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Reading More

“Books, Books, Books and more Books” by Chiot’s Run is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

8 Ways to Read (a Lot) More Books This Year is a must-read article for any bibliophile. Neil Pasricha wrote this article back in 2017, and everything in it still pertains to today. I really like a lot of the content on Harvard Business Review (HBR) and this article is no different. If you are like me you like reading about reading. It’s meta I know. Book geeks are deep man!

If you are a reader you won’t hesitate to read the article. Even though HBR has a paygate the first two are free a month, so you can read this one free! Just incase you already used your 2 freebies this month, here are some highlights.

Centralize Reading in Your Home – Basically, make it easy to read, keep them close, and reduce other distractions, like social media and television.
Make a public commitment – Like posting your challenge on GoodReads, I know, I know that’s social media, but its book geek social media so everything in moderation right?
Book Lists! – I love a good book list and Goodreads is full of them, but if you need more I would recommend: The New Lifetime Reading Plan, Book Lust, and More Book Lust.
Change Your Mindset about Quitting – No one is going to call you a quitter! Give a book a few chapters and if you don’t like it, pass it on. Slogging through a book is the quickest way to get you off reading for the rest of the year if not longer.
Take a break from magazines and newspapers and fill that time with reading books.
Churn Rate – Keep the books moving on the shelf, don’t leave the same ones on there all the time. Make changes to what is on the shelf, so you stop and look instead of passing the bookshelf again for the thousandth time.
A little adds up – Just because you can’t sit down with an hour of uninterrupted time and your favorite drink, doesn’t mean you don’t have time yo read. Take it short spurts if you need to. Read a little here and a little there. Something is better than nothing and all these little reading spurts will add up to books completed.
Change up your medium, this one is not in Neil’s article, but I listen to audiobooks, read on a kindle, and read print books. I like to read print books when the lighting is good in the daytime and I switch to the Kindle at night and don’t worry about if I’m near a lamp, as the device is backlit, this would work with an iPad too. Lastly, audiobooks help a great deal. When I’m out for a walk or during my daily commute I listen to audiobooks.

Why Dairy?

Book Review | Where the Water Goes

Where the Water Goes by David Owen follows David as he explores the Colorado river from start to finish. What he learns along the way about the “law of the river” he shares with the reader. A must for anyone reading this work is David’s web page containing pictures of everything he talks about in the book. The book does not contain any pictures outside of a map in the front.

“Horseshoe Bend” by michelnocture is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I believe this book would have been too dry (see what I did there?) with anyone else narrating the story. David Owen weaves a bit of the story of others into the story as well as weaving in his own story and travels into, the history and law of the river.

How we (mostly me in Southern California) get our water consist of a very complex network of laws and crazy rules. It is amazing it works. I learned a lot about all of it and I’m glad I read this book.

the lake today contains only about thirty-eight percent as much water as it did in 1998
David Owen

Genevieve Valentine writes a great review of this book for NPR, that is a great overview and a better review than I have written here.

80% off Bluehost

For days I worked hard at getting back up my old podcasting .com, historyonair.com. I tried unsuccessfully 3 or 4 times with the chat support from bluehost to correct whatever was the issue with the wordpress installation on their servers. They were unwilling and unable to help me get the site back up. They continually asked for more money to keep malware off the site. I think this should be part of the service they provide for the fees I already pay them.

Because of all this effort and time on my part I haven’t been posting on any of my .coms regularly. This week I decided to move off Bluehost to dreamhost. Where with their chat support reps I have been migrating 4 .coms to their hosting. I’m almost done. One site has been causing problems, but I hope to get that corrected this weekend. So thats what I have been up to. Not fun, but at least I’m making progress and those 120 episodes that I created on historyonair are back up and freely available for anyone to listen to. That makes me happy.

Live Streaming Zwift

Shane did a great job going over how to live stream zwift below. I’d really like to do this someday. I really should not have gotten rid of all my podcasting gear, it would come in handy for this. Cycling desks are sold out on Amazon, I need a laptop and a microphone to make this set up work. The green screen would be really cool too.

QUARANTINE BLUES

Food Review | Gardein Shakshuka Breakfast Bowl

Here we go again. Another breakfast bowel from Gardein. I have to say after the steak and eggs breakfast bowl I wasn’t super excited to try another bowl. This one was better though, maybe because of the lack of that green sauce. This one instead had a red sauce, and something that was cheesy, but not cheese as this is a vegan meal. The meal was ready in only 6 minutes.

I liked the heat in the dish, it wasn’t too much but just right for me. And the meat had the right texture and sponginess. I had to look up Shakshuka it “is a delicious combination of eggs, tomatoes, and spices popular across the Middle East and North Africa” according to google. That is a pretty good description of this meal. This one I might try again. However, keep in mind if it comes in a box, it’s not as good for you as simpler overnight oatmeal.

Vegan Ice Cream Review | Ben & Jerry’s P.B. & Cookies

I had this for the first time tonight. It came from a Whole Foods order. This is my new favorite ice cream! And it’s vegan! No, it’s not healthy, but it is vegan and so yummy. My favorite ice cream flavor is cookies and cream and this adds another of my favorites, peanut butter. I only have one problem with this, I have to share it with the kids. They loved it too. Give this a try. Comfort food is an amazing thing when times are tough.

“Chinatown Ice Cream Cone 2” by LabyrinthX-2 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Here is to ice cream!

Zwift Parlee Speed Mission

That’s right she is a beauty, isn’t she! Hidden cabling, full-carbon, and SRAM Red eTap AXS. This amazing bike comes in at just under $13,000. Ouch! Not something I could ever afford. But this month, I (or you) could win this superlight, amazingly fast bike on Zwift. But like everything on Zwift, you have to work for it. In order to be eligible for the sweepstakes, you need to enter the mission on the site and also complete 250km (155 miles) before 4/16.

In addition, to be entered to win the bike you will also get 100,000 drops. You can use the drops to help you buy the in-game version of the Parlee R27 or anything else you want from the drop shop. I’ll be focusing on getting this bike this week and of course, riding the Cervélo Gravel Rush Series which will have ride 3 on Thursday. Good luck and ride on!

Unforeseen Impacts of COVID-19

I’ve been thinking about all the secondary impacts that we may see from this new time we find ourselves in. Already, some are coming to light.

Video Conferencing – Zoom made a good business decision to give away time on its platform, but it has had privacy consequences for them. However, they have also positioned themselves as the household name for video conferencing especially with a younger set of people as they have been the choice for teachers and education since the price is right.

To go along with this video conferencing topic could we see more acceptance of the working from home or remote working arrangement? I know that it differs from leader to leader, as to if they are accepting of this arrangement or not. It also differs from person to person. Some like to go into the office, some just like the flexibility and some don’t want to go in at all. Of course, there are people who will take advantage of this newfound flexibility, but that happens everywhere for everything.

Air pollution – With traffic declining so much there has been a noticeable difference in the air quality. We have seen many pictures of this already on social media.

Does air pollution really matter to society? Will things change now that we know if we stop driving we will see a measurable and visible clearing of the skies? Will electric vehicles gain popularity even faster than they have been?

Indoor fitness – This one is especially close to my heart as I am an avid Zwifter. Zwift has seen a huge explosion in signups. Even only a fraction of these new members continues it will mean great gains for this business. Not to mention the potentially better recognition of esports since so many events, including the Olympics, has been pushed back. All these athletes need to stay in shape, so they are turning to online alternatives.

Food – It’s been difficult to buy certain things at the grocery stores and services like Instracart and Amazon Fresh are having difficulty keeping up with the demand to deliver food to those who can afford not to venture out. Which is another topic entirely, the divide as it’s called is very visible in those getting sick and those able to stay at home and get deliveries.

We have been trying new products that don’t normally appear in the grocery isles at our go-to markets, because now everything that Amazon has is available. Some of those reviews of new food are appearing here.

Will people turn towards vegan foods more? From what we currently understand this outbreak occurred from a food market where dead animals where kept in unsanitary conditions. An article on VegNews stated that there is renewed interest in egg alternatives now.

There are many more here and I may add to this post as time goes on. Stay healthy out there!