Shocking Gates Drama

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Mike McDonald

gates Shocking Gates Drama

I love this new show The Gates on ABC. It’s about a rich community that all live in the safety of “The Gates” with round the clock security. They have their own schools, their own shops, their own police station. Nobody gets into the gates unless they live there.

What’s different is that there are supernatural beings living within the gates. Vampires, Werewolves and even a Succubus.

In last nights episode, the main vampire couple Dylan and his wife Claire deal with the kidnapping of their daughter Emily. But we find out in the episode how they adopted her. Claire it turns out killed her parents but then discovered after the fact that they had a baby sleeping upstairs.

Instead of leaving the baby in the house until the parents are discovered so that she can grow up with her next of kin, they take her. They justify it by saying that they thought that the parents (who were both on drugs at the time that she killed them) were scum and nobody would care about them.

Nick the vampire who kidnapped Emily, brought her to the same house she was taken from to stay with her aunt and uncle who have been searching for her for the last 8 years and it turns out her birth name is Piper.

The moral question is, when Claire and Dylan finally figured it all out and went to the house to get her back, should they have taken her away from her true family? I mean sure, when they kidnapped her they legally adopted her, probably from vampires no doubt but should that adoption have continued? Shouldn’t they have done the right thing and say “look, we know what we did was wrong and we know that she should spend the rest of her childhood with her true family”?

With all these child abductions and child murders in the news lately, I think that the answer is they should have surrendered her to her legal family. The reality of it is, the only way they are going to continue living as docile vampires is if they keep Emily. If they lost her they would go back to their old ways of killing people. And even though it’s wrong for them to keep Emily, they need Emily more than she needs them.

I can’t condone their actions but it is however just a tv show. In real life they would’ve been expected to give her up, as they should have in the show.

I wonder what Nancy Grace thinks of all of this.

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Labor Day Coupon

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Mike McDonald

Today is the last day to take advantage of my Labor Day coupon for 25% off.

laborday Labor Day Coupon

The next coupon will be at Halloween time.

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PC Magazine for Nook

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Mike McDonald

pcmag PC Magazine for NookLast night I was thinking about the customer reviews on PC Magazine for Nook and then I was thinking about how they gave the Los Angeles Times such a bad review but I bought an issue at .75¢ to see for myself and it wasn’t as bad as they made it out to be. So I thought, why not try the 14 day trial for PC Magazine. I only get 1 magazine a month and I have 14 days to cancel, I get to sample a free magazine at no cost to me and I don’t have to keep paying.

I could have bought the 1 issue at $2.49 and been out a couple bucks just to check out how it looks or I could get the trial and not lose anything. I am so glad I chose the latter because it is very nicely done. The subscription is only $1.49 per month or per magazine if you will and I get it automatically on the first of every month. Not bad.

I used to get PC World magazine years ago and I had that subscription for I think 10 years but canceled because I couldn’t afford it anymore. Also I had stopped reading it so every issue that came to the house got ignored. I might look at a couple of articles but I didn’t really give much time to it as I used to. They didn’t want to let me go, they fought for me but I had made my mind up, I just couldn’t afford it. Eventually they gave up. If they had PC World for Nook I would gladly start my subscription back up.

I read a few articles this morning of the PC Magazine and although they were good, they weren’t as good as PC World. But it’s the best that I can get for $1.49 per month and since it’s the only PC magazine that is in e-subscription for the Nook then it’s all I got.

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Nook Fun

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Mike McDonald

I’ve been having a bit of fun with my new Nook. Since I’ve learned what makes it freeze I have learned to avoid certain ways of handling it and it hasn’t frozen all day.

Today I read 2 more chapters from “Dead Until Dark” and I finally came across a word that I wasn’t sure about. I’d heard it before but wasn’t quite sure what it’s meaning was for that particular sentence and/or circumstance. I happily touched the screen to make it light up and in the menu was able to put the cursor in front of the word to look it up.

Don’t ask me what the word was because now I forgot but then I found 2 more words and although the definition of the 3rd one didn’t make much sense I just happily kept reading.

Reading with such big text means I have to turn the page a lot more than if I were reading an actual book but I don’t mind waiting the 1 second it takes for the screen to refresh.

When I was finished reading for the day I decided to crop and resize some images that I found on a website called nook-Look. They are True Blood images and I don’t know why they weren’t cropped or resized properly to 600×800 but whatever. I put them on the Nook and went to the settings and made them my screen saver. Every time I turn it off (or in standby) it loads 1 image. The next time it loads a different image. It keeps loading a different image in the folder that you have chosen and then eventually goes back to the very first image.

I was looking at one of the images and it was basically all black, it was an image of a werewolves eyes with the true blood logo at the bottom but the image was all black except for the eyes and the logo. It then occurred to me that “screen burn” might happen. You know when you have an image on the screen for so long then the next time you turn it on you see that image all the time because it got burned into the screen.

I decided to go searching the internet and found a nook message board and apparently I wasn’t the only one who was concerned about it because there was an active post.

Fortunately they said that e-ink screens don’t do that like an LCD screen might. WHEW!

So after I got that off my mind I was able to move on to other things and started looking around for Xanth images so that when I read the next Xanth novel I can use that for my screen saver too. Unfortunately I couldn’t find very many, only a few really. I did find enough that I am satisfied though.

I went back to that nook-look site and started going crazy downloading different screen savers lol. I think that I will not put too many on there until I am ready for them. I know they don’t take up too much space but still, I think that I’d rather not take up any more space than I really have to until I really need to.

One cool thing that I did find while browsing the Nook store via the Nook is they have some books listed through Google books and they were all free. I wasn’t expecting that. Although I didn’t download anything because I have enough books in my queue as it is but knowing that I have the option available makes me happy.

Oh and the Lend feature, I don’t know if I mentioned before but it’s kind of bogus. You can only lend a lendable book to 1 person… ever. Once they borrow it, when they lose it and it’s back on my Nook they and nobody else can ever borrow it again. It becomes unborrowable forever. That sucks so I really have to pick and choose who I lend anything to because what if I lend it to someone who decides they don’t have time to read it but then someone who actually wants to read it can’t have it because I lent it to some dipwad who couldn’t be bothered. Like I said before… LOTTERY lol.

I changed my “I am reading…” widget in my sidebar to the anobii.com image of my current book reading because for some strange reason the e-book pages are different from an actual book. Like Dead Until Dark has like 336 pages but in my Nook it only has 222 pages. So if I say I’m on page 92 you might think I haven’t gotten very far but really I have. Also, there are some books that can’t be listed through that widget that I have to enter manually in anobii. And anyway, who really needs to know what page I’m on? I mean sheesh.

So if you see the book that I am currently reading then you’ll know I’m still on that one but I highly doubt anyone really cares lol.

In my previous post I spoke of how I made my own book cover for my Nook. Well, a friend of mine who sent me all the Xanth novels in the mail last year also sent me a “Mighty Bright” light which clips on the book but I thought I couldn’t use it any more because it might crush the Nook lol. Well, I was pleased to know that it clips to the cardboard of my book cover right behind the Nook. So it’s centered in the middle of the top of the Nook allowing me the brightest of lights to read in my poorly lit bedroom.

Well, tomorrow is another day to explore more of my new toy hehe. My ambien are kicking in so I better go to bed. Tootles!

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My Free Nook Cover

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Mike McDonald

Last night while we were at Barnes & Noble, after I had already paid for the Nook, Chip asked if I bought a cover for it. Well naturally I didn’t. I had only saved up just enough money to buy the Nook. I didn’t even buy the extended warranty (which I have 30 days to buy), how could I afford a cover?

We went over to the Nook display and I was looking at their prices. Some of them were $50. Some were as low as $10 but those were rubber and didn’t cover the book like a book cover. I don’t want that. We left with the thought that ‘I will eventually buy one’ in mind.

I’m sitting here looking at the Nook and thinking, I really wish I had a cover for it because now that I’m thinking about it, it starts to worry me. How can I possibly feel safe with the limited warranty that I get if I don’t have a cover to protect it if something happens.

As I’m looking at the covers available I’m noticing that they are basically just cardboard with plastic or fabric sewn onto them. I could do that. Could I do that? Yes, I think I can.

For some odd reason we still have the big box that Chips HDTV came in. The cardboard is really thick but it’s not too thick and it’s not too thin either. I want the cover to be strong enough that it won’t bend easily. I cut the top flap and the side in a book V shape. Although I needed to add another bend because this thing is a bit thick and I need it to wrap around in more of a U shape.

I have these book covers that I bought at the grocery store in 2007 when the final Harry Potter novel came out. Luckily it came out around the same time they started stocking the back to school stuff. It’s a stretchy fabric so it starts out small but stretches enough to fit a big history or science book. I bought 2 of them, black and red. They were cheap so I bought 2. They had some other colors but black and red were my favorite.

I’m really glad I’ve held onto them all these years because I was able to finally utilize one of them. I got the cardboard cut up perfectly so it’s just the right size for the Nook. I stretched the book cover over the cardboard and although it’s a bit long it fits and it kind of looks cool at how loose it is. It looks like it was on purpose that it’s so loose.

Ok, now I have a cover but how the heck is this thing supposed to really hold it? I’m gonna need some corners to hold onto it. How do I do that?

Solution. You know Rexlace? You know, the stuff that you use to make those cool key chains? Well, in 2004 (I think) I remembered how I learned how to make those key chains when I was in the cub scouts and I wanted to see if I could learn again. I bought a bunch of rexlace, even megalace. I thought the megalace would be really cool but it turns out that it was even more difficult to make that I thought.

I’ve held onto all that rexlace and megalace all these years. When I buy craft stuff, I may not use it all up right away but eventually I will have a need for it and tonight I had a need for it.

I have some black megalace and I pulled some of it out and held it up to the corner and measured how much I would need and cut 4 pieces. Ok, I have the pieces but how to sew it on? I started using a needle and thread but that was very difficult and time-consuming and the thread kept breaking.

Solution. I have a sewing awl. AHA! That works perfectly because the needle is thick enough to go through the cardboard and the handle makes pushing it through a breeze and the wax thread is thick enough that it will hold better than plain old sewing thread.

It took me awhile and since the thread was black, the megalace was black and the book cover was black, it made it very difficult to see in the poor lighting in my room. But it worked out. I have my book cover, the nook stays in place and I saved $50.

HPNX1632 My Free Nook Cover

The only issue that I have is that the cover won’t stay closed so in order for it to stay closed I have to lay it down so that the weight of the Nook lies on the front cover to keep it closed. That’s fine though. I may eventually figure out a way to sew a latch on the front and back, like a buckle or something. I don’t know. I will figure it out, I always do.

So now my Nook is protected when not in use and when in use as well. I am very happy and satisfied with my handy work.

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My Nook Observations and Irritations

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Mike McDonald

I finally did it! I finally bought a Barnes & Noble Nook last night. It didn’t take me very long to figure out how it works but here are my observations and irritations.

I bought the first Sookie Stackhouse novel and at first I was put off by the fact that swiping the touchscreen wasn’t working but I finally got it to work and now it works all the time. Sometimes I accidentally brush my finger on it and it turns the page lol. Oops.

I was reading this morning and my dog came to me to pick her up so I sat the Nook down on my desk and when I went to pick it up again I couldn’t turn the page. It was frozen. And that happened to me a few times last night but I didn’t understand why.

My observation from that irritation is that instead of setting it down, I’m gonna have to turn it off with that metal power button on the top and watch it go into screen saver mode then lay it down. When I pick it back up it I have to push the power button again.

I was playing with the Sudoku game last night and having fun actually but sometimes if I pushed the arrow button on the touchscreen on the left side it goes to the menu and I’m forced to start a new game or go into the menu. I think that if I just go into the menu then go back to the game it might continue but that wasn’t the case for me. And when the nook shut down completely when I turned it back on, it erased my game completely forcing me to start over. HOW IRRITATING!

I probably won’t be playing it that often because of that very reason.

It seems to freeze on me a lot and at first I started to think that I may have gotten a defective one but what are the odds that I would get a defective one? I always seem to think that an electronic is defective so I return it for another and it shows the same sign of defectiveness. I don’t want to have to go all that way back to B&N just to suffer the same pains especially if that’s normal for the Nook.

When you are in your B&N library you can choose to see the little covers on the bottom to choose a book to read or you can just push the arrows up or down to choose a book. Although it’s faster to choose from the book covers. However, when you have put your own books in the Nook via the USB cable, you don’t get that option. There are no little book covers. I kind of figured that it wouldn’t show them but that’s fine, I don’t care.

I do like being able to highlight a word or type out a note but unfortunately when you go to highlight things, if it’s down at the bottom you have to push that bottom arrow and it can take forever. That’s one thing that impressed me with the Sony that you could use the stylus to tap on the word but unfortunately the touchscreen makes it hard to read books. Typing is a bit of a chore too because my fingers are so fat that I can’t even see if the letter lit up or not when I press it so I’m constantly having to look up at the e-ink to make sure I pressed it lol. I definitely need a stylus.

I also bought the King James version of the Holy Bible because you never know when you’re gonna need it. Unfortunately, navigation is a biotch. When you go to a book it shows links for all the chapters. If you want chapter 1 then perfect, it’s on that same page but if you want chapter 21 then you gotta push the arrow button twenty million times to get all the way down to 21. Ok so twenty million is an exaggeration but you know what I mean.

Once you finally get to your chapter you just have to turn the page to the verse you want.  That’s a good time to bookmark it for when you are at church and you are supposed to turn to that page.  You can just wake up the Nook and go to your bookmarks.

Highlighting is kind of a bitch if you are highlighting something at the bottom of the page because as with finding the bible chapter you have to press the arrow button many times to get to it before you can start selecting the text.  When you do go to select the text you can highlight it and you have the choice of writing a note or just hitting submit.

Unfortunately, and this is an irritation, you can’t look up your highlighted notes from the beginning of the book.  The only way you will be able to find that note is by making a bookmark.  The Nook for PC software allows you to find all your notes.  I don’t know about the Nook software for other devices such as iPhone, iPad, blackberry etc.

Despite my irritations, I’m glad that I bought it because now I can enjoy reading books that I would otherwise have to read on my computer monitor which is not very comfortable on my eyes or my back.

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Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Mike McDonald

One of the books that I bought for my new Nook is the first Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.

I wasn’t going to start reading it until today because I got my Nook late at night, after 8pm, and it usually takes me awhile to read a chapter and I didn’t want to read it until I had a fresh start early in the day. However, I was impatient so I started reading it.

One of the reasons I wanted to read it is because it’s the first True Blood novel. I knew that it would be different from the actual show because people keep telling me that it has more detail and that’s almost always the case with books. A friend of mine told me that they are nothing like the show and that it has nothing to do with True Blood.

I’m a little confused why she told me that because as I was reading half of the first chapter last night, it seemed to me that not only was this exactly like True Blood but it was almost the first episode verbatim. In fact, it was the first episode verbatim.

The end of the chapter didn’t give me a cliffhanger like the first episode did, Bill fed Sookie and she got better after being beat up by the “Rat’s” and he confessed to her that he killed them. In the show, at the end of the first episode, she’s getting beat up and they go to credits then the 2nd episode he saves her.

I’m very happy that this first novel is turning out to be exactly what I had hoped it would be but I’ve only read chapter 1 so far. While I’m reading it I had the actual voices and accents of the characters from the tv show playing out each scene in my head with visuals.

When I’m reading I try to give the characters voices that I would imagine that they sound like but sometimes if I can’t imagine it then it’s just my own voice in my head. But I do try to picture the characters and their surroundings as I’m reading because it gives me a better idea of what I’m reading so I understand it better.

Sometimes I can’t and it confuses me and I tend to take longer reading but it seems that since I already have a visual from True Blood on HBO I tend to be able to read faster.

One of the things I do hate about reading and is why it took me 35 years to start reading is that books have big words and it seems like you would need a college education to understand what you are reading. What I like about these books are that I have not come across this issue. Although, now that I have a Nook if I do come across a word like that then I can look it up and get the definition then continue reading.

Obviously this is not a book review and who the hell am I to give one, I’m just saying I’m reading it now and I’m very happy with it and happy I have it on my Nook.

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