The Lewis Show

So 2007 called, they wanted this blog post back. This probably comes almost a decade too late, but up until a week ago, I had never owned a Kindle, never wanted a Kindle. I thought unitaskers such as this were a waste of time and money. The older versions seemed to be very clunky and I felt they were a slow ends to a simple means. I cannot begin to describe how I hated the look of the early Kindle with those keyboards. Over time I noticed the Kindle improving their UI. Barnes & Noble came in with their Nook, Kobo joined the US market, and they helped push the tech along. Then Apple and Google debuted their more multipurpose tablets. I was very quick to purchase a Nexus 7. I could never justify the expense of an iPad considering the amount of other hardware I owned at the time. I loved my Nexus 7. When they release an 8" tablet this year, I'll probably still buy it. I even think the iPad Mini is a wonderful device and I'm not partial to Apple products. But this...

Something has been poking at me the past couple days so I return to get it off my chest. This Memorial Day weekend people will be grilling meats and enjoying time off from work. Some however have taken to their social networks to tell people how they're supposed to observe the holiday. Unless we fall on our knees before God and weep, we're not properly celebrating the holiday and doing a disservice to our troops. Yes, the purpose of Memorial Day is to quietly reflect on fallen soldiers. We have cemeteries full of people who made a tremendous sacrifice and cannot enjoy this day with us today. Those people choose to end their lives in defense of our liberties and our way of life. I have a lot of family who have fallen in previous wars to enable my freedoms. I take time to remember them today. But they did just that, they gave up their lives to give us the freedom to celebrate in our own way. If you don't want to observe, don't observe. If you want to drink beer a...

I have not written here at all this year. I am alive. It's May already. Let the year officially begin, I guess. I figured I would catch everything up with a random post! It's not like I'm not writing. I'm a writer and editor over at RootzWiki. I have articles there at least 2 or 3 days a week. I usually just banter on about new apps for my Android phone.  This was a pretty brutal winter. With warm weather comes me going outside and enjoying the weather. That of course goes into my other routines that keep me away from a computer like going to the gym, working on the yard, and tending to family.  Jeff Hanneman (Slayer guitarist) passed a year ago. Always sad to lose metal giants and good guys like him. I have to admit that I am surprised at the level of GREAT customer service I've gotten since switching to AT&T Wireless last fall. I expected a disaster after not so great service from Sprint, but after having to make several changes to my account which ...

Sometimes I hold unpopular opinions and I was overdue to share one here. Janine and I had a discussion three or four years ago about the future of Black Friday. We both agreed that one day in the future, stores would be opening on Thanksgiving Day. We also agreed that was just a terrible thing. I still feel that it is terrible for these stores to be open on Thanksgiving evening. People should spend time with their families and if people don't like their families, then stay home and play a video game or make a turkey sandwich. Don't make people work on Thanksgiving. I still hold that belief, but now that dreaded day is here. Then I had a thought. What if people want to work on Thanksgiving? What if people want to provide for their families by earning a salary and working on Thursday evening and/or Friday morning? Not all of us have those jobs or live that lifestyle, so we don't completely understand it. We've become quite accustomed and dare I say entitled to sit...

It looks like the llama finally prevailed and will no longer be getting its ass kicked. Aol announced this week that they are going to end support for Winamp effective December 20th. Many of us used Winamp to play downloaded music that was stored on our computers. Over time, cloud services and portable media players made need for applications like this to become increasingly unnecessary. I will personally miss the application, but I'll probably keep the last version installed on my computer. I remember spending my weekends with my friends in the mid 00's listening to music on Winamp. I would spend hours tweaking it with various plug ins to add bass or decompress the sound of my MP3's. It has always been part of my desktop music life and with this last download next month, that will be it for that chapter of third party music players. I have to admit I have been using Google's All Access now since last fall and have enjoyed having most every song available on d...

It is that time of year again. Every year about this time I typically take to the internet to complain about the leaves falling in my yard. This year is no exception. I have spent the past two weeks moving mountains of dead leaves into our front ditch for county removal. I've also taken in a few walks around town. I took it upon myself to explore Richmond more since I have been a resident here for over eight years now. There are considerably more interesting places than I imagined and most all of them have been safe. Richmond does have a tendency of wearing it's violent reputation on its sleeve, but I have not feared for my life really at all since I moved here. In fact, I would dare say most of the stories I've heard have been based on misconceptions. Be safe and use common sense, but I have found most of the locals to be quite nice, hospitable, and plenty Southern. The walking around Brown's Island, the Canal Walk, Belle Isle, Jackson/Madison Wards, the Capit...

I have not posted much at all this year. I can make no apologies for that. This is a venue for me to vent about things that are going on in life and the world and my life and my world have been doing just fine this year. For the most part. I did want to extend a special wish to my Mom this year. She passed away in July. This is the first time I face October 1st without making that call to wish her a special day or ask if Dad played any pranks on her this year. Normally he would do something silly to make sure everyone in the Northern Neck know it was her birthday. I never took too much of an interest in reading posts from other people who lost parents. I think the whole death thing is something we all have in common. Not many of us predecease our parents and that's how nature works. We all fully expect to bury our parents if we have not already. Judy was always a mind reader. She knew when something was wrong, she knew when I was happy, and she knew just when to call me to...