Hey Strangers!
I've been a little busy lately, I will admit. I would like to say that all of my spare time has been spent on perfecting the six short stories that make up my MFA thesis, which, in its finished form, will be about 125 pages and is due May 3rd.
Sadly, this is not the case.
My after-work and weekend time has lately been spent doing online tutoring for Lesley, reviewing hundreds of pages of MEd papers. While this activity is definitely sharpening skills I will be using this fall when I start teaching freshmen how to write (or, more likely, how to stop Facebooking in class), it isn't improving my own writing very much. But that's beside my current point.
My during-work hours, 40 of 'em a week (which are currently on the cutting table of my company's budget meeting...cross your fingers for me), are spent making sure that the over 6,000 contacts of the old database are smoothly transfered into the new database. I've been here six weeks, and started at the Zs. I am now at the Rs. This enthralling and tedious work was really getting to me, until my coworker mentioned she listened to Podcasts while she worked.
A little disclaimer before I continue: Yes, I am getting to this party very, very late. Call it a very fashionable entrance.
Podcasts! Glorious podcasts! Back when I lived in Michigan and drove 30 minutes to work, I downloaded Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and This American Life to get me through the boring drive, and loved every minute of it, and then like many different things in my life (for reasons I haven't figured out yet), my interest with podcasts waned (probably when I left that awful job and took a better one, closer to my house). So naturally, these beloved shows were my first stop. But these shows only came out once a week each and took up less than two hours to listen to - what do with my 38 remaining?
I sent out a plea to Facebook (and Facebook never disappoints with my pleas...well, at least none but the one about who wanted to come over and clean my kitchen for me) and my awesome friends responded. So, armed with their great suggestions and the ingenius suggestions put forth by the iTunes store, I have discovered favorites:
Librivox (various - right now I'm starting The Odyssey)
I have many more in the wings, including some of your suggestions I haven't gotten to yet, so I appreciate everyone's imput! Thankfully now I have plenty to keep my brain occupied, which in turn makes my fingers type faster on the keyboard, which in turn will hopefully make my job like me enough to keep me on another six weeks or more, which will cause me to exclaim, "PODCASTS SAVED MY JOB!"
We'll see. For now, they are saving my sanity, and if you're looking for a boost and can split your attention a bit, I suggest them to help save yours, too.
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