Day: October 26, 2010

Nook Color with Touch Screen

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die right now.  I just got an email from Barnes & Noble with this subject:

“Introducing NOOKcolor — The Amazing Sequel to the NOOK You Love.”

Oh really?  Are you joking me?  If they could’ve told me this in September BEFORE I spent $150 on the Nook Wifi, I would’ve had an incentive to wait a little bit longer.  This new NOOKcolor is $249 and has many more features than my current Nook doesn’t have.  Such as it’s a color touch screen, you can see magazines and newspaper in color, kids books come alive at the touch of a finger (like I care) and one thing I saw in the video when I clicked the link in the email is that you can have it read to you and it’s NOT a robot voice like the Kindle.

This one is way better than mine because it can do portrait and landscape which the Kindle can do but the Nook I have can’t.  It has an 8GB card along with the ability to add another.  Mine only has 1GB but I can still add to it.  Although, I don’t see that I would ever need to but with the NOOKcolor I can see needing a bigger card because I’m sure the books with audio are bigger files.

Another cool feature is videos in your books…  In the video they showed a cookbook and you can read the recipe but then the image for it is a video where you can see how to make the recipe.  That would be so cool.  What would be even cooler is newspapers where the image for the article is an actual video of what happened.  The newspaper could set up a news station type set with anchors who read the articles with video of what happened at the scene, just like the news on tv has.  Or a magazine could have a video of the interview with the stars and their ads could be a video commercial.

I see in the Barnes & Noble website a new newsstand which is “coming soon” so I think they are going to add more magazines finally.  Right now they only have a few.  I subscribe to PC Magazine for $1.49 per month (or per magazine) but I was hoping they would have a broader choice.  With the NOOKcolor they might have more magazines and I think that would be great for Darrin who loves to get the magazines from the grocery store.  I think if he had a subscription to them then he would save so much money.  But that means he has to get the new NOOKcolor, or he can use Nook for PC.

Well, it’s obvious that I can’t afford to buy it, I can barely buy groceries right now but who knows, maybe by this time next year they will have a NOOKcolor 2 for $149 that I can save up for.  Hey it could happen.  Last year the Nook was $249 and then it came down to $149 this year and that’s the one I have.  So maybe I’ll bide my time for another year and save money so I can get the NOOKcolor for Darrin for his birthday, that is if they go down.

I don’t have to have color, I really like my Nook.  I think that the new NOOKcolor is an LCD screen, it looks lit up like the little LCD screen at the bottom of mine.  I don’t think I can read from an LCD screen.  It’s too much for my eyes.  Darrin would like that I think, last night he went to read a book on my Nook and he asked me when the screen was going to light up for him to read it.  I had to tell him that it doesn’t light up, it’s e-ink, not LCD.

My Leg is Better

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Just thought I would give an update about my leg. A week ago I posted about My New Leg Injury describing what happened to me on Sunday, October 17th. How I ran for the ice cream truck, ran faster then my calf muscle popped and stopped me dead in my tracks.

I was on crutches for a few days then I went to 1 crutch then no crutches. I was supposed to be out of commission for 4-6 weeks (or 6-8 weeks for my overestimation, just in case) but it turned out to be way less.

Over the last few days I’ve been walking on my foot instead of walking on my toes and limping. I think that has stretched what was tightened so that I can walk normal again. The doctor said ice for 20 minutes several times a day for the first 3-4 days then heat. Well, I did the ice and heat and it did help some but I think the best therapy is getting up and walking around. Sure it was painful as hell but no pain no gain right?

Every morning when I wake up I limp at first but once I start walking on my foot it starts to limber up and I can walk. Occasionally the pain will start up again but it won’t last too long then it’s better again. And actually I’m having pain in other places now. All the way down my leg from my knee along my shin down to my foot. I don’t know why the pain has moved from my calf to my shin but I’m sure it will go away in time.

I’m not 100% healed but I’m not too far from it. I rather enjoyed having a few days off and not having to take the dog out 20 times per day and having to make all the meals. Of course when I was able to walk on my own again I was forced to continue daily life as if nothing had happened. I could be laying in bed pretending for another 5 weeks but I’m a terrible liar lol.

AFA Hates that Home Depot Supports HRC and Gays

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay Rights2 Comments

What has the American Family Association (AFA) become? They once used to be a respected organization but now they have turned into an alarmist group. They’ve turned into Glenn Beck!

They wrote on their website yesterday about the Home Depot sponsoring the Atlanta gay pride festival and about how Home Depot is supporting the “Homosexual Agenda” as if there is an agenda. Anything that they don’t understand or don’t want to understand must be an agenda.

Home Depot is one of the sponsors at the event and they have a booth with goodie bags to give to people. This is what’s inside the bags. As you can see in the very back the bag itself with the Home Depot logo on it. There are 2 brochures which I assume are for potential future employees, a sports bottle, a button saying “We’re Hiring” which is great because it doesn’t seem like anyone else is hiring, a Frisbee, key chain and a beer/soda can/bottle foam cooler. At least that’s what I think that is.

Ok, it’s not like they’re handing out iPads and cameras to people. But it’s not the gifts that the AFA is so worked up about, it’s the very fact that Home Depot is supporting gay people, that’s what they hate since they have become such a hateful organization. This is supposed to be an organization that helps families and I hate to tell ya but gay people have families. Lesbians are still women with a womb capable of creating life.

I once had Home Depot in my Boycott list because they were a sponsor of the so called “Dr.” Laura but I removed them because it was stupid to boycott any company who sponsored a radio show. What I realized is that they weren’t sponsoring a homophobic person so much as they were just sponsoring a person who played their ads on the radio. That’s what they are doing in Atlanta. They aren’t sponsoring the — as the AFA puts it — “homosexual agenda”, they are sponsoring the Human Rights Campaign and by handing out these goodie bags, they are handing out free advertisements for themselves.

My reason for boycotting Home Depot was for similar reasons as the AFA BUT once I realized they weren’t her sponsor for the reason I thought, I removed them. Same with all her other sponsors. I still have the boycott page only because I don’t want to spend money on gay haters. The AFA is doing the same thing that I am doing but in reverse. It just so happens that the AFA is listed in my Boycott page lol.

The AFA is asking people to call Home Depot and “Let the manager know that you will not be shopping at The Home Depot until the company stops supporting the homosexual agenda.” Then they have a link for the Home Depot website so people can find the phone number of their local Home Depot.

Look, it’s a 50/50 risk Home Depot is taking. 50% of Americans are anti-gay and 50% are pro-gay. I assume this based on the Prop 8 results in California where it was 51% for prop 8 and 49% against prop 8. So if they offend the straights by supporting the gays then they still have 50% of their customers. If they offend the gays then they still have the other 50%. I guarantee you that people won’t give a rats ass whether Home Depot supports the HRC and will continue shopping at Home Depot because they really don’t care.

It’s like when I had them listed in my boycott page. How many people am I going to convince to boycott anyone on that page? 1, maybe 2 people? Nobody reads my blog enough for me to convince anyone of anything. I personally believe the same thing about the AFA’s website. I’ve never even been to their website because I don’t care about them since they have no impact on how I live my life. Never have, never will so why should I go to their website?

Why am I writing about their website now? Well, I first saw this story on the (G-A-Y) Good As You website through Twitter. They wrote out a post and I couldn’t help but chime in and give my 2¢ on the subject. Here is the AFA’s hate post about Home Depot giving gifts to thousands of homosexual activists.

The Human Rights Campaign by the way isn’t just a pro-gay organization, they are a pro-human being organization. Any time a person is being wronged whether they are black, white, gay, straight or whatever, they are there to support your rights as a human being.  Get it? Human rights! Gay people are humans and we are being denied the same rights as straight people and that’s what the HRC is trying to fight for us.