I Could Fast Forward, I Guess

An audio book about speed-reading seems a little counter-productive    

I guess that depends on how quickly the narrator of the audio book can talk, doesn't it?  

So, if you've been reading the Blag for a while now, (and for the love of all things good and plenty, why wouldn't you?) you know that I am fond of audio books.  I play them in the car, almost entirely to the exclusion of traditional radio.  It's a wonderful way to pass the time on road trips, and an equally wonderful way to catch up on reading stuff that I would otherwise not have the time or the required consciousness to read.  By that, I mean whenever I start to read, I just fall the heck asleep.  It's now the world works.  

So, not long ago, I completed the first book of a series that was recommended to me.  Specifically, the first book was recommended to me, and I was told that the series kinda goes downhill after that.  The reviewers on the audio book site I use seem to agree.  So, while that particular book was pretty enjoyable, I'm not overly keen on continuing the series.  Other series I have "read" in this manner have books coming out later this year, but until then, I'm pretty aimlessly looking around for something new to sink my literary teeth into, aurally speaking.  

In that vein, I started scrolling through a list of books that the audio book place recommended for me.  One of these was a book about speed reading.  

This confused me. 

I understand that speed reading is a skill which can be practiced and mastered over time.  I understand that this is a skill that I do not possess, and learning might have certain benefits in the workplace.

And for us, too.  We could speed read over all the crap you write here and waste so much less time.  

But in the case of reading for pure enjoyment, I would have to think that speed reading takes some of the fun out of the process.  The imagination involved in reading and picturing the story and characters in your mind while you're reading is a significant part of the allure, and what makes literature an art form quite unlike any other.  Speed reading would seem to throw all of that into overdrive, and mash everything together or at least gloss over certain parts to make the whole situation less enjoyable.  I would think. 

Also, the skill of speed reading is completely and hopelessly lost when I can only read the book about speed reading as fast as the person is narrating it.  

I did not get this book. 

Red October!

Writing notes to yourself does no good if you can’t decipher your own notes

You clearly need to write notes about your notes.  Yo, dawg...I heard you like notes... 

So, as happens more often than you may think, I need to remember something.  Be it the name of a song, a movie I've been told to watch, the name of a flower I should plant, a great idea I had for a Christmas present for somebody, or a hilarious Sametime Status message I should use.  

And just why do you never use these so-called "Hilarious" Sametime Statuses?  Instead, we get this crap.  

Most of the time, these sort of notes find themselves on a little widget on my phone which resembles one of those little yellow sticky notes you find in offices everywhere and on cars of people who Have Been Pranked.  This little widget is terrific, and has been immeasurably useful to me on many occasions.  It also sucks, because it relies on my desire to type stuff into my phone, which is better done in short bursts with minimal excess language.  Quite unlike Blagging.  

As such, my notes to myself are usually remarkably brief, and look something like "hd hollygen" which meant something to me at the time, and hopefully will again the next time I look at it.  In this particular instance, it is the product description of a thing I was looking at and the store in which I found it.  I had planned on using this information to compare this product to a similar one at another store, and perhaps later in a session of online shopping.  

A problem arises when these little minimalist notes to myself stop meaning something, as in the case "valve pol fwm eg0612."  That's typed into my phone right now, and I have no earthly clue why.  I could Google it, I'm sure, but I can't be bothered.  If it truly meant something, I would have remembered it, right?  

As of right now, there are three of these little sticky notes in my phone that I can't quite figure out.  It makes me feel like I'm forgetting something.  Though to be more specific, it's actually evidence that I am definitely forgetting something.

I Didn't Expect It To Happen This Soon

I made banana bread due to poor planning  

Well, at least you ended up with a tasty snack out of it.  How did things go this wrong anyway?  

That's the weird part.  I genuinely don't know.  But, things went totally off the rails for me in the banana department.  Banana bread was the only solution.  

Allow me to explain. 

So, Not Long Ago, I explained the process of planning for and buying bananas.  It's remarkably complicated, and probably involves more thought that most people would put into this type of produce buying decision.  

Except for the fact that it all went wrong.  

By last weekend, I had five, count 'em FIVE bananas bordering on over-ripeness sitting on my counter.  I don't think I forgot to bring breakfast with me to work, and although I did forget to bring an extra for volleyball the one day, that doesn't explain how things were so far off.  I legitimately think that the grocery store screwed up and had bananas that were closer to ripe than usual, and I simply didn't notice when buying that their shelf life may not be what I was expecting.  

In just a few short days, my bananas were going to be spoiled, which would be something of a tragedy.  I mean, the bananas probably cost me about three bucks, so it's not a huge financial loss, but there are starving people in the world, I don't need to be wasting food.  A new solution was required.  

I searched the world high and low...

He typed "Banana Bread Recipe" into The Google...

...for a recipe for banana bread.  Fortunately for our hero, I was able to locate one and solve my banana dilemma.  I used one of the bananas for my breakfast one morning, and turned the other four into a delicious baked treat which I can enjoy for several days to come.  I also went grocery shopping and bought new bananas to start the whole process over.  

It's my burden.