Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Couple Of Quick Thoughts


So here is how it always seems to work whenever I’m about to go out of town for a week or so: I’ve set all the travel plans, purchased all the tickets, made all of the reservations, checked the air pressure in the tires, finished, delegated or rescheduled all my work responsibilities and am now good to go, literally. And then a couple of pesky items kind of start to creep in from the sides and as the final take off minutes approach I find myself maybe not scrabbling about, but definitely moving with purpose, quickly.

That is the nature of this post today, quickly moving with purpose. To help move along I’m going to use a numbered outline format.

Number one. The SLFL has now officially launched our Kindle for patron use. You can read either the daily Kindle edition of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. We have also downloaded a few ebooks. You will need to sign a form stating that you’ve read the Kindle use policy and guidelines. It will then take a few minutes for the staff member to give you a quick tutorial so that you’ll be able to navigate around the device. Here are a few heads-up before you start. Because of the nature of the E-Ink technology used by Kindle the screens do not move quickly. The nature of the technology requires the entire screen to be electronically reconfigured each time a change is made. What this means is that you actually save battery life and you can also keep the E-Ink format which is easier on your eyes when you read. But it is not lightening fast. I won’t call it pokey, but it’s not fast either. Also the 5 - directional curser is very sensitive. It is very easy for you to inadvertently do two things at once, neither of which was what you intended to do. So be aware of that. And lastly, the Home button is your friend. Your mother was right when she told you, “When you are having problems it is a good idea to come back Home and refocus.”

Number Two. I’ve spoken with a couple of people about the Kurt Wallander series that I’ve been reading and posting about. I should mention that I did not find these books to be light, easy reading. I’m not sure if it that the books are translated from Swedish to American English that is the problem or the author’s style of writing or the nature of the stories. It’s probably all three. What I am sure about is that this is Northern Noir at its best. So if you are not up for a flawed protagonist, who works his way through his self-imploding life while solving gruesome murders you might want to read something else.

Number Three. As many of you know by this time next week I should be somewhere near the Yukon Territory / British Columbia border. I should also have passed the half-way point in my travels. I have taken care of my reading needs for the trip and I’ll let you know in a future post what I thought of them. But what I can tell you is that The Milepost is one of the items I’ll be bringing along.


Number Four: It is my plan to continue to post from the road. I am looking forward to writing about where I am, what I am seeing and what I’ve been reading along the way. However, I already know that because of the where I will be traveling I will not always have access to the internet; so some of the posts and my ability to moderate comments may be delayed. We’ll just have to wait and see. I do promise to send postcards. If any you have a desire to do so you can find out what the travel conditions are like where I’ll be traveling by checking the following websites: http://511.alaska.gov/alaska511/mappingcomponent/ , http//www.511yukon.ca , http//www.drivebc.ca , or http://511.idaho.gov/ . And remember if you don’t have access to a computer at home you can always use one at your public library. It is also possible to view web cams along our intended route. So I did. What I found when I viewed the eighteen or so thumbnails along Yukon Territory Route 2 East at 2:30 in the afternoon the other day was that not a single captured frame had a photo of a vehicle in it. So, if you do take a look you might not actually see us go by. But if you do see a 1993 Honda Civic with Alaska plates and there is a kayak and bike attached to the roof with a dog in the back seat and two people in the front seats having a great time, that'll be us.

See you at the Library,
Pete

1 comment:

  1. Pete:

    According to in Feb. 2011 the next Kurt Wallander book "The Troubled Man" will be released in English.

    Harry

    ReplyDelete