May 18, 2012 at 08:35AM
Tags: random
Double double stuf
May 18th, 2012 by falselogic
Going Digital: Books
May 14th, 2012 by falselogic
Maybe a fifth of the books I removed from my library...
D and I are moving in the fall to the San Diego area; she got a job doing science stuff at the University of California there. The move is still a few months away but the two of us have started looking around at all of our stuff and asking ourselves, “Do I want to cart this across the state?” For a surprisingly large amount of things the answer is, “no, I don’t.” This is especially true for books now that I have a kindle. As I looked over my bookshelves I noticed that a great deal of the books on the shelves were over 100 years old and they were now in the public domain. With the kindle (or my computer) I can have access to those books without having them take up all this physical space. I did this over a decade ago with my music collection and had been putting it off with books because I love them so and the technology just wasn’t there yet, that isn’t the case anymore. So, I started sorting…
I know what you’re saying! Getting rid of books is a crime. I used to think so to, but what I really love about a book is not the binding, or the paper, or the ink though with some books those are very nice things. What I love about a book is that it allows me to experience another person’s thoughts and ideas. That is what makes books amazing and for their time they were the most efficient and effective way to spread ideas. That isn’t the case anymore though.
Another pile of books that I no longer need to have around physically
For every book that I knew I wanted to keep I checked Amazon’s Kindle store and Project Gutenberg; if a free copy existed I downloaded it and set the book aside. For every book that I wanted to keep but there wasn’t a free version available on-line I looked for a $0.99 version. If there was one I purchased it. I splurged a few times and spent $1.99 or $2.99 for a digital collection that would replace multiple physical books. After I had downloaded all the books I was going to I went back to the stack of books and started entering them into Amazon’s Trade-in store to see if Amazon was interested in buying a copy from me. Every book Amazon wanted went into a box to ship to them, every book they didn’t went into another stack. At the end of that process I had one 40 pd box of books to send to Amazon and another stack to put up on Freecycle.
All these classics now take up less than 5 megabytes on my hard drive
Amazon offered me $78.81 for all those books. I spent $12.93 picking up digital editions. That’s a net gain of $65.88!
EDIT: I made a second pass through my library and found more books that are available digitally, so I repeated the process and sent off another box to Amazon! This time they’re giving me $27.42
Having so few physical books means I can cover my walls with art instead of bookshelves
In the last week I’ve eliminated two entire bookshelves worth of books! The now empty bookshelves have gone up on Craigslist.
Tags: books, personal, technology
Summertime eats!
May 13th, 2012 by falselogic
Beer of the Week 32 Red Chair NWPA
May 13th, 2012 by falselogic
Descutes Brewery's Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale
From the label:
Witness the subtle, aromatic seduction of the debut Northwest Pale Ale. Another slap at brewing convention. Another kick in the pants. Enjoy. Not up for a full-on hop assault? Red Charin NWPA is a smoother ride. Seven select European and domestic malts take a surprisingly plush, satin turn on the way to citrusy hop kick. Edges out, layers in.
From my notes:
clear coppery amber color, thin tan head; quickly dissipates. Smells of citrus, fresh cut grapefruit that is the hops, some grain/grass smell behind it which is the malt. Tastes a lot like it smells, citrus is accompanied by some pine taste, smooth in the mouth. Citrus kick at the finish, still not bitter. Damn, this is good!
You see why they call it red chair? Look at that color!
Red Chair is the beer that turned me around on Pale Ales. Before I had this beer I thought hoppy beers were all awful, turns out it’s just most brewers of hoppy beers are awful. This beer looks,smells, tastes, and feels great. Pair this up with heavier foods, red meats, Shepard’s or pot pies, this beer pairs great with a burger!
Rating (out of five):
Let’s Play Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire Part 3
May 9th, 2012 by falselogic
Fighting nothing but the city itself!
Outside in the Fighter’s Plaza Perseii stops at the leatherworkers stall to pick up another waterbag, just cause.
Besides the Guild Hall the only other thing in the Plaza is the Weapon shop. (BTW don’t I have to steal that bellows, there?):
buy dagggers
“Ten is a nice round number and bodies look so lovely with the hilts of ten daggers sticking out of them…”
We won’t be spending a lot of time with Issur, if we were a fighter we might, cause IIRC he’s the Eternal Order of Fighters contact in Shapier.
After that Danar returns to the lightless corridors of Shapier and once again gets lost (I spent most of day 1 being lost) I wanted to get back to the Gate Plaza so I could pick up a map and compass. Finally, he made it back to the Fountain Plaza and did some shopping: Continue Reading »
Tags: fun, games, Let's Play, video games