One of the big obstacles, of late, in keeping me from more regular writing (and there are several projects just left hanging) has been the gift I received of a Kindle Fire for Christmas.  It has become the new Electronic Attention Sink which calls for much more time from the little child in me. 

          Although initially skeptical of its value as a reading platform, I’ve come to actually appreciate it for just that.  The backlit screen makes it a little hard to read out of doors, but then again just how often do I really read anything outside these days?  That same backlighting comes in very handing in reading inside, and especially at night.  I can even read in bed with the lights out now, with far less eye strain!

          But it’s not just reading the damned thing that has been sucking in so much time.  There was a learning curve to finding books on the Usenet, although now I find myself simultaneously picking through old leavings there and drowning in the wide variety of books I have to read when I open the reader.  Then I started learning how to use eCalibre to convert pdf files, and now I’m looking for mobi file editors.  It just goes on and on, a very efficient Electronic Attention Sink, though I am at least pleased it hasn’t become a dollar sink for Amazon every time I want to get something new to read.