turning as needed with a spatula so the turkey browns evenly, about 5 minutes. Add the seasoning to the skillet, followed by the peas, carrots, green beans, tomatoes and gravy to make the stew. Stir gently to combine and simmer for 5 minutes. Keep warm.
3. To serve: Cut each potato in half across its equator and set each half, cut-side down on a plate so that it looks like a small mountain. Cut a slit in the top of each potato half and squeeze the sides gently forcing some of the potato to 'erupt' from the top. Ladle 1 cup of the stew over each potato to resemble flowing lava; serve immediately.
Footnotes
*
*
Tip: We know there's nothing new about microwave-baked potatoes, but the technique in this recipe is a little different and gives much fluffier results. The problem with microwaving baking potatoes is that microwave ovens don't really bake – they steam – so the potatoes come out damp and dense instead of light and fluffy. You can quickly and easily get the best of both worlds by simultaneously preheating a conventional oven while the potatoes start cooking in a microwave oven. Then, when both the potatoes and the oven are hot, you place the spuds in the conventional oven, and they finish baking in about 20 minutes. The results are identical to oven-baking, but cooked in about half the time.
Starlight Children's Foundation
The Starlight Children's Foundation
http://www.socialvibe.com/daniellejorgenson
When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, the day-to-day joys of childhood take a back seat to the rigors of treatment and hospitalization. For more than 25 years, Starlight Children’s Foundation has been dedicated to improving the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and life-altering injuries by providing entertainment, education and family activities that help them cope with the pain, fear and isolation of prolonged illness.
We understand what families go through when a child is sick, and how important it is to find relief from constant worry and isolation. Our programs have been proven to distract children from their pain, help them better understand and manage their illnesses, and connect families with others facing similar challenges so that no one feels alone.
Please take a second to earn a free donation to my Cause, Starlight, and help me provide Hours of Support for Sick Teens. Click Here:
http://www.socialvibe.com/daniellejorgenson
http://www.socialvibe.com/daniellejorgenson
When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, the day-to-day joys of childhood take a back seat to the rigors of treatment and hospitalization. For more than 25 years, Starlight Children’s Foundation has been dedicated to improving the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and life-altering injuries by providing entertainment, education and family activities that help them cope with the pain, fear and isolation of prolonged illness.
We understand what families go through when a child is sick, and how important it is to find relief from constant worry and isolation. Our programs have been proven to distract children from their pain, help them better understand and manage their illnesses, and connect families with others facing similar challenges so that no one feels alone.
Please take a second to earn a free donation to my Cause, Starlight, and help me provide Hours of Support for Sick Teens. Click Here:
http://www.socialvibe.com/daniellejorgenson
Sunday, May 2, 2010
If you could choose any of your friends to be your servant for a day, who would you choose and what would you make them do?
I'd pick Neil and I'd make him.....relax! And allow me to do things for him. Neil does so much for me that I'd like to pay him back.
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Ask me anything, even anonymously
Saturday, May 1, 2010
To E-Read or Not To E-Read
I've been saying since I first heard of the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes and Noble Nook and even the Sony Ereader that rather than buy a digital book I'd much rather have the three dimensional hold in my own hands version any day of the week. What happens if the electricity goes out??? Or if I lose the piece of technology that was capable of allowing me to read the books? What if the whole world went insane for a few months and luxuries such as the Internet were gone even for a short time? Well then having the book would count for a lot more.
I try to always admit it when I'm wrong. I wouldn't say that I'm exactly wrong about my feelings towards digital books. But I am willing to completely concede a benefit of E-books that I had never stopped to really consider before. E-books make reading more accessible in ways that only truly make sense in our informational era. While I would rather have the paper and binding in my hands, E-books provide a cheap alternative to ignorance. E-books will probably never truly replace regular books. But E-books have the potential to become more affordable than physical books could ever hope to be. And because of that possibility it also has the potential to give any person who has at the very least Internet access (plus the determination) to read great literary works that might have been inaccessible due to simple poverty. In this day and age in the USA most children have access to the Internet and computers. Every year more schools in this country have made gifts to students as young as late elementary school of wifi accessible laptops which the students are to use for doing their school work.
When I was growing up it was just becoming mandatory to have computer access to do homework that was worth a massive percentage of your grade for that semester. Back then in the 90s it was just becoming expected for every student to have typed and spell checked reports. If you weren't lucky enough to have a computer at home you were expected to spend time after school to type up your reports. Only in my Junior year did I have a class that had any expectation that we should all have Internet access to do course work. That was a computer class where we were being taught how to "practically" search and surf the web (I have memories that make smile of being instructed how to properly "search" for topics in search engines which seems like common sense now in this day and age!). Just in a decade we've all ready been swooped up in a tide of new revolution which has the promise of making ignorance even more of a crime than it used to be in societies like the USA and others in the Western world.
In 1990 it was reasonable that the reason you couldn't read a classic book was because your family lacked the resources to buy you the book and you couldn't ever seem to get it from your local library. Now days because of E-books anybody with access to the Internet can read Lewis Carroll's tales about Alice or be terrified at HG Wells' prediction of what alien contact could mean for the world.
I would rather have an actual physical copy of any book I want to read. But if I can read an enjoyable book online from some of the fabulous web sites like:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Http://www.readprint.com/
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
http://www.questia.com
http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/
http://www.classicbookshelf.com/
And also do so free of charge I've benefited in more ways than I could have hoped before the Internet. It nearly makes growing up in the 1980s and 1990s seem like a dark age compared to the places where technology is faster and faster taking us with the passing of everyday. It makes you count your blessings. It makes you realize what a privileged time to be alive. No matter the negatives of this time in future history, compared to the past we are all fast becoming the first true generations of completely spoiled human brats compared to where we were a mere hundred years before.
I have been using Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) for a few years to read classics I'd never gotten the chance to read before. While I loved the opportunity to read the book I was not happy at the time because it was very uncomfortable to either sit in a desk chair or strain my eyes to read from a mobile device. Only recently we got a laptop which allows me to read books online with the benefit of a bigger screen and bigger font that tends to not put strain on my eyes.
Since getting to use the laptop in this way I've realized what pushed makers of devices like the Amazon Kindle to think that there was a great future in making such devices. I still tend to think that Amazon and Barnes & Noble have to go a ways further before I would spend the amount of money each of those cost for a device that can only function as an E-reader. The Apple iPad is more likely to gain my interest because you want more bang for your buck (but even the iPad leaves me unsure whether it would be worth the price tag with what I can see me actually using it for).
In the end it is a laptop or netbook's possibilities that drive home to that though I will always feel the actual physical manifestation of any book is to be strongly preferred, I must admit that we are increasingly living in an age where ignorance should be considered a sin with so many avenues available to anyone hooked to the net's ability to access such massive amounts of incredible information that would have made the Ancient Library of Alexandria envious.
Kindle Store - Limited-time offers and thousands of popular classics for FREE
With over 500,000 titles, the Kindle Store contains the largest selection of the books people want to read including New York Times® Best Sellers and most new releases from $9.99. And Amazon provides limited-time promotional offers and thousands of the most popular classics for free with wireless delivery in under 60 seconds via Whispernet to your Kindle, computer, or other mobile device.
But of course, the Internet is huge and there are lots of older, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books online. We wanted to make it easier to find these collections, which today represent nearly 2 million titles. See the sites and instructions below to download free classic and other out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books and transfer via USB to your Kindle device or read on Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac. Note that these large collections of older free books are typically created from scanned copies of physical books and can have variable quality.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=amb_link_40669842_101/?node=2245146011&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133142011%2Cn%3A2245146011%2Cn%3A154606011&bbn=2245146011
I try to always admit it when I'm wrong. I wouldn't say that I'm exactly wrong about my feelings towards digital books. But I am willing to completely concede a benefit of E-books that I had never stopped to really consider before. E-books make reading more accessible in ways that only truly make sense in our informational era. While I would rather have the paper and binding in my hands, E-books provide a cheap alternative to ignorance. E-books will probably never truly replace regular books. But E-books have the potential to become more affordable than physical books could ever hope to be. And because of that possibility it also has the potential to give any person who has at the very least Internet access (plus the determination) to read great literary works that might have been inaccessible due to simple poverty. In this day and age in the USA most children have access to the Internet and computers. Every year more schools in this country have made gifts to students as young as late elementary school of wifi accessible laptops which the students are to use for doing their school work.
When I was growing up it was just becoming mandatory to have computer access to do homework that was worth a massive percentage of your grade for that semester. Back then in the 90s it was just becoming expected for every student to have typed and spell checked reports. If you weren't lucky enough to have a computer at home you were expected to spend time after school to type up your reports. Only in my Junior year did I have a class that had any expectation that we should all have Internet access to do course work. That was a computer class where we were being taught how to "practically" search and surf the web (I have memories that make smile of being instructed how to properly "search" for topics in search engines which seems like common sense now in this day and age!). Just in a decade we've all ready been swooped up in a tide of new revolution which has the promise of making ignorance even more of a crime than it used to be in societies like the USA and others in the Western world.
In 1990 it was reasonable that the reason you couldn't read a classic book was because your family lacked the resources to buy you the book and you couldn't ever seem to get it from your local library. Now days because of E-books anybody with access to the Internet can read Lewis Carroll's tales about Alice or be terrified at HG Wells' prediction of what alien contact could mean for the world.
I would rather have an actual physical copy of any book I want to read. But if I can read an enjoyable book online from some of the fabulous web sites like:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Http://www.readprint.com/
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
http://www.questia.com
http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/
http://www.classicbookshelf.com/
And also do so free of charge I've benefited in more ways than I could have hoped before the Internet. It nearly makes growing up in the 1980s and 1990s seem like a dark age compared to the places where technology is faster and faster taking us with the passing of everyday. It makes you count your blessings. It makes you realize what a privileged time to be alive. No matter the negatives of this time in future history, compared to the past we are all fast becoming the first true generations of completely spoiled human brats compared to where we were a mere hundred years before.
I have been using Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) for a few years to read classics I'd never gotten the chance to read before. While I loved the opportunity to read the book I was not happy at the time because it was very uncomfortable to either sit in a desk chair or strain my eyes to read from a mobile device. Only recently we got a laptop which allows me to read books online with the benefit of a bigger screen and bigger font that tends to not put strain on my eyes.
Since getting to use the laptop in this way I've realized what pushed makers of devices like the Amazon Kindle to think that there was a great future in making such devices. I still tend to think that Amazon and Barnes & Noble have to go a ways further before I would spend the amount of money each of those cost for a device that can only function as an E-reader. The Apple iPad is more likely to gain my interest because you want more bang for your buck (but even the iPad leaves me unsure whether it would be worth the price tag with what I can see me actually using it for).
In the end it is a laptop or netbook's possibilities that drive home to that though I will always feel the actual physical manifestation of any book is to be strongly preferred, I must admit that we are increasingly living in an age where ignorance should be considered a sin with so many avenues available to anyone hooked to the net's ability to access such massive amounts of incredible information that would have made the Ancient Library of Alexandria envious.
Kindle Store - Limited-time offers and thousands of popular classics for FREE
With over 500,000 titles, the Kindle Store contains the largest selection of the books people want to read including New York Times® Best Sellers and most new releases from $9.99. And Amazon provides limited-time promotional offers and thousands of the most popular classics for free with wireless delivery in under 60 seconds via Whispernet to your Kindle, computer, or other mobile device.
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Danielle J's Fork In The Road
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? She asked. Where do you want to go? Was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter."-Lewis Carroll
The above quote is quite possibly my favorite quote in all of literature. It probably isn't very unique to have your favorite quote come from the imaginative mind of Lewis Carroll's genius. But I don't pretend to be the most unique person every to grace the surface of the planet earth.
I love the quote for the obvious reasons. I, like most everybody else have found myself wandering a literal Wonderland in my everyday reality since my life began. I've often found myself at the proverbial fork in the road contemplating whether or not the road my heart tells me take is better than the road that my analytical mind is trying to force me to take. I struggle with the decision much the same as anyone does when serendipitously my very own Cheshire Cat pops into view to inform me of the obvious truth I've been too blind to grasp while I've been worrying about which road is the right road to stroll along.
It has happened several times in my life and suspect it will keep happening until my life on this plane of existence is over. I always need my own personal Cheshire Cat to remind me that since I don't know where it is I'm trying to get--it hardly matters to cause myself anguish and worry over which direction I need to take when I have no clue to the location of my destination.
It serves as a beautiful reminder that even when I feel strongly I've taken the wrong path it hardly matters in the larger scheme of things. I don't know where I'm trying to get to in life expect this vague notion of a realm that feels more at home than this one. I'll know I'm there once I feel I'm back at home. That is simple enough isn't it? Yet it is not simple at all. At different times in my life I've felt as content and at home as anyone could ever hope to feel. Other times I feel so not at home it makes knowing what being at home feels insane. But these are all just other moving parts to the glory I call my life.
Nothing is absolute. Things are in constant motion. I will never be confined to one road because life is a series of forks in the road. Sometimes there are just two different paths branching off from the fork. Yet at other times there are so many winding pathways to navigate that they can't even be correctly counted. Through it all only some very basic tenets make sense at this point.
And that of course is:
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? She asked. Where do you want to go? Was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter."-Lewis Carroll
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