The bullshit of e-books

Comments on my recent adventures into the world of tablet computers and ebooks.

I still use a flip phone. Flip phones have become a public target of jokes. As in "you're so old . . .". But you know something? I've always been an early adopter. I have a whole lifetime of history on this to point to. But I am usually of the 2nd generation of early adopters. I don't like to geek out in zones where I'm always having to tinker. That's not early adopting - that is following fads. And then you can call yourself an early adopter if your fad actually becomes useful, popular, and used.

Seriously, a few years ago, they came up with names for the stages of early adoption for tech devices:  "innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority,  . . ."(Wikipedia). Regardless, for me, a smart phone and a tablet have, until recently, seemed more like fancy toys than serious tech. There was no essential function they filled for me - and they were way too problem-ridden. Too problem-ridden, and too brand dominated. Nobody's stuff works with anybody else's stuff, know what I mean? At least with the prior generation of tech - Palm devices - I could get synchronization between my computers and device with a little effort. But, in this new world, there is no dominant device. If I go with a Mac device, I have to figure out how to make it talk to my linux boxes. Windows, Android, whatever, ETC. Ad nauseum. So, I had no need for them, and they looked to be more like a drag on my time.

Ditto e-book readers. Everybody wants their format on the market, and nobody is standardizing. Hey, anybody remember the magnetic tape market? Reel-to-reel? Cassetes? 8-track? How about video! Betamax! VHS! Sheesh. You'd think people would learn. Nope. Can't happen. Kindle. Adobe. Microsoft must have something in there - I don't know. Whatever. Make the story short - I didn't bother. Precisely because it was a bother. No advantage to it for me.

Until this spring. When I thought I had an expat contract, and was looking at going overseas? All of a sudden an e-book reader makes sense. So, I do what everybody does now - I googled it. Turns out the Nexus (Asus), current version, not early, was getting very good reviews and comments. It used Android instead of MS. It was supposed to be able to read pretty much any e-book format. AND, it was a tablet, meaning I could use it for more than just an e-book reader. So maybe I can finally find a replacement for my last, and long dead, Palm.

Went down to the store, checked it out. Looks pretty sharp. Nice attachments available. Sales person assures me that I had read correctly - it could read any e-book. And I bought it.

And it works pretty good. Except I am QUICKLY reminded of why I HATE touch screens. They are a major pain in the ass. They are extremely inaccurate and unresponsive. Oh - the pictures you see on tv, swish here, swipe there and VOILA! Ending in some graphically wondrous enchantment? All true enough - when it works. But, unfortunately, it often does not work. Typing is more than a p.i.t.a. It is MAJOR pita. Try to get the cursor into a text box? Oh yeah, sure - I have to tap it so many times and so hard I'm afraid I'm going to break the goddam screen! Palm's stylus was a very minor pita in comparison. Make a typing error? Need to go back to the middle of the word and delete one letter and insert a new one? Good luck with that! Tip! Tap. TAP. TAP! TAP!!!!  And still no joy - but eventually I get the cursor inserted. Sheesh. My world for a set of arrow buttons.

Another trip to the store. No more of this. I get a mouse. A mouse makes life much better with the tablet. It works. And later I make ANOTHER trip to the store, to pick out a keyboard. From my Palm experience, I am pretty sure that will go much better if I can do a LIVE test and make sure the keyboard WORKS as advertised. Oh - yeah - and I can't use any sort of thumb drive or flash card - unless I get a USB dongle. So I get a dongle.

Ok, so all should be cool now, right? Wrong. Can't read the USB memory sticks. Wft I say? Turns out I have to download an app. Ok, Learning Curve! I'm not smiling, but perhaps I am becoming operational. Turns out I have to download apps for everything, including e-books. But at least I'm getting used to it.

~~~~

So. I'm busy with other stuff for a while, and the tablet sits in its drawer. Then its a couple of weeks later, and I figure I'll get something to read. I'm tired, and I'd like a nice break. A good book would do the trick. So, I look up my library's web site. And, it doesn't work with the tablet. Oh, it works - but not really. I can't get to the forms to login, can't navigate, etc. It isn't really functional. I can see it, but not much better. I manage to use mouse and keyboard to login. So I go to the search page. Whoops. This is even worse.

Ok, nvm, . I take the tablet, put it on the desk, and open my regular computer. This is when I WANT to take a hammer to the damn thing. But I exercise my patience! Login to my library account on my desktop, and run a search for some likely reading material in ebook form. Find some stuff, ok. Download? Hmmmm - manage to figure out how to get it to download onto the tablet. It only takes about 5 screens, and signing up for some new account with somebody the library works through. And I have to eventually figure out how to get to the download screen from the tablet, once I get through all the other junk. Ok. Got some downloads!

A few days go by. I try to open an ebook. Can't. No app. So, download an app. It doesn't work very well. Download another app (and I don't have the faintest idea what is any good, the rating schemes are not very helpful). Ok - this one at least I can FIND the ebooks and "import" them. Except - whoops - it wants some kind of password for some Adobe account. Which I don't have.

And it takes a few more days before I have time to figure this section out. I have to go to Adobe while online and register. Just ANOTHER online entity who wants more info about me than they need or should have. You know, Adobe systems has been a perennial disappointment for many years. Adobe - such a fine, grand name. With a name like that, you would have to expect them to be salt of the earth, good neighbors, and downright good steady people, right? I mean adobe - the word for a simple clay, natural, earth-friendly, traditional,  for building simple, down-to-earth buildings. Got to be good, right? But Adobe Flash is a security abomination that has spent as much time not working as working, and should be banned from every computer. Adobe reader, and pdf file ("Portable Document Format") should be righteous standards, right? Weyelll - partly, eh? Except they charge a monstrous big price for a full version of Acrobat - their software to write to pdf files. And Reader is always more crippled than not. But you can gripe with my griping about Reader. They do pretty well on that score, even if they haven't always done. And it is free. Although, frankly, I think they should charge less for Acrobat, and charge a little for Reader.

Anyway, now my library has Adobe E-pub books. I checked them out from the library. Should have been simple enough.  Wasn't, not quite, but got that done. Now, should be able to read them, yes? Noooooo - got to register with Adobe first! Piffle. But I get that done, too. Should be able to read the books now, right? I've had them for five days, they are due back in just over a week.

But can I open them? NOOOOOO! Can't do that! "Download has expired!" Got to re-download!

You have ephing got to be kidding me. This is ephing ridiculous. I checked the books out.  WHY SHOULD THE CHECK-OUT SYSTEM CARE WHETHER I'VE OPENED THE EPHING BOOKS OR NOT!

So guess who's going to get an earful from me. This is ridiculous, and I'm going to hand some of this shit back to somebody in the system.

Oh, and btw, remember that download? Ooops. I should have written down how I got it to work - because now I want to do it again - and I can't! Poop. Which means, more of my time, devoted to making something work, that it seems like SHOULD have worked without all this bullshit.

A mild winter - turns bitter

Well. For the most part - it has been a mild winter. As you may have noticed, a couple of weeks back it started to get real about being winter. So we had a couple of cold days - real cold. Then it got milder for a spell. Some weather in the teens, but mostly above 20 F (~ -7C). Some days above freezing - most of the snow went away. Still had some crusty stuff left. Then it decided to get back to real cold.

Once you hit 10 F (-12 C), imo, it is in the top of the real cold range. So now, for a few days, we are below 10. A couple of mornings past we hit a low of 1 F. Last night the low was -7 F (-22). Now we are REALLY getting into the cold.

So it snowed, maybe 10 or 12 inches. Easy to clear, it is so cold it was dry dry dry. I haven't worked outside clearing snow and stuff in temps like these in several decades. It was much colder in Russia, while I was working there - but the risk taking walks was fairly low. I wasn't working, building a sweat, or getting gloves or mittens wet from getting blasted with snow.

Now, for a fact, I don't work up much of a sweat pushing a snowblower. Hehehe, not at all. But, the winds blows a little bit, and I have a snow crust all over whatever I am wearing. I slip and fall - or drop a broom or a shovel or whatever, and have to pick it out of a drift - and I've got snow up my sleeves - instant chill to the hands.

So I'm out clearing snow from the driveway at -5 F. Cold, baby. The tem actually goes DOWN after daybreak - a couple more degrees - to -7. Auh-huh. Chilly. Later in the day it finally goes back up a few degrees, but we have a couple of cold days.

The good side? I get to wear winter clothes I haven't worn in a long time - like my Russian fur hat. Anytime the temp is 10 F or higher, it is too warm for this hat - I sweat.

It sure is pretty. Picture perfect white snow drifts, makes the roads look real country. But the dogs don't even like it - Klinger's paws are so cold he is acting like the snow is a bed of nails. We go out the next day - at about 15 F, and he is happy as a clam running around in the snow. But -5 is a bit too much!

It was -2 F this morning. Did I tell you about the summer table?

It was -2 F this morning. That is about -19 C. Cold. Not super duper cold, I know, but cold. Lovely white snow, still fresh. Crusting over just a bit now, because of the good sunshine yesterday, but dry powder underneath. Sara will not go in it - as it is too deep for her - I think it probably puts a strain on her bad knee. Klinger is ok with it, but he has long enough legs. After a while, he isn't so happy in it, I think his webbed toes don't like the crunchy snow, and I also think it is cold for his feet when he isn't moving.

Did I tell you about the summer table? Notice the seque to a non-winter topic? It has a nice snowy top now. But here, let me show you what it looked like this summer.

There are two stories in this photo. I got the tiles in the give-and-take at the transfer station. Free. Too few to do a house project with. Nice tiles. So, I bought a bag of concrete and mixed it up. Then I laid some plastic down and used some cardboard scraps to make a mold. Put the tiles in the mold, and poured a little sand in between them. Pour in the concrete and tamp it down, and voila, I have a table top. A bit rustic, but perfect for an outdoor table.

The "happy" cup - isn't it marvelous? Just looking at all those (hand painted!) decorations and the joy in them is enough to make me a bit happy! And, it says, on the handle: "Thank You! Thank You!". I got it, for free, at the give-and-take.  Obviously a gift to someone in lieu of a thank you note. If it had been given to me, I would not have been able to bear parting with it. But, also obviously, for whatever reason, someone did not feel the same way. Perhaps there is more of a story there, who knows? It brings me a little sunshine when I use it, so there ya go - something good from it.

That same day, while photographing the table, I had a small visitor.

The photo quality is not the best - it is a phone photo. But, he sure was a pretty fella.

Canning the Wild Concord Grape

It was wild. Aha, oho, yuck yuck! Well, one thing for sure - it was purple. I had one hot spill. And, of course, I spilled it on me. It was HOT!  So, I simulated a full murder theater arterial blood splatter across the side of the kitchen. Fortunately, just my hand, thus the quick fling and spatter across the wall got it off me. But what a spatter! It stained the paint - there are now faint purple spots across the wall. I went to the sink and turned the water on cold, and stuck my hand into the streaming water. Nice thing that we get pretty cold water. One of the benefits of well water.

But it is sooo good. Or at least I think so. Someone thinks it has an "off" flavor - but I think it is either some medicine she is taking, or it is the result of "sour grapes" since I cooked it. It is tart - it is not super sweet, and it is full of the grape flavor. And, it is jam, meaning the skins are in so it has a little texture. Oh, and yeah, the occasional seed, too. Didn't get all the little buggers.

Getting the seeds out turns out to be a lot of work. The 1st recipe I found online called for slipping the skins off the grapes. I did a couple, and immediately said, "whadaffuq am I doing here? This will take FOREVER!" And so I didn't slip the skins. That batch turned out just fine - but I gave up trying to strain the mess through a colander - I would have been there until next year. No-go on doing it that way. So, I find a local hardware with canning supplies and a FOOD MILL.. That's a little hand-cranked doobee that has two wings or leaves that push the solids into a colander type straining surface. That worked. Amazingly well, actually.

Except it left a lot of the skins in the "dry" part, and it would have take "foahevah" again to get it better this way. So, the next batch? I slip the skins off the grapes as I process them. It take a couple of hours to do a few pounds, but it does find grapes that are wormy and would have passed my "eyeball" test while I was washing them. Slipping the skins means I cook the pulp, which contains the seeds, and the skins separately, at least for the first step. I puree the skins, and I put the pulp in the food processor after cooking them soft. The food processors breaks most of the pulp free from the seeds, and into the food mill it goes. A half hour or so later, I have half as much pulp, but mostly free of seeds. A few seeds snuck through.

Now I get down to the serious cooking. These grapes are tart enough I need some sugar. Not as much as most recipes call for - about half that. I test the results for pectin - to see if I need to add pectin. The 1st batch tests low. The 2nd batch test "medium". Either way I have to add some pectin. I tried adding some crabapples in the first batch - they didn't test high in pectin either! Must 'a been too ripe, idk.

So I add pectin, and can. Everything turns out real well with the jam. I take a jar to some neighbors - the lady I buy eggs from. They like it, so I think my taste buds are validated. It has the flavor of these Concord grapes. They are wild, so the flavor is not as rich as it might be - but it is still very good. And there is tartness to it. I like it.

We have a bunch of apples on our tree this year, too. Completely organic - they get NO attention from me. Which means they are pretty funky to look at. Scab, worms, black blight, you name it, it afflicts the apples. Most of these do not affect the taste, just the appearance and size. If you are willing to cut them up, they are extremely good eating apples. Kinda like a fuji - sweet, AND tart, with crisp, moist, firm white flesh. Not grainy or mealy, until they are really ripe to the point of almost over ripe. Actually, fully ripe with these apples IS over ripe for eating. Because they are tart, they also cook extremely well. They make a great applesauce, with no sugar added, and no spices added - just apples.

I can a couple of quarts - but this canning doesn't turn out as well. I have problems getting the applesauce jars to seal. I'll have to figure that out. Also, I read on one recipe that a little salt in the applesauce will make an average applesauce a superior applesauce. So I add a little salt to the 2nd batch. Ooops. A little salt was too much salt. Now it tastes, hmmm, just a little odd. Not bad, just not really as good, either. Shucks. Well - I guess I won't be sharing little jars of applesauce for Christmas!

Note - this was actually written in September - just got around to posting it here!

FYI - merged my old Russia work blog into this one

For those of you who get notification of a new post, my apologies - you probably got a whole bunch of notices yesterday. I merged the content from my Russia blog into this one. No reason for me to write there any more - not working or traveling in Russia - but I didn't want to see it just wither and die. There are good posts in there.

Wild Concord Grapes

Wild Concord Grapes
In the spring, this year, the grape vines were optimistic. They had thousands of flowers and flower stalks. And, because I could see them, I was optimistic, too! I've been waiting for them to ripen all summer.

At first, I was a little disappointed. While the flower stalks had been very visible, I could
see very few grapes developing. As the summer went on, though, I found a couple of spots with a few green globes hiding under the leafy grapevine cover. I knew there would be more, as they like to hide. I kept an eye on those places, watching for when they would ripen.

Which is why I was surprised one day to smell the distinct heady sweetness of Concord grapes while passing another section of road with vines. The ones I had been watching were still green!

A few days later I had time to check the grapevines where I could smell them. I was rewarded with the sight of lots of ripe, purple-black grapes! Many were even too ripe, and some were drying and shriveling. This batch was perfect - days in the past! I guess this spot gets more sunlight than where I was watching them.

I got some time one morning to do some picking. Within a yard or so of where I first looked, I found a gallon or so of grape worth picking. Now, last year, I had to glean the whole area, all along the 2 mile stretch where I take the dogs running, just to get a few quarts of grapes. This year, I've already gotten almost as many, and I haven't moved more than a yard from where I first stood! And they are in bunches! The past couple of years, it was unusual to find a bunch with more than 3-4 grapes.

Taking them home, I wash and throw away perhaps a half-quart of trash. Another 2 quarts are 2nd quality grapes - good for cooking, but not that great for eating. I still have almost 2 quarts of prime table grapes.

There are still more, many more, and it is a challenge. On Saturday, I go out about 6:30 in the morning to pick. The dogs are happy to come with. No fox sightings, by the way.

Two years ago, this section along the road was mostly sumac. Four or five years ago, it was mostly open. The sumac came up, and it was beautiful. About two years ago, I started noticing the grapevine coming in as well. Last year, it was a nice balanced section of sumac and grapevine. The sumac created a perfect natural arbor for the grapevine. This year, the grapevine has overcome the sumac. I can still see some few red spires where the sumac berries poke through, but it is mostly grapevine.

The first section I picked, I did not penetrate into the thicket. This day, I do. Inside this leafy grapevine canopy is a green cavern. It is difficult to get around, due to the spiderwebs of grape tendrils, but a snip of the secateurs here, and another snip there, and I can manuever through. I spend 2-3 hours picking, and I get gallons of grapes. Perhaps 4 or so, probably about 6 pounds worth. And most of these are first quality grapes!

And all this is within 10 yards of where I started. I head on down to the other end of the dog run route, where I had been keeping an eye on some grapes. One section there is ripe. It is unusual, in that it is a red Concord grape. Mostly Concords are a deep purple black. These are quite red, instead, with a nice tartness to the Concord flavor. I get another couple of gallons there.

I have not even gone to a few of the other spots where I found grapes last year. But I've already created so much work for myself, I must be content! There are way too many to eat, so I will have to make grape jam! This creates more work for me when I should be focused on other things - but I will be happy when I have little jars of homemade grape jam to give for Christmas presents! 

Let's hope the jam gells! I cooked some up yesterday - just to test-cook the grapes. Good flavor, with some tart dryness to the flavor. With a little sugar, it should be very good! I ran the "candy test" on a frozen plate for pectin content, though, and it didn't gell. So I will add pectin, and hope I can get it to be more than juice. Keep your fingers crossed, and wish me luck!

The Mangy Fox

While I was in DC, excitement was happenin' at home. Early in the week the dogs started a fox, near the business storage sheds across the street. They hared off after him, naturally. Suzanne was walking them, and they didn't respond to her recall at first. But they didn't chase him far, I guess, before they came back. As Suzanne tells it, the fox ran into our own yard, and stopped at the top of the hill, just outside the dog fence. And then just stood there and surveyed the yard, as if it were his own.

As she described the fox, he was mangy, and thin, with a rat tail (no hair on his tail). Definitely not looking good. So she kept the cats in. The fox seemed to be hanging about, and she was worried about the cats - that he might be stalking them.

End of the week, and I come home. I'm willing to let the dogs out to seek fox. I have enough faith they will come home, and we don't want this guy hanging about. The cats are more outdoor than indoor, even though we make sure they are inside at night. Tommy cat is not happy staying inside, and Trina is more nervous than usual. Kept inside they would bug us. Too much nervous energy.

So, Thursday evening, and I take the dogs out fox hunting. We circle the edges of the back yard, then head across the street to the business sheds and the patch of woods behind them. Our usual run route passes directly behind this small patch of trees and shrubs. We see nothing.

Friday morning, and Tommy is jumping on all the bookshelves and whatnot with energy to spare. Trina I let outside, in the dog yard. She is reliable, and generally stays in the yard, and shows cautious fear appropriately, like for traffic, or strange dogs. Tommy, I know, will go across the street soon after he is let out. His territory is larger, and one of his fav hangouts is exactly where the dogs first flushed the fox. I take the dogs out, to "scope" the area. No sooner do I get outside, then Klinger sights something across the front yard and bolts. He is in full-on visual chase acceleration. Sara follows him, close behind. They have flushed the fox from the front yard - very near the side entrance to the dog yard, where Trina is.

I see a red blur escape across the road, in full flight, with the dogs close behind. I go to the dog yard and check on Trina. She is in quiet, cautious, attentive pose, keeping a small profile - so I know she had seen the fox. The dogs are stalled across the street, milling about. I get my bike so I can follow, and head across the street.

I don't get far. The dogs had lost the fox at the first storage building. They don't seem to have any idea where to head from here. But that is fine with me. My intent is not to catch the fox, but just to chase him away so he goes somewhere else to live.

Saturday evening, and we run another check, at dusk. Back yard, clear. Cross the street, and the dogs head straight for that first shed. I can see no likely entry or exit, no foxhole. The smell around and explore, eagerly. As I move farther down towards the other end of the shed row, I see a brown blur heading around the other end of the building. The dogs haven't seen a thing, so I round them up and go to the other side of the building and the big field there. They mill about again, very interested, but not really finding anything. I am quite sure the blur was the fox - it was the right size, but the light is failing. It is almost dark, and it is too dark to see color. Finding nothing, we head home.

On Sunday, we head out for our usual run, which, as I said, passes these places where the fox was spotted. I take the dogs around the back yard before we go, to run a fox check. We check the other places as we pass them, but turn up nothing.

On the way home from our run, a walker flags me down. He is eager to warn me of the "mangy fox, with a ratty tail" that he, and other guests at the hostel next door saw on Saturday. One hostel guest even left out a bit of hot dog for the fox to eat (oh, lord, some people are idiots about wild critters). He describes the fox as odd in appearance, unusually bold and calm ("like it was a pet"), and mangy. The description fits with Suzanne's. I haven't seen enough besides a blur to know anything myself.

So, all week I go out at least once a day on a "fox hunt". No further sightings, but the dogs are "critter alerting" in the middle of the night, every single night. I get up and let them out - no critters spotted. The cats stay in, mostly. I let Trina out, but she stays out a couple of hours, then comes back inside for the day.

If the fox is rabid, as he might be from the "bold" description of his behavior, he shouldn't last much longer than a week. So, on Friday, a week after I got in this, I run a fox check in the morning, then I let Tommy out. He'll come in for a midday snack, and we will close the door then. We follow this pattern through the weekend. On Sunday morning, I'm running the morning fox check, and I meet a neighbor who is about to walk her dog. She lives farther down the road, about half a mile from my house.

I tell her I've got the dogs out on a "fox check". She reports seeing a fox a few days earlier. The description is the same: mangy. I ask "rat tail?", and she answers "Yeah!". But this is farther down the road, so that is probably good.

On Sunday night, as Graeme is driving to work, he sights the fox - or one of a similar description: a mangy fox with a rat tail. By the way, a fox's fur is frequently poor in the summer, but a healthy fox would still have a good coat, and a full bushy tail. A hairless, ratty tail is unusual. Where Graeme has spotted the fox is closer to where the neighbor lives and spotted him. It is a little further down the road, but the road turns up the hill there, so through the woods it is about the same distance as the neighbor's house. Still less than a mile away, or maybe a mile. But it is a little ways, and hopefully enough. I'll continue to run fox checks before we let the cats out. There is a good side to the additional sighting: the fox is likely not rabid. There is a bad side, as well. He isn't that far away that he might not be at our house hunting. "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"

Next week: Wild Concord grapes - an excellent year!