You should use Calibre to manage books on your kindle. It is free
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That sounds brilliant, (if, somewhat irksome when the sax player bailed at such short notice; bailing is one thing, - things do happen and crop up in people's lives - but to do so at short notice can be a serious - and thoughtless - inconvenience), and, I agree with @decafjava about marvelling at the ability of musicians to improvise.
Two quick things from another Kindle owner:
- A great place to get free, out of copyright books is gutenberg.org .
- See if your local public library offers e-books.
Just got home (it was an hour and a half away) from the one and only rehearsal for my all-originals gig on Friday. A lot of very specific things (rhythm section hits, particular notated piano parts, general stuff arrangement-wise, etc.) on some of the songs that I need to work out a little on my own in the meantime, but it was mostly together. This is a totally different kind of show that I've never done before at a venue I've never played at. I've played with all the musicians before except for the bass player. Anyway, glad I have the opportunity to do this. The leader is great—I've never been in a band under his direction, but he did an amazing job at making sure everything was played correctly (or as correctly as possible without further practice). We're all pretty good readers, so the first run of everything actually went really well. I'm very confident that this performance will go well.
And yes, @Scepticalscribe, we did get a lot out of the rehearsal. In fact, we worked on one section of a song for an hour straight! I know you wanted to know that earlier.
In other news, I took my speaker in, and they said it'll take six weeks (partially because of their holiday break) to repair it... which means I'll need to borrow one, but that shouldn't be a problem. Which also means that I'll need to have someone pick it up when it's fixed (because I'll be gone again by then.) They said they might be able to cover it under warranty since it's essentially a brand new speaker. I emailed them the receipt, so we'll see where that goes.
And yes, @Scepticalscribe, we did get a lot out of the rehearsal. In fact, we worked on one section of a song for an hour straight! I know you wanted to know that earlier.
In other news, I took my speaker in, and they said it'll take six weeks (partially because of their holiday break) to repair it... which means I'll need to borrow one, but that shouldn't be a problem. Which also means that I'll need to have someone pick it up when it's fixed (because I'll be gone again by then.) They said they might be able to cover it under warranty since it's essentially a brand new speaker. I emailed them the receipt, so we'll see where that goes.
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Also, what happened to Google Drive? Why'd they need to move relevant files and all files to different places? I got so used to the "suggestions" on the top, and now I have to click another tab to get to them. What's even worse is that it doesn't default to loading that page when you first load Drive. How stupid...
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I've tried, but it doesn't work for this particular scenario.You should use Calibre to manage books on your kindle. It is free
calibre - E-book management
calibre: The one stop solution for all your e-book needs. Comprehensive e-book software.calibre-ebook.com
When epubs are opened via the Books app and then uploaded to iCloud, I don't know what happens but if I export those books, either from the app or from the iCloud subfolder, both Send to Kindle and Calibre won't even recognize them as proper epub files; Calibre can't properly read those files and can't export them to a "fixed" epub file.
It's a minor inconvenience, out of the 131 books in the Books app, there are only a few I still have to read, I'll just "obtain" them again.
Thanks! I knew about Project Gutenberg, there is also Ebooks libres et gratuits (ebooksgratuits.com) if someone is into classic French literature (I feel like reading Les Misérables for the third time, Madame Bovary for the 4th time and reading André Gide's works all over again), borrowing from public libraries using Kindle, unfortunately, is not yet available in my country.
It seems to be a nice device, I find it a tad wide but, I guess, because I'm used to holding my phone, and I think I have a problem with dark mode, when flipping a page sometimes it flickers, black to white and to black again, I guess the screen is refreshing, but my brain doesn't like that kind of flickering at night in a dark room, and, somehow, and I can't read without my glasses on, but I can read on my phone without wearing my glasses, weird.
I'm involved in politics, many people don't vote anymore, don't care and don't become members. I can understand why this is happening, I don't necessarily support this behavior, but I know why people are so distant.
I'm also involved in a number of voluntary associations, and I see this pattern as well. A disproportionate number of associations have a hard time attracting people, members and donations, and I can't get my head around this.
Yes, there are associations that can be shady, that can be another group, with different interests, in disguise, or associations that are used by their top people to further their personal interests or to make money.
I attend many events with a lot of associations, I never see young people there, and by young I mean in their 20s, 30s or 40s. Has our society become so self-centered, so obsessed with egocentrism, individualism and egoism that we now consider helping others a waste of time? Are we so shallow that we can't even find a cause we believe in?
I'm also involved in a number of voluntary associations, and I see this pattern as well. A disproportionate number of associations have a hard time attracting people, members and donations, and I can't get my head around this.
Yes, there are associations that can be shady, that can be another group, with different interests, in disguise, or associations that are used by their top people to further their personal interests or to make money.
I attend many events with a lot of associations, I never see young people there, and by young I mean in their 20s, 30s or 40s. Has our society become so self-centered, so obsessed with egocentrism, individualism and egoism that we now consider helping others a waste of time? Are we so shallow that we can't even find a cause we believe in?
My guess is that given younger people are not as wealthy as older people, and and given that poorer people have less political power than wealthier ones (e.g. see Gilens & Page (2014) link), that the young give up because they assess, quite accurately, that they have little impact. Think about policies that are popular among the young (climate change, government support for education, etc.) and how hard it is to get those policies enacted.
Being somewhat younger, I'd wager the most natural explication. Our free time is constantly under attack by corporations wanting to commodify our every waking moments, having already succeeded in the privatization of self-expression.
There is a very tangible pessimistic feeling related to the perceived loss of agency. Add to that a standardized and de-territorialized (two individual thousands of miles apart may have more in common than direct neighbours) culture being prevalent, local socialization may soon prove un-feasable.
But I'd counter to the perception of de-politicization (although this is very European-centric in my assessment, the culture wars having only been recently imported by the different extremes and being rightfully dismissed as misdirection from real political life) ... We have seen though the different marches for the climate and feminist walks that there is the very real possibility of organizing around certain polities in stead of clicktivism. Although I'd have to add that there is a very real loss of nuance in the apprehension of most topics. Algorithms filtering out all but the most polarizing issues.
And on a more personal note, it seems to me that the reality of potentially turning your social circle into a base to be exploited for profit has brought out a tragically cynical dog-eat-dog mentality, fueled by the ever present images of fame and success dulling the individual experience. It is not shallowness but the cruel effects of the suppressed authentic buckling and burrowing inwards under the relentless attacks of the artificial.
PS: Having just read the report of the Harvard Happyness study, it was my intent and in-keeping with your original message to involve myself more thoroughly in clubs in order to build meaningful relations an may-be do some good as a reward.
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I would suspect this has something to do with it. A lot of younger people aren't exactly champing at the bit to give their time and money away when it's much more difficult to make a living nowadays than it was in the past, and it often doesn't seem like what we do has much effect on our surroundings. I think about the millions and millions that have been spent to alleviate homelessness here in L.A. and how it's done absolutely nothing and homelessness just gets worse and worse every year. And it's not surprising at all that many of us are politically apathetic given the state of electoral politics. We see lots of promises being made and none being kept, we see the same generation of politicians that our parents voted for still in power, we see a nation and government that seems to be incapable of learning from its history and mistakes...not a lot of it is inspiring. It's not surprising to me that many of us are learning from an early age that there's not a lot we can do to change our world when we've seen so little positive change actually happen.
It's easy to write off young people as lazy and selfish, but it ignores the realities and challenges of modern existence, and the different contexts in which our generation is coming into the working world vs. previous generations. Young people are often caught in this contradictory demand for more idealism and more realism. I'm not sure how to balance the two yet.
(I should add a disclaimer that I am not in general a pessimistic person, I have done volunteer work, and I know plenty of young people who are doing inspiring things. But I do understand why you may not see as much of it as you'd hope to see).
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Well, I am pretty old (60's) and I used to volunteer quite a lot when I was a student (dementia care, SPCA, charity pre-school, crisis hotline, aphasia groups, helping people transition from a mental health hospital to society, even the Coast Guard Auxiliary for a brief time with my folks). I stopped long ago because my job - and also raising kids - just meant I never had free time. The last time I tried to volunteer, about 10 years ago, was to help people learn to read. The charity wanted me to take a two-day residential course on dyslexia. I am dyslexic, have a PhD in Psychology & Neuroscience, and have a full time job as an educator at a university, but they still demanded this course. I could afford the hour a week that I would actually be helping somebody to learn to read, but not the entire two workdays they wanted. So I think as well as the political aspect I mentioned above, the expectations of volunteers have skyrocketed at the same time life hassles are more demanding.
I perfectly understand why people have been steadily distancing themselves from politics, many times it's hard even for me to stay in politics (for different reasons), and I've been doing politics since 2001; what surprises me is that people have distanced themselves from associations, that require very little of their time and next to no money.
I'm talking about community, grassroot associations, local associations, that cover various aspects of life, the environment, the elderly, diseases, education, poverty, even in those small settings, I don't see people in their 20s, 30s, 40s; and the work those associations pursue does have an impact, not at the level of policy making (sometimes they do, assuming someone is a member of the local branch of a bigger, national association) but at the level of their local communities, the impact is there, is tangible, can be seen every day.
When I try to motivate people to join an association I usually tell them that they should stop thinking about changing the world, because most of us don't have the means to do that, but if they want change they can start somewhere, and that "somewhere" is their community.
They want to change the world but maybe their neighbor can't pay the bills or feed their family, maybe there's a student struggling at school who can't afford private lessons, there may be someone who's old and alone, and maybe that elderly person might need some help digitally accessing some public service, someone who has a disease and might just need a hand with groceries or getting around town, instead of thinking global, thinking about climate change (those decisions are made at a level way beyond our realities) or any big "charismatic" worldly goal, they can start by cleaning their towns and help inform others (there's a small, local association in my town that does just that), or by helping people in their communities, by doing that they'll be sure to change something, to have made an impact, and more of an impact than all of those big demonstrations combined.
The things I said are based on my experience, volunteering since 2010, here are a few examples:
- founded an association to help people living in public housing navigate the bureaucracy that goes with it;
- joined forces with other associations to found a bigger association, receive funds from Foundations, got from the city council the right to use an old, rundown public building, renovating it and turning it into a community center that now hosts a variety of activities (a small clinic, tax and bureaucratic assistance, consumer rights, free classes on various subjects, free neuropsychological support for children), we also projected and completed the complete renovation of two areas in our town;
- taught (various subjects) for free to people who couldn't afford it;
- food collection for the food bank;
- fundraising for the local parish, funds that would then be used to buy medicines and pay people's bills;
Volunteering is much more fulfilling than politics, especially when done locally, since it allows you to experience the results of your work.
The effects of my COVID vaccine are finally starting to get to me (which means I feel pretty crummy). Hopefully with some rest I'll feel better tomorrow. Got all the practicing for my gig out of the way earlier which is good. It isn't until tomorrow night, so I should feel better by then, hopefully... I have to do it either way, because it is NOT something I can bail on last-minute because of feeling sick—how much time I spent preparing shows how important this performance is.
That's amazing ! Were these done concurrently or sequentially ? And did they take place inside of an already defined community (your parish for example) ?
Thanks!
Some things were done at the same time, for example teaching and the association for people living in public housing, which was the established community, I started there, those huge buildings with hundreds of people, that already was a community, we just gave it a name and a formal, legal recognition, at that point, besides the assistance, I was also helping kids with school.
After that we got in touch with the local parish and got in touch with more people for teaching and the food bank (the parish is part of the citywide food bank) and the fundraising for buying medicines and paying people's bills, after that we joined forces with more associations active in the neighborhood and a couple in the city and started renovating, using the funds we received from three foundations.
Nowadays, I mainly focus on the association that manages the building we renovated, we basically act as "managers", we make sure it's financially sustainable (we do fundraising, we take part in projects promoted and funded by foundations), we take care of maintenance, and we select the activities we host (they must be strictly free for the users and strictly volunteering, except for the tax and bureaucratic assistance, those people are paid by their respective groups but their activities are free for the users, but everyone that does any activity in our building must become a member of our association and their associations must concur to the expenses) and I'm trying to join the epilepsy support and information group, it's run by the epilepsy center of the neurology ward in our public hospital, it's not as easy as just joining, they kind of want to vet their volunteers.
There's also another association, a cultural association, I'm a founding member, it started in 2021, it's basically a small, local Ted Talk kind of thing, but it's more linked to politics than volunteering.
The last time I shared what was on my mind (about the UK tax system) I was banned for 2 days "for making posts that are about political, religious, or social issues outside of the Politics Forum". So I guess I can't actually state what's on my mind in this thread then??
I think - and, I'm not on the staff, thus, I cannot definitively state this, or assert this - but I think that if one observed merely that the British tax system was on your mind (without offering further thoughts as to its possible shortcomings) you would probably be fine.
For my part, my order (for this seasonal feast) of organic, artisan, sausages - which I have placed today - is on my mind.
The sausages won't actually be made until December 18th, or December 19th, and I shall receive them a day or so after that.
The cold is on my mind. Although I’m wearing a few layers it’s still only 16 degrees in my home study. Fingerless gloves for keyboard use, but the tips of my fingers are pretty cold. A cup of tea to hold offers a brief interlude from the temperature.
At least it’s Friday and another 3 day weekend.
At least it’s Friday and another 3 day weekend.
You have my sympathies.
The cold and the wet and the dark, grrrr and brrrr - are all on my mind.
My goodness, just gone four o'clock and, already, one has to think of putting the lights on.
I loathe winter, though I may have written this already this year, as I write it every year.
Mug of hot coffee here fulfils this function (or warming both person and hands); another, mug may be prepared in due course.
The French bakery is on my mind.
Last week, when I headed in, I discovered that they had forgotten to put aside my order, (despite it having been placed a week earlier), and - under my watchful eye - two members of staff wrote it into their book for tomorrow.
Thus, this afternoon, by way of gentle reminder, I took the added precaution of phoning them to confirm the order. "Oh, yes," replied a lightly accented voice, cheerfully, once I had identified myself, "we have it written."
I think (I hope) that I can rest easy, for now.
Last week, when I headed in, I discovered that they had forgotten to put aside my order, (despite it having been placed a week earlier), and - under my watchful eye - two members of staff wrote it into their book for tomorrow.
Thus, this afternoon, by way of gentle reminder, I took the added precaution of phoning them to confirm the order. "Oh, yes," replied a lightly accented voice, cheerfully, once I had identified myself, "we have it written."
I think (I hope) that I can rest easy, for now.
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It’s a shame they don’t deliver. Good luck with your bread order.
Finished work for the day (probably!). Dinner is done. Now the dishwasher needs loading and tea to be made.
Well, they only failed to have the bread kept twice, and, on both occasions, I had requested (a week earlier, when collecting that week's bread) that they put it aside, (and make a note of that in their order book) rather than phoning on Friday, which is what I usually do (or did).
This week, I have done both: That is, ensured that the order was written into their book, and today, took the added precaution of phoning them.
Therefore, I expect that fresh French bread shall be waiting for me tomorrow.
I also phoned the German stall in the farmers' market - tomorrow is their last day until (probably) sometime next March; thus, they will have put aside some (free range, organic) eggs and some vegetables, as well.
Darkness is on my mind
Sick right now and I’m catching about 2 hours of actual daylight
🥴👎🏻
I’ll be happy when the days are getting longer again
Sick right now and I’m catching about 2 hours of actual daylight
🥴👎🏻
I’ll be happy when the days are getting longer again