June Campbell : Writing from Vancouver

• Try these recipes for chocolate coated ginger. Great for the Holidays. http://tinyurl.com/2e8gdx #
• Check out this recipe for Christmas Tree Bread. http://tinyurl.com/24whak #

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• How about an Amazon Kindle for Christmas? http://www.squidoo.com/kindlereader/ #

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• You are welcome to publish this article on Savvy Tech Gifts for Seniors. http://tinyurl.com/25ttr9 #

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• Chedk the recipe for low fat cinnamon buns made in the bread machine. http://tinyurl.com/yo2gh9 #
• A local restaurant created this cross cultural recipe for Kentucky Caipirinha http://tinyurl.com/25x3p2 #

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Wouldn’t it be lovely if you had some way of reading entertaining, newsworthy or educational materials no matter where you go?

Oh, wait, you say. There is a way. It is called books, newspapers, magazines and computer printouts.

Well, yes. You have a point alright.

But wouldn’t it be nice to have a special electronic gadget that allows you to read these publications anywhere? I mean, wouldn’t you rather be on the cutting edge? Books are so last year, dahling.

There is such a gadget. It’s called the Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device. It’s about the size of a paperback, it weights 292 grams and it holds 200 books. It’s Amazon’s special new toy just in time for Christmas.

Now, you will pay $399 for the Kindle. The cover, USB cable and power adaptor are included. You’ll spend $19.99 for a spare battery if you have need for such an item.

Okay, so its a little pricey. But hey! You want to be cool, don’t you?

 I haven’t tried the Kindle. It’s wireless coverage isn’t available in Canada, as far as I can tell. The wireless coverage is one of this product’s advantages — providing you live in an area that’s covered. Be sure to check that out on Amazon’s web site because not every area in the US is covered just yet. It you’re among the lucky ones, however, you can buy and download electronic books wherever you are. You can also read your books, newspapers and blogs while you’re on the bus or at the beach or wherever. You can pack one small device instead of twenty books when you go on vacation. You can search your entire collection for a special word or phrase. You can make notes. You can bookmark, turn pages, adjust your text size, access Wikipedia to look something up and you can even download documents from your home computer for a small fee.

The Kindle is easy on the eyes, thanks to its electronic paper display. (Reading electronic paper is nothing like reading from a computer monitor, apparently). The batteries are long lasting, the download is fast and there is no monthly charge for using the EVDO wireless network. EVDO is the same high speed data network that cell phones use.

The downside: no back light, can’t read PDF files (Windows users can get a converter), strong likelihood of flipping pages by accident, and of course, the fact that you cannot give away or lend your ebooks to another person.

In an interview, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that the Kindle’s design is super easy for readers. In time, he predicts that the price will come down, as most electronic gadgets’ price comes down over time.

Amazon has probably made a good business venture by developing and launching this devise. Sales of electronic books have increased by 24% in 2006 to $54 million, say the Association of American Publishers.

The Kindle isn’t the only kid on the block. The Sony Personal Reader PRS500 is another option, and is priced lower than the Kindle. Users comparing the two find the Sony product to be much slower, and a big con, it lacks the wireless feature that makes the Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device so powerful.

I have to confess. I want one.

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I’m gonna give you a piece of free advice. Don’t waste your time downloading most of the free “gifts” you get offered by Internet marketers. At the risk of being ridden out of town on the proverbial rail, I made a post to that effect on the Warrior forum today. My post was in resonse to a posting by a well known marketer who ridiculed a subscriber for leaving her mailing list because he or she ‘didn’t want to hear about some free offer.’

 Much merriment followed as the IMers joined in with the ridiculing of those who don’t want to hear about anything free.  My position was offensive to them because of course, they are all giving away free stuff in hopes of getting new subscribers or new members or more sales of what have you. Hell, I do it myself. I give away freebies.

 So its not that I’m opposed to the practice on any ethical grounds. I’m just saying, most of the freebies you are offered are old, recycled trash. Newbies might find it helpful. Any Internet marketer who’s been around for more than a couple of months is skeptical — and with good reason.  I am sick to death, litterally want to gag, when I get an email message or see a web site offering me a vauable free report worth $250 or some such nonsense. Even if they don’t lie about the report’s supposed value, I’m still dubious. Let’s face it. Nobody is going to be giving away the good stuff — the stuff that makes you money. What you’ll be getting is something that scratches the surface, or worse, that worked last year but doesn’t work any more. More likely, it’ll be something that’s so well known to Internet marketers that it does nothing more than clutter up the hard drive once its dowloaded.

Sure, there are exceptions. I give away Joe Mack’s Twenty-Two Steps to Making Money online, and I consider it valuable. I’m sure other people are giving away valuable freebies as well.

But I still say the majority of freebies are a waste of time. So sue me.

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• Here’s a recipe for sweet cinnamon biscuits flavored with Kahlua. http://tinyurl.com/2hf9sz #

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• The useless tech tools sound like so much fun to play with. http://ezinearticles.com/?id=821812 #
• Try a decadent chocolate cranberry pie for Thanksgiving. http://tinyurl.com/ytzevs #

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The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History! is the title of a book by Joe Vitale. Vitale talks about a spiritual principal, which he calls a universal law, that states we must give in order to receive.

That’s hardly a new concept to anyone who has given even a rudimentary nod to spiritual or religious teachings. However, Vitale carries it a step further and says that we will get back the same thing we gave, only magnified. In other words, if you want to have more time, then you must donate your time to something. If you want money, you give money. If you want love, you must first give love.

So — to carry this on to its obvious conclusion, Vitale advocates giving money as a way of attracting more money into our lives. But its not that cut and dried — for this spiritual law to work, he says you have to give freely with no expectation of return. Do that, and your generosity will be returned tenfold. Give with the intent of it being a money making strategy, and you’ll get nothing back.

Does this work? How the blazes would I know? It might, perhaps. Or it might not. But I wouldn’t discount it. There’s a lot more to this existence than we understand.

But the part that interestes me, make that amuses me, is the criticism this book is getting from Amazon readers. Some trash it for not being religious enough. Some trash it for being nonsense. Others love it and think its the best little book since sliced bread.

As I said earlier, its hardly new, this concept. You’ll find references to this in the Bible. And, although I am not very familiar with other religions, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ll find a similar thought in all of the world’s major faiths.

I remember reading a book many years ago called Faith as in a Grain of Mustard Seed. I think Oral Roberts was the author, although I can’t say for sure. In any case, Roberts, if it was indeed he, described planting a grain of mustard seed — the giving — and in return you receive many, many mustard seeds. But you have to give the first grain away, he points out, before you get the harvest.

I believe Roberts also talked about giving time to get time, love to get love and money to get money. That was in the first chapter. The remaining chapters urged readers to donate money to his church as their way of planting the grain of mustard seed. Kind of leaves a bad taste your mouth, doesn’t it?

Maybe the Amazon readers should find and read this book before they complain too loudly about The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History!

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• Published an easy and tasty recipe for home made crackers. http://tinyurl.com/yv6erq #
• Just published a recipe for chocolate cupcakes with fudge icing http://tinyurl.com/2cgoh2 #

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