Valentine’s Contest: Win a Sony Touch for your Active-Duty Spouse!

**Be sure to enter our contest (details at the end)!! One lucky spouse will win a Sony Reader for her (or his) active-duty spouse! What a wonderful Valentines present that would be!**

My husband’s year long deployment to the sandbox taught me all about the wonders of technology. The beauty of communicating via webcam most nights was an amazing blessing! In only his first days of being settled at this base in Iraq I wrote: “We Have Established Communication“. Isn’t it amazing where technology has brought us in the last century, the last decade, even just a few years?

I recently had the opportunity to use a Sony Touch, a hand-held, portable, digital e-book. This is cool stuff! Although there is something about turning the pages of a real book as you enter your own little world, I have to admit the Sony Touch digital e-book has A LOT of appeal. I can go online and purchase books and have them automatically downloaded; even better I can go to my local library’s website and download a book for free, if they have it in stock! The beauty of the Sony model is the versatility. You aren’t limited to as many book-formats as some readers. The Sony Reader is able to read SEVERAL eBook formats!

As I started to tell my husband about it last night he jumped in to tell me about the potential of an e-reader when he was in Iraq. He had BOOKS with him; mostly they were pleasure books. But with some time to kill at the end of his 16 hour work-day he enjoyed pulling out a book as he got ready to fall asleep (of course after kissing me goodnight via webcam). Problem was he had TWO trunks. Two trunks to get him to Iraq and the same two to get him back. Two trunks to hold ALL of his stuff for a years worth of living. So the books that he bought over there (via online or at the little PX) he had to leave behind because he just didn’t have room. Room is such a commodity that the thought of keeping books electronically is a huge plus!

Another fun thing I saw with the Sony Reader was that it can also hold music (mp3 format) and images. So thinking about our service-members far away from home … what a convenient way to get a quick glimpse of family & friends back at home. (They don’t carry cell-phones out there to store images, due to no real cell-phone coverage.) BTW the Sony Reader weighs like 10 ounces, that’s next to nothing. 10 ounces and it holds about 350 books… that’s almost crazy talk 🙂

As a side note, I’m also thinking about PCSs… We all know about the weight-limits established with each move a military family makes /and/ we all know how heavy a box of books is! That much less clutter and weight is a huge appeal to me.

I’m sold, obviously! So…

What do you think?

“Will e-books change the way you shop for books?”

Leave a comment and you will be entered in our contest to win a Sony Touch from Borders for your deployed or state-side Active Duty spouse. This contest ends January 30th, so don’t delay! (We want to have enough time to notify our winner and get it out for Valentine’s Day!)

Once you have done #1 (and you must do #1 to enter) you may then increase your chances of winning by:

2. Become a fan of MilitaryAvenue on Facebook. Once you are a Fan, let your military-family friends know about this contest by posting this story as your status. (Link to: http://militaryblog.militaryavenue.com/2010/01/valentines-contest-for-our-deployed-win.html) (Post a comment below to let me know you did this.)

3. Follow MilitaryAvenue on Twitter and Retweet this story. (You can use the link http://bit.ly/6AnN5H) (Post a comment below to let me know you did this.)

4. Have a Blog? Blog about the contest and leave the URL of your post in the comment field below. (Post a comment below to let me know you did this.)

IF you comment you will be entering for a chance to win a Sony Touch pre-loaded with 10 top titles (selected by Borders) for your active-duty spouse. Winners must provide the APO or an on-base / post address to ship to upon winning as Borders will facilitate shipping readers to the winners.

This is great stuff!!

Thank you to Borders for facilitating this opportunity for our service-members. I’m a big fan of the companies that stand behind our troops and their families!

– Leanne from MilitaryAvenue.com

PS: If you do comment keep in mind I need to get in touch of you if you are selected as our winner. Either be sure to leave your email address in the comment, leave it in your ‘profile’ when you leave a comment, or send me an email with your email address (leanne@militaryavenue.com) and which comment you left. Good Luck!byLeanneonSaturday, January 09, 2010Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestMilitary Life:Contest,deployment,St Valentine’s Day