Audiobooks!

Since I started this new job, I've been walking to work whenever I can. While I enjoy this (even in the Texas Summer) its made it trickier to sculpt the life that I've wanted to live, e.g. the balance of my personal time. I've long struggled on this and have been trying to figure out how to cram every thing I wanted to do into the free time I have. This includes my New Year's resolution of remaking myself.

I took a step this past couple weeks toward this goal, and signed up for Audible.com. Using Leo Laporte's promo code, I signed up for two free books and got the second Honor Harrington book and the newest Dresden Files book. Since I have a Motorola Droid with the Audible application, it means I can easily have the "books" with me at all times. While I walk to and from work and do housework, I listen to my books. The added bonus is that when I'm tired I can read; I've always had a problem focusing on text when I'm tired. So far it is working out rather well.

My goal is to work through the library of "must reads" that I've never been able to get to for whatever reason.

By the way, the newest Dresden Files book is a constant "OMG!" experience. If you "read" the Audiobook, James Marsters (yes, Spike on Buffy) does a fantastic job!

In short:

• Audible.com (I recommend using Leo Laporte's promo code).
• Dresden Files: Changes (I've recommended the series before, I'm recommending it again)

Mars!

I picked this book up a few weeks ago for the Savage Worlds RPG because, to me at least, the setting is SOOO COOL! If you are familiar with the Edgar Rice Burroughs "John Carter" series, you will be familiar with the feel of the world, if not the exact world (there are differences - it is in the style of the books, but not the exact setting).

I'm sharing this for my gaming group to better explain the setting.

LINK!

Welcome to Mars!

Not Mars as it is - airless, most likely lifeless, with only the faintest hints of what might have once been a damp, if not necessarily lush and living, world billions of years in the past. No, this is Mars as it should be and as it was once imagined to be - an ancient, dying, but not yet dead world, a world where a vast canal network reaches from pole to pole, bringing water and life to vast and fantastic cities. A Mars where albino apes run a vast empire in the last surviving jungle, a world where warrior tribes of Green Martians raid the outlying cities of the canal dwellers, a world where, in places dark and quiet and forgotten beneath the surface, ancient and terrible intellects plan dark and dire deeds.

It is a Mars of sky-corsairs, of duels with blade and blaster, of vile plots, fantastic inventions, daring rescues, arena battles, and spectacular stunts. It is a Mars where ancient cities can be discovered and their lost treasures plundered, a Mars where a trek across the dry sea bottoms can yield amazing discoveries, where terrible monsters roam the rocky wastes.

It is the Mars of pulp fiction and Saturday morning serials.

The book was released by Adamant Entertainment.

IN HONOR OF MY NEW BLOG NAME!

My Motorola Droid

As previously mentioned, I got so frustrated with AT&T Wireless, that I moved over to Verizon and gave up my iPhone. To this end, in April I got a Shiney new Motorola Droid. There are newer Android phones out there, but so far I've been pretty happy with this phone and I don't regret my choice. I guess part of that is that I'm now using a linux phone.

So, for my smart phone friends, here is a list of the various applications I've installed on my phone in case you are curious and want to either install them (if you are an Android user) or find the iPhone equivalent (if you are an iPhone user).

• Aldiko Book Reader
• ASTRO File Manager
• DockRunner (DROID)
• Google Goggles
• Facebook for Android
• AppBrain App Market
• LauncherPro Beta
• DroidFit - Workout,Fitness,Gym
• N-Back - (My brain trainer)
• Blogaway
• App manager
• Kindle for Android
• DoggCatcher Podcast Player
• Shopper
• Google Maps
• Talk To Me Classic
• Locale
• Google Sky Map
• Urbanspoon
• Places Directory
• Classic Text To Speech Engine
• Text-To-Speech Extended
• iTriage Mobile Health
• Pandora Radio
• Opera Mini 5 browser
• Calorie Counter by FatSecret
• twidroid for twitter
• My Tracks
• Sudoku
• Dial Zero v1.04
• AK Notepad
• GPS Status
• SpeakWrite Recorder
• USAA Mobile
• MemoryForLemmings
• OpenTable
• Advanced Task Killer
• MySettings
• KUT 90.5 Music, News, & NPR
• Google Earth
• Palringo Instant Messaging
• Amazon.com
• Ringdroid
• Fandango Movies
• Star Wars Light Saber
• Shazam
• Remember The Milk

I hope, dear reader, you phind this usephul phor your phone.