Matthew Supert

News has been all over the web that Barnes & Noble has decided to split off its Nook division and sell it off. I hope this actually means good things for the Nook in the next couple of years. I am an Amazon Kindle user, but most of my family uses Nooks (sink versions). I personally think they are fantastic ereaders and they do have a really nice interface. It seems like B&N itself didn't know how to properly push the Nook devices out. Perhaps with some new management they can aggressively target the Nook like it needs to be targeted. 

It seems like the biggest problems that the Nook has had in its existence so far has been its marketing and its online services. When was the last time you saw a TV ad for a Nook? The answer is never, whereas Amazon has done a very good job of producing Kindle TV ads around the holidays. The Nook has also suffered quite a bit with its online delivery services. They have had some significant problems and they tried to implement a Whispersync type of service to sync your progress up to the cloud and other apps. For a long time it only partially worked. If a new team can get in there and fix two of these main problems I think it could help a lot. 

I would also say that they should ditch the tablet version and the whole multi-media approach. B&N has its history in books and literature. I think the Nook company could really own that space if they ditched the videos and music and went all in on the books (and may be magazines). I would love to see them really make a premium line of sink readers. Push that sink technology hard. The Kobo Aura HD has the highest resolution sink display right now and for hardcore readers that is a niche market I think could be profitable. Publishers seem eager at this point to fight back against Amazon just as they did with Apple and iTunes a few years ago. Nook could have an opportunity to strike some really good publishing deals. 

Also, if you have ever been on the Nook sites they actually have a pretty good social media team going. They have some excellent blogs and online communities that push out some great content for fans of reading. It features some good interview and other content. They also have continually offered their "Free Book Friday's" deals which I think are a boon for readers. The problem is, it is near impossible to find these on B&N's website. 

The Nook (and B&N in general) also really should highlight more that they are leveraging the epub format. Technically any book bought from the Kobo or Google Play stores can be side loaded onto a Nook without issue. KIndle's can't do that. It would be nice if Google Play or some other service could license a way to wirelessly send books purchased on these other stores right to the Nook wirelessly to alleviate the friction of side loading. The idea of having multiple stores accessible to your device is something that could be a great sell for the Nook hardware business. 

Whew, summer is officially here. I just got back from a great vacation to Florida and now I see that my summer schedule is already filled up. There just is never enough time to handle all of the things I really want to handle during the summer months. The weather is so nice that I want to get outside to do things like golfing or my motorcycle or even just going to a museum or something. At the same time I always want to get in all of my other hobbies like doing music, getting some summer reading in or watching some good movies. Something always seems to slip however and I can never get it all in. Motorcycling, tennis, golf, music, video games, reading, family functions, music concerts. 

It is all going to go by quick and sure enough autumn is going to be here. Don't get me wrong, I love the seasons, but sometimes I feel like I never get to fully enjoy everything. The fall comes and you are instantly in the holiday rush and the, boom it is the dead of winter. 

Today was literally the worst ride I have ever ridden. I had a tour over at Koval Distillery in Chicago today so Megan and I took the bike over to that. I figured it would be fun to drive through some of the Chicago neighborhoods and the lake on the way to the distillery. It was a miserable experience. The traffic on I-55 in both directions was crawling. What should have been a 50 minute ride each way turned into a 90+ minute ride each way. It was hot and miserable. I have never been so uncomfortable on the bike before and it didn't help that I had a passenger that was also hot. 

The tour of the distillery itself was cool. It lasted only about 35-40 minutes, but it was interesting to see how whisky is made. I was surprised at actually how small the distillery was. There was a back portion that we didn't get to see, but the building was fairly small. Overall it was a fund trip and made me appreciate Whisky and the Koval brand more. I came away really enjoying the millet whisky that they make. The Bourbon had a really creamy flavor to it as well. If you find yourself in the area, definitely check out the tour there. 

http://www.koval-distillery.com/newsite/classes-tours

This past wednesday I attended my second handgun training seminar. It was held at Gat Guns in Dundee. I have never considered myself a gun person in any way, but last year I decided to take a handgun introductory course on a whim. It was one of my personal goals over the past couple of years to try things that are new and foreign to me. To my surprise I really enjoyed going to the shooting range and better yet, I am pretty good at it. This second course I went to was a much more technical course and was put on by two competitive shooters. They really focused heavily on my stance and my grip on the gun. There is something about the mechanical and technical aspect of the shooting that I find fascinating. 

During the first training that I attended, we handled a smaller number of firearms, but it covered a range of calibers from .22 up to .40. This second course was all 9mm handguns since that is what is predominately shot in competitive shooting. The great part about this exercise is that I had the opportunity to handle about twenty handguns. The course also covered topics such as buying your first gun, basic cleaning procedures, etc. I del like I may be getting to the point now where I am seriously considering getting a handgun and looking into the competitive shooting. At both of the courses I have taken so far the instructors stated that I had an inherent talent and that I should continue on into competitive shooting. I am not going to lie, it felt pretty good to hear that on two separate occasions. 

So out of all of those handguns which ones did I like? I found three that I liked overall and one gun that sort of clicked immediately with me. 

The first one was the Glock 34. I had handled the Gock 17 before, but the 34 seem to have a slightly longer barrel. It had a pretty smooth trigger pull on it too. The second gun I liked was the Springfield Armory XDM. This is another "modern" gun like the block and had a smooth trigger to it. 

So the gun that I liked the most????????? Can you guess? It was the Springfield Armory 1911. The big, heavy 100 year old design. I shot very well with it and the weight made the gun feel really solid. The 1911 has a single action trigger to so the travel is really short and feels really smooth. Of course it is also the most expensive of the bunch. 

I have to give a big shout out to the training group that I went to this past week,  Excel Training. They were fantastic, super professional and very technical. I would highly recommend them. I also have to say that I was super impressed with Gat Guns in Dundee as well. All of their staff were very friendly and approachable and they have really excellent and modern facilities there. 

So writing on my book sort of ground to a halt the past couple of months. I am literally on the edge of completing the book from a technical perspective, but as I get closer and closer to the proverbial finish line, each step gets heavier and harder. It is like the gravity of the whole thing is weighing me down and preventing me from finishing the book. What I think really is happening is that the lack of preparation for the end is really dragging me down and I don't have an internalized feeling for exactly how the book should conclude. For all intents and purposes though the book is finished in its first pass, so I think I am going to refocus my efforts here and go back to the beginning to work on fleshing out the story elements. God, knows that all sorts of things like character names need to be created and I need to established a more grounded foundation for the religious context in my world. 

This spring so far has been a pretty fun time for video games. It has been my sort of go to stress relief after I come home from work. I have been playing quite a bit of Titanfall since its launch back in March. The game is basically just Call of Duty, but the formula still works and it remains fun to jump in and play and hour or two. There has been quite a bit of complaints from some people online about the value of the game for online only. I never quite understood the issues with those arguments. People spend $60 on COD all the time without touching the single player at all. A new map pack is coming out in a couple of weeks that I am looking forward to play. 

I also picked up Super Mario 3D World a few weeks ago for the Wii. That is a gorgeous looking game and if anyone had an qualms about the Wii U producing some good looking games, just look to the Nintendo products for it. It is your standard Mario game in many respects and has all the fun you expect there. I have liked playing it in short bursts of 30-45 minutes, which seems to get me through 2-3 levels before I hit a road block. If you are trying to be a completionist and collect all the stars, the game can be quite challenging.  Mario Kart 8 is coming out at the end of this month and I am really looking forward to that. All of the video and screenshots that have been coming out so far make the game look quite phenomenal. 

I have also been slowing still chipping away at Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on my Xbox 360. That is another really pretty game, and it fills my sort of mindless RPG niche at the moment. I wouldn't say that it is a great game by any stretch, but the fight mechanics are solid enough to keep me going and the world is just too pretty not to look at. I thing that drags the game down a bit for me is all of the sidequests, which all come across as a bit meaningless. They all feel like sidequests from an MMO and they are extremely numerous. Overall it is worth playing if anyone comes across it. 

So this summer I hope to get Megan on the back of the motorcycle and do some trips. Part of this involves here getting some gear, but it also has involved her having some sort of "backrest" for the back of the bike to lean against. My bike doesn't have a ton of options for this, but after doing quite a bit of research this winter I opted to go with the Givi system. It was cheaper than the BMW system (and the case looks better) and it didn't involve me purchasing an entire new seat for the bike. 

After getting the rear rack on the bike, I am not thrilled with how it looks, but it looks fine. It just detracts from the minimalism that I like on the bike. The Givi gear seems to be really well built. I just feel that the top plate they have is a bit thick and it unfortunately does not have any utility for strapping gear down when the case isn't on the bike. I may look into trying to fabricate a replacement aluminum plate which could be thinner, but we will see. Again, it doesn't look horrible. 

I can't deny the utility of the top case though. I used it riding to work last week and the 47l case can hold quite a lot. 

Last weekendI have the fun opportunity of playing in the Cavalcade of Bands at the Moraine Valley Community College. The event featured the West Suburban Concert Band, the Southwest Suburban Band, the Tinley Park Band and the Moraine Valley Concert Band. This was a really fun performance. All four bands performed about four pieces individually and then we performed four joint pieces. Can you imagine having 350 plus musicians all playing a song. The sound was pretty fantastic and it was a blast to get a chance to really listen and interact with all of the other community bands in the area. It is not something we get to do very often and I hope that this cavalcade continues. 

Rumor has it that the full video of the event may be available in a week or two so I will get that posted if it becomes available. 

I was having an interesting conversation here the other day. It started with the recent discussions about Ukraine and Russia's incursion into Crimea. Most of us have seen stories on the news referencing all sorts of Cold War topics and it got me thinking about the discussions that were ongoing at that time about the failure of Communism. I actually studied quite a bit on these sorts of topics in college since my major was political science with a focus on political theory. 

My topic of conversation then shifted to the problems we seem to be having so often over the past decade or so of mistrust. Mistrust of people with their government, with their teachers, with corporations. It just seems like everyone is angry or upset with everyone else, and to some extent there is some legitimacy to that idea. It all sort of came to an exclamation point in my head this evening when I saw this video from this afternoon from 60-Minutes about problems with our the stock market currently operates. It got me thinking that we have gotten to a point now in society that perhaps we can say that "democracy" (really republicanism, but we will say democracy since that is what the media likes to say) and perhaps our notion of capitalism has failed, much the same way communism has. Look at the story for example from the Washington Post where a kindergarten teacher quit their job because it is no longer about teaching.  

Now this is not to say that capitalism has failed when you look at it from a GDP or market perspective. We consistently see data that shows that the US GDP and stock markets are continually rising. At the same time however we see consistent data that wealth in the US is not being distributed evenly and that the problem is worsening. It makes me feel that we sort of should be questioning what exactly should be the measurement of success for our national concepts. It feels like from a policy perspective, when truly trying to look at policies that benefit the nation, we have seen increased evidence that the core ideas of the democracy decision making process. Is the final measurement of success really just the wealth of our nation as a whole? What exactly should be the measurement of that wealth? GDP? Culture? Test Scores? Art?