I was in love with my Kindle when I got it. The words were so crisp and clear and I could put rooms full of books on it! I took it everywhere, showed everyone, and talked about it all the time, but I didn’t use it a whole lot. I read a few books on it but still found myself reading a lot of books from the library.

This wasn’t because the reading experience was any better with paper books. I actually thought reading on the Kindle was more enjoyable. I’m just cheap And I read a lot, a whole lot. But I’m not rich. I can’t afford to buy every book I read. I’ll buy a book if I think I’m going to want to refer back to it in the future, but for the most part I read a book and I’m done. I knew this about myself before I bought my Kindle, I just thought I could read borrowed library ebooks on it.

My library has an account with Overdrive so I am able to check out electronic books and audio books. (You check them out and they expire after two or three weeks. No late fees!) I thought I was going to be able to check out all kinds of library books for my Kindle and be in book heaven forever and ever.

Amazon had other ideas. They put some serious restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your Kindle and the ebooks you purchase from them. If you own a Kindle you can only read books purchased from the Kindle store. If you purchase an ebook from Fictionwise, legally, and with your own money, you can’t read it on your Kindle.  If you want to utilize the free books from your public library, that you support with your tax dollars and late fees, too bad. If you didn’t buy it from Amazon you can’t read it on your Kindle.

But maybe you’re rich. You don’t need to use the library and you certainly don’t want to waste your time shopping the internet to save a couple of bucks on every book you buy. Yay you! 2 years later a new ebook reader comes out with a color screen so you can see the pictures in your photography books and the pretty decorating ideas in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. This new ebook reader makes it really easy to take lots of notes, too. You can even cut pictures and sections of text and paste them into a project folder for later reference. This new ebook reader is everything you’ve ever wanted! (I wrote this way before the iPad came out. Seriously! I was actually writing about the rumored Microsoft Courier. I want it way more than I want an iPad.) But it’s not made by Amazon. If you buy this new reader you’ll lose all of the books you purchased for you Kindle. Or, you’ll have to keep your Kindle forever if you want to access those books in the future. LAME!

THAT is my major beef with my Kindle.
Things I like about my Kindle –

• BIG page turning buttons – I crank up the font and can read on the treadmill. Because the buttons are so big it’s easy to turn the page while I’m running. (I’m not sure about the new version of the Kindle. The buttons are larger than on other ebook readers but I’m not sure if they’re as treadmill friendly.)
• Book prices – Amazon almost always has the lowest price on ebooks
• Books purchased books are stored by Amazon – If you buy an ebook from Amazon you can download it to your Kindle over and over again so if you need to free up space, your Kindle crashes and erases everything, or you upgrade to a new KINDLE you’re OK. (If you upgrade to another brand, you’re in trouble. But we’ve already discussed that.)
• Sharing books – You can have up to 6 Kindles on your account and all Kindles have access to the same books. If you and your spouse have Kindles on the same account you buy one book and load it on both Kindles.
• Book selection – Amazon has more books available than any other ebook seller.
• It reads to you (Kindle 2 only) – It doesn’t sound like a robot, either. Well, not too much. You can choose male or female and even give it a British accent! How cool is that!?! Not sure I’d use it but I still think it’s cool.

Things I don’t like about my Kindle –

• No memory card slot – (I have the Kindle 1. It has a memory card slot. The New Kindle 2, does not.) I like being able to expand the memory so I don’t have to try to figure out which books to delete to make room for new books.
• No replaceable battery – If the battery dies you need to send it in for expensive repairs or you need a new Kindle. (Again, I have a Kindle 1. I can replace my battery.
• Can’t move books purchased from the Kindle Store to another brand of reader.
• Can’t read books purchased from other sources.
• Can’t read free ebooks borrowed from the library.

Photo by goXunuReviews

I’ve mentioned before that I own a Kindle and was going to post a review. I haven’t posted it yet because, despite owning my Kindle for over a year, it’s taken me until now to really decide how I feel about it. I’ve also owned a Sony Reader so will review that as well. But first I thought I should explain why I made the switch from paper books to ebooks.

I am a book lover. I love the smell of a new book. I love the feel of a book. I love the weight and the texture. I like to play with the pages as I’m reading. You can’t get that with an electronic book. I’ll keep my tree killing, space taking, paper books thank-you-very-much. This is probably the biggest objection I hear to ebook readers. “You can’t get the same experience from a cold, unfeeling piece of plastic” and it’s true.

But…

Did you know you can put thousands of books on an ebook reader? That’s a whole library full. A LIBRARY! And you can take them ALL with you. Everywhere.

Photo by ccacnorthlib

At any given time I have 20-30 books checked out of the library. Business books, craft books, writing books, organizing books, cook books, fiction books… I never know what I’m going to be in the mood to read. Anytime we go out of town, even just for a few days, I have to decide which books to bring, and which to leave home. What if this story is lame? What if it’s so good I can’t put it down and I finish it before the trip’s over? What if I’m I the mood to work on my writing, or what if I get motivated and want to learn how to improve my business? I will be so bummed if I don’t have the right book with me! So I used to pack a bag with the top 10 (or 15, I’m not a very good decision maker) and will probably need shoulder surgery some day because of it. (I couldn’t even go to my daughter’s soccer games without at least two books because, what if?) And that’s why I made the switch from paper to electronic books.

Most ebook readers use e-ink. It’s really amazing stuff. The words are so crisp and clear, very much like words on paper. When I turned my Kindle on for the first time I looked at the screen from every angle for at least half an hour trying to figure out how it worked. (Ok, maybe only 3 or 4 minutes but it felt like a long time. And no, I never did figure out how it worked.) There’s no backlight or anything so it’s just… amazing! How do they do that? Go to Best Buy or Target or Barnes and Noble, anywhere that has ebooks on display, and check them out. Even after a year I am still amazed.

Photo by Horia Varlan

There are some things that I miss about paper books, though. You know how you can flip through the pages to find a diagram or a phrase that you know is on the right side towards the middle of the book? You can’t do that with an ebook. Well, you can, but it’s slow. This is the one time I really miss my paper books.

I just remembered that there’s a search function so you can search for a particular word within a book. I haven’t used it but will see if that helps and report back.

Another thing I miss about paper books is… um… color pictures?

So color, smell and flipability. That’s what paper books have on ebooks.

Oh, and about 5,000 pounds.

I just finished watching the HBO movie Taking Chance*. It’s based on the true story of a Marine escorting the body of a fallen Marine home to his family. What I was really struck by was the desire of regular Americans to help. There wasn’t much they could do but they did what they could no matter how little it felt – they thanked the Marine for his service, they showed respect for the fallen Marine and they did any small thing they could to make the journey easier on the escort.

It reminded me of all the members of our military who are far away from home and the people they love. I want to do something but I don’t feel like there’s anything I CAN do.

Then I remembered AnySoldier.com**. They connect military personnel in harms way with people at home who would like to send packages but maybe don’t know anyone personally to send things to. It’s especially nice for those soldiers who don’t get much from home. You can read emails from the contacts overseas** and send them what’s most needed. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive. More than anything they appreciate letters and notes from home, even if they don’t know you. This would be a great project for your kid’s class. Imagine being far away from home and getting a package of letters and drawings from kids! Just make sure you read the suggestions on what to and what not to send.

If you decide to send something please let me know. I love reading about the things people give.

*If you don’t have HBO this movie will be released on DVD May 12th. I don’t know that I would buy it but I would recommend renting it if you can. You can watch an interview with Kevin Bacon and the real Lt. Col. Mike Strobl on the Amazon website.

**This is addicting!!

Works for Me Wednesday

Before I say anything else I want to make it clear that I don’t know anything about losing weight. I’m just a mom who finally figured out how to lose a few pounds. Not a lot, and not all of them that I need to lose, (just ask my Wii fit) but a few.

#1  -  I stopped listening to the experts.

It’s not that I think fitness and weight loss experts don’t know what they’re talking about, or that I don’t think it’s important to understand the facts and new information when it comes to eating and exercising. I just can’t do it all.

I’m a perfectionist. I don’t do everything right all the time, I just don’t want to do anything unless I can do it perfectly. So, when I read about all the things I’m not supposed to eat (sugar, white bread, white rice, bad fat, processed food) and all the things I’m supposed to eat (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, good fats, a bazillion different minerals and vitamins) and how I’m supposed to exercise (every day, in the morning, before eating, with weights, on a treadmill, uphill, downhill, for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 120 minutes for the rest of my life) I feel like I have to do ALL of that. I can’t!! I can’t even keep track of it all. Do you know how hard it is to find whole grain bread, that’s really whole grain, (not fake whole grain) that doesn’t have sugar as one of the first 5 ingredients?!?! I don’t think there is such a thing. Except for maybe Ezekiel bread, which tastes like cardboard.

I decided to stop trying to do what the experts said I should do and just concentrate on doing what I could do.

#2  -  I did what was easy.

I made the decision many times to start working out. Usually my plan was to work out every day. I tried Tae Bo, Pilates, T-Tapp… I tried running but I really hate running. HATE it. I started hiking the mountain near my house once. I really enjoyed it and stuck with it for quite a while but things changed and I wasn’t able to fit it into my routine anymore. I was trying to do what the experts said I should do and usually hated it, dreaded it and had a hard time making it work with my life. Every day when I woke up I groaned in my head at the thought of having to do whatever exercise I had chosen for the moment.

Eventually I just quit.

This year I decided I would just walk for 20 minutes 3 times a week. Just 20 minutes, just walking, just 3 times a week. I don’t mind walking. I have a treadmill and, because I like to hike, I decided to max out the incline on my treadmill during my 20 minute walk. It was a little harder, but not something I dreaded, and 20 minutes was something I could easily fit into my schedule.

After a month or two I found myself looking forward to my walk after work so I started doing it every day. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Then I decided I could run for a minute. Just a minute. And then I ran for a minute twice. And then I ran faster for half a minute. I enjoyed challenging myself and my body. Honestly, I have to work now to not let exercising take over my life. I could easily work out for almost 2 hours (with a few breaks to catch my breath) between the treadmill and some DVDs I have. I try not to do that, though, because I don’t want to start doing something I can’t maintain, and I don’t want working out to take priority over my family.

I could have just as easily decided to walk to my neighbors house and back if that was all I could bear the thought of. I just started doing something, but not so much that I hated the thought of doing it every day.

I don’t LOVE working out and there are certainly times when I really don’t want to do it. Sometimes I just don’t do it, And other times I decide just to do my 20 minute walk.

#3  -  I stopped trying to lose weight.

It’s not that I didn’t want to lose weight, but that’s not what motivated me to start this time and stick with it.

I’ve never made a real all-out attempt to lose weight. I’d given it some half hearted attempts, but after a few weeks, when my clothes didn’t start falling off and the scale wasn’t moving, I gave up.

Then I started taking the stairs at work. I work on the fourth floor and had to get to work early so I could catch my breath before I had to get on the phones. I hated those stairs but made myself take them because it was such a little thing, and when I was a stay at home mom I was jealous of all the people who could take the stairs like the fitness expert said. This was my chance.

I made the decision to start walking because I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to be able to take the stairs without needing a 5 minute recovery period. So when I didn’t lose weight right away it didn’t matter. I wasn’t failing. The scale wasn’t proof that all my hard work was wasted. Eventually the scale moved and I had to buy a belt, but that was just icing on the cake.

#4  -  I don’t get hungry.

I eat every time I feel hungry. I tried not snacking at work but came home so hungry that I inhaled several hundred calories of junk food within 20 minutes of getting home. So now, Even if it’s an hour before dinner, I’ll eat something small if my stomach starts to growl. I try to keep protein bars in my purse. I bake bran muffins to bring to work and keep around the house.

I try to eat healthier foods when I’m hungry. I find my craving for junk food isn’t as strong if I keep myself full on healthy food. I feel hungrier sometimes after eating some fruits and vegetables, so while I do try to eat more of those, they don’t really work for me as a “keep myself from getting hungry” snack. I know that carbs a supposed to be bad but I feel full longer if I include them in my meals.

#5  -  I eat foods I like.

I’m not eating pizza every night with cheesecake for desert and chocolate cake for a midnight snack. But if I want a piece of cheese cake, I’m going to have it. The funny thing is, once I started working out I started thinking about my food differently without even wanting to or choosing too. I would pick up a candy bar and think about how long I have to walk to burn those calories. “Is this worth an hour of walking?” Sometimes it is and I enjoy every bite. Sometimes it’s not, and even if it’s just a couple of M&Ms, it’s easier to say no. And sometimes it’s not worth an hour, but is worth 20 minutes, so I’ll have a couple of bites and leave the rest.

I also don’t make myself eat yucky food just because it’s healthier. Those protein bars I keep with me all the time? They’re the yummy ones. Some of those things are pretty nasty. I don’t eat those. I will by low fat versions of some foods IF it tastes as good as the full fat version. I eat regular yogurt because the light stuff has fake sugar in it. I hate fake sugar. I buy low fat mayo, ranch dressing and sour cream because I really don’t notice a difference in taste.

BONUS RULE

I stopped trying to do what worked for other people.

I used to read stories about DVD’s, exercising schedules, diet plans etc. that worked for people. They lost tens and hundreds of pounds and several sizes. If it worked for them, it can work for me, right? WRONG. I was forgetting that these people are different than me. They have different attention spans, different tastes, different schedules, different obligations. What they did, I might not have time to do. What they eat, I may hate. (Like those instant shake things. No wonder people lose weight when they drink those! I felt sick to my stomach the rest of the day!) And what they think is a fun exercise, I may consider a form of torture.

The same goes for this list here. Maybe you need something much more structured. If you need tasks to check off and rules to follow, that’s ok. What I really want you to get out of all of this is that you have to find what works for you. Just try something. If it doesn’t work for you, it’s ok. Try something else until you find something you don’t hate.

I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them, I just haven’t ever felt moved to make one – until this year. This year there’s something I want, something I’m willing to work at for a whole year. It has nothing to do with weight, or cleaning, or eliminating a bad habit, or reading the Bible all the way through, or posting on this blog every single day.

November and December are crazy-hectic around here. They are for everyone, I know.  But we’ve got more than the usual holiday parties to deal with. We have a lot of family nearby  – parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins… I’m not complaining. I wouldn’t change it for anything, not even the chance to spend the whole 2 months in Hawaii. (Well, ok, maybe just once, but not every year.) If it was up to me we’d have ALL of our family members living close by. It is hard, though, to find time for everyone, especially around the holidays. We often find ourselves trying to split our time between my mom’s family, my dad’s family and my in-laws. I remember one thanksgiving that we didn’t eat at all. We visited one side of the family in the morning, left the next one when they started to eat and arrived at the last destination just as they were finishing putting everything away.

On top of the normal Thanksgiving/Christmas gatherings we have no less than 10 birthdays in November and December. There are usually at least 2 soccer tournaments (that means 3 or 4 games in a single weekend) and at least one game the rest of the weekends. Add shopping, wrapping and baking to my regular schedule and you might understand why I have moments when I hate this time of year.

It’s exaggerated in November and December, but I do feel overwhelmed and tired almost all of the time. Soccer is an all year thing around here, and just the everyday obligations leave me feeling like I can’t keep up with everything. I don’t enjoy time with my friends and family very often because I’m either too busy or too tired to enjoy it.

That’s what I want to change.

I want to make time to hang out with my kids – they’re getting older and won’t necessarily be living here much longer. I need to take advantage of having them handy while I can.

I want to get together with my extended family more often. We’re so lucky to have most of them close by but we still don’t see some of them more than once a year. Again, I want to do more of this while I can still boss my kids around so that they’ll know and appreciate their family later.

I want to cultivate closer friendships. We have a lot of acquaintances that we like and enjoy spending time with but it doesn’t grow much beyond that because (say it with me) I’m to busy/tired for more.

I want to schedule some alone time with my husband. It’s so easy to live in the same house (and spend every night sitting next to each other on the couch watching TV/surfing the internet) and still wake up one day not knowing each other anymore. I don’t want that to happen to us.

Wow, that’s a lot of wants and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed just thinking about it. But you know what? I spent most of the day today sitting in front of the computer doing a whole lot of nothing. I didn’t even get this posted until after 9 at night. I could have played a game of Clue with my daughter or gone out to lunch with a friend.

While I want to minimize the time I spend on everyday chores, cooking, cleaning, shopping…, what I really need to do is stop wasting time on other things that don’t add anything to my life. That’s going to be harder for me and not as fun. I don’t watch a lot of TV but I do love my internet. It’s like living at the library. I find all kinds of great ideas and learn lots of new things on here. As much as I enjoy that, it’s not important in the long run, not like people.

I don’t expect to be posting next year about how I’ve accomplished everything I talked about today, but I do expect to have eliminated some of the time wasters in my life and, just by making this a priority, I hope I will have spent more time focused on what’s important.

Amazon is giving away free Christmas music this year. From December 1st through Christmas Day Amazon is giving away one MP3 download a day. Don’t worry if you’re finding out about this in the middle like I am. The earlier songs are still available, they’re just adding an additional song each day, 25 songs in all. But don’t wait too long, they won’t be free forever. THANKS AMAZON!

Amazon is also offering a free trial of Amazon Prime. With Amazon Prime you get free 2 day shipping on all purchases from Amazon.com. OR you can choose next day shipping for only $4. You can only use the free trial once but what better time to use it than when you still have shopping to do less than 2 weeks before Christmas? I don’t know anybody in that situation. I’m just letting you know in case you know any procrastinators. I’m certainly not a procrastinator so I don’t need this stinking free trial.

If you’re the type of person who forgets to cancel free trials and ends up paying for a year membership that you don’t want, I’m going to tell you how to avoid that with Amazon Prime. (No, I don’t forget to cancel free trials. I’m very organized and never forget to do ANYTHING. I’m just passing this on in case you aren’t as organized as I am.)

Step 1 – Go to Amazon.com and click on “Your Account” in the upper right hand side of the screen.
Step 2 – In the settings section click on “Manage Prime Membership”.
Step 3 – Select “Do Not Upgrade”.

That should take care of it. No worries and super fast shipping for Christmas.

Amazon recently opened a shipping center here so most items arrive within a few days, even with free shipping. because of that I’m not going to renew Amazon Prime when my free trial expires. If we didn’t have a shipping center here, and I had to wait a week or more for items to arrive, I would probably keep it. When I buy something I want it NOW! I hate waiting…

Alright, so you’ve purchased a domain name and have spent a few days looking at themes. You’re dieing to get your blog up and running now, right? Good, because that’s what we’re going to do today.

First though, you need to do a little more research. Before anyone will be able to view your blog you’ll have to find a host. A host provides space to store your website or blog information. I searched message boards and review sites for a week or so before finally deciding to go with HostGator. They might or might not be the best or the cheapest but the reviews were good and I found their prices very competitive. My experience with them has always been great. They’ve always been quick to respond to even my lamest questions and have been able to help me solve any issues right away. For that reason I can highly recommend them but it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you wanted to do your own research.

After you’ve found your host it’s time to upload Wordpress to your site. I use GoDaddy and HostGator so my instructions are specific to them, but the steps should be similar no matter what combination of companies you’re using. The first thing you want to do is change the domain name servers (DNS) for your domain. I think it tells the web browser where to look for your site information. Find out what your particular name servers are. If you have HostGator your DNS will be given to you in your welcome email. (If you lost it, email support.) Next, go to Godaddy.com, hold your mouse over “domains” click on “my domains” in the drop down box and select the domain you want to work with. Make sure it’s unlocked, then click on the name servers to change them. It can take a few days for some internet service providers to update so be patient if you don’t see anything on your site for a while. Your host should have a way for you to view it while you’re waiting. (With HostGator you just go to . )

Gosh, I am so sick of listening to myself type. I know this post is a little dry and technical. We’re almost done and when we are you’ll have a brand spanking new blog to play with!

Now we’re ready to load Wordpress on your site. HostGator, and I’m sure many other hosts, has a great product called Fantastico that lets you upload Wordpress with just a few clicks of your mouse. If you have HostGator go to www.yourdomain.com/cpanel and log in. On the main cpanel page there is an icon for Fantastico De Luxe. When you click on that you’ll be taken to a page is a list of website programs that you can have loaded on your site. Select Wordpress and follow the directions. Make sure you write down all of the usernames and passwords it asks you to choose. You might even want to make an extra copy or 2 just in case you lose one. You need to take very good care of these. Then you’re done! See. Easy.

You did it! I’m so excited for you. Now go to www. yourdomain.com/wp-login to start playing with settings. I predict a sleepless night for you.

Spend the next few days thinking about how you want your blog organized. What categories and sub-categories would you like? What special features would you like? Take a look at some other blogs to get some ideas.

One thing you’ll probably learn about me pretty soon is that I obsess about things. When there’s something I want to learn about or do I’m pretty much consumed by it all day, every day until I learn everything there is to know, or until something new grabs my interest.

This week my obsession is called www.lazyperfection.com. I’ve spent every spare moment working on the layout and the organization and all of the little details. For instance, see that area on the right side that says “Subscribe to Lazy Perfection”? It took me at least an hour to figure out how to get it just the way I want it. Maybe two. Working on a website can be frustrating. I’m not a professional website designer so I have to search Google for instructions on how to do everything, and if it doesn’t work I don’t always know why. It feels great when I get things to look the way I want them to, though. Then I can go to bed. Usually at 2 AM.

I figure there might be some lazy people out there who would like a blog of their own so I’m gonna help you out a bit and point you to a few websites and products that have helped me out.

First, there are 2 ways you can set up a blog. You can go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and sign up for one there. Almost all the work is done for you. It’s easy, it’s free and you can be up and running within minutes. Sounds perfect, right? It is if you’re just creating a blog to keep family updated on what you’re doing. If you’re creating a blog for a business though, or want to reach a larger audience, you should host your own blog. While there are a lot of things you can do to customize your blog on Blogger.com and Wordpress.com you are limited to things they provide or approve.  I’m a control freak. I want to be in charge of every aspect of my blog. It’s more complicated to host your own blog but it allows you to control every aspect of your image. Below are the basic steps you’ll need to take to set up a self hosted blog.

Step one: get a domain name. I buy my domains from GoDaddy.com. They were the cheapest when I started. There might be something cheaper now but I’ve used them for years, have never had a problem and don’t want to fix what ain’t broke.  It’ll cost you about $10 to buy a domain name for a year. As I mentioned in my previous post, it takes a lot of trial and error to find an available domain name. Just be patient. You don’t want to end up with something you hate because you were in a hurry.

Step two: while you’re working on finding the right domain name, you can start looking for a template or a theme. I’m using Wordpress as the platform for my blog. (A platform is essentially the software or program that makes the blog work like a blog.) There are others out there but Wordpress is very popular so there are a lot of plugins available, and you can find answers to almost any question with a quick Google search. Wordpress is an Open Source product which means it’s FREE! Free is good. You can download it for free, find themes for free, find plugins for free… I love free. There are plugins and themes that you can buy as well, but there’s enough free stuff out there to keep you busy for years.

Sorry, I got a bit off track there. So, we’re looking for a theme or a template for Wordpress. Here are some places to get you started. These sites cover almost every free Wordpress theme out there but you can search Google if you want to look yourself.

• Best Wordpress Themes – 10 free Wordpress themes that blow many premium themes away
• Smashing Magazine – 100 excellent free Wordpress themes
• Wordpress – Theme viewer

Free themes are great if you really have no budget and many of them really do look nice. I started out using free themes but got tired of being stuck with certain design elements because I didn’t know the code to change them. I decided to use a paid theme -  Thesis. With Thesis, even with no code knowledge, you can change the number of columns on your blog, move elements, change colors and so many other things I can’t list them all here. It’s used by thousands of bloggers, big and small. It’s the theme I use on all of my sites. Chris, the creator of Thesis, works constantly to make the theme better, cleaner and easier to work with. Yes, the links to Thesis are affiliate links which means I’ll make a couple dollars if you click on them and buy the theme. BUT I would recommend it to you even if I didn’t make anything. I use it myself and I recommend it to my friends. If you can’t afford it or aren’t sure you’re serious about setting up a blog, use a free theme. But if you’re at all serious, get Thesis. You will save hundreds of hours of work and frustration and maybe prevent a few gray hairs.

That should keep you busy today. Tomorrow I’ll tell you how to host your site and bring it live. Exciting stuff ! Almost makes me want to make a new blog so I can do it right along with you!