Sunday, August 28, 2011

Fall is Coming

With fall coming, many of us get back to the routines that were abandoned earlier.  I find it rather interesting how the lives of so many revolve around school even if we do not have children.  

However, with that said, my fall this year does have some bearing on school as I am returning to night classes this fall.  I decided back in the spring that it was time to return to school and am working on my business certificate/diploma/I am not 100% sure.  The school I go to has a variety of different programs which are all connected which is why I am not exactly sure where I will end up.

I will be taking two classes this fall – one of which is a night class and the other is an online class. I do not expect either one to be too difficult as they are introductory classes.   Most of the difficult classes have been completed as part of my accounting certificate but I know I have one or two math classes to take.

Fall also means a return to my craft group which I am looking forward to.  While I have been crafting this summer with some different groups, it will be nice to return to this group as well.  This will bring my crafting time to two times a week and possible a bit more if my twitter group gets together and I am able to attend.

Another thing that I appreciate about fall is the cooler temperatures, although, I am not a fan of the cold temperatures that will come later.  But for now, I will continue to ignore them and not think about them.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

My Kindle Review

I purchased the $114 Kindle from Amazon – it has Wi-Fi and some ads to help justify the lower price.

This Kindle is said to hold approx 3,500 books.  While I was downloading a lot of books before it arrived, I have nowhere near that amount to put on it.  You can sync the kindle to your online Amazon account which is also what you use to organize your books, as they can be hard to find on the Kindle, but I have not been able to play with this yet as I have had issues getting it to connect to my Wi-Fi.

Reading with the Kindle is very easy.  It is approximately the same size as a paperback book but much thinner.  The buttons to turn the pages forward and back are in a comfortable location and you barely even notice it happening when you are reading.  The screen is dull which helps with keeping your eyes from getting so tired like they would with a computer screen.   I thought that the screen was backlit for reading in the dark, but I read wrong and it is not.

The Kindle comes with a good battery life.  They say you can go a month without charging it even when it is left on.  I don’t tend to leave it on though unless I know I will be coming back to it shortly so I tend to shut it off completely.  As of the time of writing, I’ve had it almost a month and there is lots of battery left.

As with any technology, they are constantly upgrading.  I have heard rumors that there is going to be a colour Kindle coming out later this year.  I don’t foresee me having much need for that as I am just reading standard books although if I were to load a craft book, that may be handy to have colour for.

Likes:
The ability to carry multiple books with you and it does not take up a lot of space
*  I can borrow books from my local library and put them on the Kindle.
*  The ability to get books for free from Amazon and other sites for the Kindle. *  Long battery life
*  Ads – The ads on my Kindle are not at all intrusive.  They are more like a non-moving screen saver as they come up when you have set the book aside for a while.  I saved $25 over the same version with no ads.

Dislikes: 
*  Lack of light – That was just me not reading the listing properly and I found a book light cheap at a local store
Without having the Wi-Fi working, organizing the books is difficult
The functions are not as intuitive as I would like, but I’m sure as I play more, I will get better.
    Note:  As of the time of writing, I have read 3 Kindle books and probably 4 paper books.