Went shopping today and talk is still cheap.

My collections are live on the web!

http://statehistoricalsocietyofmissouri.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/amcw

Hurray! You have to click 'Browse Selected Collection' to get to all the collections within the American Civil War in Missouri. Might I suggest laughing as you read the Bethiah P. McKown letters to her son in the John D. McKown Papers. She's Bethiah P. or sometimes just B.P. She's a hoot. Also, the letter from T. A. Sidner in the Noah Sidner collection is sad/interesting in a morbid way. It's the last letter T.A. writes from prison the day he's executed. There are several 'final letters' in collections that deal with war, but few are written by a person who knows this is their last letter. It's not profound or anything, it's just sort of chaotic. Still, it's interesting in a sad sort of way.


Tonight in class we had a blended session with people videochatting in with our regular class. I am just not someone who is cut out for technology like this. I don't like it. It just cements the fact that I am really not a 21st century sort of person. All the social media, the online classes, the fancy phone apps, the skype...I just don't feel inclined toward any of it, really. The teacher kept telling me to be louder when I was talking and to talk slowly, etc. I have a very soft voice and I know this. Lord knows I've been made aware of this fact my entire life. I know people don't always hear me when I talk and I do try to speak up, but frankly, my voice is a weak one and I stumble over words or my voice gives out entirely when I have to strain to speak louder than normal. My vocal chords aren't superstars and can't hold up their end of the bargain sometimes. It isn't cool, but it's the way the cookie crumbled in my life.  I don't tend to speak a lot in front of people either, but here on trusty old blogger? I don't really talk to anybody, in particular. It's a void, and I like that. I write better than I speak. I can write and write and never lose my "voice". The void doesn't strain to hear my words or think I'm mumbling or constantly tell me to speak up. Even writing letters to certain people is easier than calling or chatting or whatever. This is why I like my job. I like spending much of my day focused on letters from people that never dealt with phones or wonky internet connections or television or cars or anything that makes up so much of the world we live in now. They talk to me just like I talk to you and I hear them fine. Their voices don't go out halfway through; nobody's shouting 'What'd she say?' through a crackly laptop connection hundreds of miles away; they're not even alive and I understand their words better than a person sitting virtually in an online classroom discussing children's literature. It's there in print and the connection is always fine and I like that I can count on that.