The Sky Is Falling

Well, in my case it's actually the ceiling. Make that TWO ceilings. The first being the ceiling in my wonderfully sh*tty apartment. I loathe that apartment. We finally decided to suck it up, embrace adulthood, and buy our first house/townhouse/condo/treehouse/cardboard box (hopefully not the latter two, but I'm just bracing myself for the way things have been going.) I'm truly holding out hope that I can find a *nice* place less than 30 minutes from work. I'm really, really hoping. I don't care if it's a shoebox as long as there are 4 well-painted walls, some real tile, and has sturdy ceilings with no upstairs neighbors to rain down on them. This brings me to my point...

The first ceiling incident occurred Valentine's Day night. Some background: I was already peeved because my husband got a call the afternoon before asking if he was available to work ALL weekend (and by all I mean, every day until midnight or 1am.) He wisely told them he had plans for Saturday night with his wife for Valentine's day, but that he was free until 5pm that day and until midnight for the next century... So, he got home Saturday after being worn out from working. We got ready and went to Cirque de Soleil. Getting there was a mild disaster, but we made it... only 10 minutes late after walking around Atlanta Station for about 45 minutes trying to find the entrance to the damn tent. The show was interesting... not really my thing, but I'm glad we went. I would never spend that much money to see that show again. I thought it was going to be much more "show" than "circus." Unfortunately, "circus" prevailed and we're both incredibly freaked out by clowns. We were looking forward to going home and relaxing after the stressful day/evening, but when we walked into the aforementioned crap heap we call an apartment, we were met with a giant puddle in the middle of our sagging kitchen floor.

"Hmm, I thought. Where could this come from?"

I then made the mistake of looking up.

Long story short, the upstairs neighbor's dishwasher overflowed. And, since there's virtually no insulation separating our apartments (we hear every glorious peyote-induced praise fest, bongo drum song, toilet use, and aerobic workout), the putrid dishwasher water was flowing over my ceiling, running across my light light fixture, and splashing onto my Gucci glasses (before hitting the floor.) I was not pleased. We were genuinely afraid the ceiling was about to collapse, so we did the rational thing and called the after hours maintenance line. It was about midnight by then and the guy didn't show up until at least 1:30am. He was, of course, complaining. At least it wasn't his house.

That was the first ceiling disaster. The second happened today... I was sitting in my office minding my own business when I heard this "creak, creak, creak... pitter, patter" sound. At first, I thought it was background music in my headphones. Then I thought that the office upstairs had gotten a new printer. It continued. I investigated the rest of the office... no creaky sound. I sat back down and looked up. (Why do I never learn???) I saw some discolored areas in the tile, but they looked old. I couldn't tell if they were expanding while I was continually watching them, so I thought I would go to the bathroom and come back to see if there was a size difference or if I was hallucinating. Turns out, it was in fact another leak. (I was consoled that I wasn't hallucinating... the only upside.) The "shaded area" had grown to a steady stream of water falling onto my desk... about 6 inches away from my computer. Luckily, I grabbed the computer before serious damage was done. After letting out a slew of explitives, I threw a trash can under it and went up to the office management company's office. They were very helpful and had someone come out and take care of it immediately, which was great! He even cleaned up even though I told him not to. My kind of guy! :) He tried to patch the hole... and turned off the water to the dental chair that is directly above my desk on the floor above (it's a dentist office.) It's supposed to be fixed for now, but may leak more over night. I'm staying at the other desk until I go home for the day so as to not test my luck further.

So, that's my story. I think it just about sums up the state of things these days... except in the broader context, Obama is the leaky dental chair from the floor above me that I can't control and I'm the poor desk who can't get out of the way of the impending flood that will destroy all of my hard work.

Literacy and the Digital Age

I was going to skip my weekly blog this week because I really didn't have much to say. I can't even look at the "Stimulus" bill with having to excuse myself to retch in the bathroom, so I didn't feel like writing about that... I was also confronted with a very disturbing case of homosexual discrimination that was put under the guise of an act of academic freedom. I have not felt that much rage in a long time. If there is one thing other than limited government I am in favor of, it is the full Equal Protection of the Laws as set forth in the 14th Amendment. I think this applies to all people in our nation and that homosexual discrimination (and anti-immigration policies) are the remaining holdouts in that area. And, people who use academic freedom as an excuse to slander and discriminate against another group is the worst abuse of such freedom. It makes me so unbelievable infuriated that I cannot write about it further today without suffering a heart attack from my heightened blood pressure, so I will move on to the topic at hand: the digitization of books (the product being called eBooks.)

Personally, I love eBooks for every possible reason. For the free sharing of ideas across generations, geographies, languages, and income thresholds. For the ability to publish your own thoughts and writings without having to go through a traditional avenue if that is not your goal. And, most importantly, to readily access information wherever you are. Obviously, the internet has opened this door, but eBooks continue it.

One of the best ways to access eBooks is through Amazon's Kindle (which was sold out by the beginning of December despite the economic slump. And it's not cheap.) Another, is through Google Books, which is making historic headway in coming to agreements with copyright holders to search and share information. Google Books also lets you add any title you publish (virtually or otherwise) to their site where it will be freely promoted and accessible through Book Search. I think this is wonderful... even though I don't necessarily look forward to having to sort through more items when performing a Book Search. Ultimately, more competition will increase quality because your work will have to be that much better (or at least have that much more buzz) than the others that are out there. People are also increasingly promoting their eBooks from their own blogs, website, and social media platforms. Good for them! The Internet Age is causing a societal shift in the way people interact and share information, and eBooks are only one way that is supporting this shift.

However, there are certain people who think this is terrible... that the mere act of holding the paper in your hands constitutes some kind of virtuous act and therefore all forms of digitized books should be done away with (you can't say banned because they don't want books to be banned in libraries... only online libraries.) They also think digitization will be the end of literacy and apparently Western Civilization as we know it because somehow this will cause all Publishing Houses to go out of business and libraries to be burned to the ground simultaneously. Then the government would obviously step in to prevent the digitized copies from being distributed to the masses and scourging them from the Internet and personal libraries and personal computers resulting in the mass eradication of all books in the world.

I'm sorry if I don't see the doom and gloom. This guy sure does though. And apparently 205 of his closest Internet friends.

I guess this all to say that I am incredibly pro-literacy and pro-technology. I think book digitization represents the best of both worlds because it provides broader access to literary tools... aka books... with less cost (to users and publishers.) Digitization allows for better and less expensive translation options which makes distribution wider as well. Also, physical libraries are not going anywhere. If they do, I will be the first person in line protesting the book burning. Until then, I can't wait until I save enough to buy my Kindle and will continue to fully utilize all online books that meet my interest or purpose. I encourage you to do the same. And if you don't know where these sites exist, just let me know and I can send you some great links!