Enough, Already!

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head?  If you're like most people, you are all too familiar with the phenomenon.  Well, for the past few nights, I've heard Taylor Swift singing her song "Ours" in my head over and over.  I don't even care all that much for Taylor Swift and her songs.  Having it on endless loop in my head is even less appealing and waking up in the night to hear "Don't you worry your pretty little head....." is a downright nightmare.   Aaaargh!  So how in the world do you get a song unstuck?

One website suggested listening to the sound of your breathing.  I wear a CPAP at night.  Anything that can make it through the noise of that contraption from hell is NOT going to be deterred by the sound of my breathing.

Another suggestion is to start concentrating on a song that is even more annoying and "memorable."  Hey, do I REALLY want to replace Taylor with "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall?"  Not THIS pretty little head!

You can try turning down the volume in your head and see if that works.  Problem is that I was a drama major who enjoyed working in musical theatre, too.  I don't naturally sing softly.  I belt out songs.  I'm not sure I can do "soft."

Some suggest giving in to the "earworm" and singing the tune aloud.  I guess the theory is that you are getting it out of your system that way.  I just don't know.  I wake up a lot in the night and thus am "hearing" that darn song a lot.  If I start belting it out frequently in the wee hours, the Commander is apt to relegate me to the guestroom where I'll find myself singing the blues.

Sigh!  I guess it could be worse.  I could have a heavy metal song (now THERE'S an oxymoron) stuck in my head.  Looks like it makes sense to just relax and enjoy the concert while it lasts and maybe, in the meantime, I'll figure out what subliminal message this song is trying to send me.

On a completely different topic, I recently tried to update my Nook Color e-reader with the latest software version 1.4.2.  I was still on 1.3 and hadn't had any luck getting the update via the wireless so I decided to follow the instructions on the Barnes and Noble website and download the new update and manually install it.  This did NOT prove to be an easy task.

I tried twice and the Commander tried once and we just couldn't get it to install.  I decided to do a little online sleuthing to see if others were having the same problems.  Yup!  After reading a variety of suggestions, the common denominator seemed to be that you were more apt to have a successful experience if you downloaded the new update in Internet Explorer.  We had been trying it in Chrome.  However, even folks using Firefox were reporting lots of problems.

Armed with my new information, the Commander followed the exact same steps we had followed on our earlier attempts but this time using IE and voila!  The update installed with no problems.  It's times like this when I REALLY appreciate the simplicity of Apple's iTunes store and their approach to software updates with my iPhone and iPad.  'Nuff said.

Getting to Know My Nook

I broke down and bought a Nook at Barnes and Noble the other day.  Just couldn't pass up on the $149 price for the Wi-Fi only version.  What a deal, eh?  I have a Kindle already and I love it but I always feel a bit guilty about bringing it into the B & N when we have our Mystery Book Club meetings.  So now I can download our mystery books on the Nook and take it into the bookstore with no qualms whatsoever.

I've only had it for a few days so this is by no means a comprehensive review.  I've taken it to B & N three times now and worked with it at home so I'm basing my comments on this.  First of all, Barnes and Noble is making a real effort to create a sense of "community" for their Nook owners.  I noticed that our B & N now has a Nook group that meets once a month to discuss what they are reading, the things they are enjoying on their Nook, and given the chance to "loan" their e-books to each other, if they so desire.  The Nook also has a feature called "The Daily" that you can open each day to view special announcements, reviews, and offers just for Nook owners.  I don't know how often they update it because I had read my "Daily" on Monday and when I opened it up today (Wednesday), all I saw was a notice that there were no new items."  Hmmm, you would think that something called "Daily" would have something new in it on a DAILY basis.

I have to admit that I'm a little spoiled with my Kindle since I can shop for and download purchases anywhere that there is 3G coverage but with my Nook, I have to wait until I'm in a Wi-Fi hotspot.  I hadn't thought this would be a problem.  However, I'm finding that there are times when I'm at home and I'd like to go up to B & N and get something on my Nook.  Would it have been worth spending $30 more dollars for that privilege?  On hindsight, yeah, probably.

The Nook has a prominent display in our local B & N bookstore and they also had a nice selection of covers for it.  I purchased the Tupper cover which has this nice quote (the front of the cover is the first picture above).  There were other covers that were "designer" covers but I really couldn't see spending over $100 for some Kate Spade cover.  Get real, folks.  I'm buying my Nook for the books.  If there's a cheap cover in my favorite green, that's a bonus.  This cover was $29 and it fits the bill nicely.

When you register your Nook, they apparently throw in some free books for you since three "classics" showed up in my library along with 2 samples without me doing anything.  One of the features that I really thought I would like was the ability to read any e-book in the store for 1 hour per day (I think that is per title) and then, if you so chose, you could keep going in every day and continue reading the same book for free - one hour per day.  Don't know how feasible that is but guess if you go to the bookstore a lot, it would be fun.  I think it's more valuable to entice the reader to purchase the book at the end of their reading session.  For example, today I was reading "Twilight" in-store and decided to purchase it.  (Don't groan - I'm trying to purchase books for the Nook that I know the Commander would have no interest in.  Books he would like, I'll put on my Kindle so he can read it on his Kindle, too.  And besides, I was raised on "Dark Shadows" in high school and college.)  On the other hand, you can download samples just as you can with the Kindle.  I downloaded 22 pages of a Charles Todd mystery and started to read that and realized shortly that it was a book I had already read.  I'm glad I started with the sample because it saved me $9.99.  It should be mentioned here that not all the e-books available from Barnes and Noble can be "read in-store."  I'm guessing this has something to do with publisher agreements.

The e-ink readability of the Nook is just as nice as that of the Kindle.  I do agree that the screen refresh rate seems slower with the Nook but I didn't find it terribly frustrating.  What I DID find rather distracting was having the colored navigation portion of the screen "blacking out" on me.  It does this to conserve battery power.  But maybe because I was trying out different features, I kept having to awaken it, which got annoying.  I also noticed that the battery was going down faster than on my Kindle.

I took the "Quick Tour" of the Nook both with the little booklet that comes with it and online and didn't have any big problems navigating around.  I will say that I keep wanting to "select" things by just touching them but with the Nook, you have to touch the circle icon.  I'm just too spoiled with my iPhone technology.  I also could NOT get the "swipe" feature to work.  Supposedly, when the bottom portion of the Nook is blacked out, you are able to change pages by swiping your finger left to right or vice versa in the blacked out section.  It didn't work for me no matter how hard or softly I tried to "swipe."  Next time I'm over there with my Nook and see a clerk at the demo counter, I might ask them to show me what I'm doing wrong.

I like the ability to see the covers of your books down in the bottom portion.  It's just a cool feature.  There are several other things that the Nook can do which I haven't put to the test yet.  With the latest software update, you are supposed to be able to jump to different pages in a book.  My Nook also has a Web browser but I haven't tried that yet AND it has Chess and Sudoku on it.  I'm looking forward to playing Sudoku with it though I suspect I'll be spoiled by my iPhone version as well with it's nice tutorials and "hints" features.

Putting the Nook to sleep and waking it up is easy - just a push down on the top button.  You have a choice of screensavers, including authors, quotes, and nature backgrounds.  I believe you can also install some of your own pictures on it to use as screensavers.

The Nook holds up to 1500 books - a fantastic amount for any reader.  I tend to have 4-8 on my e-readers at a time and then I send them back up to Amazon.  Don't know if you can do this up at Barnes and Noble.

I mentioned "lending" books to others.  The rub is that you can "lend" one of your purchased e-books to another Nook but it's only for 14 days and while the other person has it, you can't access it yourself.  With my Kindle, I can have 5 electronic devices registered to my account and we can all be reading the same book, if we so desire on them.  Hence, I can download a book to my Kindle and also put it on my iPhone and the Commander can download it to his Kindle also, since it is also registered to my account.  Great feature!

That's all I've explored with the Nook so far.  I'd say that the Nook is fine if you are near a Barnes and Noble and enjoy visiting it often.  But if not, I'd say the Kindle still wins in the battle of the e-Readers.

A Day of Distractions

Have you ever had a day that seems to be spinning in a million different directions?  Boy, has my day ever been a strange mix.  It started off when I came downstairs to feed Fresca the Wonder Dog.  As she was eating, I decided to make myself a cup of coffee.  As I reached for my steaming mug (we have a Keurig), I noticed a few dishes that hadn't been washed from last night.  OK, I decided to wash them up quickly so the kitchen would be all tidy when the Commander got up.  After I washed the few dishes, I still had a nice, soapy basin of water so I looked around and thought maybe I'd wash down the stove top, which led to me washing down the counters, which led to me washing out the inside of the microwave, too.  Are you with me so far?  Now this was all before 7:30 a.m.

The Commander was still sleeping so I decided to fire up the computer and check my email.  With Jason and his family living in a timezone that is about 12 hours difference from ours, I like to see if there is any news from them in the morning, since they would probably have posted while I was sleeping.  As I checked my email, I noticed a newsletter from a digital scrapbooking company that I've purchased items from in the past.  I opened it up and was reading it and saw an ad that caught my eye.  Of course, I had to click on it which took me to their online store and of course, I found some very nice digital packages that were on sale at 40% off.  So I went ahead and purchased them and got right to downloading them onto my computer.  Naturally, after doing that, I wanted to bring them into my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software program.  As I finished doing that, I realized that my folders in Storybook Creator were getting rather voluminous so I decided perhaps I'd better do some reorganizing of those to help me pare down the number of categories which would make it easier for me to find things.  Oh yes, somewhere in the middle of doing that, my brother called with a problem to do with Ebay so I had to stop and handle that long-distance.

At some point the Commander came downstairs and stuck his head into the room to say "Good Morning" and as I eventually glanced up at the clock, I realized that it was 10:30 a.m. and I hadn't even brushed my hair or eaten breakfast.  Whew!  I'm tired just writing all of this.  No wonder my days just fly by and I can't figure out where the day has gone when 5 p.m. rolls around and I'm still working on the computer.

But speaking of eating, how do you like that rack of BBQ ribs and sweet potato fries?  That was my meal this past Friday when the Commander and I went out to enjoy a late anniversary dinner.

I didn't realize when he took my picture what the scene was behind me.  Goodness!  This could be a poster for a diet ad.  I actually had filled up on an appetizer and when they brought my meal, I only had room for a few of the fries and a few bites of BBQ and then I had to box up the rest to bring home.

This cheesy "firebread" dipped in seasoned oil was the culprit.  I LOVE cheese and melted over warm bread is even better.

When we got home, I hurried up and set up the camera, put it on automatic timer and we ran for the couch so we could get a picture to commemorate our belated anniversary outing.

Now I'm busy spinning wool for the next few weeks as part of the "Tour de Fleece", an event that spinners around the world are taking part in as we spin wool on different "teams" each day as the Tour de France does its own kind of spinning.  This is some lovely wool from the dyer Bee Mice Elf and I've been spinning it up as I watch TV in the evenings. 

In other news, techie that I am, I just couldn't resist Barnes and Noble's recent price drop on the Nook so I am now the owner of a Kindle AND a Nook.  I didn't buy the 3G version since my Kindle already gives me that full ability but instead I purchased the Wi-Fi version, which is fine for me.  I'll give you my initial impressions of the Nook in my next post.