Joining the Debt Club

It’s official.. we’ve joined the debt club. Yeah, the economic climate makes such a decision really scary. But we’ve chosen that uncertainty over another uncertainty: that we might never be able to afford a house in a nice neighborhood.

Compared with when I moved here in ‘99, house prices are still triple (even with housing dip) while my salary, erm, hasn’t. At least we didn’t have to content with a hot housing market like some of my friends did, when sale prices were routinely 50-100K above list price and people made offers during the open house.

There’s some fixing that needs to be done, and I’ve been coming home from the library with armloads of books on decorating and construction. It’s a far cry from my college days, when my decorating style was strictly “Bottom-of-the-Barrel Thrift Store” and I couldn’t find a foundation on a house if asked. Oh, and I’m supposed to work while learning about a myriad of things like permits, taxes and fees ?!

I do want to reassure those might worry about me: I am not stressed up. I know better than to hold on to material possessions, and I am heartily thankful to God for this chance to give Peter a space to play. For our friends in the area, it’ll be a little while before you get house-warming invitations, but feel free to drop a line and tell me about your own house buying experiences. I’ll actually listen to the details, down to the last shingle!

Link: Kindle 1 vs Kindle 2

From MacWorld article: 'Amazon Kindle vs Kindle 2'

I’m really, really unqualified to write on this topic since I don’t own either Kindle, and don’t see myself plunking down the money anytime soon. In fact, I’ve been trying to save old-fashioned (as in paper) children’s books from the junk heap, so I just can’t get excited about another e-reader device at the moment.

Still, the techies who read this might like this MacWorld article with a slideshow comparing the 2.

FWIW, my quick scan of reviews and forum comments on the  Amazon official page gives the following impression.

Kindle 2 Pros:

• Thinner (hurray, something to do on the long flights!)
• Better UI : mostly concentrated on contrasts (16 color vs 4) and navigation (people used to hit a button which skipped pages accidentally)
• Device life: Battery and storage gains.
• Accessibility: Voice reader now available.

Drawbacks (mostly stayed the same since Kindle 1)

• Lacks native support for pdf files, Amazon still supplying conversion to *.azw
• Lacks non-Latin character support (come on, Amazon, I know some Chinese readers who would like to read their swordfighting sagas electronically)

Subscription model (Same):

• Upward of $9.99/mo for newspapers,  $1.49/mo for magazines, $0.99/mo for blogs.

So, have at it, people.  Those of you who actually own or have played with the device, let me know what you think of it. I look forward to reading your qualified opinions.

Rant: No Books Please, Our Children Are Safe

Book Burning (We'll know better - we'll recycle!)

We are a week into the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and I still think it is badly written. Overlawyered has a partial listing of businesses and charities impacted (such as Goodwill throwing out all children’s books before 1985, charities refusing donations of children’s items, businesses closing).

Today, I’m going to focus on the law’s impact on book resellers. Partially because I love books and browsing in second-hand bookstores. Also, I sometimes sell some of my books on eBay or craigslist so I am technically a reseller. So, yes, more than a passive interest since I don’t want to break the law.

Fred Blackwell: In Passing

I cannot call this a memoriam of Fred, for I never knew him well enough.

I knew him as a friend of our neighbours, the McKains, who came over sometimes to hang out with them. I saw him often on Sundays between church services, when I was watching over Peter in between talking with church friends. Perhaps I smiled at him, while I was chasing after my rambunctious toddler, but never quite stopped to say Hello.

I even remember seeing him sitting with the McKains last Sunday. He was easy to spot, you see, being a larger-than-life African American with a genial smile. I remember feeling glad, for whatever reason, that he had friends like the McKains because I hadn’t seen him with his own family. I don’t know if he lived alone or had family scattered around, like us. But them as friends, I knew he was in good company.

And now he is gone. On the very same day, called home that Sunday night. This is his friends’ account (initials used for privacy):

Link: Fit for a baa-by

I’ve been discouraged by the CSPIA law (blogged about earlier) and its effect on small businesses. A growing list of products affected can be found at the blog National Bankruptcy Day which took a survey and estimates that $70M of inventory will be destroyed on that day.

But I had to stop and ‘awww’ at this picture. Some nice news for a change.

Nice fit!

Excerpt:

Abandoned at birth, little Jack, who is one of twins, was rescued by volunteers at Manor Farm Country Park, near Southampton, Hampshire.

Concerned about the risk of the tiny new born perishing in the cold weather, volunteers at the farm did all they could to keep Jack warm.

Mr Davies said: ‘We brought in some hay bales and a heat lamp for him – then one volunteer had the novel idea of giving him a jumper.  ‘She trawled all the local charity shops and was lucky enough to find a knitted wool jumper among the baby clothes.

Full article at Daily Mail UK.