By Any Other Nerd

So I have never bought the Amazon Kindle.  When it first came out, I was curious but dubious.  And I never found a full need for it in my life (this coming from someone trying to read 365 books this year).  However, when Amazon released the Kindle as an App for use on smartphones, tablets and even computers, I found myself signing up for it and beginning my journey down ebooks.  In the interim, I've bought over 850 ebooks on Amazon, but I have spent a total of $0.00.  You read that right.  I spent nothing, but now I have some 850+ books in my Kindle app (Note:  When I started this blog post, I had about 800 but over the course of researching, I added 50 more books). Tips and Tricks to Searching Amazon So how do you find these awesome books.  The simplest way is to go to Amazon itself.  Type an author into the search engine.  On the search results page, click "Books" (or "Kindle Store" if it shows up--it doesn't always depending on ...

So it's been a year since I started doing the standing desk   and I'm still a major advocate of it.  In this post, I'll talk a bit about the experience over the last year and why I will probably continue to use the stand up desk. I initially started with my desk at home and liked the results.  It ultimately led me to create what I can only an "active living room" instead of a passive living room.  The standing desk was comfortable and I've found it even easier to slip in and out of the computer screen.  This lead me to set up my own standing-desk at work.  My first attempt was similar to my first attempt at home; mostly to try out before I invested some money into the project.  But it was enough to get me put into the work newsletter when my friend snapped a picture of me and sent it to the editor. My final standing desk at home. Originally, I was considering going through the hoops and loops to have work cover one given that I could make an a...

So here is another letter to the editor--this one is about texting and enforcement.  It's in response to this editorial on June 10 in the Salem News . "To the editor: The Salem News is all cheers for “tough enforcement” against “texters” and all other “erratic drivers,” but in reality, they can’t help but fixate on those cellphone users. They are scapegoating cellphone users. For whatever reason, people want to rally against emergent cultural artifacts rendered possible through technology. The same thing happened with film, radio, comic books, video games, etc. They simply don’t get it, and rather than understand it, they attack it." To read the rest at the Salem News, click on through . Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by  signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attributio...

This series of blog posts will focus on social media and my experiences, thoughts, challenges, and of course, mistakes in social media.  It stems in part from trying to be reflective about what I do in the digital world just as much as I try to be reflective about what I do in the physical world.  It also resonates with my Social Media Approach page in getting me to have more conversations about what it is we do when we step into the world of bits and bytes. It's not entirely new for me to talk about social media and it's role in our lives.  I have talked about inherently sexist messages in Facebook memes , engaged educators and students about their educational usage of social media , issues with social media and higher education ,  reflected on how social media has made me a more sensitive person , its role in tragic events , poorly executed memes (by me, no less) and many other similar posts .  But this series of posts provide some insight (for myself as ...

Ok, so I did not expect to read 41 books this month.  If you remember (those 3 people who are reading this), my forecast for May was going to be low since I was going to be travelling for 3 weeks but apparently, I was quite wrong about this.  The various flights and train rides allowed me much time to read and the many miles walked and bike-riding afforded me some good time to listen as well. This is actually good since I really don't think I'll make the count for June, since we're at June 9 and I've only read 2 books (there is at least one I'm very close to finishing, another I'm about 2/3 through and another about half).  Upon returning  from my trip, I've had very little time to catch up on the reading. So here are a few of my favorite reads from the month! The Devil's Church And Other Stories by Marchado de Assis  This was my first introduction to Marchado de Assis and the anthology was off to a great start but stumbled along the way.  Howeve...

So I came back to the US on May 31, 2013, in the evening but have been quite busy since I came home.  I finally had a few minutes to reflect on my travels and bring this video journal to a close.  I appreciate everyone that's been reading it and enjoying the videos.  They were fun to make and experiment with and I hope they weren't too painful to watch! For those interested in reading  my journal  updates,  you'll want to check out this link . For those interested in checking out  my photos  thus far,  check out this link . For those interested in subscribing to the  video updates ,  check out this link . Today's random images  from the photo archive : A scrumptious English breakfast! The Eye of London Camden Town Marketplace Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and  check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date w...