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altivoI think I'm getting the cold that Gary has had all week. Wanna go to bed but I still have work to do.
Tomorrow: The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Picking up a fellow spinner and friend at 8 am and driving up, planning to be back mid-afternoon at the latest. There should be lots to see and plenty of temptations to avoid spending money on. Barring a very extreme deterioration in my health before morning, I will still be going, as this opportunity comes but once a year.
Started listening to The Country Beyond by James Oliver Curwood, in the Librivox audio book version. This is one I've never read, but it definitely features much description from the point of view of a mongrel dog called Peter. Set in the north woods of Canada, of course, as are most of Curwood's stories (even though he was a US citizen like Jack London.) A plug here for Librivox. If you like audio books, these are free, public domain recordings made by volunteers. The texts are public domain novels and poetry from Project Gutenberg. Quality varies, of course, but most I've tried have been quite good overall.
The first issue of Harvard's new newspaper came out today. Harvard, Illinois had at least one newspaper, sometimes two or three, continuously from the mid-1860s until 1986. At that time, the Harvard Herald was bought out by a county-wide newspaper, but Harvard soon was forgotten in the coverage that focused almost entirely on the wealthy and populous towns at the eastern end of the county. Three years ago the library started publishing a biweekly "paper" that was little more than a community calendar, a listing of events with whatever filler could be squeezed into it. "Harvard Happenings" was first published under a grant, and then continued after the grant ran out. Two weeks ago, we printed the last issue, suspending our production in favor of the new paper, The Harvard Mainline that is named for the once-busy and still functioning railroad line that provided the excuse for Harvard's beginnings back before the Civil War. Fittingly, the library's centennial celebration that took place last month is featured on the front page, with the header "Party like it's 1909." My mate Gary is in the photo, providing musical entertainment with his friends Neal, Rob, and Dawn.
I've been meaning to say something disparaging about newspapers. Not the small weeklies, but the big dailies are my target. For months we've been hearing how they are losing readership and going bankrupt. Many have in fact declared bankruptcy, and some have ceased print publication. The long established and once high quality Chicago Tribune is among them.
Supposedly the internet is killing the newspapers. Judging by what I'm finding in the Trib, though, the newspapers are killing themselves. More and more feature articles are obviously just pasted together with clips from various web pages. Worse, it seems that the "writer" or "editor" really aren't paying attention. So you'll find that an article about fashion has an odd paragraph pasted into the middle that isn't about fashion at all, but about gardens. Similar problems are visible in every issue. At first I couldn't figure it out, and then I realized: each time I see this, there is a key word involved that has multiple meanings. A Google search with that keyword will pull in both subjects that have been mixed in the article.
Could we really have reached the point already where newspapers are hiring reporters who learned to write in the schools that teach "writing" by using Google and cutting and pasting together bits and pieces, rather than actually reading source material and digesting it in your own words? I fear this has come to pass.
Writing, my friends, is becoming an endangered species.
Tomorrow: The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Picking up a fellow spinner and friend at 8 am and driving up, planning to be back mid-afternoon at the latest. There should be lots to see and plenty of temptations to avoid spending money on. Barring a very extreme deterioration in my health before morning, I will still be going, as this opportunity comes but once a year.
Started listening to The Country Beyond by James Oliver Curwood, in the Librivox audio book version. This is one I've never read, but it definitely features much description from the point of view of a mongrel dog called Peter. Set in the north woods of Canada, of course, as are most of Curwood's stories (even though he was a US citizen like Jack London.) A plug here for Librivox. If you like audio books, these are free, public domain recordings made by volunteers. The texts are public domain novels and poetry from Project Gutenberg. Quality varies, of course, but most I've tried have been quite good overall.
The first issue of Harvard's new newspaper came out today. Harvard, Illinois had at least one newspaper, sometimes two or three, continuously from the mid-1860s until 1986. At that time, the Harvard Herald was bought out by a county-wide newspaper, but Harvard soon was forgotten in the coverage that focused almost entirely on the wealthy and populous towns at the eastern end of the county. Three years ago the library started publishing a biweekly "paper" that was little more than a community calendar, a listing of events with whatever filler could be squeezed into it. "Harvard Happenings" was first published under a grant, and then continued after the grant ran out. Two weeks ago, we printed the last issue, suspending our production in favor of the new paper, The Harvard Mainline that is named for the once-busy and still functioning railroad line that provided the excuse for Harvard's beginnings back before the Civil War. Fittingly, the library's centennial celebration that took place last month is featured on the front page, with the header "Party like it's 1909." My mate Gary is in the photo, providing musical entertainment with his friends Neal, Rob, and Dawn.
I've been meaning to say something disparaging about newspapers. Not the small weeklies, but the big dailies are my target. For months we've been hearing how they are losing readership and going bankrupt. Many have in fact declared bankruptcy, and some have ceased print publication. The long established and once high quality Chicago Tribune is among them.
Supposedly the internet is killing the newspapers. Judging by what I'm finding in the Trib, though, the newspapers are killing themselves. More and more feature articles are obviously just pasted together with clips from various web pages. Worse, it seems that the "writer" or "editor" really aren't paying attention. So you'll find that an article about fashion has an odd paragraph pasted into the middle that isn't about fashion at all, but about gardens. Similar problems are visible in every issue. At first I couldn't figure it out, and then I realized: each time I see this, there is a key word involved that has multiple meanings. A Google search with that keyword will pull in both subjects that have been mixed in the article.
Could we really have reached the point already where newspapers are hiring reporters who learned to write in the schools that teach "writing" by using Google and cutting and pasting together bits and pieces, rather than actually reading source material and digesting it in your own words? I fear this has come to pass.
Writing, my friends, is becoming an endangered species.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 10:58 am (UTC)Another possibility is audible.com, of course. They get most of the new titles right away. I'm pretty sure the Sansa players are compatible with Audible formats. Forgetting your place is a common characteristic in audio files that use the Windows WMA format rather than MP3. I think it's a defect in the way the format itself is designed and used.
We rip CD books to MP3 for our own use as well, but they are much bulkier that way than the Audible format, which I recommend highly.
Gutenberg's audios are mostly computer-generated voice. I find that unacceptable. Maybe someday it will be good enough, but not yet. Librivox are live readers, and admittedly some are not the best but many are very good. It has the added advantage that it costs nothing to try, so nothing but download time is lost if you don't like the reader. The limitation of course is that it only contains public domain works.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-12 05:03 pm (UTC)I was lucky enough to get Hunger Games ripped, and was just hoping to listen to this one before I forgot everything important to the story. I'm also hoping that they didn't change readers.
Inkheart was a wonderfully narrated story. When I got hold of Inkspell, the reader had changed. Dustfinger's character changed so dramatically with the new reader that I never got past the first couple of chapters.
And thinking of the grammar thread going on below by avon_deer, I was going to apologize for the little underscores I use as underlines and/or italics... and when I posted the comment including the slash/i tag, it worked... so I had to delete and repost.
Now if I can work on all those ...'s
Hope your health improved.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-13 07:44 am (UTC)Audible offers subscription plans, sort of like a book club. You pay a monthly fee and get one or two audiobooks of your choice for that fee. I subscribe at a two book level and generally get $60 to $100 in value for $19.95 or so.