Author: Michel McDonald

I live in Bakersfield with my partner of more than 30 years. I enjoy reading, crafts, sci fi, video games, and writing in my personal blog.

My Nook Observations and Irritations

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gadgets, Nook, Products I LikeLeave a comment

I finally did it! I finally bought a Barnes & Noble Nook last night. It didn’t take me very long to figure out how it works but here are my observations and irritations.

I bought the first Sookie Stackhouse novel and at first I was put off by the fact that swiping the touchscreen wasn’t working but I finally got it to work and now it works all the time. Sometimes I accidentally brush my finger on it and it turns the page lol. Oops.

I was reading this morning and my dog came to me to pick her up so I sat the Nook down on my desk and when I went to pick it up again I couldn’t turn the page. It was frozen. And that happened to me a few times last night but I didn’t understand why.

My observation from that irritation is that instead of setting it down, I’m gonna have to turn it off with that metal power button on the top and watch it go into screen saver mode then lay it down. When I pick it back up it I have to push the power button again.

I was playing with the Sudoku game last night and having fun actually but sometimes if I pushed the arrow button on the touchscreen on the left side it goes to the menu and I’m forced to start a new game or go into the menu. I think that if I just go into the menu then go back to the game it might continue but that wasn’t the case for me. And when the nook shut down completely when I turned it back on, it erased my game completely forcing me to start over. HOW IRRITATING!

I probably won’t be playing it that often because of that very reason.

It seems to freeze on me a lot and at first I started to think that I may have gotten a defective one but what are the odds that I would get a defective one? I always seem to think that an electronic is defective so I return it for another and it shows the same sign of defectiveness. I don’t want to have to go all that way back to B&N just to suffer the same pains especially if that’s normal for the Nook.

When you are in your B&N library you can choose to see the little covers on the bottom to choose a book to read or you can just push the arrows up or down to choose a book. Although it’s faster to choose from the book covers. However, when you have put your own books in the Nook via the USB cable, you don’t get that option. There are no little book covers. I kind of figured that it wouldn’t show them but that’s fine, I don’t care.

I do like being able to highlight a word or type out a note but unfortunately when you go to highlight things, if it’s down at the bottom you have to push that bottom arrow and it can take forever. That’s one thing that impressed me with the Sony that you could use the stylus to tap on the word but unfortunately the touchscreen makes it hard to read books. Typing is a bit of a chore too because my fingers are so fat that I can’t even see if the letter lit up or not when I press it so I’m constantly having to look up at the e-ink to make sure I pressed it lol. I definitely need a stylus.

I also bought the King James version of the Holy Bible because you never know when you’re gonna need it. Unfortunately, navigation is a biotch. When you go to a book it shows links for all the chapters. If you want chapter 1 then perfect, it’s on that same page but if you want chapter 21 then you gotta push the arrow button twenty million times to get all the way down to 21. Ok so twenty million is an exaggeration but you know what I mean.

Once you finally get to your chapter you just have to turn the page to the verse you want.  That’s a good time to bookmark it for when you are at church and you are supposed to turn to that page.  You can just wake up the Nook and go to your bookmarks.

Highlighting is kind of a bitch if you are highlighting something at the bottom of the page because as with finding the bible chapter you have to press the arrow button many times to get to it before you can start selecting the text.  When you do go to select the text you can highlight it and you have the choice of writing a note or just hitting submit.

Unfortunately, and this is an irritation, you can’t look up your highlighted notes from the beginning of the book.  The only way you will be able to find that note is by making a bookmark.  The Nook for PC software allows you to find all your notes.  I don’t know about the Nook software for other devices such as iPhone, iPad, blackberry etc.

Despite my irritations, I’m glad that I bought it because now I can enjoy reading books that I would otherwise have to read on my computer monitor which is not very comfortable on my eyes or my back.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, TVLeave a comment

One of the books that I bought for my new Nook is the first Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.

I wasn’t going to start reading it until today because I got my Nook late at night, after 8pm, and it usually takes me awhile to read a chapter and I didn’t want to read it until I had a fresh start early in the day. However, I was impatient so I started reading it.

One of the reasons I wanted to read it is because it’s the first True Blood novel. I knew that it would be different from the actual show because people keep telling me that it has more detail and that’s almost always the case with books. A friend of mine told me that they are nothing like the show and that it has nothing to do with True Blood.

I’m a little confused why she told me that because as I was reading half of the first chapter last night, it seemed to me that not only was this exactly like True Blood but it was almost the first episode verbatim. In fact, it was the first episode verbatim.

The end of the chapter didn’t give me a cliffhanger like the first episode did, Bill fed Sookie and she got better after being beat up by the “Rat’s” and he confessed to her that he killed them. In the show, at the end of the first episode, she’s getting beat up and they go to credits then the 2nd episode he saves her.

I’m very happy that this first novel is turning out to be exactly what I had hoped it would be but I’ve only read chapter 1 so far. While I’m reading it I had the actual voices and accents of the characters from the tv show playing out each scene in my head with visuals.

When I’m reading I try to give the characters voices that I would imagine that they sound like but sometimes if I can’t imagine it then it’s just my own voice in my head. But I do try to picture the characters and their surroundings as I’m reading because it gives me a better idea of what I’m reading so I understand it better.

Sometimes I can’t and it confuses me and I tend to take longer reading but it seems that since I already have a visual from True Blood on HBO I tend to be able to read faster.

One of the things I do hate about reading and is why it took me 35 years to start reading is that books have big words and it seems like you would need a college education to understand what you are reading. What I like about these books are that I have not come across this issue. Although, now that I have a Nook if I do come across a word like that then I can look it up and get the definition then continue reading.

Obviously this is not a book review and who the hell am I to give one, I’m just saying I’m reading it now and I’m very happy with it and happy I have it on my Nook.

Los Angeles Times for Nook

On By Michel McDonaldIn eBook, News, NookLeave a comment

One of the reasons I wanted to buy the Nook is so that I could get Darrin a subscription to the Los Angeles times. A monthly subscription is only $10 but he buys it every day despite him having a subscription to the Bakersfield Californian. He reads BOTH! If he got the Nook subscription he would save $20 per month because they cost $1 per day and $2 on Sundays.

I was looking at the customer reviews on the Barnes and Noble website for the Los Angeles Times for Nook and because customers had given them such a bad review I decided that I wouldn’t get it.

Although, now that I have my Nook I still wanted to see what it would look like so I bought todays paper for .75¢.

You know it’s not that bad. The customer reviews said that they don’t have chapters but they do. The chapters are the different sections of the newspaper like Calendar, Sports etc.

The front page shows what I assume to be the main article that you see on the front of the actual newspaper, the headliner. It’s not the entire article, it’s a picture then a title and the first paragraph from the article. If you want to read it you can push the little button on the touchscreen for opening a book, although in this case it’s opening an article or you just push the buttons on the side to turn the page for more articles which have the same deal. You aren’t forced to read any article you don’t want, just turn the page until you find the one you want to read then click it to read.

I read a few articles already and it actually reads very well. I’m glad that I was persistent enough to actually buy an article before giving up on the whole idea.

Although, Darrin still doesn’t want it. He much prefers to read the actual paper. But that’s good for the Los Angeles times because they are still making money off him with the $8 a week he spends on the paper.

And they say print is dead, HA it’s alive and kicking in this household.

Barnes and Noble Nook

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

Well I did it. I bought my Barnes & Noble Nook tonight. I bought the Nook WiFi for $149 because I really don’t want to pay $50 more just for the convenience of having 3G.

I haven’t read anything on it yet as I just bought it but I’ve been playing around with it while it has been charging. The guy at the store told me I should charge it for a few hours before using it but it’s charging very fast. The last time I looked it was at 88% and it’s only been plugged in for 30 minutes. I think they give you a 70% charge because it didn’t start off with 0%.

I didn’t do an “unboxing” video because how many of those are there on YouTube? Hundreds, I don’t want to add to it with more of the same exact thing.

It’s a lot heavier than I was expecting but it isn’t that heavy that it will cause an issue for me.

When I signed into my account and registered my new Nook I went to my library and was surprised to see that all the books in my account were already downloaded into the Nook. I didn’t have to wait at all.

People are always complaining about how long it takes to turn the page in these things, it’s really very fast. The time it takes to change to a new page is the same exact amount of time it takes for me to turn the page in a real book so I don’t see an issue. Also one of the videos I saw on YouTube said that when you change the font size it could take up to 20 or 30 seconds to do that because it has to refresh the entire e-book but that isn’t so with mine, it took the same amount of time as turning a page.

It finally charged to 100% so I plugged the USB cable into my hard drive and it installed the driver immediately. It even popped up the explorer window so I could add my own files to it. I have a few books that I’d like to add to it from Rainbow eBooks and it’s only taken a few seconds to do that. I’m also going to add some 4×6 images for the screen saver. Although they have to be 6×4.

I did the tutorial when it came up and it showed how to do things and one of the things I like was that when you turn the page you could either use those buttons on the right and left or you could just swipe the touchscreen with your finger. Yeah, swiping doesn’t work… That would’ve been cool but it doesn’t work for me.

I loaded a PDF file, that James Potter e-book… yeah… pdf files suck. I’m gonna have to figure out a way to convert that to .epub format so it’s readable. The only way I know how is to use calibre but that has issues but I will figure it out because I really want to read those.

It’s too late at night for me to start reading a new book so I’m going to just wait until I get up in the morning and start reading Dead Until Dark, the first Sookie Stackhouse novel.

Internet Bully or Internet Coward?

On By Michel McDonaldIn PeopleLeave a comment

This is not a new trend by any means but it seems that there are a lot of bold people out there. I’m sure in the real world they aren’t as mean but when they get online they can turn into real bastards.

Take for example, this guy named Brock Baker. He is a YouTube sensation and yet people rip on him calling him stupid and saying that he has no talent. Let’s see you do what he does and see how much talent you have. Brock Baker has more talent than any of you pansy a-holes who sit behind the safety of your desk leaving nasty comments.

Brock has turned something negative into something positive because he posts certain negative comments on Facebook and his true fans laugh at the nasty comments. Sometimes his fans go to that YouTubers page and leave nasty comments in return.

That I don’t condone only because they call those people “fags” and that is the only part that does piss me off. That’s not necessary, call him a douche or a dick but don’t call him a fag. You wouldn’t call a person of color the N-word so why call them a fag?

Two rights don’t make a wrong but at least those people aren’t leaving comments incognito.

What I’m referring to is YouSayToo. I have noticed that you don’t have to be logged into the website to leave a comment on someones post. Anyone can comment and those “guests” usually leave nasty comments.

I wrote a post some time in the middle of July called Candwich about a product that hasn’t even hit the market yet which is a sandwich in a can. It’s basically a roll with a packet (like ketchup packets) of peanut butter and a packet of strawberry (or grape) jelly. You squeeze them out and onto the bread then enjoy.

Take a look at all the comments… 3 guests all leaving nasty comments, 1 actual name but no image and that wasn’t a nasty comment.

So it seems to me that if you leave a good comment you are bold enough to sign into the website but when you feel like being a total dick that day you sign out then leave a dickish comment. What’s the deal?

Look, I don’t pay any attention to negative comments on that website. If you are bold enough to leave the nasty comment, be bold enough to actually log in to the website first so I can see who you are.

My response to those douchebags is that peanut butter and jelly are NOT bad for you ok? High fructose corn syrup is not fattening, it’s just liquid sugar made out of corn. We all have it in our diets in 1 way or another so don’t tell me that you would never eat it because I know you have. As Judge Judy says, “don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”

The only way you are not getting high fructose corn syrup is if you are a vegetarian who eats only vegetables (not canned) and only water to drink. If you drink soda then you are a hypocrite for leaving those nasty comments because I have news for you. Soda has high fructose corn syrup in it you moron.

You can hide behind your computer saying nasty shit to people with no consequences but let’s see you say it to my face and see what happens.

Dancing Merengue Dog

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Daily BlogLeave a comment

This is awesome. Don’t say that this dog doesn’t earn her keep because she earned every one of those kibbles, even the bits.

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

Dancing Merengue Dog

Dancing Dog Doing The Merengue. Smartest dog ever!

Read more at www.youtube.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9k62

Exclusive: The Truth Behind Teresa Giudice’s Nephew on ‘Housewives’ Reunion

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, TVLeave a comment

Did anyone watch the reunion of the New Jersey Housewives last night on Bravo? I watched it twice.

You know I have a strange relationship with these housewives shows. I hate them but I love them lol. I love to hate them lol.

My favorite of all the housewives shows is New Jersey. I didn’t watch the first season for some strange reason and this is the only season that I’ve watched and boy have I been watching it too, sometimes twice. I really love Caroline Manzo. I think she has a good head on her shoulders. She kind of reminds me of my mother (looks, not attitude lol) so that right there gives me a reason to like her even more. She is the mother I wish I had if I could do it over.

I don’t really like Danielle very much but on the other hand, she makes really good tv lol.

I have to wait another week for part 2 of this reunion to see how it all went down.

If you missed the Teresa blowup, click the popeater link to watch the video. I don’t know why Amplify didn’t copy it over.

Amplify’d from www.popeater.com

Exclusive: The Truth Behind Teresa Giudice’s Nephew on ‘Housewives’ Reunion

You saw it, the earth-shaking exchange between Danielle Staub and Teresa Giudice on Monday night’s ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ reunion special. The F-bomb barrage started with a question from Danielle to Teresa: “Did you acknowledge your nephew? Did you?” Teresa replied, “Yeah, of course I did,” but after pausing for a second, she exploded. EXPLODED!

“Danielle doesn’t intimidate me. I don’t care if she stays on the show or not,” Teresa tells me in an exclusive statement regarding the explosive reunion show.

So, what’s the story behind the “nephew” drama? A friend of Teresa’s reveals that what viewers saw was Danielle accusing her co-star of not visiting a nephew in the hospital at his birth. I’m told Teresa was at the hospital when the child was born last April, and that he’s perfectly fine and beautiful.

Teresa was actually confused as to what Danielle was even talking about. But what set her off was the sudden realization that Danielle was dipping her toes into her private business.

“Danielle is obsessed with Teresa. Digging around her extended family,” a family friend tells me. “Danielle brought up a lie about Teresa not visiting her nephew and then Bravo edited it to look more sudden than it was, of course. The best thing to do is just ignore everything Danielle says. That’s what Teresa does.”

The verbal fight, in which Teresa even shoved host (and Bravo exec) Andy Cohen, shocked more than just the viewers. It also blew away other ‘Housewives’ on the stage. WATCH THE MADNESS >>

“Insanity, complete insanity,” is how Caroline Manzo described the scene to me in an exclusive statement . “We filmed for ten hours and by the end of the day, I was speechless. It took me two days to recover, I seriously could not compose a rational thought for hours.”

Rumors have circulated that Teresa would leave the show if Danielle was invited back for another season. However, friends of our favorite housewife tell me that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I just talked to her and it’s funny but she actually doesn’t care if Danielle comes back for another season or not,” a friend of Teresa’s tells me. “Teresa’s not intimidated or scared of Danielle. She actually thinks Danielle makes good TV and is amusing. If anything, she feels sorry for her. All she has in her life is this show.”

My insider adds, “Teresa, on the other hand, doesn’t spend one second of her time thinking about Danielle.”

Sources confirm that it is the Manzo family that has made it very clear to Bravo that if Danielle stays, they go. Family member Dina Manzo has already quit the show and made it clear she would not be part of anything that involves Danielle, saying publicly that they are worried about their safety and that of their families when Danielle is around.

However, “Teresa doesn’t feel that Danielle is a threat to her family or happiness at all,” an insider tells me. “She’s much tougher than that!”

Read more at www.popeater.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9ij7

O’Reilly Debates Sharpton on Glenn Beck Rally

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, PoliticalLeave a comment

I am staying out of this debate but I wanted to share this video. Al Sharpton is PISSED at Glenn Beck for having his rally on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and taking the “mall” away from him.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

O’Reilly Debates Sharpton on Glenn Beck Rally

See more at www.youtube.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9iij

Who do you think is responsible for childhood obesity?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

I just voted in a poll on the SparkPeople website. Who do I think is responsible for childhood obesity. I voted parents because they are the ones who are supposed to teach good eating habits from infant to adult. If you feed your children with the right foods they will learn good eating habits.

I also feel that the reason children are so fat is because they have become so spoiled with the technology of today. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love my computer and video games but children shouldn’t be allowed to be so obsessed. They should be encouraged to go outside and play with their friends. The parents should encourage their kids to get involved in an after school activity like soccer or football or karate.

My parents did not encourage me to play sports but they did allow me to play outside unattended. I would ride my bike through the neighborhood and jump rope and play hopscotch with my sister. We would roller skate up and down the sidewalk. We were constantly playing outside.

That is until I was 11 and was of working age and then I became the handy child for the apartment building. Painting, changing locks, plumbing, fixing electrical outlets, gardening… you name it, I had to do it. But when I was all done with that work I was allowed to play before dinner if there was time. On the days that there wasn’t as much work to do around the apartments I was allowed to do whatever I wanted which was usually playing outside.

So, I don’t blame the schools because despite the burgers, fries, pizzas and whatever else they served me during my childhood, I never gained any weight because that was only 1 meal out of the whole day. During the weekends and school breaks we would eat things like Peanut butter and jelly or Bologna sandwiches for lunch. For breakfast I would usually eat cereal but sometimes oatmeal (or malt-o-meal) and for dinner it was a well-balanced meal with meats, grains and vegetables.

My mother taught me good eating habits but it was up to me to learn them and carry that on after I left the house. Unfortunately for years I let my cravings and laziness get the best of me but once I started to remember the recipes and food groups my mother fed me I started to eat them again and I have started to lose weight and all thanks to my mother may she rest in peace. I have lost 35lbs since the last week of May 2010 because I’m eating right.

I don’t blame schools because it’s only 1 meal a day.

I don’t blame tv & video games because it is the parents obligation to give or taketh away.

I don’t blame fast food because it is the parents who take the children to fast food. They don’t have the money to buy their own happy meals.

I don’t blame communities because how is a community supposed to teach your child good eating habits? That is the parents responsibility.

I don’t blame advertising (commercials) because they are in it for the money. I can sit here and watch pizza commercials all day but I have the good sense to know that pizza is too fattening. Parents should tell their kids that pizza is good for special occasions like when you win that baseball game or when it’s your birthday. Or when Mommy is too sick to get out of bed then we can order a pizza.

And since I took that poll, I see that 16,781 other people agreed with me which is 74% of people who took that poll.

Amplify’d from www.sparkpeople.com

Quick Poll Results

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9enx