Amazon Kindle

One of my bosses bought an Amazon Kindle. I had never even heard of them until last week, and even then I didn't know what it was until Gabe (the guy I share my office with) was setting up the one my boss bought. Turns out, they're back-ordered until like, February right now.

I got to hold Willem's (my boss) Kindle for a little bit, check out the features and stuff. It's pretty nice, and the screen doesn't strain your eyes. But the cost! Oh, my goodness, the cost!

Just the reader itself is $400! Then, you have to pay about $10 for every book you put on the Kindle from the Kindle store. You'd think, if they were making you pay so much just for the technology, they'd at least let you pick out 20 (better 100) books from the Kindle store for free! Not to mention, regular e-books usually don't cost more than 1/5th of that!

Some people have figured out how to put other e-books and PDF files onto their Kindles, and you can e-mail text files to the Kindle too, but still.

I do like the fact that you can get magazine and newspaper subscriptions on the Kindle though--not that I actually subscribe to anything except the TVGuide. I don't subscribe, because that means I have to take time out of reading books and fanfic to read the magazine/newspaper/whatever. And some months/days/weeks, I just don't want to put the book down, or I just want to get through the fanfic, y'know? But if I had a Kindle, they'd all be on the same thing, and I could just switch between them if one couldn't hold my interest for long.

Overall, the Kindle is awesome, but I will have to wait until the price--both for the reader itself, and for the content--comes down to my price range.

Adventures in Sandwich Eating

I meant to get a lot more done on Saturday than I actually did get done.

Friday night, I checked Weather Bug, and it said there was a 40% chance of rain the next day, so I didn't set my alarm clock at all for Saturday morning. I wasn't about to try riding my bike downtown, only to get stuck in the rain. Thing is, it didn't rain until Saturday evening. Argh.

When I did wake up, Jason called and reminded me that we still had to go to the library before next Saturday, so that he could return his books in time. Problem is, he forgot one of them, so he couldn't check any out. I wanted to get one of the nifty new library cards, that have a copy you can put on your key ring, but I didn't have any cash with me and replacement cards cost $1.

So, Jason pretty much just dropped of his books, and then I took him with me on my errands.

We went to Lowes first. I had to get a new cover for the light in the upstairs hallway. The old one had fallen and shattered a couple nights after I moved in, and Jen C. kept bugging everyone about it. Kayla and I were perfectly content to leave the light as it was, since replacing the shade part was not an absolute necessity, and we have more important things to worry about/spend our money on. But no, Jen C. just would not leave it alone.

Anyway, after Lowes, we went to Costco. I got gas, then we actually went inside the store, where I got a large bag of Doritos (for lunches), a honeydew melon (my fruit for this paycheck), and some Apple & Eve juices (also for lunches). Once that was done, we went to Wal*Mart for the rest of my groceries before I took Jason home.

I put the groceries and stuff away, then did a little bit of reading until aroun 6:30, when Anna came to get Kayla and me. Anna's birthday is this Wednesday, but she's getting surgery on her ankle today and won't be able to go anywhere without a wheelchair for at least three weeks after that. So, as an "it's the last free night you'll have before your birthday" thing, we went with her and Cashaw to Pittsburgh to get sandwiches from Primanti Bros.

Primanti Bros. sandwiches are pretty interesting. You choose what meat you want, and whether or not you want cheese (it's always provolone). The bread is always the same, and it's about an inch thick. Then, they put slaw and french fries right on the sandwich. I had a roast beef sandwich with cheese. It was good, but I think next time I'll have it without the slaw.

The drive there and back was fun. Cashaw is really interesting, and we had conversations about everything from banking to religion. He even said he might teach me to do photo editing once he gets his photography business up and running the way he wants it to be. We didn't get back to mine and Kayla's house until around 5:45 in the morning on Sunday. (We didn't get to the restaurant until around 11:30 or midnight.)

I didn't wake up until 3pm on Sunday, then I looked through this week's TVGuide before I left for Mom & Dad's house. Anna and I watched Smallville and it was over just as dinner--Indonesian Chicken, at Mom's request for Mother's Day--was ready.

After dinner, we all did various other things for a while, then Dad and I ended up watching Testaments in the living room while Jason played on his computer. Jason had to go to bed before the movie was over, and I left after the movie.

Bored Again

My VCR/DVD player was kind of on the fritz--whenever I taped something on the VCR, it would always have places where the sound cut out, the picture was fuzzy, the video sped up for no reason, etc. So, I bought a new one. Only this time, I got a VCR/DVD-Recorder.

I decided to start over with the Phil of the Future taping, so that I'd get a better quality. It's a good thing that imdb.com lists all of the episodes, plus two weeks' worth of future air dates, or I'd be screwed until my TVGuide subscription got processed.

Eventually, I'm going to have to re-tape Kim Possible: So the Drama, A Valentine Carol, and Zenon: The Zequel too . . . but none of them are playing anytime in the next two weeks. I'll also have to get The Lizzie McGuire Movie. I found out today though that I can buy Kim Possible: So the Drama AND the other KP movie: Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time from Amazon, but I can't buy the others. Bummer. *shrug* It's not like I'm actually going to buy them anyway.

I also want a copy of Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and the third Zenon movie (I'm pretty sure there is a third one), even though I haven't seen that one yet.

I need to check my DVD of Hook to make sure I got all of it. I'm pretty sure I did, but I want to be sure because the DVD says it holds 2 hours worth of video at standard speed, but when the movie (and the two "making of" things afterward) were finished, it said that the time was 2 hours and 40-some minutes. I'm not sure what speed it was recorded at though. If I didn't get all of it, I'll just fast-forward (on the tape) to the place where it stopped recording (on the DVD), put a 2nd DVD into my new recorder, and let it roll.

Gabe at work sent me an invitation to this one file-sharing program/group which sounds like it's a lot better than LimeWire. I'll have to check it out later.

While I was at Wal*Mart last night, I also bought butter (I was out), a 16-piece set of dishes, and a 20-piece flatware set. I got sick of washing one each of my two bowls and two spoons every time I had to eat breakfast.

Sheesh! It's only 3:30, and I've been out of stuff to do since noon!