Day: January 5, 2009

For many, many, MANY a year, I have had some form of TV cable.  This most usually comes with some form of rental box that you attach to your TV set, also knows as the digital cable box.

I was chatting with Steve and he mentioned how we purchased an HD-PVR for $250 the other day on Boxing Day because someone pointed out that the thing costs $20 a month to rent anyhow, so within a year, you would have paid it off.

This got me thinking about the rental fee I pay for my cable box.  Granted, for years, I just thought that renting the thing would be less of a hassle if it should break.

But it hasn’t ever broken on me.  This has been for the past three years of living here.

At $4.50 a month to rent it, I have essentially paid $81 so far for this piece of machinery.

I can pick one up at Future Shop for $50.

So ask yourself this, what’s worthwhile to you?  Is it the peace of mind you purchase in knowing that if your rental digital box breaks down, you can have it replaced without any additional cost (other than the monthly fee you already pay) or is it more worthwhile to save some cash?

When I was visiting Katie back in November, I asked her to pull out her favourite book for me to read.  At the time, I had only wanted a book to read and realized that it would be interesting to see what reading a person’s favourite book could tell me about that person.

I am going to continue that experiment throughout 2009, if not for the next few years.  I have asked a few people over the holidays to pass me their favourite books of all time and I will get around to reading them.

My hopes in reading these books is really not to have a read that I will enjoy.  If I wanted that, I would have asked for a book that people think I would enjoy.  I want to find out what my friends/family enjoy and perhaps it will give a little insight into their brain and what they enjoy.

Plus it allows me to have a conversation with people and find out why they are so passionate about it.

So feel free, as faithful readers to Palmer’s World, to let me know what your all-time favourite book is and if possible, pass it to me to read.  This will be an ongoing experiment.  So far, I have finished Katie’s favourite read and it was interesting (but I’m waiting to hear back from her as to why she thinks of it as one of her favourites…is it the writing style?  The subject matter?), and am now reading another book that my colleague Mark suggested.  However, this book is larger than the bible and deals with subject matter concerning slavery, genocide and other grand topics.  It’s an interesting read but will take up much of my time to finish.  It is called ‘The Culture of Make Believe’ by Derrick Jensen.

UPDATE:  I think the goal of this quest is to not hear about some good book suggestions…I’m talking about the cream of the crop, the one you can’t live without on an island…I want your FAVOURITE BOOK EVER!  Is it an impossible task?  Perhaps.  But have some fun with it!  Even if you tell me it’s Encyclopedia Brown, that’s a legendary choice.