No More TV!

Ok, after only two months of having TV on here at the apartment, I turned it off on the 7th, only two days after thinking I would do it at the end of the month. For the almost $50.00/month to have cable TV, there was really nothing much on. I did, however, find myself watching the NCIS re-runs (which I hadn’t seen in the first place) every day, which was taking me away from my reading projects, and home grown homework studies in theology and philosophy.

And I don’t miss it at all!! This last six days have been very productive in the evenings, even those days when I had outside events/meetings to go to, when I got home, and I am getting back on track to having my studies and reading done on my “original” schedule.

I can say that TV has gone WAY down hill over the years as to what is shown and how it is put together. (Now, mind you, on the TV I have, the picture is OUTSTANDING, which kinda helps in the viewing!) The cinematography is often weak, especially comparing it to times long past, and that is with the better technology today! You would think it would be OUTSTANDING now. It isn’t.

When I bought my TV back in August, I also picked up a BlueRay player. WOW, that picture is GREAT!! Almost 3d in appearance when watching a BlueRay movie! Now to find CHEAPER BlueRay movies!! WOW, they are expensive!

I will probably continue to watch movies on the TV, via the BlueRay/DVD player, but I intend to cut WAY back on that as well, and have done good in that area this past 6 days as well!

Meet the Saints: A Book Review

Over the past several years I have been very interested in the Saints of the Catholic Church. I have been wanting to know their history, how they became Saints, and a bit about them. I have read many books on individual Saints and a few on groups of Saints.

Most of those books put words into the mouths of the Saints, as well as feelings and thoughts, that I often felt the author had no way of knowing if it was true or not. Basically putting words into the mouth of the Saint where I felt they shouldn’t.

This book broke the mold I was seeing in the other books. The book takes 12 months of articles posted in a newsletter series called “Walking With the Saints”. It covers the lives of 37 Saints and what got them Sanctified.

It is an easy book to read, well written and informational. It appears to be factual without glorification. The result is well received by me, and I’m betting by you as well.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Meet the Saints. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

Reading Books – Paper or electronic?

Over the last few months I have read several blog entries on reading books, which was better, reading from a paper book or reading from an electronic book. Last night, Christmas Day, we went to my wife’s brother’s house for dinner and another exchange, and the topic came up there as well.

Those people on the side of reading books in paper format have the following reasons, among others, for preferring to read in paper:

Those people that advocate the electronic books mainly say:

For the past 5-6 years, since the e-book concept has been around, I have tried reading books on my Palm, or on my laptop, and just couldn’t get into it. I agreed with many of the comments that the pro-paper book people had to say.

But with the advent of the current e-book hardware options, I have to say I’m a VERY happy convert. I have acquired, thanks to my wife, a Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology. Some of the worries I had initially where screen flicker, hard to read, eye and hand strain. None of these issues are present with this great device. I have been able to now purchase over 40 books, receive them instantly, and start reading them when I am ready to. And I can read them on my computer or cell phone if I want as well, at no added cost. (Not that I will often.) After having my first Kindle stolen at work, when I receive the replacement, bought by my wife again, I was able to instantly update the books I had purchased before to the new Kindle.

LOVE it!

So, my reasons for going to electronic books:

I have to say the reasons to stick with a paper book, especially in today’s economy and with environmental concerns are no longer valid, we should all shift to ebooks…

YAY!!

Not that any of you were using it, but it gives my wife easier access to my wish list, Amazon has created their own widget for wish list for blogging, so I have my wish list back in the mix!! Scroll down and you should see it. At the same time, I was able to get my book and movie reviews back in place (as I waited for my car to warm up to go to Mass)! So, I’m happy again!!

Feel free to use the wish list to see what I would like.. Like I said, mainly books…

What do you want for Christmas?

For those of you that celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts, what are you wanting for Christmas, if you could have anything you wanted?

Aside from books, especially for my Kindle, about the only thing I’m wanting this year is this:

So if you are looking for a gift idea, send away.

Gaining financial wealth…

Over the past several years I have had a static page on my business web site (http://www.tdbellenterprises.com) under Individuals that gave advice on how to grow your wealth and make yourself successful. It also directed you to a list of books I highly recommended.

For the past three years, I have been studying and reading many books on life, business and success. Because of that reading and learning, I have updated both pages today and highly recommend you go check them out!

Here they are again:

Growing your individual wealth.
Recommended Reading.

Happy and profitable reading!

Bye Bye Kindle…

My wife and I both work at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in Huntington WV. I start at 6AM and she starts at 7AM. I get off at 3:30PM and she gets off at 4:30PM. Because of this, in stead of car pooling, we each drive ourselves in each day. Well, this morning, we decided that after work we would go another half an hour east to a Pumpkin Festival right after work, so I took my Kindle in with me to go up to the waiting room in her area and read while I waited for her to get off. I put it in my locked locker in a badge access only locker room.

Someone I work with, or someone who someone I worked with allowed into the locker room, decided to go and pick the lock on my locker and remove my Kindle… Know, there are only three groups of people that have access to this locker room, 4 people from housekeeping, 10 people from my department, and about 10 people from our “sister” department. At the time the Kindle was taken, it looks like it was taken between 0635 when I left it there, and roughly 0730. I noticed it gone at 0905 however. So, that limits the number of people even more, as most of the people listed above don’t come in until 8AM or later.

Someone in my group is a thief, and I’m not happy about that… I have contacted Amazon, and they have made it so the Kindle can not be registered or download books so it is basically useless now. What a shame. And I was really getting into it!!! I guess I need to let my Christianity step in, forgive the person that took it, and move on, but it sure is hard to do!! I will pray for the thief and hope he or she enjoys the books (mostly religious) that were on it…

sigh…

Amazon Kindle…

My wife gave me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday:

That arrived yesterday. I plugged her in and charged her up and read her instructions and started playing with her. As soon as I knew I was getting one, I went to the Kindle Store and checked out the free books and some specific books I wanted and acquired about 15 books and had them on my “Kindle for PC”, but didn’t do much with them till last night.

I have to say I’m impressed and happy with this gift! It is light weight, does just about everything we were doing at AV Books, Inc. (although in black and white instead of color, and missing a few key concepts we had at AV Books., Inc.), and is very easy to use.

I’ve already added a few of my own documents to it that I am working on (and I can annotate them and work on them to an extent with the Kindle if I’m “on the road”), and I’ve put some music on it so I can listen to something as I read. Either with the decent speakers that come with it, or with ear buds (buy separate, but who doesn’t have a set or three lying about already?). You can put PDFs, which I will be doing soon, on it as well as audio books and a few other such items.

Now, I do think you will want (I know I do) a case for it:

and if you want to buy me a late birthday gift, or early Christmas gift, please feel free to click the link above and send it to me. (Comment met with a way to get a hold of ya, and I’ll email you my mailing address. ) Just kidding… Sorta….

One thing I REALLY liked about it is there is a series of books called Summa Theologica which retails for about $155. This is a VERY old transcript written by a “Doctor of the Catholic Church” that is some good, yet hard, reading.

I have wanted this series for a while, but am not able to pay that much for a series of books. Five LARGE volumes.

I was able to buy it for the kindle for $1.05 after tax for the Kindle!

The Kindle was paid for in just this one book series!!

I LOVE IT!!

Thanks Debbie!!