I am reading more self-help titles and overcoming some procrastination

I have learned some new filing techniques. I have not kept up this learning though.

Reading about Estonia.

I have been reading about Estonia both about innovation in the telecommunications sector and in terms of Estonian's Internet use.

Paper about my work given at annual conference

My workplace puts on an annual conference in statistical methods. I gave a paper at this year's conference on the work I do in programming tables of numbers.

Studying Tai Chi

I have been reading about Tai Chi and working on learning excerises.

New studies.

I started reading some basic economics books.

Low income families with one employed person.

I read the July, 2011, article from Perspectives on Labour and Income.

May Luong. The wealth and finances of employed low-income families Perspectives on Labour and Income (Ottawa, Canada: Statistics Canada, 2011) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/2011003/article/11529-eng.pdf) cited August 31, 2011.

I haven't been reading books for a week or so now.

I have not read the books I borrowed anymore. I did read about bass playing a bit and am reading a book on my Kindle about democratic revolutions and also reading and writing in French.

I have some time off this weekend to read more. I have no volunteer work scheduled this weekend. I won't be able to afford to go shopping anywhere. I can make a trip the the library.

I did spend last weekend making live music happen as a stage hand. I heard someone sing and play live I have listened to as recorded music for forty years or so.

I have a new tool to learn about namely a computer drawing board that I purchased.

I took Friday off work this week, so really I have only two days left to work this week.

Borrowing more books.

I read the first chapter or preface and introduction to these books so far since borrowing more books.

Wellman, Barry. ed. Networks in the Global Village: Life in contemporary communities (Boulder: Co: Westview, 1999).

This editor often challenges the commonly held assumptions about networks and also challenges the negative views about the Internet. I have met him and studied much of his materials.

McLean, Scott L., Schultz, David S. and Steger, Manfred. Social Capital: Critical perspectives on community and "Bowling Alone" (New York: New York, 2002).

This book contains essays that critique Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" book and article.

Arneil, Barbara. Diverse Communities: The problem with social capital

The author brings a view of justice from feminist and cultural minorites to the thesis of Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone", that civic society is on the decline claiming that the previous civil society Putnam sees as eroding may not have been of benefit to cultural minorties.

Wellman, Barry and Haythornwaite, Caroline. eds.The Internet in Everyday Life (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002).

This book added academic reason and research to Internet writing that helped guide Internet research forward.

The Knowledge Landscapes of Cyberspace.

I started reading the second book I have read by David Hakken. Here is the citation:

Hakken, David. The Knowledge Landscapes of Cyberspace (New York: Routledge, 2003).

I have been studying goal setting, project management and more SAS programming.

I have been reading more about goal setting and other self help topics. I also started to buy more SAS publishing books and reading these. I gave a book review at our local SAS user group last spring. I have taken to using a lot of SAS conference papers to learn new stuff. I also started to use loops in SAS by using SAS macros. I guess also in the last few years I have been exposed more to database programming and some SQL stuff. My understanding of logic is also very clear these days because I am using IF statements everyday. I still have a great deal of trouble passing logic courses in school though. I am working on a conference paper in statistics and in particular statistical computing. The paper is due at the end of summer and has only to be 6 pages long and a short 20 minute Power Point show. It will be published, so I am still being an academic, even though, I am not working in a school. I am studying project management from the Project Management Institutes' body of knowledge book. The self help learning includes areas of health and stress management and other personal developent topics and self care. Goal setting in my daily life seems to be a good way of getting stuff done and moving along.

I have been reading a little about digitial inequality.

I have been reading a little bit about digital inequality. This study goes beyond access to the Internet and looks at skills a bit more. The study asks questions such as does a person need help with a mouse and keyboard? Can they use a spreadsheet or a word processor? Can they navigate a file system? Do they have basic literacy.

My home computer ownership history.

I used to use an Apple Performa 580CD computer in 1995 to 1998 as my main home computer. This was my first computer with a mouse and colour screen. I then got a hand me down Hewlet Packard 166 Mhz Pentium I computer running Windows 95. This began my Outlook Express e-mail client use phase. This computer was the only computer I did not save the email from. Then I purchased with my school's help an IBM Aptiva running Windows 98 in late 1999. With this computer I got Broadband Internet in my home for the first time. Then a year or two later again with help from others I got a Duron 850 Mhz clone PC running Windows 98. Some of the e-mail from this computer is still locked up on a hard drive I can not access. The case of this computer is still being used for Remembrance my present quad boot PC. I then went back to Mac's and got an early model eMac and that was my main machine for years. I also got an IBM Thinkpad laptop refurbished with Windows XP and that got me through most of my last BA. I then bought a last model eMac that I still have. The IBM laptop screen broke and I got all the data off it. For awhile in those days I used an IBM rack mount server for daily home used with a Windows NT 3 desktop. It also booted into Red Hat and then later when Red Hat started to cost money Red Hat's free Fedora Linux. I then in 2006 got a first model Macbook which I still have. I used an IBM Thinkcentre with XP for a while for a windows machine and I then built Remembrance a 64 bit Windows XP machine in 2008. I continued to use the Macbook and eMac. The eMac and Macbook became my regular machines for home use and I only used the Windows really for Eve Online ( a game) and some Windows based school related programming. I then started to buy Dell computers in 2009. This then began my more extensive use of Linux phase. I also used an Inspiron laptop running Vista for one year then got an Alienware M11X running Windows 7 and then this Dell Studio also Windows 7 and when I got the Studio laptop I retired the Macbook. I also use a Vostro running the latest Kubuntu. Also all my PC's have the ability to boot into Debian Linux including Debian 4 and 6.

Started to read a book about ethnicity and human rights in Canada.

I started to read this book:

Kallen, Evelyn. Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada 3e (Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University, 2003).

The author proposes to map international human rights rules and documents onto the inequality in Canadian society. She will probably be exposing the existing racism in Canada. I will read more.

I completed the five conference paper reviews in draft form.

I completed my reviews after getting some guidelines from the conference organizers. I changed my mind about some of the papers. I read each one through one more time and then wrote my review notes and rated the papers. I will now sleep on this for a couple of days and do a final submission later in the week.

I have conference paper submissions to review this weekend.

I have been assigned, as a volunteer, five conference paper submissions to review. I have read each of the five abstracts once throught thoughtfully. I have some ideas and critiques in mind. I should read some instructions on how to format and write a paper review, as I have no formal training in this other than being a fellow researcher. I need to check online for some instruction.

Planning conference travel.

I need to budget for two conferences and there is a third I would like to attend where I won't be submitting an abstract.