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Archive for January, 2010

I Could Not Wait For Midnight

Friday, January 29th, 2010

The weekly writing prompts have returned!  This week’s prompt was “I could not wait for midnight.”

It’s a bit darker than most of my pieces, but for some reason, it seemed to fit.  Enjoy!

———————

I could not wait for midnight.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t excited for anything. In fact, the night I had planned was mediocre at best, just a night spent in front of the television. The extent of my plans was to listen to the hypnotic voices that made time fly by.

Life had other plans.

I got home as I usually did, a little past 6pm, after a long day at work. My job wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really something I enjoyed anymore. I simply went in, did the job I was paid to do, and then came home, planning little more than watching a couple of shows I enjoyed, or perhaps picking up a book and getting my entertainment that way.

When did life become so empty?

Again, my life wasn’t bad, just mediocre. I wasn’t dissatisfied, but I knew there was so much more. Why couldn’t I be as happy as those people on the television? They always seemed full of life, and there always seemed to be someone coming over with an interesting story.

No one ever came to visit me.

I walked into the kitchen, setting down my groceries. I put them away automatically–I’ve done this countless times before, and could do it in my sleep. I always seemed to buy the same things, and put them away in the same order.

My life was too routine.

As I reached up to put away the potato chips on top of the refrigerator, the bag suddenly slipped from my hands. Strange, I thought as I bent down to pick them up. I again reached up to put them on top of the refrigerator.

That’s when the pain hit.

I suddenly felt like I’d been hit in the chest, and found it hard to breathe. [i]What’s happening?[i] I thought, as I dropped the potato chips a second time, pulling my hand to my chest. A second wave hit me, and I knew what it was.

I reached for the phone.

It pulled away from me, lifting up into the air. I felt the impact as I hit the ground. One hand still clutching my chest, I reached up in vain, grabbing for the phone. I remembered my cell phone, sitting in my pocket, and reached for that instead. I brought it to my face, and the room started to darken. I saw the time glowing on the phone: 6:23.

I could not wait for midnight; I was already gone.

Adding Memory to Your Nook

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Adding memory to your Nook is fairly easy, and requires no tools.

A lot of people have been coming to WritAnon, trying to find instructions on how to add memory to Barnes & Noble’s Nook.  This is mostly because I said adding memory was simple in one of my previous reviews of the Nook.

While the blog at WritAnon isn’t generally a technical blog, adding memory to a Nook is fairly easy, and it makes sense that writers would need to upgrade their Nooks.

The hardest part with upgrading your Nook’s memory is just getting started. The whole procedure should only take a few minutes.

Step 1:  Bookmark this blog entry

If you haven’t already done step 2, you’ll likely need to bookmark this page so you can come back to it.  If you have, you may still find a reason to come back, or send the instructions to a friend at a later time.

While you’re at it, consider subscribing to our RSS feed to find out more about writing for a living and pleasure.  There is at least one post every week.

Step 2:  Buy a MicroSD expansion card

In order to do this upgrade, you’ll need a MicroSD card.  I used a 4GB card made by PNY, but I’m fairly certain that virtually all of them are the same, just with a different name stamped on the cover.

MicroSD cards are very small…they can fit entirely on the surface of a penny.

MicroSD and Abraham

MicroSD and Abraham

If you don’t have a MicroSD card, you may want to purchase one.  I’ve linked to a few different types below.  Disclaimer: I get a few cents for each card purchased through these links, so this is a good way to thank me for the information included in this entry.




Step 3:  Turn off your Nook

You’ll need to make sure your Nook is powered off all the way.  You can do this by holding your power button (the silver button on the top of the Nook) for approximately 5 to 7 seconds.

Step 4:  Pull off the back cover

Taking the back off of your Nook takes  a bit of work, but it comes apart without the need for any tools.

If you look carefully at the side, you’ll notice a small thin gap, just large enough to put a fingernail in.  If this is your first time opening up the back of your Nook, the safest bet is to place the Nook firmly against a soft surface as you pull the back cover off.  This will take a fair amount of force, so be careful not to lift the Nook off of the surface.

Once you get the back cover off, you should see something like this:

Nook with back cover removed

Nook with back cover removed

From here on out, the steps are actually pretty easy.

Step 5:  Lift the memory card cover

Once the back cover is off, you’ll see two things:  the battery (the larger rectangle with the screw holding it down) and the memory card expansion slot.  You should lift the cover as shown below.

Nook with Memory expansion slot uncovered

Nook with Memory expansion slot uncovered

You’ll see the electronics underneath are exposed so you can insert your MicroSD card.

Step 6:  Insert your MicroSD memory card

This sounds like more work than it is.  All you have to do is lay the card so that the gold contacts on the card match the gold contacts on the Nook.

When you’re done with this, the installed card should look something like this (the cover is still open in this picture):

Nook with memory card installed

Nook with memory card installed

The card should lay flat and smooth, resting in the notches built into the card.

Step 7:  Close the memory card cover

Assuming that the card was laying flat, this should take very little effort.  There will be a very slight snap when the cover is in place, but unless your hearing is excellent, you probably won’t hear it.

Nook with memory card cover closed

Nook with memory card cover closed

Now the hard part is over, and you could test the new card now, if you wanted.  However, since there’s a small chance you could bump the back cover and cause the memory card to fall out, you should proceed on to the next step.

Step 8:  Replace the back cover

Make sure that you line up the cover correctly (the grooves for the power button are what I used), then snap the cover back on.

Step 9:  Power on the nook, then go into the settings menu

When you enter the settings menu, you should see your new microSD card show up in the available memory.

New memory card detected

New memory card detected

Now you’re ready to use your additional memory to store new pictures, songs, or, of course, more books.

Did you find this article helpful?  Please leave a comment expressing your thanks below!


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