Far from my near-daily consumption of The Daily Show that the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign saw, this sole cable show that had once argued for a $400+/yr cable package can now be bought for $125/yr on iTunes, assuming I was watching every episode, not to mention simply watched piecemeal on the Comedy Central site.  Dollhouse we were watching on Hulu last autumn in a vain attempt to help get the show renewed, and pretty much everything else is Netflix nowadays.  The radio shows are almost all podcasts now.  And my recent media-unifying installation of Plex on the living room computer was really the nail in the coffin.

So, there it is.  I just cancelled everything but Basic cable (and would’ve cancelled that, too, if they didn’t demand you pay them for it with the broadband regardless of whether or not you use it).  They’re sending someone physically out to the house with some wire cutters or a hacksaw in a couple of days.

It seems to me the FCC is totally on the right track with the broadband-centric plan.  Maybe we’ll even be able to unsubscribe from Basic cable one day.

The baby apparently comes with needs beyond books, though, and we’re currently rearranging the house to make room for those needs that take up material space.  Baby clothes, for example.  And that’s forcing us to come to grips with exactly how many books we’re housing, and that line of thinking led me to wonder exactly how much we’re paying to store the books (nevermind purchase them).

So.  We have a three bedroom flat in the greater Boston area.  Wandering over to Craigslist and grabbing the first 1000 listings, I find the average asking price for a three bedroom apartment in the Boston area.  $2,913.88, as it happens.

Then I do the same for an average four bedroom.  $3,325.29 as of the moment.

So if we were renting an average three bedroom in the Boston area and found ourselves so bursting at the seams with books we needed a bigger place, we could move to a place with an extra room for an extra $400 a month or so.  Sounds about right.

Let’s say it’s an average-sized room, perhaps 10′ x 11′, so 110′ of wall, less about 11′ for a door, couple of windows, and (ha!) a closet.  So 100 linear feet of wall space.

Counting up a few shelves of books around the house, I find that each book averages about 1″ of shelf space, give-or-take.  And our bookshelves are six shelves high.

So that extra $400 a month, assuming we use all the wall space for bookshelves and stick a work table or something in the middle of the room, gets us space for another 7200 books.  That’s about 5.5¢ per book per month, or 67¢ per book per year.

So a decade of storing a paperback costs us as much as the original book cost.

Hm.  Time to get sliding library shelves.  Or a more compact baby.

This week we went to chilly Florida, where we got to see the last (scheduled) nighttime Space Shuttle launch.

The first night we were treated to a few of the wee hours hanging out in Space View park, freezing along with a few hundred other wanna-sees.  As the launch window approached our few hundred friends ballooned to a few thousand, all present to share the launch scrubbing.  Space shuttles fear clouds.

The second night we brilliantly reserved a walking-distance hotel, allowing us to sleep until the magic hour of 3am and then stumble down the street to a more intimate gathering near a local pump station of some variety.  A 4 ish year old was complaining about being hauled out of bed to sit in the cold, giving voice to everyone’s inner thoughts.  And then there was a mumbled new-year’s-eve-esque countdown among the people who actually had access to inside information.  My iPhone’s data connection had long ago been overwhelmed by everyone sharing the local cell tower.

I had already digested the idea that I’d be going to see a cool significant historic event, but somehow I hadn’t really processed the idea that I’d be seeing the biggest fireworks show that I’ve ever attended.  Four million pounds of fuel, give-or-take, 95% of what’s on the launchpad.

So my new friends finish the countdown, and someone lights the wick.  And it’s suddenly daylight.  Several people, myself included, are unable to resist saying “wow” aloud.  Repeatedly.

A while later, the sound arrives.  And gets louder.  And louder.  Before the peak I start getting worried that the sound is going to hurt, but it peaks well below there.  Still, I figure the whole Florida Atlantic coast is awake at this point.

Before and after pictures below.  You’ve got four more chances.

So, when watching Avatar last night, it seems they said “unobtainium.”  A few times.  The characters.  On screen.  And I thought “wait, did they just say ’unobtanium’?  Like, in the post-script-editing, still audible in the final release way?  Because I think that’s a ‘laugh at this movie now’ flag.  Take a Jerry Bruckheimer script, add the word ‘unobtanium’ into it, and then audiences know they’re supposed to laugh at this one.  Right?”

That said, visually stunning.  Well worth seeing it in 3D if you’re going to see it.  Also well worth not seeing if you’re looking for anything other than the visually stunning thing.