Oogiem

Where are the standards by age?

Thanks folks, I appreciate the sympathy. <G> Nothing even remotely close in any second hand shop within 30 miles of me. NO local military bases, exploring on-line options but the cargo pants style of BDUs don't look great. I do farm tours, need to also look presentable when in work clothes. I have a sewing machine but tailoring is hard for pants. I am trying to learn but it's slow going. Craftsy is helping but not fast enough because I can't spend the time to test things. No tailors in town either, Iv'e tried to find one. Still looking. I am looking at cost per wear. Jeans went from around $1 CPW to over $2 CPW in the last year. I'll pay more for quality. I have wool sweaters that are older than I am (over half a century) now it doesn't matter if they originally cost over $500, they have been very very good on a CPW basis.

What a frustrating day. All I really need is a source for good heavy duty work jeans that actually fit. The F**king CRAP that is sold is beyond belief! Every place thinks women all need spandex (I loathe spandex). I can't find anything that is well made or from a durable fabric. The jeans all cost $39.99+ and are so flimsy that I seriously felt I might split that darned things doing a squat. In the dressing room with the attendant watching I was doing deep squats and she seriously sucked in her breath! The stitching on the $49.99 pants was poor and ripping out and that was brand new! The cheap ones (Sam's Club etc) are all very straight. I kept pulling out my tape measure, even pants labeled the same size in the stack varied by as much as 2 inches at the hem (leg length) and by 1.5 inches at the waist and let's not even talk about the hip difference. Plus they are straight, I can't wear straight anything! I have large hips, smallish waist, still too much body fat and am very short. I need curvy fit and even then usually have wrinkles in the waist bands of my pants. I bought 1 pair of Carhartt for Women Double Front Carpenter Pants. $59.99 but if they work the price is a bargain. They are about 2 inches too long, no short or petite ones are made but at least the fabric felt like it might actually survive a week of sheeping. I just washed them, the gal helping me said they will shrink in length some. She also at least said she's had her pair for a couple of years and uses them deer and bear hunting. At least I could actually talk to her about realistic uses for working clothing. <G> WHY can't SOMEONE made GOOD, WELL MADE, DURABLE, working Clothing for REAL WOMEN!!!! And YES I am shouting!!!

Well let me tell you, dealing with an attack of shingles is no fun. My first. Now on a round of steroids, antivirals etc. I'll be checking out the vaccine when I visit my doctor next week for sure! I initially thought I had a massive bug bite, swelling, rash, pain and redness. Ended up at hospital emergency room when it was getting worse and benadryl was not dealing with it. Not at all fun!

Sheep & dogs got them all beat! :-) Esp from 0:46 to 1:20

I'm struggling getting past the first few chapters, just isn't grabbing me. I find myslef grating my teeth and wishing I was reading something else, odd situation for me with almost any book... . Will plug on for a bit but about to throw in the towel

I'm well above your age limit. but I won't say by how much ;-)

not cloud based or web is vital. I spent too many years in computer security to ever trust private data on any server I do not physically control. QuickBooks does not handle any investment or brokerage accounts so that eliminates it. Also for security reasons for my clients I cannot run Windows on any of my mac or linux systems so it's not an option to run in a Windows partition. Looking gain at iBank but last time I looked they could not handle brokerage, 401k or similar stock account transactions, capital gains and losses tracking or deal with a check that covers many different categories aka split transactions. I buy almost everything with a credit card and pay it off with a single check each month. I need to be able to split out the various expense categories and also split out 2 business expenses cleanly in the SW so I can get appropriate reports for my accountant for taxes. Again I don't care about budgeting or planning, I want tracking and investment support.

<said with a smile> you must be very young. Just wait till you are older, I absolutely hate white text on a dark background, guaranteed to give me a massive headache just trying to read a single web page. I think it's related to astigmatism plus needing bifocal contact plus reading glasses all at once to see anything up close. I am so glad we no longer have the black screens with orange or green type on them for computer screens or I'd have gone batty decades ago.

E-books if at all possible. Especially out of print older books, classics, my mysteries and all light reading and business reading. I do distinguish between kindle books and books I get on my iPad. iPad is for computer manuals and things where color coding of the code is important . I also get some magazines on my iPad only. Otherwise I love my e-ink kindle for most of my electronic books. Paper books for things with color pictures and diagrams. I take paperback or hardback depending on the book. For most of the ones I get that are not e-books they are only published in one format or the other. So things like knitting and weaving pattern books I get as hard copies. Some history books and archeology books with pictures and drawings of the items are only available as hard copy, usually hardback and usually very expensive.

I'm going to the kick off book tour and signing tomorrow for this new book of his. If anyone wants a hardback, signed copy it looks like I can send one anywhere in the world for about $20-22. Shipping in the US looks like it will be about $10.00 or less not really sure yet on that. The book itself is $27.95. If you want me to get one for you send me a PM before noon tomorrow 2 October 2012 with your e-mail addy, address and what you want signed on it and I'll get one for you. I'll then do a Paypal invoice for the book plus shipping. My kindle copy should be arriving on my kindle tomorrow too.

Lots here, but I live/work on a farm 1 inside cat Shadow 1 outside cat Orange 22 laying hens 4 horses (1 stallion, 1 gelding and 2 mares) 1 donkey jack 4 livestock protection dogs and a flock of 165 purebred registered Black Welsh Mountain sheep, the largest flock in North America. Here's a bunch of pictures of our sheep and some of the dogs http://www.flickr.com/photos/26001709@N03/sets/72157623036431951/

I'll be at the Chili Cookoff at the Paonia Mountain Harvest festival tomorrow evening 5-7, hosting open farm tours all day Saturday and at the Farmers' Market on Sunday. Western Colorado, our big annual fall harvest festival. Let me know you're a NF person if you stop by

1 thread per book. I just started and I must say I sure hope it gets a lot better than the first couple of chapters!

Never been on goodreads at all so no clue whether it would work.

I went into reading the first one with a jaundiced eye. Was prepared for a really crappy story and got sucked into a great book. Try it. I keep a wish list on Amazon, currently at about 425 or so books and I keep a log of books read in DEVONThink. I also have several Libre Office files, one with books owned fiction, one with books owned non-fiction, one with books owned on Kindle and one with iPad books.

Just thought of an option, there is a mystery series set in France, First one is Murder in Marais Here is the link to the English version, not sure if they are in French but the places are in France and when I read them it clearly expected you to know a bit about French culture so might be fun to start with. The detective is a woman and her partner is a dwarf. http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Marais-Aimee-Investigation-ebook/dp/B004HYHAVW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348701313&sr=1-1&keywords=murder+in+marais Good mysteries, I stayed up all night reading the first one and only barely manage to tear myself away to go to bed for a couple more. Haven't finished the series but I like them. Do you read German? There is a great mystery "Three Bags Full" the detectives are a flock of sheep, originally written in German http://www.amazon.com/Three-Bags-Full-Detective-ebook/dp/B000RG1NWG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348701666&sr=1-1&keywords=three+bags+full The second one is out, German only, I'm eagerly waiting for the English translation, both funny and a mystery.

I'm the person who used to hide books in plastic bags in the barns and sneak outside to read when my mother sent me outside to "play" because I'd rather read than run around so I'm probably not the best person to ask but hey.. ;-) What are you interested in? Do you have a favorite TV show? What sort of movies do you like? Do you like comedy or mystery? Is there anything you've ever wanted to learn more about? Do you like history? I'd pick something you already have a passing interest in and ask for good books related to that. Many TV shows, esp. British ones, and most movies have some book tie-in that is a good place to start. I happen to love mysteries and there is a whole class of mysteries that are always related to some other factor. They are called Cozy mysteries and there are whole series where the detective is a knitter, or scrapbooker, or rides horses, or a weaver or makes soap or cooks a lot or runs a B&B. They tend to be focused on women readers but all are generally good decent fast mystery reads. I'd be glad to give you a list if you want to try a few. There are classic books that you may know the story of but that are so different when you read the actual book. Peter Pan, Treasure Island, and Grimms Fairy Tales are ones that come immediately to mind. Young adult books or kids books are a great way to get started, esp if you are trying to read in a foreign language. I'm not ashamed to say I still love many of my old kids books, Wind in the Willows, The Winnie the Pooh Books and Secret Garden are good places to get started. If you have a hobby, any sort of hobby, pick up a book that is about that hobby, you might advance your skills and learn something new. History is always good for great books. Real history is fascinating if you've got a good writer and alternate histories stretch the imagination. I read a lot of both and can offer suggestions there as well. What about obscure things? Troll the free kindle book sites and you'd be amazed at the weird and off the wall books you can find. Pick one that looks like it might be fun and try it. I've read books on Sabotage, Chain Mail, Explosives, Cooking, Farming, Sewing, Needlework, etc from free out of print kindle books. You don't need a kindle to read them you can get the kindle app for your computer. Pull out a dictionary, randomly open it up to a page, pick out a word and look for a book about that topic. Take a class in reading comprehension or speed reading, maybe you don't like to read because it takes you a long time or you feel you are missing stuff.

If anyone wants me to get a hardcopy of Apocalyptic Planet and have it signed by Craig Childs, I'm going to his kick off lecture & book signing on Tuesday and I'll be glad to buy one and ship it anywhere, cost will be whatever the real cost plus postage is. I can take paypal to pay for it. I'll go ask what the price will be and figure on the cost using flat rate international shipping so it can go anywhere.

Still Tuesday here, you're not in Australia are you? Just to throw a bit of a tweak, I mentioned to Craig Childs that we were voting on a book to read and that his was in the running and he said that if he can he'll stop in and comment/answer questions if we read Apocalyptic Planet. He starts the book tour next Tuesday with sometimes limited Internet access so can't guarantee anything. And if you want to read a bit more about the book he posted a message over at Powells https://www.powells.com/blog/original-essays/apocalyptic-planet-by-craig-childs/

I thought I'd share a goal I've had for several years now that has related to why I am reading so much more than I used to. Starting back in 2008 when I got my kindle I decided I wanted to read more. I didn't track what I read that year but then I read some posts over in another forum about keeping a book log. I started tracking some of the books in 2009 and I read 24 that I entered into my log. For 2010 I was a lot better about tracking what I read and I managed to finish 38. For 2010 I decided I wanted to do a book a week plus one extra a month and I finished a total of 64. For 2012 I decided that instead of setting a number goal of books finished I would instead set a reading goal based on time and days reading. With a number of books goal once I met my goal I slacked off a lot and didn't finish any more after I met the goal I had set. My reading goal is now based on reading for 1 hour every other day. I set a repeating task in my TTD list manager and check it off when I've finished my hour of reading. I still also track every book I read with the title, author, start date and end date. By not setting a specific number of books goal I found I was reading even more than before and at the end of August I had finished 72 books this year. Some months I read very few. In May I only finished 3 but we are lambing in May so not too surprising. Yet in February I read 21 new books. February is the month with almost no farm work to do. Because I know I can read a lot of books in a relatively short time I am more free to read books outside my mainstream interests. OTOH I am also a lot more picky. If I pick up and read the kindle sample and I am not grabbed by it I delete the sample and move on. If I am still interested I add it to my kindle wish list. Once a quarter I go through the kindle wish list and do 2 things. I check to see if there is a trend with me putting on a group of similar books or books on a particular topic. If so I try to take another look at that group and pick one to get and read. If I still am interested in the topic I'll leave the rest on my list if not I delete them. I also refresh the list because as newer versions of books get published the old ones become "unavailable" but they are often still out on kindle just in a new printing. I delete the no longer valid links and add the new ones. This system keeps my kindle wish list at about 400 books so I am never without a choice of something to buy and read when I finish the current books. So what do you do to track your reading? Do you keep a log or journal about books you read?

Good point. I know there is another forum that I participate in that has a book club on occasion and they still get comments on the older books read. What tends to happen there is the readers come in batches. First batch reads a book and comments, then the thread is dormant for a while, then a second batch comes along and they tend to discuss among them selves for a while on that thread and so on. Occasionally folks who read it first come back and participate but not always. It's a lot more free-form that way. It seems to work but also the only types of books that are read there are business books. That may make a difference because often the discussions are useful even if old when it's relating to how to run or manage a business.

Here's one for the kindle version http://www.amazon.com/1Q84-ebook/dp/B004LROUW2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348494890&sr=1-1&keywords=1Q84

Just a note on the pre-order. Apocalyptic Planet is shipping October 2. That's less than a week so not long at all. BTW The header says staring 17 September and we're not even decided on a book yet so I figure the dates of start are a bit flexible.

I'm sure in for the big group read of whatever book wins the voting. But it occurred to me that some of the books that far fewer folks want to read could be accommodated if we start a thread for each book separately. This would be in addition to the big NF book club more of a mini group. I'm a serial reader, usually have 4-6 books in process at any given time and have been rolling along at a 9 books a month pace on average but heading in to winter when I usually start getting 10-15 per month finished so making them ones others are reading and discussing them is easy and could be fun. Just to throw some more ideas into the pot here.