I was born a reader. I read fiction books and biographies, history books and books about movies and how to books, poetry and scripts.

I still read. But now it’s webpages and emails and Twitter threads and Facebook updates.

If I collected every word I read in day and put it on a piece of paper, I’d probably find that I read the equivalent of a novel, every day. But they’re scattered words.

I don’t like that. I feel like I’ve lost something – my creative edge – my brains. I feel like I used to be smarter.

I started reading a book called Off the Grid, which I agreed to review for Globalshift.org, so it was more of an obligation read than a fun read. Three pages in and I’m hooked. It’s a fascinating look at what it takes to live outside of a community with water and power and 9-5 jobs. The author references Thoreau’s Walden and I remembered reading that book in college and studying the whole Walden Pond movement, which was somewhat akin to the hippie commune concept of the sixties.

It reminded me of Los Alamos phase a few years ago where I read everything written on Oppenheimer and the bomb. I miss being that invested in a subject.

Thoreau said, ‘How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.’

I think this is why I haven’t written any good fiction lately. Because I’ve stopped learning and stopped living. Though I did learn how to move a database, but I don’t know that that really counts.

I’m going to read more. Books.

Articles of the Week:

The Clean-Slate Guide – a fascinating, counter-intuitive way to clear clutter.
Why I’m Cutting Back on Multi-Tasking - the title says it and it’s a lesson I need to learn.

If you watch Pretty Little Liars then you probably have that haunting theme stuck in your head, too. It’s sung by The Pierces and I love their music. Check it out.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Star Trek and think, how cool would it be to have a computer that fit in your hand, or one that could talk to you, or even to communicate with people far away by just pressing a pin on your shirt.

Fast forward to now and I have a computer, a laptop, an iPod, a cell phone and now a Kindle – which can’t simply be called an ebook reader because it does so much more.

The trouble with all these cools toys is that I’ve grown dependent on them, so when my PC died last week I was in a real mess trying to figure out how to get anything done. I found out post haste that all of my email contacts, passwords, and complex url’s are vitally important to my work day and being without them is killer. I did manage to pull over my old emails but it took hours and hours since Windows 7 doesn’t use Outlook. I also finally managed to shove my old Firefox profile into this new box. It did NOT, however, bring over my passwords – big sigh.

What I’ve learned from this is. . well. . nothing. Because even though I’m thinking of it now, six months from now, I still won’t be using paper copies of emails, address books or password logs, it’s just too much, too many changes, to make it worthwhile. Before you scream at me, I do back up my docs and photos on to discs but you’re still only as good as your last backup and face it, who backs up everyday?

Anyway, I now have a zippy new Windows 7 computer, and according to the man at Best Buy (after he stopped laughing) my new computer is about 400 times faster than my old one. So yeah, updating is good. I still have to crack the old box this weekend to pull more docs and wipe the drive before I dump it. Not looking forward to that.

Now let’s talk Kindle . Yes, I know everyone is talking iPad, but I wanted a Kindle before I knew about iPads and I won one in a contest. So cool. At first it was just an ebook reader. Then I found out I could use it to check my email which was a lot more helpful when I had the old computer that took an hour to boot, but still.

I go through these phases where I’m very into music and then not. I’m in one at the moment because two of my favorite artists have some new songs out and I discovered a great new singer!

First, let’s talk Steve Carlson. He’s a Los Angeles local and I’ve seen him play at the Hotel Cafe a few times and at Supernatural conventions. He’s got this bluesy, singer-songwriter kind of style but then not. . . he defies description really. What I can say for sure is that he has this deep, scratchy-sort of sound to his voice that’s just . . . just! (If you’ve been watching Casey James on American Idol, he reminds me of Steve.)

He’s got a new CD out and you can hear clips from it on his website. I feel like it’s a little more uptempo than his earlier stuff. My favorite CD of his is Spot in the Corner and the song Pinata Novia. You can buy that at CDBaby which is a marvelous place to buy CDs from Indie artists. You’ll laugh your head off when you get their confirmation email. It’s genius.

Next, there’s Christian Kane whom you may know as Eliot on Leverage but he’s also a terrific singer. He has this wild Southern rock style that makes me smile and sing along. He and Steve Carlson actually sing together sometimes and Steve wrote some of the songs for Chris’ new CD, so it’s all six degrees.

You can get a free download of House Rules on Chris’ website. Or you can spend $3.39 and get an Extended Preview download CD from Amazon.

Finally, the new singer I discovered is Imelda May. She’s like a female Brian Setzer singing these rockabilly tunes with kind of a torch song overtone. I love new CD Love Tattoo. My favorite two songs are “Johnny Got a Boom Boom” and “Knock 123.”

Check out all three of my faves in the Music Widget in the sidebar. I hope they become your favorites, too.

I’ve been thinking about:

Why does your brain go weird for a second when you pick up something that is heavier than you thought it would be? Or when you think you’re drinking soda but it’s orange juice?

Does anyone who gets out of bed at 6 am in order to jog a mile before work really enjoy doing that?

A lot of WAHM’s sell things and market to their friends and families, but isn’t that uncomfortable? What if every time your friends see you they run the other way to avoid telling you no to your latest sales pitch?

Why don’t the kids on American Idol listen to what the judges are telling them? Seriously, do you really think after all this time that Simon doesn’t have a clue? You’ve been in the business for two weeks. I think his advice beats anything you’ve got.

Why is it that we all get misty-eyed when we see a TV show about military families? I cry at parades, too – any parade. Is that weird?

I’m also thinking that I’d like to do this:

Baby Photo