I got my Christmas present to myself early this year. I didn’t want to wait for the craziness of Black Friday when I could have gotten the All-New Fire HD 8” Tablet with Alexa for $25 cheaper. I was afraid they’d get back ordered and it took me FOREVER to decide what I wanted. I debated about getting an Apple iPad for hundreds more than the Fire but I already have a desktop that I dearly love and a laptop that I fiercely hate plus a Kindle 3rd generation that still works fine, a smart phone, an iPod and a four-cup coffee pot. In other words, the essentials of life in the modern age. Well, that last one should be a Keurig to qualify for a ‘modern life’ but that was my Christmas present to myself a few years ago and I finally got so frustrated with it getting clogged up and having to fix it with a paper clip when I needed my morning coffee the most that I sent that Keurig off to the Salvation Army last summer and I never looked back.
I love Alexa. I wish I could change the voice to a male
but the best I can do is change her to a British accent. That was cool when I played 'Simon says' with her and asked her to repeat "bloody hell." She bleeps out other swear words to keep it family friendly, I presume. Oh, yes, I’ve been having fun with my new
playmate. Already I’m in love with her spelling skills. Just writing this,
so far she’s spelled ‘fiercely’ for me and she beat my beloved Franklin
Language Master 3000 that has been my constant writing companion since the ‘80s.
But her pronunciation skills needs work. I asked her how do you pronounce
c.a.t. and she replied, "C" and when I asked her how to pronounce m.u.c.i.l.a.g.i.n.o.u.s.
she apologized for not knowing the word. She sings a mean rendition of Happy
Birthday though.
I spent Thanksgiving with my youngest niece and her 2 ½ year
old grandson walked up to her Amazon Echo and said, “Alexa play…” and he named
a child’s song I didn’t know and can’t remember and his mother said he’s
getting so good at giving Alexa commands at her house that’s she’s going to
change its name to something he can’t say. On the way home I got to thinking
about that. We’ve got a whole generation coming up who will be so used to
asking Seri and Alexa for stuff they’ll be clueless if they see something like a radio from my
youth. They won’t understand what knobs and dials are for---and forget record players. "You have to do to play music?!" What will be the point of kids ever having homework in
the future when they can get Alexa or Siri to do it for them? But for disabled people who
are confined to beds and wheelchairs what a godsend these voice activated
devices are.
Guess what, I’m not finished writing about my new toy. I
went off to Amazon to find some cheap books and I’ve finished reading one and
have started another. The first was The Dog
who knew too Much by Spencer Quinn. Apparently he has a whole series of mystery/detective
books written in a dog’s voice and I’m a sucker for canine points of views. I
even gave that style of writing a whirl in a blog I kept for my dog before my
husband died. Sadly, I abandoned it to switch to writing this widow’s blog. Quinn's dog is a bit of an
airhead at times which adds a sense of humor to the book. It was popcorn for the mind
kind of reading. Now I’m reading Neanderthal
Seeks Human by Penny Reid, another 'popcorn' book. I hadn't read a romance in a long time and I was curious if the formula had changed. 31,673 people reviewed it with an average of 3.93 overall, so it’s safe to say
more people liked the nerdy, socially awkward heroine in the romance than didn’t.
To me it was another gorgeous, brooding wealthy-man-falls-for-a-woman-who-doesn't-know-she's-beautiful plot. But since I identify with heroines who talk in their heads the book sucked me in early on:
My heart skipped two beats. I turned around.
My heart skipped two beats. I turned around.
Oh my God, it’s you.
“Oh my God, it’s you.” I realized too late that I said
and thought the same thing in unison.
I never warmed up to on reading with my old Kindle because
I like real books that I can underline passages in and write in the margins.
If I buy a book, I don’t mind making it mine in this way. I never could figure out
how to do those things on the Kindle. This time around I’m going to try
learning to use all the features in the reader app. Already I’m a pro at using the Fire's Silk browser, e-mail, maps, weather and OneNote apps and playing music. And I was about to
learn manage grocery lists using Alexa but my niece told me if I do, don’t
be surprised if she places an order at Amazon for what I want and it’s
delivered to my doorstep in two days. Oops. ©
