Thanks Mary

I've been listening to my MP3 player a lot at work. I got tired of the same old songs over & over, so I started looking into books on tape. The library was a total dick dance. Most of their books I wanted were in a special format that my MP3 player can't understand. Like 4 out of 5 books were completely useless. I even tried to convert the files to a different format. No such luck.

Then Mary told me to check out LibriVox.org. They have tons of old books that are in the public domain that people have turned into books on tape. You can download them for free. I listened to Treasure Island & The Wizard of Oz, 2 books I've been interested in reading for a while but never got around to actually reading.

Technically, I still haven't read them, I listened to them, but that's close enough for me.

My favorite was Home Life in Colonial Days. Some of it was kind of boring, but at least now I know how to make & dye my own linen. Not a hobby I'm likely to take up anytime soon. One thing that was really interesting was back in the day they sold tea in pharmacies but some people didn't know what to do with it. A lot of people boiled it, then threw out the water & ate the leaves. With butter. Ick. They did the same thing with coffee, but I can't imagine eating whole boiled coffee beans.

Mary also filled my MP3 player with podcasts. I think she downloads them on her phone or something. They're really interesting. One was about mailing children. You used to be able to take your kid to the post office, pop him on the scale, slap on a stamp & send him to visit Grandma or whoever. This was way back in the day. They changed the rules & now the only live thing you can mail is queen honeybees.

The first batch of podcasts was so good I gave my MP3 player back to Mary for a refill. There was a really interesting podcast about how language effects your brain. One lady had a stroke or some kind of brain fit & couldn't speak. But it was more than not being able to speak. She not only couldn't say words she couldn't even think words. She was in a constant blank meditative state, just sitting and enjoying the present moment. No intruding memories of the past or worries about the future. She said it was blissful. Obviously, she got better, or she wouldn't be able to talk about what happened.