It’s funny I was going to edit my signature before I posted this, but it’s very appropriate to what I was going to post:

So some statistics:

My nook was not delayed, matter of fact it shipped Jan 27th.
I did not finish that book.  For multiple reasons, I wanted to play with my Nook, it was dragging anyway, and it wasn’t available in eBook.
Neither I nor my wife have purchased or read a DTB since we got our Nooks.
I have 19 items in my B&N eLibrary, 6 of which were purchased, 8 of which I’ve read.
I’ve purchased 2 books from other sources, both of which I’ve read.
I’ve read 6 other books that I obtained from other free sources.
I’ve not spent more that $7.99 on any one eBook Purchase

Now for some predictions:

I will not purchase or read another DTB for leisure reading.  I qualify the leisure part because as I’ve said elsewhere the nook is not suited towards textbook or  technical reading where flipping back and forth between sections/chapters are necessary.  To the people who would say, but what is XYZ author isn’t available in eBook?  There’s already too many authors that I can’t keep up with as it is, and plenty more new ones that are available in eBook that I haven’t heard of yet.

I will not purchase an eBook for more than $9.99.  Why $9.99 when I haven’t spent more than $7.99 to date.  I do eventually want to finish “Toll the Hounds” (It is book 8 of a series after all) and I just recently realized that it’s has been made available for eBook purchase.  This is a hefty tome in Paperback and cost $9.99 when I bought it that way, so I’m willing to spend the same amount on the eBook.  I’m also willing to let the price rise for inflation, but I’m hoping that the prices will come more in line with “reality” before I have to worry about that.

I’ll continue to love my Nook (and whatever comes after it) to read much faster then I ever have reading dead trees.  I’ll slowly replace my 2000+ collection with eBooks as I want to reread favorites, and maybe I’ll actually be able to let some books go.

So here’s at least one person that can commit to not buying at the inflated pricing.  I have quite a few books on my wish list now that are at these inflated prices.  But I have just as many that aren’t.  Guess which ones will be bought first.

To put some things in perspective.  Sine Lisa started Weight Watchers she lost around 90 pounds, since I started I lost 20 pounds.  She’s managed to keep herself close to her lost weight, I’ve gained it all back.  I mostly blame my gain on my lack of physical activity in the past 6-8 months.  Since I stopped going to Tae Kwon Do in the summer I haven’t replaced that with any other physical activity.  With the cold weather we’ve done much less walking.  The path has been fairly obvious, but I haven’t done much about it.  I said I’d start something after the cruise.  Lisa on the other hand wanted to do something sooner.

There’s a fitness center in the “new” shopping center right next door.  It has the convenience of being close, and being open 24 hours.  It’s not much more than a big room with treadmills, stationary bikes, and weight equipment, but it’s more than the equipment in the house, and it’s easy to ignore the equipment in your house.  I find that when you setup a schedule to go do something, it’s usually a lot easier to stick to it once it’s routine.  With both of us going, it’ll be easier for each of us to keep the other on the routine as well.

Our bodies aren’t the only thing we’re trying to get fit.  Our finances, while not a disaster have too much money going out against debt and not just bills.  I’ve tried getting a handle on the credit cards before, and while none of them are maxed out anymore they all carry balances a high percentage of their limit.

When we agreed to let our daughter move back in for a time we all agreed to a rent amount.  While we certainly  didn’t need that money, it will help to offset increased utilities etc.  The thing Lisa and I agreed to do with the money was put it toward the credit cards.  So part of what I did Tuesday night was plan out all the payments for serveral months.  Credit card number one should be paid off in March.  Credit card number two in May.

It’s amazing what a little planning can do for you.  I’ve tried this method of paying off credit cards before, but I didn’t do enough planning, so while I eliminated one or two cards from the list I didn’t have a good road map for the future.  Even this time until I started planning out all the payments it was a vague sense of sometime in the future.

I’ve been somewhat displeased with my site as of late, so I decided to do an overhaul.  WordPress let’s you integrate everything in with it, so I went that route being happy with their software.  I’m not overly thrilled with my theme right now.  But one step at a time.

We rounded the year out quite well with movies.  The first movie of the year was on New Years day, and the last was December 30th.

• 01-01 – The Curious case of Benjamin Button
• 01-11 – Yes Man
• 01-24 – Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
• 01-31 – Taken
• 02-14 – Push
• 03-06 – Watchmen (IMAX)
• 03-28 – Monsters V. Aliens (3D)
• 03-31 – Knowing
• 04-18 – Fast & Furious
• 05-03 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• 05-09 – Star Trek (IMAX)
• 05-20 – Star Trek
• 05-23 – Terminator: Salvation
• 05-30 – Angels & Demons
• 06-03 – Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
• 06-13 – Taking of Pelham 123
• 06-20 – Up (3D)
• 06-28 – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (IMAX)
• 07-03 – Public Enemies
• 07-04 – Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• 08-01 – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (IMAX)
• 08-16 – District 9
• 08-29 – Inglourious Basterds
• 09-05 – Star Trek (IMAX)
• 09-06 – Gamer
• 09-12 – 9
• 09-27 – Surrogates
• 10-10 – Zombieland
• 10-18 – Fame
• 10-31 – Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant
• 11-13 – 2012
• 11-20 – Law Abiding Citizen
• 12-23 – Avatar (IMAX)
• 12-25 – Sherlock Holmes
• 12-30 – Avatar (IMAX)

…..

Meh, I’ve been sitting on this post for a month.  Always the way it seems.  The movies of 2010 are already rolling in, we’ve already seen 3.  I might talk about things in more detail later.

Carying a murse is not a crime

Frankly I’m tired of the discrimination.  On the left we have my wife’s purse.  On the right we have my murse, or man-bag, or whatever you want to call it.  See much of a size difference?  Didn’t think so.

So anyway, my wife needed a new lightweight coat.  After a few failed attempts at department stores we decided to try a “coat” place.  Shortly after dinner we headed out to BCF.  Upon entering we were approached my a gentleman from the fron of the store asking to check my bag.  I then asked him if he was going to chek my wife’s purse, the response was no.  I then politely informed him that he was not going to check my bag.  He continued to press the issue, citing “company policy”.  I pointed out that my wife’s purse was just as big as my bag, and that whatever I could steal she could steal just as easy. Since he continued to press the issue stating company policy I chose to leave the store, and doubt I will ever return.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me since I started carying my murse.  But damnit I like to do something to make it the last.  I doubt the local news agencies consumer rights reporting will touch this as I haven’t been cheated out of anything, but I’m not sure where to go.  I can address it with this one company by contacting thier corporate offices.  But what are they going to give me, and I’m very disinclined to go back to the store anyway.