L.T. Blog

In the last post I talked about how I use the iPod Touch to read books. In this post I get into what inspired me to write this blog post in the first place. A few weeks ago I took the Capstone exam as the culminating test for my library science degree. The Capstone is three essays between 1500 and 2500 words that have to be written in seven days. I’m happy to say that I passed! What is interesting, though, is that I managed to use two apps on the iPod Touch to read all of the PDFs for my research on these essays and did not print out a single document. In the past I printed out documents because I could highlight them and I didn’t much like reading them on the computer screen. Now I have a device that fits in the palm of my hand which I can read anywhere, I can highlight PDFs with the Aji Annotate PDF app, and those highlights sync back up to the computer so when I need to see the document a little bigger I can use the computer screen.

The first app I got for reading PDFs was GoodReader ($0.99). I liked that it not only could read PDFs but also Microsoft Word documents, Pages documents, HTML files, and a lot more. It is also really nice because of the “reflow” feature which basically turns a PDF (it only works on PDF documents) into a very readable e-book format. Unfortunately, there was no way to highlight or annotate the documents.

Then I found AjiAnnotatePDF($4.99). This was perfect. I could highlight, underline, draw, or write notes on any PDF document. Of course, all I needed was the highlighting feature, but it’s nice to have all of the options. Unlike GoodReader, it only reads PDFs but that is fine, I now have both apps side-by-side on my iPod. I didn’t think the reading quality was as good in Aji at first, but after using it heavily during Capstone I quickly got used to it. The syncing to the computer was fantastically smooth and easy with the Aji Reader Service application you install on the Mac and what is even cooler is that after you mark up these PDFs, you can sync them back and you have your highlighted PDFs on the Mac. AjiAnnotatePDF was the app I used primarily during Capstone and I think it worked great.

I loved being able to sit in a chair with my legs propped up or lie in bed and read these documents I needed to read for school work. Being able to highlight those documents with my finger was also great even though it took a little getting used to. What I liked most about the experience, though, was not having to print out hundreds of pages of PDFs and reading them on a device in the palm of my hand.

So the iPod Touch and these amazing apps are really changing how I read. I still have a stack of “real” books that I want to read, but more and more I’m turning to reading on the device or listening to audio books. It is also helping with my studies in that I can read and highlight PDF documents with Aji Annotate or Word documents with GoodReader. I haven’t even mentioned RSS yet for blog posts and articles on the Web, but I will talk about that in another post or on my podcast, AppADay .

If you didn’t know, I’m about to graduate from library school in May. My education in library science has gotten me thinking about reading and technology. In the past few years I have undergone a major shift in how I read. First, there was audio books which I really started getting into a couple years ago after an Audible.com advertisement on Leo Laporte’s TWiT (This Week in Tech) network. My father had always been a big Books on Tape fan and would have them playing in the car on trips, but it wasn’t until I started loading Audible books on my iPod that reading this way really took off for me. Another reason I joined Audible is I was taking a children’s literature course for library school. We were assigned many young adult novels to read for class. I was reading 3 or 4 (actual) books simultaneously and I decided to join Audible to help me get through a few of them as well. I’ve been listening and enjoying audio books ever since.

About 6 months after I joined Audible, I got my iPod Touch. Then a month later the App Store opened allowing you to put apps on an iPhone or iPod Touch. This is when I first got Stanza. Stanza is an e-book reader which originally let you download public domain books (classics published before 1920 and free of copyright restriction) to read on your device. Now you can buy books or download free public domain books, but another app has taken over for me in the purchasing of e-books (more on that later). As a substitute teacher, Stanza was awesome to get reading done of classic literature during the time the kids were at their Specials classes. I read such novels as The Great Gatsby, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, Emma, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

A year later Amazon came out with their Amazon Kindle for iPhone app. You could buy new books and bestsellers on Amazon and they would come straight to your device wirelessly. The Kindle app soon replaced Stanza for me because it was so easy to go to Amazon on the computer, buy a new book for $10 or less in most cases, and automatically have it sent to my iPod Touch. With the Kindle app I read New Moon from the Twilight Saga, Q & A which Slumdog Millionaire was based, Red Mist, 7th Son: Descent, The Road, Coraline, The Handmaid’s Tale, Dead Until Dark, and Marley & Me. I love having these books to read on a device that easily fits in my pocket and I can take out anywhere I want to.

To be continued. . . .

Photoshop Elements 8 Presentation from Nathan Lott on Vimeo.

It was in high school that I decided I wanted to be a music teacher. I knew I didn’t want to be a secondary music teacher because of marching band so I thought I would be an elementary music teacher. When I got to college I knew what my major was going to be and it happened. The first job I got out of college was an assistant band director for grades 6-12 in a small town south of San Antonio. I then added grades 3-5 to that because I wanted to teach elementary music and went from classroom to classroom with a rolling cart. It was discipline and classroom management that I would be struggling with for the next six years. I had to resign from the first job because I could not handle the 6th or 7th graders. I knew from then on I did not want to go back to middle or high school. My next job was in Hearne, north of Bryan/College Station, TX, and it was a pretty miserable experience classroom management-wise as well. The summer after that job I came back to San Antonio, got married, and got a job in another small town south of San Antonio. I was there for four years and again struggled like crazy with the classroom management. One day in the third year I had a breakdown, and broke down crying. They had just worked my last nerve. The fourth year I got a little better at calling parents, sending kids to the office, and administering time-outs, but they were still “eating my lunch” so to speak. I was sitting in the principal’s office constantly being lectured about my lack of disciplinary skills and how I’m not assertive enough until finally I resigned because they were not going to renew my contract another year. Ever since then I have been a substitute teacher in San Antonio. I still struggle with classroom management sometimes, but for the most part the kids in this school district are much better behaved. I even got to teach music long term last year for a music teacher who had knee surgery.

Which brings me back to the music discussion and my career ahead of me. Like I said in my last blog post I am about to finish my second Masters degree. I finished my Masters in Music just as I was leaving my last professional job. In May or June I will have finished my Masters in Library Science. The hope in all of this is that I would have more options in looking for a job in the library or teaching elementary music. I pursued areas of study that I love, music and reading. I voiced my concerns with the library job somewhat in the last post, but I wanted to touch on concerns in music with this post.

Two of my main areas of concern in my music education are my poor ear training skills and my laziness when it comes to practicing. Of course, these could obviously go hand-in-hand. In the third level of my Kodaly classes, my lack of dictation skills was readily apparent. My stomach would hurt during the ear training classes worried that I would be called on to do melodic dictation. I have the worst time writing out notes and melodies just by listening to them played. I’m OK at identifying two note intervals and whether they are a major 2nd apart or a perfect 5th. When we start getting into four measure melodic phrases, I just can’t do it. I can kind of get the rhythm down, but forget about the notes. Practicing is something else. Ever since middle school I have not been good at practicing every day. I practiced for tests and recitals, but those were something probably fear of failure made me do more than anything else. I really do need to play more because I enjoy doing it, but I just get lazy and don’t.

If anyone has ideas on how I get better at being more assertive, practicing more, practicing ear training or anything else, please leave a comment.

Here is a short little update on what’s going on with me. A couple weeks into my diet, and I’ve lost 5 pounds. I have to continue to keep logging using the Lose It! app on the iPod Touch. Speaking of apps, I’m still doing AppADay podcast 5 days a week and I’m amazed that this is the first podcast I’ve ever done that I’ve been consistent with. I did the Macintosh Users Group last night and someone suggested I talk about one or two of my favorite apps at the meetings so maybe next time I’ll try to incorporate that.

The other thing I’m happy about is that earlier this week I registered for my last class in library school. In February I will do the Capstone which is a week of writing three major research essays. That may be the first week I take a hiatus from AppADay. By May I will graduate and then the fun starts, looking for a job. I want to stay in the elementary and be an elementary school librarian, but if I can find an elementary music teaching job, I’ll do that too. One thing I worry about with the library degree is that I have barely any experience in an actual library and wonder if that will be a deterrent from getting a job.

Substitute teaching has been kind of slow lately. I got 2 jobs last week and only 1 job this week. Hopefully it will pick up more as we move forward into the Spring semester.

One of the reasons for this post is to do some testing with plugins to send this blog directly to Twitter and Facebook.

I was reading my blog post from last year about New Year’s Resolutions. Boy, I didn’t do very well. My first resolution was to lose weight. I gained 10 pounds. I may be a little bit better with my keys, glasses, etc but not by much. I didn’t really look for a job that hard last summer because I was taking a rather involved course. Podcasting is the only success I’ve had this past year and that didn’t happen until November with NaPodPoMo (National Podcast Post Month). So here we go again with another year.

1. My goal for this coming year is to really cut back on fast food and sodas. That is probably the main cause of my weight gain. I’ve got to cut back on the cheeseburgers, pizzas, sliced bar-b-que sandwiches and fried chicken. It took me getting a bad stomach virus earlier this year for me to cut out Chick Fil-a completely. Hopefully I can exercise enough self-control to cut back on the rest. The only good thing I can say is that I’m still keeping up the walking several times a week (unless I’m substitute teaching and then I have no energy after the day).

2. I want to do something musical for at least 30 minutes every day. This can be either practicing the trombone, playing the piano, singing, or doing ear training exercises on my iPod Touch with a couple apps I have.

3. I will be finishing my library degree in May and then next summer I will really be looking for a job. I am looking for school library or elementary music jobs; maybe even public library.

4. Podcasting: I’m going to let Daily TV Review fall by the wayside. I don’t really care to do that show anymore. I’m going to put most of my attention and effort in to the App-a-Day podcast. This is the first show I’ve done where I really think I can be consistent and put out a 5 day a week show (at least until I run out of apps). It is also a show that I really have fun doing and my Feedburner numbers actually hit 50 subscribers one day. It is staying in the 30’s and 40’s normally. I will still be doing Rental Reviews on the occasion I see a movie and I’m still writing for Book Sandwich after I read a book.

That’s about all I can think of for this post. I am looking forward to Christmas and the New Year and I hope everyone reading this has a Happy Holidays!

There is this cute site called Xtranormal.com where you can quickly and easily create little animated movies based on text you write.

Here is a video I did about the ongoing National Podcast Post Month or NaPodPoMo.