Theodora is an oratorio concerning the Christian martyr Theodora and her Christian-converted Roman lover, Didymus. It is a tragedy, ending in the death of the heroine and her converted lover. The music is much more direct than Handel’s earlier works, transcending the mediocrity of the libretto (which was true for several of his works) so that the characters and the drama are well-defined. Theodora was actually Handel’s favorite of his oratorios. The composer himself ranked the final chorus of Act II, “He saw the lovely youth,” “far beyond” “Hallelujah” in Messiah.
The day after Valentine’s Day, I received an e-mail from Barnes and Noble alerting me to the impending expiration of my B&N Membership and their exciting ‘new’ member benefits. I clicked through the ‘ad’ and went directly to the Terms and Conditions where I quickly found the exclusion that has been sticking in my craw ever since I purchased my Nook Color back in May 2011:
“The Everyday Member Discount is not available on purchases of the following: … digital content (including but not limited to eBooks, digital magazines and periodicals); NOOK™ and NOOK™ related accessories; …”(emphasis added)
I immediately fired off an e-mail, not once but twice, since the ‘ad’ they sent me had a ‘no-reply’ throw-away e-mail address associated with it. My question to B&N Customer Service, which has not changed in several months, was:
Why should I renew my Membership with B&N? Is Nook content still expressly excluded?
Unless my Membership discounts now include savings on the purchase of Nook content (ebooks), I will NOT be renewing my membership.
To which I finally received a reply after I went to bed last night (so I woke up to this canned response, which I have received at least twice before from Customer Service):
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your inquiry regarding applying your Barnes & Noble Membership discount to NOOK Book purchases.
Because our NOOK Book prices are deeply discounted from the Publisher’s List Price, the Barnes & Noble Member’s discount is not available on the purchase of digital content (including but not limited to digital books, magazines, and periodicals); certain digital devices; downloadable Audiobooks in MP3 or any other format.
We hope you find this information helpful and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
(emphasis added).
I decided yet another reply would fall on deaf ears, so I became determined to write this open letter to Barnes & Noble expressing my disbelief in their delusion of ‘deeply discounted’ ebook prices. Let me be clear, on one point though, that I absolutely love my Nook Color. Yet, my Nook and I are feeling spurned and slighted, both from the supplier (B&N) and the publishers (the real reason B&N can’t offer discounts on digital content like they can on printed, physical content).
With yesterday’s announcement by Tor and confirmation by Brandon Sanderson that the final novel of the Wheel of Time series has a publication date (albeit nearly a year from now in January 2013), I would like nothing better than to load up my Nook Color with all thirteen ebooks. But what incentive do I have to do this? I have all of them in hard cover, many of them first editions, and the last couple of them autographed. I have spent a premium to follow this series and do not wish to further impoverish myself unnecessarily.
Here is a list of some of the books on my ebook wishlist and corresponding ebook v. printed book pricing:
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – ebook $21.99; paperback $13.46; hardcover $38.00 (it should be noted that I already own multiple copies in multiple formats of this classic epic fantasy tome).
Hambly’s The Silent Tower – ebook $8.19 (discounted from $9.99 retail); no printed new copies available (backlist out-of-print so ebook is the only option).
Jordan’s The Great Hunt (WoT #2) – ebook $7.99; paperback $7.99; hardcover $20.23 (I already snagged the first reissued ebook, The Eye of the World, when it was only sale for $.99 or $1.99 last year).
Willis’ All Clear – ebook $11.99; paperback $12.98; hardcover $18.27 (30% discount thanks to my current Membership)
I have many more examples but will stop there for now. Most of the hardcover prices listed above show up for me on B&N’s website with steep discounts already applied (which explains the very odd prices that come up for them).
The coupons I receive in the mail as a result of my Membership are also specifically excluded from purchasing digital content and/or any Nook accessories. I don’t need to clutter up my house with more ‘stuff’! I want to clutter up my Nook with more content.
I just can’t see the benefit to me this year of shelling out an additional $25 to renew my Membership, since I don’t plan on buying any more physical items that would require shipping (hence I won’t be able to take advantage of the free two-day shipping benefit).
None of this will really influence my purchasing choices for ebooks. I will continue to support my favorite authors. Case in point: Last fall, I not only purchased the hardcover new release of Initiate’s Trial when it was released overseas in the United Kingdom, but also immediately purchased the ebook edition to begin reading it as soon as I could (since it took several days/weeks for the hardcover to arrive from England). This way, I had my cake and ate it too, since the first edition hardcover has never been opened and will be pristine the next time I see Janny in person for her to sign.
All this leaves me wondering why Nook owners can’t have their own membership or rewards program. Let us buy one ebook a month at a discount (anything from 5 to 25 percent would be agreeable). Or offer a virtual punch card and let us have a discount on every 10th ebook purchase. I would gladly pay $25 per year (or more) for such a program without batting an eyelid.
Some might argue (including B&N) that the ‘Free Friday’ Nook Book is already meeting this need, but I would disagree. In fact, today’s free Nook Book has been free before (offered last May or June on a previous Friday) and actually has been free for several days. Re-gifting tackiness?
One of my all-time favorite episodes of Mythbusters involves proving (or disproving depending on your optimism meter that day) the myth of explosive, even dare I say, orbit-seeking rocket-like hot water heaters. Mostly I love this episode (click here to see an excerpt) because of the fantastic slow motion footage (aka high speed photography) in stunning HD (at least when I saw it ‘live’ the first time back in November 2007 on my plasma … the excerpt obviously isn’t available in HD via the web).
Having experienced the detrimental effects of water heaters gone bad, albeit vicariously through Adam and Jamie, I did not wish to be confronted with a similar circumstance erupting from our basement. Never fear, as proven by the Mythbusters, it takes quite a bit of reverse engineering and removal of multiple safety features to convert your average water heater into a Titan want-to be. Still, our old (twelve or thirteen years old as far as we can recall) water heater sprung a leak under the burner a few weeks ago, and this week began pooling water on top of the tank. Terry and I decided it had to go and called in an order for a bigger and better unit.
The plumbing contractor for Home Depot must have been strapped for work, because they wanted to install the new water heater the very next day (Tuesday the 14th, which also happened to be Valentine’s Day). Terry asked them to hold off a day, because we needed to tidy up the basement and deal with some minor electrical wiring projects we’d been putting off for months. I asked my father, my favorite electrician, if he could spare a couple of hours on Tuesday afternoon to help Terry complete those projects. He agreed readily. By the time I got home Tuesday evening, they were finished in the basement. Dad stayed for a steak dinner (with a side of freshly sauteed asparagus).
Terry called me the next day before noon to let me know the new water heater, expansion tank (required by city ordinance) and a pressure regulator had been installed and everything looked and worked great. When I got home that night, I had less water pressure (previously, I had over 100 psi, but with the new pressure regulator, it throttled back the pressure inside the house to less than 80 psi) but more hot water. I grabbed my camera (something I forgot to do when Dad was on site on Tuesday) and took the requisite ‘after’ photos of the newly installed equipment. I had to dig way back in my photo albums to find a ‘before’ photo of the old water heater, taken in December 2010, when we installed the new furnace and air conditioning units.
Before Photo of Water Heater and Furnace (Way Before - circa Dec 2010)After Photo of New Water Heater (2/15/2012)
Terry and I hope this is the last (and really there’s nothing left to replace) large appliance or utility expense we make in this house. Especially since we opted to buy a water heater with a twelve year warranty. We are both looking forward to years of worry-free non-explosive hot water.
I began my Destination: Anywhere journey in mid-January, transporting myself back in time and halfway across the globe, watching the Suez Canal crisis bubble and boil and heat up the cold war and the Eisenhower Administration’s efforts to avoid World War III. As soon as I finished Eisenhower: 1956, I coordinated a day trip to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, taking advantage of some very unseasonably warm weather for January. I plan to return later this year to spend more quality time in the museum and help celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Library.
I decided I’d had enough of living in the past and caught a hyperspeed transport out to Manticoran space to catch up with Honor Harrington in Honor Among Enemies. This is the sixth installment in the series I’m reading with the Beyond Reality group at GoodReads. I welcomed the switch from hard copy to ebook, since the former requires a reading light which doesn’t automatically turn itself off when I nod off in bed. And I love being able to adjust the text size on my Nook Color and instantly look up words or names with the touch of a finger.
My next destination vibrated with supernatural and musical overtones yet I couldn’t quite decide whether Archangel aspired to be a fantasy or a science fiction novel. Beyond Reality offered it up as the science fiction selection for February 2012 and I have since learned, through the online discussions there, that this novel and the sequels do belong in that genre. As soon as I finished the novel, I fired off a book recommendation to my daughter, Rachelle, mostly because the protagonist, also named Rachel, saved the day with vocal performance precision and excellence.
The other selection for February from Beyond Reality took me back to the Dragaeran Empire and the introduction of the fabled Vlad Taltos in Jhereg. A fun, fast fantasy jaunt full of intrigue, witchcraft, sorcery, sword fights, attempted assassinations and witty repartee. Since the edition I checked out from the Kansas City Public Library happened to be an omnibus of the first three Vlad Taltos novels, I plan to read at least the next two in the series and will eventually read all his Dragaeran books. As an added bonus, the author, Steven Brust, agreed to answer posted questions as part of our group discussion. So please stop by and join in the discussion and ask that burning question you’ve always wanted to ask.
Having reached five novels read by the first week of February, I filled out my Destination: Anywhere reading log (online of course) and printed my receipt. I took the short trip from the 9th floor to the lobby to hand in my receipt at the Plaza branch and receive my third adult winter reading program mug (see photo to the left for entire collection, including last winter’s Altered States mug). But have no fear! I am not stopping here! There’s still plenty to read on the Destination: Anywhere suggested reading list.
Tomorrow I will download my first borrowed ebook from the Kansas City Public Library. I received an email alert yesterday informing me that The Poisonwood Bible had finally become available for checkout. I may have to stop reading everything else in order to finish it before the book discussion scheduled for this Saturday at 2:00 pm to be held at Trails West branch and led by Nancy Oelke. I will read as much as I can before attending the discussion. Many of my GoodReads friends give this novel favorable ratings but no written reviews (beyond a sentence or two). I will definitely write up any of my reactions and observations and any notes I take at the discussion when I finish the book. Update (2/16/2012): I successfully downloaded the ebook from the KC Public Library’s Overdrive web site this morning and transferred it to my Nook Color. I started reading it over lunch and find myself catching my breath with the Price family upon their arrival in the Belgian Congo on the African continent at the close of the 1950s. Update (2/22/2012): I composed my review and posted it here.
I took a side-trip away from the Destination: Anywhere suggested readings, but followed on the heels of my early Eisenhower expedition, by starting Crusade in Europe in early February. As of the writing of this blog post, the Allies had successfully advance across North Africa, capturing Tunisia, and are preparing to invade Sicily and eventually Italy. The more I learn about World War II, the more I realize how much I have yet to learn and understand. Eisenhower’s ‘big picture’ personal account of his experiences during the war keeps me riveted and turning the pages. Keeping myself to just one chapter per day can be tough, but my February reads require me to limit my non-book club reading.
Since January fizzled without providing much if any wintery precipitation or chilly wind or freezing temperatures, I opted for an arctic expedition aboard the HMS Terror, the dark fantasy themed selection this month for the GoodReads Science Fiction and Fantasy book club. So far, for this year (and the year is still young), this is the longest (768 pages) and heaviest (I think it’s close to five pounds) hardcover book I have picked up from the library. I end up shivering as I huddle at the kitchen table reading about frostbite and disease among the crew and the extremely harsh conditions these men faced in the 1840s as they sought the fabled Northwest Passage to Asia. If early indications prove correct, subzero temperatures are not the only potentially fatal thing they need to worry about.
My final stop, on the other side of the doomed Northwest Passage expedition, takes me to China. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China relates an epic family history, following three women from successive generations as they are buffeted by changes brought by the modernization in China. I am looking forward to reading this selection, but am slightly disappointed that no book discussion was coordinated by the library as part of the Destination: Anywhere winter reading program. Perhaps I’ll start one online at the Library’s GoodReads community of readers group.
As an early Valentine’s Day dinner and a movie date, Terry and I dined at Red Lobster Sunday afternoon and visited the AMC Barrywoods movie theater to watch Red Tails on a ‘big’ screen. Neither of us had been to this particular theater in years, since we prefer to watch the few movies we see each year on the biggest screen in the Kansas City metro area, #7 at the Legends 14 Phoenix Theater. We enjoyed the close proximity of the handicapped parking though, something not readily available at the Legends. We bypassed the concession stand, having just stuffed ourselves on seafood, and saved our pocket books from the incredibly overpriced snack items for sale (especially as compared to the prices at the Phoenix theater).
While I had heard of the Tuskegee Airmen, I knew next to nothing about their service during World War II. So I cannot verify the authenticity of the film with respect to historical facts. I can affirm a well told tale with fantastic visuals, heart-thumping aerial dogfights and a bit of romance that overcomes race and language barriers.
Terry and I watched this over a week ago, on a Monday evening. We were interrupted a couple of times by telephone calls from our children, so the flow of the movie suffered a bit. I believe we also paused the DVD while we made dinner.
As with all of Woody Allen‘s films, I take time to absorb his presentation and vision. In the case of Midnight in Paris, however, additional time did not endear me to the film. I guess I felt it a bit too obvious.
If I had not read a recent FilmCritic blog post on the past year’s mediocre scifi Academy Award scarcity by John Scalzi, I doubt I would have ever watched this film. Since Scalzi claimed Midnight in Paris actually masqueraded as a time travel tale, it intrigued me enough to place it at the top my Netflix queue.
As stated at the Wikipedia article, “the movie explores themes of nostalgia and modernism.” Woody Allen tapped into the ‘Golden Age’ vibe for each succeeding character, leading us down the path of impending disillusionment, liberally laced with nearly every famous author or artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who conveniently converged at midnight in Paris (insert appropriate year here … and there’s the beauty of time travel as a plot device). But not all this famous name dropping could elevate this film to greatness, at least for me.
Monday started out innocently enough. I spent Sunday afternoon whipping up a batch of my favorite cookies (Chocolate Crinkles) for a cookie exchange and farewell party for a coworker Monday afternoon. January was ending on mixed notes for me. Unseasonably warm weather permeated the entire month and into the first few days of February. Yet, on the very last day of the month, I needed to ‘let go’ of a person who I have relied upon and shared more workdays with than any other person on this planet.
As I drove south from Crown Center Monday morning, the sunrise kept teasing me with highlights of pink and orange among the scattered wisps of clouds. I predicted I would miss the prettiest photo opportunities in the ten to fifteen minutes it takes me to drive to the Plaza. Some of the former glory shines through the photo (above) I took with my cell phone as I walked up the outside staircase of the parking garage.
Bon Voyage Marge (click photo for rest of album)
During the noon hour, with the assistance of our department secretary, we decorated our conference room for the cookie exchange and farewell party. Most of the department and many others stopped by to wish Marge well in her retirement and her planned travels around the country to visit her far flung family. Many cookies were consumed and even a speech from our illustrious leader extolling Marge’s sixteen years with the company. We sent her home with several dozen cookies.
Tuesday dawned much the same as Monday did, and doubled as Marge’s final day of work. Our team (well, most of our team), including our manager, planned to take Marge out to lunch at Gram & Dun on the Country Club Plaza. I began to get nervous when our boss failed to show up for work that morning. He did eventually call me, as he was leaving his physician’s office and rushing to the pharmacy to purchase the prescriptions to ease his sinus infection or bronchitis (or both … I didn’t quite catch the entire diagnosis). He called asking me to take Marge to the restaurant, where he would meet us at noon. While Marge and I could have walked to the restaurant, it would have taken at least fifteen minutes to do so, and neither of us wanted to add an additional thirty minutes to our lunch hour, especially when we had so many things to juggle at work. I drove us over in the van.
We enjoyed a pleasant lunch, starting with the Shishito Peppers appetizer. Marge ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna salad with a side of butternut squash (which we all tried). I ordered the quail and our manager had their prime burger and the Brunswick stew. While we waited on our food, I presented Marge with my gift (a giraffe pin – see photo at left) and card as well as the Southwest Airlines gift cards and retirement card signed by coworkers. The food was good, the company better but the memory will be bittersweet for me.
Marge and I returned to the office while our manager rushed to an appointment on the Kansas side. The afternoon flew by and before I knew it my time had come to leave the office. Marge happened to be on the phone doing what she did best when I needed to leave, so I did not get to say much beyond ‘keep in touch’ and ‘goodbye.’
Wednesday brought a new month and a new dynamic at work. Our team had lost a third of its resources. The two of us left had to temporarily bear the burden of the missing third. Even though I went to bed early (around eight thirty Tuesday night), I work up a couple of hours later and tossed and turned the rest of the night. Stress and worry does that to me. Not the most auspicious way to start a day, especially one that could potentially explode with problems.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, my day imploded with each passing hour. I had every confidence I could wrestle any issues that arose, I just did not anticipate the avalanche that crashed down upon my desk. I worked through my lunch and several hours from home that evening. By ten o’clock, I passed out and thankfully got a full night’s sleep.
Oh, and as if I didn’t have enough to worry about at work, I received a disturbing call from a very congested coughing daughter asking me to find her an urgent care facility near her. I looked up some likely prospects within five miles of her apartment. She managed to get into her doctor and received a prescription for antibiotics to combat the bronchitis she contracted. The timing couldn’t have been worse since her graduate school auditions were scheduled for Friday.
Thursday morning became a mirror image of Wednesday, only worse. A system I administer (since late Fall 2011) decided to freak out and lock up. Calls to tech support went unanswered (or unresponded to) for nearly two hours, during which time I tried a few measures to kick the servers and services back into line. Desperate to get people back into the system, I restarted all the servers, even though I could find no errors in any of the usual logs. Miraculously (or not if you have any experience with this product), the system came back online and hummed happily along, oblivious to the havoc it left in it’s wake. At least the afternoon calmed down a bit and let me catchup on items from the previous day and projects that needed updating.
Thursday evening, Terry and I had a few errands to run, so we grabbed a quick dinner at a local sub shop. Just as I parked the van, I spied a spectacular sunset in progress and snapped a quick photo with my cell phone. A far cry from last year’s Groundhog Day blizzard if I don’t say so myself.
Friday morning, I woke up about fifteen minutes early (roughly 4:45 a.m.). Just as I was rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stretching, Terry came up to tell me he was heading to the hospital emergency room with chest pains. I followed him a few minutes later. I did the paperwork while the emergency room nurses and doctors ran a battery of tests. I sat with him, monitoring his vitals (which looked fairly normal to me) until six o’clock, when I left to pickup my vanpool riders for the commute into Kansas City (I recounted some of this in an earlier blog post). Thanks to an unseasonable thunderstorm that produced torrential downpours, the drive to work couldn’t have been more stressful. By the time I dropped off the last two riders, Terry had called to let me know the hospital was releasing him on his own recognizance to followup with his physician at his first opportunity.
Work at least settled into something a bit more normal (or at least not a flash flood of problems). I even escaped for a lunch at my favorite local sub shop, taking advantage of a free sandwich courtesy of my full punch card. I almost laughed out loud, though, when my order ‘number’ came up the Queen of Spades. What a way to cap off this week! I did really enjoy starting Archangel by Sharon Shinn, one of the two selections for February at the Beyond Reality book club. For more information about the group and the great books we read and discuss, stop by the one of the group moderator’s blogs: Far Beyond Reality.
I didn’t get any exercising done Friday. By the time I made it home Friday evening, after a quick side trip to the local liquor store for a bottle of wine, all I wanted to do was collapse. I scrounged up enough energy to chop some celery and onions to combine with sweet relish, albacore tuna and mayonaise for a couple of tuna salad sandwiches for supper.
I spent Saturday not thinking about work. I made two loaves of bread, one of which came out of the oven looking and smelling completely awesome. I immediately took a photo of my fabulous Honey Wheat bread with my cell phone and uploaded it via Twitpic to make everyone jealous. The first loaf of White Sandwich bread was still in the oven when my father stopped by for a surprise visit. While the bread cooled on the rack, we chatted away on various and sundry subjects. I sent him home with one loaf and one cookie (the last of the chocolate crinkles) about an hour and half later.
Since the weather had turned decidedly more wintery (or at least early springish), with a thick cloud cover and constant drizzle, I filled the crockpot with a savory beef stew. The aroma caused our mouths to water whenever we walked through the kitchen. By five o’clock, we each had a bowl of stew and a couple of freshly warmed Hawaiian honey wheat rolls.
We topped off the evening my braving the drizzle (which rapidly morphed into spitting snow) and driving to the Moose Lodge 1999 for the early V.D. show performed by Phyllis Killer. (V.D. meaning Valentine’s Day). Finding that particular lodge proved interesting. Have you ever seen a driveway that actually connects to an exit ramp from a highway? Yep, we drove right by it the first time. Well, it was sleeting and it was dark. After we turned around on 65th street, we found the large arrowed sign pointing the way back down the exit/entrance ramp to Turner Drive. Against all logic, I followed the sign and surprisingly, back along the curve towards the highway, I spied the driveway that literally falls off the backside of the curve embankment for the exit.
We sat through the first set of music, most of which I somewhat recognized (Terry knew more of them than I did) and one original song. We introduced ourselves to the bass player, who happens to be the husband of one of my vanpool drivers. We said our goodbyes (not wanting to stay out too late in case the weather turned even nastier) and headed back north, past the blazing Speedway lights (wasting electricity to celebrate the ‘grand opening’ of the Hollywood Casino I assume).
Never have I been so glad to put a week behind me. I will miss Marge sitting in the cube next to me, but I will not miss all the extra stress (in and out of work). I pray this next week (and all the ones that follow it) will continue to improve. I look forward to getting back together with Marge in early March for dinner and a jazz concert at the Unity Temple on the Plaza. I do plan to keep in touch with her, as much as she will allow me to.
Handel’s Theodora
I decided I’d had enough of living in the past and caught a hyperspeed transport out to Manticoran space to catch up with Honor Harrington in 
We enjoyed a pleasant lunch, starting with the Shishito Peppers appetizer. Marge ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna salad with a side of butternut squash (which we all tried). I ordered the quail and our manager had their prime burger and the Brunswick stew. While we waited on our food, I presented Marge with my gift (a giraffe pin – see photo at left) and card as well as the Southwest Airlines gift cards and retirement card signed by coworkers. The food was good, the company better but the memory will be bittersweet for me.
