I was on a tight deadline last week, which is now mercifully past. I made it, just barely, but I was working on it until Saturday afternoon before I finally got it done. I don’t love deadlines, but they do make me awfully productive.
Today, I made three purchases, two of which were intended and one of which was not.
Purchase #1: The first purchase was the new Amazon Kindle 2.0. I actually paid for the Kindle awhile back, but it wasn’t available just yet. I got an email from Amazon this morning telling me that my Kindle has shipped. I know there is a lot of debate about whether the Kindle is a good deal or not. I think it will meet my needs, one of which is to allow me to read Word documents away from my computer. I find it uncomfortable to read Word documents on the computer for long periods of time. I’m told by my many Kindle-owning friends that the Kindle is very easy on the eyes and it allows you import Word docs easily. So I bought one. This way when I read manuscripts for endorsement, I can just have them email me the Word doc and I can read it anywhere.
Purchase #2: A few minutes after I got that email, the UPS man knocked at the door with a box containing something I ordered last week. It’s a small monitor stand that holds my iMac up just high enough that I can slide my keyboard under it. I wanted this because I often need to get the keyboard out of the way so I can write something on paper or pull my laptop over. I got this on the Macessity web site. It took minutes to install, and has the added virtue of having a powered USB dock with 4 USB connectors. The monitor stand looks great and is exactly what I wanted.
Purchase #3: The third purchase I made was accidental. A year ago, I signed up to receiving a paper newsletter by a marketing genius named James Brausch. James is the guy behind a number of unique and excellent products, such as MuVar, RaSof, and Glyphius. I have bought all of these and I think they are terrific. So a year ago when James ran a special on his new Testing Newsletter, I signed up for it at a reduced price of $100 per year. The only problem is that I only ever got 2 or 3 issues. For whatever reason, most of the issues never arrived. I’m a busy guy, and I basically forgot about it. Out of sight, out of mind. But it’s an annual $300 subscription. So this morning, I got an email from PayPal to notify me that I had just spent $300 on a renewal of a product that I have not been getting. Dang! I hate when that happens! I got on PayPal and cancelled the subscription. Then I emailed the current owner of the Testing Newsletter (James Brausch has rebranded his business under the name “Diego Norte” and it now is run by employees) asking if they would refund my subscription, given the circumstances. Will the folks at Diego Norte do the right thing here? I expect they will. James always treated me well, and I expect that the systems he’s left in place at Diego Norte will continue to do that. I’ll keep y’all informed.
Tomorrow, I’ll pick up where we left off last–our analysis of the characters in STAR WARS.
Wow, sounds crazy busy for you. Deadlines have always made me productive as well. Looking forward to the Star Wars post tomorrow.
Hm, Kindle… I’ve been wondering about it for ages. About it, or something like it. What keeps me doubting is, would it allow me to read, say, pdf files? Much as I love ‘real’ books, the idea of a smallish widget allowing me to carry around heaps of books and files when I travel is very appealing. A little less so if the widget can only read one or two kinds of file…
Well, never mind. I’m looking forward to Star Wars.
I still have a stapler and an electric pencil sharpener in my office. Not sure why.
I read the Kindle is amazing. The screen is black and white. And it’s for reading books and magazines, which often have color photographs. If you were looking up the first color photograph in 1861, you couldn’t see the color on a computer from 2009, 148 years later!
But I understand the Kindle allows you type notes in books. This feature might allow you to use network system for communication.
Randy, in a later post, I’m sure your blog readers would love details on how you use the Kindle.
Thanks.
I’d love to get a Kindle, but I just can’t handle the fact that I have to buy most of what I read on it. Least that was my impression before I read this.
We love our public library. And I get journal subscriptions. Until I can at least read my magazines and journals on the Kindle, I’m afraid I’ll have to wait.
Which breaks my heart because I’m a gadget guy.
I’m right with you, Marcus.
I would not be surprised to see library compatibility with the Kindle or something like it before too long. Already I can download audiobooks online from my library to listen to on my computer or portable device for a two-week period. I could see something like that for the Kindle being the clincher for many people.
I’m with you Marcus and Andra. I’m dragging my feet on that kindle thing…..
Camille – an electric pencil sharpener? I got you beat. I have an old, hand crank sharpner that consistantly chews up pencil after pencil. HA!!
I think a Kindle is pretty cool. I’m hoping by the time my 16-year-old daughter goes to college, we’ll be able to get her text books on a Kindle. But I’m not holding my breath. That’s only 2 1/2 years away.
Ooh, I want a Kindle so bad! I read all the time and I have a job where I end up having lots of random down time. So I bring a book. If I know I’m almost done with the book I’m reading, I have to carry around two books, so I have something to start when I’m finished with the first book. I spend about a bazillion dollars on books a year. I love the idea that I could just bring this little gizmo with me and have access to all the books I’ve bought, all the time. And if I finish my book, I can pop onto Amazon and buy a new one (or a newspaper or a magazine) and have it right there, no waiting! The Kindle was invented for people like me.
The biggest downside I can see is this: you can’t exactly take a Kindle to a booksigning. 🙂
Eh, I don’t know about the Kindle. I’ve always loved the feel and smell of books. I really hope it doesn’t catch on too much to make real books obsolete.
I NEED a deadline!