The Kindle Fire (KF) is a Kindle e-reader that is tied to the Amazon ebook ecosystem. Based on a customized Android operating system, the KF comes in several sizes and sports a full-colour, touch-enabled interface screen. Because of the faster specifications of the internal hardware, one can use the KF to watch movies, hop on to YouTube, and install pre-approved Android apps. It also works well as a small gaming platform.

I own two different versions for my personal use, and I also have a couple of brand-new ones still in their original packaging. I'm not collecting them, although one could make that case considering that I have a version of every Kindle they produced. The smallest KF is inexpensive, to the point where I use them as giveaway prizes when I sell my books at conventions. Before I put a new (self-pubbed) ebook up on Amazon, I go through and verify there are no issues on all of the platforms. My trad-pubbed books I get no say in, so I just…

Not everyone who drinks is a poet. Some of us drink because we’re not poets.

-Dudley Moore, in “Arthur”

Twenty-three days. That’s how long I’ve been in this piss-hole. I have a life, I have things to do. I need to be home. I should’ve been home a week ago. Twenty-three days. I need to see Rusty.

I’ve been in some places. Bad places.…

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
…