Doug,

Today in a little keyed box down the steps from my office I received a strange object enclosed in a larger, white, sleeve of sorts made out of some mulched tree product (is this paper?). Not knowing with surety what to do with that papery thing, I finally tugged on one end and it opened up. Inside was the other object (image imported on the left), made of a similar substance to the sleeve, except what I take to be the front of it has a wild array of colors. The interior is completely filled with black impressions — words, but they’re not on a screen. And on the first inside paper screen, it looks like your avatar script, but I get the sense that you somehow did this by hand:  “Lee, saw this and thought of you. Enjoy! Doug.” Am I right that this is only on this version of this object? So it’s mass-produced, but individualized, like the inscribed iPods from some years ago? How did you do this? Can you please tell me what tool you used? I would be curious to know.

In any event, what I really want to know is how to use this object.

I don’t see any way to turn it on. I know you’re probably laughing at me now, but I can’t find a slider or depressor anywhere. Knowing you, I thought maybe it was one of the first generation Wavio transmitters the Greater Harmony of Koreachina is developing, but when I waved my hand in front of it it still didn’t turn on. Is this the Kindle Kindle Kindle Spindle I’ve heard about? Again, it’s been long rumored (the thing has been in development for like 12 days now!), and if you’ve actually gotten hold of a K3M, I’m impressed. Whatever it is, how do I turn this on? I’m not worried about the power — because I don’t see any photoelectric cells, I’m assuming like everything else it recharges from background radiation. But I don’t know how to use it. And the colors on the front have really piqued my interest.

I feel honestly dumb to ask these things. And I’m sure the answer is right in front of me. Thank you for sending it to me — but how do I use this thing?

Best,

Lee

p.s. My elderly aunt says it’s a “book.” What is that?

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Comics, On reading, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.