The Nintendo DS seems like it would make the perfect eBook reader. It's more compact than the Sony Reader or the Kindle, is shaped like a book, and is hundreds of dollars cheaper. While Nintendo hasn't quite caught on to how awesome this is, the DS homebrew community has and now anyone can turn their DS into an eReader as good as any Kindle.

Once you have switched to eBooks, you won't want to go back to paper. I have been using my DS as an eBook reader for months, and I love it. I carry it with me everywhere. The DS is smaller than the smallest paperback, and can hold hundreds of novels. My wife owns a copy of the book I am currently reading on my DS (The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley). Her copy weighs over a pound. Mine is tiny and fits in my pocket.

Seriously, give this a try.

This Youtube video might give you a sense of what the experience will be like. It demonstrates several pieces of software, the first of which is DSLibris, the subject of this tutorial. My apologies for the German - it was the only video I could find.

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So by what I can gather from wunderground.com and the weather outside my girlfriend's house, most of Western Washington is sitting under a few inches of show.

Seeing the snow fall over Bellingham reminds me of the post-Thanksgiving blizzard that struck the area two years ago. No one was really prepared for two feet of snow.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and those days were no different. I had to walk everywhere I went because I had no car (even if I did, I wouldn't have had chains) and I had no footwear worthy of this weather. Frankly I'm not going to buy nice boots for the two days of the year it snows. So I invented a simple solution that kept my feet relatively warm and dry, and might help you out in the current storm.

Materials:

One pair of sneakers
Two or more pairs of socks
two or more plastic garbage (preferred) or grocery bags.

1: Put on all of the socks you wish to use except one pair. These insulate your foot.

2: Wrap your besocked foot in your plastic bags. This forms a waterproof layer. Garbage bags are thicker plastic with fewer holes, but not many people have smallish trash bags. I stole mine from a dorm's front desk. If you have them, they are worth it. If not, then a few grocery bags should work.

3. Put your last pair of socks over the bags. These are going to get completely soaked, but their only purpose is to hold your bags tight against your foot.

4. Put on your shoes and tuck the openings of the bags under your pant legs. You don't want snow to fall into the opening and melt.

5. Go out.

It's not perfect, but I walked halfway across Bellingham in two feet of snow with these shoes and I still have all my toes.

Warning: not for children under 5. Choking hazard.