Archive for August 2011
Ebook, Tablet or Neither
We’re planning a trip to New Zealand later this year. We’re abandoning the kids to look after the house and probably the business and escaping to the fair islands not that far away. There are many things to worry about: flights; accommodation; touristy bits; family; friends and; the most important of all is the reading matter.
I’m a fairly fast reader and this week I’m doing my best to read most or all of a book before we see the play on Saturday. It’s Café Scheherazade and I’ll write more about that in due course after the play and the book. It’s a good book, absolutely beautifully written and I’m thoroughly enjoying the writing. I hope to have it finished by Saturday despite having so much else to do. What I’m really saying is that when I’m busy it’s likely that I’ll get through an average sized book in about a week or a week and a half. We’ll be away for three weeks and will only have driving and touristy stuff to do. I’ll have concentrated time to sit and read most days and I’m wondering how I’ll cope, I just don’t know how many books to take. There is another way though.
A few weeks ago I floated the idea of an ebook reader to the Twitter chat #spbkchat to find out what people use and how they feel about it. I also mentioned it to some of my Discworld friends before the meeting started. I opened up a can of worms. Each person tried to convince me that their ebook reader was the best, some of them brought them out and showed them to me and of course, the iPads came out as well. At this point I became totally confused. I had been fixated on an ebook reader but you can’t do much with them, tablets are a whole new ballgame. There seem to be a few on the market, not just the iPad, but also some Android ones. They seem really versatile as you can install several different brands of ebook reading software, games, have internet access and so much more.
Now I’m confused and don’t know which way to go. Do I buy an ebook reader and limit myself just to books from one place? Do I spend heaps more money to buy a tablet that can do so much more? Do I just sidestep the whole issue and take a couple of books with me assuming I can buy more on the way and leave them all behind as we run out of space in our baggage? But which books? I don’t know which ones I’ll mind leaving behind until I’ve read them. If the tablets were cheaper the decision would be easy and I’d just buy one with 3G, but they’re a significant amount of money and I don’t have a money tree in my back yard. I’d love some help with making up my mind, really.
Census is finally over
It feels like I’ve run a marathon and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. I handed over all my Census stuff to my Supervisor on Monday and now have so much catching up to do. I have such a lot of writing to do for both of my blogs, an enormous amount of reading matter to get through for class and some writing to do for The Bookshop Blog I have an idea that will mean a massive amount of writing but will be good in the end. I’m carefully not mentioning the housework as I’ve accomplished some of that this morning.
Delivering the Census is pretty easy although time consuming. You need to visit every house, flat, unit and shop in your area. If the shops are just shops and no-one lives there then you shouldn’t need to go back. I do hope someone who actually had shops in their area will leave a comment about that process as I didn’t have any. If you can’t make contact then it’s permissable to leave the forms somewhere safe. As some of my forms demonstrate, the letterbox is not safe from snails, but some of the houses are locked from the gate and not possible to get to while some of them have nowhere to leave forms.
The first visit for Collecting is quite easy, but again, time consuming. I can’t remember how long it took me to get round my area but it was several days. This is where it’s much more important to talk to people in order to get their forms. We were not allowed to ask the householder to leave the forms outside somewhere as the form is not safe from prying eyes and the weather. On the last day of my first visit I was out until 7:30 that night because I was so annoyed with how long it was taking and I decided I just wanted to get that first pass done and finished with. I don’t recall my statistics at that point but I suspect I’d collected about 75% of the forms and that is where the fun really starts. I really pity those poor people when I’m tired I make more jokes, they must have wondered what sort of person was knocking on their doors.
You’re allowed to go back to each household up to five times. Each time I went the number of forms I needed to get reduced. I could write something about the law of diminishing returns here but I won’t. By the time I got to the third visit things were looking quite manageable. I can’t give you any details here as I actually started doing the second visit while I was doing the first, don’t quite know why, but it meant that by the time I’d finished the first visit on the Monday I had the bulk of it under control had a couple of blocks with only one or two forms still to collect. Some of the flats and units were a bit harder. I did end up with a few people who didn’t come to the door and I never saw, most of them filled out the form online but one lady still hasn’t done anything, I have no idea what the Bureau of Statistics is going to do about her. There were a handful of people who promised to do it and as of today still haven’t. If they do it online before the 5th September then I’ll get an SMS advising me it’s been done but there’s nothing I can do about it as I don’t have my book to record it.
One of the exciting things was receiving the SMSs. If a householder chose to complete the Census online then shortly after they pressed submit a message was sent to their Collector to advise them of the details. There was a problem with the system the night of the Census and they were all saved up for several hours. Mine started coming through about 11am the next day. It was hilarious listening to my phone going ‘bebeep bebeep’ 40 times as 40 SMSs came through one after the other, half an hour later I got another 20 or so. I had the slow task of recording each and every one of them later that afternoon, first in the Collector Messages pages and then transferring that information to the record number for the appropriate house. It felt like doubling up but made an enormous amount of sense later on when going through the book as it made it easy to see what had been done. Since then I’ve only received the odd message here and there, but enough to take me up to 137 messages. We were comparing notes on the Census Collectors Facebook page with how much we were anticipating these messages, when a message came through from my DD I jumped to conclusions about the message and thought which householder could possibly have completed their Census online. My last message came through while handing over my completed forms.
The big question is whether I’ll sign up in 2016 to do this again. At this point in time I just don’t know. Yes, I had fun, it was great to do all that walking and find I was still more or less coping at the end. It was lovely to meet all those people. If the whole thing was happening again right now then I’d be signing up immediately, unlike a lot of my fellow Collectors who are so over it. The problem is that it’s five years from now, so in just under five years I’d have to gear up again and I can’t foretell the future. I don’t know where I’ll be in five years, whether I’ll have the physical stamina, the mental stamina or even the time. I don’t know if I’ll have the room to put the boxes. As a Collector you don’t need a lot of room but it does need to be secure, it was challenging finding even that small amount as I have so many boxes of books, other stuff and three other people in the house. A Supervisor needs a lot more room as they have to store four or fives boxes per Collector and might have seven or so Collectors. Am I considering being a Supervisor? Can’t answer that question, I’m not sure I have the skills or previous experience for it.
Split – Tara Moss
I was quite excited when I picked this up, I’ve heard so many good things about Moss and I was keen to see if I felt they were right. On reflection the answer is yes. I suppose I have to write some more now, pity, would really like to leave it at that.
Makedde Vanderwall is a woman with a past.
Makedde Vanderwall has returned to Vancouver to finish her studies and is funding this by modelling. Get the obvious link here, Moss has worked as a successful model herself. I’m not denigrating this, just pointing it out, I did enjoy getting an insight into the world of being a model. It was interesting watching Mak (Makedde) interact with her makeup artist and this interaction was different to those I’ve seen depicted on screen. It also answered one question I’ve had for a long time, how they manage to change clothes without getting makeup all over them.
I found two parts to this story. There’s all the set up where we find out a lot of background, see the characters unfold and find out about the setting, and then there’s the action. The first part I found rather boring and only stuck with it as I really wanted to find out if her action scenes were any good. It’s a good thing I hung in there, they were fabulous. Moss has a way of writing action scenes that make them really pop out. The book is not onerously long, unlike other authors, so the beginnings although I found challenging to read are not that hard to get through. I’ll definitely be reading more in the future.
Mak is a strong character. She comes across as strong willed, independent and able to deal with many different situations without needing a man’s help. She has a gay friend who gives her self-defense classes and also encourages her with her male friends. It’s a pity we didn’t see more of this friend, Jacqui, and I hope she comes up in other books, I found her refreshingly open and honest.
A word of warning. There is the odd swear word which fits nicely within the book and references to sex.
Census Collecting
It’s been an interesting time. I’ve met the most amazing number of lovely people but I’m really glad it’s almost over. I was steered in the direction of a Facebook group for Census Collectors in 2011 and that’s been my home away from home as they understand the pitfalls of the job. They were lovely when I went on and mentioned the man who abused me because it took me a day and a half to realise I was in the wrong block and knocking on the wrong doors. I still feel bad about that as he was good enough to ring up and organise a day for me to come for his form and then I get myself confused and end up knocking on his counterpart flat in the block of flats next door.
The lows of Census Collecting
The highs of Census Collecting
One of the problems is that you spend so many hours on it in such a short space of time you feel like it will never end. It really feels like you’ve spent more time on it than you really have. To that end one of the ladies in the group found herself singing the Lambchop song that never ends. I’ll just leave you with a link to that oh-so-lovely song.
Awesome weekend!
I wrote this post eight days ago and I’ve just noticed it wasn’t published. I’m not going to waste a perfectly good post so you’re getting it now.
I’ve learnt a lesson with the Census. It doesn’t matter how good people think you are and how confident you are you will always make mistakes. I’m not sure if signing up for the Census was a mistake, I’m meeting a lot of people and getting lots of exercise and I’ll get paid, but I’m fairly tired and my back hurts. I’m not sure that signing up for Blogopolis was a good idea on the same weekend when I should have been delivering the Census forms but it was definitely fun.
The last time I had anything substantial to do with the Census was back in 1986 when I worked for the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the Data Entry Department on the 14th floor of the Commonwealth Bank Building which was/is on the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Streets in the middle of the Melbourne CBD. I suspect it’s still the Commonwealth Bank Building, but there’s no bank there any more and the ABS moved to the Rialto on the corner of Collins and King Streets just after I left them in 1987. I’m sure there’s no correlation between my leaving and their moving, seriously. I didn’t see anyone special apart from my colleagues but I did get paid for it! Things have changed so dramatically they’re now using ICR technology instead of typists. That’s Intelligent Character Recognition for those of you who were confused. I’m hoping it’s moved on a little from OCR (Optical Character Recognition) but I’m not sure.
I did three and a bit hours of walking on Friday (29th July) delivering forms and somehow managed to fit in my shopping and posting a parcel. Thank goodness Mum cooked dinner that night. Then I woke up early on Saturday to attend Blogopolis. It was an awesome day with some inspiring speakers and some incredible talent. The venue was centrally located and easy enough even for me to find. One of the topics was on monetising your blog, an interesting topic but not really relevant to this blog. While I’m still selling pre-loved books and part-work magazines here I don’t see the point in ads, I don’t fancy driving all my potential buyers away to buy their books elsewhere. There were lots of other topics but I’ll let @theblogstylist tell you all about it on her blog. She was live blogging the whole day. I’m using awesome a lot but it was an awesome effort, I think she sat at a table near me and her typing was very good.
Getting back to the Census before my eyes close while I’m in front of the computer. I walked almost seven hours delivering my forms and I’m now a little over halfway through my patch. The worst things I’ve had to encounter is a gorgeous little dog who just had to jump up and sniff me and an overeager cat who absolutely had to be patted despite my moving away. I could mention the gentleman who told me to go away as he opened his door, but I’d then have to totally ruin the story by adding that when he saw I was the Census person he became polite. He was expecting some extremely good friends who were late and thought I was them. I was most amused by this. I could talk about the gentleman who agreed with me when I asked if I could confirm his address, he didn’t actually confirm his address, just agreed he could. Anyway, I’m back out tomorrow and then again on Tuesday to finalise the last few before reporting in to see if my supervisor wants some help with something else, yep, you guessed it, I’ll get paid for helping extra. Sometimes I’m gullible and sometimes greedy, I’ll let you decide which.
Census stuff
The Census is almost upon us, we still have a few days to go and I know a number of people have already filled their details out online, they haven’t told me specifically but when they press submit (or whatever the official wording is) I get an automated sms to tell me they’ve done.
I’ve had a couple of questions recently about the forms not being delivered. It is time consuming and we have to walk each block individually, ring doorbells, fill in a few details and then hand the forms over. Most of the details we have to fill in regardless of whether we see someone or not. If there’s no-one there or they’re not answering the door we’re allowed to slip the forms under the door, under the door mat or place them in the letterbox. There are many people not home and of those who are home some have not answered their door. I know some people have been home as I’ve heard them playing piano or talking or watching the TV or whatever, but they haven’t come to the door. Some doorbells don’t work and as it’s sometimes hard to hear the doorbell from outside over the traffic it can be challenging to know if it’s actually rung. You might well have been home when we’ve called but missed us for so many varied reasons, please rest assured we are trying to ensure each household gets their forms.
There are glitches in every organisation. I know one of my fellow collectors has stepped down and her place will have to be filled, as I finished my area yesterday I offered my services for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I hope I’m giving myself enough time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do all my stuff which includes my essay for class and my housework. I know we’re running out of time to get everything done and I know people are anxious to get their forms.
It takes me roughly an hour and a half to two and a half hours to get round a single block. It depends on how many flats/units there are and how many people are home. It takes more time to talk to people than to fill in the gaps and put the forms in a suitable place.
Here are a couple of forms I’ve been handing out. Most of you will have received either or both. The images are truncated as I’m not sure I’m allowed to actually do this.
Census Household Form
eCensus Form
The Household Form is fairly self explanatory. The eCensus Form is a little different. It works like one of those letters you get from the bank with your PIN inside it. Basically, you open it up and you’ll see another number. You need both the number inside and the number on the outside in order to get into the eCensus website and start filling in your questions. As I mentioned above, when you finish filling in your Census questions online and press the final button your delivery person will receive an SMS telling them you’ve filled in it online, they then have to write down the message in the book and ensure they close off the line number.
You will notice the Census Form Number on each form. The last five boxes are your household number and if they happen to be empty you will not be able to complete your Census online. You have two choices at that point, you can either ring the Hotline and the message will be sent through to your deliverer or their supervisor (I write that very hesitantly as I’m not quite sure how it would work without that number, the first eight boxes are your deliverer’s number so they should be able to get the message through) or just fill in the Household Form and it will be picked up as normal.
I have a had a couple of people wonder how the website will work with so many people accessing it all at the same time. I don’t have any specifics with that but I’ve been reassured it will be okay, I asked the same question myself at my training.
Anyway, I’m about to write down my current messages and fill in the boxes to close the lines so I don’t have to worry about them again, then tidy up the paperwork and “ensure the integrity of my workbook” or in other words, dot my i’s and cross my t’s. I may not write any more here until things are a little quieter for me and I’m not sure when that will be as I don’t know how busy I’ll be picking up the printed Census Forms and not to give myself too little work right now, but I’ve had an idea for an informational eBook. As if I don’t have enough to do…
Yet another useless post
When I’m too tired to work but it’s too early to go to bed I do useless things. One of those useless things is to wander through the Wholesale Book Listings on eBay. For me it’s sheer torture as I just love the larger listings of multiple thousands of books, I don’t really have space for them and I know that having so many books will cause me to freeze up and not be able to do anything with them, but I still love the idea of buying them in that kind of bulk. If I’m desperate enough to need to look at listings I’ll wander over to ebay.com as the shipping from the US is too exhorbitant to allow me to actually buy anything. My favourite listing which I drooled over until it left the site was for a wall full of books, awesome!
Wandering through the Wholesale Book Listings is problematic though. I’ve put many Agatha Christie listings on my Watch List and I’ll have to go back to check out if any of them have the three books I’m missing. Two of them have been republished and I’ve seen them available but I really would prefer pre-loved books over new books. I’ve also put some cookbooks on my Watch List as I’m really addicted to them. It’s a family addiction, two of my sisters collect cookbooks and have many more than I do as I try to cull mine occasionally. I do have a couple I treasure and don’t want to get rid of and they are the Doctor Who Cookbook and the Gilligan’s Island Cookbook.
One of the problems with going through that category is that many people don’t seem to realise what it’s for and will list a great deal of their stock there despite them being individual books. It gets very irritating to scroll past so many individual listings when they should be in different categories.
I did say this was another useless post, you lot can go read something else now, I’m off back to my Watch List to find out if there are any treasures there. Ciao!
One Flew into the Cuckoo’s Egg – Bill Oddie
Some of you will know Bill Oddie from The Goodies, others will know him from I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again and you might even know of Oddie from his nature series or bird books. He’s done quite a lot of things over the years and is a very big part of my childhood. I used to watch The Goodies and when I found they’d put some of their best episodes on DVD I bought them, made the big mistake of watching them with the kids around…actually I made the big mistake of trying to watch them while working. That was not going to happen, I found myself watching the whole lot and getting absolutely no work done. They’re just as good today as they were in the 1970s, very relevant. When I found Oddie’s autobiography I absolutely had to have it, it was one of those must buys and must keeps.
It’s a fabulous little book, at 308 pages it’s nowhere near long enough for me. I was absolutely fascinated. Oddie talks about his mother and how she spent some years in a lunatic asylum and didn’t really have a relationship with her. He talks about his father and how much of a saint he thinks the man was, he refuses to say anything bad about him. He talks very frankly about his depression and that was really fascinating to read. Not an easy part of his life and it must have been challenging to write down but I’m so glad he did. He completed the book with a series of questions and answers with his alternative self.
One Flew Into the Cuckoo's Egg - Bill Oddie
When I picked it up I expected a well written book with some interesting anecdotes and hopefully a better insight into the man I admired so much. While I got all of this there’s so much missing, I understand you have to stop somewhere but I wanted so much more. In the question and answer section Oddie digressed so many times and it was just interesting to see where he digressed to but his alter ego pulled himself back to the thread of the discussion just as I was getting more involved. While the initial question was something I was interested in and wanted to know about, I was also intrigued by the digression and wanted to follow that line of thought further. I put down this book yelling “more, more, encore”…not really, I put it down very annoyed there wasn’t more and then went to sleep.
This book does beg the question…at what point does one stop an autobiography? In Oddie’s case, just as this particular reader is getting annoyed at having so few pages to go. In other cases it’s just at a particular point in their life. I just want to know how do you know when to stop?
I suspect there’s some swear words in here but I can’t remember any as I was concentrating on the book. I suspect there’s a typo but it could just be that I’ve got the wrong singular spelling of Goodies and don’t ask me why I typed that statement, I don’t have an answer.