Confessions of an e-book convert

In the summer of 1989 a pretty student named Heather Russell sat across the table from me in the General Motors cafeteria. She was reading the paperback novel IT by Stephen King. I quickly struck up a conversation with her about the book and 22 years and three kids later we still enjoy talking to one another about all the books we’re reading.  Just call us the nerdy couple, we’re good with that!

A few weeks ago Heather stopped me at Chapters as we were walking by the Kobos. Those are the e-book readers offered here in Canada. They’re similar to the Kindles sold in the United States. The salesman was alone so she had 20 minutes of one-on-one time to quiz him about the Kobos. Whatever he told her was convincing enough to sell her on the device.


Two John Saul books, two different formats. Despite some reservations
about e-books this Kobo reader has won me over.

 A few nights later I sat in bed reading and finished one of John Saul’s novels, In the Dark of the Night.  I was not ready to fall asleep so I took a look for another book to start. The only problem though was I’d come to the end of my reading list. I needed another book to read.

“Why don’t you download a book on my Kobo,” Heather suggested.

Always the traditionalist I hesitated. Downloading a book seemed like cheating.  Besides, I preferred a book I could feel, something to hold onto I told myself. 

“It’s cheaper than buying a book,” Heather said.

Cheaper? Oh, well, what could it hurt?

I logged onto the Indigo/Chapters site and found a book in no time and it indeed was cheaper than buying the actual book. A paperback that costs $10.99 generally costs $6.99 for the Kobo. Click, click, click, and presto, I had another book to read.

A few days later at a Writers Community of Durham Region meeting I discovered another advantage to e-books, they put more money in the pockets of the authors. E-books are cheaper to produce because they don’t need to be printed and as such the author gets more royalties from every book sold. Given I make my living from the written word that fact appealed to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the look, the feel, the smell, the whole experience an actual book gives me when I read it. I also find it more enjoyable searching out a book at a bookstore. I know you can’t judge a book by its cover but to me the cover is part of the appeal of a book. A cover does appear on the Kobo reader but it’s black and white and isn’t half as appealing as the real thing you get with an actual book.
The Kobo does have an advantage over a traditional book. For those who need larger type, it can be changed on  any book you’re reading. No book mark is required either as where you stop reading is exactly where the book opens for you the next time you pick it up and turn it on.

The only thing a Kobo won’t do is show everyone around you the book you’re currently reading. Thankfully that wasn’t the case back in 1989. Otherwise I may have never met that pretty girl reading the Stephen King novel.

Things that go 'boing' in the night

I don't know anyone who enjoys getting woken up at night. No matter what it is that pulls you from your slumber, a crying child, a hungry baby or a cat who demands to be fed at all hours of the night, waking up before the alarm sucks.

In my family it's a safe bet that if anyone was to wake up in the middle of the night it would be Heather, my wife. She cannot string eight hours of sleep together -- EVER. And once she wakes up that's it, she's up. It can be 2:30 in the morning and if Heather's eyes flutter open she just goes downstairs to watch some late night TV. She doesn't even fight it anymore.

These decorative metal trays that my wife Heather made
looked great on the wall. It's too bad they didn't stay there.

During all these early morning hours Heather has developed a few hobbies to pass the time. The other day she spray painted some metal trays to mount on our bedroom wall. She got the idea from one of the blogs she follows. The finished trays decorated a previously bare wall behind our bed.

When I saw the new home made artwork I was both pleased and surprised. I was pleased at the appearance of Heather's craft and surprised that the trays were actually on the wall. Heather never hangs anything on our walls. Those tasks are left to me.

A few hours later I had all but forgotten about Heather's crafts when I climbed into bed. I was exhausted so it took all of a few minutes for me to fall fast asleep. A few hours went by when all of a sudden I was jolted from a deep sleep.

"Boing!"

It sounded like somebody from the Gong Show had rang the gong right over top of my head.

I shot straight up in bed, dazed and confused. My heart was racing so fast in my chest I thought, "This is it, this is the big one." I was terrified.

Under the bed the tray vibrated like a drum cymbal shattering the silence of the night.

To my surprise Heather was not even remotely startled by the nighttime interruption. Her muted interest in my terror was confusing because I was freaking out due to the fact that I'd forgotten about the crafts she had hung above our bed. All she did was grunt and roll over.

When the cymbal sound finally stopped I remained upright wondering what the hell was going on and waiting for any subsequent "boings". Meanwhile Heather, who never sleeps more than a few hours a night, was clearly out like a light.

What was going on? Was I losing my mind?

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of waiting for an after shock, I put my head down and eventually fell back asleep. When I awoke a few hours later I still had no idea what had made such a horrible noise until Heather reached under the bed and pulled out one of the trays she'd hung up the day before.

"I guess I didn't attach this to the wall right, " she said.

Ya think?!?

There's a reason why Heather doesn't hang pictures or anything else on our walls. That 'boing' in the middle of the night was it. I swear to God she'll never hang another thing in the house ever again.

A perfect opportunity for Senate reform

I’m no fan of Stephen Harper but when he pledged to make the Senate an elected body that would be accountable to Canadians he caught my attention.

Of course he’s now proven to everyone that all that election rhetoric meant zero, nada, zip now that he’s made more partisan appointments to the Upper Chamber than any other prime minister in Canadian history.

At this point I’m not surprised by anything Harper says or does. He’s the leader of a Conservative party, that since it’s been elected in 2006 has operated in a manner not even remotely Conservative.


But now Harper has an opportunity to change Canadians’ opinions of his party when it comes to the Senate. And the best part is that he can do it at the expense of a Liberal senator.

Quebec Senator Raymond Lavigne was banned from sitting in the Senate chamber back in 2007. He faces charges of fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice over alleged misuse of Senate funds from travel and for having a staffer perform yard work on his property.  Under orders of this suspension he’s also not allowed to sit on any Senate committees.

It was reported on CBC last night that despite being banned from the Senate Lavigne continues to charge taxpayers more than $10,000 a month in expenses.  How is that possible?

The guy is suspended from the Upper Chamber so basically he’s a senator in name only. How then could he in good conscience rack up $10,000 in expenses every month?

Lavigne was a former Liberal MP from Quebec while Jean Chretien was Prime Minister before he became a senator.  So if Harper ever wanted to reform even a small part of the workings of the Senate this provides him a perfect place to start.

Marjorie LeBreton, a Conservative senator, said “The rules committee needs to come up with procedures so this doesn’t happen again. When someone is suspended from a legislative body … it only makes sense to suspend the services too.”

If I were Harper I’d be on the phone to LeBreton with one request – “Make it so.”

Nobody would vote against such a motion, not even Liberal senators. It’s bad enough we’re still paying Lavigne’s $130,000 salary per year but to get slapped with these ridiculous monthly expenses is deplorable.

If the Conservatives don’t seize this opportunity and reform this gigantic loophole I hold out NO hope the party will ever deal with the Senate. It’s too good to pass up but unfortunately will have to wait until senators return from their winter break. What a tough job!

Buy now, pay later never works

When my parents were struggling to raise a young family of two boys they did it without the use of credit cards.

That's not to say there weren't credit cards because there were. It's just that Chargex (the original VISA) and Master Charge (the original MasterCard) had to be paid in full at the end of each month. Since then credit cards have morphed into the interest-sucking entities they are today.

Times have changed and today there are credit cards offered by hundreds of companies. If you wanted to you could have upwards of 24 credit cards in your wallet for everything from food to appliances. You could also have each and everyone of these cards maxed to their limits. Unfortunately that's the case many of us find ourselves in -- too many cards, high interest rates and in more and more cases no jobs.

There are television shows these days dedicated to the pitfalls of credit card problems. So if so many of us are falling behind on our credit card payments, why is it so easy to get a credit card? And why do the companies that offer these credit cards continuously send out offers hoping you'll "start the new year off right by taking advantage of the low 0% annual interest rate until May 31" by using the enclosed credit card cheques.

I'm looking at another one of these offers right now that's encouraging me to use one of my credit card cheques for debt consolidation, a March break getaway, a big screen TV or a new set of golf clubs. If I wanted to consolidate my debt the last place I would look would be a credit card with a 19.56 per cent interest rate!

The problem for many of us is that we'll use these cheques and put more charges on our credit cards. Is it any wonder so many people these days are in financial dire straights?

I would prefer to see a tightening of the rules regarding credit cards, similar to the rules in place when Mom and Dad were younger -- back in the days when you only made purchases when you could afford them.