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Macworld San Francisco

January 11, 2006 / Monique

In the geek work today I watched the live transcript of Steve Jobs’ keynote address at Macworld.

I learned the following:
10:41 am Shows pic of Jobs and Woz. will be 30 years in 4-1-2006.
10:33 am Demoing the new MacBook Pro.

I want one. Ships in February. Has a small camera in it, the isight. Hair thinner than the 17″ but is the fastest notebook ever. iWork and iLife are awesome, and now there’s iWeb. I can barely breathe. The crowd goes wild.

Apple also released Mac OS X 10.4.4 along with a number of other software (iTunes 6.0.2, Quicktime 7.0.4, iLife ’06, iWork ’06).

So I like the 12″ iBook, which is where I was going to put my money, but now …

If money wasn’t an option, which it is, but ignore that for now, which one would you choose? From a tech geek perspective rather than a fashion accessory perspective.

Daniel Isn’t Talking but the Author Is

January 11, 2006 / Monique

Here’s another plug for Women Who Blog, but also for Marti Leimbach, author of Daniel Isn’t Talking. See my book review.

In the comments field of my review, Marti posted:
Quote: … Daniel Isn’t Talking is a very special novel to me because it is drawn, in part, from my own real life as a mother of an autistic boy.

I have a written a little about the novel on my website www.martileimbach.com if ever you want to have a look. I am also reading at the Harbourfront Centre on Wednesday April 26 at 7:30. If you happen to be there, please come and introduce yourself afterwards!

So not only is Marti talking on my blog, and at Harbourfront Centre, she also has a blog:
http://www.martileimbach.com/forum.asp

If you want to get an idea of her novel’s style, read the post about her son Nicholas learning to skate. She seems to post once a month. I didn’t see an RSS feed, which means I’ll have to remember to keep visiting instead of subscribing, also the Harbourfront website doesn’t seem to be updated yet for 2006, but here’s the link to events.

The book is coming, in the meantime, read the blog.

Book Review of Daniel Isn’t Talking

January 8, 2006 / Monique

I’ve just finished reading Daniel Isn’t Talking by Marti Leimbach. There are lots of funny moments, educational moments, which I also enjoyed, and some craziness. I was initially quite skeptical about this book. The title is great, the cover is great (different cover on Amazon.ca–the version here, which I prefer, is the advance copy so we’ll have to wait to see the final one). I was skeptical because I seem to have encountered a lot of autism books lately. Each was fantastically well written and interesting.

Not Even Wrong by Paul Collins. A engaging portrait of his autistic son.

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. Temple is autistic and (I think) has a PhD in animal science. The book is how to use autism to understand animal behaviour.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. A very funny novel about an autistic boy trying to solve the mystery of a murdered dog.

I was skeptical because I did not think Daniel Isn’t Talking was going to stand up to these titles. It does and doesn’t. Daniel Isn’t Talking is well written and by the midway point I did appreciate the characters, but at the beginning I just thought why am I reading about this crazy mother. And she stayed crazy through the book.

I didn’t like Melanie Marsh, Daniel’s mother. She is insecure, over protective of her children, in need of more than a little therapy, and she is driven to further madness when her son is diagnosed with autism. It is at the point of diagnosis where my sentiments about Melanie shifted slightly. She struggles and fights for her son, and I appreciated her tenacity and strength. She doesn’t take the “this is how things are going to be” diagnosis. She looks for alternative ways to help Daniel along. I still found her annoyingly insecure. I like strong willed characters. Her daughter Emily was my favourite character, as were Daniel and Andy (the Irish fellow Melanie eventually hires to help Daniel).

Overall, here’s my plug for the book:
Daniel Isn’t Talking is a comic, yet serious novel. It is as funny as Three Men and a Baby, but as serious as a self-help workbook. Melanie Marsh finds herself as an American in London with a stuck up, absent husband, a genius daughter and a recently diagnosed autistic son. Daniel Isn’t Talking is about stray nappies, misguided families, and the British stiff upper lip. It is also about a boy clearing his own path through life, and his mother’s struggle to show him the way.

Daniel Isn’t Talking should be in stores in April. As part of the McClelland and Stewart 100 Readers Club, I got to read the advance copy.

Women Who Blog

January 6, 2006 / Monique

I don’t want to turn this into a love fest, but … Patricia at BookLust called my writing style “elegant and enchanting.” The comment is within the context of a post on Women Who Blog. Patricia is outraged about a recent Glamour magazine article that gives women bloggers some exposure, but essentially portrays them as “vacuuous idiots who are lonely and crave attention” (Patricia’s words). The subheader is apparently “Are They Self-Absorbed Exhibitionists? Groovy Free Spirits? Or Just Plain Bored? Meet Them And Decide For Yourself.” Rightly so, Patricia has challenged this foolish commentary and listed 5 women who blog and are not vapid, self-absorbed lunatics. I was listed. (Clearly Patricia has been protected from firsthand exposure to my madness.)

The honour of the link on Patricia’s site, which I love, is much appreciated and in return I want to mention 5 other women who deserve some attention.

First, of course, is Patricia who deserves a mention for her very witty blog about cartoons, her life, and books. One of my top three sites to visit whenever I fire up Bloglines.

Jen of Canuck Librarian who continues to amuse me with her commentary on libraries and working as a librarian. It is the Dilbert nature of so many jobs that gets me giggling like a drain.

Susannah Gardener of Buzz Marketing with Blogs. Part buzz marketing, part techie, part business, part blogosphere insider’s look. And she has published a couple of books with Wiley. Who doesn’t like a girl who can geek it up?

Lalia of Moorish Girl who writes about books, including her own, plus cultural or political commentary on the world, particularly the Arab world. Her book is Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Not only a great title, but I’m sure her writing is as good as her blog.

Lex of Canadian girl out and aboot who writes about writing and dance and TV. I think she is my doppleganger. We have similar allergies, we both dance, we know people who work at the Canadian Cooperative Association, we’re prairie girls, I’ll stop there. I like her site because her writing is very real. I do enjoy a voyeurist view of other people’s lives.

Those are just a few of the women I read out of personal interest. There’s a whack of them I read out of business interest, either technology or books or tap dancing.

So is there a woman blogger in your life who you’d like to mention? Share the love.

Go Quietly into the New Year

January 5, 2006 / Monique

In my experience, the new year brings very few new titles with it. The early new year that is. I suppose publishers assume that readers are busy devouring the books they received over the holidays. Instead they pummel us with self-help books and business books. I’m tired of the top 10 lists of books I should have read last year, books that celebrities loved in 2005, [insert your own book list here].

I was, however, pleasantly surprised with the mail last week. I received a copy of Daniel Isn’t Talking by Marti Leimbach . It is my latest book from McClelland & Stewart, as part of their 100 Readers Club. The cover on Amazon is not the one on my advance copy, photo to come.

Anyway the book is about an autistic boy, a la The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, however the story is told from the neurotic, smothering mother’s point of view. I loved Curious Incident, but as you may have guessed, I did not open this book with excitement. The writing is ok but in some cases clunky. The characters are interesting but mildly annoying. I am over the 100 page mark though, which is my cut off for rejecting and quitting bad books, and I’m still reading. I’ll update the post with a full rreport when I’m finished. Until then, please tell me if you’ve heard of exciting new books for 2006. I’m on the lookout.

Where did all the singable songs go?

January 1, 2006 / Monique

Last night I attended a New Year’s eve party with a bunch of musicians. I have a weakness for musicians. James likes to tell me that he played sax in grade six. It’s not exactly the same though, is it?

Anyway there was a bit of a song and dance portion of the evening and it struck me that none of us could think of popular songs that everyone would know the words to. Maybe it was just our group, maybe we don’t sing along to the radio enough, maybe we had a mental block on New Year’s songs, or maybe it’s that the majority of the songs on the radio are trite and not the songs you sing together. Perhaps we needed some of the songsters from Zizane restaurant or Colombia.

I was in Colombia years ago and my host family was appauled by my lack of singing. The first night I stayed with my host dad, he took me to a party where we sat around drinking whiskey and singing Sinatra. “Why don’t you know all these songs? They’re your songs,” he said. I pointed out that they were actually American songs and I tried to sing part of a Hip song but lost my way.

Years before that I’d been on a city-city exchange with a Quebec town. I was the youth contingent and everyone else representing my town was 60-70 years old. When they started singing it was awing. Lots of songs about friendship and love and songs that the Quebec folks knew in English and French. The Quebec group who were younger–40-50–had their own songs too. What did I have? A bit of Madonna and Debbie Gibson. A very sad state of affairs.

So where did all the singable songs go? Or better still, what are the songs that we sing together? Who knows all the words to Auld Lang Syne? When was the last time you sang the anthem? Maybe there can be more singing in 2006.

Happy New Year.

Dance Dance Revolution

December 30, 2005 / Monique

I was uploading my snowman photos to Flickr today and saw that Dance Dance Revolution also hit the Krug household. James and I attended a house party where DDR made quite the hit. The best part was putting the game on the highest speed and watching people go crazy trying to step on the foot pads in time with the flashing arrows on screen.

But back to the snowmen. Winter in Winnipeg is always fun because Peggers are crazy for Christmas lights and snowmen. There was even a city-wide Christmas light competition this year.

James and I noticed early on that Cordova Street in River Heights seemed to be a hotbed for snowmen builders. The builders were never seen but their work was on full display. You’ll notice that these snowmen are sporting all sorts of winter mittens and toques. Nobody would think of stealing the mittens off a snowman. This is Winnipeg. Leave that door unlocked too. Check out the snowmen of Cordova St.

CBC Podcasts

December 18, 2005 / Monique

My CBC.ca viewing was interrupted today by a survey request. CBC wanted to know more about how I felt about podcasts. Yippee! A couple of things here to note: the “could you fill out this survey” was a clear question and I was told it would take approx. 15 min, good to know, and when I clicked yes, I got to view the story I was going to before I had to take the survey. Lovely because 15 min. later I would have forgotten why I’d come to the site in the first place. The survey layout was also great. There was a progress bar at the bottom so I could see how far along I was. The questions were phrased in an easy-to-understand way with good check boxes. The only question I didn’t like was one where you pick which programs you’d like podcasts of and you could only pick a maximum of 5. There were at least 10 I wanted, but I guess the survey folks need to narrow things down. Overall it was fantastic and I said at the end that I would be interested in discussing the future of podcasts more so I signed my name and contact info. At the moment I listen mostly to the Radio 3 podcasts and Tod Maffin’s, but I was thinking the other day that those damn leaders debates should be podcasts because I kind of have cooler things to do at 8 pm than sit around watching a bunch of hot headedness. I know CBC has the debates in video form you can download, but I need the podcast version so I can listen to it in the car on the way to and from work. Maybe podcasts of the leaders debates exist and I haven’t found them?

I did find the CBC Blog Report on the election though:
Canada Votes Blog report

The only other dissatisfying part of the survey was a series of questions on whether I’d pay to hear CBC podcasts and how much. I understand there are costs involved for producing new content and that there are permissions and rights fees for using the radio content in a podcast but I don’t want a subscription model (i.e., pay X amount for unlimited downloads during 12 months) nor do I want a per podcast fee. So I said I’d be ok with sponsorship or advertising. I used to be a regular Globe and Mail reader. I looked at the online site every morning and then sometimes in the afternoon if I was following a story. Now, I never go to the site because you have to subscribe to see the good stuff.

I’m very glad that CBC offers podcasts and I hope they continue to be free and I loved taking their survey even though I hate surveys. I guess relevance is everything in surveyland.

Imagine The Imagined City

December 15, 2005 / Monique

Just received a notice from Turnstone that my stocking stuffer is now in stores: The Imagined City: A Literary History of Winnipeg, edited by David Arnason & Mhari Mackintosh.

Here’s the publisher’s description: In The Imagined City, David Arnason and Mhari Mackintosh trace the literary history of Winnipeg from the Red River Settlement through two world wars, the 1919 General Strike, and the Great Depression, to today. Through a wide variety of excerpts, they present the significant works, people, and places that have contributed to Winnipeg’s literary life. This mosaic history of the intellectual life that has developed in Canada’s geographic centre helps to explain how a small hub city, at the meeting of two rivers, has grown into one of the country’s most diverse and densely artistic communities. Featuring the writing of Carol Shields, Margaret Laurence, Dorothy Livesay, Adele Wiseman, and The Weakerthans’ John K. Samson, and illustrated with more than 160 photos and illustrations and 5 maps, The Imagined City introduces readers to the men and women of Winnipeg’s literary past and present.

Buy the book from McNally Robinson, my favourite Canadian bookstore.

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