…I suggested a new food item and poisoned her. Then she lost her Wacom board pen and we have spent two hours turning the house upside down trying to find it. She hasn’t hit me yet, but I really wouldn’t blame her.
1. This strange guy is hanging about the stopsign on our corner as we leave to go skating. I didn’t like it. Jane’s already incoherent with stuffy allergies and then I want to loop back to see if he’s up to anything. A pickup truck picks him up, which means I guess he’s ok, but now we’re too late for Jane to get ready and have a decent skate, and I’m iffy about skating the full hour and a half, because my knee’s being stressed; so Jane, already not feeling well, said we’d just go get flags for the sprinkling system. The good thing is our yard crew came in with a really inexpensive offer on removing the grass, which will actually save us a lot of money on lawn care; but we’ve got to move fast on tagging the sprinkler heads.
2. We did get the weeping birch I wanted for the front yard, but we had to hike all over Lowes to find those little flags you use to mark where sprinkler heads are, and we were supposed to borrow a truck from Terry and get the birch today; but meanwhile we went to catch a quick lunch.
3. “Try this,” say I, and “It really doesn’t have onion in it.” I lied. Poor Jane not only can’t breathe, she now is sicker than the proverbial dog and one jump from bedridden, she’s got a stomach upset,
4. and then to try to deal with the lawn, she wanted a picture and to use the Wacom board (art device) for a quick design try—but the pen is gone. And this is an electronic pen, computer-based. This is no small item.
5. I meanwhile got soaked marking sprinkler heads, but I really feel sorry for Jane…if there’s anything worse than a totally stuffy head, it’s a really upset stomach, and now she’s feeling too sick to go after the tree. Waaah. We hope for a better day tomorrow.
We cannot imagine where that pen has gotten to. We have a couch that eats things, but we have nearly taken it apart and cannot find a clue to where that pen is.
Awww…you didn’t do anything wrong. It WAS good (lunch). And that guy WAS suspicious. I just wish that expletive deleted pen would magically appear.
Hmmm, do the kitties have hidey-holes? That’s where things disappear to here.
Egads! A lost pen! What a nightmare. I’m always afraid a little one will toddle off with one or toss it in the trash thinking it must be broken since it doesn’t write. I hope you find it soon! Magic pen findy thing..do your magic stuff and bring Jane back her lost pen..
Maybe the pen ran off to the same place as our Bamboo pen.
I think the Wacom pen is with all my missing (single) socks and earrings.
chondrite,
I left you a note back at “…..800 members”. Just
in case you missd it.
I looped back to check; thank you! I didn’t put tracking on the parcel, but should have.
Oh no! I hate when pens wander off like that. They do sell replacements, but they are annoyingly expensive. Maybe a used one with replacement nubs… of course then the original pen will show up. They are like glasses. Can’t find them until you buy new ones.
I am cool with onions, but I am allergic to bell pepper (particularly green) and these days have to be on the lookout all the time. They try adding that stuff in for color even when the dish doesn’t normally come with it so I have be that annoying person always picking at food and asking questions or just abstaining when I can’t be sure. At work I have an email saved away to answer anyone’s questions because I really am tired of explaining it to people who seem to not believe me when it comes up. Still, it is better than being allergic to soy or milk or peanuts. Or onions. Although they don’t agree with me if I over indulge.
I am allergic to NSAIDs (aspirin and the like). I was in a meeting once just after taking an Aleve. My daughter watched the hives start at my forehead and progressively descend down my face and onto my neck. My breathing started to get labored and then suddenly the symptoms disappeared.
My doctor suggested that I discontinue use of NSAIDs. I really didn’t need any urging, though.
I have no known allergies, although I do have intolerances to certain medications and foods. I was on Celebrex for a while, and eventually, I started to have heart palpitations and would be breathless just getting up from the couch and walking over to the stereo. I can’t eat mustard, it affects me the same as ipecac, and I don’t eat eggs as a dish – they have to be “hidden and well blended” in something like a waffle.
How many chairs are in the house? Do Efanor and Ysabel like to hide under said chairs? Is said pen perhaps at the bottom of a purse, in a jacket pocket, or lying in a desk drawer camouflaged by other writing implements?
I hope you’re able to get the birch, get the yard flagged, and Jane gets over being sick. She’s been awfully nice to me over on her blog, especially since I didn’t completely read one of her replies. Sigh, Ring of Change was never printed…..silly me…and Ring of Destiny ends on a cliffhanger!
If I buy an electronic reader, I’m not sure which one to buy. I’ll have to go look at the thread(s) in ebook formats to make an informed decision. Then, I can buy Ring of Change and find out what happens to Mikhyel and Thyerri.
Well, a) you don’t need a reader to read e-books: you just need the software we conveniently provide for your computer. b) if on the other hand you want the curl-up-with-it factor, you still have a choice: a laptop or smaller; or a dedicated reader c) if you want a reader, a Kindle (reads .prc and .mobi and other formats) or a Sony (I think, .pdf and .epub, which is a format used all over Europe and increasingly popular in the states) would be good choice, and their pocket version is now selling for 169. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of advice from those who have readers. One of the advantages of a computer is that you can read it in the dark; one of the advantages of an e-reader is that you can read it in bright sunlight and it’s lighter than a laptop. Depends on your habits.
I finally broke down and picked up a Nook (the Barnes & Noble e-reader) to take on a flight this week. The thing that finally drove me to it (besides CJ’s new e-books) was the newest Malazan book. It’s 900+ pages, trade paperback size, and the cover has no stiffness to it, which makes the book feel very flimsy when I tried reading it. I have to say that I found using the e-reader better than I was expecting. My advice is to find an actual reader and trying them out before you buy one. That means finding someone who already has a Kindle, but the Sony and Nook can be played with in stores. I found the refresh rate when doing page turns to be unacceptably slow on the Sony. The Kindle seemed nice, but doesn’t support ePub.
The biggest issues I have had with the Nook are the back button and battery life. There are page controls on both sides, with back on the top and forward on the bottom. But for some reason I am firmly convinced that right is forward and left back (which, by the way, is something that I find counterintuitive about how this blog is set up as well!), so I would keep hitting the bottom button on the left side to go back, which goes forward a page. But that’s something I figure I will get down with time. The battery life is a bit trickier. It says you can read for 10 days on one charge, if you have wireless mode off. However, it has become apparent to me that that doesn’t mean 240 hours of use. I probably got around 20 hours before the battery needed to be recharged, which wouldn’t generally be an issue, but I hadn’t packed the charging cord for the trip. So I had nothing to read on the 5-hour plane trip back (which was ok, since I slept for most of it). But it’s something to keep in mind when you do spec comparisons.
Other than that, I found using the Nook to be pretty simple, and after you get over the “new and unusual” factor, it was pretty much a lot like reading a regular book. It’s easy to hold and turn pages, and the page comes up quickly enough that it doesn’t remind you that you are not reading a book. It probably helps to be reading something where the story draws you in, so you sort of forget what media you are reading on and just let the story suck you in. And it does cause complete strangers to come up to you and ask about your opinion on it, so be prepared for that.
Thanks for the detailed review: good write-up.
@Philospher77 (or anybody else interested in the subject) – the thing with e-reader battery life (at least with the e-paper/e-ink models like the Kindle/Nook/Sony) is that the number-of-hours figures that get batted around are even more worthless than is usually the case when talking about battery-powered devices. The key is to remember that you only use power when you turn a page, which means the number of reading hours you get on one charge will depend on a) how fast you read and b) how big a font-size you use (at least on devices that let you set the display size – I know my Kindle does, not sure about the Nook). Fast readers with aging eyes will end up having to recharge a lot more often, basically.
(Oh, and the Kindle supports ePub, more or less – Amazon has an application that does one-click conversion – calibre will do it too. It just doesn’t support Adobe/Apple/B&N encrypted .epub files. *Rant about multiple mutually-incompatible versions of soi-disant “open” formats goes [HERE]*)
Mmm. Check our left sidebar <---- Calibre has software for the Apple. I'd think it could make a conversion. I'm wondering if there's a DRM version of ePub. That's usually a problem when files won't convert properly, as I understand it.
That does make sense, but then I would think that they would just say “X number of page turns” so that I can do a good comparison between devices.
And I do have the font at the largest size (really nice to be able to do that), so that probably is affecting the battery life. It is interesting that, when you do that, it doesn’t change the page number at the bottom until you are entirely through the page, so it appears that I am getting about a third of the page per screen.
Oh, and another thing that takes some getting used to with the Nook is the start up. There’s not a lot of tactile feedback on the power button, and when the device turns on, it takes it a while before a screen comes up saying “device is powering on”. Until then, you are just looking at a blank screen, which always makes me wonder if I actually pushed the power button hard enough. But just about when I am going to try again, it comes up. So I figure that’s something I will get used to with practice.
Oddly, it’s forcing me to reply to myself, rather than to CJ’s reply, but…*shrug*
In any event, no, there is not a DRM version of ePub. There are, in fact, three mutually-incompatible DRM versions of ePub: one each from Adobe, Apple, and Barnes & Noble (although B&N are reportedly working with Adobe to make their systems compatible with non-Nooks. Maybe. At some point.) And yes, this encryption will prevent you from converting files properly (or reading them on a non-approved device) – unencrypted files should convert just fine, using calibre or any other conversion tool of your choice.
Try getting people to believe that yes you *really* are allergic to chocolate and most artificial sweeteners….instant migraine and worse….. don’t sympathize over the chocolate….the urge to eat it is low when you know how miserable it will make you…..at least it isn’t eggs or nuts.
I hope you find the pen…around here the dumpster duo (kittehs) are generally the culprits…..they love to hide things…..very naughty indeed but soooooo cute! 😉
The pen is a bit too heavy for our chief relocation expert (Efanor), and Ysabel will only pick up very, very light things. Jane swears she did use it after we returned from San Diego—but also threw out a big lot of accumulated junk mail that was about in the same area of the couch. Shudder. We have to get another one: all our cover work depends on it. Sigh. But Amazon does have a special on them.
That’s the type of thing that makes me run around in little frantic circles ripping my hair out — GAAAAHHH! sorry, Jane! Bite the bullet, go ahead and buy the replacement on Amazon while it’s still on sale. The original will undoubtedly show up then out of spite, but you’ll have a backup the next time it pulls this disappearing act.
If the old one turns up, maybe I can buy the extra from you, assuming the same pen works on the Wacom Bamboo model as the more expensive one Jane has.
Ours is probably also under a pile of mail on the kitchen island, but I haven’t thrown much out yet 🙂 Procrastination may save me yet!
😆 last I looked, Amazon had a good price on the Bamboo stylus, too. I don’t think that Wacom 4 would work on it, but thank you for the offer! I swear I want to put one of those beeper tags on the next one!
I do use a graphics tablet at work for 2D CAD drawing. I keep repairing the old-fashioned cable powered pen, as that one will a) never run out of batteries and b) always is chained to the big graphics tablet and won’t get lost.
There’s one thing you can try, but it will be a pain. Move the couch and tilt it backwards and see if the pen doesn’t roll out of it, or might have fallen underneath it. We found a missing cell phone in our couch months after we’d given it up for gone.
Lol: we’ve turned those couches over, opened the upholstery flaps, checked in every crevice, and only turned up a missing pair of tweezers.
I used to have a key chain that would beep to tell you where it was if you laughed at the right pitch. It wasn’t easy to get the pitch right, so by passers could hear me laughing maniacally up and down the scales sometimes. But if I got it right it was a big help.
If the pen is still missing, my kitty girls tend to hide things under the stove and the fridge. I used to have to do a weekly removal of the bottom storage drawer/roasting pan holder thing at the bottom of the stove to get out the multiple furry mice, collars, etc that got batted under the stove. And I kept a yardstick by the fridge so that I could go fishing under it. Maybe yours have done the same thing?
Keeping in mind that I lose chairs that are cleverly hidden by placing them next to a wall, I sometimes find it easiest to find something by trying to recreate what I would have done with the item the last time I had it. This is most easily done if I have something of the right size or weight that I can hold while doing it. I just hold whatever it is at the last place that I remember having it, and then say “ok.. what was I doing, and I were to do it now, where would this wind up?” Sometimes it works, and sometimes it also helps to think “if I got a new one of these, where would I put it?” Because sometimes that’s where I put the old one.
😆 clever! I keep telling Jane there’s no way one of us could have walked off with it, because it’s too heavy to masquerade as a regular pen. But kitty batting—hmmn.
Kitty batting is rampant at our place. We keep yardsticks and firm metal tpe measures in the laundry (washer, dryer), kitchen (stove, fridge, etc), office (behind storage boxes on the floor), bedrooms (under furniture), etc etc. It’s amazing what comes to light … mice, pencils, old dog biscuit pieces batted by the kitty that likes to chew on them, and so forth.