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Oct. 28th, 2018
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So, my Kindle died in Kyrgyzstan, the casualty of our very late cabdriver aggressively shoving my backpack into the trunk of his taxi at an angle because the trunk was already occupied by a large button accordion. He threw my backpack in first, then dropped the 90L duffel bag on top of it, and shoved, and there was a crack. I’m glad it wasn’t my camera; the corner of my DSLR’s frame is what broke the Kindle’s screen, I think, and all told I’m glad the $1200 DSLR body wasn’t what gave, there.
Anyhow. I was going to buy a new one, but they’re releasing a waterproof model on Nov 7th. I thought about it, hadn’t made a decision. Then, this visit, I spent so much time reading to Farmkid, my sister was like, well, normally we try to slip you some cash when you leave, but if you want, this time we could just buy you a new Kindle, since you miss yours so much.
So I was going to let them do that, but then Middle-Little was like, “wait, I found a Kindle in one of the classrooms at the college where I worked, and I very conscientiously attempted to email every professor whose classes had used that room and we were unable to find any student who admitted to having lost a Kindle, so I still have it, do you want it?”
This seemed like a great solution, so she gave it to me last night and I’ve been trying ever since then to wake it up and restore it.
It’s super old, I think– it’s got keys to type with, not a touchscreen, and there are buttons to turn the pages. It’s very elderly.
I wouldn’t mind that, but it seems to me that the wifi doesn’t work. I’ve tried an obnoxiously large number of times to type in the extremely obnoxious wifi password here, and it acts all happy like it’s accepted it, but it doesn’t actually connect, and if you try to do anything it pops up an error that it’s not working.
I managed to wipe the existing information off– it didn’t have the student’s name or information anywhere, it had a nickname, and the books on it were 100% novels, no textbooks. It contained Fifty Shades Darker, Thirteen Reasons Why, and a few other names I vaguely recognized and was not excited about, so.
So I reset it to factory defaults, and have restarted it several times, but there’s been no improvement– it can’t connect to the Internet. The top bar shows the “WI-FI” icon, and displays five bars of connection strength, but the device still pops up and says “no connection” anytime you try to do anything.
So– I can use it to put PDFs onto, certainly, but I can’t connect it to my Kindle account and can’t buy new ebooks on it. Which is a shame.
It’s not useless, but it’s not really suited for my purposes either. What I liked best about using the Kindle I had was that it would sync with my phone and computer, so if I was reading something, I could pick up where I left off on any of my devices. This clearly won’t be able to do that. The other thing I really liked is that I could buy stuff on my computer, and then later when I was out and about, pick up my Kindle and tell it to sync and I’d have the book I’d been waiting for. (I preorder stuff a lot.)
So I think I’ll still buy myself a new Kindle, but I might try to load this one up with public-domain books.
I have a feeling the battery has been negatively impacted by being left completely dead for several years, but maybe I just haven’t let it totally charge up for long enough.
(Your picture was not posted)
So, my Kindle died in Kyrgyzstan, the casualty of our very late cabdriver aggressively shoving my backpack into the trunk of his taxi at an angle because the trunk was already occupied by a large button accordion. He threw my backpack in first, then dropped the 90L duffel bag on top of it, and shoved, and there was a crack. I’m glad it wasn’t my camera; the corner of my DSLR’s frame is what broke the Kindle’s screen, I think, and all told I’m glad the $1200 DSLR body wasn’t what gave, there.
Anyhow. I was going to buy a new one, but they’re releasing a waterproof model on Nov 7th. I thought about it, hadn’t made a decision. Then, this visit, I spent so much time reading to Farmkid, my sister was like, well, normally we try to slip you some cash when you leave, but if you want, this time we could just buy you a new Kindle, since you miss yours so much.
So I was going to let them do that, but then Middle-Little was like, “wait, I found a Kindle in one of the classrooms at the college where I worked, and I very conscientiously attempted to email every professor whose classes had used that room and we were unable to find any student who admitted to having lost a Kindle, so I still have it, do you want it?”
This seemed like a great solution, so she gave it to me last night and I’ve been trying ever since then to wake it up and restore it.
It’s super old, I think– it’s got keys to type with, not a touchscreen, and there are buttons to turn the pages. It’s very elderly.
I wouldn’t mind that, but it seems to me that the wifi doesn’t work. I’ve tried an obnoxiously large number of times to type in the extremely obnoxious wifi password here, and it acts all happy like it’s accepted it, but it doesn’t actually connect, and if you try to do anything it pops up an error that it’s not working.
I managed to wipe the existing information off– it didn’t have the student’s name or information anywhere, it had a nickname, and the books on it were 100% novels, no textbooks. It contained Fifty Shades Darker, Thirteen Reasons Why, and a few other names I vaguely recognized and was not excited about, so.
So I reset it to factory defaults, and have restarted it several times, but there’s been no improvement– it can’t connect to the Internet. The top bar shows the “WI-FI” icon, and displays five bars of connection strength, but the device still pops up and says “no connection” anytime you try to do anything.
So– I can use it to put PDFs onto, certainly, but I can’t connect it to my Kindle account and can’t buy new ebooks on it. Which is a shame.
It’s not useless, but it’s not really suited for my purposes either. What I liked best about using the Kindle I had was that it would sync with my phone and computer, so if I was reading something, I could pick up where I left off on any of my devices. This clearly won’t be able to do that. The other thing I really liked is that I could buy stuff on my computer, and then later when I was out and about, pick up my Kindle and tell it to sync and I’d have the book I’d been waiting for. (I preorder stuff a lot.)
So I think I’ll still buy myself a new Kindle, but I might try to load this one up with public-domain books.
I have a feeling the battery has been negatively impacted by being left completely dead for several years, but maybe I just haven’t let it totally charge up for long enough.
(Your picture was not posted)
via https://ift.tt/2RnYoiP
cgcpoems:
“But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?”
— Kazuo Ishiguro, in his Nobel prize (2017) acceptance speech. (via halcynth)
(Your picture was not posted)
cgcpoems:
“But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?”
— Kazuo Ishiguro, in his Nobel prize (2017) acceptance speech. (via halcynth)
(Your picture was not posted)
via https://ift.tt/2PWTrwW
went to my mom and dad’s last night for dinner. dad’s birthday. we had a dinner at the farm for it, but Middle-Little couldn’t come, so we had another last night.
I had some whiskey, and then I had some red wine. There was an issue of American Rifleman on the back porch table (by the woodstove). It had an exhortation to vote to “stop the socialist wave on 11/6″, and it then had a list of names- Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, various Democrats. And at the end, it said George Soros.
Down at the bottom where Dad’s name was auto-printed for the mailing, there was a section that had filled in “Your Endorsed Ballot”, and had the names of the local Republicans. (It pointedly said “NO ENDORSEMENT” in the US Senator races, even though the reason for that is that there are no fucking Senate races in New York this year you twats.)
Middle-Little and I sort of poked it, and made faces at each other. Dad’s been a member of the NRA for about fifty years. American Rifleman is the magazine you get. Yeah. Usually we just kind of. Whatever. It’s not worth bringing up. Dad goes on weird rants that as he ages get more and more Rush Limbaugh-inspired even though I have no fucking clue where he gets it, they get the New York Times and listen to NPR, and in the car he listens to bagpipe music on cassette, I’m not even making that up it’s the honest truth. He has never listened to Limbaugh in his life and wouldn’t know the man from Adam, how is he so perfectly aping his goddamn talking points?????)
I had a bunch more red wine. Over dinner, we were talking about something, and Dad did his usual “well Andrew Cuomo is a jerk” thing, which, I mean, none of us is going to argue anything against that, but it devolved into politics. And I couldn’t not do it.
I said, “Dad, I really really really need you to answer me one question: what political office is George Soros running for?”
He had no answer for that; he said “well he gives a lot of money” and I said “not more than the Koch brothers,” and he really didn’t have anything else to say about that, and then he said something shitty about Chuck Schumer (which wasn’t related to Schumer’s ethncity, which I’m not 100% sure Dad is even aware of, but it’s a thing and it matters) and I snapped. I pointed out, “That’s a huge dog whistle and it’s not about politics, it’s about demonizing an entire race of people whether you think it is or not, and it’s not acceptable and it’s not something both sides do and that’s not a valid argument and I can’t let that go unchallenged. I’m sorry, Dad, and you know I love you, and you know I understand your fears about gun rights, I like going hunting and I like going target shooting with you, but I don’t love guns more than I love Jewish people as a concept, and at this point I would gladly see all guns of any kind banned if I thought it would have any impact on preventing what happened this week from ever happening again. You having a handgun isn’t going to stop the government from annihilating you with a Predator drone from 20,000 feet anyway, Dad, so the Second Amendment is pretty goddamn useless regarding its intended purpose at this point, as written.”
And we didn’t really reach any kind of conclusion but it’s more than I usually say.
My mom and sister left the table while we argued, and then we had dessert and Changed The Subject, and I just don’t know if it matters, but Christ almighty.
(Your picture was not posted)
went to my mom and dad’s last night for dinner. dad’s birthday. we had a dinner at the farm for it, but Middle-Little couldn’t come, so we had another last night.
I had some whiskey, and then I had some red wine. There was an issue of American Rifleman on the back porch table (by the woodstove). It had an exhortation to vote to “stop the socialist wave on 11/6″, and it then had a list of names- Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, various Democrats. And at the end, it said George Soros.
Down at the bottom where Dad’s name was auto-printed for the mailing, there was a section that had filled in “Your Endorsed Ballot”, and had the names of the local Republicans. (It pointedly said “NO ENDORSEMENT” in the US Senator races, even though the reason for that is that there are no fucking Senate races in New York this year you twats.)
Middle-Little and I sort of poked it, and made faces at each other. Dad’s been a member of the NRA for about fifty years. American Rifleman is the magazine you get. Yeah. Usually we just kind of. Whatever. It’s not worth bringing up. Dad goes on weird rants that as he ages get more and more Rush Limbaugh-inspired even though I have no fucking clue where he gets it, they get the New York Times and listen to NPR, and in the car he listens to bagpipe music on cassette, I’m not even making that up it’s the honest truth. He has never listened to Limbaugh in his life and wouldn’t know the man from Adam, how is he so perfectly aping his goddamn talking points?????)
I had a bunch more red wine. Over dinner, we were talking about something, and Dad did his usual “well Andrew Cuomo is a jerk” thing, which, I mean, none of us is going to argue anything against that, but it devolved into politics. And I couldn’t not do it.
I said, “Dad, I really really really need you to answer me one question: what political office is George Soros running for?”
He had no answer for that; he said “well he gives a lot of money” and I said “not more than the Koch brothers,” and he really didn’t have anything else to say about that, and then he said something shitty about Chuck Schumer (which wasn’t related to Schumer’s ethncity, which I’m not 100% sure Dad is even aware of, but it’s a thing and it matters) and I snapped. I pointed out, “That’s a huge dog whistle and it’s not about politics, it’s about demonizing an entire race of people whether you think it is or not, and it’s not acceptable and it’s not something both sides do and that’s not a valid argument and I can’t let that go unchallenged. I’m sorry, Dad, and you know I love you, and you know I understand your fears about gun rights, I like going hunting and I like going target shooting with you, but I don’t love guns more than I love Jewish people as a concept, and at this point I would gladly see all guns of any kind banned if I thought it would have any impact on preventing what happened this week from ever happening again. You having a handgun isn’t going to stop the government from annihilating you with a Predator drone from 20,000 feet anyway, Dad, so the Second Amendment is pretty goddamn useless regarding its intended purpose at this point, as written.”
And we didn’t really reach any kind of conclusion but it’s more than I usually say.
My mom and sister left the table while we argued, and then we had dessert and Changed The Subject, and I just don’t know if it matters, but Christ almighty.
(Your picture was not posted)