The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com Twitter Twenty

In January, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer introduced “The Twitter Twenty,” a group of 20 Cleveland tweeps who spend one month discussing various topics. Conversations can be tracked using the hashtag #CLE20. A new Twitter Twenty is selected each month.

Yours truly was honored and excited to be selected as one of the Twenty for this month! Along with me (@cindilou19), the group is comprised of the following funny, insightful and intelligent folks:

• aberinthecleve
• ADHicken
• april_ingle
• bryangarvin
• BuckeyezBest
• cleshopaholic
• CrookdRiverWmn
• davemontague
• gregbellan
• Kopniske
• MaryLeeS
• MildlyRelevant
• minorCLE
• OHmommy
• PatriciaKellogg
• sos_jr
• TonyMazur
• UnitedWayCLE
• wsccenter

Follow our conversations (and join in!) on Twitter using the hashtag #CLE20. Look for Twitter Twenty comments online at cleveland.com/twitter-twenty and in Friday issues of The Plain Dealer on page A-2.

If you’d like to be considered for the Twitter Twenty, direct message @denisep (Denise Polverine) or @dawgpndgirl (Alana Munro).

Read All About It: To E-Read or Not to E-Read?

Every day, I get e-mails about deals on e-readers. I see tweets from people who love their e-readers. And I hear from fellow readers who’ve made the leap.

So, the question is: to e-read or not to e-read?

I love to browse for books. Walking into a bookstore or a library and being surrounded by all of the wonderful treasures just waiting for me to read them…there’s nothing like it. I can spend hours in a bookstore or library. First, I notice the title. Then, the cover art. If I’m still interested, I read the back cover. (Note to publishing companies: nine times out of ten, I’d rather see a well-written description of the book than glowing quotes from reviewers or other authors.) At this point, I’ve usually decided yay or nay, but sometimes I peek at the first page too. I also check for staff recommendations.

How does one browse for books if you can’t hold them in your hands?

On the other hand, e-books are generally less expensive than “real” books. That would mean I could buy more!

I’ve done some research into e-readers and I’m almost ready to make the leap. I don’t foresee that I will stop buying “real” books, but I believe the e-reader will make a good supplement. The problem is, there is not yet an e-reader on the market that has all of the features I want, which are:

- E-ink: I spend plenty of time looking at a computer screen. I want something different.

- Text-to-speech: I listen to books on CD in the car. This means I’m often listening to something in the car and reading something different in the house. What a joy it would be to be able to switch back and forth!

- Ability to borrow books from the library: Currently, only the Kindle offers e-ink and text-to-speech, but does not permit you to borrow books from the library.

These three features are must-haves for me. First company to make an e-reader meeting my needs gets my money. Until then, I’ll have to read the old-fashioned way!

Time for a Smartphone

OK, dear readers, I'm really looking for feedback on this one:

In mid-April, I'm due for a new mobile phone and I think it's time to get a smart one. So the question is...Droid or iPhone?

Aaaannnnd...go!

My First Real Job

We said goodbye to one of our interns at work today. She's starting her first real job tomorrow. (Good luck, Christina! We'll miss you.)

As I type this, Mr. Sunshine is on - a show about the manager of an arena. My first real job was in an arena - I worked for a minor league hockey team in the sponsorships department. Many people are under the impression that working for a sports team is glamorous. It's not. But I do have many fond memories of my first real job, and I certainly had experiences that many people do not get to have.

For example:
- I got to climb on top of the arena's center-hung scoreboard
- I worked two All-Star games (one for our hockey league and one for our soccer league)
- I walked past a pen of bulls when the rodeo was in town (scared the bejeezus out of me - I didn't know they were there!)
- I got to run on-ice promotions (biggest pain-in-the butt: chuck-a-puck)
- I was one of the people who blew up and deflated the giant gorilla our soccer team ran through before each game
- When we sold the naming rights to the arena, it was my job to make sure that everything with the old name on it got changed to the new name

I could go on, but you get the idea. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of running (literally) around the arena on game nights, lugging boxes of promotional items around, working lots of overtime, climbing lots of ladders and using lots of spray adhesive (to hang dasherboard signs). I still work a lot of overtime, but I do a lot less running, lugging, climbing and spraying (thankfully!).

What was your first real job like?

Read All About It: The New Yorker

I want to get back on track, posting more about my love of reading, my original intention when starting this blog. So, I'm introducing a new feature: Monday will be "Read All About It" day. Hope you enjoy!

The New Yorker magazine was assigned reading for my honors Freshman English course in college. I miss having a subscription, but every so often I treat myself to an issue.

A few weeks ago, I picked up the Feb. 14 & 21 issue, and I've been savoring it article by article, each exquisitely written. Most New Yorker articles are loooong which allows the writers to delve deeply into their topics, bringing shades of grey to light in black text on white pages.

There are few articles that fail to envelope me; even articles on topics in which I've had no previous interest thrill me. In the issue I'm reading now, there are articles on the author George Eliot, scientology, college rankings and corruption in Afghanistan. Each has taught me something new, opened my eyes, made me think.

Many people love The New Yorker for its famous cartoons. They are delightful, but it's the writing I love. Every issue of The New Yorker is a showcase of writing at its best.

Maybe it's time to make time for a subscription again.

On My Mind Part III: Bullies on the Bus

Two bloggers I admire recently wrote posts that had to do with bullying and bad behavior on the school bus. On Classy Chaos, Pauline described her son’s close encounter with swearing and kids being mean to each other on the bus, as well as her own experience getting in trouble after being forced to swear by classmates. Chef’s Widow Amelia wrote about her son’s painful encounter with bullies on the bus.

It breaks my heart to read these accounts. I worry about what my godson will encounter when it’s time for him to go to school. And I remember my own hellish bus rides from junior high.

Why do kids have to be so mean? What’s up with their parents? Teasing, forming cliques…those things I can understand, but physical violence and threats cannot be tolerated.

I remember a friend of my grandparents’, a school bus driver, complaining about the fact that he had to pick each child up from his or her house. He was a large, loud man, and I believe everyone was in shock when I stood up to him and said that I wished that would be the case for me. It would have lessened the amount of time I had to spend around bullies who threw things, hit and made vile remarks.

I did well in school and didn’t get into trouble. I may as well have worn a shirt with a bullseye on it every day. To counteract my nerdiness, I even resorted to smoking at the bus stop, hoping the “cool” kids would start to see me as one of them and leave me alone. Not only was that stupid, it didn’t work either.

Eventually my mom started driving me to school and picking me up every day (bless her!), but not all parents have schedules that allow them to do that.

Here’s the real problem: the system of school bus transportation throws children together in an unsupervised environment. There are not always adults at the bus stops, and while on the bus, the driver cannot be responsible for making sure the students behave like angels. He or she must concentrate on driving safely.

Unfortunately, there will always be parents who don’t raise their children well and those children will act like jerks. My school bus experiences were so scarring that the memories still bother me today. My advice to parents: talk to your kids about what’s happening on the bus. Wait with them at the bus stop if you can, although your child probably will tolerate this only through elementary school. Even better, drive them yourself if at all possible.

Artist for a Day

I have one more "On My Mind" post to write, but I thought I'd lighten things up for today...

A week and a half ago, my boss took my colleagues and I to Artist for a Day, the "paint-it-yourself pottery experience" in North Olmsted. We got our projects back today!

It was so hard to pick from the hundreds of options available to paint. They have everything from dishes to serving ware to mugs to characters to animals to holiday decorations...I could go on. Even though it was hard to choose, painting the pieces was fun and easy. Here's what I painted:

A sleeping cat

A little heart-shaped box for my mom

A moon-shaped dish for my nightstand

I'm not crazy about the sponging technique I tried on the moon-shaped dish, but it was fun to experiment.

A trip to Artist for a Day would make a great afternoon for a group of girlfriends or moms and daughters. I'd love to go back and paint some holiday decorations and other gifts.