KINDLE FIRE or NOOK TABLET? LET ME HELP.

It's a lot like asking :

SANDRA BULLOCK or MEGAN FOX?

It depends on what you want out of the relationship.

THIS JUST OUT : THE NOOK ONLY ALLOWS 1GB FOR NON B&N CONTENT! OUCH!

That's like MEGAN FOX only letting you talk about her on the date. "Enough about me. What do YOU think about me?"

Amazon's Kindle Fire allows side-loading

by the checking of a box in Settings that allows the installation of non-Amazon-approved apps from unknown sources --

and that's allowed for internal memory.

B&N has been said NOT to allow sideloading of non-BN-approved apps.

All right, let's get back to what you want out of the tablet relationship ...


Let's say you like to watch movies, the most recent, the better.

KINDLE FIRE. Why?

The Kindle Fire has access to Amazon's streaming video library, which tends to offer newer movies in comparison to other streaming services, like Netflix.

Of course, there is a lag time in terms of the movies that are offered. Most movie studios still release many movies on DVD before they release them for streaming.

That said, out of all the streaming video services, Amazon is likely to offer most movies sooner, because it allows people to rent or purchase individual movies.

By contrast, Netflix offers a subscription service,

which means subscribers pay a flat fee to watch as many movies as they want per month. Since this doesn't allow movie studios to monetize more valuable titles, Netflix is often shut out of the hottest new movies for its streaming service.

Barnes & Noble doesn't have its own streaming service.

Instead, it has partnered with Netflix and will offer a Netflix app on its Nook Tablet. The Nook Tablet probably won't offer an Amazon streaming app.

So if it's more up-to-date movies that you are looking for, I'd say that the Kindle Fire is a better device for you since you're likely to get access to more of these films via the pay-per-view or streaming video rental service.

But what if getting the latest and greatest movies is not your top priority? Which tablet then?

Again, you want SANDRA BULLOCK or MEGAN FOX?

If easy access to more content at very affordable prices is the most important thing to you, the KINDLE FIRE is hard to beat.

But if you want a slightly more robust piece of hardware, then the NOOK TABLET is a good option.

THE NOOK has twice the storage capacity at 16GB, while the KINDLE FIRE has only 8GB of storage. But THE KINDLE FIRE has UNLIMITED DATA STORAGE in its CLOUD SERVER. That makes 16 GB look anemic, doesn't it?

So if you have easy access to WIRELESS, then UNLIMITED STORAGE beats only 16 GB.

When it comes to services and content, Amazon is pretty hard to beat.

It has spent a lot of time and effort building its own content stores filled with e-books, apps, music, games, and video. While the Kindle Fire was built specifically to be a vehicle for accessing this content,

Amazon's services are also available on a variety of other devices from smartphones to game consoles, which allow you to access e-books on your iPhone as well as watch movies from the Amazon streaming service via a Roku device on your TV.

And you can access all this content on any compatible device through your single Amazon account.

The other big advantage to buying the Kindle Fire is that it gives you access to a bunch of free content with an Amazon Prime membership.

MEGAN FOX just raised her pretty eyebrow at me.

Alright, so the content isn't exactly free since you must pay $79 a year for the membership.

But you get a lot for that $79 fee, and Amazon keeps sweetening the deal by adding more and more content to the service.

So what is Amazon Prime?

Initially, it started as a service that offered subscribers free two-day shipping for items from the Amazon store. Now, Amazon also allows Amazon Prime members to stream movies and TV shows at no additional cost. And it most recently added free downloads for hundreds of its e-books on its Kindle e-readers.

Some people balk at the recurring $79 a year fee for the Amazon Prime membership. But if you are a frequent Amazon shopper and you stream and download e-books that are available for free through the service, Amazon Prime more than pays for itself rather quickly.

And it's actually cheaper than other services like Hulu Plus or Netflix. Over 12 months, the $79 fee breaks down to about $6.50 per month.

But keep in mind that Amazon Prime is only worth it if you plan to use these services. If Netflicks' high-handedness of late doesn't bother you, stay with it.

Barnes & Noble has something that Amazon doesn't have:

hundreds of honest-to-mortar stores. This is an important distinction for customers who would like more hands-on with the Nook devices and who think they'll need some personal one-on-one help with their devices.

Still, BEST BUY is selling KINDLE FIRE and BEST BUY's support staff has always been supportive -- so the KINDLE FIRE does have a hands-on avenue for help.

Also with HULU+ signing on with Amazon and all the other benefits of AMAZON PRIME (which is free for the first month of your KINDLE FIRE ownership), I believe THE KINDLE FIRE edges past THE NOOK.

SORRY MEGAN FOX, I CHOOSE SANDRA BULLOCK.

JESSICA BELL performs at MEILORI'S!

Samuel McCord here.

I’ve got a funny thing about dying. I don’t like to see people do it.

So here I sit in for Roland as Jessica Bell sings for my customers at Meilori’s. I’m not the reporter that Sammy Clemens was, but I will try my best in my interview with her for her novel and CD, STRING BRIDGE.

{ http://www.amazon.com/String-Bridge-ebook/dp/B005Y48DF6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321336940&sr=8-2 }

Jessica finishes :

“Dear
stop your yelling before the devil hunts you down
Dear
failing legends bring us to our knees to drown
Please
offer freedom before the earth buries my soul
Please
no more hatred, set us free before we fall.”

She bows to the applause of things out of nightmare as if they were human, then steps off the stage.

I watch Jessica, her eyes still lost in her last song, move towards my rune-carved table with a willowy grace.

She sits down like she was wrapped in the echoes of her music. “Crikey, love, you have a weird bunch of customers.”

Padre, his canines gleaming sharp in the dusk of Meilori’s, laughs in his British accent that clashes oddly with her Australian one, “His friends are a colorful group, too.”

Padre’s here to help me keep the wolves at bay that always appear when a new beautiful singer shows up.

She says, “Speaking of friends, where’s Roland?”

“On an emergency blood run.”

At a corner table, Major Strasser turns, and I say low, “The Turquoise Woman sits beside him, revenant. Feel free to commit suicide.”

He sits back in his chair.

Jessica frowns, “Roland likes it here?”

Padre sighs, “He was born on a night of death. Here he feels … comfortable.”

I nod her way. “I’ve read your book.”

She starts. “You have?”

I nod. “Like you, Melody moved from music to marriage, from Australia to Greece, out of love.”

Jessica makes a face. “Puke.”

I shake my Stetsoned head. “You write of the strong emotions of others but are uncomfortable to talk of your own?”

The ghost of Mae West sways up to us, sitting down beside the singer. “Men! Why else do you think she writes stories of it in the first place?”

She pats the startled shoulder of Jessica. “Here, let a fellow performer come to your rescue. What kind of show would you have performed in if you'd been a burlesque dancer?”

I frown at Mae for switching from a perfectly good question to a perfectly nonsensical one, but Jessica seems relieved, “Oh, that’s easy. Put me in a Shakespearean parody any day and I'd knock your socks off, Sister.”

Mae smiles. “Sister. I like that.”

Her eyes drift off into my milling customers. “Cary! Why, I’ll drag that scoundrel here to liven things up.”

She winks at me wickedly. “Insult intended.”

She fades away, but Christopher Marlowe, still in his Elizabethan attire, sits in her empty chair. Jessica pulls back in shock. “S-Shakespeare?”

“Christopher Marlowe,” he smiles with lips only. “That tawdry actor took my lines. I took his life and his identity. Convenient since Queen Bess was about to have me forcibly introduced to that undiscovered country, death.”

Jessica looks to me, and I say, “Marlowe was one of her intelligence agents who told the unvarnished truth to her once too often.”

He shrugs. “I told it to her repeatedly through my plays. Speaking of which, why would you want to parody my undying lines?”

Jessica purses her lips like a school marm. “For arrogance like that.”

A hooded woman sits in Marlowe’s chair, right through him. He takes one look inside her hood and yelps, fading from view. Hissing sounds come from inside the hood.

“All mammals are arrogant, singer. I enjoyed the notes of your last song.”

“T-Thank you.”

The hooded woman starts to sway to the quickened beat of Jessica’s heart, and I clear my throat, “R’lyth is an evolved raptor, but she is harmless.”

A glimpse of a smile of razor teeth flashes in the darkness. “Inside these walls, yes.”

Her hood cocks. “Outside them? Not so much.”

I put an edge to my voice. “I will see you safely to your plane, Jessica.”

Renfield growls, “Aye, lass. Me as well.”

R’lyth turns to Jessica. “Mammal, which dinosaur would you be if you could be any kind and why?”

Ms. Bell shows she has just as much as grit as Elliot Grace and replies, “A - A triceratops in the hope that one day I would mutate into a unicorn and forever be idolized.”

R’lyth gets up disappointed, “Mammals!”

Emily Dickinson’s shy shade sits demurely in the now empty seat. “Idolized?”

She shakes her misty head sadly.

“Fame is a bee

It has a song

It has a sting –

But ah, it has a wing.”

Jessica smiles warmly. “I’m trying for its song right now.”

Emily pats the Australian’s hand. “We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form, our statures touch the skies.”

Emily studies Jessica a moment. “I admire you to have traveled so far for love. How much you must have learned.”

Jessica smiles crooked, “Crikey, learned? I don’t know ….”

Emily leans towards her. “If you could write a letter to yourself when you were a young girl, what would you say?”

“Don't bother trying to wear color. You'll go back to black eventually, and stick with it.”

Now, it was Emily’s turn to be disappointed. “That trifle is all?”

Jessica smiles sadly, “If you wrote your heart to your younger self, would the girl that you were truly hear your words?”

Emily slowly smiles back, “You are wise.”

Jessica smiles drily. “I think it’s … otherwise.”

There is a screech as a chair is dragged beside Jessica’s. I smile. Sammy Clemens. The old scoundrel never could resist a new pretty face at Meilori’s.

“Dang this girl talk! I have a question.”

He flashes a wicked grin at her. “If you could have an affair with any author in history, who would it be and why?”

“Sammy!,” I protest.

Jessica waves a happy hand. “No. I’ll answer this one. Gimme Raymond Carver any day. I've always wanted to write like him, but I can't contain myself when it comes to description. He might be able to teach me a few things.”

Jessica is on a run with disappointing ghosts this night. “Raymond Carver? When you have a beloved literary genius sitting right beside you?”

Sammy strokes his moustache. “And descriptions are the very life of prose. I could tell you I long for Hawaii, but when I write –

‘For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf is in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.’

Why, then, you literally weep at my mourning for those Sandwich Isles.”

The unruly-haired ghost of Carver materializes behind Sammy. “That fluff was a trick then. It is a trick now. I hate tricks. Tricks are ultimately boring, and I get bored easily, which may go along with my not having much of an attention span.”

Sammy rises spritely to his feet. “I’ll give you attention, you amorous drunk.”

As the two of them wander off into Meilori’s interior bickering, Cary Grant sits swiftly into the vacated chair, tapping Jessica’s cheeks.

“Stone the crows, what are you doing?,” she snaps.

Cary heaves a sigh of relief. “Just checking to see if those two blowhards had succeeded in totally petrifying you. Authors. Give me actors any day!”

He turns to her. “Mae sent me with a real question : If your book was made into a movie in the 40s, who would play who?”

Jessica smiles wide. “Melody would be played by Gene Tierney.”

Cary studies her and nods, “I see the resemblance.”

She blushes just a bit, then adds, “And Alex would be played by … you.”

Cary brightens. “Of course he would. And a marvelous job I would have done, too.”

A figure forms to my left. Elvis. Jessica stiffens, then makes a “Time Out” signal with her hands.

“Oh, no! When Elvis enters the building, it is time for this girl to leave it!”

She tugs a surprised Renfield to his feet. “Padre, it is time for you to see me safe and long gone out of here.”

Elvis sadly watches them leave, then looks down to me.

“Captain, I was just gonna ask her if she thought the intimacy we sing on stage is just a poor substitute for the real thing in our lives. Wasn’t that a good question, sir?”

I nod. “An excellent one, Elvis. Maybe Jessica suspected you were going to ask something like that and ran from the question and not you.”

Elvis sighs, “It will catch up to her sooner or later.”

He sits down and sighs even more sadly. “I wanted to help her like I wished someone had helped me.”

I smile just as sadly back. “We only hear the answers to the questions we dare to ask ourselves.”
***

***

KINDLE FIRE SHIPS EARLY BUT WILL YOU GET YOURS?

Amazon.com began shipping its Kindle Fire on Monday,

a day earlier than it expected

and extending its lead time over Barnes & Noble's rival Nook tablet.

Barnes & Noble's $249 Nook tablet hits shelves later this week

and, like the Fire, is expected to be a hot item over the holiday season.

Amazon may sell 3 million to 5 million Fire tablets this quarter.

But will all those pre-orders eat up Amazon's supply?

also announced that its new Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G will ship tomorrow, six days earlier than previously expected.

No word yet on whether the Kindle Fire will also be available in retail locations like Best Buy today.

Most stores should have stock of the tablets on site by now,

but Best Buy's Web site still lists the Fire as "Coming Soon" and unavailable for in-store pickup.

Or you could enter my contest :

http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-and-old-prizes-i-am-giving-away.html


And by buying THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH & posting a review, not only win

An AMAZON KINDLE FIRE but also :

A JK ROWLING, A STEPHEN KING AUTOGRAPH

And CAST SIGNED MOVIE POSTERS OF AVATAR, FROM DUSK TO DAWN, THE ROCK, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE GOLDEN COMPASS, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, BATMAN BEGINS, IRONMAN 2

And many more prizes. How cool is that?

SPEAKING OF COOL ...

BE HERE TOMORROW FOR JESSICA BELL PERFORMING AT MEILORI'S!

BUT BRING YOUR PEPPER SPRAY AND TRACK SHOES.

WILL KINDLE FIRE SELL OUT? WILL PRE-ORDERS OUT-STRIP SUPPLY?

Pre-orders may outstrip supply of the AMAZON KINDLE FIRE.

In the past, with prior versions of Kindle,

several times Amazon had to slightly delay delivery of some devices when orders temporarily outpaced production capacity.

When Amazon announced the upgrade of their tremendously successful Kindle 2.0 and Kindle DX readers,

Pre-order rates were extremely high as with the pre-order of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Stock levels of the third generation 6″ Kindle were quickly depleted.

Still, Amazon is warning

that orders will have to be fulfilled "on a first come, first serve basis,"

indicating that not everyone who preorders a Kindle Fire will receive one on the first day of shipping.

What will happen to the existing supply of Amazon Kindle Fire? Only Tuesday will tell.

Or you could buy THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH & post a review, winning 5 entries to win a guaranteed Kindle Fire, along with dozens of awesome prizes :

http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-and-old-prizes-i-am-giving-away.html

SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS PAST

It is still days away from Thanksgiving, but I am longingly thinking of Christmas snows.

So, I am recalling a Christmas tale I once wrote for Lenny Lee :

http://lennys-world.blogspot.com/

{And Lenny, if you're re-reading this -- Don't be scared. Victor Standish has never met a monster he couldn't out-fox.}

Now for SLAY BELLES IN THE NIGHT --

The tolling of a lonely church bell echoed distant in the too quiet night.

The first Christmas after Katrina found New Orleans nearly deserted. The children's ward at Memorial Hospital was filled. Sleepy-eyed kids my age and younger were tossing fitfully in their hospital beds.

Thanks to Captain Sam, each child had a doll, teddy bear, or an actual New Orleans Saints football. They were all sleeping with them tucked secure in their arms.

And an apple was on each of their nightstands. I didn't know how he was doing it, but no matter how many apples the kids ate, another one took its place.

"So they'll know they will always have something to eat," he had told me as he left me on guard here.

Yeah, on guard.

Santa Claus was coming to town tonight for all the good little boys and girls.

Santa the revenant (think Vlad the Impaler ... but without as many morals.)

The Bourbon Street Irregulars were stretched thin tonight. I was all by myself.

So many children to protect from the ancient bloodbroker. Yeah, he stole the blood of every good little girl and boy to sell to other revenants on the black market all through the year.

The blood of innocence was a delicacy to bloodsuckers the world over.

I stood with my back to the far wall, looking warily into the shadows. One shadow darted out at me. The fat revenant appeared right next to me, his red hat set at a impish angle.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!," he rasped, his fangs going for my throat.

Right into his gaping mouth I thumbed two ball bearings washed in the melted snows of Eden.

"Suck on these, Santa!"

He grabbed his throat, the smoke of his burning flesh coming out of his open mouth in billowing, foul-smelling clouds. Hitting the floor with a heavy thud, he croaked into the night.

"To me, my elves!"

By this time all the children were awake, their eyes round with horror. I figured my own eyes were a little wide themselves.

Twelve slender elves in Christmas velvet and short, short skirts padded out of the darkness towards me, their steel fingernails long and sharp.

I ground my teeth. "You have got to be kidding me."

Santa might have been hurting, but he looked up and flashed me a death-head's smile. "My Slay Belles in the night."

The really pretty elves in really short skirts and long fangs started to flank me. There were too many. I didn't have enough ball bearings. Heck, I didn't have enough me. I couldn't handle them all.

I was so dead.

Then, the children started to pelt the elves with the apples. For every apple they threw, another took its place. Now, a dozen apples are a pain. Dozens of dozens of apples thrown by scared spitless kids are something else again.

The elves went down. Hissing like snakes, they rose and started for the kids. I did some pelting of my own ...

with my deadly ball bearings washed in the snows of Eden.

I took out three. The other nine wheeled about and charged me, only to be pelted again by the apples. Some broke upon impact, disintegrating the elves one by one.

I realized how Captain Sam had gotten those apples to magically appear. He must have watered them with the melted snows of Eden. No wonder those revenant elves went up in smelly smoke at the touch of their juices.

I turned to see Santa right at my throat. "You've been a very naughty boy, Victor. Time to die."

I saw Alice, in her short-skirted Christmas Gothic Lolita outfit, form out of mist behind him.

"But he hasn't been naughty with me yet, Santa."

She winked at me. "Leave you alone for a minute and there you go, throwing yourself at pretty elves."

"Hey, THEY were throwing themselves at me!"

"Close your eyes, kids!," I yelled, seeing the smile die in her neon eyes.

There must have something to the tone of my voice because all the kids covered their eyes. And Alice ...

Well, Alice, my ghoul friend, had a midnight snack.

A few Santa screams later, Alice flowed to me, licking her bloody fingers. "My first Christmas butterball turkey. Yum!"
***
A Christmas Haiku in a similar "vein" as my above post :

Christmas Moon looks down,
Alice's hand squeezes mine,
Stolen kiss is best.

{Lenny, if you're reading this, you know me - I couldn't resist putting in some yucky romantic stuff for the ladies who read my blog, too. LOL.}

Here's one of my favorite Christmas video's, Lenny. I hope you like it, too, Roland

VR BARKOWSKI HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

VR BARKOWSKI HAS SAID GOOD-BYE TO HER BLOG ...

AND TO US.

http://vrbarkowski.blogspot.com/2011/11/shut-happens.html

It is like a physical blow. Lately, I have lost too many friends, seen too much heart-break and people walking away into the night fog.

What do I say?

"Don't go!" comes to mind. But friendship means letting go as much as hugging.

A true friend wants what is best and nuturing for his friend more than what he wants for himself.

VR is smart, funny, pretty, and kind. A rare combination at any time -- but especially in our modern "ENOUGH ABOUT ME- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ME?" age.

If I knew her blog would still be up, I could visit and listen to the echoes of a good friend. But, alas, she will soon take it down.

Still, she cannot take the imprint of her words and friendship from my heart.

***

VR this is for you :

MARK TWAIN DOES BATTLE WITH NaNoWriMo!

Children, I just passed old Hemingway. He was cussing up a storm.

I asked why.

He told me of NaNoWriMo or NoNoNanettes as he called it.

Children, I have to humbly ask you ...

HAVE YOU TAKEN LEAVE OF YOUR GOOD SENSE?

What would you think of a a National Brain Surgeon Operating Month, where we all took a stab at poking around in the innards of our friends' heads?

NoNoNanettes denigrates the writing profession, when they say, "Oh just sit down and start writing."

The fact of the matter is that most books worth reading have been thoroughly researched and outlined before the writing process has begun.

NoNoNanettes don't bother with that step—

which is a shame because first-time writers need the structure of good research and outlining to keep their attempt at writing a novel on track and away from meandering.

Just start writing, folks. Don’t worry if you don’t know where the narrative is going to go. Don’t worry if you haven’t puzzled out the intricacies of the plot.

Just write and fix it all later. Just get to your word limit for the day. There are NaNoWriMo sites that will sell your their editing services. I weep, children.

Don't you kind people know that the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between LIGNTNING and LIGHTNING BUG?

That kind of striving for the right word takes ...TIME.

Being a ghost, I just heard one of you wail, "It allows you to meet fellow “writers” both online and in person!"

Oh, silly backward Missouri hayseed that I am!

Everyone knows that writing a novel is not a personal and spiritual journey one undertakes on their own, it is a social experience! A "group hug" affair as Hemingway calls it.

I bury my head in my hands.

This NoNoNatte thingy is just AMERICAN IDOL for those who think if they want to bad enough, they can overcome the lack of talent.

Except there are folks offering you poor children their various writing-based commodities ... for a price.

I know, you are unsuspecting dreamers who just want to write like your favorite author and make your living doing it.

If you want to write a novel, then, by all means, do it.

Read the masters. See where the seams are. And if you can't spot them, see how those writers managed that.

Write. Write. Write.

See what type of story sings to you, what person you excel in writing, what prose style flows from your pen.

If you need NaNoWriMo to write,

you are not ready to write your novel.

If you need the feedback and criticism of strangers,

then you are not ready.

If you need the structure in order to keep and maintain a writing schedule,

then you are not ready.

If you need to be patted on the back for reaching your daily goals,

then you are not ready.

Writing, like cooking, must be done alone. But have fun with it, please!

You need not expect to get your book right the first time.

Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention.

These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by.

You want to know the time to begin writing your book? It ain't in November, friends.

The time to begin writing a book is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...

Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.

Write without pay, but with ever-growing craft, until somebody offers to pay.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

And children, never doubt that I am your friend!

*************************************************