*OK seriously, I don’t want to talk about it, but I just have to say that these hypocritical assholes who are using this Park 51 community center (aka the not-actually-at-Ground-Zero, not-actually-a-mosque, “Ground Zero Mosque”) as the new wedge issue to drive the rednecks crazy need to stop it. Are these yahoos out of their fucking minds? Don’t we have enough hate in this country? Hasn’t the Bill of Rights been trampled on enough over the last decade? Sheesh.

So, um, where was I? Oh yeah, reading. Yeah I’ve been reading a lot, and I think it’s all because of my Kindle. Having that thing makes is so ridiculously easy to take books with me wherever. And I’ve also learned to love the Kindle apps for iPhone, PC, and Mac. With them, I’m able to keep my library completely synced and read whatever I want, pretty much wherever I want. BIG WIN, Amazon. You rock.

Here’s all the fantastic things I’ve read this summer on my Kindle:

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta: interesting read, although I did not like the [spoiler] abrupt ending. Great character development though.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson: whoa, this took FOREVER to get going, but once it did I couldn’t put it down. Read lots of it on a road trip to West Virginia, making the trip that much more surreal. I’ve got some more Stephenson lurking in my library, and I’ll be starting on it this fall for sure.

Blockade Billy by Stephen King: you’d probably get more out of this than I did if you’re a baseball fan. I don’t mind baseball, but I’m not obsessed with it. That said, I still enjoyed this yarn. Typical King – there’s a twist that you can sort of see coming for pages and pages before it happens, but when it does you still kind of go “OMGWTF!!”

Dead and Gone and Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris: oh these horrible, trashy, poorly written, incredibly entertaining Sookie Stackhouse novels. I wish I could quit  you!

The Descent by Jeff Long: this was a re-read. I read it first several years ago, loved it then, loved it this time too. That movie “The Descent” is loosely based on the basic concept of this book, but if you ask me, the book is so much better. Especially enjoyable if, like me, you’re fascinated by hidden places and cities buried deep underground, the kind of stuff just strewn all over H.P. Lovecraft.

Fly Away Home: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner: Jen has been in the news a bit recently because she, along with Jodi Picoult, had the nerve to suggest that maybe the New York Times’ fawning coverage of heavy tomes by white male literary darlings wasn’t serving their dwindling readership all that well. I love Jen’s books. This wasn’t my favorite, but it was still pretty darn good.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl Who Played With Fire/The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson: who hasn’t read at least the first of these by now? I was late to the party but I really enjoyed them a lot. After reading the first book, I watched the Swedish  movie on Netflix streaming. It was great! Why does Hollywood need to remake this? Anyway, all three of these books were real page-turners – even the long section on shopping at Ikea (really!).

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: I guess technically this is supposed to be young adult fiction? Doesn’t matter, I loved it. I had it sitting in my Kindle for months before I finally got around to cracking it open and I have to say I wish I’d read it sooner.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells: one of the many books that are now public domain and available in e-format for free. I’d never read this classic, though of course I had seen both the 1960 and 2002 film versions. Guess what? It was much better than either film. That Wells, he knew what he was doing.

And that’s just in the last few months! I’ve recently started reading another classic (free) e-book, Dracula by Bram Stoker. I have read it before, but it’s been years. I’m enjoying reading it again. I also have King’s The Stand queued up for a re-read; I re-read it every few years or so but this will be the first time I’ve read it in digital format. The version I bought for my Kindle supposedly includes those wonderful illustrations that appear in the unabridged hardback, and I’m really looking forward to reading it again.

I read some dismissive comment about e-books last week (was it Roger Ebert? I don’t want to believe that, but it might have been) making reference to the fact that you can’t see what people are reading when they’re reading on their Kindles, which deprives you of the opportunity of knowing other people’s business, I suppose, and then deciding based on their reading taste if you maybe want to harass them on the Metro or something. WHATEVER, OLDS! Personally, I love the fact that nobody can see what I’m reading. If I want people to know what I’m reading, I’ll write a blog post about it (like this), or Tweet about it, or post on Facebook about it. I don’t feel the need to make an ostentatious display to people on public transportation that I’m reading War and Peace, or try to hide the fact that I’m re-reading that last Harry Potter book AGAIN.

Also, a Kindle is so versatile and just works for my lifestyle so well. In combination with the Kindle app on the platforms I mentioned above, it’s perfect for me. Also – saving me money, because if I didn’t have one I probably would have bought an iPad.

Thanks again, Amazon!

This time: Internet radio services. Our contenders are Sirius Internet Radio and Pandora One.

I am a Sirius subscriber, and have been for several years. I used to use a portable device in my old car, and then when I got my xB, I upgraded to the integrated Sirius tuner. I like Sirius a lot – though I originally subscribed so I could keep listening to Howard Stern, as time goes on, I listen to him less and less and instead find myself listening to the music and the NPR stations. The only drawbacks to regular Sirius satellite radio service are the fact that you lose the signal when you go under bridges, tunnels, etc.; and the fact that it keeps getting more and more expensive every year. Case in point: the Internet streaming service. It used to be included with subscription plans for the satellite service, but now if I want to listen to Sirius on my computer, I have to add it to my subscription, for $2.99 a month.

Now, I might have seriously considered doing that and not looking back, but I already sprung for a Pandora One subscription for $36 annually. Pandora does have a free service, which I recommend very strongly if you’re looking for a way to listen to high-quality music online for free. Pandora One offers some enhancements and actually I’m on my second year of it, and I do like it quite a bit. Still, I went ahead and used a free seven-day trial of the Sirius Internet Radio service, in order to contrast and compare. Was I making the right choice with Pandora, or should I switch to Sirius?

After trying out the Sirius service and analyzing both products, I came up with this little list of pros and cons:

So, in case you can’t tell from my table, I’ve decided after listening to both, that I’m happy with Pandora One, and I won’t be adding Internet radio to my Sirius subscription. In fact, as far as Sirius goes, I do love it but…dang, it is getting SO expensive. Next Spring, when my subscription comes up for renewal again, I may just bite the bullet and cancel. I’m starting to think I can manage to live without it. But Pandora, well, I love it. Totally worth $36 a year.

And that’s this vs. that!

True Lemon – True Lemon is actually not just lemon – it also comes in orange and lime! What is it? It’s basically crystallized citrus that you can carry with you anywhere, and add to water to give it a little kick. It has no calories! The flavor is fantastic! It’s all-natural! I think the orange is my favorite, though lime is close. I add it to bottled water and also to plain seltzer, but there are lots of other ways you can use this stuff: in recipes, sprinkled on salads and other food, in plain iced tea, etc. You can find True Lemon (and True Orange, and True Lime) at some grocery stores, though I haven’t had much luck and had to order mine from their online store. (They also have two varieties of lemonade mix where are really good, but only available online.) Find them on Facebook for coupons and free offers.

Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer SPF 15 – My skin tends to get oily, especially in the T-zone and especially in the summer. I’m also obsessed with protecting my skin from the sun, and wear sunscreen religiously. I’ve struggled trying to find the right tinted sunscreen (to wear alone) or moisturizer with sunscreen (to wear under other makeup) that doesn’t make my T-zone a shiny mess by 10am. I’ve tried so many, I had just about given up and resigned myself to the fact that I was just going to have to blot my face several times a day (these work great, by the way). Then I ordered something from Sephora (I don’t even remember what it was anymore), and along with it came a sample of this primer from Hourglass. Whoa – it’s a miracle! I ordered a full size bottle right away. Super pricey ($52), but one bottle will last a very long time (at least until the hot weather subsides, which should be around November). The texture is thin and liquid-like, and you can definitely feel the silicone in it. It’s nice and slippery, yet dried to a matte finish, giving you a nice canvas for makeup application. Best of all, it helps keep the oil at bay for much of the day, and I often don’t need to blot or apply additional powder until late afternoon. The sunscreen is an effective combination of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, so it does give full-spectrum (UVA and UVB) protection. I know, I KNOW it’s a lot to spend on a primer/sunscreen/moisturizer, but I couldn’t help myself. It just feels so elegant on the skin, and it’s doing its job perfectly. To me, that is the definition of a good investment.

Clarisonic Mia – And now, the negative review. Not so much negative, as “meh.” People seemed to be raving about this powered facial brush from Clarisonic, so I decided to give it a try. And…I wasn’t impressed. Did it give me a “silky-smooth, fresh complexion”? Not so much. Actually, I think my complexion is pretty good but I chalk that up to the regular exfoliation I do on my own (scrub and washcloth), regular facials (every six weeks), and common-sense products (BHA for breakouts, retinol for anti-aging). However, I might have been willing to stick with the brush if it hadn’t been so darned inconvenient. Maybe I’m just a klutz, but every night when I used it (exactly as instructed, by the way), I ended up spraying water all over the mirror, the sink, and my shirt. Then after I was done, it had to be cleaned, and I usually had to leave it out overnight in order to dry completely (and I loathe counter top clutter). Overall, it just didn’t seem worth it, so I’ve ordered a new cleaning head and will be putting that bad boy (girl?) up on eBay this week.

Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino 2008 – Ah, booze. You make every dinner better! This is by far my favorite white wine ever, and in fact may have somewhat converted me from the red-wine-loving snob that I used to be. This lovely white is made from the Vermentino grape, courtesy of Sardinia, and it is fabulous. Seriously – if you see a bottle of this, buy it! It’s sold out on Wine.com, but I know for a fact that they still have bottles at Wegman’s. That is, unless the hubz and I have gone over there and bought them all already!

So there you go. Some stuff to sprinkle in your water, put on your face, drink with dinner, and probably NOT cleanse your skin with. Arrivederci!

I just ordered one of these (refurbished) from Woot. We are not planning to suck any balls with it.

Anyway, I’m reading through this article and they mention the coconut crab. “Coconut crab? What the heck is that?” I think to myself. And, ever the proactive Googler, I look up “coconut crab.”

EEK!

If you really, really want to terrify yourself, click on this link and look at pictures of the ugliest animal I’ve seen in quite a while. If, like me, you are terrified of spiders and creepy crawlies (even though I find crab legs delicious), you may just want to skip the pictures.

Damn! I mean, DAMN! That is a scary looking crab. I’m still shuddering.

I’ve noticed a pattern.

Almost all the spam is about Viagra. Seriously! OK, a few for World of Warcraft gold sellers, fake Rolex watches, and diet supplements, but mostly Viagra or “herbal” Viagra or some other product that supposedly does the same thing as Viagra (give dudes boners). If I made a pie chart of what the distribution of my spam folder is, it would look something like this:

Why?

Image from fitbit.com

So, I bought a Fitbit. Check out the very good website for lots more detailed info, but in short: the Fitbit is a little clip-on device, about the size of a USB thumb drive, that you wear (nearly) 24 hours a day. It has an accelerometer inside (like what makes the Wii controllers work), and it keeps track of how active you are, how many steps you’re taking, and how many calories you’re burning.

It uploads all that data to a web server, where you can access it on a very well-designed (even though there’s some Flash involved) dashboard. Here, you can also enter what you ate to track your calories consumed, as well as entering specific activities (like swimming or showering, which you can’t wear your Fitbit for; or biking, which it’s not so good at tracking).

So far I like it a lot. It’s very small and convenient. During the day, I wear it clipped to the center of the front of my bra. It’s quite secure there and I never worry about it slipping off; plus it’s well-hidden. When I first got it, I wore it on the waistband of my underpants or sometimes my jeans, but then I had to worry about it every time I went to the bathroom etc. Front of bra is better, but you can also wear it on a bra strap, in your pocket, or on your belt (it comes with a belt clip for thicker belts). At night, I wear it in the soft cuff that was included, and where they recommend putting it for sleeping.

I think it’s too early for me to say whether I think it’s a really helpful tool in weight loss or fitness. I know my first week, I was pleased with how active I was (it really brought home to me how everyday activities also burn calories, not just going to the gym). I was burning about 500 calories less a day than I was consuming, and anyone familiar with dieting will know that should result in about a pound of weight loss in one week’s time (5oo calorie deficit per day x 7 days = 3500 calories, you must expend 3500 calories more than you eat to lose one pound). Unfortunately, I weighed myself the following Monday and had gained two pounds.

WHAT?!?

Well, as it turns out, I was retaining water or something on Monday, because when I weighed myself on Tuesday it turned out that I actually had lost about a half pound. But still, that morning weigh-in was a little discouraging. Which is why I want to wear the Fitbit longer and collect more data before I start drawing any conclusions about its effectiveness as a tool for improving fitness and health.

One thing that is VERY enlightening for me already is the sleep monitor. Let’s take a look at how I slept last night:

Not bad. About seven and a half hours, which is a little less than ideal for me, but there were few interruptions, which means it was restful (efficient) and that’s why it was easy for me to get up at 6am (aka “buttcrack of dawn”) this morning.

Compare that to the night of May 2-3:

Quite a difference. Although my sleep “efficiency” is still in the 90s, and I still got about seven and a half hours of sleep, I can tell you I felt a lot different on the morning of May 3 than I did this morning, and it’s easy to see why. I woke up, at least partially, 21 times that night. Ouch.

So in this respect, so far the Fitbit is very helpful in showing me why I feel like crap some mornings, and not so much like crap other mornings!  One change I’ve made because of this is, I’ve pretty much stopped taking Advil PM before I go to bed, and I’m sleeping better because of it. While my broken arm was still healing, I really needed it, but since my arm is mostly better I was still taking it on weeknights because it helps me fall asleep so quickly. The problem is, I tend to wake up more in the middle of the night when I have taken it, than when I don’t. Why? I have no idea, but the proof is there.

More updates on the Fitbit as I use it longer. But now for the bad news.

If, after reading this, you’re convinced that the Fitbit is the greatest thing since sliced whole-wheat bread, and you just HAVE to have one, I have something discouraging to tell you: it takes FOREVER to get one. They are so back-ordered it’s not even funny. I ordered mine on January 11, 2010. I received it on May 1. Yep, that’s almost four months of waiting, four months of my “expected ship date” being pushed back farther and farther. Every time I’d log into the website to look at my order status, there would be a new, later “expected ship date” and I’d get more frustrated!

All that being said, I do think it was worth it, especially for the price, which is extremely reasonable ($99 plus shipping). But be prepared to wait, and wait, and then wait some more. Unless you go to eBay, where you can take your chances and pay $150 or more for one.

Note to the FTC: I did not receive a Fitbit for free (if only!!). I paid for it all by myself and this review is only my opinion.