UnTextbook Online Reading Options

When you're down exploring the different options, write up a blog post — "UnTextbook Online Reading Options" — and answer the following questions as relevant to your experience trying out the Hathi, Internet Archive, and Google options (along with the PDF option if you tried that one).

1. Device. What kind of computer or table did you use to do this experiment? (i.e. desktop, laptop, iPad)

 I used my home desktop computer to do this experiment.

2. Browser. What browser did you use? If you downloaded and read the PDF version, what PDF reader did you use, or did you just read the PDF in your browser?

Browser Used: Safari

3. Best Option. Did one of the options — Hathi, Internet Archive, Google, PDF — appeal to you more than the others? What makes this one better?

I liked the Internet Archive option the best.  I liked that the pages were an ivory/beige color which made it easier on the eyes to read the story.  Plus, the Internet Archive option had a "Read Aloud" button.  If you wanted it to, it would read the book to you.

4. Worst Option. Was any one of the three options  — Hathi, Internet Archive, Google, PDF — really undesirable for some reason? If so, what made it undesirable?

The least desirable option for me was the Google Reader.  The pages of the book were bright white and I didn't like staring at the screen for very long.

5. Reading Online. Do you do often read books or other long text documents on your computer? Please give details about what kinds of long texts you read on your computer and what program(s) you use to read them. Do you usually do your reading online or offline?

I do not usually read books or long text documents online.  I prefer to read offline with the book or document in my hands.  Reading on the computer is tiring for my eyes and I prefer lounging on my couch or bed to read versus at my computer desk.

6. Taking Notes Online. Do you have a good method for taking notes when you are reading online in a browser window? For example, I open a plain text file resize my browser window and text file so that they both appear on the screen, and I take notes while I read. What note taking method do you use for material you are reading in your browser window?

If I have to take notes while reading something online, I usually open up a Word document and copy & paste important info into the Word document.  I can easily switch between the two screens so that my copy & paste methods works pretty well for me.

7. PDF Notetaking. Do you have a good method for taking notes when you are reading a PDF? For example, I prefer to read PDFs using GoodReader on my iPad, and I use the highlighter to mark notes, and then I type them up later on my desktop computer. What note taking method do you use for PDFs?

I usually just print off the PDF document and then highlight important info on the printed document.  I guess I'm old school when it comes to note-taking.  Lol

8. Hard Copies. How often do you print reading materials out as hard copies? What are your reasons for choosing to print out a hard copy? Do you do your printing at home or on campus?

I almost always print out hardcopies of any documents I read.  I like to have the physical copy to refer to whenever I need it.  I don't have a laptop or iPad as my convenience, so the hardcopy is critical for me to have in my possession.   I print all of my documents at home.

9. Other Comments. Do you have any other comments to share...? Please let me know! I'm really curious to learn more about people's reading practices and preferences online!

I'm an older student, so I prefer the methods that I grew up using.  Printing off hardcopies, using Word Documents, reading actual books, etc.  However, I do like the convenience of doing research online on my home computer versus the method I used when I was growing up: Microfiche and card catalogues.  Yuck!  I think that may be one of the reasons I never enjoyed reading as a child because I HATED the Dewey decimal system at the library.

Famous Last Words: Week 7

My post for this week will be mixed with positive and negative things that have happened to me and/or my family.

First of all, I finally realized that I had "bitten off more than I could chew" in regards to taking 15 credit hours this semester.  I made the decision to drop out of a class to lessen the pressure I was feeling every day and the fear that I was not going to pass all my classes if I didn't reduce my stress level.  This is both a positive and negative decision for me.  The positive is that I will feel less pressure and stress on me from all the demands of maintaining such a full class load.  The negative is that I won't be graduating this semester after all.  I'm ok with that because I know I will only have to take 1 class next semester and I'll finally be done.

My family life has also had some ups and downs this week.  My husband had surgery to repair a broken foot, so that has put a lot more responsibility on my shoulders for keeping the house in shape and taking care of the kids more on my own.  The positive things have been I've had more "quiet time" to myself since I'm not enrolled in so many hours now.  I actually have more time to devote to studying and housecleaning.  Lol   I do love being a mother, housewife and student, but I do also want to get out into the workforce someday.  I know my time will come, but it will just be delayed a little bit due to reducing my class load.

The snow has been so beautiful to look at and I've taken lots of pics of the kids playing outside in it.  They love it, but I'm not really a cold loving person.  We love to watch the birds eating birdseed off of the windowsill and the bird feeder.  We've seen so many cardinals in the snow.  Their red feathers make them stand out against the white snow! 

 (personal photo of my kids--February 28, 2015)

The funniest thing that happened this week was when my son took a couple of our cats outside and put them in the snow.  I was cracking up watching them shake off their paws and try to figure out how to get out of the cold snow.  I'll post a pic of one of them in the snow.  I guess that's about it for this post this week.  Thank you for reading it!

(personal photo of my cat, Luna--February 28, 2015)

Extra Reading Diary: Nigerian Folktales

The unit I chose for this reading post was Nigerian Folktales​.  My favorite story was The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull.

This story about the disobedient daughter was a wildly creative and imaginative one.  The story was about a snooty, beautiful girl who decided she would only marry the most handsome man in the area.  This news intrigued a skull from the ghostly world and he set forth to win her affections.  This is where the story gets imaginative.  The skull decides to borrow body parts from the most handsome men around him.  Once he was finished acquiring the body parts, he won the fair maiden's affections and they got married.

Once he returned to his world, he returned all the borrowed body parts and was just a skull again.  Even though the maiden was frightened, she stayed with him and helped him and his mother for quite some time.  The skull's mother took pity on her and sent her back home on a gentle breeze.  The young maiden promised her parents that she would not be so vain anymore and would marry whomever they chose for her.  She ended up marrying her father's friend and lived happily ever after for many years.

One of the morals of this story is don't judge a book by its cover.  There are many nice looking men in the world, but just because they look nice doesn't mean they are nice as they appear.  Another moral in the story is to listen to your parents because they have you best interest at heart.  All her parents were trying to do was marry her off to a man who may not have been the best looking guy, but one that would be able to take care of her properly.  She didn't listen and ended up marrying a stranger who turned out to be something completely different from what she expected.

I like the fact that the maiden was portrayed as a brave and loyal character even under the strange circumstances of marrying a skull.  She may have been a stubborn character in the beginning of the story, but she became a very loving and devoted character to the husband that was chosen for her in the end of the story.  I liked this story because the main character, the young maiden, learned a valuable lesson and it made her a more humble person in the end.

Woman and Skull

Famous Last Words: Week 6

Well, I was hoping that this week's post would be about having a great week and not being as stressed as I have been in my previous week's posts, but it turns out it wasn't much better.  Let me apologize now, if my Famous Last Words posts seems to be mostly on the negative side.  I'm really not a negative Nancy, but this semester has been wrought with new & unexpected stressors almost every week.

I took my first Trigonometry test and it did not go as well as I had hoped.  I will probably need to get a tutor, if I want to pass this class.  My other classes are going ok.  I'm doing pretty well in my Capstone class, my TA Psychology class, and my Research Methods II class & lab.

In this class, I came across several interesting posts and storybooks.  One in particular drew me in just by reading the title.  The title was something like LSD: The Yellow Submarine.  The storyline left me with a lot of unanswered questions, but it also intrigued me enough to want to visit it again and again to see how the story progresses.  Good job, Lillian on such an interesting Storybook so far!

As for my personal life, I'm preparing for my husband to have surgery tomorrow morning (if the weather doesn't interfere with the current plan).  He is a medically fragile man & any surgery could be potentially life threatening to him.  I also found out that my oldest daughter is pregnant again with child #4 and she is a single mother.  She has asked my husband and I to adopt the child once it is born in August sometime.  This is an exciting time for us, but also stressful too because this will be a high risk pregnancy for her.  

As most of you know already, we are foster parents and already have 5 children in our home right now.  I need to graduate this semester, so I can go to work part or full time once our newest addition is old enough to go to Early Head Start (somewhere around September or October).

I know most of you are a lot younger than I am and probably have completely different stressors in your lives than I do.  Please bare with me as I post each week.  I'm just trying to survive this semester without turning into a crazy woman and writing about it seems to help somehow.  Thank you for letting me vent.

Thank You

Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

The unit I chose for this week was Chinese Fairy Tales.  My favorite stories were Why Dog and Cat are Enemies and The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck.

In the beginning of the first story, I like how the cat and dog were friends and got along well.  They both loved their owners and their owners loved them too.  After their owners had sold their golden ring and started to lose their wealth, the cat and dog created a plan to return the golden ring to their owners.  They worked together, side by side, and did find the ring together.  On their way home, the cat ended up getting home faster than the dog and took full advantage of this fact to get all the praise and adoration from the owners.  This infuriated the dog because all he received was scolding and punishment.  In this story, I can see why that would cause a huge rift between the cat and dog.

I liked this story a lot even though the cat and dog are enemies in the ending.  The story reminded me somewhat about how some human relationships turn out.  Sometimes even someone you've known for a long time can turn on you and become your worst enemy.  I have seen it happen to some of my friends before and it's a horrible feeling for them.

Dog and Cat

In the second story about the child of ill luck, it starts out with a King's daughter who has chosen someone to marry that the King does not approve of at all.  He is so enraged at the act that he throws them both our of the kingdom to live on their own.  They barely survive, but one day the husband decides to go out and seek his fortune.  After 18 long years, the husband returns to find his wife still waiting for him.  He found his fortune and shared it with his wife after he realized she had done what she had promised.  The story ends with her only living for a short while after being rescued by her husband.

Even though this was a pretty sad story, I still liked it.  I admire the wife's loyalty, trust and honesty.  I aspire to have those same qualities in my own life, but to be honest, I'm not sure if I could have waited for eighteen long years for my husband to return.  I probably would have considered him long gone or dead after several years had passed.  I can relate to the part of the story where she chose a husband to which her father didn't approve of.  She was young and I remember doing that very thing when I was a young teenager as well.  She sounds like she was a pretty rebellious girl and that is a trait in myself that I can relate to in this story.  This story also makes me think of the Disney story Aladdin.  The princess falls in love with a beggar and her father is against it at first.  Then, in the end, they get married and share in the kingdom's fortunes.

Princess Jasmine & Aladdin

Famous Last Words: Week 5

AHHH...I'm so glad that this week is about over!  I had so many issues with getting my Portfolio Folder set up correctly for this class.  For some reason, my brain just couldn't wrap around the instruction on how to do it correctly.  At last, I think I have finally gotten it working now!  Thank goodness.  Lol

My other classes (and other family stressors) have calmed down a bit, so that is definitely a plus.  I'm actually doing better in my classes so far than I had originally thought.  Yay me!  That makes me feel better about actually graduating at the end of this semester.  I'm still worried about my Trigonometry class, but I'm taking it slow & steady.  Baby steps, right?

One thing that I'm actually looking forward to this coming weekend is my daughter's adoption party.  We adopted her on February 2nd, but with our crazy busy schedules we haven't been able to have a party for her yet.  Lots of people are coming and I'm looking forward to the distraction.

I'm also really looking forward to Spring Break next month.  I'm hoping to take the family on a road trip to see some sights around Oklahoma that I haven't been to in a long time.  It will be fun to take a family trip and "get away" for a while.  I think we may even go visit my family in Tulsa too while we are out adventuring as a family.  I think I'd like to go to some children's museums, Arbuckle wilderness, Frontier City and maybe some other places that I've heard of recently.  I think there's a place in Oklahoma that you can dig for crystals or diamonds.  That sounds like fun.

Anyway, even though some of this week was stressful, I have some great things to look forward to doing in the very near future!  Gotta love a large family and all the (good & bad) times that it brings into your life!

(Personal Photo: Our adoption hearing day!  Our new addition, Jacqueline, is the girl in the middle. February 2015)

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