Astranoir

The new Nook is really exciting. The screen is incredibly crisp, even without taking into account that it is a touch screen. Supposedly the battery can last up to 2 months. I fully charged it out of the box, as recommended, before setting it up, so I will see how long it lasts for me before dying.

The touch screen is surprisingly responsive. I find it to be more responsive and quick than the LCD touch screen on the Nook 1st edition. I haven’t used the Nook Color, so I’m not sure how it compares there.

The Nook Touch Reader feels a lot smaller and lighter to me than the Nook 1st Edition. It lacks the LCD touchscreen (which is fine by me since this e-ink screen is surprisingly dynamic), and the bezel is a different texture. On the Nook 1st Edition, the bezel is curved, shiny plastic where on the Nook Touch Reader, the bezel is flat matte rubbery material. The ports and chargers are the same micro USB.

So far, I’m really impressed with the new Nook Touch Reader. It is the closest thing I’ve found to the idea that captured my imagination when I first learned about e-readers and e-ink displays.

The screen is sharp and responsive, in both the visual and tactile sense. The physical buttons (4 side buttons and the “n” button at the bottom) have an improved response in comparison with the Nook 1st Edition. They are not as difficult to push, and the raised “n” button and ridges make the buttons easier to find by touch than the buttons on the Nook 1st Edition. The original Nook has raised dots to denote the buttons, and the “n” menu button is part of the touch screen, giving no tactile feedback.

Some features are currently missing; it doesn’t have any games like the chess and sudoku on the Nook 1st Edition. I’m not sure how many people played games on the old e-ink reader, however. Maybe with the increased popularity of apps on the Nook Color, a few may migrate to the Nook Touch Reader without the assistance of hacking. There are new social features. You can connect to your facebook, twitter, and/or google accounts. Connecting to your google account mostly seems to allow you to invite people to become “nook friends” so you can share books.

The home screen experience is interesting. The bottom of the screen seems to be devoted to advertising, which is kind of annoying. Edited 06/09/2011: When you have Nook Friends, apparently this shows their top recommendations. When you don’t (like me) it seems to be showing a couple of the Top 100 in the B&N store. What I do like is the top left portion of the screen shows what you’re currently reading, and your progress in pages. The top right portion of the screen shows your most recently acquired books. The top bar houses notification as normal: wi-fi signal, battery life, and time on the right. On the left, is a special notification icon that will list more specific notifications. I had one pop up when I connected to my google account, encouraging me to invite my google contacts to become nook friends.

I’ve only had this for a few hours, so I’ll continue using it over the coming week or two and post more updates of my impressions.

My pepper plant finally started flowering instead of just budding!  (Click for larger picture)

Voting

Today was primary day, so I voted before going out and about town.

Barnes and Noble Freebies

After voting, I went to Barnes and Noble because I heard I could get a free ebook (in addition to the weekly free ebook in the Nook store).  When I connected to the B&N wi-fi, I got a coupon for a free 7-layer brownie thing from the cafe, so I picked one of those up first.  Then I searched through the store, trying to find my free book.  I was unable to find it, and eventually wandered out of the store.  Of course, upon leaving, I saw a sign telling me to ask an associate to show me how to get their ebook reader application to get a code for a free book.  I went back in, and did just that.  From what I can tell, anyone can go in to ask for a code for this week’s free ebook (whether they have a Nook or not).  This week’s ebook is The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.

Cooking Presentation and Recipes

Finally, I attended our health center’s Spirit of Women program for this month:  Cooking the “Right” Way.  Employees of the local co-op came to give us information on healthy food, and their cook gave a presentation on healthy spring/summer recipes.  He gave me permission to post the recipes here (see end of post), but please note that I edited for clarity and comments.  Overall, I enjoyed the presentation.  We were able to try each dish, so along with the recipes, I’ll post some of my thoughts on them.

Arugula Acai Salad

(This was my least favorite recipe, but it seemed like in the hubbub the vinaigrette was not properly mixed, and I did not get the sweeter aspect of the dish.)

Ingredients:
1 cup arugula
0.5 oz. goat cheese
2 Tbsp almonds (sliced)
Acai Vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/8 cup acai juice
- 1/4 red onion (diced)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground ginger
puree vinaigrette ingredients until smooth; toss with other salad ingredients
Feel free to add other tidbits such as dried cranberries, raisins, or carrots
(For me, the almonds were critical for the salad tasting okay.  I didn’t get any of the goat cheese, though, and I find arugula to be very bitter)

Avocado Cucumber Soup

(This was my favorite recipe.  I love avocado.  I rarely have cold soups, but I could even see someone using this as a really light guacamole-type dip.)

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 peeled cucumber
1 seeded and peeled roma tomato
1 red onion diced small
1 tsp lime juice

Chop cucumber and blend into a food processor (it will not blend well if left unpeeled).  If you wish to drain, drain through a cheesecloth or mesh colander.  Mix remaining ingredients into the blender or food processor (after peeling and pitting the avocado).  Serve chilled. Optional: top with leftover onion and tomato, diced.

Quinoa Salad

(This pleasantly surprised me.  I enjoyed it a lot.  It reminded me of fried rice.)
One note we were given regarding quinoa:  if you choose to grow it yourself, the leaves can also be edible.

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa (soak 15 minutes after measuring)
“water broth” – 3/4 cup water + 3/4 cip vegetable or chicken stock
(note: a basic recipe for homemade vegetable stock given during the presentation is 1 gallon of water to 1 lb of a mix of carrots, celery, and onion, boiled for about 30 min)
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 yellow onion diced small
1/2 cup carrots peeled and diced small
1/2 bunch green onion diced
3 Tbsp dried cranberries

Soak the quinoa with enough cold water to cover.  Strain the water off the quinoa.  Add quinoa and water broth to a pot and bring to a boil, cover with a tight fitting lid, and simmer for 15 minutes.  Saute the onion until caramelized.  Stir cooked quinoa and the rest of the vegetables together with a fork to fluff.  Can be served hot or cold.

Unfortunately, I’m already not meeting the goal of a daily post.

Update on lunch:  everything kept very well, even the avocados.  No pictures of today’s lunch.  I had some Progresso clam chowder and French bread.

I used my pressure cooker for the first time today.  I cooked a batch of pinto beans, and am attempting to mash them like I’ve been shown in the past, but am not having much luck with the mashing part.  The cooking part was a lot less scary than I expected.  Kes did his best to find the safest pressure cooker he could, and it seems pretty good so far.

For dinner, I made chicken curry.  I just used an S&B medium hot curry brick, carrots, peas, potatoes, chicken and water.  Not too complex, but I like the taste.

Reading-wise, I’m a few chapters into the first Dresden Files book.  I’ve read this far before, but never got to finish it.  I’ve always liked mystery books, and adding a dash of the supernatural is definitely appealing.  I think some of it is a little overly silly (did he really have to name it the “Nevernever?”), but on the whole, I’m enjoying it so far.

Since I didn’t get to finish re-listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on CD on the drive to and from my parents’ house, I’ve been listening to it off and on.  I had forgotten how depressing it is.  I also discovered that JK Rowling is fundamentally against publishing her works as ebooks when I went looking for a written copy for my Nook.

It sounds like Rowling’s dislike of ebooks is a mix between her love of the physically written word (apparently she wrote all the Harry Potter books in longhand), and her fear of pirates.  Regarding the latter, I would have to say I agree with a lot of people that if you deprive the market of a legal version of something it’s clamoring for, the demand isn’t going to disappear, and her decision has likely driven more people to piracy than if she had just allowed ebooks of her works to be released.  Regarding her reverence of the physically written word, I think that’s pretty cool.  I remember seeing pictures of her handwritten copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.  I do think it’s a little short-sighted not to publish ebook versions of her work nonetheless.  After all, there are audiobook versions of her work, and that’s certainly not handwritten (yes, I know reading aloud, different medium, etc.).  Anyway, I would like for there to be [legal] ebook versions of Rowling’s books.