WMBP - TWE

What do you do on a windy, wet, muggy Wednesday morning when you feel weary and worn out? Why, you put the hamster in the Clear Plastic Ball of Freedom and sit down to write Wednesday Morning Bullet Post - The Wet Edition.

• The wool part of this blog seems to have become very, erm, limited in the past six months or so. I could make excuses but I won't. I shall just say that the mojo has been missing.



• I did finish the second of the Grown Up Skweffles (in Debbie Bliss wool-cotton 702) a couple of weeks back.



• I didn't take any pictures. Just put them into the sock drawer.



• Here is a recycled picture of slipper sock #1 from back in July.
  
  


• Only took eleven months to get those puppies off the needles.



• We have had a lot more of the word part of this blog, lately, though, haven't we?



• When we have had any part of the blogging at all, that is.



• I'm still enjoying the Kindle and the freebie downloads have been very nice for expanding my literary horizons. I've read a few books that I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to find if they hadn't been right there on the limited time promotional list.



• Of course, there are pitfalls and downsides to just about everything: one of those freebie reads sent me to the bathroom cabinet in search of the brain bleach.



• Sadly, I didn't find any, so now I am scouring the interwebs for a safe, natural, side-effect-free method for fdisk-ing those portions of my cranium which seem to have been indelibly stained.



• So far, I haven't had much success but I'll be sure to keep the peeps updated on any progress made. In the meantime, I deleted the book from the Kindle.



• The library hasn't been all that prolific with the new reading materials the past few weeks.



• Not the library's fault, mind.



• It seems that the publishing industry has things like schedules, plans, rotations, cycles, profit-margins, and bottom lines - those pesky little things that get in the way of rapidly providing me with the written words I crave.



• Maybe, just maybe, I need to read more materials outside my comfort zone of genres.

Well, the windy and wet isn't going to depart any time today and the groceries are not going to miraculously appear in the refrigerator and cupboards so it is time to sign off, shower, and brave the elements.

Wishing you all a less wet Wednesday that we are having here!

In which trek raves and rants

Following up on my previous Kindle review post...

Things I love about my Kindle (Wi-Fi):

• A third generation Kindle can hold up to 3500 books.
  
  This means that you can carry a really extensive library with you pretty much wherever you go. You can always have a "next" book with you; instead of carrying both the book you've almost finished and the one you're about to start, you have both - and loads more besides. Oh, yes, and the Kindle is very lightweight: tips the scale at only 8.5 ounces.


• You can read your ebooks just about anywhere, including in direct sunlight, without glare.
  
  I read on my Kindle on a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon in between garage sale customers early last month. This past week, I took my Kindle along on a six-mile walk. The weather was variable, varying between overcast and grey and clear blue skies with spots of cottony clouds. No sunglasses and no glare from the screen at all.


• Lots of books are available in Kindle format for free.
  
  Amazon offers a varying list of books on a limited-time promotional basis. Kindle users "purchase" the titles for $0.00. Later on, when the book has be returned to its regular price, it stays in your digital library and you don't pay anything. This is a great way to explore books by a new author and books in genres which may be outside your normal comfort zone, a chance to expand your literary horizons.
  
  Amazon also offers a wide assortment of classics for free. I recently read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I'd previously read Disney-fied versions but this time I read it in the original.


• The New Oxford American Dictionaryis built into the Kindle; over a quarter million entries.
  
  This was a great feature to have while reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.Washington Irving published the story way back in 1820 so the wording used is often very different from modern language. It was great to have immediate access to a dictionary for those couple of unfamiliar archaic terms. Of course, there were a couple more obsolete words not in the dictionary, but they are no longer in common usage.


• Kindle content is searchable.
  
  The search facility has got to be just about the coolest feature. A week or two ago, Number Guy asked me if I could remember which type of werewolf the Street Wolves were in Jim Butcher's Fool Moon.I clearly remembered Bob telling Harry about the several types of werewolf. Instead of flipping through the paperback copy on the bookshelf, I reached for my Kindle, searched on the phrase "loup garou" and immediately located the exchange. We had our answer in moments. Oh, just for the record, the Street Wolves were lycanthropes.


• Kindles can contain collections.
  
  Books in a Kindle can be displayed alphabetically by title or by author or organized into user-defined collections. I've got all of my books tagged. You can even cross-categorize: for example, I have The Real Enemyby Kathy Herman classified as both Christian Fiction and as Mystery/Suspense/Thriller.
  
  I am hoping that in the future the collections feature will be expanded to include multi-level classifications, then I will file the specific collection "The Dresden Files" under the general collection Urban Fantasy.


• Users can convert documents into Kindle format for free.
  
  Got a pdf or Word document that you'd like to read on your Kindle? Piece of cake. Simply send an email to your Kindle's free email address, with the subject "convert" and the file in question as an attachment. Amazon converts the file and returns it to the originating email address. Next, transfer the file from your computer to your Kindle via USB cable. Fast, easy, and free.


• The ebook market has the potential to become an excellent entry portal for new authors.
  
  We've got some friends who have written a book and a few short stories. They've tried to secure an agent but haven't had any luck. Acquiring an agent and a publisher is hard. Often publishers are looking for a particular kind of story so even if a writer has a good story, they might not be able to bring it to market. Our friends are currently exploring the possibility of preparing their manuscript for the ebook market and self-publishing. Making a manuscript available as a low cost ebook can stir up a lot of exposure for a new author. Viral advertising at work.

Things I'm not too wild about:

• Poor quality of many unknown authors who self-publish.
  
  This is the flip side of the ease of self-publishing in the ebook market: anybody with a story can convert the document into Kindle format, upload it to the Kindle store, and start selling it. I can't count high enough to tot up the number of low-rent, cheap, trashy romances I've seen offered for sale in the ebook market


• Building an ebook library can become very expensive very quickly.
  
  Back when Amazon first offered the Kindle and econtent, they made the decision that new releases should not cost more than ten dollars. They predicted, quite accurately, that $10 would end up being a psychological barrier. Unfortunately, not all of the publishing houses agreed, demanding $12.99 (or higher)price tags for Kindle editions being released at the same time as new release hardcovers. Now, it is not uncommon to see a note right below the price line of a Kindle book which reads: This price was set by the publisher. Heck, I've even seen pre-order prices on hardcovers lower than Kindle editions of certain new books. This is just insane: the materials and shipping costs for ebooks is negligible compared to paper books.
  
  Established authors may have very long backlists and at $9-10 each, this adds up rapidly. Backlist paperbacks are commonly bundled together in promotional offers. One of my favorites is Amazon's 4-for-3 promo. Ebooks just don't get bundled that way. So far, they aren't getting collected into an electronic equivalent of the "boxed set" either. I think that publishers need to understand that consumers are often purchasing electronic copies of books they already own in hardcopy.


• Consumers are losing the right of first sale.
  
  Traditionally, when a customer purchases a book, that book becomes their property. The consumer can do with the book as they will. Suppose you were given a book for Christmas. You started to read it but after a couple of chapters, you realized that you just weren't into it. Now you have some choices you could: toss the book onto a bookshelf and forget about it; sell it at your next yard sale; or give it to a friend. You just can't do this with ebooks. This is problematic for me. If I buy a book and I don't like it and can't return it, I should be able to give it to someone else. The inability to sell, give away, or otherwise transfer ownership of an ebook causes me to curtail my ebook spending. Unless I am 100% positive that I will read and reread an ebook, I won't spend money on it.

These are some of my raves and rants. Quite a few of my points are equally applicable to other ereaders, not just the Kindle. What are your raves and rants?

In which trek reviews the Kindle (Wi-Fi)

My last review was on the first ebook I read on my Kindle. I've downloaded quite a few ebooks since then.

I bought (yet again!) The Dresden Files. Dudes, if you haven't read The Dresden Files, you are missing out. Seriously. Hie yourself over to your favorite purveyor of the written word and start reading Storm Front. What? You haven't ponied up the bucks yet? Here, meet Harry. Still not sure? Go read chapter one. See? Now that you can add a dozen or so books to your TBR pile, my work here is done.

Okay, so I'm not really done. In addition to Jim's books, I've also "purchased" a heap of classics and books on Amazon's limited-time promotional list - all for free. The best part of the zero price tag on these books is that they remain in my digital library and I can download them to my Kindle for PC client or to a second Kindle for free even though most of these books are no longer listed as free.

It's just like needing to buy something, catching the sale, and then realizing the next week that the item you needed just took a major price hike.

I'm really enjoying my Kindle, so I thought it would be cool to give the blog peeps a bit of a review on it. My unit is the third generation model and it weighs in at only 8.5 ounces. I can walk and read and it isn't too much strain on my hands or shoulders. Won't walk with it "nekkid", though: costs too much to replace if I trip and drop it. The Oberon cover affords me peace of mind by acting as an insurance policy, looks great, has a nice, easy to grip texture, and while it does increase the weight significantly, it is still light enough for my purposes.

Have I ever mentioned how I like to prop a book up on a cookbook stand and read while preparing meals? I'm a little leery about having the Kindle near the sink, so ebooks might not be good candidates for the kitchen counter but they are definitely on the list of things to read while catching a snack or sipping a cup of tea at the table. Best "stand" I've found so far is an 8"x10" photo frame oriented landscape. The Oberon cover fits right in the lip formed between the wood of the frame and the glass.

Speaking of sipping there in the previous paragraph, I was reading an article online the other day which really summed up why some people are reading a lot more with their ereaders. Ereaders make reading in little sips, rather than big gulps, much friendlier. Lightweight and compact, most ereaders can be toted along or slipped into a briefcase or tote bag quite easily and the user has a whole library from which to choose. Ever been reading while waiting for an appointment and suddenly you reached the end of the book but your name has not yet been called for service? Been there, done that, right? With an ereader, you can go start in on a new book immediately - instead of starting to pace, tap, fidget, and otherwise drive the other antsy people in the waiting room loopy.

# # #

I just got back from volunteering at Neatnik's school's annual bookfair. They partner with Barnes and Noble - but I brought my Kindle with me anyway. I didn't have an opportunity to read at all since I was busy visiting with a number of the other moms. We got on to talking ereaders and one of the classmate's moms is getting one for Christmas. Great conversation there.

Had another good conversation with the mom whose 6th grade daughter has and loves her Kindle. The mom admired my Oberon cover, so I demo'ed it for her, showing off how easy it is to insert and remove the Kindle and how secure the ereader is. Think I convinced her to go with an Oberon cover: she took the company name and pricing information home with her.

Does Oberon pay out referral fees?

Good question

Overheard at dinner Monday night...

Neatnik: "Where does chocolate come from?"

Daddy: "From the pods of the cacao plant. Do you know what the scientific name of the chocolate plant is?"

Neatnik: "No, what is it?"


Daddy: "Theobroma cacao."

Neatnik: "That's a funny name."

Daddy: "It means food of the gods."

Neatnik: "If chocolate is called the food of the gods, then why is really dark chocolate cake called devil's food??"

And now you know... the rest of the story

This morning, I logged into Blogger just to add Neatnik's and my latest literary conquests. While I was doing so, I thought that I would make a minor edit to the way Neatnik's Books is formatted. I wasn't able to do exactly what I wanted to do but it was a minor enhancement so not a big deal. During my swim through the great swamp of new design features, I saw one that I liked: the Read More feature.

If you would be so kind as to scroll down a bit, you'll see that my recent posts all seem to have been truncated. Relax! No data has been lost! It is because I have inserted a

<!-- more -->

break into the code of the posts. A quick edit to my blog template and customizing the tag line in a nod to the late Paul Harvey, and I was in business.

... the rest of the story ...

Perfect together

After a great deal of research, I finally decided on a cover for my Kindle. It wasn't an easy decision. I rather liked Amazon's hot pink leather cover, but I wasn't thrilled with the slotted clip-in system used to keep the Kindle in the cover. I feared that the weight of the Kindle would eventually cause the "spine" of the cover to sag and tear.

I visited the Kindle discussion boards and learned about Oberon Design. This is a small company out in California. If you frequent certain Renaissance festivals, you may have seen their leather and pewter products. They've expanded into the ereader cover market and currently make covers to fit Nooks and Kindles. I watched their features video; the unit retention system is well designed and very secure. Satisfied that this cover would be durable, protective, and beautiful, I searched for "the one". I thought I had found it when mine eyes lit upon the Celtic Bold cover; I was poised to purchased when I noticed something that shocked me to my Celtic core.

The knotwork is not correct and is asymmetrical, to boot. In three of the four corners, the proper over/under repetition is maintained. In the fourth quadrant, one of the cords runs over three other cords in a row. Once I saw that, I could not ignore it. I even called Oberon to tell them about the flaw. The couldn't make me a Kindle cover using the Celtic Braid small journal cover tooling, either.

I nearly quit in frustration: Oberon's covers cost twice as much as Amazon's covers and I couldn't get either of my top two preferences. In the end, my liking for Oberon's retention system carried the day and I ordered the Celtic Hounds cover in Saddle.

Despite a potentially fatal addressing snafu, my Oberon cover finally arrived safely at chez trek. My Kindle is safe and secure.

I'm still trying to decide if I am more comfortable folding the cover back on itself for one-handed reading or removing the unit and reading it "nekkid". The leather straps which hold three of the four corners are very tight so it is a bit of effort to get it in and out but I can't say that that is a bad thing. If it takes me a bit of work to get it out when I want it out, it is that much less likely to fall out accidentally.

It may be plain brown paper,
but the wrapping job is tidy!

Zoomorphic knotwork motifs are common in ancient
Irish manuscripts such as the Book of Kells

A very snug fit is key to the cover's security.

All of the switches and ports remain accessible.

Not sure yet how I will use the little pewter charm,
but I love it.

In which trek reviews The Accidental Demon Slayer

My new Kindle (Wi-Fi)arrived nearly a month ago. Since then, I have purchased some books but so far, I have downloaded a lot more free ebooks. Amazon has quite a few of the classics downloadable for free as well as eboks available for free as part of a limited time promotional offer. One such book was The Accidental Demon Slayer.

I saw the title and the picture of the cute pooch on the cover and read the synopsis and figured that since I have really enjoyed Julie Kenner's Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series (Carpe Demon),this one would probably be pretty interesting. One click later, it was on my Kindle. Sadly, Lizzie Brown doesn't deliver nearly so well as Kate Connor.

Lizzie is a pretty normal preschool teacher. Normal, that is, until her thirtieth birthday when her long-lost biker witch grandma shows up at her front door just a step ahead of the demon that suddenly explodes from her toilet.

While this was good for an action-packed beginning, and the subsequent flight for safety (on the back of a Harley with Pirate the terrier harnessed to Lizzie) was interesting, it was really hard to suspend disbelief.

Up until her grandma showed up, Lizzie thought that the only thing even slightly unusual about herself was that she was adopted and had no information about her birth mother. Within a day or two of the demon exploding out of the toilet, though, Lizzie is describing the action that unfolds with blasé references to using her "demon slayer powers". Um, what powers would they be exactly? And how do you know how to use them? Seeing as how you only just discovered what you are?

Compound these assumptions with the coven of grannies who use roadkill body parts as components of their spells, the communing with spirits in Hell from the shed behind the dive bar where the coven is hiding out, and the appearance of the shape-changing griffin, and the pack of werewolves with an infestation of black souls, and, well. Not such a good book.

If it wasn't a good read, why on earth did I finish it?

It was on the Kindle. It was free. I didn't have to worry about a late fee at the library. I read it in sips and nibbles between other books. And I really wanted to see if it ended as badly as I thought it would.

It did.

One final thought. It isn't available as a free promotional title any longer. This morning you'd have to fork over $4.79 to download it.

My advice?

Don't. Just don't.

Unless, of course, you are having a problem with insomnia this week.

On netiquette

Here we are, a month into the fall semester, and stuff seems to be settling into some sort of routine. Note that I did not say into any sort of quietness. Things are really busy but today I am taking out a bit of time to do something for me: making a bullet post for my own blog!

• One thing making this semester a wee bit busier than the previous several is that I am teaching an introductory programming class from start to finish. For those who were around in the spring, this is the same course as I finished up for the adjunct who quit last semester.



• Last semester was all about being the substitute teacher who simply continues with what the original instructor was doing. I didn't change up too much, just tried to prepare those guys for the second semester of Java programming.



• This semester it is all about working up a cohesive teaching plan and sticking to it.



• Not quite the same.



• I established a group for the class on for the class back in August, right after my laptop came back home from its Indiana vacation.



• I found out after the semester started that Google is dropping page and file hosting support for their Groups. Existing pages and files will continue to be available for a time but then even that support will be withdrawn.



• Made a new blog for my Java students. Spent a whole day creating new blog posts corresponding to the existing Groups pages and uploading copies of the files over to .



• Not hard, you understand, just time consuming.



• The next step, of course, was to send invitations to the students so that they can access the blog.



• There's one student insisting that they did not receive any such invitation; on to the fun and excitement which is student email...
  
  From: Student With Tact Issues
  To: professor trek
  ========================================
  I didn't get the invitation for the blog
  
  
  # # #
  
  No salutation. No signature. No punctuation.
  We are all familiar with the joy that is the misdirected email so let's try the spam filter first...
  
  
  # # #
  
  From: prof trek
  To: SWTI
  ========================================
  You are on my list of people who have been invited.
  Check your spam/junk folder.
  
  
  # # #
  
  From: SWTI
  To: prof trek
  ========================================
  I don't have anthing in the junk/drafts folder
  
  
  # # #
  
  New and improved with spelling error!
  Perhaps the student is looking for my email address as the sender?
  
  
  # # #
  
  From: prof trek
  To: SWTI
  ========================================
  Are you sure you don't have it? The invitation originates from Google/Blogger.
  
  
  # # #
  
  From: SWTI
  To: prof trek
  ========================================
  i did not get the invitation
  
  
  # # #
  
  Capitalization and punctuation missing.
  I've pretty much had enough of the rudeness by this point...
  
  
  # # #
  
  From: prof trek
  To: SWTI
  ========================================
  I shall resend the invitation.
  
  With respect to your abrupt emails, these must stop. Please remember that you are writing to your professor and a polite tone should be used.
  
  
  # # #


• Why, yes, I am curious to see what happens next, too.



• Especially since I made it a point to go over email etiquette yesterday and two of these emails came after yesterday's class, which SWTI attended.

I think I shall end here and call it a post. Neatnik is home from school and, quite honestly, my head is aching just from revisiting the rude emails.

Lest I depart on a sour note, let's have one more student email today. This email was far politer, if less informative...

From: Polite Student
To: professor trek
========================================
prof trek

# # #

Yep. That was it. Fortunately, it was followed up with a real message.

Guess this student has the same send message instead of create new line confusion I have with my cell phone.

In which trek plays the name game

Little Feet the hamster came to live with us nearly two years ago. Sadly, hamsters do not have the longest of life-spans and this hamster was already a year old when we adopted her. She lived with us for 16 months, until was a very elderly lady. Little Feet scampered across the Rainbow Bridge one snowy night back in February.

We thought on and off about getting another hamster.

Last night we tried to do so. The pet shop closest to us, where we always bought Little Feet's food and bedding was out of hamsters. We drove across town to the other major pet shop chain. Neatnik requested that we get the sole dark furred hamster in the glassed in cubicle. Number Guy and I agreed, so I picked up a cardboard box containing a suitable habitatand made our way to the cash register out front. I told the cashier that we needed assistance because we wanted to buy a hamster. She said okay and we thought she went to get someone to help us.

Little did we know that securing assistance was not on her list of priorities for the evening.

The cashier came back and told us that they do not sell small animals within half an hour of closing. We were a good twenty minutes from their posted closing time and did I mention that we were the only customers in the store? Yeah, the cashier had been staring vacantly out the front window when we entered the store and had not had to ring a sale during the few minutes we spent checking out the rodents.

Of course, I asked to speak to the manager. She came out and very haughtily informed me that we couldn't just buy a hamster, it is a whole process and that she had to make sure that we had everything we needed in order to properly care for one of their hamsters. You see, the animals come first there.

I put the habitat box on the floor and we left.

After church this morning, we went to another pet shop in the chain which we like. We picked out a hamster and a habitat.and a Clear Plastic Ball of Freedom(also known as a CPBF).

Allow me to introduce to the blog, Sir Currently Nameless.

We are still arguing over a name. Early on, I suggested Twitch and Neatnik suggested Peanut. Neatnik then ran through, in rapid succession, a list of rather silly names, then suggested Buddy and Acorn.

Sir Currently Nameless spent most of the afternoon exploring the first floor of chez trek in his CPBF and romping around his fancy new hamster habitat. This lead me to propose Magellan and Kamikaze.

The jury is still out on names. Any suggestions? Please?

Neatnik and Number Guy just decided to call him "Rodent" for the time being.

Halp!