I RECEIVED 30,000 BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS!

OK, I admit it. I suffer from bibliophillia. I love the feel of a book in my hands. I love looking at books. I love collecting books. And, of course, I love reading books. Over the years I have acquired: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, a leather bound set of the Britannica Encyclopedia, A leather bound collection of the Great Books Of The Western World, Will Durant’s 11 volume Story Of Civilization, The 20 volume set of The Annals Of America, and hundreds of best seller books. In fact, I have no room left for more books. The answer to my dilemma was a Kindle Reader, which I received for Christmas.

When I first heard about the Kindle, I thought I would never want one. How could it compete with real, physical books that you hold in your hands? Why would you want to get eyestrain from a glowing computer screen? Wow, was I ever wrong! My storage problems are over because I can store more than 3000 books on my tiny (8 inch by 5 inch and ½ inch thick) Kindle. As for eyestrain, there is none because of the E Ink technology used by the Kindle. It has better contrast and sharper text than paper and ink. There is no glare like there is on a backlit LCD screen. It looks like paper and ink but better. It can even be easily read in bright sunlight. I find it much easier to read a Kindle than to read a conventional book.

Some of the Kindle’s features that I really enjoy are: Ability to change the font size, Instant definitions from the built-in dictionary, The ability to highlight text electronically, I can make notes as I read, I can share meaningful passages with friends with built-in Twitter and Facebook integration, I can save quotes, notes, and highlights in a file and have access to them when I finish a book. This is a huge advantage of digital over printed books! The price of digital books is substantially less than printed books and I have access to 30,000 classic books that are free; Yes, I said FREE! You can have one of these miraculous inventions for only $139. I recommend that you get one.

AN EXTRAVAGANT "GIFT"? FROM OUR POLITICIANS

It is very clear to me that the long term costs of our growing national debt is far more damaging than the short-term cost of our economic sluggishness. But our government has approved another federal stimulus package that will force us to add $838 billion to our $14 trillion debt. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans made any attempt to cut spending to help pay for it. Instead, they tacked on pet projects and “gifts” for lobbyist such as a tax break for the Rum distilleries. The tax cut deal made by President Obama and the Republican congressional leaders was blatantly irresponsible. If they had trimmed $56 billion from the vast federal budget to pay for extended jobless benefits, that would have made sense. And, if they had made some other spending cuts to pay for continuing the Bush era tax cuts that would have been good. But no, the same people who were voicing concern about the red ink just weeks ago went ahead and, with a shocking and shameful disregard for the reality of our economic situation, spent money we do not have.

Obama calls it a tax cut deal but in reality it was an agreement to not increase taxes by continuing the cuts already put in place by Bush. In itself, that was a good move but they forgot to balance their budget and cut spending. What the government gives, it must ultimately take away from its citizens. A day of reckoning is coming. Our citizens are going to have to pay for what these politicians are giving away. We need to stop them before our country goes bankrupt!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE EXCEPT THE POLITICIANS. TO THEM I SAY, “BAH HUMBUG!!!! GIVE THEM A LUMP OF COAL."

PLUG-INS REVISITED

All right, I admit it. Last week’s blog was a gimcrack one. It was rather tasteless to suggest a plug-in that you place in your ass in order to understand all that Internet information. But, think about it; don’t we need some help making use of all that complicated knowledge? It may not be a smart ass plug-in but we need something to help us. Wouldn’t it be great to actually understand and use information such as “Boolean Logic”? AND, OR, NOT operators could be very helpful, if we knew how to use them. Why, we could even write computer language if we knew how to use zeros and ones. I have studied Homomorphisms and Isomorphisms but I still do not have the slightest idea what the heck they are. Propositonal calculus is way over my head. It would be great to plug in something somewhere and have instant understanding. Unlike Socrates, the only thing I know is that I do not know everything. Maybe it’s better that way.

   “REAL KNOWLEDGE IS TO KNOW THE EXTENT OF ONE’S IGNORANCE.”

                                                               Confucius 

THE NEXT BIG THING

We have experienced the Internet, E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Smartphones, WikiLeaks, Global warming, Economic meltdown and the crazy Organic food fad. What’s next? Whatever it is, it will only last about 20 minutes and then the next big thing will come along. The world is changing faster and faster. I can’t keep up. My next big thing is to escape from this world and go to the world of pleasant literature. I will put on my Bose noise cancelling headphones and spend my time reading 3,500 good books on my new Kindle Reader. Don’t bother me unless you have some good news. Now that would be a really big thing!

Technological changes are happening faster than most humans can assimilate them. For example, the Internet now has all the information and knowledge necessary to do anything but people do not have the intelligence and skill to take advantage of it. What we need is an app that would allow us to understand and use all that stuff. I am suggesting a plug-in that you put in your ass. It would be called the smart ass plug-in! 

REMEMBERING LIFE'S FIRST EXPERIENCES

I got up late and was surprised to see snow on the ground. First of December and the season’s first snow came down. The first of anything is always surprising. There are many “firsts” in a lifetime. Most of them are delightful but some are not. We tend to remember the best and worst “firsts” in our life. Especially, births and deaths are remembered. What a joy it is when your first child comes along but what awful sadness when your first parent dies. Life seems to be balanced that way. I try to stay focused on the good, not the bad. For instance, my first love and my first marriage (I only had one) and my first family are my greatest joy (thank you Nancy)!