Kindle for iPhone and free books

I’ve been looking at the Kindle 2 for a while but just can’t justify the initial cost ($350+) plus the additional cost for books. I’m huge fan of libraries and used books, so even $10 for a book is pricey for me.

I was happy, then to discover the (free) kindle for iPhone app. And in my frugal (read: cheapskate) fashion, I immediately went looking for free books.

They’re out there. Here’s what i’ve downloaded so far:

The Holy Bible English Standard Version (ESV) – The Bible – no brainer – and ESV too. Since it’s downloaded on your phone, it’s much faster than the youversion Bible app, and using the table of contents finding book chapter verse is pretty quick too…

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton – haven’t ever read it, but heard good things….

The Art of War – a classic

All Things Considered – also by Chesterton

There are not a lot of quality free books for kindle…but there are some out there. I also plan on using the free first chapter feature to test drive books before I read them.

Things I’m messing with today

I’m a messer, fiddler, dabbler, tryer – whatever made up word about finding new stuff and trying it out…here’s two things i’m messing with TODAY:

it’s kind of like a blog(or maybe more like a tumblog) but the main emphasis is on composing posts with email.  subject line becomes the title of the post, body is the body – which is nothing new. The cool comes when when you attach stuff. Posterous is smart – when you attach a picture it knows what to do with it, or a pdf, mp3 etc. it formats it and makes it accessable from the post. It’s very smart with links too. Post a link to a youtube video and it automatically embeds the video in the post.

despite the dead simple ease of use, i’m not sure how i feel about posterous as a blog replacement just yet, mainly because of the design. Not that it’s bad, but they all look exactly the same!

One other great thing about posterous – it plays well with others. twitter and flickr integration were a snap (it links with many popular social networks) so for now it’s a cool way to post pictures to twitter and flickr at the same time.

the other thing i JUST started messing with:

diddit

I just started this today, and the jury’s still out. Basically you browse around, check off stuff you’ve done, and star things you want to do. For instance: ever had a rootbeer float? check!

Could be a fun way to find new things to try, could be lame…

I actually had an idea for a web app similar to this (WAY better, of course ) same name and everything…but that’s a different story.

Wing Suit Base Jumping

wingsuit base jumping

(sorry, for some reason i can’t embed vimeo videos into wordpress – lame)

Barack Rolled

earlier today i posted this tweet…

then i got a reply pointing me to this:

Classic.

Have you seen transposr.com?

If you use planning center, you’ve probably seen a little ad for their new(free) service: transposr

here’s how it works:
upload an mp3, tell it what key it’s in, tell it what key you want it in, and transposr transposes it for you and lets you download the transposed mp3. Did I mention this is free??

i’ve tried it for a few songs and i’m AMAZED at how well it works. this will definitely change the way i plan services…for the better.

my one knock on it is that it kinda makes everyone’s voice sound like this guy…but it’s a small price to pay.

it also transposes chord charts, but i haven’t tried that feature out yet…

see for yourself!

Tim Keller and Google

props to Google for inviting him. props to him for going. worth the hour to watch the whole thing.

i want to read the book now….

more info on Keller (with TONS of sermon downloads) here

No Boogie-woogie

How do you know if music is good or bad? Godly or Satanic?

Alan Ives, Music Minister of Wyldewood Baptist Church in Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, proclaims
the simple and irrefutable scripturally-based truth of this tragically
misunderstood subject matter.

watch the video here

wow.

WordPress for iPhone

Finally! i’ve been waiting for this since the App Store launched…now maybe this blog will get a little more love…

UPDATE: it works! Now bring on Remember The Milk and a decent Twitter app! (although twinkle looks promising….)

Is Google Making You Stupid?

article here

ironically i got bored and stopped reading after the second paragraph….

Elise Renae Claytor

WOW! I’ve been so busy using my few and far between web-time on updating the baby claytor web network, i have totally neglected my blog.

and i completely forgot to mention birth birth of our daughter: Elise Renae Claytor!!

obviously, she’s adorable. Her and her mother are doing great! many more updates and photos here!