paperback books

One of my pet peeves is that newly published books always come out in hardcover first, and then trade paperback, and then sometimes mass market paperback.

I understand it has to do with extracting as much money as possible from the book-reading public, but I'm impatient, cheap, and I'm sick of having to maintain a list of "books to buy when they come out in paperback". If it's about the money, I'm willing to live with a system where books are priced according to publication date (most recent being most expensive), instead of by format.

I like holding books in one hand, and hardcover books hurt me. I also like walking around the house with my books (yes, I can ascend and descend stairs while reading), which means the lighter the book is, the better. And, what's the deal with the modern, paper dust jackets? They're totally useless; all they do is rip and give me paper cuts.

I suppose one could argue that hardcover books are more durable, but in twenty years of reading and rereading books, I've only ever had to buy three books for a second time. The first one I dropped in a swimming pool, so the book split into two parts; I bought a second copy for my bookshelf, while I continued to use the original taped-together copy for reading. The second book was nearly 1400 pages long, and I read it probably a hundred times before the pages started to fall out. The last one I lent to a friend, and well...suffice to say that I haven't lent her another book since.

So what's my point? I want to buy small, light, paperback versions of books. I would prefer to buy them immediately, for the lowest possible price, but I am willing to pay more, on occasion, if necessary. What I can do, as a consumer, to convince publishers to print paperback books that are as small as practical, as soon as possible?

mortality

Early this morning, I got a call from the registrar at my old high school. I went to a private high school, with an Asian population of less than 10% (at the time), and she used to serve as kind of an unofficial mentor for a lot of the Asian kids there. We called her the "Asian fairy godmother".

She told me that my high school ex had been found dead late last week, at UC Davis, where he was a graduate student in biophysics. There was no obvious cause of death, and an autopsy didn't result in any additional findings.

I hadn't really had contact with him for a couple of years, and I hadn't seen him in person in over six years, but it was still something of a shock. We were good friends for about a year and a half, dated for about three or four months, and parted amicably when we both went off to college. He was always a bit manic, but according to a mutual friend, he seemed happy and healthy as of a few months ago.

Anyway, I sent flowers to his family, which was a little surreal as well. I never thought I'd be buying a sympathy bouquet for the parents of a 26-year-old.

time and money

Last week, I spent an hour or so looking at plane tickets on various sites (Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.). Then, I spent another hour reading about digital SLR cameras on dpreview.com, and several minutes using Froogle, Amazon, and other sites to look at current prices. I also read several Epinions reviews about auto insurance, before getting some quotes.

I've found that as information has become widely available online, I've made better purchasing decisions and become better informed about consumer products. I've also spent a lot more of my precious time researching, comparing, and bargain-hunting. Now, instead of calling up my travel agent, giving her a set of parameters, and trusting her to find the best deal, I run through a standard set of at least five travel sites looking for deals that fit my schedule. I wonder if, in the long run, it's all worth it? I do get a small sense of accomplishment from doing all the research, so I guess for now, the answer is "yes".

companies that suck

As I've said before, I use sneakemail to manage my email. By creating a new, disposable email alias for every website, I can track which companies are selling my email address, and I can easily create a new, clean alias, and cut off the old one.

Among the companies that have recently sold me to spammers:

SBC - I use them for phone service. I would prefer not to, but my condo complex has a gate that's hooked up to a phone, so I need a land line. Plus, I have DSL. They sold my email address to a spammer that wanted to manage my online payments.

Chase - I use a Chase Perfect card. I like that your rebate is credited to your account about two months after you earn it. I almost didn't believe this: they sold my email address to a porn site.

DirecTV - They sent me marketing spam, about their own services. I suppose this might not qualify as spam, since we have an "existing business relationship" but their email was malformed and sent from an outside marketing agency, so it's pretty borderline, in my view.

Macy's - Macy's marketing sucks big time. Never, ever, ever use your real email address to buy anything from Macy's or any other company that uses WeddingChannel.com. They use an outside spammer company to send you spam for the rest of your life. They've somehow managed to send me several pieces of spam, through a completely unpublished email alias. I can only conclude that they've stooped to dictionary attacks.

new music in commercials

Recently I've noticed some commercials being released in conjunction with their soundtracks. For example, the new commercial for Gap came out, with Lenny Kravitz singing "Lady" (to Sarah Jessica Parker's make-me-dizzy costume changes), at the same time that he released his new album "Baptism". Similarly, U2 came out with "Vertigo" at the same time the corresponding iPod commercial started to air. I'm blanking on other examples, but I'm sure there are more.

Is this a brand-new phenomenon? Have marketers suddenly decided that musical artists are the key to selling stuff? What gives?

Iron Chef America

The first reviews are in, and apparently Food Network's new Iron Chef America is not horrible (see bugmenot.com), which is more than one could have said about UPN's version. Maybe I'll have to add it to my Tivo.

die already

I wouldn't have wished death on Laci Peterson, and I don't wish death on Scott Peterson, or Sharon Rocha, or Amber Frey. I am, however, so wretchedly sick of hearing about the Petersons, that I do wish death on the whole Peterson-related circus, also known as the media cycle that wouldn't die.

How many people die every year:
...of starvation?
...of curable diseases?
...of violent crimes that are not prosecuted?
...of violent acts that are not considered crimes?
...in this country?
...in the world?

I feel sorry for everyone involved, but really, how is this particular murder worse than any other? I reject that the death of a pregnant woman is more important than the death of a man and/or his child, and I reject that the death of a suburban housewife is more important than the death of a woman living in an inner city ghetto. Unfortunately, importance does not seem to equal newsworthiness.

smart wolf

Yesterday, I was telling the "Three Little Pigs" story to someone. It occurred to me that in reality, wolves are much smarter than pigs. So, I finished the story accordingly:

"So, the wolf said the the third little pig, 'I'll huff and puff and blow your house down!' And then, he went down the chimney."

Who says a wolf has to be stupid enough to try to blow down a brick house, before going down the chimney?

very marin

Somehow this photo (courtesy of SFGate.com) perfectly describes the Marin County that I remember.



I wonder whether I would be more or less cynical if I had grown up in the City, instead of in Marin.

random links

I don't usually like to post entries like this, but here's a bunch of random links that I found interesting recently:

- Stephen Roach is predicting an economic Armageddon for the US, due to our outrageous trade deficit.
- Federally funded abstinence-only programs are teaching students that abortion makes you sterile.
- Here's a list of Top 100 universities put together by someone other than US News & World Report. The twist is that it includes prestigious universities from across the globe.
- Check out Smoosh, a band comprised of a 12-year old and her 10-year old kid sister.
- The NYTimes reports on growing civil unrest in China (use bugmenot.com).
- Here are some horrifying "before and after" satellite pictures of the devastation caused by the tsunami.
- Finally, my rant of the day: Taiwan has been excluded from a tsunami relief summit, despite having committed $50 million USD so far, making it the world's eighth largest donor.

new year

I got back to the Bay Area at 9am on the 31st.

New Year's Eve ended up being fun but pretty low-key this year; we watched some TV, and played board games and video games at a friend's house. Perhaps it was appropriate, given the circumstances.

What's the plan for 2005? As far as resolutions go, I've boiled it down to: a more regular workout routine, a more regular cooking routine, and better productivity (both home and work). Other than that, I think it's time to start off a good ski season, there are a couple of travel plans in the works for later this year, and as always, at least a couple of weddings to attend.

It may also be time to finally splurge and buy a new computer. Yes, I know I should build, but it takes me so long to get around to doing to all the research, that by the time I've picked a case (or a motherboard, or a graphics card), all of my other choices are obsolete. I figure for $500 I can find something ready-made, that's at least five times better than what I've got.

And, it's time to order new books. I finally got a chance to read some of the books that I'd been wanting to read, over my holiday vacation (all worth a look, but the first was by far the best): The Name of the Rose, The Da Vinci Code, The Forest Lover, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and The Rule of Four, so I'll be on the lookout for some new material.