The wealth of interesting free options out there for books is amazing. And already I am seeing an effect on my reading habits. I'm not buying more books (which I thought I might do), but I am also not feeling so pressed to read entire books that I get either.
A certain number of years ago I was a sucker for buying books, I had a bad habit, either in used bookstores or even regular book stores. I love to read, and I would buy books that looked interesting and then read them, and then leave them on the shelf, because you never know I might want to read them again. Even if I rarely did. This led to my amassing a rather large and unwieldy library. And regular purges and yard sales or Goodwill trips.
Then I woke up and started going to the library. This was much better, I didn't end up with a huge book collection. But, I had to go to the library pretty regularly. And if I got a book that I wanted and it took a while to read there was a chance I might not finish in time before I had to return it or face fines. So when I got a book that book became my focus, I had to read just that one book (given my limited reading time) in order to finish them.
Now I have my Kindle and I am in a combination of the above 2 situations. Given the wealth of free resources out there, and the fact that that is increasing all the time, I can get a lot of books. Which leads to my amassing a large library again. Only this time it is not using up bookshelf space, and if I decide I don't want the book it is easy to remove. But when I get a bunch of books I don't feel pressured to rush through them like I did with the library books. It is perfectly okay for me to read a little from one book, and then swap it for another, knowing I can go back when I feel like it. It has really become the best of both worlds, which will only get enhanced when the options to get e-books from the library arrive. And won't Kim be happy when I can start purging my existing bookshelf as I slowly replace the books with electronic versions?
I am glad I waited for the e-readers to become 'affordable', but I am even more glad that I have joined the future with this wonderful technology.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Enjoying my new toy #kindle & loving living in the future
For Father's Day I received a new Kindle. For those of you who are not familiar, a Kindle is Amazon's E-Reader. I had been thinking about e-readers for some time now. One of my big limitations and reasons I had not jumped into the e-reader area was that not all e-readers worked with libraries. And libraries really only offer a portion of their books as e-books. So getting an e-reader meant that I would be buying some books, something that I honestly kind of abhor. But the more I thought about it, and the more I read I came to a realization that this was the way of the world. And eventually any new book I might want would be available as an e-book. Then the capper was Amazon's announcement that it would be joining with the company that provides most libraries with e-book software, so some time this year that big obstacle would disappear. And the other obstacle: not all books available as e-books, feels like it will disappear the same way obstacles like not all albums were available on CD, and then not all songs could be found on iTunes etc. do drop in some fashion or another.
Given all of the above, when Kim asked what I wanted for Fathers Day I said I wanted a Kindle. I made it clear that there were other less expensive things, but she must have decided that I was such a great Father that I deserved what I wanted. Thanks Kim, I love my new 'toy'!
Today I have downloaded about 5 free books from Amazon, plus sent myself 3 PDF files that I had saved on my computer, and received 6 other books from a friend. I have lots to read now! And it is so nice to now have a good selection and variety at my fingertips, if I want to look up something about basic GURPS, or Jediism, or a quote from Kipling it's all right there on the device. If I am reading a new book, and am struck by a great line I can just click a couple of buttons and bam, it is shared on Twitter & Facebook! This is all so cool, as Wil Wheaton says: 'I love living in the future!'
Look for me to share more about my reading now as I find it easier to do so using this new tool. And if you are someone who is looking for something to buy for me (the guy who has everything he could ever really needs) then Amazon gift certificates are now a very good option.
Given all of the above, when Kim asked what I wanted for Fathers Day I said I wanted a Kindle. I made it clear that there were other less expensive things, but she must have decided that I was such a great Father that I deserved what I wanted. Thanks Kim, I love my new 'toy'!
Today I have downloaded about 5 free books from Amazon, plus sent myself 3 PDF files that I had saved on my computer, and received 6 other books from a friend. I have lots to read now! And it is so nice to now have a good selection and variety at my fingertips, if I want to look up something about basic GURPS, or Jediism, or a quote from Kipling it's all right there on the device. If I am reading a new book, and am struck by a great line I can just click a couple of buttons and bam, it is shared on Twitter & Facebook! This is all so cool, as Wil Wheaton says: 'I love living in the future!'
Look for me to share more about my reading now as I find it easier to do so using this new tool. And if you are someone who is looking for something to buy for me (the guy who has everything he could ever really needs) then Amazon gift certificates are now a very good option.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tax Cuts do not worsen the economy, read your history GOP deniers
The modern GOP is acting more and more like a child who will tell a parent "I didn't do it" while wearing muddy shoes and being asked who tracked mud in the house. You have the Birthers, the climate change deniers, but the most dangerous are the tax cut crusaders.
Again and again, when the GOP clamors for control of the deficit, they will simultaneously refuse to consider any tax increases. They claim that increasing taxes in any form will destroy the economy. And again and again they invoke 'Saint Reagan' and say that his tax cuts alone were the cause of the 1980's boom. And they will claim that this mythical figure never ever raised taxes.
Point 1, Reagan did in fact raise taxes, in fact doing so more of his years in office than he did cut taxes:
Here is an article written by a member of Reagan's Treasury department, below are the most startling quotes:
So Reagan did in fact raise taxes (or agreed to do so), even in 1982 when the country was still in the grips of a recession, and amazingly enough the economy did get better! So raising taxes did not cause the Recession to worse, in fact it did the opposite.
Point 2: That the government shrunk under Reagan, only Democrats make the government bigger.
Here I refer to David Stockman, Reagan's Budget Director
Point 3: Tax cuts will inherently damage the productivity and the economy, let's compare the last 3 decades:
The facts speak for themselves, tax increases do not worsen the economy, and in fact the 2 times we had increases at the tail end or just after a recession the economy boomed. So while we cannot directly say that the tax increases caused the boom I believe that the historical record proves that a tax increase will definitely not hurt the economy. So do not listen to these GOP deniers, they are tools of the big money corporations and billionaires who just want to avoid paying more taxes.
Again and again, when the GOP clamors for control of the deficit, they will simultaneously refuse to consider any tax increases. They claim that increasing taxes in any form will destroy the economy. And again and again they invoke 'Saint Reagan' and say that his tax cuts alone were the cause of the 1980's boom. And they will claim that this mythical figure never ever raised taxes.
Point 1, Reagan did in fact raise taxes, in fact doing so more of his years in office than he did cut taxes:
Here is an article written by a member of Reagan's Treasury department, below are the most startling quotes:
Reagan may have resisted calls for tax increases, but he ultimately supported them. In 1982 alone, he signed into law not one but two major tax increases. The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) raised taxes by $37.5 billion per year and the Highway Revenue Act raised the gasoline tax by another $3.3 billion.Another startling point:
According to a recent Treasury Department study, TEFRA alone raised taxes by almost 1 percent of the gross domestic product, making it the largest peacetime tax increase in American history. An increase of similar magnitude today would raise more than $100 billion per year.
According to a table in the 1990 budget, the net effect of all these tax increases was to raise taxes by $164 billion in 1992, or 2.6 percent of GDP. This is equivalent to almost $300 billion in today's economy.
So Reagan did in fact raise taxes (or agreed to do so), even in 1982 when the country was still in the grips of a recession, and amazingly enough the economy did get better! So raising taxes did not cause the Recession to worse, in fact it did the opposite.
Point 2: That the government shrunk under Reagan, only Democrats make the government bigger.
Here I refer to David Stockman, Reagan's Budget Director
The wrong lesson was taken from the 1980s. We didn't cut back government at all; government got bigger. We didn't reduce the tax burden, we just avoided increases. But the conclusion was drawn that there was a great prosperity in the 1980s due to the Reagan tax cut. I don't believe that at all. I believe that the expansion that we had for a few years was due to the fact that Paul Volcker's Fed crushed inflation
Point 3: Tax cuts will inherently damage the productivity and the economy, let's compare the last 3 decades:
In 2008, Paul Krugman adjusted for both inflation and population growth, to try to figure out the per-capita tax revenue increase for each decade since Reagan, and found something even more enlightening. Real revenues per capita rose 19 percent from 1980-1988. From 1992-2000, real revenues per capita rose 41 percent -- after tax hikes by both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton! And the numbers for George W. Bush? Pure disaster
The facts speak for themselves, tax increases do not worsen the economy, and in fact the 2 times we had increases at the tail end or just after a recession the economy boomed. So while we cannot directly say that the tax increases caused the boom I believe that the historical record proves that a tax increase will definitely not hurt the economy. So do not listen to these GOP deniers, they are tools of the big money corporations and billionaires who just want to avoid paying more taxes.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
America needs to get out of the house and airports and take a road trip
One of the things about taking the car for our vacation is that it gave me the opportunity to really see parts of the country, parts that you would never see otherwise. Small towns, towns that you may just drive through, some you stop in to get gas or food or both. See the farms and ranches, the places where people really work. And seeing all that gave me an even greater appreciation and understanding of how bad things are in this country.
We saw an odd dichotomy on our trip. One day we were in small town Texas, where most of the buildings on the main drive are abandoned, empty. Where people struggle to make ends meet, working as painters, plumbers, framers, and grocery clerks, living in small run down houses, eating the food from the gardens because it is the cheapest way to eat. The next day we were in a mall in an upscale suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, watching families splurge on taking their kids to a Lego theme store.
While there were places like that Lego store, it felt like for every place like that I saw 3 or 4 abandoned, closed businesses. And on the drive I saw a part of the country suffering through it's worst drought in 50+ years. We saw some scorched land, and 2 days after we got back the highway we drove on was shut down by a wildfire. And the highways, while they were generally maintained, were definitely showing signs of wear and tear, and there were not a lot of road crews at work.
I think it is easy to get a feeling that things aren't really all that bad when you never leave the house. Learn about new vacation spots from cable TV, watch people remodel homes, and the only disasters you are aware of are ones that make the evening news. And you can get the same thing if you when you travel you only take the plane, and fly over all those areas that are suffering.
I think that is what our country is missing right now. People are only getting their knowledge of the country from cable TV, and when they travel they spend their time in just the nice areas. A great example of this was in San Antonio, we were in downtown, saw the Alamo, then took a short walk on the River Walk, and if you stayed there you would have thought the economy was going great guns. But if you walked 3 blocks away you ran into run down, abandoned buildings.
So before you think that the greatest problems facing this country are the Federal Deficit, Gay Marriage, and Congressmen who can't control their urges on the Internet, get out of your house, get in your car and leave your pleasant little suburb, and see what is really happening. There are far bigger problems out there, but we as a country will only ever tackle them if we accept and see them instead of ignoring them. We can have a set of priorities where we spend $300 on a kids birthday party while at the same time just covering our broken windows with cardboard. Or we can fix the windows first, and just serve cupcakes in the park. It's a question of priorities, and who we listen to and see.
We saw an odd dichotomy on our trip. One day we were in small town Texas, where most of the buildings on the main drive are abandoned, empty. Where people struggle to make ends meet, working as painters, plumbers, framers, and grocery clerks, living in small run down houses, eating the food from the gardens because it is the cheapest way to eat. The next day we were in a mall in an upscale suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, watching families splurge on taking their kids to a Lego theme store.
While there were places like that Lego store, it felt like for every place like that I saw 3 or 4 abandoned, closed businesses. And on the drive I saw a part of the country suffering through it's worst drought in 50+ years. We saw some scorched land, and 2 days after we got back the highway we drove on was shut down by a wildfire. And the highways, while they were generally maintained, were definitely showing signs of wear and tear, and there were not a lot of road crews at work.
I think it is easy to get a feeling that things aren't really all that bad when you never leave the house. Learn about new vacation spots from cable TV, watch people remodel homes, and the only disasters you are aware of are ones that make the evening news. And you can get the same thing if you when you travel you only take the plane, and fly over all those areas that are suffering.
I think that is what our country is missing right now. People are only getting their knowledge of the country from cable TV, and when they travel they spend their time in just the nice areas. A great example of this was in San Antonio, we were in downtown, saw the Alamo, then took a short walk on the River Walk, and if you stayed there you would have thought the economy was going great guns. But if you walked 3 blocks away you ran into run down, abandoned buildings.
So before you think that the greatest problems facing this country are the Federal Deficit, Gay Marriage, and Congressmen who can't control their urges on the Internet, get out of your house, get in your car and leave your pleasant little suburb, and see what is really happening. There are far bigger problems out there, but we as a country will only ever tackle them if we accept and see them instead of ignoring them. We can have a set of priorities where we spend $300 on a kids birthday party while at the same time just covering our broken windows with cardboard. Or we can fix the windows first, and just serve cupcakes in the park. It's a question of priorities, and who we listen to and see.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
FreeRangeGeek Daily
Here's a cool little thing. I just added to my blog on the left side. What this is is a web page that aggregates the articles that come from the Twitter feeds I follow. The actual link to the full page is here:
http://paper.li/freerangegeek/1307043817
By going to the page it shows, in a newspaper like format, all the articles that people I follow have posted on Twitter. Sorted by article type. It's actually a pretty cool aggregator, handy for me, but also fun to see what I am interested in as well.
http://paper.li/freerangegeek/1307043817
By going to the page it shows, in a newspaper like format, all the articles that people I follow have posted on Twitter. Sorted by article type. It's actually a pretty cool aggregator, handy for me, but also fun to see what I am interested in as well.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Tricks for kids reading, TV season end thoughts, NBA playoff commentary
Kid's Reading
Out of the many books I picked up for James at the library the other day James finally settled on one that he really wants to read, a Star Wars book. Which gives me the idea that if that is what the boy wants, if that is what he will read then by all means that's what I will get him. So I picked up more Star Wars books from the library this past weekend, and will just keep loading him up.
TV Watching
With all of our regular shows done for the season it is time for a break from the evening TV. Which happily comes at about the same time as our family vacation. I am of two minds on our TV watching. On the one hand, my fathers influence tells me that all the TV time is not a good use of my time, and it would be better if I spent my evenings doing something else. On the other hand, watching our shows is very much something Kim & I enjoy doing together. So we watch the shows, but I can tell you that I rarely miss it when we miss those shows or something distracts me.
NBA Playoffs
Watched bits and pieces of the first game of the championship last night, saw enough to think that Dallas might be in trouble unless they can remember how to shoot. Because the other parts of the game were dominated by Miami. I feel bad for Dirk and Kidd, but they just have bad timing (again). At least this one doesn't look like it will be decided by officiating. Either way, from what I saw, I haven't missed much in the way of what I think of as entertaining basketball. In fact it was nice to spend Memorial day not caring about sports. Except for watching the UEFA Championship, now that was entertaining! And watching Messi play soccer is about as close as we can get these days to watching say the Showtime Lakers or one of the truly great NFL running backs, that sense that you could see something amazing at any time, and that you are afraid to look away. Which is something that you won't feel in these NBA Finals.
Out of the many books I picked up for James at the library the other day James finally settled on one that he really wants to read, a Star Wars book. Which gives me the idea that if that is what the boy wants, if that is what he will read then by all means that's what I will get him. So I picked up more Star Wars books from the library this past weekend, and will just keep loading him up.
TV Watching
With all of our regular shows done for the season it is time for a break from the evening TV. Which happily comes at about the same time as our family vacation. I am of two minds on our TV watching. On the one hand, my fathers influence tells me that all the TV time is not a good use of my time, and it would be better if I spent my evenings doing something else. On the other hand, watching our shows is very much something Kim & I enjoy doing together. So we watch the shows, but I can tell you that I rarely miss it when we miss those shows or something distracts me.
NBA Playoffs
Watched bits and pieces of the first game of the championship last night, saw enough to think that Dallas might be in trouble unless they can remember how to shoot. Because the other parts of the game were dominated by Miami. I feel bad for Dirk and Kidd, but they just have bad timing (again). At least this one doesn't look like it will be decided by officiating. Either way, from what I saw, I haven't missed much in the way of what I think of as entertaining basketball. In fact it was nice to spend Memorial day not caring about sports. Except for watching the UEFA Championship, now that was entertaining! And watching Messi play soccer is about as close as we can get these days to watching say the Showtime Lakers or one of the truly great NFL running backs, that sense that you could see something amazing at any time, and that you are afraid to look away. Which is something that you won't feel in these NBA Finals.
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