Books

Back When TV Was Truly Refined

/ Ally Bean / 10 Comments

… After yesterday’s constant stream of sad news I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today.  

This is funny and sweet.  It’s a reminder of how smart + delightful television used to be.  So. Very. Calm.

I miss watching TV shows that were in black & white.  I miss seeing TV shows that don’t *flash* and *bang* all over the place.  I miss being entertained by TV shows that don’t try to impress me with their super hipness.

But mostly I miss the kind of innocence that allowed a pleasant “nobody” to outsmart a panel of curious “somebodies” by merely being herself.  With a smile.

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[H/T to Maria Popova at Brain Pickings.  More info + other video clips here.]

[Unrelated to this video, but interesting to know, the contestant later wrote a memoir titled Look Back and Laugh.  Writers are everywhere, aren’t they?]

Reading Between The Lines. Literally.

/ Ally Bean / 12 Comments

Our current Kindle is one of the original ones.  They’re called Kindle Keyboard 3G now, but when we bought it this style was the only one available.

After many years this Kindle [who I never named – missed opportunity there] has gone wonky.  I think we overused the poor baby because she can no longer ante up all of her pixels.  Whole horizontal rows of pixels have bugged out.

The result is a screen that looks sort of like the handwriting practice writing paper we used in first grade.  Do you remember that paper?  It had one solid horizontal line all the way across the top of the page.  Then a dotted horizontal line below it.  Then one solid horizontal line below that.  The last two lines were then repeated down the entire page until the bottom.

That’s what this screen resembles.

Now add to this dodgy-looking screen words in any font size— and you have my first grade writing assignments.  Complete with words above, below, through & on the lines.  Marginally readable.

Cute?  Yes.  But not all that desirable on an e-reader.  Rather annoying to be honest.

So I suppose that it’s time to buy a new e-reader.  A Kindle Paperwhite 3G perhaps?  Or maybe a Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight?  I think I’ll let Santa take care of that decision.

And in the meantime until Santa decides what to buy next, I’ll go back to reading good ole paper books with words printed clearly between the lines.  As if second grade me had printed them.  😉

[Hello FTC!  Just talking about my experience here.  Nothing more than noting what happened with this product.  No one is paying me, or us, a cent or dollar to say this.  No compensation whatsoever here.  We good, my friend?]

The “Reader Appreciation Award” Meme

/ Ally Bean / 20 Comments

:: The Introduction ::

Gemma at helloitsgemma tagged me with this award.  Isn’t that kind of her?  The deal is that I answer the following questions.  Then I tag some other bloggers who I appreciate for leaving comments on my blog.  They then answer the questions on their blogs & tag some more bloggers.  And the award goes on ad infinitum…

:: The Questions ::

Where do you do most of your writing/blogging?
In our home study using my desktop computer, Coraline.

What books were your childhood favourites?
From my mother: The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh + Charlotte’s Web + the Little House on the Prairie series.  From my father: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer + Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Who is your favourite fictional character?
Tricky question.  I’m going to stick with childhood books and say Cassandra Mortmain, the narrator in I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  Cassandra, a teenage girl, starts the novel as a detached observer who records events + her impressions of people in her journal.  But eventually Cassandra becomes a participant in her own life and learns a few adult truths.  She is, I believe, one of the most charming narrators ever.

What is your favourite time of day and why?
Morning, when it is quiet, is my favorite time of day because my mind isn’t overtaxed with the daily minutiae yet.

Have you ever Googled yourself and been surprised at what you’ve found?
Yes, I’ve Googled myself.  No, I wasn’t surprised.  This blog is all there is about me out there on the interwebs.

Who would play me in a movie of my life?
Let’s ask Christina Applegate first, shall we?  I think she’d be a good choice.

One material possession I could not live without?
Our electric Cuisinart coffee maker with a timer.

Have you ever been naked in public?
Does skinny dipping, while in college, with friends, in a friend’s grandma’s pool count?  If so, yes.  If not, no.

What is your dream car?
Any car that I own.  Right now it’s a 9-year-old Honda Accord coupe, Olivia.

What/who/where was your first proper kiss?
I’m going to interpret proper kiss to mean the first one with the man who I married.  So the answer would be: long smooch/Zen-Den/college dorm room.

:: The Next Step ::

Here is a list of some wonderful bloggers who frequently comment on The Spectacled Bean.  I’m choosing these bloggers for this meme because, like me, they are doing NaBloPoMo– and I figure that they might be looking for something to write about.  

J at Thinking About…

Cheri at Naples Girl Blog

alejna at collecting tokens

Melisa at Suburban Scrawl

Relyn at Come Sit by My Fire

[There is, as always, no obligation to do this meme.  You won’t hurt my feelings if you choose to ignore all of this.  I realize that memes aren’t for everyone.]

Before Laptop Computers, This Movable Typewriter Was All The Rage

/ Ally Bean / 15 Comments

[A bit of background: Cheri at Naples Girl Blog went on a trip to Cuba a few weeks ago.  Since then she has been writing about what she saw and including photos in her posts.  When I read her post, Hemingway and Cuba,  I knew that it was a sign for me to write the following.  You see, Hemingway had a typewriter just like the one that I inherited from my Dad’s side of the family.  Kind of cool, eh?]

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My grandfather was a shoe salesman who travelled around a three state region.  This is a photograph of his Corona typewriter that he used for work.

This particular model of typewriter folds shut making it portable.  It was referred to by Corona as The Personal Writing Machine.  Over a 30 year period of time, 700,000 of this model were made.

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I did some research online and found a copy of the original instruction manual: How To Use CORONA, The Personal Writing Machine.  The last page of the manual says the following… which seems as applicable to today’s portable technology as it did back in 1920 when this manual was written.

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I like this little typewriter.  It’s a fun example of something practical + quirky from the past– favored by Hemingway, used by traveling businessmen.  And I think that it’s kind of cute– in a WALL•E sort of way.