E-Books - I Loves Them

I got my replacement credit card in yesterday's mail and have been getting the new card plugged into my auto-pay items. It's going to take a while, but at least I can finally buy e-books again. One silly week without the card and I already had a list going of books to buy *sigh*. I'm such a reading addict.

Happiness for me are books. So simple and easy
and (now) portable. Yeah - LOVE books! 

Are you addicted to books? Print or e-book, novel or art book, I have had an addiction to books since I was a small child and that doesn't seem to be changing or reducing at all. It there was a twelve-step program to get over book addiction, I would run away from it screaming. I don't want this addiction to be resolved or 'cured'. I love this addiction.

Books are friends and companions when we're
alone, during good times and bad, and even
during bad hair days or times of illness.
There's nothing better than a book. 

Books allow you to see into worlds you never imagined existed. Books allow interaction with characters and plots that take twists and turns down what had originally looked like straight streets. The streets all have hidden curves and blind alleys as you traverse them toward the conclusion. This week two books I had been waiting for got released and without the new credit card, I could only add them to a list of "Buy These". Now I can buy them and add their titles to my "Purchased in 2016" list. Having a list is the only way I have to work down my book list and not forget what I have to read next.

The Samsung S7 and S7 edge are actually the same width as
my current phone, and 1/2" longer. Of course, by the time I am
in the market to actually buy, there may be another new phone
that will be even better suited to my needs. But I need to get
something. My Motorola is starting to have some "interesting"
quirks and issues. 

For a right turn on the same street, I took a bit of time on Wednesday and looked at the new Samsung S7 and Samsung S7 Edge. Nice phones! REALLY nice phones. My contract for my Motorola Razr ends in September and I'm looking for a new phone. What's really impressive about the Samsung? Internal memory of 32 GB and can accept a SIM card of up to 300 GB. Yeah! Lots of storage room for photos ... and e-books! Happy Friday, everyone!

It's Tough to be a Football Fan

Sunday is a major football day in the US and DH's and my teams were both playing. No, we don't support the same teams, although we're happy to cheer the other team on as long as we're not playing each other. Yesterday started off at noon with DH's Minnesota Vikings playing a disastrous game against the New Orleans Saints which the Vikings lost 9 to 20. Ouch! It was a cold day at Renaissance Festival and sitting out of the sun to watch the first half was really hard. I was iced by the time we left at the halftime to seek the sunshine and warm up a bit. We skipped the third quarter and DH watched the fourth quarter on his phone while we were driving home. He's really liking his new smartphone - LOL.

It's pretty amazing that he can catch the game wherever he's at and watch
it in the palm of his hand. 

We arrived home just in time for the kickoff of my Denver Broncos vs Seattle Seahawks game. This was a replay of last year's Super Bowl game and I was hoping my Broncos wouldn't be as humiliated as they had been in January. Things didn't start out well, but an amazing 80 yard progression in less than one minute at the end of the fourth quarter by Denver sent the game into overtime. What a fabulous move up the field. The NFL has some new rules in place for their sudden death overtime situations and, unfortunately, we lost the toss. Russel Wilson took the Seahawks down the field and Denver's defense just couldn't hold them back. Final OT score: Seattle 26, Denver 20. I'm bummed that Denver lost, but it was a great game to watch. I was glued to the TV for 3-1/2 hours.

It was a classic match-up with two excellent teams. Even though
Denver lost, it was well worth watching. 

After dinner, we both called it an early night and I was asleep by 8:30 pm. My goodness - I'm turning into my parents with bedtimes that early! But I really needed the sleep and I'm happy to have had the opportunity to catch up on some. This coming weekend is the final weekend of Renaissance Festival. I'm already preparing to bundle up - this time of the year does tend to be cold.

Gotham has possibilities, although I might only watch one or two
episodes before deciding against it. 

The new season of TV shows started last night and DH is focused on figuring out how to watch various shows he's interested in. I'll have some conflicts too - Big Bang Theory has been moved to Monday nights opposite Gotham which sound like it'll be fun to watch. I'll have to catch Gothom on on-demand or streaming instead. Tuesdays will be NCIS and NCIS New Orleans (at least for a while). I haven't looked much farther. I know I'll be dropping shows as I watch them and decode they are 'meh', but new entertainment is always initially fun.

I have high hopes for NCIS New Orleans, although I'm not sure
I want to block out two hours for NCIS on Tuesday nights. 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and have a truly excellent Monday.

Why Do I Play Games?

I'm not sure why I bother playing games. I'm really not very good at them. "What kind of games?" you may be asking. Well...to be honest, all types of games:  board games, word games, electronic games like those on my computer or my phone, and of course games as 'played' between people in social situations - mind games, in other words. I play games that are played with a keyboard, played with a pencil, and played with a swipe across a touch pad. And guess what? I'm bad at all of them!

Candy Crush Saga was one of the first games I played on my phone
and so it was one of the first games I uploaded onto my new phone. 

One of the first things I did when setting up my new phone, was to download the games I enjoy playing. After a few comments from Chickie yesterday, I realized that what I really enjoy in games is the lack of thought I need to put into them. So the fact that I had to download and begin Candy Crush Saga again from the beginning wasn't horrific to me. I hadn't made it past Level 63 or so anyway, so I didn't have a lot invested in it. Chickie said she had made in into level 360-something and the thought of having to start over again would be terrifying for her. Obviously she's much better at this than I am.

Angry Birds Stella was just released. I passed on it. Chickie got
it and had all of the levels conquered within 24 hours. Oy! 

There was a new release of Angry Birds put out a week or so ago. I looked at it and went 'meh', continuing on my search for games I would enjoy more. I never got much past the first two levels of the original Angry Birds, it bored me. Chickie, on the other hand, loves Angry Birds. She got the newest version and had it conquered in a day. *sigh* She's much better at this stuff.

I love Flow Frenzy and that style of game. This kind of thing - colors
and patterns - I'm very good at. This kind of game I enjoy playing. 

But there are some games I excel at. Games like Flow Frenzy and Blendoku are my perfect games. I love them, I can play them for more than five minutes at a time before turning the screen back to a book, and I can move through levels with strength and purpose. What's different about these games?

I really enjoy Blendoku. Working the color progressions to
meet the color criteria given isn't easy and requires a good
screen and the correct lighting. Sometimes it can be hard to see the
color differences if the lighting is poor. 

After looking carefully at them, I've determined that I love pattern. I can see how patterns have to develop and the means of getting to the desired end result without breaking a sweat. In fact, getting the more complex Flow Frenzy patterns joined correctly with a three-star result just makes me sing inside a bit. But achieving another level in Candy Crush? Well, that's just taking a couple of minutes to see if the given layout will actually allow success. Although there is a bit of skill involved in choosing the combinations that will give the best result, there's also randomness because the symbols are computer generated and different each time. Eventually success will happen and the player will move on to the next level. I think it's the random aspect that bothers me. I like getting from Point A to Point B and that's what games like Flow Frenzy and Blendoku allow me to do.

I have played Lord of the Rings Online for years, now. I doubt I would be
playing at all if not for DH, but after thousands of "gather the items",
"rescue the captive" and "escort the prisoner" quests, they're all starting to
look the same to me, despite the fact that we are now in Rohan. I still love
the graphics of The Shire and Rivendell, though. Those two places make the
entire game worth playing. 

I've carefully steered away from discussing MMPRoPGs in this post, preferring to concentrate on those games that can be portable and played on my phone. But I sometimes do play the larger computer games too. However, if my DH wasn't pulling me along behind him, I doubt I'd get very far. I guess I'm just not much of a game player, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Temple Runner 2. I just downloaded this late yesterday afternoon and can
already tell that I'll have all sorts of problems with it. But ... I'll try for a
while before I uninstall the app. 

Anyone know the tricks for Temple Runner 2? I keep getting killed within the first 30 seconds every time. LOL ... Have a wonderful Wednesday.

What Did We Do Without Them?

I'm looking to my left and there are my "devices" awaiting packing before I leave for work. They are several different sizes, from very small to larger purse-sized and I love each one of them. There is my Apple Nano on which I just loaded four Mendelssohn symphonies - such wonderful music. Next to this is my Motorola Droid smartphone on which I now have a free voice recorder app for when story inspiration hits me while I'm in the car (which actually happens quite frequently). On the far right is my NookColor - still a piece of equipment that I use every day even though I can and do read on my phone also. I still adore my Nook after more than two years, it just does whatever I ask of it so well. On the floor, patiently waiting, is my laptop nestled in its case. And of course, I'm sitting at my desktop computer writing this. 

My Nano is green, with my LJ User Name engraved on the back.

In 1876, on March 10th, so just slightly more than 137 years ago, Alexander Graham Bell, using a liquid transmitter, spoke the famous words "Mr Watson - Come here - I want to see you" and was heard clearly by his assistant in a nearby room on the other end of the transmitter. The first telephone - the first baby step on a very slippery slope of electronic devices.  

One of the original ads for the Princess Phone. I was in love and it
is still considered a classic phone design.

I grew up with the phone as a common part of the household. When I lived in Aspen, Colorado we had a party line (that means that we shared a phone line with a second household, each one having a specific ring tone). But our phone line in Denver was a single line - FLorida 8195 was my phone number. I remember it even today, more than fifty years after I had that number. The phone were dial phones and direct connect, i.e. we didn't go through a switchboard (although I have worked at switchboards and routing boards in my employment past). In those days I wanted a "Princess Phone", but my Dad never wanted to spring for the extra dollars. I finally had a phone receiver of my own when I was in high school, but it was still wired to the wall and just an extension phone, not a separate phone number, and still not a Princess Phone. 

This phone was so small and portable, It only made and
received  calls, but I really didn't need more than that.

Touch-tone phones came into use while I was in college and grad school. Within a short amount of time they had become the predominant style of phone, although I still had a rotary dial phone in some rooms of my house until the late 1980's. In 1996 Motorola introduced their StarTac mobile phone. It was revolutionary. It was super thin and very portable compared to mobile phones of the past. It was so revolutionary that it was included in the Academy Awards goodie bag that year and several of the stars were gushing about the phones in their interviews. I bought one of these a few years later when it was less expensive. 

I love my Droid - it's so darned versatile and thin. Yes, I am
a gadget geek!

After a few more portable phones, and switching from carrier to carrier to get a better plan and better signal strengths (from AT&T to Sprint to Verizon) I upgraded to a smartphone. I bought a Motorola Razr Droid late last summer when my prior phone died. I never thought I would really get into a smartphone, but I'm finding that I really love it. I'm still watching my activity closely so that I don't increase the amount I pay monthly past a reasonable point, but I love my electronics Whatever did we do without them? Just the ability to carry more than 300 books with me in my hand - so wonderful! Yes, I love my line-up of devices, I am a true Gadget Geek.

My Sympathies and Amber Alerts

First of all, DH's car is fixed at minimum cost, so we're happy.  Now on to the blog...

The snow on this Wichita, Kansas roof shows how deep it got.

To all of you who experienced the extreme snowfall yesterday, especially those around Kansas, my sympathies. A snowfall of eight to seventeen inches fell in a little more than twelve intense hours yesterday causing all sorts of problems. We're getting somewhere between two and six inches today which will be a pain, but nothing anywhere close to what these poor people are experiencing. I hope that all of my friends and readers are safe today and can get shoveled out easily.

Here's a loving picture of a sunny beach to make up for the snow and ice.

On Wednesday afternoon my phone made a very odd sound. I had it with me (as always - yes, I'm addicted to having my smartphone with me) and when I picked it up I saw something I had never seen before - an Amber Alert coming through on my screen.

For those not in the US, Amber Alerts are issued by police departments, usually when children are missing. They are effective because they are localized - broadcast in a limited range very quickly after a child is reported missing or abducted. Apparently there now is a new agreement in effect with all of the major cellphone carriers that will send alerts automatically to all cell phones as well as the automated billboards, radio broadcasts and streaming on TV screens. This time it worked - really well.

A person who got the alert on their phone looked out their window and saw the listed car parked nearby. They contacted the police and within an hour the abductor was under arrest and the toddler was back in the arms of his mother. Bravo to all concerned. This is one time when our overly-wired and electronic world paid off.

I'm juggling screens and tasks but it's getting done, one small step at a time.

My days at the shop have been filled with inventory and updating. the shop's website. I've sold beads online through our website since 1996 and prices change all the time. I knew I was behind, so instead of shuffling through pages and pages of price changes, I've been working with my laptop working on the website, set next to the main store computer where I am going through the inventory, one item at a time, and updating any changed information. It's a big job. But doing it this way is working and working really well. So, by the middle of March my website will be up-to-date and I can start working on adding new products to it again. Yeah-I'm happy about that...

Happy 80th Birthday Edward Gorey....