In the East Coast it's already 2011! Yay for getting rid of the suckiest year ever. Man, this year blows. And not just for me. A quick google search of "2010 sucks" yields over 426 million hits. That compares to the 31 million results for "2009 sucks," thus proving that 2010 Really Did Suck.
So I say good riddance. Only another 2.5 hours of you, you crummy year. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Ok. I want to stick to my App Fun schedule, and this week I want to say why I am now a big proponent of ebooks. A year ago I swore up and down that I would never get an ereader, you couldn't make me, I didn't care how big they got, I was sticking to paper, and nanny nanny boo boo to you. This year? I have a kindle. It all started with the kindle app for my droid, which I downloaded sometime over the summer.
See, the big reason why I'm a luddite about paper books isn't the whole "feel" of turning the pages, or anything like that. It's the fact that my main area to read books is in the bathtub. And there ain't no way I'm taking my kindle in the bathtub (although I have heard of someone who puts it in a ziploc to read in the hot tub).
But I realized there were a lot of times when I could read books during other times in the day, and there's always Vanity Fair for the bathtub. Or library books, though I shouldn't admit to that (listen, I'm really careful about it, and those water marks are not from me, I promise). I spend a lot of time driving, for example, and this being Southern California, you always have to leave more time than you need to get somewhere, so I also spend a lot of time waiting in my car. I can read then, and it'd be nice to not have to lug my books around with me.
Then the idea of space-saving really came around. As recently as June, I blogged about why I couldn't get into ebooks. The point of that blog entry was that, unlike cd's, you can't easily "rip" a book and put it onto your device. And I still think that Amazon should let me re-buy the kindle version of books that I already own at a discounted rate.
But then I got on this simplicity-kick, and I'm getting rid of stuff left and right. I own almost 1000 books, and they take up a crap-load of space. If I could have them all on one device - man, that would simplify my life (and additionally, it would let me gloat to my husband about how much more crap he owns than I do). So the kindle started to look appealing, at least in terms of buying new books.
Then I spent the weekend at a rock festival in the roasting-hot Fontana Raceway parking lot, almost dying of heat stroke. The upside was that I spent a lot of time sitting under the cooling tents where they had these mists floating down on you, and it was almost bearable. During that time, I read ebooks on my phone. And I realized that it wasn't that bad. And that was on a phone, without the awesome kindle e-ink screen.
After two full days of rocking out and phone-reading with no apparent lasting negative effects (the headache was as much from Rise Against as it was from reading on my phone) I decided to ask for a kindle for Christmas. And I officially stopped buying paper books.
I'm still in the predicament of wondering what to do with my current library. I've been buying copies of the books I already own at the rate of 1 every 2 weeks or so, and it really has made me examine the idea behind owning a book vs having access to it. I read a saying once to the effect of "try not to own too much because once you possess something, it also possesses you."
I've been hanging on to these books for so long, and why? Some of them have been moved 16 times. That's a crap-load of moving, if you ask me. And for what purpose? So I can look at them and feel smug because I read so much? To remind me how Haruki Murakami is a good replacement for chocolate? I don't know. There are some authors that I definitely want to revisit (like Haruki Murakami and Arthur Neresian) and I will probably wind up re-buying the books to have them on my kindle.
But there are so many that I read once, and I'm never going to read again. I don't know why I'm hanging on to them. So I have a new policy now of really examining a book, and if it's not worth the $9.99 to re-buy the kindle version, I'm going to just make a log of it, write down what I liked about it, and then donate it to someone else.
And then when we move the next time, I will have all my books on my little kindle, and feel very smug as J packs box after box of astronomy texts.
So the kindle app got me started on ebooks, and I'm glad of it. If you're into simplifying your life, and are open to the idea that you could radically change the way you feel about ownership vs access, then try it out.
And Happy 2011!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Today Kicks Butt
 |
| Rock on, today. Rock on. |
Anyway, I got to do both before 1pm all in the same day. I got to finish up an 8 ounce tube of Soap and Glory body butter, AND throw away an empty Pilot Precise V7 RT gel pen. Today rocks.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
If you want to blow your mind...
Then I highly recommend Journey to the Edge of the Universe, which we just finished watching. So wrap your head around this - you know how when you look at a star, you're actually looking at the light from the star as it was when it left, however many lightyears ago? Like the star that you're looking at might be dead by now, and we wouldn't know until the light from the explosion got to us? (And on that topic, who discovered that the fuzz we see when we don't get reception on a tv set is actually leftover from the Big Bang? Who put that together? Actually, I know because it's covered in Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.)
But anyway, so this journeys out to the edge of the universe, which, since the universe is expanding outwards, is like going back through time to see the beginnings of everything, and also to see how our sun, and our solar system, galaxy, etc., will die eventually. This show was like pot for your brain. Oh, and black holes. OMG they are a mind-f*ck. They suck matter in, and keep shrinking at the same time so their density goes beserk. Something the size of a grain of sand can weigh bilions of tons. And Alec Baldwin narrated, which was kind of hard because I kept expecting him to have to talk to Lemon about his microwave oven programming, and whether Cabletown would buy NBC.
And in other science news, I just bought this shirt from thinkgeek.com, my new favorite online store. No one seems to be as impressed with it as I am, but whatever. I like it.
Trajectories
One of the things that is so weird about a pregnancy loss, especially (I think) if you don't have other children, is how strange it is to go back to your normal life. I think about how there were times, before June, when I was happy. Lots of times. Jonathan and I did all kinds of fun stuff. But then we were coming to live from the trajectory of not being pregnant, and not ever having been pregnant.
Then I was pregnant.
And now, I am not pregnant again, but I'm coming at it from the trajectory of having been pregnant. So it's all completely different now.
It's still J and I, like it always has been. But nothing is different. And yet everything is different. It's a complicated mind-blowing physics experiment - measuring the everything/nothingness rate of change in our lives now. The only physical changes are a drawer full of newborn clothes I bought, the cheap heart rate monitor and Burt's Bees Mama Bee belly rub. That's pretty much it. Oh, and a breast pump from when my milk came in. So four physical differences. And yet nothing is the same at all.
I'm thinking about it because I was cleaning out my closet and came face to face with a bunch of my maternity clothes. I'm such a dope - I bought a whole fall/winter pregnancy wardrobe. Even if I got pregnant today, I wouldn't need pregnancy clothes until March or so, so all these heavy sweaters will go unworn. Lesson learned. Only buy as you need. The books say that, but I didn't listen. I decided it would be a good deal to order a ton and combine shipping to save money. Silly me.
I sure hope I can wear these preggo jeans again soon. I wonder how many women are pining for maternity clothes right now? Yearning for elastic. Because elastic equals pregnancy. At least in my equations. Ahh, beautiful Motherhood pregnancy jeans that are getting slightly frayed at the ankle, I will wear you again soon, I hope.
Then I was pregnant.
And now, I am not pregnant again, but I'm coming at it from the trajectory of having been pregnant. So it's all completely different now.
It's still J and I, like it always has been. But nothing is different. And yet everything is different. It's a complicated mind-blowing physics experiment - measuring the everything/nothingness rate of change in our lives now. The only physical changes are a drawer full of newborn clothes I bought, the cheap heart rate monitor and Burt's Bees Mama Bee belly rub. That's pretty much it. Oh, and a breast pump from when my milk came in. So four physical differences. And yet nothing is the same at all.
I'm thinking about it because I was cleaning out my closet and came face to face with a bunch of my maternity clothes. I'm such a dope - I bought a whole fall/winter pregnancy wardrobe. Even if I got pregnant today, I wouldn't need pregnancy clothes until March or so, so all these heavy sweaters will go unworn. Lesson learned. Only buy as you need. The books say that, but I didn't listen. I decided it would be a good deal to order a ton and combine shipping to save money. Silly me.
I sure hope I can wear these preggo jeans again soon. I wonder how many women are pining for maternity clothes right now? Yearning for elastic. Because elastic equals pregnancy. At least in my equations. Ahh, beautiful Motherhood pregnancy jeans that are getting slightly frayed at the ankle, I will wear you again soon, I hope.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Oh, and if you're wondering...
...where all my miscarriage grief went, don't fear, it's still hanging around. I have started a blog over at Open Salon where I blog exclusively about my miscarriage. I think that's appropriate. This blog has been around, in various iterations, for almost 8 years. I want Baby T to have his own place where I can grieve for him in a venue that's unique from the place where I used to blog about bad dates. So check it out if you want to stew in grief for a while. One of my posts was already made an Editor's Pick. Go grief go!
The more things change...
I've been listening to Bill Bryson's Home, a Social History of Private Life for a while now, and just finished it yesterday. I love Bill Bryson. I first discovered him when Notes from a Big Country (known in the US as I'm a Stranger Here Myself) was recommended to me. It's a collection of his newspaper columns from the first few years after he moved back to the US after spending 20 years in the UK. I had only been in the UK for two years, but I already identified with much of his wonder and curiosity of life in the US. The first time I walked into a Wal-Mart when I got back to the US, for example, is a time I will never forget. I was blown away. Why do they need three aisles for cereal and granola bars? At my local Tesco Metro, there's like 6 kinds to choose from, and that was plenty for me. Capitalism run amok, say I.
Anyway, my old buddy Bill Bryson is currently living back in the UK, and writing more interesting books than ever. Home is a journey through each of the rooms of his house, where he manages to expound upon things such as why we have salt and pepper shakers, and not salt and cinnamon. Or is it true that the Victorians, as they like to claim, really invented childhood? And what about paint. What's the deal with our desire to paint walls, and how did we do it before modern technology? And when did we start putting ice in our drinks, anyway?
Bill Bryson is perfect for my ADD-ness because any time I start to get even slightly bored with a topic, we're on to another one, lickety-split.
So the final chapter was about archeology and how people have cared for their historical monuments throughout history. It turns out, we haven't cared for them very well at all. In fact, Stonehenge was very nearly impaled by a railroad track, it being decided to be "useless in the modern day." During the agricultural failure of the 1870's when English crops failed miserably several years in a row, almost 2,000 historical stately homes were literally taken apart, board by board, and shipped to wealthy Americans like the Vanderbilt's, Mellon's and Astor's. Stonehenge - seemingly always in danger - was almost shipped to the US to be part of a theme park!
I think that's pretty much of a travesty.
But here's a gem. Finally around the mid-19th-century many English nobility were starting to realize that they should care about their historical treasures. And, you know, maybe make them public owned.
The landowners did not like this. It was government takeover of private land! How dare the government tell people what to do with their land, whether there was something of national interest on their land or not. What about property rights?! Of course, the term Socialism didn't have the same sting then that it does today, but I can imagine that if that were proposed today, the proponents would be getting the S-bomb dropped all over them.
The Ancient Monuments Protection Act was finally passed through Parliament in 1882, and it provided for an Inspector of Ancient Monuments who would identify items of historical interest and give them government protection, attempting to take them into public lands. It was slow going at first - the first Inspector General - Augustus Pitt Rivers - served from 1882 until his death in 1900, and identified only around 40 monuments that should be protected - barely 2 a year. Now there are over 19,000 items on the register.
This is why I like Jon Stewart and the growing movement of reasonableness amongst people (like me) who are disgusted with the Tea Party Fascists. I think that we can all agree that Stonehenge should not have a railway running through it. So that leads me to believe that everyone could agree that there are at least some pieces of private land, or private property rights, that should be taken into public custody for the good of society at large. So then we can have a civilized discussion of what makes something worthy of being taken into public custody, and come to some reasonable consensus. We won't get there, though, with Tea Party Nutso's wanting to do away with government completely.
It just makes me laugh when I hear about people freaking out over the loss of rights 130 years ago. This discussion is not new. I'm sure the Romans had similar discussions about what belonged in the public arena, and what should stay private. There are some things that benefit all society - like roads, infrastructure, libraries, education, defense - which we seem to have agreed on should not be largely in private ownership where profits and shareholders are the number one concern. There are some areas where profits need to be set aside for a greater good for society. I contend that health care is one of those areas as well, though I know many disagree with me. The point is that once we can agree that there are some things that shouldn't be profit-driven, we can sit down and hammer out the details.
But you can't do that if you're just calling everything Socialist all the time.
Still, it's nice to see that those 19,000 monuments are protected, regardless of the freakouts of the landed nobility. Things move forward towards the greater good, and eventually we will have national healthcare, despite all the fear-mongering-death-paneling of the Tea Party. It's just a shame for the 2,000 stately homes that the UK didn't protect them sooner.
Anyway, my old buddy Bill Bryson is currently living back in the UK, and writing more interesting books than ever. Home is a journey through each of the rooms of his house, where he manages to expound upon things such as why we have salt and pepper shakers, and not salt and cinnamon. Or is it true that the Victorians, as they like to claim, really invented childhood? And what about paint. What's the deal with our desire to paint walls, and how did we do it before modern technology? And when did we start putting ice in our drinks, anyway?
Bill Bryson is perfect for my ADD-ness because any time I start to get even slightly bored with a topic, we're on to another one, lickety-split.
So the final chapter was about archeology and how people have cared for their historical monuments throughout history. It turns out, we haven't cared for them very well at all. In fact, Stonehenge was very nearly impaled by a railroad track, it being decided to be "useless in the modern day." During the agricultural failure of the 1870's when English crops failed miserably several years in a row, almost 2,000 historical stately homes were literally taken apart, board by board, and shipped to wealthy Americans like the Vanderbilt's, Mellon's and Astor's. Stonehenge - seemingly always in danger - was almost shipped to the US to be part of a theme park!
I think that's pretty much of a travesty.
But here's a gem. Finally around the mid-19th-century many English nobility were starting to realize that they should care about their historical treasures. And, you know, maybe make them public owned.
The landowners did not like this. It was government takeover of private land! How dare the government tell people what to do with their land, whether there was something of national interest on their land or not. What about property rights?! Of course, the term Socialism didn't have the same sting then that it does today, but I can imagine that if that were proposed today, the proponents would be getting the S-bomb dropped all over them.
The Ancient Monuments Protection Act was finally passed through Parliament in 1882, and it provided for an Inspector of Ancient Monuments who would identify items of historical interest and give them government protection, attempting to take them into public lands. It was slow going at first - the first Inspector General - Augustus Pitt Rivers - served from 1882 until his death in 1900, and identified only around 40 monuments that should be protected - barely 2 a year. Now there are over 19,000 items on the register.
This is why I like Jon Stewart and the growing movement of reasonableness amongst people (like me) who are disgusted with the Tea Party Fascists. I think that we can all agree that Stonehenge should not have a railway running through it. So that leads me to believe that everyone could agree that there are at least some pieces of private land, or private property rights, that should be taken into public custody for the good of society at large. So then we can have a civilized discussion of what makes something worthy of being taken into public custody, and come to some reasonable consensus. We won't get there, though, with Tea Party Nutso's wanting to do away with government completely.
It just makes me laugh when I hear about people freaking out over the loss of rights 130 years ago. This discussion is not new. I'm sure the Romans had similar discussions about what belonged in the public arena, and what should stay private. There are some things that benefit all society - like roads, infrastructure, libraries, education, defense - which we seem to have agreed on should not be largely in private ownership where profits and shareholders are the number one concern. There are some areas where profits need to be set aside for a greater good for society. I contend that health care is one of those areas as well, though I know many disagree with me. The point is that once we can agree that there are some things that shouldn't be profit-driven, we can sit down and hammer out the details.
But you can't do that if you're just calling everything Socialist all the time.
Still, it's nice to see that those 19,000 monuments are protected, regardless of the freakouts of the landed nobility. Things move forward towards the greater good, and eventually we will have national healthcare, despite all the fear-mongering-death-paneling of the Tea Party. It's just a shame for the 2,000 stately homes that the UK didn't protect them sooner.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Funny Local News: Holiday Spending Edition
Dude, Dave Dunn is working for me, live on the Plaza! Poor Megan couldn't get anything for her dorm room. And Banana Republic is still open! Woot! I do love the Seamless Vinyl Siding ad, too. The guy sounds so convincing when he says to Call Now. Heck, I want to call him, and I don't even need any Seamless Vinyl Siding!
Utah shoppers are all a-twitter too! Apparently the Build-a-Bear's are on a rampage there, though. One lady was very excited to have escaped Build-a-Bear. And seriously, why not just go for it, right?
Honestly, aren't the newscasters supposed to be telling you the news, and not encouraging the same consumerism that got the economy into such a mess? Last time I checked, the Christmas angels did not say unto the shepherds, "Go ye to Bethlehem, and then get ye to Macy's where ye can find sportswear ye probably don't need for 50% off, especially since ye just got a sh*tload of stuff ye probably also don't need the day before for Christmas."
Utah shoppers are all a-twitter too! Apparently the Build-a-Bear's are on a rampage there, though. One lady was very excited to have escaped Build-a-Bear. And seriously, why not just go for it, right?
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
Honestly, aren't the newscasters supposed to be telling you the news, and not encouraging the same consumerism that got the economy into such a mess? Last time I checked, the Christmas angels did not say unto the shepherds, "Go ye to Bethlehem, and then get ye to Macy's where ye can find sportswear ye probably don't need for 50% off, especially since ye just got a sh*tload of stuff ye probably also don't need the day before for Christmas."
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