My Digital Lifestyle

I'm about to overdose on media. But clearly not before posting this.

I have twitterific popping up tweets, eight active tabs on my browser, Adium chiming everyone's chat status at me, email pinging, the house phone, my cell phone, the fax machine, the radio, and my digital recorder playing back my voice notes.

I need a break before I break. My digital lifestyle is great, but every now and then I need to disconnect and listen to to real tweets... the kind birds make. I need the woosh to be not from the email I just sent, but from the wind.

You know?

Pic by Spekulator

Looking Back at 2008

Every year has interesting discoveries. Here are some of mine.

Favorite literary mag discovery: Memoir (and)

• Memoir (and) is published twice a year by Memoir Journal in California. It's a collection of essays, graphics, narrative photography, and poetry.

Favorite restaurant discovery: None. Lot's of great new places, but no favorite.

• So instead, I'll just cheer on an old favorite: Bread Winners. I never tire of their food. It's one of the best places for brunch. They make this amazing butter croissant asparagus eggs Benedict... yes, it's absolutely worth whatever you have to do at the gym or wherever it is that you go to burn it off.
  

Favorite coffee house: Crooked Tree Coffee House

• Don't get me wrong, I'm still a regular at Dunn Bros. But I have to admit, Crooked Tree would be part of my regular schedule as well, if it were closer to home. It reminds me of Austin. As is stands, I'm more an occasional visitor... a very happy one.
  

Favorite gadget: Ghost Reader

• OK, it's software, but I like it. It reads out loud to me in several languages. My Mac already reads to e in English, but Ghost reader can do it in Spanish and French as well. And it gives me a choice of accents. Fun.

Favorite movie: Persepolis

• It's a fabulous telling of an individual experience of a young girl living through Iran's 1979 revolution.
  

Favorite Book: El Juego del Angel (The Angel's Game)

• If you've read La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind), this is the prequel. It's set in 1920's Barcelona. A reclusive writer, David Martin, authors disturbing thrillers under a pseudonym. One day he receives a letter from one Andreas Corelli, a French publisher who has chosen him to write a book. David gets sucked into a nightmare reminiscent of his own dark stories.
  

Favorite online funny: The Freelancer National Anthem

• And it's about time we got one. It's hysterical.
  

What were your faves last year?

Here's my list from last year

Pic by concretecandy