I've been using my new Kindle for several days. I have to say, it is quite nice to read on. I have one problem so far, but I think the problem is more in my decision to read a conversion from a PDF novel I had first. Daniel Keys Moran has most of his earlier published works up for free on a website because of some contention between himself and whoever has publishing rights on the books. I have read The Long Run before, which was recommended to me by Chris Riggins in College, and I loved it. I always wanted to read the other books in the series, but those books are hard to come by, as they are out of print, and reading a PDF on a laptop or something just isn't easy on the eyes. So this was my big opportunity to finally read this series.

So, the bad part is, that there are not any breaks in the reading, and the only chapter markers is that the next paragraph is all caps for the first couple of words. I don't yet know if this is an artifact of converting the PDF, or if it is normal for EBooks. My Guess is that it is a bad conversion from the PDF. I hope, as I rely on those breaks to give me a stopping point and a queue for a pick up point when i start back. I'll let you know when I get to my next book. It is very easy to read, though. I seem to be going through this book very quickly, and it is very easy on the eyes, maybe even better than paper, because it has the appropriate contrast between text and page.

I have been pricing tickets and so the time is nigh for me to make my final arrangements and purchase my tickets to make it official, but it looks like I am going to New Zealand pretty certainly. The goal is going to be to tackle the Easter holiday so as to force Jonathan to lose as few work days as possible. At least that's my goal.

My sub-goal this week is to look at books I can buy for a Kindle, so I can determine if it will be a good fit for my trip. Give myself a plenty of books to read in one small, light device.

As you can see, I've added some links to the main menu over to the left pointing to my various off-site data repositories. I've done a reasonable job connecting to the LibraryThing site to get my info for my books on this site. Both Take11 and Glyde are pretty new and thus don't have the robust APIs necessary. I am working with both site owners to help them develop, though, so maybe I can get some similar widgets and applets for that as well. I'm shocked that someone else hasn't written some Flickr plugins for Joomla yet, but I haven't been able to find any. Perhaps this should be my next project. You know, with all that free time I have.

Just checking in. Here are a few sites I've found interesting lately:

• HolisticPolitics.org - Matt sent this to me after a battery draining cell phone call.
• Revision3 - I get a lot of these delivered to my TiVo. There are some fun shows. (Hak5,Systm,Scam School, etc.)
• io9 - From Mack, a SciFi news site.

I think I've finished my post-christmas spendng spree. You know, buying all the DVDs and Books that I didn't buy during November and December, in case someone wanted to get them for me for Christmas.

I've been thinking about getting...

• Kindle - This is looking like making some sense for me considering the impending New Zealand trip. That's a lot of hours on a plane wiht limited space for Books.
• Wii - I think this would be fun to play around with, and Wii Fit could be beneficial for me.
• Playstation3 - I'm thinking of getting into BlueRay, and this seems to be the preferred route still.

All of these are like a $400 investment. The 2 consoles are a little bit of a stretch, as I play PC games, but no console games.

Wow, I've been busy with work lately, and it's taken a toll on this Blog, but now I'm studiously avoiding work with the excuse that I need an update here. So let's see how this works out for us...

So November came and went. Thanksgiving was fun, but I'm not sure it was remarkable. That sounds a little sad, but the truth is, I love getting together with my family, and even though we do it every year, it's still just as fun every time, so really saying it's not remarkable, it just another way of saying it was spectacular as usual.

We've decided to draw names again this year for Christmas. We tried it once before to semi-disastrous results, so I'm not sure how much better we are going to fare this time. In my own selfish way, I like the idea, since it means I will only have to spend time finding one gift instead of 7. And certainly, I don't really need anything, so I don't mind only getting one thing.

Codex Alera book 5 was extremely good, as expected. The chief problem always being that Jim Butcher can only write 2 novels per year, and it takes me less than a week to read each one.

My cousin Andy has a new Webcomic Johnny Cancer. There's only one up right now, but I thought it was hilarious (We both have a bizarrely dark sense of humor, so it's definitely not for everyone). Check it out at your own peril.

It's Always Sunny in Phillidelphia ended on a brilliant note with the Nightman, the Rock Opera. Dexter has been great as usual. Californication has been good. Chuck is good, maybe wanning a little. Boston Legal has it's moments, and is worth watching, but upon rewatching episodes from season 1 and 2, it is noticeably less spectacular.

I saw Zack and Miri on opening weekend. It was very good. I'm really surprised it didn't do better at the box office. I went to see Twilight with Christi at the Midnight premier showing. Not my cup of tea, but it was well done. I also saw the unpronounceable Synecdoche, New York with Andy last week. The movie is beyond brilliant(I seem to be using this word a lot in this post). To say it breaches the 4th wall, is not really a good enough description, as Kaufman creates new dimensions in which he can build more an more 4th walls to break. There is no way on earth this guy is sane. Let me post-face this review with saying that this movie is not for everyone.