Sorry for the missed posts the past few days. Between the holiday weekend and travel for work I have been away from the computer a bit more than usual. I’m also taking the week off from the random CDs for the week because they mainly exist for my drive back and forth to work and holiday weeks play havoc on my schedule. I end up spending most of my weekend driving around trying to get to the end of a disc I bought in 1997. At some point I need a break from the musical tastes of my early twenties. Sorry for those who missed my view of the world. I’ll try to make it up to you.
This question hit me today as I was travelling. If you spend as much time in airports as I do you will invariably go past dozens of kiosks selling things like Rosetta Stone language tapes or receipt organizers or magic pens. In all of my years of flying I have never bought anything from one of these stands. In fact, I can’t recall anyone ever standing at one of those stands in the process of buying something. All I ever see are bored, downtrodden sales clerks who must spend their entire day looking at people who ignore them as they rush to flights to go on vacation. It must be the cruelest job in the world. I can’t imagine what it must be like if they are on commission. I would hate it if the Magic Pen guy needs to make ten sales a day in order to make his mortgage payment. Maybe we should all buy something from them next time we are at the airport. Let’s brighten up their day.
The other aspect of flying that I want to get into tonight is the fact that today I got to try out my brand new Amazon Kindle. Yes, it took some cajoling and glowing reviews by people who read even more books than I do but I have broken down and purchased a Kindle after spending a decade dismissing the electric book market. Now I love the way a book feels in my hand and I will always be working my way through some “real” books but I have to say that the Kindle kicks all kinds of ass.
First off, the form factor is amazing. Incredibly thin and light with the next page buttons precisely where they should be. It still feels natural in that you think you are holding a book as opposed to a computer screen. The electronic ink is so much nicer than reading a computer screen and because of the storage on it I no longer have to have a backpack filled with books. It is incredibly easy to download new books and I have to admit that it makes reading fun. For some reason I want to read more books on it just because of the interface.
It’s not perfect though but most of my critiques are nitpicky. Worst one is that not all books, especially new releases, are available. That is a matter of price points and the conversion from physical to electronic media that will be worked out eventually. I’m more annoyed by the fact that when footnotes appear you have to scroll through the page and click on the footnote, which sends you to the end of the document to read the footnote with no easy way to get back to where you were. Given that the authors I like use a lot of informative and humorous footnotes this can become very annoying very quickly. I can’t imagine what it would be like reading David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” on the Kindle. On the plus side you don’t have to lug around a 1,000 page book but managing the 100 pages of footnotes would be a nightmare. Finally, it might just be the book I’m reading but I hate the way the font prints the letter I. Just strikes me as wrong. But when you are complaining about fonts you are basically admitting that you have such high standards that basic human emotions are unobtainable.
So thumbs up on the Kindle and say hi to your local Rosetta Stone salesperson.
4th Best Album of the Decade: Arcade Fire “Funeral” (2004): There is so much one can say about this album. There is the fact that the entire album is about death and loss and grief and ultimately rebirth. There is the fact that the band attacks music from a unique angle: not just the usual art school kids doing music but playing with instrumentation and roles as well. And there is the fact that the band is pure emotion at all times. Watch the video. It is just all out for the entire song. No wonder hockey teams used it as their entrance music.
No comments:
Post a Comment