I love to read! I am pretty sure I have loved to read since I was able to do so and probably before. Sure, there were times in my life when reading was not a big priority, but I've always come back to it. Now I like to read all types of books. I read fantasy, mystery, non-fiction, the Bible, children's books, etc. I haven't always liked all genres. In fact, my mom likes to remind me that I would not read fantasy when I was younger because I didn't like things that could not possibly happen. I truly don't know what was wrong with me then! Fantasy is probably my favorite now. I am the type that waited in line at midnight for most of the Harry Potter books and I even did so for Breaking Dawn of the Twilight series. I love the thrill of a new book in a series. I am also the type that cannot put a book down, although I have had to learn to do so with a little one depending on me now. When Harry Potter 7 came out, I had to sit up straight in the middle of my bed at 4:30 am to keep reading. Justin woke up and told me to go to bed. The book would still be there in the morning. But I just can't put it down. I have to know what happens next! In fact, sometimes I skip ahead just to see what happens and then go back and read it word for word. I know...I am pathetic.
Which brings me to my point. When you are watching a television program, I understand creating suspense for the next episode; causing the viewer to tune in next week. But why do authors do that with chapters in a book? It drives me nuts when an author creates a big cliff hanger at the end of a chapter. Then I have to turn the page, start the new chapter just to see what happens. Chapter breaks should happen at points where you can take a rest from the story, not at suspenseful parts. It's not like "tune in next week". The reader can just turn the page and keep reading. It's not like an author gets more money for how fast a person reads the book. I would really like good stopping points at chapter breaks! That way when I say I must stop at the next chapter, I won't keep going without realizing a chapter has occurred because of the suspense. I have learned I can just stop in the middle of a chapter, but I always lose my place that way and I am such a perfectionist I think I must stop at a chapter.
So authors out there...please make chapter breaks a good place to stop! :)
7.30.2010
7.24.2010
Lately...
Upon the third crash of our wonderful computer, Justin and I decided to purchase a new one...Happy Anniversary to us! At least now I can catch up all you Aria fans on what she has been doing!
It is amazing to me how much she changes in just a week, let alone the almost two months it has been since I have had a properly functioning computer to call my own. The first crash began on Memorial Day, so I thought I would include some highlights from the month of June and then the month of July.
JUNE:
When Grandma babysits, I like to take naps with her!
We had some beautiful flowers growing in our backyard!
I started riding in the stroller like a big girl!
We had a fun get together with the Rickey family and all the babies born in the past year!
Daddy got a new job in Hiawatha and he doesn't have to drive to Cedar Falls every day any more!!!!!!
I learned how to read. :)
And, I started sitting all by myself!
JULY:
I really love to grab my feet! When I get excited it is the first thing I do!
I decided I want to be a basketball player when I grow up!
I ate my first solid food, rice cereal, on July 3! Believe it or not, after awhile I started swallowing some of the food. Mommy said not to bore everyone with a 12 minute video, though.
I've gotten so much better at eating. I've tried rice cereal, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and bananas. I think sweet potatoes are my favorite so far. I really like to get them everywhere!
On Daddy's day off between jobs we went to Grandma and Grandpa Blow's house. We went swimming in the Tipton pool and I floated in my raft. We even went in the lazy river. The water was cold at first, but I liked it as soon as I got used to it!
I really like my Augie dog, but she often runs away from me. Mommy got this great picture of us in a moment when she was actually holding still!
I can't crawl yet, but I can make my way all around the room and find all kinds of great things to play with and put in my mouth!
Hopefully I can keep this blog updated on a day to day basis! I can't imagine what Aria will be doing two months from now!
It is amazing to me how much she changes in just a week, let alone the almost two months it has been since I have had a properly functioning computer to call my own. The first crash began on Memorial Day, so I thought I would include some highlights from the month of June and then the month of July.
JUNE:
When Grandma babysits, I like to take naps with her!
We had some beautiful flowers growing in our backyard!
I started riding in the stroller like a big girl!
We had a fun get together with the Rickey family and all the babies born in the past year!
Daddy got a new job in Hiawatha and he doesn't have to drive to Cedar Falls every day any more!!!!!!
I learned how to read. :)
And, I started sitting all by myself!
JULY:
I really love to grab my feet! When I get excited it is the first thing I do!
I decided I want to be a basketball player when I grow up!
I ate my first solid food, rice cereal, on July 3! Believe it or not, after awhile I started swallowing some of the food. Mommy said not to bore everyone with a 12 minute video, though.
I've gotten so much better at eating. I've tried rice cereal, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and bananas. I think sweet potatoes are my favorite so far. I really like to get them everywhere!
On Daddy's day off between jobs we went to Grandma and Grandpa Blow's house. We went swimming in the Tipton pool and I floated in my raft. We even went in the lazy river. The water was cold at first, but I liked it as soon as I got used to it!
I really like my Augie dog, but she often runs away from me. Mommy got this great picture of us in a moment when she was actually holding still!
I can't crawl yet, but I can make my way all around the room and find all kinds of great things to play with and put in my mouth!
Hopefully I can keep this blog updated on a day to day basis! I can't imagine what Aria will be doing two months from now!
7.11.2010
Computers
The Evolution of the Computer in my Life:
I can remember getting our very first computer. I don't remember how old I was, but I remember right where it sat in our kitchen and I know it was an Apple. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I know I was in elementary school when we got it and the earliest thing I can remember doing on it was Mario Teaches Typing. That was actually a beneficial program, but beyond Mario the greatest uses I remember for that first computer was Oregon Trail, Sim City, and other fun games. Those were the days!
As I got older, I began to use the computer for more than just games. I worked for my dad's business and used the Quickbooks software to do payroll, pay bills, and create invoices. I also started using Word (or whatever the equivalent was then) for typing documents for school. I can even remember using an ACT practice prgoram. I'm sure I still played some games, too.
Then, lo and behold we got the Internet! I think it was sometime around my senior year of high school (98-99). I can remember creating the email account I still use today. I purposely did not use my last name because I thought, "I might still be using this account when I have a different last name." I thought the Internet was the greatest invention yet and I spent hours on it, probably mostly on some sort of chat like MSN. It was such a fun new way to communicate!
As a graduation present my parents gave me my very own computer to take to college! It really was a useful gift. I wrote plenty of papers and did plenty of research that helped me obtain my degree. However, what I remember from that computer is learning how to download music and make cds. And, one of the best uses of my very first computer goes like this. My freshman roommate and I could not have been more different. Different majors, different backgrounds, different interests. But, we hit it off amazingly! We never had a quarrel and we stood in our empty room on moving out day and cried and cried because we weren't going to see each other for 2.5 months until we were roommates again. Back to the computer. Many nights Lori would go to the basement of our dorm and use the computers there while I would work on my computer. We would, of course, both be on MSN or AOL chat. We ended up having some of the best heart to hearts on those chat nights. I know I never would have been able to share some of the things I did in person, even though we had become such good friends. A lot of our friends laughed at us because we started to purposely have deep conversations on chat, instead of just by coincidence while we should have been doing homework. That was great fun!
Ironically, by the end of my college life that computer was getting a bit rusty and I received a new computer as a gift from my parents. This was newer, faster, and with better programs! This wonderful computer became the first computer for Justin and I as a married couple, too. Quite quickly, as it seems in the electronic world, that computer became too old and too slow for my liking. We got a laptop, which I will describe in the next paragraph. I took the old and slow computer to my classroom so there would be an extra one for student use. Surprisingly, the computer lasted 2 years in a room full of middle schoolers. When I went to clean out my room at the end of this school year, my students informed me the computer had "died". It no longer worked. One of my very technologically advanced students said, "I would sure love to take that apart and see if I can get it to work again." I responded, "it's yours!" He was sure shocked. We arranged for him to ask his parents and I wrote him a note giving my signature to ensure my permission. I didn't know what else to do with it. Why not give a curious, intelligent, future computer guru the chance to learn? I ought to check in with him to see how it is going!
Back to the current laptop. It was a Christmas present in 2007 and seemed to be a pretty good one other than the mouse working backwords occasionally. All of a sudden, around Memorial Day weekend, it started acting up. To make a long story short, we had to send it in to Sony TWICE to get it fixed. It is still under warranty and it does appear to be fixed now, but oh what a pain! A long time ago, life without a computer would have just meant no games for awhile. Now.... AAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! No computer means no email, no facebook, no cute pictures to post of Aria, no blogging, no reading other blogs, no creating items for my friends baby shower, no checking the weather, no paying bills online, no knowing how much money is in the bank account, etc, etc, etc. My computer is now my life! When did that happen? I don't even have one of those fancy check your email on your phone options (although my phone is a considerable upgrade from the bag phone as big as a shoe box that you plugged into the cigarette outlet that was my dad's that I got to take when I went out somewhere in high school...but that is another blog post). Going more than a month with very limited access to a computer was miserable. I'm so glad to have it back! (I think)
I can remember getting our very first computer. I don't remember how old I was, but I remember right where it sat in our kitchen and I know it was an Apple. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I know I was in elementary school when we got it and the earliest thing I can remember doing on it was Mario Teaches Typing. That was actually a beneficial program, but beyond Mario the greatest uses I remember for that first computer was Oregon Trail, Sim City, and other fun games. Those were the days!
As I got older, I began to use the computer for more than just games. I worked for my dad's business and used the Quickbooks software to do payroll, pay bills, and create invoices. I also started using Word (or whatever the equivalent was then) for typing documents for school. I can even remember using an ACT practice prgoram. I'm sure I still played some games, too.
Then, lo and behold we got the Internet! I think it was sometime around my senior year of high school (98-99). I can remember creating the email account I still use today. I purposely did not use my last name because I thought, "I might still be using this account when I have a different last name." I thought the Internet was the greatest invention yet and I spent hours on it, probably mostly on some sort of chat like MSN. It was such a fun new way to communicate!
As a graduation present my parents gave me my very own computer to take to college! It really was a useful gift. I wrote plenty of papers and did plenty of research that helped me obtain my degree. However, what I remember from that computer is learning how to download music and make cds. And, one of the best uses of my very first computer goes like this. My freshman roommate and I could not have been more different. Different majors, different backgrounds, different interests. But, we hit it off amazingly! We never had a quarrel and we stood in our empty room on moving out day and cried and cried because we weren't going to see each other for 2.5 months until we were roommates again. Back to the computer. Many nights Lori would go to the basement of our dorm and use the computers there while I would work on my computer. We would, of course, both be on MSN or AOL chat. We ended up having some of the best heart to hearts on those chat nights. I know I never would have been able to share some of the things I did in person, even though we had become such good friends. A lot of our friends laughed at us because we started to purposely have deep conversations on chat, instead of just by coincidence while we should have been doing homework. That was great fun!
Ironically, by the end of my college life that computer was getting a bit rusty and I received a new computer as a gift from my parents. This was newer, faster, and with better programs! This wonderful computer became the first computer for Justin and I as a married couple, too. Quite quickly, as it seems in the electronic world, that computer became too old and too slow for my liking. We got a laptop, which I will describe in the next paragraph. I took the old and slow computer to my classroom so there would be an extra one for student use. Surprisingly, the computer lasted 2 years in a room full of middle schoolers. When I went to clean out my room at the end of this school year, my students informed me the computer had "died". It no longer worked. One of my very technologically advanced students said, "I would sure love to take that apart and see if I can get it to work again." I responded, "it's yours!" He was sure shocked. We arranged for him to ask his parents and I wrote him a note giving my signature to ensure my permission. I didn't know what else to do with it. Why not give a curious, intelligent, future computer guru the chance to learn? I ought to check in with him to see how it is going!
Back to the current laptop. It was a Christmas present in 2007 and seemed to be a pretty good one other than the mouse working backwords occasionally. All of a sudden, around Memorial Day weekend, it started acting up. To make a long story short, we had to send it in to Sony TWICE to get it fixed. It is still under warranty and it does appear to be fixed now, but oh what a pain! A long time ago, life without a computer would have just meant no games for awhile. Now.... AAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! No computer means no email, no facebook, no cute pictures to post of Aria, no blogging, no reading other blogs, no creating items for my friends baby shower, no checking the weather, no paying bills online, no knowing how much money is in the bank account, etc, etc, etc. My computer is now my life! When did that happen? I don't even have one of those fancy check your email on your phone options (although my phone is a considerable upgrade from the bag phone as big as a shoe box that you plugged into the cigarette outlet that was my dad's that I got to take when I went out somewhere in high school...but that is another blog post). Going more than a month with very limited access to a computer was miserable. I'm so glad to have it back! (I think)
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