Opinions, art, debate
The New Yorker has immortalized me on its recent cover:
Except for the glasses, this is totally how I look. I love reading my Kindle on the Montreal subway. And I’m so angelic and long-suffering that I’m almost sprouting wings. So I’m taking this as a tribute to myself and to all the other angelic Kindle-lovers with wild hair.
Thank you, Dame Eleanor Hull for letting me know.
To my horror, I discovered that I have ageist tendencies. The new Chair of our department is very knowledgeable about technology. This was one of the reasons we chose him, which I know very well since I was on the search committee. He is also significantly older than I am. Which makes sense, since he is a Chair and I’m a junior faculty member.
Yesterday, I came into the Chair’s office and found him listening to the radio on his computer.
“Look!” he said. “This is a radio station from my home town in Brazil.”
“This is cool,” I responded. “And I was just listening to a radio station from my native city in Ukraine in my office.”
“Really? That’s great! Do you also listen to the radio on your office computer?” the Chair asked.
“No,” I said and took out of my bag my Kindle Fire in its new red cover. “I listen to the radio on this thing.”
“Oh, what is it?” the Chair asked.
And here I started behaving like an idiot.
“It’s a Kindle,” I said. “A Kindle is . . . a thing that allows you to perform a variety of tasks. You can read books, edit documents. . .”
“Yes, I know what a Kindle is,” the Chair responded in a kind voice. “Is it a Kindle Fire? Can I have a look?”
I should have stopped right there but for some reason I decided to continue on my jerkward journey.
“A Kindle is an alternative to an iPad,” I informed the Chair. “And an iPad is . . . well, a thing that allows you to perform a variety of tasks. . .”
“I am aware of what an iPad is,” the Chair said, looking a little scared.
Of course, he is aware of what an iPad is since all the faculty members at my university receive endless emails from our bookstore extolling the virtues of the iPad. Also, he probably knows more about technology than I do.
Now I will have to shut up and bear it if my students inform me that “a cell phone is a thing that allows you to make phone calls.” Ageism carries its own punishment because it always ends up castigating those guilty of it.
I swore to myself that I’d never get a tablet because they are a royal waste of money and are useless. A Kindle Fire is not a tablet, though, just like any Kindle is not an e-book reader. It’s a lot more than that. Which is why I couldn’t say no to a Kindle Fire when I got it as a wedding anniversary gift.
My Kindle Fire is a thing of beauty, people. It’s a fantastic little device that does everything any other tablet does but costs a lot less. One of the greatest things about Kindle Fire is that it’s very small and light. You have to be quite an athlete to be able to hold, say, an iPad in your hand for longer than two minutes. Kindle Fire, however, is very easy to hold. It also fits into any regular handbag.
What I use my Kindle Fire for:
1. When I got my Kindle Fire, I immediately disconnected my television. All of the shows I watch are available for free through Amazon Prime, so there is no need to maintain an expensive TV subscription. I’m a huge fan of shows like Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Top Chef, America’s Next Top Model, and Project Runway. I also sometimes watch One Tree Hill (yes, nobody is perfect). Now I can watch them on my Kindle Fire whenever and wherever I want. I only watch TV shows when I grade and as the end of the semester is approaching, I will now watch a lot of these shows on my Kindle Fire.
2. I can listen to a multitude of radio stations from anywhere in the world on my Kindle Fire. Now I just turn it on whenever I’m in my office and listen to talk shows from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, etc.
3. The Amazon app store has apps for really amazing games (many of which are completely free). The games are colorful, complicated, and very entertaining. There are moments when one is so tired that even watching a TV show is too much of a strain. This is when playing a game on my Kindle Fire becomes a great way to relax.
4. There is also a free app that brings you all of your favorite newspapers for free. Kindle Fire is a tablet, which means that, unlike on other versions of the Kindle, you can read Cyrillic characters, so I can read papers in Russian and Ukrainian.
5. Kindle Fire doesn’t have a WordPress app which is available on an iPad. But it’s just as well because I find that app to be very useless. I can blog directly on my Kindle Fire from the Internet browser.
6. Since Kindle Fire is so small and light, I can bring it into the kitchen with me, turn on a video with a recipe I want to try, and watch it as I cook.
I’ve only had my Kindle Fire for a few days and already I discovered all these amazing ways to enjoy it. In the future, prepare yourselves to being bugged with more annoying gushings about how great my Kindle Fire is. 🙂
What I don’t use my Kindle Fire for:
This tablet is good for everything except reading books. For the purposes of reading, you should buy any other version of the Kindle. Kindle Fire has a backlit screen, which makes reading books impossible. It is as painful for the eyes as reading on a computer screen. Also, the screen rotates with every move. This is great for watching videos but very annoying when you are trying to read.
So my old and trusty Kindle 2 will still be with me. I now often find myself clutching a Kindle in each hand, smiling beatifically as I try to decide which one to use. I think we will now have to buy a bigger bed to accommodate two humans and two Kindles sleeping in it. If anybody is willing to make an argument that co-sleeping with Kindles is an instance of Kindle-abuse, I’m always willing to listen. I wouldn’t want to traumatize my Kindles for anything in the world. (For the excessively earnest among us, this was a joke.)
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