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

Giving Back!

Source: Google Image Search with license for reuse. Click pic for page THIS is, OF COURSE – LINKED DATA!!!

I have felt a bit remiss lately.  I have not visited many of your blogs to read all the fascinating stories and tales you spin and share.  They are well-worth the time; I simply have not had much of it.  I find that, by the time I get around to my blog (even before yours), it is very late and I am tired.  It is no fun reading the posts of others when your eyes keep falling shut (this also plays havoc with the keys as my head tilts forward and may strike the board!).  So, I decide to try tomorrow – yet the same thing occurs.  It is also my spotty recent memory that causes me to forget, sometimes even the most important items.  As of today, I have lost my cell phone.  I believe it to be in my home, but the “where” eludes me.  I will keep looking and, for what it is worth, I will keep thinking about it.

However, to help my feelings of guilt or whatever they are, I would like to propose that all of you who visit my post here and have your own – please link to your post in the comments so others may see all the great posts I am missing out on!  At least, then, I can feel a bit like I am passing on a bit of  you to all those who are following me!

Please link!!! Namaste,

Scott

Not me, this Time!

Short and to the point:
Today, instead of reading something I have put together from scratch, I would like to really invite you to read one of the posts I put on my page:
Some Very Intriguing Posts I have Found –

When you are done with 1 (or more if you like) please take just a moment and tell me in a comment which post you read and what you thought of it (a simple 0-5 will suffice 0-hate 5-adored).

It’s just that I read the posts of all these wonderful people and when I find one that just takes my breath away or makes me suck it in I want to share it.

Thanks for all your support.

Namaste,

Scott

Seeing the Complete Picture

I am not going to go on tonight about movies, songs, diseases, or how much change you can find on the floor of a dance hall on Saturday morning.

What I would like to talk to you about today is much simpler and, hopefully, much more interesting. The reading of this blog is about 5-6 minutes, but it will be noticeably longer and (again, hopefully) much more interesting if you will follow the ending instructions.

I work hard on my blog, not just my posts. The posts are a daily thing and, according to my following and my views, I am doing a decent job there. What I am talking about is the left hand column of all my posts. There I have put in hours and hours of work and yet I see no likes or views of those pages, for the most part. There are a few if I mention them, but people do not seem to, normally, gravitate to those sections of the blog.

Well, I would like to change that just a bit, not so much to help me (though it will), but because there are other people who I am also helping with that entire left-hand section. I was going to list all the parts and explain them, but I decided that I will just make a simple plea for a couple of pages and then let you drift where you will.

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A) Some interesting places to go

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B) Very intriguing posts I have found

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Okay, two sections, viewing them will take 10 seconds. Clicking on one of the items is quick, too. Looking at one will take longer, but I think you will be better for it. I have tried to really pinpoint the great things I have found both on WordPress and on the net.

Take a look…my 5-6 minutes is up.

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Namaste,
Scott

What’s in a Post?

Well, I did it. I was behind 43 new posts according to my email folder 3 days ago. Now, that’s 43 behind!

That doesn’t count the new ones I have had in the last 3 days!

But, at 2:50pm on Friday August 31, 2012, I was truly caught up.

I can hear some people now:

“Why didn’t you just skip a few? Why didn’t you simply skim them and click ‘like’?”

And I say back, “How could I?”

I chose to follow the 35 blogs I follow. I selected those people out of all the ones I have seen and/or read because they say something to me. I enjoy pouring over the posts each day (some days more than others, obviously, but still…).

All of these wonderful people poured out a significant part of their daily life’s time into creating something they felt necessary, for one reason or another, to include in their day’s work. I pour a good portion of my day into my post.

It would feel like wasted time if I thought people simply skimmed over my posts, clicked, “like”, and then went on without another thought. I, at least, assume that each of the “likes” I get are from people who enjoyed or thought it well-done after they read my post.

Must’ve been reading Statistics!

I don’t, for a moment, think that people pour over my posts like you would a statistics textbook or even a best-seller novel. It’s something in-between and different for each person and for each post read by that person.

There are posts I read because I enjoy being informed; others I read because I need a good laugh or, at least, a happy smile; then, there are those that bring (or almost) tears to my eyes as I see how they must feel and/or how they have to live.

I forgot the category of posts that simply make me think (or rethink) something.

I spend an average of 7-8 minutes on a post. Doesn’t sound like a long time, does it? I guess it’s not until you understand that I read about 10-15 posts a day, 7 days a week. Around two hours a day, I wrap myself up in the lives of others. So, not getting to do that for 3 days was depressing. I did it for good cause:

I was tired, I had a writing deadline to hit, and I spent part of it with other people.

The reason for this post is to let all of you out there know two things:

First, I do read your posts. Even if I don’t comment or if I forget to click “like”, I do read them. I don’t just delete them out of hand.

Second, I never assume that any of you do that to my posts. I am thankful for each comment, each “like”, and each and every view I accumulate. And I pay attention to what you write in your comments. I look at the patterns in the “stats” and try to not do something if it doesn’t go over very well after a few attempts.

All in all, I would say we make quite a team. According to my “stats” there are several hundred on my team. I really like that. Of course, that doesn’t compare to the 10-15 of you who I feel very close to now. We have been together for months each and every day (practically) and you are, indeed, special to me. I have shared with you things that I haven’t really even talked to my family about.

You listen and, more importantly, some of you get it, get me. It’s a big world out there and it’s nice to know that there are some who, not only get me, but that I can be a small part of your world for 7-8 minutes a day or, at least, think about you reading the post I created for that day.

You are special.

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Namaste,
Scott