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I really hate this flu, and none of us even have it.

Leif has something or other. When he's awake, he's pretty much his normal happy self, but he's been sleeping and nursing a ton, and he had a slight temperature yesterday. The worst part is that he's making this weird hooting sound when he's upset or excited or lying on his back. The doctor's office said not to bring him in unless he gets worse because they have so many flu patients right now.

So I've got a kid with some sort of breathing problem who can't even go to the doctor because of the flu :(

Admittedly, it doesn't seem life threatening. He's overall pretty happy, and doesn't seem upset by the hooting at all. But I have a feeling that, if it weren't for all the flu patients, they'd want to see him right away. The doctor we talked to yesterday initially said to take him to the emergency room, but we (the doctor and I) decided it made sense to wait and not risk exposing him to anything else.

I hope this goes away soon.

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koyote got us Palms for Christmas. These things are neat. I may actually use it :) I was resistant to getting a new palm because my old visor worked just fine for reading books, which is my primary use for it. But this one plays MP3s, too.

(It would actually have been cooler a year ago, when I actually had significant amounts of time to do things like read books and listen to mp3s while out)

I may end up actually using it for a PDA, though, since it's useful and small enough that I'll actually carry it around with me.

I briefly mentioned something about fictionwise.com before I left on vacation. They sell ebooks from popular, established authors, which is cool. Most ebook sites I've seen are basically self-publishing sites. Nothing wrong with that, but it's nice being able to get ebooks of the same books I'd buy in stores through legitimate methods.

The only problem is that their book-length books (as opposed to short stories) are generally about the same price as the cheapest available dead-tree version (books available in hardcover are in the mid to high teens on fictionwise, books in mass-market paperback are $6-$8 or so. Maybe slightly less, but no more so than if they're discounted in stores). In some cases, I've seen dead-tree versions for cheaper.

This gives me very little motivation to buy from them. I know that the production and distribution costs can't be as high, and they don't advertise that they pay authors higher royalties (which I'd be ok with), so it feels like they're just trying to rip me off. At least if I buy the dead-tree version, I can sell it back to an used bookstore.

On the other hand, they sell short stories from popular authors, often for under a dollar. This is neat. It's a service that I don't think is really provided elsewhere. You can buy genre magazines or anthologies, but you can't pick and choose which stories you want. I don't feel ripped off paying for this.

Maybe I'll email and ask them about why their prices are so high. They'll probably say something about piracy, which is silly, since the piracy is going to be done regardless of distribution method - there are plenty of people out there willing to sit around and scan a dead-tree copy. Besides, their usage restrictions are a little ridiculous. I'm not allowed to share copies of the books I buy with anyone. I'm not going to be posting my collection for anyone to read, but koyote and I are going to share, just as we share dead-tree books we buy. It'd be silly for a married couple to buy two copies of the same dead-tree book. Why would I want to pay the same price for an ebook that only I can use? I understand that sharing an ebook is not the same thing as sharing a physical book, since I can't control how many copies are made of any copy I share with someone else, but it still seems silly.

Bah. Palm Digital Media apparently suffers from the same price inflation.

Fictionwise is working on an ebook lending library, which is just a weird concept. The ebooks expire after 7-14 days, and only one person can check out a copy of a book at a time. This seems a little odd to me.