Kindle – My First Month

Frustration: Whispernet is only available in the United States. 

After having received my Kindle while I was away on business, I got it fired up, packed away and ready to join me in Whistler, BC.  Once I got to Whistler, I realized that I’d purchased a couple books I’d already read.  I was a sad panda.  With a non-operating Whispernet I wound up re-reading a book.  It was a good enough book, but I don’t re-read books well as a rule.

Happiness: When I can use the Whispernet, I really like the book purchase experience.

Finished with Broken Angel?  Great, if you’re ready to read the next in the series, pop on, get recommendations for some books and grab Woken Furies.  A very short time later you’re reading the next book.  That’s pretty nifty. 

Frustration: Kindles add features to books that books don’t need.  Like crashing.

I left the Kindle on overnight, anticipating that with my wireless off, surely it could survive for 10 hours.  I was mistaken.  It lost power during the night and thanks to the e-Ink technology it’d frozen with the screensaver on my screen.  Hooray for the internet — I found that I just needed to recharge it and hit the hard reset button. 

Frustration: Battery life.  1 week my pasty white… er… knuckle. Yah.

If my Kindle could stay on, without Whispernet, for a week I’d be really happy.  However, the reality is that I need to charge the thing at least every couple days. More importantly, I’d absolutely swear that it lost charge while it was turned off.  That’s super annoying.  Books don’t need to be plugged in to read them, and when I have to be a slave to my battery life, it really irks me.

Happiness: It’s a good platform for reading.

Reading on the Kindle is nice and easy.  Lighter than a lot of the books I read, no ink to come off on my fingers, no bindings to break and it works great in all kinds of light (though like a book, in low light situations it can be difficult to read). 

Frustration: The buttons are too easy to press.

Picture me reading in bed — okay, picture yourself reading in bed if you’d rather not picture me.  Now imagine you hear a noise that needs investigation (perhaps your dog, cat or child).  So you set your book down on your bedside table and go investigate.  After defending your domicile against unseen noisemaking forces, you return to your bed and grab your book.  In the process of putting it down and picking it up, you’ve managed to skip a few pages, so you get to find your spot and pick up where you left off.  It should be easier to handle.

Frustration: The protective cover drives me crazy.

It takes a certain kind of magic to get the damn device to stay in the holder and not fall out at the slightest provocation.  The fabric corners on the inside edge don’t fit flush and look a bit crappy.  I use the cover to keep my device protected, but I’d really rather just skip the whole thing entirely.  It’s unwieldy, restricts access to the power switches and 80% of the time, my Kindle falls out.  20% of that time, it hits the floor.

Nonplussed: The New York Times via Kindle.

I’ve no idea why anyone would pay $14.95 a month for the NYT delivered to their Kindle when they can read the damn paper for free — on their laptop — and it’s got color photos and a more intuitive navigation interface.  I tried the trial subscription and bailed — not because I don’t like the Times, but because I read the same content every day via this thing called a “Web browser” and it doesn’t cost me money.

Okay: Selection of titles.

I’m okay with the selection offered on the Kindle.  Some key authors are available, and if they’d get a few more of my favorites (like Steven Erikson) I’d be over the moon.  I’m happy that I can get all of George R. R. Martin’s excellent Fire and Ice series — I can carry around the entire series and not throw out my back.  This will be a requisite purchase when George gets his next tome published.  On the magazine and newspaper side, I’m a bit underwhelmed.  I might read more periodicals if I had access to something other than 9 titles.

Scared: Reading in the tub.

This is a time-honored tradition in my household.  I’ve done some tub-based Kindle reading, but not a lot.  It frankly scares me a little to have a $400 device hovering over that much water, especially when I can be rudely splashed by a dog, or a toddler — or the inevitable tidal wave caused by a convulsive sneeze.

Current overall impression?

Despite more Frustrations than Happinesses, I’m happy with my Kindle.  But I like gadgets.  I like reading.  A reading gadget seems like an obvious win, especially when I don’t have to futz around with a computer to make it happen.  I think your average customer isn’t a good target for this device yet.  They need to really nail selection better and battery life needs to be more predictable and consistent. 

Your mileage may vary – but I don’t regret the purchase.

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Tags: kindle

The Tao of Liam

Amy (using a sock puppet, named Argyle): So Liam which is better, doing it your way or doing it mama’s way?
Liam: My way.
Amy (using a Argyle): Why’s that?
Liam: Because being me is great.

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Tags: liam, sayings

LIfe’s Little Annoyances

They say things come in threes, so hopefully I’ve had my dose of Annoyances for the month.

First up comes the onset of the “cold cough” (as Liam calls it).  I don’t know if it was my trip to DC or the trip we all took to Whistler, but Liam and I have managed to contract a really healthy mucus-generating cold.  Fortunately for me, I get a crutch named “Nyquil”.  Unfortunately for me (and more so for Amy) Liam’s crutch is named “Mom”.  Hopefully the weekend will offer Amy a bit of a chance to sleep in and me and the boy will be well enough that the return of the working week won’t be as dreadful as it seems it will be right now.

Second up… the Democratic party of the state of Washington.  It turns out that the Washington State primary carries absolutely no weight in the Democratic race.  If you want your primary vote to count in the party, you must attend party caucus on February 9th rather than participating in the mail-in ballot on Feb 19.  I can’t begin to express how much this annoys me.  It seems the root of the problem is that the Democrats don’t want any filthy Republicans or Independents mucking around in their candidate-choosing.   They don’t say that though.  Instead they say, “Well, the primary was organized by the Legislature and so the Democratic Party had nothing to do with it, so we’re not doing the primary.”

Let’s get this straight.  Democrats in Washington, apparently, would rather have some backwards method of candidate picking which is guaranteed to have a low voter turn out instead of having a mail-in ballot which can achieve much higher rates of participation than a standard physical voting model.  In short, Democrats are advocating a less democratic method for choosing the national candidate.  Nay, not advocating, but demanding.  Or requiring. 

This is just sick and wrong.  Instead of conforming to the desires of the people (given the fact that the legislature are the elected representatives of the people of Washington) the party is taking its marbles and playing somewhere else.  Idiots.  Idiots.  Idiots.  I’ve half a mind to get more involved with the party just to have the opportunity to tell the party leaders how stupid they are.

Last on the annoyances list was my Kindle.  I woke up this morning and it was stuck on a screensaver, and nothing I could do would change that.  Turns out, if you lose power on your Kindle it kinda goes into “freeze” mode.  Thankfully I’m not the first person who thought that a charge might last overnight.  I was able to uncover that plugging it in, turning it on and hitting the hard reset button under the back cover would do the trick.  Still, it was most frustrating and a -1 to the kindle for enabling my reading material to “crash”.

I’ll write more about the Kindle some other time, I’m sure.  I’m still getting used to the device.  Overall it’s a net win – but there are quirks that I find annoying.  I’d also like to know how people claim to get a week’s worth of power out of the thing even with the wireless off. 

Well, I’m getting hungry.  Time for some french toast.

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Tags: democrats, caucus, washington, kindle, cold, sick

You’re showing what?

I was a little surprised yesterday, as I flew back from Washington, DC, at the choice of movies.  After Rush Hour 3, which I mentioned in my last entry (and which I’ll make the case again that it should never have been filmed) United in its wisdom opted to show Poseidon.

Maybe it’s just me, but I suspect I’m not the only person that thinks showing a disaster film on an airplane is perhaps not the best idea in the world.  Let’s remember that planes have their share of random problems.  Certainly, I’ve never heard of a plane getting swamped by a tidal wave only to have a handful of passengers trek to the bottom of the cargo hold and get rescued.

That’d be quite some tidal wave.

But even still, one can’t help but think that we haven’t particularly nailed flying yet, so perhaps there’s a little bit of hubris in showing a disaster movie on board.

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Tags: flying, united

5 inches for 50 bucks

This morning, as I dutifully had my passport scanned to get my plane ticket expelled from the machine I was presented with an opportunity.  I could upgrade to Economy Plus and get 5 inches of extra leg room for $49.  I took a moment to reflect on myself.  Had I recently added any inches in height?  Did I recall ever being ridiculously cramped for legroom on a plane that was “normal sized”?  Perhaps Amy had given me some special concoction to make me taller (though the reverse would be far more likely, since she’d love to have irrevocable evidence that she’s taller than I).

All of these in the negative, I opted against spending the fifty bucks.

As it turns out, that was not a wise decision.  When I first sat down in my pristine row, I had plenty of room.  Alas, my trusty MacBook didn’t quite fit under the seat in a fashion that’d give me maximum foot-room, but I could make do.  I’m only 5’8″ after all.

Then came the large man.  He sat next to me.

Then came the much larger man.  He sat on the aisle.  He was a very nice man from Africa, but he was not a small man. 

Even this, I could handle.  After all I am not especially large and my needs are simple.  But then came the old duffer in front who just had to push his seat back as far as it could.  I think the scientific word for the amount of personal space I was left with is known as a “Japanese Subway Zone”.  Which is to say, next to none at all.

After contorting myself to withdraw my laptop from my briefcase, I calmly set it up with an eye to play some chess, or some other game.  I instantly regretted the lack of wireless connectivity in the air, as I would have well liked to purchase something worth playing (my chess skills are dismal). Be that as it may, thanks to the pinch of personal space I enjoyed, my laptop wouldn’t actually open the whole way — I got perhaps… 60 or 70 degrees out of it.  My right (and mousing) hand was heavily restricted in its movement barely clearing the mousepad enough to use it.

Needless to say, after a thoroughly disappointing game of chess that wound up crashing half-way through, I put the computer away and suffered through the second in-flight movie.  None other than Hollywood’s finest.. Rush Hour 3.  I think Chris and Jackie should have called it quits after the second one.

Of course, the excruciating fly in the ointment was one simple fact.  Around me there were veritable fields of two-person rows with unoccupied middle seats (in fact yon old duffer in front of me didn’t have someone next to him).  So where does the magic of airline manipulation put a really big guy, a big guy and a small nerd?  Why, row 25, thankyouverymuch.

It’s no wonder people hate flying.  I guess $10 an inch isn’t all the way to the level of ripoff I thought it was.  

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Tags: united, flying, economy plus, fifty bucks

A Bowl Full of Yum @ Volunteer Park Cafe

A couple weeks ago, a co-worker of mine suggested we give Volunteer Park Cafe a shot based upon some reviews of a foodie friend of his. So, on a whim, Amy and I hooked up with Bruce and gave it a go. We had a fantastically tasty dinner and we will make this a regular haunt, I’m certain. 

Given this is a couple weeks ago, my memory is shaky about what we had except for one key point…cafe fries.  Tasty, home made fries sprinkled with a bit of parsley and truffle salt.  These were so tasty that the homemade heirloom ketchup — as yummy as that was — just got in the way.  We had a couple of these or I’m sure I would have had my own little pail just for dessert.

Today we stopped by for lunch with Liam and Bubs (that’s Amy’s mom, Kathy).  It was late in the day, so we didn’t have a wait.  Not only did we have the joy of hanging out with Jacob, Sonia and Nathan (who’ve recently moved to the neighborhood), but we got to try the lunch menu on for size.

In the end — I won the prize for the best choice.  My pulled pork sandwich had been liberally sprinkled with Awesomeness while Amy and Kathy wound up with tasty chicken salad sandwiches which nonetheless were simply adequate against my sandwich.  Liam, for reasons completely unfathomable to me, decided part way through he wasn’t enjoying the pulled pork, leaving all that much more to me.

We wrapped lunch with drinks and cookies to go.  The hot chocolate was pretty decadent and unique enough to be worth a visit for a tasty chocolate.  Coupled with a chocolate chip with toffee cookie and it was a real chore to be hungry enough for dinner this evening.

This one definitely gets a thumbs up from us.  However if you’ve a mind to go, be warned they don’t take reservations.

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Tags: food, tasty, volunteer park cafe, truffle, dinner, lunch

Greenlake Hogdog

I couldn’t think of a really compelling name for the blog.  There was the rather simple and straightforward “Ted & Amy on the Web” but that seems so… early 2000s.  Something pithy and original seemed called for — especially since everyone knows that as soon as you start blogging, you’re part of some pseudo-journalistic profession vying to be taken seriously by the fascists in traditional media.

Or something like that anyway.

So… lots of ideas came and went.  “Wayward” was a word I wanted to use use somehow; as these are frequently somewhat aimless meanderings.  But in the end, any title with “Wayward” in it made me feel like I was just… lost.

Thus, I turned to my locality and my dog as a backup.  I reckon Hovis is likely to figure prominently in this thing if I manage to keep it afloat, and there’s going to be more than the occasional picture of him.  So, Greenlake Hogdog it is.  And boy is he a hog dog.

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Tags: hogdog, hogdog, hovis, greenlake

Does posting from flock make life easier?

Flock is a web browser that is supposed to magically integrate a lot of the new whizbang of the web so you don’t have to remember to log into fifty different sites to stay connected to the universe.  One of its features is reportedly enabling me to make quick and easy posts to the blog.  So, here’s the raw test.

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Tags: flock, test

Ringing in the New Year

Well, with the advent of 2008 and my new MacBook Pro I’ve started to try and slowly push myself back into the swing of things.  Only time will tell if this is a sustained process, but I’ve:

• installed Flock, so that should make random updates easier.
• migrated my (our?) blog from Moveable Type on www.puremagic.com over  to WordPress.com
• configured our flickr account so we can share pictures more easily (though I am wondering about .mac’s stuff — seems pretty slick.
• stared numbly at the computer screen.

Overall, I have high hopes that at some point, this whole social networking and web2.0 thing isn’t going to completely leave us by the side of the road with a snide comment about how I just got “pwned”.  Time will tell — I’m no where near as geeky or connected to the geek universe as I used to be.

Anyway, here’s to 2008.  Liam’s three years old now.  Lots of stuff is in the process of changing at work and my dog is sacked out at my feet.  The future’s looking bright.

Far too long…

February 6 was a very long time ago. In the intervening eight months, who knows what could have happened. Heck, we could almost be set for another kid, practically!

Well we aren’t.

February through April were pretty busy times for me at work, and after that I began the search in earnest for a new line of work at Amazon. We were ready to move back from Europe to Seattle and that necessitated things like updating a resume, travelling to Seattle (June) and generally trying to work hard to ensure that when I handed my job over to my replacement, everything went smoothly.

Of course we also had some guests (Amy’s mom and aunt, my mom) so we were plenty busy even after work got a little quieter. Much of Spring 2006 can be witnessed by you thanks to our penchance for taking pictures of Liam.

I didn’t do as good a job in handing things over as I might have liked, but I think things went smoothly anyway.

On August 17th (give or take a day) we landed in Seattle, repatriated to our homeland (complete with extra security thanks to the ‘liquids are evil’ scare). We’ve been in corporate housing in Belltown (next to a pretty busy firestation) ever since. Liam likes the firetrucks, but has a knack of sleeping through the late night sirens… not so much for Amy and I.

Because I’m cramming roughly eight months of information into one entry, I’m sure it’ll be highly unsatisfying for you, dear reader, but I’m afraid that’s the best I can do right now. Liam’s making noises in the next room so there’s the significant chance I might not really finish this.

Anyway, around September 14th (give or take a day) we finalized an offer on a house in Greenlake and we closed on the 29th. We’re still in the apartment, as our belongings got to have the Extended Dance Remix of Customs thanks to Homeland Security. They’re now in Tacoma awaiting the scheduling of someone who can drive “a big truck”.

So… that’s the very short version of the past eight months. We move in to the house officially on Monday the 9th (that’s when the stuff shows up) and we are absolutely aching to do so. Apartment life isn’t for us anymore.

Hopefully I’ll update this at least a little more frequently. Don’t hold your breath, though.