NEO2 Review

Ever heard of the NEO2? How about the AlphaSmart? AlphaSmart was the previous name of this awesome device that has changed my writing life forever. I learned about it over a decade ago at a writer's guild meeting, but would not buy it because, after all, I had a computer. Why did I need a separate word processor?

The answer came to me some time a couple years ago after having suffered from chronic eye strain for about three years. The NEO2 is a lot easier on the eyes. The screen does not have the same wicked brightness as a computer screen does, and so I can watch the screen as I type.

Up until a couple of weeks before buying this little gem, I would write blog posts and Kindle products (including the first half of the novel I just finished) long hand on a piece of scratch paper first, then type them into the computer. It is much easier for my eyes to copy from a piece of paper than watch a computer screen. When I copy, I only have to look up once in a while to check for spelling errors.

But working that way, it took me at least 50% more time to write something than just typing it straight into the computer.

Tired of taking so much time to write just a few pages a day, I began to wonder: did the AlphaSmart still exist? My husband did some searching, and discovered that, indeed, it does, only under a different name! (I'm not sure how he found it, because I didn't even remember the old version was called AlphaSmart!)

Advantages and disadvantages of the NEO2

Now, it does not do everything that Word (or the Mac version of Word) can do. It does not check spelling as you go (and its spell check function is TERRIBLE). If you want to bold, italicize, or underline a word you have to go in and do that once it's on the computer. You have to go back in an do headings and subheadings. I totally miss not being able to right-click and immediately find synonyms for a word that I know I am overusing.

BUT...the NEO2 keyboard is easier to type on than a laptop keyboard. The screen does not kill your eyes. I can now type ten pages of a novel in less than three hours (unless it's a bad day) - and I am only writing everything ONE time.

You can have up to eight documents going at one time. I don't know the size of each file space, but each is large enough to hold a few hundred manuscript pages.

How the NEO2 works

So, how does the NEO2 work? When you plug the USB port into the computer, the computer sees it as a keyboard. Whatever you have typed will e re-typed automatically into whatever document application you have up and ready to go.

For example, I typed this post on my NEO2. To get it into my WordPress blog, I brought up a new text box for a blog post, connected the USB cord from the NEO2 to my computer, then hit the "send" key on the NEO2. If I wanted to stare at the computer screen - which, of course, I do not - I would be able to see the words get typed into the text box as if by magic, or invisible hands.

There are four different speeds you can set the words to be typed. The highest setting will type ten pages (Times New Roman, size 12, double-spaced) in about three minutes. The next setting down is considerably slower. I don't know why anyone would mess with that, unless they wanted to watch the process and catch errors as they occurred. You can't fix errors until it's all done, without canceling the whole process and starting over.

Anyway, whatever settings you have fixed for your computer word processing application - font, size, spacing - is how the text in your NEO2 file will show up.

Isn't that cool? I wish I'd bought the thing when I first heard about it. At under $200, it would have been well worth saving me the eventual severe eye strain.

Well, live and learn. In case any of you want to know my secret to whipping out novels so fast, the NEO2 is now a big part of it. You can buy one here.

Blessings to you, and happy reading (or writing!),

Emily Josephine

Walk The Walk, Or Hush

Between struggling with whether to use solar panels for energy at our home, and reading something about university students picketing for divestment from fossil fuel stocks, my brain has been kicked into high gear about the whole climate change issue.

Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but I’ve had a thought here and there about it. Finding out about the recent huge anti-fuel protest march in NYC has almost made me spend an entire five minutes ruminating on the subject.

If I sound flippant and like I don’t care about our planet, I do care. Thing is, not only is the whole controversy based on conflicting theories (not facts, only theories), but also now the whole thing has gotten so out of whack that they’re blaming cows for the greenhouse effect.

First of all, after the previous four winters (and it looks like the trend will continue this winter), I refuse to believe in “Global Warming.” Another impending Ice Age is more likely. Or, maybe the global warming trend of the past few decades is now turning, so that the planet’s climate is going back to what it was in the 1970s and earlier.

You know, that’s natural, for the earth to go in cycles like that: colder for a few decades, then warmer, than cooling back down. So do I not believe that greenhouse gases are causing a problem? Sure! I believe they are increasing my risk of lung cancer, and piling up Lord-knows-how-many toxins in my body that might cause me to die young. This is one reason I wanted to move out into the middle of nowhere.

Are they causing climate change? Honestly, I don’t know. And I don’t think anyone else can honestly say they know, either.

But my biggest angst with the whole climate change debate isn’t about “experts” trying to convince everyone else of their certitude one way or their other. Rather, it’s the hypocrisy of the people in the movement.

Hot dogs, anyone?

A growing number of people are at least trying, if not sticking with, veganism. Part of that has to do with the unfortunate bill of goods they’ve been sold about how animal farts are melting the polar ice caps. But I wonder: how many card-carrying environmentalists have given up meat and dairy? How many of those afore-mentioned marchers took advantage of the many NYC street vendors selling hot dogs?

And that brings me to the quintessential example of anti-fossil fuel hypocrisy. Few of those involved in the recent protest walked, biked, or drove a solar-powered electric car to it. No. Some of them actually flew in a plane. To protest the extraction of fossil fuels from the earth.

Then they went home to their oversized houses, and do you know what they did? They cooked some meat from their upright refrigerator on their electric range while charging their smartphone, did a load of laundry and dried it in a clothes dryer, then drove their kid to soccer practice…six blocks away.

I know, I know. Not everyone who protests against fracking and coal and proposed pipelines lives like a mini Al Gore. But most do.

Understand, I’m not mad at you if you use a clothes dryer or a refrigerator. However, I’m not thrilled if you’re the “average American” when it comes to electricity use, and then get upset when the world’s health must be compromised in order to keep up with your energy usage.

It’s easy to protest pollution with signs. But change never comes by doing things the easy way. Walk the walk, or stop talking. All that hot air is killing the planet. 

A Roadblock

Forty-four and a half years old. Never broken a bone, never fainted.

Why I could not continue on with this happy trend, God will tell me one day.

Last Wednesday morning, I slipped on a stupid rock and broke my arm. Not in an easily fixed way, oh, no, not me. I will be having nails and screws put in my bones. Yes, that’s right: surgery.

Blah.         

 

I fainted twice during the event, when I first fell (I do not remember the actual impact on my arm, but B says I lay still and quiet for a few seconds before I started screaming), and then when J was trying to help me up so that he could drive us to the clinic.

That time, I knew I was going to faint. Announced my intention to J. The next thing I knew, I was back on the ground with my foot sticking into…well, an uncomfortable place.

And my arm still throbbed with a searing pain, bone popping and shifting with every move I made.

So if I get a little quiet on the blog, you have an idea why. Typing with one hand is rather cumbersome.

But don’t be surprised if, in one of my upcoming novels, I have a character slip on a rock and break her arm.

Great Reads For My Readers

I had an idea the other day. I know how hard it can be to find good, clean romance novels – the descriptions don’t always point that out (mine do!), and sometimes when you search using the keywords “Christian romance” or “inspirational romance”, you come up with books that are…not.

And many times, when you’re downloading a free book from Kindle it’s been written by an Indie. Some of those aren’t too great.

So I thought, why don’t I occasionally share the Kindle works I’ve read and enjoyed recently? Many (if not most) will be “permanently free on Kindle” books because they are the first in a series. The author hopes, of course, that if you like the first one you will buy the others (which I do, on occasion).

Don’t worry! I’ll never recommend a book that isn’t its own complete story. I hate it when publishers FORCE you to continue the series by leaving you hanging at the end of a book!

All that said, here is a list of my favorite recently-read books (all available in the Kindle store, most written by Indie authors):

1. Roadtrip To Redemption by Laurie Larson
2. Miracles In Disguise by Michelle Lynn Brown
3. Out Of Control by Mary Connealy (romantic suspense)
4. Jenna’s Cowboy by Sharon Gillenwater – I actually read that a while back, but it was good and so worth mentioning.
5. The Old Homestead by Ann Sophia Stephens – This is an old one, and not quite a romance but a fantastic, engaging, and charming story. If I could only come up with a complicated plot with a surprise ending like this! It might make you cry. It’s in the public domain, so it’s free.

Happy reading!

Emily Josephine

PS – I am now in the process of proofing/editing the first draft of my latest novel. Hooray! :)

Solar Lights Suck

For various reasons, mainly because of the ridiculous inefficiency and high cost, J and I have decided not to generate our own electricity from solar panels. Well, turns out that solar technology needs a lot of work with small gadgets, too.

When I learned about solar-powered lanterns and flashlights a couple of years ago, I was all over it. “We can use these in our house instead of electric lights!” I told to J. He was fine with that, so we eventually spent around $200 in solar flashlights and lanterns.

That turned out to be a non-economical, non-sustainable idea. Here’s why.

Solar lights don’t last very long.

Two of the flashlights have already quit working. Quit working. I’ve never seen a flashlight with a shorter life than these. There was nothing to do but throw them away. It’s not like you can change the batteries and make them work again. So we had to add yet more garbage to the ever-growing landfills.

The el-cheapo solar camping lantern, which was our first purchase, also died a few months ago. That was more of a case of you-get-what-you-pay-for than anything else. A-hem, and it probably didn’t help that we left it out in the rain one day and it turned out not to be as waterproof as the more expensive lanterns.

Oops. 

The charging mechanism can go haywire.

One of our $40 lanterns, which are the biggest and put off the most light, will no longer charge to its full capacity. It stays dim, no matter how long you charge it. The good news is, it makes a perfect nightlight to replace the other, completely broken lantern that B had been using before while he slept.

The lanterns won’t fully charge between autumn and spring.

Due to the earth orbiting around the sun, we recently began experiencing shorter days. Instead of fifteen or sixteen hours of daylight, we’re down to about eleven – and decreasing a bit more every day. To my chagrin, I discovered that the big lanterns won’t fully charge without at least twelve or thirteen hours of daylight.

The good news with that is that these same lanterns are able to be charged via an electric outlet or a car battery, as well. And since the light bulbs are LED, they require such a miniscule amount of energy to charge, the impact of charging them via electricity is negligible.

But there goes another one of my “good” ideas of not having to use any power from the grid. *Sigh.*

We’ve decided to buy a couple of lamps, one for downstairs and one for the loft, and light them with LED bulbs. We’ll have all the light we want, whenever we want.