Monday, June 14, 2010

listening and learning...

i went to a seminar the other day on e-audiobooks... i got to learn a bit more about the provider the library's gone with - so i thought i may as well start using the resource - i quite enjoy a talking book and these can be downloaded ("One-Click transfer to portable devices") to mp3 players, windows media player or ipods - so i downloaded the netlibrary media centre and at the moment i'm listening to sarah waters' "the little stranger" in the background while blogging...

i think this might be highly utilised... i can download up to 10 talking books at a time (for a 20-hour 'book' it takes around 20 mins) - the borrowing period is 3 weeks... there are 593 titles to choose from - almost half of those are mystery, a popular genre and one i like - so it'll take me a while to get through the titles i might want to listen to - doesn't seem like too bad a selection - and hopefully it'll grow... so if you're into audiobooks just join the library and start listening...


the seminar was in the city - a place i get to very rarely these days - there was no lunch being provided (which is often fortunate for a vegan) so with an hour to ourselves, i was looking forward to a bit of quiet down time after listening all morning - i headed off into the city to check out 'lord of the fries' and grab one of their vegan burgers - i'd checked online the night before to see if there was anywhere i'd be able to get something i could eat - and according to their website:

"WE USE HIGH QUALITY VEGETARIAN INGREDIENTS
• Our fries = vegan, gluten fre
• Our patties = vegan, gluten free, do not contain garlic, onion
• Our nuggets = vegan, gluten free
• Our sour cream = no gelatine, gluten free
• Our cheese = rennet free, vegan (by request)
• Our buns = vegan, gluten free (by request)
• Our oil = we recycle & use as biodiesel in our delivery vans"

their claim to be wildlife victoria's largest cash contributor was an added reason to check them out - and should you be thinking of joining the sea shepard at some stage you'll get to eat at any lord of the fries for free... so i could at least get something quick and vegan to eat while walking around town - and my money was supporting a business that appears to have some ethics!!!! but of course it is fast food - now if only restaurants would 'take a leaf out of their book' and start catering to vegans, life would be a treat...





and now i'm off to make a mushroom pasta and maybe watch the last episode of the first series of true blood - if you don't know it's based on the southern vampire mysteries series featuring sookie stackhouse, written by charlaine harris ... and still i'm not sure what i think of it - yes, i'll watch series 2 when the library gets it but i'm reserving my judgement until then... i'm still working the characters out... i haven't read any of the books though so i don't know how true to the novels the tv series is...

by the way, i didn't really hear the first few chapters of the audiobook i was listening to... can't concentrate on listening while thinking and writing... will just have to listen to it from the start again sometime... but what i did catch sounded good - should entice me back to it...

1 comment:

Sailor Lily said...

We'll have to chat when you finish the Sarah Waters book, it was my favorite read last year and has some intriguing 'possible' ways of being read, my Mum and I still disagree on what we made of it. She's a wonderful writer, perhaps try 'fingersmith' by her, or 'the nIghtwatch'. Audiobooks, hmmm, I suffer from them seeming too quickly read!
lily