Kindles and Bits (Ships and Cats)

Do you like gadgets? What red-blooded American doesn't? One of the newest gives us a way to read an e-book wherever and whenever we want to. I'm talking of course about the Kindle. Actually the Kindle-1, the Kindle-2, or the Kindle-DX (which sells for $489) I'd like to get in on this "reading revolution", but that's way too pricey for an old man like me.

If you are thinking of buying one of these reading devices, you might want to first check out Nicholson Baker's analysis piece in the August 3rd, 2009 New Yorker magazine. (Baker is usually a novelist: next one: The Anthologist to be published in September)

I don't think Baker was impressed with the Kindles and suggested that if you want to read an e-book, you might just want to buy an iPhone and upload the free "Kindle for iPod" application onto it. Much easier to manipulate and read book pages. Sounds good to me... however, at the moment, the iPhone is also a bit too pricey for me. Maybe when my income tax return comes in.... or when "my ship comes in"....

Speaking of ships coming in.. over many many years, my Massachusetts Vaughan family has been serenaded with lawyer promises of great wealth when Spain settles with the owners of ships that it sunk during the Spanish American War in 1898. One of the ships had cargo that was the property of my great, great grandfather, who had a few bucks. I don't know how much money in lawyers' fees has been extracted from my relatives over this promise of a fortune. Luckily, I have never been contacted. Would I have gotten hooked?

War reparations take a long time to resolve.. some are still going on from the war in the Balkans. But over a hundred years? Doesn't sound good to me. Since I am involved in warning people about scams, if my relatives get contacted again, I will have to let them know that I believe it is a cruel scam.

I'm missing my cat, Lucky, who is spending the night at the vets. He is suffering from hyperthyroidism and had been pulling out his fur. He had lots of bald spots for a while. However, recently he stopped that and has instead been biting his rear end. Also, he has been having a hard time eating. Today, the vet said that he had a hole in his tongue that had become infected.. and that was causing the horrible stink that he was wafting throughout the house.

So, Lucky gets a night away from us.. a nice bath.. some special medication and shots.. and he gets to come home tomorrow afternoon. I hope he realizes that this treatment was done to make him feel better. He is a very intelligent cat you know.

There were two appointments at 4 pm.. my Lucky and a Siamese cat also named Lucky. The Siamese Lucky was not happy to be there at all and was growling as only a Siamese can growl. I hope that our little Su-Zee never learns how to make those sounds. I read somewhere that a Siamese has a repertoire of 150 different sounds. So far, Su-Zee only knows a few of them. ......................................................................................

A great day! My Dell laptop is back and even though Dell said they had to fix four problems, they retained my files and a cd-rom stuck in the drive. Also, the Dow is headed back up to 9,000!

Today I go to get a Shingles shot. Quite expensive, but those of us who had Chicken Pox as kids are susceptible to Shingles as we get older. This is an extremely painful disease. I can still remember my Grandfather suffering with the pain for almost a year. Sometimes the pain can last for the rest of one's life. (One of my friends is suffering from Shingles right now and as an empath I can feel her excrutiating pain whenever I talk to her.) I am the Shingles Shot Guinea Pig.. if I don't have side-effects from the shot, maybe Elaine will get it.

For years I have toyed with the idea of writing a book about some of my experiences. (yes.. I have had some experiences, you disbelievers) At the moment, the plan is to just write about my experiences in the Baltimore area.. from arrival in the city, to entry into Carroll Lutheran Village.. with emphasis on my time at the Social Security Administration. Also, lots of family stuff to help future Vaughan genealogists. It will probably be the most boring book ever written, but what the hell!

In the "Genealogy Gang" that meets in the Village, each of us has made a presentation about their life. We had about 45 minutes to an hour to do so. My time ran to over an hour, and I never did get past the years before I entered the Air Force. So you see, I have a lot to talk about.. now, whether it is interesting or not.. that is another story. If I get another chance to talk to the group, I will cover my time in the service, then my time in Boston, at the University and in the 38 jobs that I held while in school, and then the Baltimore part. (I may have to supply pillows for nodding heads.)

With my laptop back, I once again have access to a Dell home page, which I like because I can set up views of the titles of email from 8 of my email addresses and also have instant access to my MSN account. Now I have a universe of about 900 messages to look at. I do notice that the old "bugaboo" is back... that is, some of my dear and trusted friends and relatives are starting to forward to me erroneous and vicious "garbage" messages. (I thought that this all ended when 2009 started.) I wish that the people who forward this stuff would analyse what the messages say. Is it showing an underlying prejudice against some group or race or type of person? I now do not open forwarded messages unless the title clearly states that it is not "dumb" stuff. I just ask that those who want to forward such dribble, THINK first.

I have a subscription to what is now XM/SERIUS (sp?) and I listen to it when I am driving. Usually I just listen to XM 151 (Laugh USA) which is a "clean joke" station, and as I have said many times before, if you have to stick some scatalogical thought or phrase into your joke to try to get a laugh from a person with an 11 year old mentality, you are not a real comedian. Yesterday, I switched to some of the talk shows and was completely grossed out by some of the lies being spewed by a couple of these guys. Come on! Do you really think that Americans are so dumb as to believe any of this crap? .... But... sadly, as evidenced by the comments of some of the people who called in to CSPAN this morning... some Americans do believe these lies, when just a small amount of checking, even on the Internet, would show them the truth.

Good news for readers. Barnes and Noble has announced that they have 700,000 books that can now be downloaded to iPHONES or iPOD Touch, and next year they will be coming out with an e-reader. Amazon's Kindle has access to only 300,000. Now, if only we could download some of those books directly to our brains so that it will not be necessary to take all that time to read them. ;0)

I have always thought that I would much rather have a nice paper book to hold and read rather than a computer screen to look at. But recently I went out to the site where you can read Moby Dick online. In my library, because I am a cetology cukoo, I have five different editions of Moby Dick, probably one of my favorite reads. I was able to read all of Chapter One again, but on my PC screen and it was wonderful. The print was large and easy on the eyes and I enjoyed traveling back to New Bedford again with my "brother" Ishmael.

Speaking of Ishmael.. my brother Joe and I are email pals again and I am enjoying his stories of youthful activity. He's an interesting guy, if I do say so myself.

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