Tag Archives: books

Amazon.com Wish Lists

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A great way to let people know what you want.

I’ve maintained an Amazon.com wish list for at least a year now. I do it for two reasons:

  • To keep track of the books, DVDs, CDs, and other items I want. When I place an order with Amazon.com for something I need and I either need another item to get free shipping or want to piggyback a little gift to myself on that order, I pick something off the list and buy it in the same order.
  • To let other people know about the books, DVDs, CDs, and other items I want. This is especially useful for family members around the holidays, when they don’t know what to get me. But it’s also nice for site visitors. After all, I’ve bought Amazon.com wish list items for other bloggers and software developers. I thought maybe someone might want to surprise me.

My list grows. I add more things to it than I actually get. In fact, I added about 10 books today (after going through a back issue of Bookmarks).

My Amazon.com wish list didn’t help my mother buy me a Christmas gift this year. I sent her the link to my list and she e-mailed me back saying, “Is that all you have on the list? Books and movies?”

When I told her that was it, she didn’t reply. But the Friday before Christmas, she e-mailed me to let me know she’d sent my Christmas gift late. I still haven’t gotten it, but I know she didn’t buy anything on my Amazon.com wish list. I’m imagining a sweater (I live in Arizona) from Belk, a Florida-based department store. I distinctly remember the fruit trees she bought me for my birthday a few years ago. Yes. Live fruit trees. Apple and pear, I believe. (Remember, I live in the Sonoran desert of Arizona.) I sent them back to her in Florida. They probably died en route — she never mentioned them. The trees are one of the reasons I created the wish list.

I don’t get it. The wish list includes items ranging in price from about $10 to $75. A person can choose any number of things to buy a perfect gift for his/her budget. Shipping is usually free for orders over $25. And ordering is as simple as clicking a few onscreen buttons. (She even has DSL now!) I know my brother and sister would have used the wish list if they hadn’t bought us a wonderful set of Calphalon cookware for a combo Christmas/Wedding present. (Something else on a wish list.)

So apparently it’s up to me to eat away at the wish list by piggybacking items with other things I need to buy. That’s okay. The wish list is there when I need it, so I won’t forget what items I want.

Anyway, I recommend creating an Amazon.com wish list if you don’t already have one. Then keep the link handy for the next time someone asks what you want for Christmas or your birthday. But if your mom is like mine, add a few things other than just books and CDs. Otherwise, you might wind up with a sweater, too.

Tips for Becoming a Good Blogger

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From MPDailyFix.com.

Tim Jackson at MPDailyFix.com wrote an article back in November titled “What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Good Blogger’?“that I just stumbled upon. In it, he provides five tips for better blogging. Here they are with my take on them; you should read Tim’s article for his take.

  • Know your topic. You really shouldn’t write authoritatively about a topic when you don’t know enough about the topic to do so. Opinion is one thing, but if it’s based on facts, get the facts straight. That means doing your homework. These days, that’s easy — you’re sitting in front of a computer connected to the Internet, aren’t you? Use Wikipedia, Google, or your favorite search engine to find articles that explain things you aren’t sure about. This really hits home with me today because just yesterday I was blasted for not knowing off the top of my head that Apple sells a “two-button” mouse. I was familiar with the Mighty Mouse product but did not know all of its features. I corrected myself in the very next post, but that wasn’t enough for some readers. Ouch!
  • Know your audience. This one is extremely difficult for me, primarily because this site covers so many topics: support for my books and articles, stories about flying, information about writing, opinions, articles about travel, and stories about the things that go on in my life. Exactly who does this blog appeal to? I have no idea. But I can use stats or metrics to learn more about what people are reading when they come here. For example, yesterday’s article “Apple’s ‘Two-Button’ Mouse” was a huge hit with visitors, getting hundreds of page views and nine comments in a matter of hours. (Huge numbers for this site.) Articles about blogging and statistics also seem to do very well. Is that what my audience wants? Perhaps I should deliver more. But I’ve also decided to install polling software that asks readers which topics interest the most. That might help, too.
  • Read other blogs and leave comments on them. This is something I’ve been working hard to squeeze into my schedule. I’ve found that RSS reader software (I use Endo) is very helpful because it delivers articles or summaries of articles right to one central location. I can spend a few minutes browsing through the inbox, then follow links to the original articles. That’s how I found the article I’m discussing here. This is time consuming but it has three major benefits: (1) I learn a lot about the topics I’m following, (2) I get fodder for articles on this blog (or at least links for my automated del.icio.us links posts (see This just in…), and (3) I’m able to become part of the blogging community. (More on that in a moment.)
  • Follow the links. This isn’t a huge deal for me, since I don’t have many incoming links. Yet. But it is important to see who is linking to your site. Sadly, many of the incoming links appear to be from sites trying to up their Google ranking by linking to other sites. But when I do follow a quality link, it’s good to see that someone else has appreciated what I’ve written. And that brings us to Tim’s last tip.
  • Say thanks. This is a great way to become part of the blogging community. When someone has linked to one of your posts, it’s always nice to say thanks. Not only does this make the person on the other end feel good about sharing your work with other readers, but it builds community. This morning provided a great example of this in my e-mail inbox: I had a thank you note from the author of one of the articles I’d blogged about yesterday. She’d spent a few moments on my site and had some positive things to say about the Contact Me page, which has always been a sore subject. It was nice of her to take the time to write and even nicer to get some positive feedback about my rather strict contact policies.

Again, this is my take on Tim’s five tips. To read Tim’s take and the comments left by readers on his site, read his article.

And I’d love to get some comments about this topic here. Use the Comments link.

Cynical Humor

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From my friend, Tom.

I got these from Tom a while back. Not sure where he got them from, but I think they’ve been around a while because some of them are a bit familiar. In any case, I thought they’d be nice to share online.

PC Warning! Some of these are slightly politically incorrect. If you’re easily offended, stop reading now.

  • Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.
  • One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.
  • Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
  • If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?
  • The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
  • I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said if she told me it would defeat the purpose.
  • What if there were no hypothetical questions?
  • If a deaf person swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
  • If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?
  • Is there another word for synonym?
  • Where do forest rangers go to “get away from it all”?
  • What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
  • If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
  • Would a fly without wings be called a walk?
  • Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?
  • If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is he homeless or naked?
  • Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?
  • If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to start speaking?
  • Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?
  • How do they get deer to cross the road only at those yellow road signs?
  • What was the best thing before sliced bread?
  • One nice thing about egotists: they don’t talk about other people.
  • Does the Little Mermaid wear an algebra?
  • Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
  • How is it possible to have a civil war?
  • If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest drown, too?
  • If you ate both pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
  • If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
  • Whose cruel idea was it for the word “Lisp” to have “S” in it?
  • Why are hemorrhoids called “hemorrhoids” instead of “assteroids”?
  • Why is it called tourist season if we can’t shoot at them?
  • Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?
  • If you spin an oriental man in a circle three times does he become disoriented?

Zorro: A Novel

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by Isabel Allende

Zorro: A NovelI just finished Zorro: A Novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. It’s the story of Zorro before all the other stories: the story of his parents, his birth, and his upbringing. It covers the first 20 years of his life, from California to Spain, and back to California by way of New Orleans and Cuba.

It was an interest read — and not just because of the author’s skill. Originally written in Spanish, the author writes in very long paragraphs — sometimes more than a page each — which can cover a huge span of time and many events. This is very different from the way American authors write in short paragraphs, punctuated with lots of dialog. The pages look dense and forbidding, but the story jumps out of those paragraphs and proves very entertaining, with lots of historical facts to add realism.

I recommend this book to others who like a good adventure with a familiar character.

Vista Support Sketchy

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Upgrading to Vista isn’t something to dive into.

To complete my two Excel book revisions for Excel 2007 on Vista, I’ve had to install Microsoft’s new operating system on a new computer capable of running it. The install wasn’t difficult and the configuration wasn’t hard, either. What is though, however, is getting support for non-Microsoft applications you may need to run on your computer.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t run much software on my PC. I run Microsoft Office and FileMaker Pro, which I write books and articles about. I run a Web browser, primarily to check on the appearance of my sites in a Windows Web browser. But I also run some unusual software, such as Garmin Mapsource (for putting maps on my GPS), Jeppesen Skybound (for updating GPS data on my helicopter’s GPS data card), and Citrix Client (for connecting to the FAA service and managing my OpSpecs).

Microsoft Office 2007 installed without problem on Vista. No surprise there. I haven’t tried installing FileMaker Pro yet. Garmin MapSource installed immediately and, with the TOPO map set, seems to work just fine.

But SkyBound wouldn’t install at all — tech support says they might have a Vista compatible version available in the first quarter of 2007. They claim they were unable to get the Vista beta in advance to work on an upgrade. So if you’re Vista only, you simply cannot use this software. Which is really a pain in the butt, since the database is updated every 28 days, so the software must be used monthly to get your money’s worth.

I asked the Citrix folks if their software would work with Vista. The tech support person said, “I don’t even know what Vista is.” I explained it to her. I told her that come January 30, it’ll be available to the world and that people who like to run the latest and greatest operating system software will be calling and asking the same thing. I told her I’d try installing it, but since I have so much trouble running the software on XP, I really don’t think I’m going to waste a day or two trying to get it to work on Vista. (Of course, it might work perfectly on Vista; I’m just afraid to try.)

Another tech support person I called — I can’t remember who or why — also didn’t know what Vista is. Which makes me wonder whether these people just have real lives that don’t keep them abreast of upcoming developments or if Microsoft is failing miserably at getting people excited about Vista.

My advice: make sure the software you need to run will work with Vista before you upgrade to Vista. And if you have to buy a new computer just to run Vista (as I did) you might want to make sure your software will run on Vista before you make that very large hardware investment. Waiting 3 or 6 months might save you a lot of grief — and a lot of money as hardware prices continue to drop and systems get more powerful.