My Thought Spot

As someone who is interested in the creation and formatting of ebooks I eagerly picked up Accessible EPUB 3 from O’Reilly’s blogger review program. I know little about the EPUB format as most of my study of ebook creation has been for the Kindle. Reading about EPUB would have given me more tools for complete ebook formatting.

I read the title, Accessible EPUB 3, to mean that the author would show me in an easy to understand (accessible) way to create and format books for the EPUB platform. Even reading the short description at the O’Reilly website did not change my thoughts on what the book was about. But I was completely wrong on who their target audience was. This is not a book for people who are new to EPUB and wanting to learn about it. In fact, the EPUB spec is not even explained in the book. This book is written under the assumption that the reader is already familiar with and understands EPUB.

The book is actually about how to make ebooks that are accessible to people with different abilities. There are sections specifically on how to make books with pictures more accessible to visually impaired readers as well as making audio content more accessible to those with hearing disabilities. This is what is meant by the word accessible.

After getting a better understanding of what the book was about, I enjoyed the book from a thought experiment point of view. There were specific examples on how to implement the concepts the author was proposing. However, as someone who doesn’t even understand EPUB programming, this information was merely theoretical and thought provoking. There are even points in the book where the author, Matt Garrish, admits that there may be a better way to be even more accessible in the future. His point is that he wants readers to think about people with various abilities who will be reading books. What is it they need and how can you go about programming your ebook to fit their needs?

Accessible EPUB 3  is an excerpt from a larger work expected to be published later this year (2012) called EPUB 3 Best Practices.

Accessible EPUB 3 is available for free at both O’Reilly and Amazon.

[Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book through O’Reilly Media.]

When I turned on my Kindle before going to bed last night my heart sank when I saw the screen wouldn’t redraw properly and that my screen was probably broken. Yesterday my Kindle was involved in an unfortunate accident. I take full blame for what happened. I called Amazon’s customer service today to see what they might be able to do for me even though the broken Kindle was my fault. The problem was certainly not a manufacturing error but an error on my part.

First Customer Service Rep

The rep on the phone took the information about my device and what happened. I told her that the Kindle was in a box that got hit by a large object. The Kindle was the only thing in the box that was damaged (thankfully my computer survived) and there was no physical evidence that the device was harmed in any way other than the screen would not redraw.

The kind rep (who spoke fairly good English) said that Amazon would allow me to buy a replacement device for $65 (which is 1/2 the price of a new Kindle Keyboard with the same features). To me that was more than fair since I am the one who broke the Kindle. It was not a manufacturing flaw in any way. However, I don’t have $65 at the moment and told her that. She said it would be flagged in my account if I wanted to buy a replacement at any point in the future I could get the reduced price.

Amazon was more than fair and the story should have ended there.

Second Customer Service Rep

However, I searched my account and found out that my device was out of warranty by 5 days. Certainly that should not make a difference. They had no obligation to do anything for me, yet they offered me a 50% discount on a new unit. But…seeing that it was only 5 days out of warranty, I wondered if it would make any difference if I pointed out to them that the warranty just expired (knowing full well that even under warranty my mistake should not be covered).

I jumped back onto the Amazon site and, instead of calling this time, I used the live chat feature. I quickly explained my scenario to the rep. Upfront I told him that I thought Amazon was more than fair to offer a new Kindle for 1/2 price and that the problem was one that I caused. At no point did I try to hide the fact from them that I was at fault. Then I asked him if it would make any difference if my Kindle was still under warranty. Without answering my question he asked me to do a couple of tests on the device to determine if it was really broken (if he could see it he wouldn’t question its brokenness). I patronized him.

I then said that I knew Amazon had no obligation to replace the device and that 50% reduction for a new Kindle was more than generous. But I also knew that Amazon was a kind and thoughtful company. Would they consider replacing the unit for me.

My Pleasant Surprise

Without hesitation the rep said he would send me a new one. He just needed a few bits of information to proceed. I excitedly provided the info he needed and he told me that a unit would be delivered by Monday. I got an email from Amazon later in the day today (Thursday) telling me that my new Kindle had shipped and that it would be delivered at my house tomorrow (Friday before the proposed Monday delivery).

Amazon is amazing!

Will they do this for you? I don’t know, but if you have a broken Kindle it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask. I think the biggest thing in my favor was that I didn’t demand anything from them and I didn’t try to pretend that the screen just broke on its own.

When we were living in Argentina our daughter saw the no parking signs and couldn’t figure out what they meant. In Spanish the phrase is ‘No Estacionarse.’ The no parking sign looks just like ours in English except it has a big E on it instead of a P. She finally determined on her own (and who were we to correct her) that the E with a slash through it meant ‘No Elephants.’ I have no idea how she came up with that, but it did make sense: I never saw an elephant walking around the streets of La Plata. The signs must have been working.

Yesterday we drove through a town with several no parking signs along the side of the street. She read the signs and then she asked me what the word for ‘parking’ was in Spanish. I told her it was ‘estacionarse.’ Then I heard her say to herself, “So the E doesn’t mean ‘No Elephants,’ it means ‘No Parking’ in Spanish.”

I think it was cuter when she thought that all those signs meant ‘No Elephants.’

And a Happy Christmas to you!

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving meal with a cousin who lives in the area. I am 15 years older than he is and his parents had moved away from the rest of the family when he was born. This cousin and I have only been together fewer than 10 times in our lives. It was kinda funny since we are cousins but don’t really know each other. But, since there are no introverts on my dad’s side of the family, we didn’t feel like strangers.

House

We got moved into our house. I think we are closing in on 3 weeks here. Most of the boxes upstairs are unpacked. It looks like we are settling in. That is, until you check out the piles of unopened boxes downstairs. There is still plenty of work to do.

Furniture

We had a friend over to the house a couple of weeks ago for supper. We only owned 2 chairs at the time (actually, they are borrowed from the office). Thankfully we have a couple of 5-gallon buckets and short trash cans to sit on. That is what we boys used while the girls used the real chairs.

When we were with my cousin for Thanksgiving dinner he gave us 4 dining-room table chairs. We let our most recent lunch guests sit in real chairs. Fancy.

While driving to the library on Saturday we saw some furniture sticking out of a dumpster. Not wanting to pass up a potentially good deal we had to check it out. We pulled enough parts out to scab together a recliner and threw it into the trunk of the car. With a few screws, a hammer and some ingenuity I was able to get a very comfortable recliner out of the deal.

It’s not pretty, but it’s functional.

Upcoming

Our daughter reminds us each morning how many days are left until my birthday. She knows that Christmas can’t come until my birthday is here. She isn’t sure how many days after my birthday that Christmas will come (10 days), but she does know it is a formality that has to be dealt with. [This ends your yearly subtle reminder that you still have time to buy me something. I don't mind if it arrives late.]

There are lots of Christmas activities coming up in the church. I get to speak at one of the Christmas gatherings next week. I am looking forward to it.

We will be home most of this month and the next. It is a great time to get settled in before we begin traveling in February.

Whatcha Getting for Christmas?

We got a new house. Top that!

A church we were in last month gave my wife a gift card for Target. She bought a Kindle. I got a “new” recliner. We bought a machete for our son so he can mow the lawn. He doesn’t seem that excited about it. Maybe we will get him a pair of scissors for Christmas so he can trim the bushes. Our daughter found 2 new friends up the street. We have all had a profitable December so far.

We enjoy traveling and feel like we are coming back to our roots with our move back to the US. We have been back for 3 months and have done a little traveling, but now things are really starting to ramp up. This week we are on a trip that is so reminiscent of our travels from 1994 to 2004.

Start Your Engines

We left home on Thursday and traveled up to visit some missionary friends in Indianapolis. Technically we were working since I am their director at the mission board. However, we enjoy spending time with them and hardly feel like it is work to visit them and talk for several hours.

After meeting with them we moved on to my brother’s house where our kids played together and the adults snuck off and played board games. My brother taught a CPR class I was able to attend and where I got re-certified. If you need my services to beat on your chest I would recommend you try to book me early since I am trying to stay booked 6 months or more in advance.

We stayed with my brother for two nights and moved on to Ohio where we had a Sunday morning meeting in the church of one of my college roommates. He has been pastor of this church for about 10 years. It was good to see him and his family again.

Hang On

Between church Sunday morning and Sunday night we moved to a different city in Ohio where I spoke briefly in a church and stayed overnight before moving to another part of Ohio.

We stayed two nights near Toledo and then scooted over to Syracuse, NY. The church I taught in on Wednesday night is one which has been a friend to us for many years. The deaf group was excited to have us there and we enjoyed renewing acquaintances.

After a brief night in Syracuse we moved over to Massachusetts. We are staying two nights here without any meetings. This is a staging spot for our next meeting starting in New Hampshire tomorrow night (Saturday). We will be in New Hampshire at a church mission conference for a week.

Finish Strong

After the conference we will head to Maryland to preach in a church that we have never been in before. However, the pastor is a man we met when he was in Massachusetts. While we are there we will discuss the possibility of helping them get a deaf ministry established.

The next Monday we start a 3-day meeting in Tennessee near where we live. It is a meeting that our mission board organizes which gives pastors and missionaries a chance to meet and work on booking meetings.

The Back Story

We were supposed to close on a house the day before we left on this trip. Since the paperwork was not done we needed to have someone else take care of the documents for us. Though they could be overnighted to us, we weren’t sure where we would be when the papers were ready. Therefore, we gave power of attorney to my parents and they signed the papers yesterday. Today the former owners signed their part of the paperwork and we are officially home owners again. But, we won’t move in for another 2 weeks since we are traveling.

This has been a fun trip in that it brings back so many memories. For our children it will take some getting used to. This is a big transition from our ministry in Argentina where we didn’t even have a car to go across town, much less across the eastern part of the whole country.