Parents, Bookstores, and Earning it

My first pea harvest this year--45 pods in total.

Q can tell all of you how I've been drooling over her new Barnes and Noble Nook the last few weeks. I will caveat here that Fuzzy owns a Kindle, an equally awesome product. After weeks of obsessive research, I elected that the Nook would be my product because it's more hackable than the Kindle, despite the fact that Kindle has a heartier brand, a longer and better tested run in the market, and what is generally considered the more user-friendly interface. Nook is has more open file formats and expandable memory, which for me as an individual, were strongly needed features.

I've wanted an e-reader for some time now, but have been holding out due to the price and skepticism over the quality of newly released technology. Generally, I have a 1-year rule for this kind of stuff; new products have problems that need to be worked out. Example: the Xbox 360 red ring of death, the hacked iPad, and the read-aloud feature on the Kindle that got canceled due to copyright infringement. The first round of sales are the last round of tests, and when it comes to shelling out a C-note or more, I like to learn from others' use and abuse stories to know exactly what I'm getting.

I finally settled that I would wait until my birthday, and use gift cards to offset the cost. Then, yesterday, I got an email at work from a research colleague. She had just gotten back from Spain, where she had presented our research from earlier this year to an international group of experts, and several had responded with great enthusiasm! Our research will be featured as a chapter in a book, and I have been invited to write up an additional report on my research methodologies. I got kudos all day, and from my supervisors especially. My main supervisor told me that having my first big publication at 25 was excellent--he didn't author until he was 42. I spent the whole afternoon thinking about my parents, and how grateful I was that they had fostered my academic and literary interests. When the book comes out, I'm going to get a gigantic magnet and stick it to their fridge.

Later in the day, I'm driving home, and as a planned errand, I stop at Barnes and Noble to check out the Nook in person and quiz the sales reps. Walking up to the door, I'm hit with a huge wave of nostalgia, because this was the bookstore of my youth. I'd spent hours in there while my mom or dad just patiently waited on a couch somewhere, browsing fiction, science, art...This was the store that started it. In some small way, that Barnes and Noble contributed to my love of reading, writing, and research. And on the day that I got confirmation of getting published, in the topic of language and the next generation of technology, I wanted to celebrate by getting something from my old friend, the bookstore, and it seemed only appropriate that it would be something to do with the next generation of literature and technology.

I went home, I got my husband, and we went back and got the Nook (I didn't actually need Mr. B to make the purchase, but I wanted him there for my moment of nostalgia and victory dance). I'm counting it as my early birthday present, and I LOVE it. DoHP, Munchkin, you need e-readers--I've had mine for just over 12 hours and it's already changed my life.

Alula