a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: July 26, 2017

Fair

The County Fair is opening to the public tonight, and we're walking distance from it.

What time is it? FRIED FOOD TIME! WHOOOOOOoooOOOOoOOOoOOOOoooOooo!

Reading

I'm now a fifth of the way through Wealth of Nations. I feel asleep reading it last night, so I've probably got to double back and skim.

That's my problem with summer time: the heat just saps my energy. Since I read in the evening, it is a constant struggle to keep my focus. Coffee helps, but then I'm up till midnight and that leads to me getting my ass handed to me the next day at work. Which then means I'm more tired the next evening.

I'm enjoying the bits of the book that aren't long tracts of accounting for the prices of silver and corn.

Maybe I'll give audible a shot. Seems expensive, though. Project Gutenberg ebooks are free...

Family

My niece is going to Germany as an exchange student soon. My brother and his wife announced yesterday that they're having a Mandatory Family Dinner on Sunday for her. They've known that this meal would be happening for ages, but they have the planning horizon of a Labrador.

They also haven't actually told me about it. They just told Mom and assumed she would disseminate The Word.

Frustrating.





Dala  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    They also haven't actually told me about it. They just told Mom and assumed she would disseminate The Word.Frustrating.

Are we secretly relatives?

Also, enjoy some ridiculous fried food for us and report back. I hear fairs have crazy stuff like fried oreos and fried butter.

user-inactivated  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Are we secretly relatives?

Apparently we all are. Time to stop calling meetups 'meetups' and start calling 'em 'reunions'?

    Also, enjoy some ridiculous fried food for us and report back. I hear fairs have crazy stuff like fried oreos and fried butter.

First night's report is rain. It runs until Sunday, though. Can't rain all the time, right?

Funnel cake is my favorite fried fair food. Oreos are also good, as is cheese!

Dala  ·  2680 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I grew up at the local dirt track so I have eaten more than my fair share of funnel cake. I like mine lightly dusted with the powdered sugar. My mother, on the other hand, I think would like hers in a 1:1 ratio.

OftenBen  ·  2680 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    My mother, on the other hand, I think would like hers in a 1:1 ratio.

A woman after my own heart.

WanderingEng  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

We all might be relatives. Everyone in my family has plans in their head, but they don't share them. Mom plans lunch at 12:30. Sister plans to arrive around 12:30-1:00 expecting to socialize for a while when she and her family arrive. Brother wants to have lunch at 1:30 because of jet lag. But nobody shares that with anybody and then they lament the stress of the holidays.

And then they all act exasperated when I hammer home a plan in email after email, even when someone changed something in the previous email chain.

goobster  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Dang. Are all us Hubskiers related?

Everyone in my family thinks everyone else talks to each other way more than they actually do.

Family Member: "So, are you and the wife coming tonight?"

goobster: "Coming? To what?"

FM: "The big thing we have been planning to do. People are flying in from all over the world for it."

goobster: "The what?"

FM: "OMG! Did nobody tell you?!? You are supposed to be getting the cake for your father's 80th surprise birthday party that is happening in 20 minutes!"

goobster: "I.... WHAT?!?"

FM: "Oh nevermind. Just come over. We'll figure it out."

goobster: "Um. I'm in Canada. Camping. Building an ice hotel in Nunavut."

FM: "Oh! How fun! Well, take pictures, and we'll get together when you get back."

goobster: "..."

kleinbl00  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

...and then my sister says

"So we arranged to be 40 miles away and my husband can't pick up the rental car until 9 and also it's twenty minutes in the wrong direction so I need you to call everyone up and push things an hour and a half."

Devac  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  
This comment has been deleted.
user-inactivated  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks for the link, I'll give it a shot. I listened to a snippet of a random chapter, and the recording was much better than I was anticipating. :D

ThurberMingus  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Check if your local library has partnered with Overdrive, or a similar app. You could also get audiobooks on CD from the library and copy them to your phone/iPod.

user-inactivated  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Check if your local library has partnered with Overdrive

So they have!

The only one I've tried before was hoopla, which I couldn't get to work at the time. I didn't realize they had additional partnerships, though. Thanks for getting me to check it out.

kleinbl00  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

archive.org has a bunch of free audiobooks. As does Librivox. As does your local library. I can afford it and I like the interface but there are plenty of legal, free alternatives particularly when you're talking about public domain stuff.

https://librivox.org/the-wealth-of-nations-book-1-by-adam-smith/

EDIT: in my rush to be helpful I failed to notice that devac made me irrelevant an hour before I woke up.

user-inactivated  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    archive.org

I always forget that they're not just the wayback machine.

    local library

They have a physical copy audiobook of Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century that I've been eyeing for a while now.

I forget about the digital stuff though. It's the future, man! Thanks for the suggestions. Many new catalogs to explore now.

kleinbl00  ·  2681 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And don't forget that if you want to see a task over-accomplished with an excessive bibliography and an impressive appendix of semi-useful "see alsos", ask a librarian. They are aggressively helpful.