In which I complete an unpremeditated transaction.

I woke up this morning to the sound of my cell phone trilling. I had a text message. The message informed me that my paycheck had been direct-deposited into my account. Money! Yay!

During my lunch break this afternoon, I dutifully went to the post office and bought two money orders: one for mom, one for the lab that doesn’t take plastic. Later, I dutifully called and paid the surgeon and the anesthesiologist their payments.

And just now? I went to eBay and bought one of these, with a 128Mb storage card, for no good reason.

I had no intention of buying a dedicated ebook reader; it just happened. I’ve been thinking about getting one for awhile now, because while I used to love the multipurpose functionality of my Pocket PC, I no longer use it for anything but ebook reading (I use my cell phone for everything) and the form factor’s not as ideal for that as it could be.

Not only is the 1150 much less expensive than the Kindle or the Sony Reader, but it boasts instant page-turns (without the Kindle’s momentary blackscreen), a back-light, free online storage, a built-in dictionary, built-in dial-up modem, a USB port, and a gray-scale display equal to the other more expensive devices.

It seems like the 1150 is best option available, particularly considering the Kindle’s page-turn bug would drive me utterly bat shit within moments and that neither of the other devices have built-in freakin’ backlight, AND with the bundled expansion card it holds 200 books – more than either of the others. (How in the hell is someone supposed to be able to read in the dark with a device that isn’t fucking back lit? Gah!)

Anyway. I have yet to see the thing, so I don’t know if it’s really all that or not. But I think I’m gonna love it and hold it and pat it and squeeze it and call it George, and that’s the coolest thing that’s happened all day!