Retold

So, it’s my birthday today!  It’s been pretty good so far.  Matt’s going to get all the ingredients so I can make the baked mac & cheese, which will be slightly tricky without an oven, but I’m going to try to use my birthday crock pot to finish it.  Should be fine, as long as I don’t overcook the noodles.  Hopefully it won’t turn into mush, that would suck and make me cry. Oh, maybe I should check the list of crock pot recipe’s Phoena sent me, maybe they have one that uses noodles and I can see how they do it!

My Mom, Dad & Candi sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday!  I love Amazon, so it’s something of a tradition. They’ve also sent me iTunes gift cards before, but Amazon is always a good choice because I’m a book-aholic.  I love to buy books and to read, so it’s perfect because I can do those things without ever leaving my house!  Go, go gadget agoraphobia!  Honestly, even if I didn’t read books, I’d still be able to use a gift card to Amazon.  They sell everything!!  You can buy everything from books to acne medicine over there. I’m pretty sure they even have groceries. I could get everything I need without ever leaving home. That would be awesome!!  No, I’m definitely spending it on books, I just don’t know which ones yet… I can’t make up my mind!!  I’ve picked two, for now, but I don’t know if that will change so I haven’t gone ahead and gotten them yet.  They’re just simmering in my cart, waiting to be bought.  I do that when I’m shopping at the store, too, put stuff in my cart and walk around a while trying to decide if I want it.  The only difference is, at the store, I usually put the stuff back.  I hardly ever put books back!

…(¨`·.·´¨)
…..`·.¸.·Kristyn

I’ve been thinking, and writing, a lot about e-books lately.  All this consideration has had one very nasty side effect, that is, now I want an e-reader.  I downloaded the Kindle software for PC, but it only reads files formatted for the Kindle (.mobi, I think).  It won’t read PDF’s or Word files, which makes it useful only insofar as I’m getting Kindle books.  Though, it one could argue that .PDF files can be opened with Acrobat Reader, which is true.  Also, as it’s on PC, it’s not portable.  I could, and probably will, download the Kindle software for my Netbook, but it’s not really practical either.  So, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to get an actual Kindle, but I don’t want to pay $260 for equipment that will literally only read one type of file.  That’s just not happening, at all… ever.  Especially considering that the reality is, Matt’s going to want one too.  We don’t have $520 to waste on something like that.

I checked into the Nook, which is Barnes and Noble’s e-reader, and it looks amazing.  Unfortunately, when I was at Barnes and Noble last Tuesday they had one one display and after checking it out I was not impressed.  I wanted to be!  I tried really hard to like it, but it just wasn’t happening.  I found the interface clunky and difficult, and the image kept cutting out intermittently.  The world’s most advanced e-reader my toosh!  On top of that, the thing is $260!  The one good thing I can say about them is, they offer thousands of free titles for people who buy the nook, but most of them are titles whose copyright’s are public domain.  In other words, I could get most of them on GoogleBooks.

Then one of my twitter pals told me about Sony’s e-reader.  After checking it out, I think I’m in love!  It’s small, so it can go anywhere, and it reads a whole host of file types.  The only thing it won’t read are Kindle files.  So, that’s that, but that doesn’t dissuade me.  I don’t care about kindle titles when many e-books are available at places like Smashwords, and Sony’s bookstore, in .PDF formats.  Sony’s e-reader comes in three colors, and I love the pink!  They have a university store, which is makes their products cheaper to university students, which would make their e-reader only about $150!  That’s far more manageable than either the snooty Kindle or the cruddy Nook and I know someone who had one and they love it, which is awesome.  Word of mouth is my best friend.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to rush out and buy one.  Frankly, I don’t have the money right now, or rather, I do but it’s dedicated to other purposes.  Instead, I’m hoping to find as some daily deals on eBay, or maybe for sale at Sony’s store.  The price of everything is coming down, after all, why not this?  The Kindle and Nook were both more expensive than they are now.  I have every confidence that the Sony e-reader will drop in price, too.  Although, it’s already more inexpensive than the others, but I’m not letting that little fact dissuade me.  I think I’m going to wait and get it in the summer, depending upon how my summer work plans pan out, or as a reward for my dedication to making my freelance writing pay off this summer!  Not sure yet, but one way or another, I’m getting one… which I suppose means Matt will be too, at some point, if he’s nice to me.

…(¨`·.·´¨)
…..`·.¸.·Kristyn

Dear Dan Brown,

It’s about damn time.  Also, thank you!

The Lost Symbol

PS.  I hope the “Angels & Demons” movie is as good as “The Da Vinci Code” movie was.  I actually preferred Angels & Demons to The Da Vinci Code.  Here’s hoping the 5+ year wait was worth it and The Lost Symbol rocks.

…(¨`·.·´¨)
…..`·.¸.·Kristyn

A few days ago, while running errands, Matt and I got to talking and he gave me a really nice compliment.  He’s a generally nice guy, most of the time, so it’s not uncommon that he would say something nice to me, so it wasn’t that he said something nice, it was what he said. We were talking about a book my MIL sent us, The Love Dare, which we’re not going to do because, well, it feels a little self-help cultish to me.  Not that I think there’s a problem with self-help, but I don’t like religious self-help because they always just tell you to pray and it’ll get better.  I don’t believe praying will fix marital problems, though I hear it’s good for the psyche.  Meditation and prayer, both.  Anyway, one of the dares in the book says to go out of your way to buy something for your significant others, for no reason other than because you think they would like it.  It goes on to say that by spending the money you’re making a tangible investment in your relationship.  Okay, that makes perfect sense to me, though I don’t really believe that throwing money at a problem will solve it, does that make sense?  Honestly, a lot of dares in the book that don’t specifically require prayer are pretty insightful, they’re also things Matt and I already do for the most part.

Anyway, what he said was that I’m a good gift giver.  That may not sound like a huge compliment to most people, but for me, that’s huge.  All my life, my mom’s told me that I’m really good at picking gifts.  It means something to me that people I love think I’m good at choosing the right gifts because gift giving is one of my favorite things.  I love to pick things for other people and I always feel good when I see that they liked the gift I’ve given them.  I guess I just love to give gifts!!

I also wish I could afford better gifts, sometimes.  I mean, if I had more money I’d send my parents on a cruise, or buy New York Yankees tickets for my Staci and her husband, or a nice home gym for my sister who seems to be addicted to working out.  I don’t know.  I mean, I know it’s not the cost of the gift that matters most, but the gift itself and the thought put into buying it, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to do nice things for people I care about.  Maybe someday.

For now, I’m just content to take nothing for granted, give smaller gifts that my loved ones will like, and be happy with the compliments Matt gives when they come my way.

…(¨`·.·´¨)
…..`·.¸.·Kristyn