If you happen to be reading this blog post on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving then I have a question for you. What are you doing at home? Why aren't you out at the after Thanksgiving Day sales? After all, it's Black Friday you know.
The idea that you're at home, perhaps still in your pajamas reading my blog is flattering but you're not doing much to improve the economy.
Let me help you kill two birds with one stone. My birthday is a little more than a week away and there are only 27 shopping day until Christmas. Here's my wish list. (Not that I expect any of you to go out and buy me a gift but perhaps you'll get some ideas for the people on your own Christmas list after seeing my personal objects of desire.)
The News-Press meltdown story has been good to me, and a copy of the Citizen McCaw DVD, always makes a perfect gift. But it's easy to forget what a good paper and force in the community the News-Press was before Wendy McCaw came along. A good reminder is the book Santa Barbara and the News-Press
by Charles A. Storke, Jr.
Newspapers are dead anyway right? Not exactly. In the future we'll still read news, features and columns everyday, just not on a printed page that's delivered to your door by some pimply faced high school kid trying to make some extra change. The future of news delivery is Amazon's Kindle. Newspapers that are available on the Kindle include the L.A. Times, New York Times and the Washington Post. Sorry, no News-Press (I guess they don't publish enough "news" to fill a page on the Kindle.)You can also download books and magazines to read on the Kindle, all wirelessly and like magic.
Need a good almanac or guide to Santa Barbara? Try the recently published book Hometown Santa Barbara. The insider's guide to Santa Barbara, it explores our town from every angle and gives insight into where prominent locals, like SB Film Fest director Roger Durling, artist Hank Pitcher and model Kathy Ireland go to have fun.The book was written as a team effort with local writers including Leslie Dinaberg, Starshine Roshell, Zak Klobucher and Hillary Hauser contributing to it.
And speaking of Starshine, the popular columnist for the Independent has her own book out, called Keep Your Skirt On.Before I take my next trip (blog withdrawal alert: it's going to be soon) I want to get an Eye-Fi SD card
for my digital camera. That way I can take photos and send them to my Flickr photo page, or to my blog, wirelessly from the camera and leave my laptop at home.Is anybody in Santa Barbara obeying the "hands-free cell phone law?" Doesn't look like it to me!
Are you going to make me track you down and slap your around for being a cell phone scofflaw?
Not being a fan of the Klingon look one gets from walking around with a wireless ear piece
embedded in their ear, the best solution I've found is one of those speakers that clips to the sun visor of your car and connects to your cell phone through its bluetooth connection. My personal favorite is the Motorola T505 but Motorola also has a less expensive model with fewer bells and whistles.But even if you don't want to go with one of these solutions, at least get the old fashioned wired ear piece
. After all, if you're driving a BMW or Range Rover there's no excuse for not spending another couple of bucks so that you can obey the law.There you have it, that's my wish list. Now if I could only get my son and my daughter to read this blog.
