24

Jan

The Amazon Kindle: in the flesh (PART I).

WARNING: I started writing my “review” of the Kindle, and got into so much backstory that it turned into a bit of a novel, so it’s gonna be a two-parter. (But for now you can appreciate my Tennyson-esque poetic style and ambitious author-esque posturing.)

:)

Leo is a huge technophile, possibly one of the hugest. He’s the one who watches the Keynotes as they’re being live blogged, and who manages to score an invite to every new hot site in beta, and was on line for the iPhone after fantasizing about it for months. Being the way he is, it brings him the greatest pleasure to buy the latest and greatest of gadgets, even if at the most basic level, the gadget doesn’t interest him. He buys them so he could play with them, get to know them, and advise people who ask him for his humble opinion (because everyone who knows him immediately pegs him as the “tech guy.”)

Here’s why I’m lucky: because I am in love with this man, it is me who gains all the positive externalities associated with his being such a tech geek. As a young college student with a modest background and a traditional (read: frugal, very) family, I don’t usually have money to throw at delicious gadgets, especially at the rate at which they come to market, no matter how much I work (a lot) or how much money I earn (very not a lot).

In this situation (read: heaven) I get to play with his iPhone, his Wii, a slew of tried briefly and discarded cell phones, the entire third Adobe Creative Suite, a Macbook Pro, and NOW….

The Amazon Kindle.

This is especially immersed in AWESOME because at an equivalent level to his technophilia, I am the biggest bibliophile on the planet. I don’t know if it works the same everywhere, but in my elementary school, starting from Kindergarten, we would receive these “book order” slips. It was a special wholesale type deal that Scholastic had with New York City public schools, where the teacher would distribute a one page catalog sheet of the latest and most popular Scholastic kids books. You wouldn’t believe how much I yearned for these books, and how much trouble my parents had denying me the money to buy the richly colored books I saw on that catalog sheet. Back in the day, my family situation was such that a picture book that cost $3.95 was too expensive. (Presently, this makes sense, as my mother used to earn $5.00/hour working at a grocery store while consequently spending $3.00/ hour for my “babysitter.”) Every month, though, I was allowed to order the “special,” the one book that was always 95 cents. And no matter what it was, I would get excited about it and wait anxiously for the book order to arrive. As such, years later, my brother inherited one of the largest collections of “101 (fill in the blank) Jokes” books ever.

When I was in the second grade, my teacher took us to the public library as a field trip. When the librarian explained that, with a little card, I could borrow as many books as I wanted, and for free, I fell in love. I know pretty much every book on my local library’s shelves and the library has been a trusted and true friend to me ever since. Books, in general, are my favoritest, most favorite objects on the planet.

Enter technology!

The Amazon Kindle is an electronic book reader that initially garnered a lot of press because, duh, it’s Amazon, one of the world’s largest first and second-hand physical book retailers, entering the digital book marketplace. The evolution makes perfect sense, and the buzz it generated was colossal, aided by the fact that not too recently before the announcement was made, Sony released their own well-received e-book reader. The competition was going to be hot.

Judging by the 6 hours it took them to sell out of it after its official debut just before Christmas, and the fact that it was still on back order several weeks into January, Amazon seems off to a good start.

And so am I, because I get to play with it until I pass out (or it gets boring, whichever comes first!).

Leo received his Kindle in the mail yesterday, and after both taking the time to appreciate the super cute box that it came in (it looked like a book! Aaaaaww) we cracked it open and he let me get my grubby paws on it first. Isn’t he a gentleman?!

First Impressions:

Coooooool.

More in-depth impressions:

—Coming soon, I gotta play with it a bit more, really wrap my brain around it. (Am I a disappointing blogger? Will you still love me, all 2 readers?)

1481 days ago Short URL 5 Comments

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22

Jan

Going.to.pass.out.

The title says it all. This is the cuteness and beyond the cuteness. Brace yourself…perhaps you’d better sit down.

Bear!

*Bear images that make thee pass out courtesy of cuteoverload.

(While I am indeed back from Israel, classes started just today, so I can’t do any productive writing at this very moment in the flurry of activity/thinking/ridiculous spending on books/tearing out of hair that goes on during the first week of classes. Cheerio!)

1483 days ago Short URL Comments

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06

Jan

Israel

I am leaving to go to Israel for 10 days this coming Monday. I am excited, but I also feel a little bit of trepidation. I just want everything to go safely and beautifully.

But I think it will.

I’m going with a bus load of other young Russian Americans, and we are going to be taken around the country on a completely guided tour for the entire time. And fed. And flown. For free. (Birthright)

I will be reporting back with pictures. Am also taking along my new bright red Moleskine (yes, I sold out…it was too cute) which is supposed to be a daily planner but I want to use like a daily recorder, for a page full of general goings-on for each day, so that if anybody asks me where I was and I cant remember (which happens entirely too often), there my memories will be.

Need to download podcasts! Must to get organized! See you soon.

1499 days ago Short URL Comments

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04

Jan

When I Grow Up.

I never knew what I wanted to be.

The closest I ever came to a concrete answer, though, was during grade school where I went through this phase of wanting to be a teacher, but I think every little girl wants that. The hotness, for me, was in writing on the board. This ability, to take chalk and write orders on a blackboard that effectively dictate the lives of little children everywhere, was very thrilling to me. It got so I couldn’t walk past a blackboard in a classroom that I wouldn’t write on. In the fifth grade, I gave up my lunch period to spend time as a “monitor” for my past fourth grade teacher and her current wards students. She let me write the homework on the board, and I was happy. I truly believed the mark of a good teacher was when they were able to write on the board in straight lines. My homework scribblings always began ambitiously, but soon tapered lamely down the board, like ice cream melting.

I spent 4 years working for a corporation that accepts money to teach students extra curricular lessons in the hopes of bringing them back to grade level, or else allowing them to excel beyond it. I worked with kids of all shapes, colors, and sizes. And pretty soon (4 years later? Soon?) I hated my job. It wasn’t the kids, for the most part they’d run in with hugs and smiles, it just wasn’t the job I wanted. I didn’t want to be a teacher after that.

Maybe I’ll just buy myself a blackboard. I’ll write poems on it.

I have worked at the Board of Education as an office assistant (and I am ever so glad I did, it was the first job I was ever offered, at 14, and it showed me what work can do for a person. I’ve been working ever since.) I have been a cashier at a grocery store (and I still think its kinda fun…) I have worked as a booker at a modeling agency, a labor union protester (a bad work experience), an intern at a huge investment bank, a service center assistant, an academic assistant to a Professor of Economics, and an editorial intern /contributing author for a magazine.

Some of these jobs I still hold. Others of them I wouldn’t want to return to. Others still, I think, are the coolest jobs in the world. But for me personally, for my future, to be able to concretely say what I want for my career; it’s hazy. The urge to work, to be doing something, for somebody, is what allows me to operate smoothly. (Accomplishing, striving, focusing, occasionally impressing!) At the same time, that is not the factor that people are concerned with when they ask you what you want to do with your life. That’s the toughest question in the world to answer.

I know what I’m good at. I know what I’m not so good at. When the proper time comes, I will apply for work (and cross my fingers) with the companies, the corporations and global industry leaders that I admire, respect, sometimes even idolize. I know I can work. (Harder, better, faster, stronger* than a lot of people.) It’s in my blood. And when I land one of these jobs, and when I’m doin it, makin’ my life, I will have accomplished something quite monumental (to me). And when that occurs, I might be able to answer the question better.

*Cenk ya, Daft Punk!

1501 days ago Short URL Comments

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