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Month: March 2009

luddites unite

luddites unite

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call me a luddite, but i cannot wrap my head around buying an electronic book. i am fine with reading my newspapers online and watching "lost" in HD in front of my imac the day after it airs, but i cannot and will not purchase a kindle or any other e-book device (including the app on a future-owned iphone).

there is something about how a book smells, brand new, old and musty, library smell. curling up with a good book does not mean pushing plastic buttons or flicking a screen. it means having the tactile sensation of the paper between your fingers, flipping through to different parts with your finger marking page 113, feeling the smoothness of the covers, embossed titles, glossy varnish on photos (can you tell i work at a printer?). oh yes, the kindle can hold up to a billion books with a billion more at the touch of a button, but how many books can a person read while on vacation for a week in cancun? certainly I am not going to need another suitcase for my books.

there is something about a multitude of books lining a shelf or shelves in one’s home. call it pretentious, but when i see shelves and shelves of books in a home, i know i’ve met someone i am on par with (unless it’s shelves and shelves of romance novels, haha). reading is a simple and quick way to expand knowledge and vocabulary.

there is something about anticipating a book. i have a stack of 5 books i bought from goodwill that i am slowly but surely getting through. everytime i see the stack, i get a little jolt of excitement about what’s to come. i really really doubt i would get the same jolt from seeing a kindle sitting on the coffee table.

there is something about this technology that i just can’t accept. i will take an HD tv, my imac, the ps3, my awesome digital camera, the interwebs and more, but i won’t take the kindle. i’m a book luddite, through and through.

torn

torn

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ugh, so i’m totally conflicted.
i might be taking pics at a wedding in june for the first time. i don’t want to screw this up so i can have more opportunities down the road. doing this, however, might involve me buying an additional lens (and i wish i could also afford a good flash, but a lens would take priority). said lens costs upwards of $300, and i’m not even making that much for the wedding.
but, if the lens provides rock-awesome pics, like samples i’ve seen through the intertubes, it would probably help further lucrative exploits down the road.
meanwhile, all my credit cards are free of debt and i could easily put this lens on a card.
but … it’s $300+!!! ugh!!

Book review: The Time-Traveler's Wife

Book review: The Time-Traveler's Wife

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I haven’t read a book so engrossing in a while. It’s a story of a guy with a genetic flaw that makes him time travel spontaneously and the woman who loves him. The overall theme throughout the book is waiting, and I couldn’t wait to read more of this book. At around 500 pages, it lasted me a while, but I plowed through it in about 4 days.
It tackles some brain-teasers surrounding time travel, circular thoughts that are hard to wrap your head around: the guy visits his wife as a young girl, and tells her which dates he would be coming next, which she writes down, then gives him when she meets him in real time so he can tell her younger version when he would be coming next, which she writes down so she can give him when she meets him in real time….etc. etc. Where is the beginning? who knows…
It isn’t a happy romance, though. Be forewarned because it may seem that way, but it’s not. After I finished, my insides were conflicted and my heart ached with how the book ended, and I’m still thinking about it.
Go read it. There’s even some smut in it for those of you who like a little porn with your literature.

spring ahead

spring ahead

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i think i suffer from slight seasonal disorder. when the days start to shorten up pretty quickly in september and october, i can feel the recoil inside as i lose my sun. and even though i gain an hour sleep every fall when we fall back, i do admit that i would rather spring forward for eternity if it meant more sun.
when i was young, springing meant having to get up an hour earlier to go to church. that was the most annoying part of springing forward. but now that i’m older and don’t go to church (much), i do admit that springing forward puts an extra spring in my step. there is just something about the sun and it being out longer in the day.
this is one reason i really despise my work shift – i work 2-10, and no matter what time of year i get out of work, it’s dark. i lose all my productive evening time to work. if they offered me daytime hours, i would really have to think hard about losing my differential pay (almost $1/hr). i would almost give up $160 a month for 4 hours of daylight after i leave work. right now i’m working the 10-6 shift to fill in for a gal on maternity leave, and i LOVE it. i don’t even mind getting up earlier.
i’m not quite sure why the powers that be don’t make daylight saving time permanent. if they’re doing it so we conserve energy, why no? this year it’s early, and some people are complaining because springing forward normally means spring is hopping. however, it’s still winter in minnesota, with snowstorms and 0-degree weather in the forecast this week. but i don’t care: i love me some extra sunlight. bring on the vitamin D.

wishlist

wishlist

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unemployment benefits have been extended to a little over a year, so if nate doesn’t find a job, at least there’s that. *sigh*.
things the house needs that i can’t get because of a cash flow issue:
-water softener (big time)
-new dishwasher
-new fridge
-gutters
-new kitchen faucet (it drips, and is positioned annoyingly)
-downstairs figured out
-deck
i am going to get as much yard stuff this spring as i can. a couple trees and a garden is the least i want to do. a garden at least will be productive and save money in the long run.
and work has slowed down a bit *sigh* *sigh*

the swears

the swears

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for those of you who know, a swear word rarely crosses my lips. i can count on one hand the number of times one has left my mouth: one after some moron of a girl ran into the parental units’ van, and another by accident because i was trying to explain "that’s nucking futs" to someone and screwed it up.
so, the question is, what about replacement swears? is saying DANG IT!!! just as bad as what it replaces, since everyone knows what it replaces? EFF UUU!!! – is that as bad as using the actual F-word since everyone knows what it’s insinuating? i think in particular of interest is the F-word. this is effing ridiculous. frack you. fark you. mother-farker. that friggin’ son of a mother…. we ALL know how these are supposed to go, so when someone says them, what is the difference between actually saying the whole shebang and shortening it up? are we protecting the children? well then, so what: your kids are just going to go around saying "EFF YOU!"  and then what? are we protecting the elderly and faint of heart? do we seriously believe old folks don’t know swear words? these words are hardly "new-fangled" vocab.
what are your opinions on swears and swear-replacements? if you’re going to use replacements, it seems like kind of a cop-out. either go all out, or cut them out of your vocabulary altogether.