Kindle or Nook?

I know that I should be concentrating on important issues, like the Greek crisis, or the Syrian crisis, or at least watching the remaining Republican candidates try to outdo one another in claiming the wacko vote ("let's ban birth control"). But, alas, I'm thinking about an eReader, one of those little devices that enables me to download books at the click of a mouse.

I read a lot and, while I admit that much of what I read is trash, I have been known to read serious books. Long books. Heavy books. I'm so well known at my local library that, when I hadn't been in for a couple of weeks, the librarian asked, with concern, how I was. I have "one-click" ordering at Amazon. I wept when I discovered that the co-op bookstore in Vancouver had gone out of business. Got it?

I've been resistant to eReaders. Reading a book requires "book feel." The heft, the smell and feel of the paper, the turning of the pages, the shoulder injuries that come from hauling around 700 pages in my backpack. All of that. But my friend A brought over a Nook for me to examine. All of the good things about eReaders were immediately accessible--the biography of Malcolm X by Manning Marable, the touch screen to open the book, the two ways of turning the pages, the experiment with touch to get to the footnote, the experiment with the dictionary (just touch a word and the definition comes up), the problem with the dictionary (instead of the word I wanted, I managed to touch "had"), the smallness, the lightness.

And now the cheapness. The basic Nook or Kindle costs $99. It's cheap. And Nook lets you get books from the library, so it's not as expensive as it might be. But then there are the books. They seem so much cheaper than actual paper books, and they take up no room on the bookshelf. It would take almost no effort to buy bunches of books. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands. Books I would read, books I should read, books in which I might have a passing interest.

So now I'm looking at comparisons to see whether I want the Kindle or the Nook. Each has advantages--and disadvantages. But someone who does not do Facebook and has never tweeted is about to join the 21st century. More as the investigation proceeds.

Update: Friend A informs me that the Kindle also allows me to check out books from the library, and she's bringing a Kindle and a Nook Color for me to examine.

Pillsbury Doughboy Wins!

I'm not surprised that Newt won in South Carolina. South Carolina is one of those states that daily affronts its African-American citizens by flying a Confederate flag at government buildings. What does surprise me is that so many South Carolina Republicans didn't know that lower taxes on capital gains is one of the main tenets of their party's economic policy, and that it meant that people like Mitt Romney wouldn't pay much in taxes. Indeed some Republicans (and not a few Democrats) have advocated eliminating taxes on capital gains entirely. Have they been spending so much time blogging about Obama's fake birth certificate that they missed that one?

Having done some research, J suggests that Newt more resembles the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. And yes, our email to one another is filled with conversations like this.

Owen Jones Video

I promise to review Chavs and a bunch of other stuff I've been reading, but I ran across this video today, and thought it was fun. Much better on a Saturday than serious writing.

Jury Duty and Other Stuff

Yesterday I spent a mercifully short time on jury duty--three hours from arrival to dismissal. My group was called for 1:00, and most of us spent the whole time in the jury assembly room. California has adopted the "one day, one trial" rule, which means that if you aren't selected for voir dire on your first day, you're done. If you are selected, you can be forced to come back for a second day. That's happened to me almost every time I've been called. My fellows did not look happy; in fact, they were bored and unhappy at being forced to be there.

And it's not because they don't like doing their civic duty. It's because they are treated like cattle, and their time is so little respected that they're paid $15 a day plus one-way mileage for their time. I've always said that if the courts had to pay a more reasonable sum for jury service, the courts would rapidly figure out a system that didn't keep a couple hundred people waiting around for two days. Unfortunately the only way to convince the courts to change is to ignore the jury summons. That's what happened when people decided that they weren't willing to hang out in the jury pool for a week. So many people ignored the summons that the courts had to come up with a new system, and "one day, one trial" was born.

But one of the worst policies of the Sacramento courts is that they define hardship as being the "sole provider" for your household. This conveniently ignores the reality--that most households need the income of all working members to make it to the next paycheck, and only government employers are required to pay employees when they're on jury duty. (This actually benefits the Sacramento courts, as a large percentage of the potential pool is made up of government employees.) The court doesn't have to recognize that most of the population isn't middle class, and can't afford any time off work at $15--plus mileage one way--per day. The most efficient system would be to exempt those below a set income based on family size. For instance, a family of four with an income below the reasonable cost of living (about $50K in Sacramento County for a family with one working parent, and $70K for a family with two working parents) would be automatically exempt unless the employer paid for jury service. And yes, it would exempt a good portion of the population, as the County's median income is about $52K.

Happy Anniversary, J

Thirty-one years ago today J enabled us to save $500 on our taxes (a lot of money to us at the time) and put me on his health insurance. But that meant that he's had to put up with me. I definitely got the better end of the deal.

Peon Right Again

As those you who read me know, I don't give myself a pat on the back unless it's well-warranted. Today is such a day. Last month I noted that while Black Friday might have brought our fellows out in the middle of the night to shop, the overall season would be a bust. My reason for believing this was that, having examined the merchandise on offer, I found it overpriced junk (although I believe I called it "crap"). Well, my fellows have seen the light, and have returned many of their Black Friday purchases. Further they have abandoned the halls of commerce and, I hope, have decided to spend their money on the food and other delights of the season.

Peon Is In A Really Bad Mood

It's not just because she had to endure an Unpleasant Medical Procedure, or because her knees are really bad, or because a Chevy King Cab crashed into her new Mazda, causing nearly $5K in damage. Peon is in a bad mood because she received an email yesterday from yet another tenant who was screwed by a Too Big To Fail American bank.

The tenant made a "cash for keys" agreement with the TBTF American bank, and then borrowed the money to move, moved out his possessions, cleaned the place, and took the keys to the realtor handling the property. The realtor then informed our hapless tenant that no money would be forthcoming, that the bank, having made the agreement, was going to evict the tenant instead.

This is appalling personal conduct, but corporations are not people, and they can be as appalling as they want to be. Local Occupy movements should be picketing their local TBTF banks, American or otherwise, every time this happens. And where are out City Councils, State Legislatures, and state Attorneys General? Hiding in the rest room.