•    Shredding!   

    Our current paper shredder can handle only three pages at a time and throws up (i.e., breaks) when fed staples, CDs, or DVDs. It is very unsatisfying. And as the Mayor of Buffy’s Sunnydale knew, shredding is supposed to be a fulfilling, Zen-like activity:

    Mayor: “It’s not working.”
    Mr. Trick: “It’s supposed to do something besides shred?”
    Mayor: “It’s supposed to cheer me up. Usually, using the shredder gives me a lift. It’s fun.”
    Mr. Trick: “And today, you’re not getting the ya-yas?”
    Mayor: “No. I guess it’ll take more than this to turn my frown upside down.”

    I have a new shredder on order, as I’ve been finding many boxes stuffed full of VIPs (Very Important Papers) in the garage. Three pages at once is just not going to cut it (tee hee).

    Who knew there were so many options when considering a paper shredder? There are light duty, medium duty, and heavy duty models. There are various “throat” sizes. You can choose from strip-cutting, cross-cutting, micro-cutting, and more.

    And you can spend anywhere from $50 to $2,500 satisfying your shred-lust.

    The one I’ve got on order was originally $160, but is currently $30 off with a $50 rebate, and I have a $25 discount card. Before tax, this baby is going to cost me only a bit more than a third of its original price–sweet!

    By the way, shredders have a very interesting history, with characters ranging from pasta-makers to anti-Nazi propagandists to Oliver North. Who knew?

  •    Comic books!   

    BEEP! Jon is too busy being genuinely nerdy (bug hunting, programming, keeping clients happy) to come to the blog right now.

    So, you get to hear from me again.

    We have a HUGE comic book collection. There are stacks of long white boxes in our garage, and not a small number of the shorter white boxes. Some of the books have been properly archived with bags and boards, but some have not, so I’m on that duty these days. In addition, I’ve been practicing the alphabet as I put the books in some sort of order. (Let’s see, it goes X-Men, Amazing X-Men, New X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and X-treme X-Men, right? or should X-Men go before X-treme X-Men? hmm…)

    In an attempt to catalog the collection–and to find out exactly how large it is–I twisted my own arm this week and bought a copy of ComicBase Express and a barcode scanner.  (Check them out at http://www.comicbase.com.)

    I can’t wait until my new tools arrive!

    (Yes, we go to Comic-Con. Do you really need to ask?)