Merry Christmas from Taiwan

After opening presents Christmas morning

GJS

Holiday Video 2009

Happy Holidays to everyone!

GJS

He's always been stylish

Ran across a video of Don Mattingly online today and it *forced* me to write this post. Here's the visual:

Niiiiiice "flavor saver," Don!

Astute observers will remember that Don is no stranger to stylin'. To wit:

The images pretty much tell the story here. I can't add much to this.

Except for this, an article that ran in the New York Times earlier this year entitled "Yankees' Mattingly Was the Man to Teixeira as a Boy":

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/sports/baseball/02teixeira.html

I'm "Mattingly'd" out for today.

GJS

New Artwork

John brought a really swell piece of artwork home from school today, I just had to share it:

Awesome!

GJS

Magazine

I don't receive any magazine subscriptions in the mail here (international mail is too expensive and too slow - instead, I receive digital versions of several magazines), but once in a while when I am out and about at bookstores I browse the magazine shelves. Western magazines are more expensive here than back home, so I try to be prudent about purchasing any of them - after all, I do have electronic versions of a few "old standbys" to read. But earlier this week, one magazine caught my eye - the latest issue of CNN Traveller. (I had never heard of the magazine until I saw it this week - anybody else ever hear of it? It may only be sold outside the US, I am not sure.) Here is a scan of the magazine's cover:

It caught my eye because that is a photo of Lotus Lake in Kaohsiung. In fact, the previous Garblog "splash" photo (see below for a variant that shows some of the same background visible in the magazine cover shot above, and second below for the "splash" photo) was taken in front of the same pagoda. Take a look and compare them. I like my picture better - much more colorful! CNN Traveller's is pretty dull and drab.

Aside from the cover striking my fancy, there is also a nice piece in the magazine about cycling in Taiwan, something I need more information about so I can start doing more of it. I have yet to find a good way to conveniently be able to put in a decent amount of miles here in the city without having to fight my way across and through many busy roadways jammed with cars and scooters. Not much fun. I need some trails! I think this magazine article can help.

Here's the link to CNN Traveller's website, in case you are interested in checking it out further:

http://www.cnntraveller.com/

The Taiwan cycling piece is here:

http://www.cnntraveller.com/2009/11/02/seeing-taiwan-by-bicycle/

GJS

New photos

...are being uploaded right now. There will be nearly 200 new items once the upload is complete, so give it some time, and check back in a little while at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gjsamps/.

GJS

Showdown in Boulder

Listening to the 'Skers take on Colorado right now on Internet radio...Huskers up 21 - 14 at the start of the 4th quarter. Sounds like the NU defense has been keeping them in the game thus far, offensive stats are lopsided in favor of Colorado. I would like to see Nebraska hold on to pull out a win here in their final regular season prior to the Big 12 Championship against Texas next week.

Go Huskers!

GJS

Contributing to cognitive dissonance

Here are a couple pictures from today's beautiful weather in Kaohsiung. This was the "weather" part of the equation (80° and sunny - did you see my tweet?) causing a bit of cognitive dissonance in my head today. All better now, thanks. :-)

GJS

It's about time...

From the Small Wars Journal blog:

The US Military Academy’s Department of History is pleased to invite you to a West Point Symposium on the History of Irregular Warfare, 18-20 November 2009. The symposium will feature the scholarship of five cadet panel presenters with commentary by distinguished guest scholars, including: Dr. Stephen Biddle as our keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Black, Col. Robert Cassidy, Dr. Conrad Crane, Dr. George Herring, Dr. Brian Linn, and Dr. Peter Mansoor. Additionally, Dr. James Le Sueur (Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics, 2005) will present a special lecture on Algerian society since 1963. Col. Gian Gentile, a History faculty member, will participate as part of the “Visiting Scholars Panel” with Dr. Crane, Dr. Mansoor, and Col. Cassidy.

***

Dr. James Le Sueur is a professor of history at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. In the spring of 2004, in my penultimate semester as an undergraduate at UNL, I took a course he taught called "The History of Terrorism." I was struck by his energy and breadth of knowledge, especially relating to the underpinnings of Northern African terrorism (no wonder he is presenting on Algeria's history). Ever since I got back into my current line of work later that year, I have sort of been wondering why I never saw his name associated with any conferences or programs in the burgeoning field of counterinsurgency, counterterror, irregular warfare, and so forth. Clearly he has knowledge that would be very relevant to the ongoing discussion. Welcome to the fold, Professor Le Sueur.

GJS

"The Huskers have hung 30 on the Jayhawks!"

Congratulations to the Nebraska Corn Johnnies on their win on the road against Kansas. Momentum is going in the right direction now. If I had a "corn head," I would be wearing it (I did own one at one point, but I gave it away to somebody who lives in Idaho).

Up next: Kansas State. I'd like to see NU "hang," oh, about 70 points on them.

GJS

NU - KU

It's going down in Lawrence in oh, about 7 hours. Starts at half past four in the AM here, so I will not be tuning on for the beginning. Perhaps I will catch the end, though - my "alarm clock" (see above photo; he passed out with his light on tonight) has already been asleep for over an hour and is an early riser. He always seems to want some breakfast when he gets up, too, and that takes me within arm's reach of the coffee pot - you can see where this is heading. Then I am "up and at 'em," at least in theory. Tomorrow I can listen to the football game while sipping my morning coffee - nice!

Go Huskers!

GJS

FPRI Essays on the U.S. Armed Forces

It's a bit out of character for me to post an e-mail essentially in its
entirety here, but I got this message from the Foreign Policy Research
Institute today with links to many nice essays about the US armed forces
(including one by a former professor of mine at Nebraska, Pete Maslowski).
Looks like I just missed getting this posted on Veteran's Day in the
continental US, but it's worth having a look nonetheless.

Enjoy!

GJS

Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 04:01
To:
Subject: FPRI Essays on the U.S. Armed Forces

Today we honor all those who risk their lives -- and all who have given
their lives -- so that we might be free.

Below is a compilation of FPRI essays on the U.S. Armed Forces.

"Ten Things Every American Student Should Know
about our Army in World War II"
by Rick Atkinson, May 2009
www.fpri.org/footnotes/1415.200905.atkinson.usarmywwii.html

"The U.S. Navy in World War II"
by James Kurth, September 2009
www.fpri.org/footnotes/1424.200909.kurth.usnavywwii.html

"Reflections on Memorial Day"
by Mackubin T. Owens, May 2009
www.fpri.org/enotes/20090522.owens.memorialday.html

"The Marines: Premier Expeditionary Warriors"
by Frank Hoffman, November 2007
www.fpri.org/enotes/200711.hoffman.marinesexpeditionarywarriors.html

"World War II and Its Meaning for Americans"
David Eisenhower, April 2007
www.fpri.org/footnotes/129.200705.eisenhower.ww2meaningamericans.html

"Teaching about the Military: Some Basics"
by Paul Herbert, May 2007
www.fpri.org/footnotes/1211.200705.herbert.teachingmilitarybasics.html

"Understanding the Creation of the US Armed Forces"
by Peter Maslowski, April 2007
www.fpri.org/footnotes/1210.200704.maslowski.creationusarmedforces.html

"War and the Military in American History,"
by Walter McDougall, March 2007
www.fpri.org/footnotes/127.200703.mcdougall.warmilitaryushistory.html

"The Future of the U.S. Army,"
by Sherwood Goldberg, December 2005
www.fpri.org/enotes/20051212.military.goldberg.futurearmy.html

"Iwo Jima and the Future of the Marine Corps"
by Mackubin T. Owens, February 2005
www.fpri.org/enotes/20050223.military.owens.iwojimamarinecorps.html

"The Future of the Reserves and the National Guard:
A Conference Report"
by Michael Noonan, January 2005
www.fpri.org/enotes/20050119.military.noonan.citizensoldier.html

Alan Luxenberg
Foreign Policy Research Institute
1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel. 215 732 3774 ext 105
www.fpri.org

A few changes

Fending off the Kaohsiung paparazzi

You've no doubt by now noticed the new "splash page" photo here at Garblog....kinda nice, dontcha think? I like to put a new pic up there now and then just to keep things fresh. I hope you like it. If not, let me know about it in the comments.

You've also probably noticed the my Twitter feed on the right of this page. Yep, I decided to bite the bullet and start tweeting. I've produced 75 "tweets" since starting on October 25th. Quite frankly, some of the shorter posts that used to go up here are now being passed there. If you read this blog, then you probably will also find the tweets to be interesting too, at least some of the time. If you are on Twitter, feel free to follow me there, too: @gjsamps.

Finally, there are new photos being uploaded to Flikr. Check back in a while to see them. There will be Halloween stuff, feeding the birds and fish and playing at the park, and other random stuff from the last 2 weeks. As always, there will be a mixture of photos and videos, so be sure to head on over to Flikr to check out the new adds!

GJS

Author Malcolm Gladwell on New Book 'What the Dog Saw' - TIME

I'm still working my way through his new book...a recent interview in
Time magazine.

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1931100,00.html

GJS

Sent from my iPod

OU(ch)

OK, so I have to admit, I didn't think there was much chance that the Huskers would beat Oklahoma in Lincoln today. "Oh, ye of little faith!" I bet it was quite a feeling to be inside Memorial Stadium Saturday night. What say you, readers? Was anyone reading these words at...the...game? If so, perhaps that faithful eyewitness could post a comment to tell everyone what it was like. Did you scream away your voice? Was it a complete madhouse of rabid 'Skers fans? Were "corn heads" flying through the air like mortarboards on graduation day?

GJS

Photo courtesy D. Allen Sampson.

Another "poorly-scheduled" Husker game

Who decides what time to have these football games anyhow?  Don’t they know there is a huge fan base of one (1) here in Taiwan that would like to follow along in real-time?  J NU – OU trumped by worship services on this end.  Go Big Red!

 

GJS

Baylor

I almost forgot that the Huskers are about to take the field against Baylor in an attempt to redeem recent humiliating football losses (a comment on my last Husker-related post is actually what jogged the tired gray matter to remember - thanx, CCC!)

Let's all wish the Huskers good luck in their pigskin showdown in Waco! I'll read about it in the morning (Taiwan time, that is).

GJS

W I N N E R !

There were a few ideas that I mentioned the other day when I posted about how I might possibly write my way to....thirty-one...that are just going to have to keep waiting to see the light of day. Sorry, Gladwell, sorry, online articles of interest...build a stout heart and bolster your patience, for only Heaven knows when you will be loosed by my pen (or more literally, my keyboard).

I can't just leave you with that, though! You may already wish I had...but bear with me, people...

From the "random ideas" department:

I have always though that this picture of my son, taken within his first week or two of life, bears a striking resemblance to a particular rock band's first mainstream album cover. Take a look, let me know if I am way off base here or not...

成功了！

GJS

The Writing Life

This post is about writing.  I’ve been feeding this blog a pretty steady diet of pictures and commentary about pictures as of late (those posts are pretty easy to do, quite frankly), but now it’s time to change speeds a little bit.

 

It’s not really surprising that as a graduate school student I would be doing a lot of writing.  In fact, I can’t really complain about the load of writing from school so far.  I’ve only had 2 papers to turn in so far, and one of them was only 2 pages.  Bah – that hardly even counts, right?  The other was harder and more time consuming, making up for the relative easiness of the first one, a “think piece” about international relations theory that stretched out to 8 pages before I was done (not including a works cited page).  It was supposed to be a tad shorter than that, but in the end I decided that I liked it at that length and just handed it in.  That was on this past Tuesday, so I don’t know how I did on it – no feedback until at least until Tuesday comes ‘round again.

 

But I have been doing a lot of writing.  On what, then?  Garblog, for one.  Although I have been hit-or-miss in the past week and half, I am going to get to 31 posts this month, a new Garblog record.  Plus, in case you didn’t notice, Garblog has surpassed 100 posts on the year.  This is quite an accomplishment for a blog that some years has had less posts for the entire year than I have done in the last 24 hours!  (In my own defense, during the year in question I was deployed for about a third of the year and rotated essentially right afterwards into another highly demanding, travel-intensive job.) I have been enjoying the additional time I have to devote to this medium as of late.  After all, I hear that what they say is true – if you want to be able to write well, you’re probably going to need to do some writing.

 

So I’ve been writing some school papers, some blog posts…that can’t account for all my efforts.  No, you’re right, it doesn’t.  Well, this wouldn’t come as any surprise to you if you were the one person subscribed to my Twitter feed (at least there’s one – thank goodness!), but I’ve really been pouring some time into the report I am obligated to write detailing my life so far in the Olmsted Scholar Program.  Taken on the face of it, it sounds like a not-too-onerous task, right?  At least it did to me…until I really started writing the paper.  I sank a few hours into it, got to about 10 pages.  Sank about 10 more hours into it – doubled the page count to about 20.  Got up this morning, sat down at the computer and started writing.  Pretty much did only that for the next 11 hours straight, and now we’re looking at about 40 pages worth of pre-edit material.  I’ve got at least 5, maybe 10 more pages in the hopper before I think I will have everything written down that I want to write.  So we’re looking at close to 50 pages of material, single spaced (yes, there are some photos as well, so it’s not all text), but still, it’s a lot of stuff!  I guess it would have to be, though – after all, the report covers from March 2008 until about a month ago, that’s really about 18 months.  During that time, I’ve changed residences three times, spent over 200 full days of class trying to learn nothing but Chinese, flown across the Pacific Ocean three times, completed a Half-Ironman triathlon, a half marathon and a full marathon, and a thousand other smaller things that add up to a person’s life.  Luckily, all I need to put in the report is stuff that will help future scholars.  That’s still a lot of stuff.  I have to finish the report in the next week, so wish me luck.

 

I’ve also been writing a monthly report (next one due very soon!) that details my activities as a scholar in Taiwan.  These reports, like the Olmsted report I just talked about, are also for a military audience.  Rightly so, the folks who run the program I am on want to know what I am doing out here, they want to make sure I am being a productive human being.  So I write reports for them.  Like the short paper for school I mentioned at the outset, these reports are capped at 2 pages, not including any enclosures or attachments.  The 2 page limit ensures that the report itself will be brief and succinct (although I do maximize my writing space by making it single-space J), but there is no length limit in the enclosures.  On a serious note, based on what I’ve experienced here so far, there really is plenty enough for me to write about to easily fill that 2 page report and to load my communiqué down with multiple enclosures, but I don’t have time to do the report that kind of justice, really.  I can make a good report without making it a book (at least, I can when I am submitting said reports on a monthly basis, as opposed to every 18 months – although the Olmsted reports are yearly from here on out).

 

Perhaps I should make this post end without making it a book.  After all, I still need to write one more post before I can call it a night and sleep peacefully knowing I achieved my meaningless, arbitrary volume-based blog posting goal. J

 

GJS

 

P.S. I really do enjoy this writing.  I just I thought it would be slightly humorous to present another take on my current short-term posting goal.

Across Four Octobers

We attended a Halloween party at our church tonight. Good thing we did, because aside from that event, we sure didn't see much costume-wearing or trick or treat activity going on around town.

The church party was fun for John, there were a lot of kids there (mostly older kids than him - we actually "snuck" him in, as that the age range for the event was advertised as 4 - 14, and he's not there yet, although it seems like every day he grows at least a quarter of an inch! Seriously, I think he is growing like a weed right now!) and lots of games for him to play. I will post a bunch of photos I took of him playing games and such to the Flikr site in a few days, when I have more pictures to upload with the Halloween ones.

I am going to give you some photos, though. In preparation for this post, I searched through my photo archive earlier today and located photos from each of John's *four* Halloweens - I can't hardly believe it's been that many already! The process got me all waxing nostalgic, I mean, just look at this little fellow on his first Halloween, when he was not yet 6 months old!

Loved elephants then and still has a soft spot for them now. Couldn't even sit up on his own - Mom is just to the side of the shot trying to keep him from tipping over.

Then for his second Halloween he was a ninja, just like his best buddy Jack. Exact same costumes! Very cute.

Third Halloween - living in California - he picks a Scooby Doo costume. (Notice the elephant toy in his hand - this is not a staged photo!)

Which brings us to number four...

Thank goodness the local stores stock Halloween costumes and candy. John, like most youngsters, really enjoys Halloween and would have been pretty sour if we weren't able to do it up like home, or at least a fair approximation. (No pumpkin carving by us this year, sorry folks! You'll have to enjoy a picture from last year's iteration...)

GJS

Cultural Oddities in Taiwan and Elsewhere

It's a bit past midday on the Isle of Formosa and I have not yet posted...I had better get a move on!

I thought starting off with one from the "whatever comes to mind" category would be nice. Let's see if you agree with me or not.

Here are a couple photos of products I recently saw on store shelves here in Kaohsiung. (Funny that I say, "saw on store shelves," because that is not where the photos of these items were taken!)

Let's begin with a discussion of "exhibit A" above, the so-called "icy pancake." What a great product! Delicious ice cream between a couple froze flapjacks - you can't beat that! (It's actually pretty tasty, or so a little birdie told me.)

Next is the "ice cream cracker" version of the ice cream sandwich. This one doesn't work quite so well. Think ice cream between two Saltine crackers and you get the idea...not exactly a hit. This one wouldn't sell in the US, I don't think (I guess it must sell alright here, for it is still available in stores).

Then we see the "next item up for bid," so to speak, the regular ice cream sandwich (seen below - properly called an "ice cream cookie" 'round these parts). Klondike Bar has no worries of going out of business with this product as competition, let me assure you, but all in all it is not too bad. (The consistency of the "sandwich" portion of the dessert has a weird consistency unlike that of a typical "American" ice cream sandwich, not as sweet, more like, well, a cracker - even though this is clearly not the "ice cream cracker" product seen above.)

All these ice cream "crackers" and "pancakes" got me thinking about other places I've been where there were novelties like these, and I couldn't help but think of Australia, 1997, the legendary "Hi-protein slice." (Les B., I know you're out there - do you remember the Hi-protein slice that we found in Darwin, Australia? Come up in the comments if you do!) Alas, I will have to describe this product to you with words, as that my attempts to find a graphical depiction of it using the Interwebs have to this point come up dry. How to describe this food...? First off, it's a product marketed to bodybuilders and weightlifting enthusiasts, which for people who knew me at the time, can be fairly said to have accurately described by primary leisure-time interests at that point in my life. It's similar in size to a Clif Bar, comes in a plastic wrapper like a protein bar, and was, in flavor, texture, and appearance, a lot like a....slice of cake (not as moist, though - much drier). Hence, the name made a lot of sense, not a bar, but a slice. Perhaps this type of nomenclature for "energy bar"-type products in Australia is routine, I do not know. Anyhow, from the "Hi-protein slice" in Australia in 1997 to the ice cream "pancake" and "cracker" in Taiwan, nothing gets past me!

I can't talk about cultural oddities here without mentioning my favorite - the infamous Hei ren ya gao (quite literally, "Black person toothpaste," so marketed because of the supposed stark contrast between a black person's skin color and their white teeth - their teeth must be much whiter than other people's teeth, so let's name a toothpaste after this phenomenon!) Seriously, could you imagine this product on a shelf in the US?

GJS

Let's close out the day with a "softball"

Tired from writing most of the day...working on expanding my Olmsted report covering my first year in the program from modest to acceptable...much more time consuming than you ever think it will be at the outset!

I don't want to disappoint everyone waiting for some new "eye candy" from the talented hand of my son, so without further adieu....

(The picture below his arm is the new one - gotta love the "funny face" he put on to show off his work!)

Both pieces were made at school.

GJS

Pics updated

Some new fodder over at my Flikr page:

 

-Pics from John’s school

-Playing around in the park

 

There are now over 600 photos and over 40 video clips posted now, a veritable smorgasbord of visual delights!  And all family-friendly, to boot.

 

What could be next?  Any predictions?

 

See you again real soon.

 

GJS

2 days - 7 posts - "It's in the bag!"

I’ve been “down for the count” for a few days on account of a nasty cold, so posting has been light.  I need to get this show on the road if I want to get to 31 posts on the month!  (And you know I do.) 

 

It’s kind of nice to be under “regular human circumstances” and be sick, quite honestly.  What I mean is, under normal military circumstances, i.e. at DLI in Monterey, or other jobs before that, if you’re sick, you still…just go to school / work.  There’s no time to miss time, know what I mean?  This week, I went to school on Tuesday, really only because I needed to turn in the paper I had been working on for a few weeks and because there was going to be an oral quiz in class, but on Wednesday and Thursday, I was feeling even cruddier, so I…just stayed home.  It was quite nice, and I feel I am on the mend all that much faster (still not there yet, though), plus I didn’t expose my other classmates (sorry Tuesday classmates, had to turn in the paper and come for the quiz) to whatever it is that I have. (For the record, I don’t believe that it is H1N1, because I have not had any of the more unpleasant symptoms, like fever, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.)  In California, I basically would have had to take a bunch of cold medicine, wash it down with a nice warm glass of “suck it up,” and carry on about my regular schedule, in the meantime sharing “the crud” with everyone around me.  Really not optimal, wouldn’t you agree?

 

To wrap up this first of seven posts to come in the next <48 hours, I wanted to briefly preview some of the material I am going to post.  It’s not like I am want for material – normally its time that is lacking.  Here’s what you can expect to see / hear about:

 

-New photos from the past 2 weeks (there are upwards of 150 new photos and video that I plan to upload to Flikr / incorporate into a post or posts)

-Update on some things I’ve been reading online (articles and such)

-Comments on Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, which I finished listening to (it’s the audiobook version) last week (I told you it was coming!)

-An update on e-books / maybe some information about what drove me to recently purchase an iPod Touch

-John’s latest art masterpieces (his adoring masses love these posts)

-Random stuff that I think of (I know, this is your favorite category, my one reader out there!)

 

There, see, that’s 6 more topics, at least, right off the top of my head - too easy!

 

I’ll let you contemplate that for a little while before I bring on the next wave of material.

 

GJS

New capability

I am cozily ensconced at my usual study / caffeine stop, getting set
to do some IR readings that were unfortunately neglected this weekend
due to the necessity of completing my IR paper. Typing on the iPod's
touch screen is going to take a little getting used to, although I can
tell I am already getting more used to it. It actually can tell
(sometimes) when you make a typing error and suggest the word you
probably meant to type, which is nice.

Java and the "balance of power" await - I shouldn't keep them waiting!

GJS

Sent from my iPod

First bike ride since I don't know when

Finally was able to get out on the two-wheeler this morning. I was inspired by Lance Armstrong – I saw that his annual Ride for the Roses (RftR) was yesterday / today / however you want to look at it, depending on where you live (objectively, it was on Sunday, 25 October).

Hard to believe it has already been 7 years (!) since I traveled to Austin to do that ride. That year the ride was in April, and I think starting in 2003 he moved it to its current place on the calendar, October. Like RAGBRAI, which I rode the same year (2002), I would really like to do the Ride for the Roses again sometime…I keep thinking that one of these years the timing will work out, but as long as I am in my current job, the chances are pretty slim. Maybe in 2011…

Unlike the RftR (100 miles) or RAGBRAI (a week of daily rides ranging from about 60 miles to over 100), my ride today was less than 20 miles total, pretty easy, only one big hill. (There aren’t a lot of hills to speak of here in Kaohsiung – it’s a pretty flat place, which is OK for a “flatlander” like me!) You have to start someplace – you don’t get back on the bike and go for 100 miles the first time out.

My bike just arrived last Monday, so it’s not too bad for me to already (only one week later) take it out for a spin. Seriously. It would have been pretty easy to just have skipped the ride and worked on writing something, but I’ve got to get exercise now and then or I’m not very fun to be around (ask Barb). Plus it helps me think. After my run last Friday I finally broke the writer’s block I had been experiencing for about two weeks on my international relations paper due tomorrow. I went from nothing then to 7 pages as of last night. I’m not saying it’s all high-quality, but at least there’s words on paper now. I still have some time to tweak it before turning it in. It might actually be pretty decent by the time I finish with it. This morning’s ride may help me in finishing it up – get the creative juices flowing.

Here’s the link to the workout data in case you are interested. I was able to do a lot more exploring of the city on the bike than I can on foot, which I like. Maybe one of these times I will remember to take my camera out with me, there were a lot of things that would have made some interesting pictures to share.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17124030

GJS

31 Posts in October

Alright, time to come clean about something else here at Garblog – I want to publish at least 31 posts this month.  I didn’t start the month with this goal in mind, and more is not always better, but about 5 days ago I noticed I was being fairly “prolific” in my output this month and thought to myself, gee, it would be neat to get to at least 31 posts on the month.

 

Obviously this does not mean that I have had to have published a post on each of the 31 days of the month – that would be tough!  But maybe I can do that for a week sometime, just for fun, or what about a post every hour for a day?  I worry that if I set these kind of relatively random, output-based goals for myself (particularly the 24 posts in 24 hours) that the quality you have come to know and expect from me in the posts here would devolve into essentially nothing more than a Twitter feed.

 

In an interesting and related development, I would like to report to you the acquisition of another nifty gadget.  I have written before of my affinity for electronic gadgets, and the latest acquisition is right in line with this.  What do you think it is?  Go ahead, ponder for a moment… OK, that’s long enough.  It’s an iPod Touch.  Why not the iPhone?  I will have to write about that another time, for it’s a bit of a tale in and of itself.  The iPod Touch gives me Wi-Fi access in the palm of my hand, so I can access e-mail and other online media like Facebook very conveniently from anywhere I can find a Wi-Fi signal…which in Taiwan is pretty much anywhere, at least in the major cities like Kaohsiung and Taipei.  It also opens up possibilities like Twitter, although I am not sure that I am really a big fan of that application.  We’ll see, I am thinking about it, at least.  The iPod touch also gives me access to Apple’s Application Store, essentially programs that run on iPhone and iPod Touch.  A few that I have already acquired include Skype (so that even though I do not have an iPhone, I can call you using the iPod touch running the Skype software, just as I can use my desktop computer that I am writing this on to make a call using Skype (although I will not be able to make a video call if I use Skype on my iPod Touch), Kindle (yes, now I can also read my e-books on the iPod Touch, and because the iPod Touch is “online,” I have instant access to my purchased e-books at Amazon that I do not have when using my actual Kindle reader – but the iPod Touch screen is much smaller than the Kindle reader’s screen, plus it is backlit, meaning more eye strain), Google Earth (haven’t tried that one yet), and Facebook (I successfully logged on and made a couple of comments using this app on the iPod touch last evening).  There are also a variety of interesting language applications, which I am always on the lookout for (ways to help me with my Chinese, that is).

 

I hope to post more in the next 2 days, but I must admit that I am under a couple of deadlines for school and work (school – papers due for classes, and work – I have a report about my first year in the Olmsted Scholar Program due), so there may not be much more in the next few days.  But, in view of my goal to get to 31 posts this month, there will be at least 9 more posts after this one before November starts!

 

GJS

Fumble Nightmare

OK, I have to admit, I purposely didn’t mention anything about this week’s Husker football game against Iowa State in Lincoln in the hopes that I wouldn’t “jinx” the team – after all, after my post featuring a pair of disturbing photos from the archives of Texas Tech, NU lost pretty big at home (33 -10). My plan failed, however – with turnovers nearly into the double digits, you aren’t going to win many games, and so the ‘Skers fell once again this weekend. The Huskers’ problems, I believe, are definitely independent of what happens at Garblog.

The game started at about 12:30 AM our time (that’s just past midnight, folks), so I didn’t stay up to listen to it online. Good thing. Perhaps one of these weeks I will have another “W” to read about when I get up in the morning to see how the game went. (At this rate, soon the losses will outpace the wins…)

GJS

"Please allow 12 weeks for shipping and handling"

Our "stuff" arrived today. Some 70 boxes of varied household items, totaling over a ton in weight, are now in our apartment. While messy, it is nice to finally have many of the things that make a place to live feel more like a home.

Based on the departure of this shipment of good from out possession on 27 July, I figure it has been right around 84 days (12 weeks) since we have had these things. It is nice to finally not be chronically short on silverware, and the bare shelves in my study will, I'm sure, soon be happy to accept a portion of my book collection. (Let's say that at least I will be happy to see the books on the shelves!) A few pictures of the "mess" follow, photos that are fairly typical of what "arrival day" looks like when we move. Less than 2 years until we get to do it all again!

Also of note, John will be starting school this week! Each day as I prepare to head to class, he tells me, "Daddy, I know Chinese now so I am ready to go to school!" And he does know some Chinese - he can count to 10, say hello, and a few other basic rudiments. Kids here start "kindergarten" at age 3, so John is the appropriate age for this. Most of the day will be in Chinese, so I imagine he is going to have a hard time adjusting in the short term. (I know I am having a good struggle with it.) But in the long term, I am certain that this will be a great opportunity for him and he will learn a lot of Chinese. Please wish him good luck this week!

GJS

2 new workouts: Harbor's edge (south) and Central Park

It's been a while since I posted any workout information...partly because the workouts have been few and far between. Not long ago I wrote about having a hard time being consistent in my workouts. Unfortunately, this situation has not yet been resolved. No matter, this too shall pass. Here are my latest two runs:

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for
Harbor's edge - South

Shared via AddThis

Today's workout (linked above) was an exploration south along the harbor's edge. I got on the bike path near the Love River then ran for about 10 minutes south. What did I find? Ikea. A skyscraper being built (sorry, I don't have a picture of the building yet, but right now it's nothing but I-beams, probably at least 40 stories tall, close to the Ikea store). Of note: I passed 5 miles total in this workout, something I came very close to not long ago but didn't quite achieve.

If you haven't tried clicking through and looking at the details of the workouts, perhaps you should. There are some interesting features that can be found over at my Garmin Connect page. As a teaser, here's a screenshot of my latest workout:

There is lots more to see, this map chip is just the tip of the iceberg. You can also see all the lap splits, pace, and heart rate data, if those types of things are interesting to you (they are to me, but I am an exercise scientist, after all)

Here's the older of the two workouts, nothing fancy here, just several laps in Central Park.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16652854

GJS

Increasing Variety

I recently discovered an interesting list of suggestions offered to students of social science (that would be me) to increase the variety in their lives. The reason for doing this (increasing variety) is to cultivate creativity. In reading through this list, I thought to myself, I am not doing too bad – I should be just flowing with creativity! I now will offer said list and my comments on each part, as applicable.

1. Cultivating a diverse set of friends in terms of age as well as culture, politics, and religion.

2. Knowing multiple languages well enough to be able to think in them.

3. Living in another country and adapting successfully into its culture rather than remaining in an American ghetto.

4. Reading books and newspapers or listening to television or radio programs, especially when foreign, that disagree with our cherished perspectives and attempting to understand their criticisms of our own ways.

5. Taking double majors in college or shifting disciplines between college and graduate school, especially if they represent disparate ways of thinking.

6. Studying and working in teams, learning how to read the other team members’ feelings and hidden ideas.

- Jerald Hage, pp. xvi, in How to Build Social Science Theories by Pamela J. Shoemaker, James William Tankard, Jr. and Dominic L. Lasorsa (Sage Publications, Inc., 2004)

I am batting well over .500 on this list! For the first point, regarding friends, I have friends here in Taiwan (locals, not just expats like me), friends in Nebraska, friends in a lot of places, due to contacts made over the past 15 years traveling. I would say the a largest part of this group of groups are probably not markedly different in worldview than I am, but there is enough variety in the disparate factions to have a decent mix, methinks.

I can honestly say that I am working my way towards item 2. Obviously, having spent the greater part of the last 18 months either learning a foreign language full-time, or, as is the current situation, living in a foreign environment (mark off point 3 here – we do not live in an expat ghetto in Taiwan, but rather right in the heart of the metropolis, with a large majority of the people in our building and our neighborhood people of Taiwan), I hope to someday approach being able to think in Chinese without having to think about doing it, but I am not there yet. This is a solid “work in progress.”

Number 4 is a bit harder for me. There are enough books, newspaper and magazine articles, journals, blogs, and so forth that I like to read (and that, I suppose, are in congruence with my viewpoints) that I don’t often feel the need to try to find something I would consider “contrarian” in order to challenge my belief system.

That said, I would like to add that I hope to take a class next year on US foreign policy in the 20^th century. I had the opportunity to attend one session of this particular class during the first week of school, but then had to curtail my attendance because the required course load for my first semester did not allow for additional elective courses. However, based on the number of times that I was called on to give my view or opinion as the only American in the class (taught by a person from Hong Kong and the other students consisted of Taiwanese, Singaporean, German and French students) during this single session, I have no doubt that this class will do quite a lot of challenging of my basic American worldview as a US foreign policy course taught in the US by an American with mostly American students would never be able to. I am looking forward to this opportunity next year.

I often find myself thinking, when I am asked to tell people what I studied as an undergraduate, that if I could go back and do it all over again I would have chosen a double major in history and political science. As it was, I struck a pretty fair balance between hard science courses for my major in exercise science and humanities courses completed as the equivalent to minors in history, political science, Asian studies, and international studies. Not only that, but if you take into account the first time that I was an undergraduate student right after high school (3 semesters majoring in pre-architecture), taken as a whole it’s a pretty diverse foundation.

Coming back to the present, I am certainly finding myself forced to try on different ways of thinking for my current studies in international relations, particularly in the “philosophy of social science” course I am taking. I have taken exactly *one* introductory philosophy course prior to this in my life (my first semester back at school full-time after getting out of the service) and I did not find a lot of appeal in the course that time around either (it was a requirement then and it is again now). However, even if I am not enjoying the course a lot at this point, I must admit that I am learning new things every time I pick up the latest assigned reading. I should just think about how much more diversified I am becoming as I struggle with the latest piece on metaphysics, transduction, retrodiction, primary and secondary qualities, and empiricism!

For the last point, I am not doing a lot of group studying at this point, although I imagine there will be more of this as my studies here continue. Right now it is just individual work, which is probably good for everybody else – they would be carrying me as the weak link right now for sure. I would like to add that I have been a part of teams in the past where the camaraderie and teamwork were so good that you could literally know what the other person(s) were thinking without even having to say a word. It’s quite a fine situation, when that level of cohesion is reached.

In summary, I guess the old cliché is as true as ever, time will tell how creative and variegated I am able to make myself in the coming years. But it sure seems that according to this list, I am on a good path.

GJS

Study Break

Here's the view out the window of my office, taken moments ago.

A couple of pigeons walking along the railing distracted me from my studies, but I was not fast enough to catch them on camera.

Back to the salt mines!

GJS

Texas Tech

The Huskers are getting set for a home game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders later today. Reminds me of a road trip to Lubbock in late 2000, Huskers win big over an explosive TT offense. Not coming back to you? I've been going through some old photos today, and I located these from the archive, perhaps they will help jog the memory...

Good times...Go Huskers!!

GJS

Two Weeks in Forever

Check out this link to an audio slideshow at www.nytimes.com.  It’s about 3 minutes of daily life in Southern Afghanistan for the Marines currently serving there.  My gig here in Taiwan is pretty good comparatively, no?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/14/magazine/afghan-audioss/index.html

 

GJS

My first and last meals in California (2008 - 2009)

...were at In-N-Out Burger.  I just finished reading a review by Kari Barbic of the book In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman that appeared in The Weekly Standard (I accessed it online here) and it made me fondly remember my own visits to the restaurant.  There's just something about a simple, good burger, well-executed, that appeals to me very much.

My first recent visit was on the day we arrived in California after moving from Hawaii.  We flew into San Francisco and then started driving south to Monterey.  About halfway to our destination, there it was, off to the right of the road: store 198 in Morgan Hill.  We came to know this location well, and essentially every time we made a trip to San Francisco over the next year, we stopped along the way for some delicious burgers and freshly cut fries.

My last visit was on the final day that I was in California.  I was road-tripping from Monterey with a good friend back to Nebraska to put my car in storage while we live overseas.  Around dinner time, we stopped for gas just past Sacramento, and spied an In-N-Out location nearby.  I can think of no better way to "bookend" our time in California than with the fine fast-food meals that I enjoyed at In-N-Out Burger.

I even had occasion to "indoctrinate" many members of my family who do not live in or near the areas where In-N-Out Burger has locations to the delights of their food.  My younger brother got married in Las Vegas in 2007, and sure enough, the hotel my family was staying at was across the road from store 86.  I remember the restaurant being quite busy when we went, leading to some questioning of our choice to go there.  The grumbling ended once the food came out.

GJS

The latest Gladwell

I read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest piece in The New Yorker this morning on the way to class.  You can read it here.  It talks about dog fighting, Michael Vick, the NFL, concussive brain injury…there’s a few key words to tease you.  The information about the effect of repetitive head-hitting on brain damage and early-onset dementia makes me happy that I never really played football as a youth, although I have been concussed.  I also saw in the magazine that Gladwell has a new book coming out in less than a week (October 20).  I’ll be getting that one on release day via Kindle, oh yeah!  His new book will actually be the first book he has written that I will have when it is new.  Certainly, I’ve read (listened to the audiobook, really) Outliers and am currently making my way through the Blink audiobook , but these I came to well after they were new.  (Speaking of Blink, I hope to have a few comments to post here about it once I am done with it, which may be as early as next week.  I know you can’t wait to hear what I have to say about it!)

 

If you are currently reading any of Gladwell’s books (and it would seem that a lot of folks are, since as you can see here, Outliers remains in the top 10 on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list, almost a year after it was published, to say nothing of Blink, which stands at #8 on the nonfiction paperback list, a 103-week – and counting – run), over at his website there are some interesting companion “guides” that you might want to check out.  I’m just saying…

 

GJS

Scattered, covered and smothered ®...

I think I found the Taiwanese equivalent to The Waffle House today. I was at a department store food court (good place to be able to scope out many kinds of Chinese - and Western - fast food all at once) and was handed the following flyer by an employee:

You can't tell me that these meal "sets" don't remind you of the menu at The Waffle House!

(For those who have never had the pleasure, please educate yourself for a moment here (html) or >here (PDF) to get up to speed. It's OK, take your time, I'll wait.)

The flyer worked - I wanted to try one of these meals. So I chose the one circled in the first picture above (the top center meal). It looked interesting to me, why not give it a try? Here's a snapshot of it before I worked it over:

It was quite tasty. I also made another key discovery - the Taiwanese "spork." I am not sure if they call it that (I hope to find out soon), but you look at this and tell me it isn't a spork. It is!

GJS

Masterpiece

The latest of John's Biblically-inspired works:

GJS

All Done

There are now over 500 photos and video clips available for your viewing pleasure at my Flikr site (see links on the right-hand side menu – for those who tried it before and it didn’t work, I just repaired it – or just use the link in my last post).

 

I’m going to bed.

 

GJS

 

Musical Interlude

It's been a while since I posted any video...here's one I took today in the MRT, another musical troupe performing. It's about a minute long. Enjoy!

GJS

Binge and Purge

It’s been about a month since I’ve done anything about my photos, i.e. uploading any to the interwebs, so today is the day!  I’ve got about a gig (1GB) of new photos and video and my plan is to put it all up on my Flikr page.  If I have enough time I will even separate it into meaningful groups.  (If not, you are on your own to figure out the context – what a fun game!)

 

I’m sure you also noticed the new “splash” photo at the top of the Garblog page.  We took that last weekend at Lotus Lake here in Kaohsiung.  It’s a very pretty area with lots of temples.  Our visit was cut short due to The Small One’s need for a nap (we’ll go back in the morning next time to avoid this problem).

 

Photo uploading is in progress now, but probably won’t be done for a few hours.  You might want to just check back at Garblog then…

 

GJS

A Comparison of Syntax

"Rational (Hobbesian) citizens will accept the rule of the sovereign in part out of fear of its power but primarily because they understand the foundations of its authority and the disastrous consequences of its dissolution." (emphasis added)

--Michael C. Williams, "Hobbes and International Relations: A Reconsideration", International Organization, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Spring 1996), pp. 220

"We learn Chinese so you don't have to."

--T-shirt quote

GJS

Finally, a run

Went on my first run in about 10 days this morning, feels good to finally be back at it.  It's so easy to get off track with working out!  What did it to me this time was the 2-day new graduate student orientation / team building "retreat" put on by the political science department at my school last Thursday and Friday.  I generally have Fridays free from pre-planned activities, so I can use (some) of the day to study, but last week I had none of the day (we didn't get back until late that night) and then I was behind going into the weekend.  That snowballed on me and I struggled to get my readings, etc. done for this week's classes, causing me to sacrifice time that would have been used for exercise to study.  It's the trade-offs in life that get you!  I'm back on track for now, posted again at the local Starbucks (tons of folks here today, Taiwan's National Day, or "Double Ten Day" - somewhat of an analog to the US's Independence Day; in fact, we have seen some fireworks set off already today) and ready to buckle down on some fun international relations readings and maybe start writing a couple of papers.

GJS 

Kindle 2

Some of you may know that I purchased a Kindle reading device prior to leaving the US in August. Some of you probably didn't know that I bought one, but may have known that I was considering the purchase. My reasons for buying one, though expensive (although cheaper than when they were originally introduced), were several:

1. I like books.*

2. I will be doing a lot of traveling in the next couple of years.**

3. Books are heavy.

4. Books in English are not easy to find in some places (like Taiwan).

5. I like electronic gadgets.

This is a timely post because there is big news in the Kindle world. Up to now, Amazon only sold the devices in the US, but that is about the change. Starting on October 19 (curious timing – perhaps to take some of the buzz off of Microsoft’s planned 22 October release of its new Windows 7 operating system?), people in over 100 countries will also be able to buy the Kindle. But it gets even better – the prices are dropping AND the new version has a wonderful new feature, one that almost certainly would have led me to buy one if I hadn’t already – international wireless coverage.

In August, when I bought my Kindle, the devices were only sold in the US, and the wireless feature that allows you to purchase, download, and be reading your new book in less than 60 seconds flat only worked in the US. This is no longer the case. You can see the international wireless coverage for the new device here (just type in Taiwan at the top to see – it pretty much covers the entire island, save for the peaks of the mountain range that runs the length of the island’s east side). Did I mention that the wireless coverage is free? It is, even internationally.

My purposes in this post are several. First, I want to do a sort of “review” of this user’s experiences with the device after about 2 months. I can certainly say that it has been integrated into my lifestyle – I use it pretty much every day.

In “reviewing” the device, I want to take a brief look at e-books in general. Amazon is not the only player in the field, only the latest. What is the allure of the e-book? Why do some people despise them?

So why pay several hundred dollars to be able to read books on a machine? Kindle and Amazon’s proprietary format certainly aren’t the only format out there, far from it. To begin with, Sony has an e-book reader that is somewhat popular, and some books are available for free as PDF documents online. (I am not going to touch on the aspects of e-books related to intellectual property rights and digital rights management (DRM). Randall Stross wrote a nice piece in The New York Times that discussed these issues.) There is also a Mobipocket format that in a DRM-free format, can be read by Kindle. Barnes and Noble recently entered the e-book market and has their own e-book retailing effort (with over 700,000 titles currently available – take that, Amazon!). Barnes and Noble went the way of having a proprietary book reading software, but not a proprietary device. It can be used on computers and mobile devices like cell phones (this leads to the “eye strain” problem – read on for more about this). Finally, the website Scribd.com this year started allowing authors to sell copies of digital documents online, leading some authors to embrace it as a way to publish their work in an electronic format as an alternative to dominant players Amazon and Google. (For more on factors to consider in choosing a format for e-books, read this nice article by Peter Wayner in The New York Times.)

I think portability is a big part of why to think about going for e-books. I can fit a lot of stuff on my Kindle. I currently have in excess of 40 books and papers stored on it, as well as an audiobook. I have used approximately 15% of the device’s memory in putting these items on the machine.

Many people are critics of the Kindle. It certainly has shortcomings, but I think that overall it is a good machine that does what it is supposed to do. Before I bought mine, I read several reviews of the device, including one in the New Yorker and another on the blog of a fellow 2009 Olmsted Scholar whose postings I have previously touted in this space.

The New Yorker article basically denounced the Kindle for not being a book. I am not sure it will ever be possible for a machine to "be" a book, to feel like a book, to smell like a book, etc. To me, that isn't really a viable criterion for the machine, although I know that for some people that is a "show-stopper."

I am more pragmatic about the Kindle - will it help me gain access to high-quality reading material? Will it allow me to do so in a convenient manner? Are the books and periodicals available on the device reasonably priced? I think these are all "yes" answers. In this I am in agreement with Reach at Buildingpeace.net, he also found the device’s portability to be a boon.

What does it do well? Text. Black and white images. (The screen is only black and white - no color.) But unlike the 1^st generation Kindle, which only featured 4 different shades of variation, the 2^nd generation can do 16, which has the potential to make some pretty decent images, even though it doesn’t sound like all that many gradations in the grand scheme of things. If you read periodicals that are text-centric (such as Foreign Affairs), the Kindle edition is pretty much the same as what you would see in the print edition.

For an example of how the Kindle does with images, I recently finished reading Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol on Kindle. In print, the book is over 500 pages and has some graphics (renderings of symbols vexing our hero Robert Langdon). As far as I could tell, the graphics were all rendered correctly on the Kindle's screen.

Some people have been critical of the device with regard to viewing periodicals, saying not all of the content from the print edition makes it into the Kindle edition. I believe one place I recall this being a problem was with The New Yorker, specifically the cartoons found in the print edition. I cannot comment on this specific issue, because I do not read The New Yorker on my Kindle - I have an online subscription, which comes with its own attendant problems, such as having to read the long articles on the computer monitor (thus inviting loads of eye strain) or printing them out to read (which sort of defeats one of the main purposes of the online subscription, using less paper and printer ink, although the reason I subscribe online is that I do not want to pay the extra money for the print edition to be shipped internationally, not to mention the time delay I would face in receiving such a mailing).

With regard to newspapers and periodicals with a lot of images, this is a place where the Kindle falls short. For newspapers, the screen is simply not big enough to make a reasonable representation of a newspaper's broadsheet, although the Kindle DX (an extra-large version of the regular Kindle reader, with a 9.7" screen [diagonally measured]) comes close, according to the hype.

I recently received an offer from for the purchase of a Kindle DX bundled with a year’s subscription to The New York Times, and a Kindle cover thrown in to boot for $499. (Kindle covers generally cost extra – I paid $29.99 plus tax for the black leather cover on my Kindle.) If you think about the price of the DX alone ($489 last time I checked), not to mention the monthly subscription price for the NYT newspaper ($13.99/mo), it’s really not a bad deal. If I didn’t already have a 6” screen Kindle (and I lived in the US – Kindle DX is not currently international wireless-capable), I may have pulled the trigger on that deal. ($500 is nothing to sniff at, though.)

A feature that is not advertised a lot about the device is that you can, after a simple conversion process, read PDF files on it. I have found this to be useful in the first month of graduate school, as that I am required to read many articles for various classes, many of which are accessed via an e-journal system available through the school library. The articles can be saved as PDF files, converted to Kindle documents, and then I can carry my articles for school with me for easy access. This saves trees and my back (by making my book bag lighter).

It is also possible to highlight and make notes in the books and papers on Kindle. The machine then compiles all your highlights and notes (entered using a somewhat awkward QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of the device’s face) into an easy-to-access “My Clippings” file.

I mentioned in an earlier post how at my school in Taiwan students are largely on their own to acquire their needed books - the university's bookstore simply does not seem to stock a lot of the required readings. I had *hoped* that at least some of the books I needed but could not find at the university bookstore or local bookstores would be available to me via Kindle. I believe exactly one of the dozen-plus books I was looking for was available online for Kindle (I bought it). Amazon says that over 350,000 books are available on the Kindle, but many somewhat obscure political science texts are not currently part of this number. I am confident that as time goes on, this number of available books will continue to increase and this lack of desired books on the device will become less and less of an issue.

On this topic, I have explored various avenues to acquire the books I need for school, including looking at local bookstores (not a heck of a lot of books in English there, and almost none aside from current bestsellers, but I was able to find one book that I needed), buying one book from Barnes and Noble online (it was cheaper than at Amazon – but the shipping to have it sent here quickly cost more than the book itself!), Google Books (which boasts the ability to search the full text of over 7 million books, a number that is sure to grow by leaps and bounds in the wake of the recent settlement of an important class action lawsuit regarding copyright protection of books that was filed several years ago against Google Books – read more about it at Wired.com), and Amazon’s “See Inside” feature, where you can read a few pages of a book at a time without buying it. I’ve also used the favorite amongst poor graduate students – getting the library copy of the book and photocopying chapter upon chapter. This last method is probably the most affordable way to do it, and the school library has most of the books I need, but in the end I have just great big mounds of “handouts” stapled or clipped together; I don’t really have books. In summary, the “book acquisition process” here this semester is still a work in progress, one that the Kindle plays a small (but hopefully growing) role in

What else about the Kindle? As advertised, I have read on it in direct sunlight with no problem. You do not develop eye strain when reading on the Kindle like you will after reading too much Garblog on your backlit computer screen. It is light and thin. It seems relatively durable to this point, having survived falling off a bench in the subway (dropped about 1.5 feet), and it is daily crammed in my bag like a sardine with no ill effect thus far. I use the USB cable to load new books and papers onto it, which is not much of a hassle (think syncing your iPod with a cable) – although wireless would be a lot nicer, and I did like the wireless feature when I was able to use it briefly in the US prior to moving to Taiwan.

Most books on Kindle cost $9.99, although there are quite a few that can be had for free, right from Amazon.com. (No Napster-type action here!) In fact, as I write this, 8 of the top 10 Kindle bestsellers on Amazon.com cost $0.00. Check it out! I recently “purchased” (for $0) Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography and Machiavelli’s The Prince (we will discuss Machiavelli’s work in my international relations class next week).

I want to talk about the Kindle’s supposed Read-to-Me “feature.” In my opinion, this is a definite “miss.” I tried listening to one book using this text-to-speech function and had to stop after less than two sentences. Anyone who has heard a real audiobook (such as the fine material available at Audible.com) will be able to tell you that the Kindle’s text-to speech business has a ways to go before it is even close to being something called a feature for the Kindle. I liked David Pogue’s (the tech reviewer for The New York Times) take on it, calling the voices “oddly Norwegian” and “utterly incapable of expressing emotion.”

The Kindle does have an external speaker, however, so if you forget your headset, you can still listen to your audiobooks (and so can everyone else around you).

Wireless Kindle users who have an iPhone (there is a Kindle for iPhone application) can even sync their Kindle and their iPhone so that if you decide to read for a bit on your iPhone, the spot you read to on it will be automatically synced with the actual Kindle reader, and vice verse. I am not in this group, although my sister in law is.*** I may be, supposing that at some point in the future I move back to the US and purchase an iPhone.

This is not to say that I no longer read actual books. As I mentioned above, lack of availability of titles is still a problem, and will be for some time, although Amazon’s goal in this respect is the sky, so to speak:

Our vision for Kindle is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds.

Good luck to Jeff Bezos and crew on that one, and in the meantime I will use this Kindle 2. Anyone else?

GJS

*Purists no doubt will call me out on this saying, "If you like books, why not buy books? Not a machine that is meant to approximate the book-reading experience."

** Probably for at least the next 10 years, really, but certainly for the next 2 years.

***Thanks to K. for introducing me to the Kindle and helping to create a monster!