Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be ...

Almost totally unrelated to family history as you can get on a Genealogy Blog.

It seems that the most genealogy I've been doing lately is blogging about it. This is unusual for me because I usually exude family research from my pores. Part of the problem is that I have been listening to some audiobooks and it's hard to transcribe letters or concentrate on census when you are thinking and trying to listen to a book-on-mp3 or wma. You see, Tennessee participates in the Regional e-book & Audiobook Download System (READS). I don't know what I would do without this program, because I really miss the selection of audiobooks that my library in Michigan has. By the phrase MY LIBRARY, I really mean Carl Sandburg Library in Livonia. Toni & Mary are the absolute best at ordering audiobooks. I don't know what has happened with all the budget cuts, but there was always something for my DH and I to listen to.

Sad to say that our library here has an abysmal selection, but when one of the librarians at the Cookeville library told me about the READS program, I perked up. For the most part I am able to get best sellers and whatever else I want. I've also discovered some great new authors this way. Unfortunately for my DH, who hates earphones, he hadn't been able to enjoy this feature as I have. And it's totally free, all you need is a valid library card and an mp3 player.

Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter
While on a trip home this summer from Michigan, my sister Diane loaned us "First Family" by David Baldacci on disc. So we listened to it all the way home and around town and on errands to other communities and we really enjoyed it. So I began researching ways to make my mp3 player play through the car radio. First, I do not own an iPod, I have a Sansa Fuze, so compatibility with READS was not a problem. What I found was this FM transmitter. It is the best $17 (inc. shipping) that I have ever spent. Hubby now asks which audiobook I've got for us to listen to and we now really enjoy trips longer than 10 minutes!

So now I really have to get back to transcribing those letters and working on the family history. My census file is piling up!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

1 comment:

  1. The kids and I all have that iTrip in our cars, too! Jim's car is new enough to have the built in mp3 player plug. He recently found an iTouch on eBay, and passed his 8GB iPod to me. Now I just need to spend the time loading all the Harry Potter discs on it! That's right around 100 cds...

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