Spring Has Not Sprung

Read All About It: Goodreads.com

Fellow avid readers - how do you keep track of your "to read" lists? I've written lists on scraps of paper, torn pages out of magazines and scribbled in notebooks.

The best tool I've found is goodreads.com. This site allows me to keep track of the books I've read and the books I want to read. It also allows users to customize their own "shelves," so I could keep track of books I own, books I've lent, books related to movies I want to see, etc.

There's also a social aspect to Goodreads. I can share my reading list with "friends," connect with Facebook, join groups with similar interests, "fan" and read blog posts by authors.

Even better, through the First Reads feature, I can enter to win prerelease copies of books from authors and publishers. I've received several - nothing beats a free book!

I haven't even begin to explore half of what the site can do, but it's certainly met my needs for keeping track of my reading habit.

Twestival CLE

Last week, I attended Twestival CLE. What's a Twestival, you ask? According to the Twestival website, "Twestival (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good by connecting communities offline on a single day to highlight a great cause and have a fun event."

And that's exactly what it was! Kudos to Amanda, Kasey and Kimi for organizing a fun event at AMP 150 to benefit We Run This City Youth Marathon Program, which teaches students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to set and achieve goals as they prepare to run the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.

I was especially excited for the Twestival as it would give me a chance to meet some of my fellow Twitter Twenty peeps in person and to make my first visit to AMP 150. It was great to see friends and meet new people, and AMP 150 did not disappoint.

The vibe is cool and comfortable. I would describe it as walking into the home of a friend who has the money to do some kick ass decorating and hire a wait staff. AMP 150 welcomed the Twestival with plenty of Happy Hour specials. I tried the Blood Orange Martini (delish) and the Pomegranate Poinsettia, a delightful champagne-based cocktail (pictured below.)


The menu offered great choices and I was pleasantly surprised to see a "small bites" menu. These selections would make great choices if you want to sample and share, or if you are looking for a reasonably-sized portion. I had the ricotta cavatelli (pictured below) and it was delicious - smooth, creamy, but with a bit of crunch from broccolini - and the portion was absolutely the perfect size. I felt full but not stuffed.

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?