In life, generally speaking, there is always an opportunity to learn.  I’ve lived a life of learning the hard way.  I’ve never taken the easy road, but I’ve finally gotten somewhere.  By the grace of God.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, on what I’ve learned in life so far, and I thought I’d hash out a bullet list.  From that bullet list, I plan on writing a post about each one.  We’ll see how it goes.

1. Life’s Too Short to be Angry.
2. Marry Your Best Friend.
3. With Age Comes Wisdom.
4. Never Make Assumptions.
5. Your Parents are Right A Lot of the Time.
6. Vision is Only Half the Battle.
7. Never Give Up.
8. If You’re the Smartest Person in the Room, You’re in the Wrong Room.
9. Kindness and Hard Work Will Take you Farther than Intelligence.
10. Laugh.
11. Never Detour From Your Beliefs.
12. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone.
13. Don’t Lie, Don’t Cheat, Don’t Steal.
14. In Every Battle, Arm Yourself With Love.
15. Nothing is More Important Than Family.
16. Everyone is Going Through Something.
17. Forgive. Holding a Grudge is Only Hurting You.

These are the things I try to remember every day.  These are the things that I believe have shaped who I am today.  I plan on going in to detail on each one.  What are somethings I’ve missed?

The new Nook is slated for release on June 10th, so imagine my surprise when mine arrived Friday.  I was very excited.  I believe a lot of things need to change in the e-reader market.  Could this be the beginning?  Let’s review.

The Packaging:

The packaging was nice.   I opened the box, and my Nook was right there, in true presentation form.  I could tell that they had really thought about packaging, which is a good thing to me.  They still have a long way to go before getting what I call “The Apple Effect” down, but it was a nice touch.  I took it out of the package and it felt nice.  Very light, but not too cheap.  The concave on the back felt natural, and the new ‘coating’ they put on it adds a secure feeling.  the coating does smudge easily, but I’m ok with that.  I was surprised by how much smaller it was then the original nook, and also surprised because the screen, if anything, is a little bigger.  I also didn’t like how the page turn buttons were not labeled.  I guess the comfort of having arrows on them was nice for me.  (More on that later)

Initial Setup:

When I took the nook out of the package, there was a label that was clear, but not annoying that said, be sure to charge the nook all the way before using (It also said I could use it while it was charging).  So, I plugged it in, it turned on and setup begins.  It was very simple to setup, and the touchscreen worked great, but I noticed almost immediately I did not like the placement of their “Back” or “Cancel” button, on the keyboard.  When putting in my password, I pushed back twice on accident when trying to switch from letters to numbers.  Other than that, the setup was simple.  All I needed to know was my wireless password and my Barnes & Noble login information.  I did not have to plug it in to a computer, which, while that wouldn’t have been a huge deal, it was nice.

Settings:

Before I sat down and actually started reading, I wanted to play with some of the settings, and, well… just learn my Nook.  The home button is nothing new.  it’s right where you would expect, if you’ve ever used any Apple touch device. I went through my settings and there are a few things that jumped out at me.  1.  I get to choose which direction the buttons turn the page!  That’s why they’re not labeled.  Sweet.  I have smaller hands, so having the forward page turn on the bottom could certainly be a perk for me.  Great touch B&N. (no pun intended)  The next setting that caught my eye was “Social”.  I click it, and immediately see an option to link to Facebook, Twitter and Google.  Suh. Weet. There are also options to manage my contacts. (Which can be imported from Google, thank God, because I dreaded adding contacts)  Manage my Nook friends, and Manage visibility of my LendMe books.  I linked everything up, it imported my contacts, and I now have the ability to share with Facebook or Twitter.   The rest of the settings are pretty basic.

Actual Use:

First thing I notice is, whatever screen I am on, in the top left hand corner, there is a book icon.  That icon will take you directly to whatever book you’re reading now.  That’s awesome.  Not necessary, but awesome.  To me, that means that B&N are finally reeling it back in to being an eReader.  When I’m reading, if I touch any word on the page it highlights it and an option menu comes up.  Highlight, Add Note, Share or Look Up.  I can extend the highlighting to a sentence, paragraph or page.  It’s pretty simple to do, but just like any touch device I’ve used, it’s kind of hard to stop the highlighting where I want.  It’s made a little more tricky by the flashiness of the highlight function on the Nook.  Bookmarking is a breeze now, since all I have to do is tap the top right hand corner of the screen.

Highlight, add note and look up do what you would expect.  I love how easy it is to do all of those things.  The best part is, when using my wife’s iPad and the nook app, I see that all of those things sync (As does the bookmarking).  There is a little lag on it, and I’m trying to figure out exactly how, but it works.  I’ve proven that.

Share.  The share button is great.  You can find it when you highlight something, or even when you’re just looking at the details on a book.   Sharing is a great touch, and makes reading on my nook so much more convenient than reading a book.  Too many times I read a quote and immediately want to share it, but getting out my computer, typing it up, and blah blah blah is just too much work.  This takes that away.

Page turns are still flashy.  Not as bad as on the original, (and not that they bothered me then) but I think B&N oversold this one a bit.  It is better, but in hearing them talk about it, I seriously felt like they would be almost nonexistent.  I think it was a silly thing to advertise in the first place, especially with all this other stuff they didn’t even mention.

What’s Missing?

I’ve made it no secret that I think the eReader makers have made some pretty big mistakes.  The main, to me, was the fact that they seemed to be straying away from making eReaders, and instead, have been focusing on making the eReader everything but.  This time around, I don’t think that’s the case.

They have removed the web browser all together. That’s huge.  I love it.  I’m sure some people are gonna be annoyed.  I’m excited by this.  If I wanted a web browser, I wouldn’t buy an eReader, I’d buy a tablet.

They have also removed the mp3 feature.  I’m 50/50 on this.  By my previous logic, I should say, “If I want to listen to music, I’ll buy an mp3 player.”  There was something nice about having that on the back burner.  If my phone or mp3 player got stolen, it was nice knowing that I did have some music on my reader, just in case.  In the end, I think they did the right thing.  Focus on the eReader.

My overall thought on this device?  B+.  I think there are things that could be done better(Which I will write about later), but most importantly, I think all of those things can be done with software/firmware updates. (Which is awesome because I won’t have to buy a new device.)

By far the best eReader on the market today, but all together, the eReader has a long way to go before they’re at their prime.

Today Barnes and Noble is supposed to be announcing something about the Nook.  It could be an onslaught of new features, including a touch screen e-ink model, getting rid of the ribbon at the bottom or even, *gasp* a lower price point.  Of those, I think 2 are more possible the the other, but we’ll see.  I was thinking about this a lot last night, and I realized that a few things have to happen in  the e-reader market, before they gain as much ground as they’d like.

First of all, I’ve noticed that there’s not one dominant force.  Remember when the iPod came out?  That was it.  That was what every other MP3 player was striving to be like. From the organization of the music, and loading up the iPod with songs, all the way to the user interface, that was simple, and easy to use.  Anyone could use it, and everyone wanted it.  I haven’t seen that in the e-reader market yet.  No one has jumped in as the leader. 

That brings me to another point.  File format.  One way the MP3 player market was so successful is, well, they all played mp3′s.  There was one (for the most part) format that was universal.  Every player played that file type, and you could buy your music from any source.  It triggered competition.  Right now, in the e-reader world, that’s not the case.  There is epub, but you have to make sure the e-reader you’re buying will read epub files.  That’s not  how the market should be.  It doesn’t encourage competition, and it locks the consumer into a singular market, so they don’t have much of a choice of where to buy.  Right now, if you buy an e-reader, you have to decide on the e-reader, and in turn, where you are going to buy your books for the remainder of the life of your e-reader. Not only that, when your device does, eventually get stolen, break, or outdated, if you want to keep your books, you have to keep the same brand e-reader.  No bueno.

What needs to happen? 

Someone needs to come out as the leader.  The leader in file management, the leader in user experience, the leader in all things e-reader.  Developers who actually use an e-reader, need to be hired.  Developers who won’t say, “That’s good enough.” or, “They’ll figure it out.”  Developers who instead think of some of the major demands from an e-reader and make it happen.  A few things I can think of.  Easy ‘dog earing’ of pages.  Ease of bookmarking, note taking, and highlighting.  Syncing of bookmarks, notes, and highlights  over multiple devices.  Dare I say the ability to send notes to my e-mail or evernote?   Page turns are slow, and to top it off, if I do have a device that can read epub files, I have to load them on to my device, through the file system. 

That brings me to another point.  There’s no app to load my device.  Why can’t someone develop an application that has my ebook library, while we’re at it, why can’t that same app connect to book stores?  Why can’t that same app, manage my library on my computer and keep it organized?  

The market has been flooded with new, cheaper, devices that do, essentially the same thing as the old models.  Nothing is a game changer and, from what I can tell, any decent developer is being used to develop apps for tablets, not to work on the interface of the device.  Some may see this as a good thing, I see this is a flaw. 

So, e-reader companies everywhere, hear my cry.  You could be so much better.  You could sell more devices, and the consumer could be way happier.  I’m very serious when I say this.  Step up your game, or just settle for making all of your money on book sales through an Android Tablet or iPad, and give up production of the device.  Right now, you’re failing.

The internet is a funny place.  It allows you to meet people, and through them, meet other people.  I met Michael Jordan through Shaun King.  I believe he now leads the widows “care group” at Courageous Church.  He has an amazing heart, and has written a bit about widows below.   Take some time to really read this.

Jesus said to take care of them, but most of His followers, I think, tend to think it’s someone else’s job. As a rule, we don’t even think they exist. Widows are largely out of sight, and we’ve empowered women to take  care of themselves so it’s not PC to try and help. And orphans are hidden away in orphanages or in foster care. But I wanna talk about widows. Who are they? What is our responsibility?

A careful look around my city reveals a couple of different kinds of widows. First, there are the traditional, elderly ladies, whose husbands have died. I’m from a small town, and there, they are everywhere. Usually they are looked after by their adult children or by a group of church ladies. I think this is what Jesus had in mind. I know a young father who spends time regularly just eating meals with the widows in his neighborhood, giving them access to his young daughter. What  a gift; they get a free granddaughter and she gets many grandmothers. Nothing better!

Then, there are the less visible or recognizable widows. With large numbers of immigrants in our midst, and with an aggressive deportation policy by our government, they are being left behind here without jobs and with children in larger and larger numbers. Inhumane immigration policies like those recently put in place in Arizona and Georgia give immigrants little recourse when they find themselves in situations where they have need. Even when crimes are being committed against them, they are powerless. No matter what government policy is, though, our allegiance is to our Creator, and His call is to care and to take care.

Two other groups of women who deserve our care are those made widows by one of the three wars we are in currently, and those made so by men who walk out of marriages to avoid responsibility.

What do we owe these women? Basic needs. Companionship. Caring. All the things we have come to look to the government to do for those who can’t do for themselves. Where I grew up, there is the concept of treating all women they they were your mama. This assumes that you treat your mama right. Let’s get to it.

http://jeverettphoto.wordpress.com/widows-in-america/

It was the best of times.  It was the end of times…. wait, that’s not how it goes…

If the rest of the country is anything like Georgia, (heh) then you’ve seen signs all over telling you that Judgement Day is happening this Saturday.  It’s easy to point and laugh, because, well, doesn’t the Bible teach us that no man will know the day?  AsI’ve stated in previous posts, I can’t pretend to know everything the Bible is saying.  I know it says that, but I don’t know the context, the surrounding words, and what God meant when he said somehting about recieving power in the Holy Spirit and me being his witness.  I don’t know. 

Is it scary to think about, “What if he’s right?”  Well… Yeah!  Of course it’s scary. 

Here’s my thoughts. 

God and Jesus are peculiar.  Let’s be real for a minute.  When Jesus was here, in human form, things were weird.  The kings were scared he was going to overthrow them, and I’m fairly certain the disciples thought there was going to be a revolution.  I think most people were expecting a holy king to take the throne, and reign over all of us forever.  In a worldly sense. 

Here’s what people were not expecting. 

A humble servent to come to earth, literally on the run from day one.  A man to seek the marginalized, poor, sick, downtrodden.  A man to defy everything we saw as holy.  A man to ride to town on a donkey, pull a coin from a fish’s mouth, spit in mud to heal the blind, wash people’s feet, draw in the sand, stand up for sinners, and die on a cross. 

So.  Like I said, I don’t know what judgement day is ’supposed’ to look like, but I do know that we’ll all probably be really surprised.  Whether it’s Saturday, in January, or in 2134, I think we will probably be surprised when it happens. 

Until then, I’m going to continue to do what I *try* to do.  I’m going to try and love people, and love God.  I’m going to try to correct my foolish ways, and be a good steward and a great example to my family.  When I fall, I’m going to stand up and keep going.  And I think everyone should do the same.  Period.  Because no matter what you believe about when judgement day will happen, when you think about it, it makes all this other stuff seem silly.  The arguements, the political differences, all of that…. It is just silly.  It’s time for me to (Re:) Focus.  (I’m fairly certain “Re” is trademarked by the relevent church in America, but I’m borrowing it for this post.. hehe.)