Well my Kindle has shuffled off this mortal coil.  It gave its all for a good two years or so (maybe more it feels like it’s been here forever).  For some reason the screens all funked up.  There’s this blank stripe that traverses the middle of the screen, top to bottom.  Then when it tries to boot up (if it suceeds) the screen only shows what would normally be the right side of the screen (where the authors names are) and the left side of the stripe.  To the right side of the stripe there is just a jumble as it tries to load the same stuff and fails, leaving the pattern there and building on top of each other.  If I keep this up I’m sure ulitmately it will go completely black.  I’ve hit reset repeatedly, I’ve pulled the battery out, let it set for a while, but nothing I do will fix it.I hooked it up via usb and pulled everything off of it and saved it to my computer so I still have all my books.  Daddy put enough money in my account to buy a new one, which I did.  Thankfully they’ve gone down in price from the last one I bought and I got the Global version for $259.  The first time I bought one the final total was around $400.  But the first one came with a cover, this one did not, and the official kindle cover cost $34, but instead of just black it comes in red!  I can’t wait!

My little Kindle mach 1 gave its all in service to a bibliophile.  It served well, and while it may be gone and replaced, it will not be forgotten.  *Turns and salutes the Kindle as Taps plays. *

A Crack in the Ede of the World by Simon Winchester

After reading the book The Chase by Clive Cussler, I realized I knew very little about the San Francisco earthquake.  There are surprisingly few books about one of the greatest natural disasters to befall our country, A Crack in the Edge of the World was one of the few books I could find.  I looked everywhere for this book, no book store carried, and I didn’t want to pay shipping for it.  Finally I swapped for it on Swaptree, and got my grubby little paws on it.  I was excited since I had read Winchester’s other book The Professor and the Madman and enjoyed it thoroughly.  ACitEotW is an entirely different kettle of fish.  Winchester spends half the book on geology, the history of it, and how it led to the great earthquake.  Literally half way into the book he got to the earthquake.  That is where it got good.  I didn’t want a treatise on geology, I wanted to hear about the heroes and villains of the day in 1906 when the earth did its damnedest to buck San Francisco of the face of the earth.  I wanted triumphs of the human spirit, not dry accounts on how the plates shift.  Maybe I’m plebeian but dang it I wanted a story!  The latter half of the book was good until Winchester started prattling about his road trip along the fault.  I don’t care about Mr Winchester, though I’m sure he is a lovely man, I wanted a book about the earthquake not Winchester’s stay on the west coast.

Final judgement- Would I recommend this to anyone?  Only if they mentioned an intrest in earthquake.  Otherwise, nah.

6/10

But you can’t take the history out of the girl!

I’m outlined-ish three books in a series.  (I don’t normally stick to outlines but I wrote down my ideas, so that I had a cohesive storyline throughout)  The first book is set in Estill County Springs and Spa.  I know very little about it, so I hit the internet, and found distressingly little.  Even Wikipedia has failed me.  So I began sending emails.  I sent one to a member of the Estill County Historical and Genealogical Society and he just emailed me back asking for my address to mail me the information I requested.  I also email the Kentucky Historical Society requesting information, and the University of Kentucky librarian requesting information.  I can’t wait to get it, and I hope for a few photographs or at least an effusive description of what the hotel looked like.  At one time it was the largest in the state with 110 rooms and small cabins scattered about.  The book is set the summer before it burned down in 1924.

Book Two follows the main character as she graduates high school and goes to college to get her degree.  I think most of you should have figured out where I’m going with this by now.  That’s right!  She’s going to Montevallo, technically the Alabama College at the time.  I’ve already got who’s going to die figured out along with why.

If I play my cards right I can get book three set right as the great depression hits.  Whoo!

I think I’m even more excited about the history I get to play with than anything else really.

So I found out that I can share my facebook albums in places other than facebook!

You don’t have to have a facebook account to view these pictures.  Just click the link and admire.

The Dress

 The Ceremony

The Reception

It’s all about cake, baby!

Random

Recently I’ve been playing with a photo editing software online and getting some great shots, so I will probably be posting a follow up later.  Of course the photos I’ve posted aren’t all of my photos I just chose the best of the best.

Jeff is going to go buy our washer and dryer today!  We looked everywhere but finally picked out a Maytag top-load high efficiency washer with an agitator and a GE front-load dryer with a lint trap inside the door from Home Depot.  I don’t know the product numbers right off the top of my head.  We had been looking at the GE Profile HE without an agitator but when we mentioned that to the lady at the Home Depot she said No!  I refuse to sell those, we have had FIVE returned because they don’t get the clothes clean, and I refuse to sell anymore.  I’m getting two seperate brands because the maytag washer was the best but the matching dryer had the lint trap on the top.  Since my dryer is in my kitchen having the trap on top gets lint everywhere.  Best part is, all appliances are 10% off.  So we ended up saving over $100 dollars.  Free delivery and take away, and they’ll install it for us!  Jeff and I looked EVERYWHERE and we think we’ve made the best choice.