The Yin Blog

The Mall of America and the Minn.-St. Paul airport

So the other day, I was flying from Portland to Iowa City, with a stop in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.  Naturally, I arrived in the F terminal and had to head over to the A terminal, which gave me a nice scenic tour of the airport, including that section in the middle that looks a lot like a shopping mall.

The strangest airport store that I saw was one for the Mall of America.

Are you kidding?  The Mall of America has its own mall store in the MSP airport?!?

7 years of separation(s)

I was just thinking today about how 7 years seems to be a defining period for me going back a ways now.  I finished college in 1988 without much of an idea of what I wanted to do for a career.  7 years later, I finished law school in 1995 with a very clear idea (become a law professor).  7 years after that, I started teaching law here at the University of Iowa in 2002.  And 7 years have passed since then, and now I'm about to move on to teaching law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Oregon.  Pretty coincidental . . . .

Signs of the end of TiVo?

As I've blogged before, I absolutely *love* my TiVo . . . .  But I'm afraid that I see signs of the end of its viability as a company.

With my move to Oregon less than a month away now, I've been getting utilities set up.  For water, gas, electricity, and garbage/recycling, there was no choice, but for telephone/Internet/TV, it was basically between Qwest/DirectTV or Comcast.  (VerizonFiOS is available in parts of Portland, but apparently not where we're going to be living.  Boo.)  From doing some research online, it seemed like the choice came down to Qwest's being cheaper but possibly slower online and definitely more frustrating on customer service, compared to Comcast's higher expense.

Anyway, the part relevant to TiVo is that both Comcast and DirectTV apparently scramble their signals, so you need their unscrambling boxes to watch anything.  This is great for them, since they can sell you their DVR service, but it looks to be pretty bad for TiVo, which can't do the nifty "season pass" recording and all the other smart stuff it's known for.

On clutter vs costs, when it comes to books

With our move to Oregon about a month away, we've started the packing process.  As you might expect, we have a lot of books.  And I have a penchant for collecting hardcover books (new, remainders, or used), which take up a lot of space and weigh a ton.

A few months ago, my wife got a Sony e-reader, which she calls the ultimate "declutter" device.  It carries up to 160 books on a thin device that's smaller than a trade paperback.  It would take me about two small moving boxes to fit that many paperbacks, and about seven to fit that many hardcovers.

However, I've been participating in Amazon's Vine program, through which I've been getting advance reader copies of various books, mostly fiction, for free to review.  The ARCs aren't as heavy as hardcovers, but they're about the same size, and therefore the same clutter.

It's hard to argue against free books.  But it's also hard to argue against decluttering . . . .  I'm not sure which of us is doing the better job.

My unknown Good Samaritan!

You have to love Iowa City!

Today, I was biking home from the law school (for the first time), and somehow, unknown to me, my bike bag fell off my rack.  When I got home, I got off my bike and turned to get the bag, only to see it wasn't there!  There was nothing critical inside, although there was a check I needed to mail to a contractor, and some HR paperwork.  But the bag itself was $40.

So I backtracked all the way back to where I last knew I had it, but . . . nothing.

I called the bank to stop payment on the check, and then we went out for dinner.  When we got back, my bike bag was resting on our front step.  Whoever picked it up saw the return address on the unmailed envelope and dropped it off for me.  How awesome is that?!?