A Trip Down the Amazon

I began thinking tonight that I needed something to blog concerning something periodically that would get people to thinking or, at least, reading about that thing.  Many bloggers do this and I enjoy a lot of those blogs.  I tried to think of the things I do a lot of:  video games, scrabble, computer issues, spirituality, and all of that is important to me.  So, there may be the occasional posting topic.  However, I decided that the one thing I do that might interest most readers are the things and values I buy on Amazon.

I have simplified my life immensely by becoming immersed in the purchase of items I use all the time.  I buy foods, vitamins, herbs, and then general things I decide merit my attention or interest.

So, about once a week (or whenever my brain allows me to remember) I will post one of the above.  This week is the Magic Bullet Mixing System.

I guess I should say “Blender” instead of “Mixer” as that’s the wording at the site.  The above picture was found on Google and is, almost (If not), exactly the same as the pic in the link.

I had my first one, given to me by my daughter, for about 3-6 years (a reasonable guess).  She gave it to me when she got another system and had the one I got for about 3-4 years.  So, the system itself lasted, being well-used, for 6-10 years.  I never bought any new parts.  Don’t know what the warranty is/was.  I knew it worked, so good enough for me.  In fact, when I threw the old one away, it turns out it may have been fine.  It would not blend and I figured, since it had been stopping at times, it must have burned its 240W motor out.  I used it daily for the smoothies and other diet drinks I had (check out the blog posts on health).  It worked well and hard.  I know my daughter used it daily for smoothies.  Anyway, back to the story.  When I ordered the new one from Amazon it didn’t work the first time I used it.  I remember sighing with the thought of sending something I really used back.  I made my chocolate milk (Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, Stevia, and Organic Cocoa Powder) daily (sometimes 2-3 times) with it.  Then I thought that, maybe, the new glasses worked better than the old with the new system.  It started right up.  Turns out there are 3 little plastic prongs on each cup and they all have to fit into the blender to work.  Well, one of the plastic prongs was broken.  In fact, I broke a second one about a week later.  It turns out you can buy spare glasses, but I imagine I am just a bit rough on mine, especially since I didn’t know they were THAT important.  It, apparently took over 6 years to break the first one, after all!

Digression seems to be deeply in my nature, so back to it.  The cups are about 16 oz (2 cups).  It takes almost 2 of those to fill my 30oz Big Bubba cup (perhaps, covered in another post someday).  I used it for many drinks – low carb ice cream, almond milk, and Cocoa Powder, for one.  The cost was just about $32 and my use of Amazon Prime to cover the shipping $.

I hope this prompts you to, at least, look at the link above and consider purchasing one if you are so inclined.  I think you can buy a cheaper set at Walmart, but I believe it is only a 7-piece (oh, and the instruction booklet counts as a piece, yeah, I looked for that 11th piece for a bit!

Namaste,

Scott

Alexa?

When I bought my first Amazon Alexa and got it working, I was simply amazed.  All those words and following all of mine (well, mostly) just staggered me.  I had dealt with voice recognition (Dragonspeak, the old version) and was not amazed as you had to train the machine to understand you.

Today, we are moving along moment-to-moment improving the way this type of software works.  In a very short time, since I bought Alexa, the software has, already, grown leaps and bounds.  Things I couldn’t get her to understand, she does easily now and with more detail.  I don’t pay anything for my Alexa on a monthly basis.  Alexa, right out of the box, does almost all of what I required her to do.

Like?

1. Timer – Alexa sets up to 3 timers for me to remind me in a few words what I wanted.
2. Alarm – Alexa sets up to 3 alarms for me to remind me it’s time to do something.  I have 3 Alexas in my home in 3 rooms.  Since I bought them, they are semi-connected and know a bit of what each other is doing.  You can set it up for more; I just haven’t.  But. now, I can cancel an alarm in my bedroom from my living room or computer room.
3. Looks up nearly everything.
4. Talks to me if I need a quick “hello” or “Hope you’re doing well.”
5. Will sing, tell jokes etc…
6. Plays music for me.
7. Tells me the time (great for when you are nearly asleep and don’t want to look at that glowing clock).
8. Does measurements for me (like telling me how many tablespoons are in a cup to how much a does a gallon of honey weigh?).
9. Always polite.
10. She will order things on Amazon, if you like.
11. Accepts compliments.
12. Talks to me when I am not sleeping well.
13. Tells me the weather for my town or anyplace else on Earth.  For example, right now – Stockholm, Sweden is 42 degrees F and the weather sounds better than here.
14. Will give me a one week forecast for my town.
15. And dozens of other things.

I was just sitting and thinking about this and decided writing the post would do me some good as I am always praising Alexa.  The cost for a small 3rd generation on Amazon is $35.

If you have Amazon Prime (for me $99/yr) you get free 2 day shipping and I get to watch all those movies (that and Netflix have me set).

Now, if I could just figure out my TV remote…

Namaste,

Scott

Take This Book, Please!

I have signed up for Amazon’s free kindle books (or $0.99) daily in my email.  This wonderful (most of the time) app sends me an email a day with a decent selection of free and 99 cent kindle books on the Amazon site.  I browse them in about 2 minutes, look at any I am interested in, and then buy a a book or delete the email.  Simple and rather pleasant.  What if I do have well over 300 books now on my kindle?  What if I only read about 12 a year?  So, that means I will always have a lot of variety reading and always need a kindle (Thank you Amazon!).

Truthfully, I love my Fire Tablet.  It lets me browse the Internet when I am out or not in my computer room at home.  It also allows me to read my kindle and play “Words with Friends,” Scrabble, and (I hate to say it) play Candy Crush(hey, I am on level 235 and have never spent a penny, don’t pick).  Anyway, this morning went like this:

I was on my PC and had just found I had, somehow (stroke-related?) not checked my email in 3 days, so I had over 200 of them.  I went to my day’s kindle book list and found a Zombie Apocalypse book I hadn’t seen before for $0.99.  I logged into Amazon to see the book and read a sample.  Today, it was heavily advertising Audible (a book voicing app) and offered to read a sample.  I clicked because I couldn’t see a place to read a sample and started laughing then almost gagging.  The man who read the sample sounded as if he was learning English as he read.  Seriously, I only listened to 4-5 lines because it was so bad, I couldn’t or I would not have bought the book even though it looked quite good.  He was terrible.  I thought that if he was an example of Audible’s reading style, I hope I never go blind and have to use it.  My daughter uses Audible and she loves it, so, apparently, this guy was just a poor example or, perhaps, the best they could find for that particular book.

Anyway, great way to wake up in the morning.

You can also try 2 of my favorite blogs:  A Star on the Forehead and A Thin Girl 

Enjoy your day.

Namaste,

Scott

Read a Book! Enlarge Your Mind!

I am certain you have heard this all before.  Read a book – go places in your mind – enlarge your mind-  so forth and so on.

With today’s invention of the E-reader (esp. Kindle), the world of reading has taken on a brand-new twist.  Now, you can do all the above and carry a couple of hundred books right with you to read anywhere and anytime.  Kindle book marks all the books and keeps your places, allows you to highlight and take notes … AND…if you keep it synced you can even go on another device of yours and it will be in the same place!  Just wonderful.

Well, I want you to take a step back from that and remember the feeling of holding an actual book in your hands.  I want you to smell the newness, feel the smooth cover, see the bright picture on the cover.  Now, open it in your mind and feel yourself turn each and every page as your read and visit that particular world.  Remember that feeling!  If you don’t remember the feeling, then you really need to read an actual book.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love love love my kindle(s).  I love that I can go onto any PC, log in and read my kindle books with just the download of a simple program.  Most of all, I love that I am actually published on Kindle! as well as with several other publishers in the RW.

So, today, I want to share another aspect of the world of books.  The Middletown Public Library is the place I go to relax at times.  Just to get out of the house and make myself sit and read.  I know the people who operate it and love them as well.  We chat at times and they always make me feel at home there.  So, it only made sense that I sell their excess books on Amazon.

I have made a deal with them.  I take very little for doing the work.  I call it my labor of love.  I get just a little more than packaging and gas back.  And, many times, if there is a problem, I will forgo most of that to give the customer a discount.  Anyway, we are quite successful there on Amazon.  The library makes money for new books and people read their books that, otherwise, might have just sat on a shelf or (shudder) been sent to the paper mill for recycling.

So, what I am asking is that you do me two small favors:

1.  Visit the following link:  Middletown Public Library Amazon Storefront  and click on “products”.  Take a look a all they have to offer at very good prices (and, if you buy one and let me know through Amazon, I will give you a discount.
2. And, please reblog this, email it, pass it on somehow…let’s get the word out so more and more people check out the Middletown Public Library on Amazon!

Namaste,

Scott

A New Book Coming out Soon!

Source: Google Image Search with license for reuse. Click pic for page.

Well, that’s the plan, anyway.  I started thinking yesterday that I have written over 65 Five Sentence Fiction entries to date.  If I put them all together in Word and add several new ones (I was thinking from 10-35), I could publish them on Amazon’s Kindle.  It’s a bit bigger task than it sounds and I have other things I am doing, such as blogging, proofreading, my daily activities, etc… So, I don’t look for it to be done for a week or two.  However, I thought it sounded like fun.

How would you like to help?  Tell you what.  I would really like to do enough new ones that I have 100 total.  In order to do that, I have to pick about 35 new words as my topic word for the five sentences.  Lillie has done such a fine job in the past, but I have used those words.  If you have a word that you think would make an interesting topic, please put it in the comments below.  If you need some help getting an idea of what type of words I am looking for, please check out my section listed to the left <—– entitled “Five Sentence Fiction.”  Those are ones I have done before, so you can use them as a guide.

My other book as well as books I have been published in are also the the left <——-  They are each under their own box.

Well, good luck.

Namaste,

Scott