The Musical Kindle

Lately, when I read about what people have to say about the Kindle, I constantly see new books available from Amazon.com, articles written about how there is a new version of the Kindle in the works, and how schools are promoting the Kindle as the next best thing for reading textbooks (What's In Your Backpack?), but I haven't seen a lot about its musical functionality.

I know when I was in college (and even now), I often listened to music while I read or worked on projects. The neat thing about the Kindle is that it not only stores books, it can store music too. So, if you have your textbook loaded on your device along with some supercharged educational enhancing music, there is no way you can fail. And, you don't have to have more than one electronic device to serve both functions, which is another nice feature.

If you need some help learning about the musical capabilities of your Kindle, I found a great blog offering some fantastic ideas. It's called Light My Kindle. Look for Tips and Tricks #8 and #9, Putting Music on Your Kindle and Maximizing Your Kindle Music Player, as well as other great information.

Don't forget to constantly explore the functionality of your Kindle and use all that is has to offer. If you don't have one, you should get one. If you have one, you have made a great investment, so use it!!!! Happy Reading and Listening!

Kindle Book Club for Kids

School has started and so has the Reading List that our kids are supposed to get through before the end of the school year. When discussing the list with my stepsons, they were none too excited. I know that is absolutely shocking since reading doesn't really hold a candle to their current sporting activities or Wii playing. However, I hoped that their earlier interest in the Kindle would be rekindled (see Share Your Kindle With Your Kids) if I found a way to make it cool for them to read. As I looked through the list and compared it to the list of available books on the Kindle, I was pleasently surprised to find some Kindle versions.

I thought I would start out with a classic for my initial experiment, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bramblewood Press Classics). We went through the anticipated argument that they had already seen the movie, knew how the story went, blah blah blah, but reading the book, I told them, is very different. Both of them are currently in Jr. High School, so the book selection would count for both of them if they both read it. While they were somewhat hesitant at first, they agreed if I would purchase the Kindle version for them.

I am happy to report that one stepson has already finished the book and the other is about halfway through, and we are only 3 weeks into the new school year. It must be something about the fact that its electronic, kind of looks like a video game console and not the ole standard book that attracts them to it.

I shared my early success with a Kindle loving friend of mine who has some grade school aged children. She and her husband said, "Why not try it with our kids?" They have peaked their kids interest as well and are having similar early success. We joked about starting a Kindle Book Club for Kids, which may not really be a bad idea if it will continue to peak their interest and keep them reading.

So far so good. Fingers are crossed that our success continues. With new books being added everyday to the Kindle Store and the fact that textbooks are making their debut on the Kindle, who knows what the future holds for our children.

Kindle: What is that?

I was sitting at the doctor's office the other day waiting for my appointment to begin. Granted, I understand that there is an unwritten rule whereby you must wait the allotted amount of time to actually see the doctor which is actually your designated appointment start time plus your age minus your shoe size multiplied by your IQ and divided by your lack of patience, or so I am told. Luckily, I had tucked my Kindle into my bag prior to leaving the house just in case I had to wait. Who am I kidding? Of course I knew I was going to have to wait and had the foresight to plan ahead, thank goodness.

There I sat, reading my latest downloaded book, Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb, minding my own business, when my peripheral vision went into high gear when I started to notice other impatiently waiting patients were straining to see what kind of technical gizmo device I had just retrieved from my bag. I tried to ignore them as long as I could and tried to continue with my reading, but much to my dismay, it wasn't possible. And I did it. I did the worst thing I could've possibly done. I looked up from my Kindle, made eye contact with the man sitting across from me, and smiled. That was the end of my reading and the beginning of my first Kindle promotion session of the day.

"What IS that thing?" he asked.

"It's a Kindle." I answered.

"What's a Kindle?" he asked again and with that, it was all over.

We chatted for about 5 minutes as he repositioned his vantage point from across the aisle from me to sitting immediately to my right. His vacated seat was quickly then taken by another woman who had become interested in our conversation and as I looked around, others were beginning to eavesdrop. I enjoyed my time promoting the new Kindle reading device and encouraged all of them to look into purchasing one. At last, my name was called, as it was finally time for my appointment, or so I thought.

Yes, the second phase of medical waiting began. I was weighed first and then asked to take a seat in the 2nd room on the right. My blood pressure and temperature were then taken and I was told the doctor would be in momentarily, which in medical terms means anywhere from 5 minutes to whenever the heck the doctor is ready to see me. So once again, I sat and waited, and read Conspiracy in Death on my Kindle.

The doctor finally came into the room less than 20 minutes later, which was much better than I had anticipated and I was thankful. But wouldn't you know it....the first thing he asked me was, "What is that?" I just laughed and realized that my second Kindle lesson had just begun.

I continued to be amazed at how many people don't know about the Kindle and at how excited I get every time someone asks me about it. If you haven't seen one yet, you need to so someone can ask you, "What is that?"

The Wind is My Friend

Today's post has more to do with the "Green" aspect of this blog than it does the "Kindle" aspect, but I thought it was worth writing about anyway.

I finally got to take a little mini vacation this past week. While it was only a few days, it was fun, relaxing, and much needed. While driving to and from our destination, I started thinking about energy. Not personally exerted energy, but energy as in "how to get me from here to there and back again." I started thinking about how many miles we were getting per gallon, how much it was going to cost to fill up in the next town, alternative fuel options, solar energy, but most of all, I was thinking about the wind.

Our trip took us through West Texas, the mecca of flat land and lots and lots of wind, so it was a little hard not to think about energy produced by wind if all you are looking at is these.


What the heck are they? you might ask. They are wind turbines that produce electricity. This one picture shows about 75 wind turbines alone, and this was only a tiny portion of what was out there on Interstate 20 between Lubbock and Dallas, TX.

A few questions came to mind while we drove past miles and miles of this scenery.

1. Why has it taken so long for us to realize that we needed to do this?
2. How much energy does just one of these wind turbines produce?
3. How much does a wind turbine cost?
4. Can I get a residential size wind turbine put up in my backyard so I won't have to pay for electricity anymore?

Here is what I found out according to the Pickens Plan:

It has probably taken us so long to realize this resource because everyone in the United States may assume that they will have access to enough oil and be willing to pay for it forever. We can be very arrogant sometimes. The statistics indicate that American's import 70% of their oil from foreign countries, and it doesn't look like it is going to stop anytime soon. It is reported that in one year's time, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil. Building wind facilities that could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States potentially costs $1 trillion. And, it would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. You are probably thinking that there is no way this is possible, but remember this is a one-time cost. Compared to the amount of money spent on foreign oil EVERY YEAR, $700 billion and rising, it is hard to argue this might be a bad idea. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any information about a residential size wind turbine, but I am still looking!

So what did I learn on my little vacation? I learned that some good things can come from the wind. While I absolutely despise the dust storms in West Texas (with good reason in my opinion -- my house is there somewhere around the corner),


the potential the wind has for producing energy and helping out the economy for everyone is very exciting. You might think about reading up on some of this information using your Kindle when you get a chance.