eReaders IV: Reader

Long time no see! I'm really bad at this whole 'not being lazy' thing. Actually, really, really bad at being productive. But I started this comparison series, so dammit, I'm going to finish it! At this point, it's less to help myself decide which one to get, because I don't see that happening unless I win one or something. Which would be awesome.

So now, let's look at Sony's Reader

eReaders III: nook

• 

Sorry for the brief hiatus! I'm really trying to work on not being lazy...but it's taking some time. OK the other day I introduced info about the Kindle products, and a little blurb about what I think of it. Today, I'm gonna look at Barnes and Noble's Nook.

Note: As of right now, this is the only eBook reader that I have ACTUALLY tried myself...although only briefly browsing at the bookstore.

eReaders II: Kindle

Today, I will be continuing my research and discussion of eReaders and begin offering my opinions and comparisons of the big-name readers: Kindle, Nook, Reader, and Kobo (I may add more as I begin exploring the products more). Now I'm going to look at Amazon.com's Kindle.

eReaders Exploring

For the first few years of the rise of the Kindle, followed by eReaders from the other big guys out there, I had no interest. But I think I've become a Johnny Come-lately on this one.

I. want. an. eReader. so. bad.

My original view: I LOVE books. I love reading them, buying them and shopping for them, and most importantly, displaying them. I think having books out is more important than pictures. In a way, they do the same thing: tell a story, reveal something about yourself, and bring back memories. I've never even liked taking books out from the library or borrowing books from people, because I don't like the idea of not being able to have it around when I finish. Same goes with DVDs and (once upon a time) CDs...which explains my excessive amount of crap stuffed into my room the past 2 years at college.

But now I REALLY want one; mostly because I'm turning into such a nerd and want more gadgets :P but also because they've added so many features that I'm finally realizing how convenient it will be.

The only time I really become a bookworm is over the summer. Every summer. I've started and finished two 3oo+ page books in the past 10 days. But I never seem to read at school. I try, I ALWAYS keep a book next to my bed, but it doesn't happen. Between television, a busy schedule, and the fact that I already have to read tons of textbook chapters every week.

But the reason a Kindle or Nook or Sony Reader would be so awesome: I have a serious problem with just sitting. I can never not be doing something, and normally need to do a few things at a time, usually TV, computer, and food or drink. But between my laptop, notebooks, textbooks, and my gym stuff, there would never be room for a novel in my bag. But chilling on campus during the day is when a book is most needed. The shuttle bus rides to class, especially. I usually have a magazine or some novel for an English class, but magazines have a lot less content, and books for classes are usually boring.

I just wish I could afford one. But, of course, I still want to do all the research so I can pretend that an eReader is in my future (I mean...you never know...)

So this week, and possibly next, I'm going to do a series of posts about the different readers out there: Kindle, Nook, Reader, Kobo, etc.

Hopefully, I can help someone make a decision to buy one of the featured products and if I can't buy one myself, the next best thing is knowing that I help someone else!

The Carrie Diaries...not what I thought it would be

When I got a "care package" from my mom at school (which has never happened before since I see my fam all the time) I couldn't imagine what was so urgent it couldn't wait until I went home the next weekend. As I opened the envelope on the bus on the way to class, I completely understood why she wanted me to see this ASAP.

She bought me The Carrie Diaries!!!

Since I had already gone into "finals mode" (where I basically fall off the face of the earth except for complaining on FB about living in the library), she knew I would have no idea Candace Bushnell was even writing a prequel to Carrie Bradshaw's fabulous adult life.

Betty White: Thank you for being a friend

Betty White seems to be the attention of everyone on the internet after her AMAZING performance hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. I almost missed it because for the most part, I could care less about SNL at this point unless its a rerun from the old days...when it was actually funny.

If it's not extremely apparent already, our generation can have really bad taste sometime. Is Andy Samberg really a better sketch comedian than Adam Sandler? Or is he just cuter?

Betty White was the funniest person, and by far the oldest, on the cast and stole the show.

Five for Friday: Misc.

I'm trying to start this thing back up. Please let me be successful this time!
I'm going to keep this brief since I'm home for the weekend to unwind and am ready to get in bed already :)

With finals coming up (if you're not already done the semester...see this rant), maybe I should come up with 5 useful things to do this time of year.

Summer? Why are you already here, but only for some?

One friend of mine is anxiously waiting his semester grades.  Another has moved into her campus's library for the week, after which she will be moving home.  A third is already in Israel!  But me?  I'll be here for almost another month. A MONTH!

Why do schools differ so much in schedules?  There's quarters, trimesters, winter sessions, some of which I don't even understand!  I like semesters...nice and simple.  And you know then when you're home that you're friends are too instead of being by yourself and bored out of your mind!

I'm one of those bored, lonely girls on my breaks.  My school has a "winter session"/mimi-mester for the month of January where you can take 1 or 2 classes...or have a winter break that lasts until February 8.  That sounded pretty nice to me at first, so freshman year it's what I planned to do.  But by New Years, I came to my senses.  What was I going to do for a whole month?!  I signed up for a class at community college to transfer over, and I still had WAY too much free time.  This year, I stayed at school to take one class (which I can't afford to do again) and worked 20 hours a week.  I liked it.  I was still by myself because even though a lot of students stay on campus for the session, none of my friends did.  But I LOVED the independence and "me"-time.  I actually went to the gym EVERY day, studied a lot, and kept my apartment clean.  NONE of that happens during regular semesters.

For a month, I was really happy with my school's unique schedule.  That is over now.

I want to be done!  These last weeks are dragging by like molasses (sorry for talking like an 80-year-0ld).  Summer is like a mirage...it looks close but when I think I'm there it's gone!  Like that Rugrats episode where they're stranded in the "dessert" (a playground basketball court)

Five for Friday: Misc.

Sorry about the lack of posts this week; between my work schedule changing every day, preparing my apartment for a new roommate, and studying for a very important final exam (I got an A in the class!), I couldn't spend much time doing things for myself, or you! At least I can relax a little now.

At my school, the Communication major operates strangely. You are first a COMM Interest major, and have to take these 4 classes. Then after you take them, you are eligible to get into the major. But only the students with the top 100 GPAs get in. Getting an A in this class was the only chance I had left! After it's factored into my GPA, I will have the lowest GPA they are expecting to accept. Now I can relax a little, but I still have to wait until June to find out. Ahhh! Anyways, I couldn't come up with a unique idea for a Friday list this week, so I'm just going to suggest to you a few of the websites I've been interested in lately.

1. College Candy -- Ever since I discovered this blog, I haven't been able to get enough! The website is perfect to browse on for hours; sometimes I lose track of time at work! Many different college (and a few post-college) girls contribute posts, giving it a variety of outlooks. All types of views, interests, and fashions are blogged about, so you are sure to find a lot of articles that you can relate to perfectly! Today, they posted 2 articles that I love: one about being a sober girl in college, and another about the wonder that is chick flicks! After I read each of them, I just had to go, 'Wow,' this article was made for me to read!

2. Mr. Beer --my boyfriend's roommate has a Mr. Beer home-brewing kit brewin' in the kitchenette, and it looks really cool. I had never heard of it and had no clue what it was at first, but now I want to make beer! It's right up my alley. It's sort of like crafting cause you're making something, cooking where there isn't much room for you to mess it up, and the product can be enjoyed by all! :P I love just browsing their website at all of the different kits and products they offer. I've always been interested in fermentation and stuff, and they have a wine kit too! It's like 200 dollars, though, and is probably a lot more complex. They have beer kits starting at 30 bucks, and can buy refills after you've used up the ingredients included.

3. Farmville -- Yes, I'm one of those people. I can't get enough farming. I realize how pathetic it has made my life, and that now that I've realized you can play on Farmville.com with the same account as Facebook, it will get worse. Playing directly on their site gives you more reward and gifting options, the screen is bigger, and it runs a little bit faster, for me at least. What I also like is that I haven't noticed my activity from the site on my Facebook feed, so it's not annoying my Facebook friends and broadcasting how much procrastinating I do. Hello, hiding an addiction.

4. Weather Forecast -- Usually, I hate talking about or reading about the weather. I don't really care about weather that does not affect my immediate plans unless it's a big deal sort of thing. I just wanna know how I should dress, if I should walk or take my car, and if any of my plans will be affected. But right now, it's a big deal sort of thing, and the forecasters are not exaggerating. The first weekend of winter break, we got like 20 inches at home in Maryland. When 18 inches was predicted. It has snowed a few other times there and at school, usually the same amount since there's only 80 miles in between. But everyone was so confident in the predictions that my home county declared that school would be let out 3 hours early. The last time I spoke to my parents, there were a few inches. There's a few inches here now, too. And the university has cancelled all Saturday activities and finals, moving them to Monday, and now the semester doesn't start until Tuesday! Awesomeeee. The weather forecast says 100% chance of snow, so I'm very excited!

5. StudyBlue -- StudyBlue randomly followed me on Twitter, most likely automatically based on who and what I follow. I decided on a whim to check it out but was getting ready to block them from my Tweets, cause I get paranoid, ya never know. It's a study resource site. There are a bunch on Facebook and campuses each have their own, but this one has a huge network. Not many at my school know about it, so resources are scarce, but I can still find help. You can upload your own study materials, and get rewards based on how many other people use it and give it a good rating. You can also get materials from people at other schools by entering what textbooks you use. That way, you can get chapter notes and stuff from other schools with similar classes. If you sign up please select that you were referred by a friend on the sign up page, and use my referral code: 732246. I admit that referrals will increase my standing on the site, but with my school's specific reward system I do not get money from getting people to sign up. I am telling you about this because I think it's exciting! Add me as a contact, too, and be my study buddy!

No More Flossing!

R.I.P. Thongs. I will not miss you. I always hated you, no matter how popular you were. You were uncomfortable, painful, and in my personal case, didn't even do anything for me. You can't even be considered a real piece of underwear; I own headbands with more fabric than you! Boy shorts are everything you are not: comfortable, sensible, and actually a garment.

According to my Bible (aka Cosmo!), the multi-decade trend of thongs has now bitten the dust, and I will be the one dancing at the wake.

Have You Heard

It turns out there are still people out there looking for chivalry.  They haven't found it either.

CBS doesn't care that we couldn't hear our boys Drake and Weezy last night (people don't care so much about Eminem anymore)

There is NO excuse for lip syncing after Pink could do this.  If you can't sing and walk around at the same time, maybe you shouldn't be famous.

I get dizzy just watching her!  Yet I keep watching it over and over...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzzygbKsiw]

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards: Part 3

So I haven't been paying full attention...but where are the actual awards?!  It has been performance after performance after performance.  Don't get me wrong, I like them, but I want to know who had the "Best Female Album of the Year" etc.  Some of the performances are phenomenal (Elton and Gaga, Beyonce, the Michael Jackson thing, etc.), but a lot of these performances differ very little from the performances on their concert tours.

And now I don't remember what I wanted to write about because it made me think of how little actual awards were given out!

I really like the performance of Roberta Flack.  I don't remember who the guy is.  My bad, my boyfriend got online lol.  I haven't seen him in a few weeks and haven't really talked to him much today, *tear*!

I guess I'm going to be pretty vague for the last half hour, I'm sorry!  I really like the girl singing the Les Paul tribute.  Can anyone tell me who that was?

Drake. is. yummy.  So is waynee omg.  I'm going to be a fangirl right now.  They are both so hot haha.  I met Drake back when he was Aubrey Graham on Degrassi haha. I love Canadians!  As for Eminem, I'm super ready for his career to be over.  I was with my friend the other day listening to the new Weezy song that has him in it, and he said something about "now he'll have to get used to tolerating Eminem's voice all over again."  I thought that was pretty fucking hilarious at the time.  Now, I still think it's funny!  Who's idea was it to have Travis Barker drumming for them? It is brilliant!

Uh oh! Taylor beat Beyonce again!  Someone keep an eye on Kanye, wherever he is lol

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards: Part 2

Aw, I need to start my homework and at least pretend to be concentrating on it, so my commentary will be briefer for most of the remainder of the show. The more I love something, the more time I'll take away from mass comm research methods :P Hopefully, I'll be able to rewatch the show online tomorrow. I wish I had DVR here at school :(

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards

The Grammy's are the one award show I get completely enthralled in. The past few years I've been disappointed with the performances and stuff, but this year is already amazing and it is only 20 minutes in! I will be blogging live about some of my favorite parts of the show tonight, but publishing it all in one post together afterwards.

Comment with your favorite/least favorite parts of the show!

What Cha Really Really Want

What else can be added to the Spice Girls empire?  Back in the day, I had all the CDs, music videos, dolls, Spice World, pencils, notebooks, and who knows what else!  And a few years ago, when the girls did a U.S. reunion tour, most of the 15-20 year olds in the country turned back into preteen crazed fans.  All I wanted was to go to the concert, which would be my 5th time seeing them.  I know, I was a complete fangirl :-P.  But then it turned out that they would be coming to D.C. a few weeks after I had ankle reconstruction surgery, so I would still be on crutches and painkillers.  So, no go.  I actually felt pain looking at my friends' Facebook pictures and hearing their accounts of it the next day.  I thought I was more mature than that, but I guess a blast from the past can do that to you.

I'm back at home for the other weekend, and the other night my dad was telling me that he heard that a musical is being made out of one of my favorite movies, but he couldn't remember which one.  We couldn't figure it out, since most of my favorite movies were musicals first.  This morning during breakfast, someone said something about the Spice Girls.  I don't even remember what it was anymore since I've been in such an excited craze since then.  I was skeptical at first, because sometimes he makes up crap for fun just to get us excited.

But after some time on Google, I believe him!  Mel B has been talking to several publications about the plans for a musical.  I haven't been able to get many details, but this has still made my day!  Apparently, Simon Fuller and the producer of Mamma Mia got the wheels rolling.

It's going to be awhile until the musical hits the stage; in various articles I've seen 2-3 years.  And unfortunately, it is being launched in the West End.  It didn't even occur to me that it would end up in England, but that does make the most sense.  I'm really hoping it comes to the U.S.!

Some more links to news articles about it:

• Entertainment Weekly


• Monsters and Critics


• Daily Mail UK

Five for Friday: Snow Day Movies

I love lists.I make lists about everything...even when it's completely unneccessary or fruitless. I love organization, but practice procrastination. Most of the time, my lists don't get completely finished and end up being a reminder of how lazy I am. But, as I say in this UDress article, having tangible reminders of your shortcomings that you consistently see can light a fire under your ass.

Every Friday, I will end the week off with a list for you...no, I'm not going to give you a bunch of boring things to do. These lists will be fun.

Given the weather predictions for the weekend (although both the Newark and Baltimore areas have horrible forecasts...Maryland, Delaware, and parts of Pennsylvania seem to be in this weather bubble where normal rules don't apply :P), my mind has been on my favorite snow day activity: watching movies.

Some movies are perfect for snow days, and some just don't work. When you're stuck inside, cozy, vegging with your family or friends, longer movies are good. A lot of great movies don't get watched often because of the time it takes to get through them. Either you don't have the time or you don't have the patience to sit in front of the same characters for three or four hours. But it's a whole different story when you have a fire, hot chocolate and other foods that are bad for your figure, and nothing else to do!

Even if you've seen these movies before, and even if you love them already, give them a try the next time you're snowed in...

Start Your Year with a New Style!

Hello, all! I'm always really optimistic about New Years resolutions...in fact, I wrote an article for my school's fashion magazine (that's right, we're so cool that we publish a fashion magazine!) giving my fellow Blue Hens some tips for keeping their New Years resolutions. Now that January is almost over, people are starting to lose momentum and excitement and the progress of their resolutions slow down, and eventually stop. I'm a victim of this too, I am definitely no expert! But I always try hard, and even if I break a resolution I will most likely pick it up for at least a few more weeks randomly in the year.

The contents of the article are things that I am going to tell myself every day! I made a resolution to exercise more, and the momentum got me to work out at least 3 times a week all of January. Now that its getting later in the year, I'm not as excited about working out, but I'm used to it. My routine has become wear sweats with gym clothes underneath them to class and work (I only work in a computer lab at my school's admissions office) and then go straight to the gym. I go to class and work everyday, and now it seems natural to head over to the gym afterwards.

I'd love to find out some people's resolutions. I plan on updating on my progress throughout the year, seeing as that can actually increase progress (see the article). Why don't you keep me updated too?

Check out UDress!

Now what's so bad about a night on the couch?

I came across an article on one of my favorite blogs while I was at work yesterday, and got so happy to find out that I'm not the only one that is sometimes too tired to want anything more than a night on the couch.

Another reason why I love Gala!

I have been extremely behind on my spending hours and hours exploring Gala Darling’s blog, iCiNG. So it’s a good thing the online database at work is down again. Thank goodness I caught up! This article is the kind of thing I want to print out and post on my refridgerator door!

And another one comes into the mix...

Once again, I have opened up a new blogging account. I don’t know what it is about me…but I always need to “start fresh,” even though it doesn’t really have an effect. When I was younger, I started a new journal every few months. I would want to write in it regularly, and if I broke the pattern, instead of fixing it, I would just start over. Maybe the new set of blank pages would start up a new life, where I did journal every day. But I doubt I thought about it that much back then.

Hey cutie co-eds!

Welcome to College Sprinkles!!! A blog for anything you want, anything you need. I will write about fashion, beauty, friends, family, sex and relationships, and anything else that seems to be a big topic among college women.

What I love about blogs is the ability for interaction. I may be a girl genius, but I can't read minds (yet!). I would appreciate and questions and comments you ladies have on writing topics, or anything and everything else.

I've been blogging for years, and am really excited to take this one seriously and practice what I'm studying in school: journalism and online techie-nerd stuff hehe.

Stay tuned!