cogent life

Apartment Renewal

Renewal isn't exactly the right word, but since I rent, 'renovation' really isn't, either. But this entry is all about describing the title, isn't it? So I suppose that it really doesn't matter much.

For some reason I have slowly begun the process of purging my apartment of all my built-up excess possessions, and, in a way, started to accept that I'm an adult. For six years now, since I moved to San Jose, I've had boxes of untouched belongings, mainly books and old computer equipment, filling my closets. In addition, I've had various pieces of furniture that I didn't really like, but which were given to me, not to mention an overwhelming number of dishes, glasses, and pieces of silverware.

I've decided that I'm slimming down. I am getting rid of the bulk of my extraneous belongings, those which fill shelves and closets, but which I rarely or never touch. For the forseeable future, I will be limiting the bulk of my media (books, movies, music) purchases (and indeed, limiting those!) to what I can buy online and store in the same amount of space, on my computers. In addition, I've begun the slow process of revitalizing my kitchen, with new cooking implements, including nice pots and pans. I intend to save money -- and establish more of a link to my home -- by cooking for myself as often as is practical.

It feels good. I don't really know what more to say about it, now that I sit here in front of the mostly empty screen. Removing clutter from my apartment feels like removing clutter from my mind. And it is a really pleasant thing, that.

I thank whatever motivated me to do so.

Whither ebooks -- and why?

I love electronic books. I am an unabashed advocate. Why? A multitude of reasons. I have spent years acquiring dozens of paperback novels that sit in boxes in my closets, occupying valuable space. They cost me money not only in the initial purchase, but in the rent that pays for the space where they are stored. And then there is the environmental cost - the price to the earth of the wood that went into the paper, the chemicals in the inks. Not to mention the environmental costs involved in eventually disposing of all these books. On a less saintly note, I love ebooks because with today's PDAs, I can carry around a small library with me and read during any free time I might have.

So what about the drawbacks? There are a number of arguments against ebooks, this I admit. Among them are nasty DRM restrictions, readability issues, and battery life. What am I talking about here? DRM restrictions are restrictions on the ways in which the electronic books can be used. In some cases you can only read the book on a limited number of devices, and if you happen to leave one activated when you change devices, you lose a possible device. This can be a problem. Additionally you can't print, copy, or paste from many commercial ebooks. On the hardware side, most PDA devices (those most commonly used for ebook reading, and given the cost, most practical for many people) only have battery lives of under 4 hours. This means that current PDA devices are not practical for students as all-day reading solutions. For many of us, however, who will be reading for less than 4 hours per day, it is practical. And while readability on the older generations of device has been an issue, with the new higher resolution devices, display resolution has become very nearly indistinguishable from that of paper. My new VGA Pocket PC is absolutely beautiful and entirely readable with a serif typeface at 9 point.

Ebooks are the future for some applications. Most popular reads (novels, popular fiction & nonfiction) make much more sense as ebooks. Hundreds can be stored in the tiny space occupied by a memory card, and can be carried and transported with ridiculous ease. Adding a reading application to a multi-function device bears the additional advantage of making something more functional -- making a somewhat expensive purchase perhaps more palatable. On the other hand, for textbooks with illustrations, children's books, and various other specialized applications, ebooks may be the wrong choice. That's okay too. I believe that ebooks are a complement to normal books, not a replacement.

I outlined some problems and some advantages to ebooks above. So what issues remain? Battery life. Display quality. Device cost. Device cost. And finally, though neither least nor last, the price of the ebooks themselves. Pricing must drop and reflect the fact of reduced production cost for ebooks.

Kathy's Birthday Dinner

I took Kathy to dinner at The Plumed Horse in Saratoga last night for her birthday. It was absolutely fantastic. We chose to do the tasting menu dinner, which is five (small, of course) courses. The menu included: a melon soup amuse bouche, a salad with housemade duck prosciutto,  fresh scallops with beets and etc (tuna for me), venison medallions with huckleberry sauce and sweet potato gnocchi, rack of lamb (apparently the house specialty) and a chocolate & butterscotch pot de creme. Each course was great, but the venison, seared on the outside and nearly raw inside, was absolutely fantastic.

Each course was paired with a wine, my favorite of which was the 2001 Atalon Cabernet Sauvignon. The Unti  Syrah was also very nice. We chose to accompany dessert with a glass of port. It turned out to be a very nice 1995 something I can't recall.

Dinner was expensive, but worth it. Go!

My Dell X50v

I am writing (literally) this entry on my new ppc. It is pretty fab, in all honesty. The best thing about it is the display. It is a sweet 640x480, and is an absolute beauty to look at.

That part is great, but there is the usual early adopter problem - many apps don't yet fully support the new display. This means that you have to use a bit of hackery to get full use out of it. For what I really want, this meant reverting to an older version of the peanut reader and installing a few Of these property (or something) files for certain apps. I found that the "true vga" hacks were not the best solution in my particular case.

My primary apps are palm reader, bejeweled, pocket rss, and windows media player, for listening to mp3s. Essentials are Calligrapher and Magic Button. For the price, l don't think there is a better handheld device out there.

Excitement: Life, or a way of life?

Over the last few weeks I've had some interesting and exciting experiences.

Dec. 25th & 26th, Kathy and I stayed at the Villagio Inn & Spa in Yountville. During that time we tasted wines at PlumpJack, ZD, Casa Nuestra, Chateau Boswell, Charles Krug, Folie a Deux and Peju. We dined at the Wine Spectator Greystone restaurant and Bouchon.

This weekend, we visited my family and delivered Christmas presents, as there was no propane at my parents' house on Christmas itself. While there my mother and I had a nasty tiff and we all had a tasty dinner. Kathy and I spent the night at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek (an empty field when I resided in SR).  We had breakfast at Omelette Express.  ...And then we spent a pleasant few hours in an ambulance and at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's ER.

Why? Well, who the fuck can say? I got tunnel vision/dizzy & faint + chest pain while driving toward Sonoma, and decided the best thing was to pull over and not kill myself and/or Kathy. The kicker of it is, all the bloodwork, EKG, X-Ray, etc. came back completely normal. So an entire afternoon (and likely several hundred dollars) wasted on an ambulance ride (including an IV that was never used except to bleed me out some more when it was removed) and an ER visit. WTF?

Anyway, I prefer the sort of excitement I choose, involving motorcycles, rock climbing, or snow sports. Hopefully I can get those going again soon. But in the meantime, I have a sweet new Dell X50v to keep me entertained with lots of beautifully presented reading materials and games, and a number of bottles of wine from some of the wineries listed above to keep me company.

I wish each and every one of you a less interesting new year than I've had already.