Sunday, June 8, 2014

The Matt Trick Episode 2 - Summer Reading



Listen to Episode 2 of The Matt Trick in the player above or download it.

Get the bingo card here, join the Summer Reading facebook group here.

Princess Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!



The Matt Trick


http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/, The Friday Podcast all about your Kindle, by Len Edgerly
http://www.ereaderiq.com/, A website for tracking ebook prices
I mentioned Send to Kindle, Readability, Instapaper, and Read it Later (or Pocket) all which have features for sending webpages to your kindle. I think they all have Android or Iphone versions too.

Here's some links on how I rooted my Kindle Fire HD 7". PLEASE NOTE that when you mess with this stuff you void the warranty and can potentially permanently damage your device. So don't say I didn't warn you. I got all of the instructions from androidcowboy.com.

Root
Load Google Play
Load Alternative Launcher

Android Cowboy has pretty easy guides but I still got hung up getting all of the Google Apps to work right, especially Gmail. In the end I got it to work acceptably well.

Other Links:
Download a kindle app for most any phone or tablet.

My favorite reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, to read books.

Goal Line




Join the Matt Trick Summer Reading Group! Print out a bingo card provided by Books on the Nightstand. Print out the bingo card, join the facebook group, and find something to read! Prizes to anyone who completes a bingo, special prizes to the first three bingos, and EXTRA special prizes to anyone who gets blackout. You must post your bingos on the facebook group to win.



Matt-spiration Moment


Let me tell you about my favorite pen. This pen isn’t expensive or fancy. It doesn’t have multicolored ink or gelly grips or other bells and whistles that would make it stand out. In fact, I got this pen for free from a TD Bank. I used to grab a couple of pens every time I would go in there. A few months ago, I closed my checking account at TD because I didn’t like the fees they were charging, but on the way out, I was sure to fill my pockets with many of these amazing pens.

You know what’s spectacular about this pen? It works. Every time I put this pen to paper, it writes. Even on the annoying special clean room approved paper that I have to use at work, it writes. And it writes consistently and accurately. I don’t have to scribble for a few seconds every time. It doesn’t pool or puddle ink in blobs at the beginning of words. It doesn’t whine, complain, or talk back. It doesn’t first give me its opinion on what it thinks I should be writing, but it writes down what I want written every time I touch the page.

Let me contrast that with my four-year old, Oliver. Oliver, though he is brilliant, picks up things amazingly quick, reads like a first-grader, and sings like an angel, he is no TD Bank pen. When the New England snow had receded this Spring, I went out to do some cleaning in the yard. Oliver got really excited to come and help me. Great I thought! He could do some of the easier stuff like picking up leaves and sticks or finding little weeds and pulling them up. So I explained to him what I wanted him to do and demonstrated how to do it. Then I went to dethatch the lawn. When I began my work, he immediately dropped his first leaf that he picked up and ran over to take the thatcher out of my hands! “No,” I said, “I’m going to thatch. I want you to pick up leaves and sticks.”

So he picked up two or three leaves, then started dancing around, picked up a stick, tried to sword fight me with the thatcher in my hand, stood right in the way of where I was to be working, and proceeded to jabber at me until my head spun! No amount of reminding, prodding, or threatening could get him to pick up more than a few leaves at a time before not only becoming distracted from his own work, but keeping me from my work with his light saber sticks or his dance moves. Knowing that my yard work time was limited, I thanked him for the help and told him to go play somewhere else!

I obviously don’t want a pen for a son, but there’s something to be learned from these examples. In the Book of Mormon, there are some fantastic accounts of missionary work from the sons of King Mosiah. It describes these men as having sought the Spirit of the Lord through fasting and prayer “that they might be an instrument in the hands of the Lord” (Alma 17:9). As instruments of the Lord, they converted the better part of a nation that was otherwise hostile towards them, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The sons of King Mosiah were less like my preschooler Oliver and more like my TD Bank pen. When the Lord needed them to serve they went immediately and obediently without question or complaint.

President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints often talks of times when he acted on a prompting, an impression, or a thought and he found himself able to be the answer to someone else’s prayer. On one such occasion while he was exercising, he felt impressed to visit a friend at the hospital who was confined to a wheelchair. He immediately got dressed and went. When he arrived at his friend’s room, his friend wasn’t there but the nurse directed him to the hospital swimming pool. There he found his friend alone in his wheelchair by the edge of the pool.  They had an enjoyable visit and President Monson escorted his friend back to his room. He later learned from his friend that he had been in a deep depression from his illness and had been considering taking his life that day. President Monson had arrived at a critical moment in response to the Heaven-sent inspiration. His friend later recovered and lived many more happy years. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/consider-the-blessings?lang=eng)

If we are to be an instrument in the Lord’s hand, like the sons of King Mosiah or President Monson, we need to be more like my TD Bank pen and just do what the Lord expects of us, relying on His spirit to direct us. I think about how often I’ve been directed in my life, and still, like my son Oliver when asked to pick up leaves in the yard, I just dance around procrastinating and making a distraction of myself instead of getting to work. We can do the great work Heavenly Father would have us do, and perhaps even be the answer to someone else’s prayer, being directed like an instrument in his hand, if we are willing to obey His commandments and respond to the call when it comes.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Matt. Love your podcast. I have 2 Kindles and like you, I don't read much on my Kindle Fire. So I need more explanation/instruction on rooting. BTW, I'm working on updating The Nay Family in Utah and the West so we can produce a better ebook from that.

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  2. I mean "Matthias." One thing I've done is to download the Kindle app on my phone so if I'm caught somewhere without my Kindle I can grab a moment and continue reading while waiting.

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    1. I still respond to those who know me as Matt :)

      I've updated the post to include the links I used to root my Kindle Fire HD 7". Some of the steps were easy and straight forward. Other steps left me tinkering for a few hours to get it right. Let me know if you want some more help.

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  3. Four year olds do learn......after teaching us patience when we we have to repeat things a million times and continue the daily teaching with love. Great pen vs Spirit analogy.

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