I am SO going.

I am a huge Harry Potter fan (both movies and books), and this looks amazing.

If BF can drag me to Dallas to see Southfork from the TV show “Dallas”, then I can drag him to Florida for a little Harry Potter.

Video located here.

It will be my own little….

(Slice of Paradise of course!)

I’ve noticed that I talk a lot about what I’ve already bought or am going to buy:

• Winter coat (I’ve just realized that I need one)
• Photo Albums
• Sifter (so I can start baking)

But I haven’t really mentioned what I would L-O-V-E to buy, but am consciously forgoing.

While we all have Want Lists (some, longer than others *looks away*), we all have to make choices based on our lifestyle & our financial situation to say: “Not now.”

Roland RD-700 GX Digital Grand Piano – $3000 (everything included)

Why I want it

I love playing the piano. I could spend hours working out a song, memorizing it, or just enjoying the sound.

I don’t have the space, nor the inclination to buy a piano that is too heavy to lug around, so digital pianos are my favourite option.

I originally pooh-poohed the idea of digital pianos, because I didn’t think it was possible to get a true piano sound out of them.

And I feel as though I am wrong, and I should look at this brand further.

What else is included in that price tag

Enter the Roland RD-700 GX Stage Piano.

I tried it out in the store, and it was good.. but I am not sure if it’s because I was so surprised at how good it was, or if it was really close to a grand piano sound.

This is also the newest model they have out, and the Grand Piano sound is pretty good, but I don’t know how I’d feel with it, unless I was at home, really practicing on it.

But a digital piano needs a stand to hold it up, a chair (unless you can adjust it to your chair height), a padded case with wheels to tote it around for when we finally move, and possibly speakers if you want to play out loud.

And for that price, it’s kind of expensive.

Why I am waiting

It’s $3000 all included!! That’s a crazy amount of money for a piano, and although I REALLY want it, I cannot justify buying it right now for 2 major reasons:

1. I am not on contract

2. We are going to move soon, and the less I move this heavy but portable piano, especially with those luggage handlers at the airport, the better.

It’s just too expensive and heavy to buy and use right now.

I may end up never getting it, if we move, and I get a second hand real piano instead.

What is my alternative

Going back to Toronto & spending hours on my family piano instead. Which is definitely something I do every time I go back to Ontario.

I am also going to look out for places that have free pianos for students to practice on. Maybe I can get in there…

Or go to the piano store and try it out again to see if it really is as good as I thought it sounded.

Any piano players out there with other options? Or have you tried the Roland RD-700 GX for yourself? What did you think?

Sony PRS600R E-Book Reader – $200 – $400?

Why I want it

I love reading, and I love books. 

Reading a book over and over again might be boring to some, but is TOTALLY what I do!

I also really hate holding heavy books when I am in bed, because my arm gets tired.

Sometimes, the book print is too close and small for my eyes, and to avoid eye strain, I have to put down the book ever so often.

E-Book readers can make the font larger, which is what I love.

And the most important reason of all? I want a library, but I don’t want the bulk of it.

I don’t really care that it costs more than buying a book second-hand, or going to the library for free.

I would still use the library to borrow books, and then the e-reader to buy & keep the digital version of what I love to read.

What else is included in the price tag?

Not much else. It depends on what brand you want to buy.

I am interested in the newest Sony PRS600R E-Reader for $400, but in stores, I can’t even review it or see it in action, so I am hesitant about dropping $400 on it, buying an e-book, and realizing I HATE IT.

That would be a waste of an e-book purchase from the eBook store from Sony.

All I know is that I would love to review it, and the Amazon Kindle does not light my fire (get it? “kindle”? haha.. okay fine).

Why am I waiting

Because I can’t really review or touch it. There aren’t many stores here that will let you whip it out and try it out.

I have no idea what the ease of use is like, the interface, the e-ink technology… this is all new business for me!

And I also want to be sure that if I buy a book, it will have enough space to store it, I will be able to make notes on paragraphs I find interesting for future reference, and that it’s light enough to hold up in bed.

What I really want, is to personally do an honest review of the product.

I don’t even know how I would buy the books online, and if I don’t like the book within a certain day, to return it.

Or if it comes with any other features that might be interesting.

What are my alternatives?

Wait for a cheaper model of another brand. I heard some other companies are coming up fast on the heels of Sony and Amazon, and maybe if I wait I can get those for cheaper, AND be able to give an honest review.

That, or hope that a PR company out there is kind enough to send me one.

I am also just going to stick to the library until I can get my hands on a Sony E-Reader PRS600R.

I do love that it’s a touch interface without any buttons, and the design looks sleek, which is important for me.

Any readers out there with other options? Or have you tried the Sony PRS600 for yourself? What did you think?

So that’s it. Two things that are major purchases I am waiting for, for various reasons (moving & being able to review/touch it)

What are YOU waiting for?

Well-Heeled talked about this recently with paying a tutor to help her brush up on her Mandarin.

For me, I am taking a different tack, and the tack has a name: FREE.

• No paid tutor (BF is free and willing to help me learn one-on-one).
• Free French/English book here and there using Swagbucks.
• Listening to French radio and watching movies in French.
• BF only has French friends who speak a passable, painful English, so they are more than happy AND RELIEVED to speak in their native tongue.

Total French Immersion.

In case you’re wondering, Jaka on Twitter asked if I was Parisian French or Quebecois French, and the answer is Parisian for everything.

The internet has literally become my only English refuge.

(That, and calling my mom every week.)

Getting a Free French/English Visual Dictionary

I decided to redeem my free Swagbucks points for Amazon.ca gift certificates to buy a French/English Visual Dictionary.

(45 Swagbucks needed for each $5 gift certificates at Amazon.ca)

They were finally posted to my account a whole 17 business days later, but someone tweeted to me that they actually pay out the cards on the 1st and the 17th of each month.

So if you happened to JUST miss the 1st, you wait until the 17th.

Ahhh.. *light bulb* That makes more sense.

If you don’t know anything about Swagbucks , read this — you can get free cash and gift certificates just by searching with Swagbucks .

The Firefly French/English Visual Dictionary – $22

I pawed through it at the local Chapters, and I like how everything is laid out and clear.

Some said that the book didn’t have masculin or feminin indications for each word, but if you lean your face up very close to the book and squint, each word has a little ‘m‘ or ‘f‘ to indicate what gender each word is.

By the way, I also learned the single most important, eye-opening trick about speaking the French Language I thought I’d pass on, because beginning English-speaking French-learners out there may not know.

Memorizing all of the verb conjugations is not (really) required at the start!!

Unless you are writing a formal book, there is no immediate need to memorize all the conjugations.

Apparently, for everyday, quick, workable French for beginners, you just need to know:

1. Présent (Present)
2. Passé Composé (Past)
3. The verb Aller (To Go) for all future tenses

Example: The conjugations of I have, I had, I will have:

Présent (Present) = I have = J’ai

Passé Composé (Past) = I had = J’ai eu

The verb Aller (To Go) for all future tenses = I will have = Je vais avoir

And all of this damn time, here I was memorizing Imparfait (Imperfect), Futur (Future) and other exceptional situations for verbs, and it was not necessary for just speaking colloquial French in the beginning!!!

This was taxing on my brain because there are SO many verbs, and with each verb having its own set of 22 conjugations that change for each person makes you want to tear your hair out.

Sorry. I just couldn't resist.

Apparently, not even the French use every single one of those verb conjugations perfectly on a day-to-day basis.

They DO use them occasionally, but if you are a beginner in French, stick to the major 3 until you’re comfortable and then work out from there.

Sure, they learned it in school, but if they were to try and speak and write perfectly using all the conjugations, they’d have to look up a couple of verbs here and there.

And apparently they even find it odd if you try to use perfect French conjugations for every situation, teasing you with “What, you’re trying to be a Professor of French now?”

(True story.)

Things I hate & love about learning French

I hate Masculin/Feminin genders for each word:

Very confusing.

Why is my belly masculine when I am a female? And how can a chair be feminine?

Very odd.

I love that having to learn another language forces you to learn the structure of your own language first.

This is really an eye-opener for me.

I love this. Now I can learn more about my own language as well as the new one.

I love that if I don’t know the word in French, some of the time, it’s English with an Frenchified accent

A lot of French verbs that are used regularly, are actually old English verbs that have fallen out of colloquial use.

None come to mind right now, but it makes it easier for me to learn when I kind of know what the word means in English.

Sometimes, I’ve pulled words out of the English vocabulary, added a Frenchified accent to it, and have been pleasantly surprised that it was the correct word! Score.

I hate having specific conjugations for each person:

I, You, Her, Him, Us, You (Formal), They (Male), They (Female) each have their own conjugation within each verb times 15 conjugations depending on the time frame and position of the verb in the sentence.

I am always losing time conjugating the verb after seeing who I am addressing. It’s getting easier, but sometimes I get flustered.

On average, you have to memorize 8 x 22 = 176 conjugations PER VERB.

A single verb has 176 ways to conjugate that verb.

Thank GOODNESS they only use Présent (Present), Passé Composé (Past) and the verb Aller (To Go) for all future tenses.

In English, it’s just one conjugation for Present, Past and Future.

I am going. I have gone. I will go.

It doesn’t matter if it’s We are going, or You are going, or He is going.

It’s always conjugated for the Present tense with the word going.

English also has a lot more words to describe everything, in any situation & for every emotion

… and if we don’t have the word, we steal it from other languages.

Like schadenfreude from the German language to mean “taking pleasure in another’s pain”.

A French friend once asked me: “What is the difference between weeping, crying, sobbing, tearing up and all the other words you have to describe the action of crying?”

FB: From what I understand from reading books, weeping is like a sorrowful sob. Like if a widow just lost her husband. She quietly weeps for him without screaming or making a lot of noise.

Or “the flowers in the rain weep and mourn for those who have passed”.

Crying is like a baby crying. You can say the widow is crying but it doesn’t denote the emotion of the situation of WHY she’s crying. Crying is more general.

Sobbing is like chest-wracking tears, it’s loud, it’s wet and you half scream. It’s a cry of anguish and pain.

Tearing up is just little tears dripping down your face, but no sounds. Usually when someone pinches you, you tear up. Or if you watch a really sad movie. It’s a little bit of emotion.

Frenchie: …. Merde.

FB: *pat pat* Don’t worry.

I don’t understand how a name of country can be masculine or feminine either, or why you have so many conjugations for a single verb.

So that’s where I am currently.

Fairly comfortable and fluent with the language, but naturally as in everything we do, it all comes down to the details of speaking it properly. Not just speaking it haphazardly.

A long trek up but a good one.

I didn’t plan on going downtown today.

I was planning on going tomorrow and spending the whole day.

But BF must have been psychic and read my mind, asking me if I wanted to go for a little walk downtown instead of biking.

So, I set out to buy some Birkenstocks but somehow I didn’t see any in the stores.

Headed to the little shoe store Little Burgundy on Ste-Catherine, but they didn’t have the full range of Birks, and it was just too loud & crowded.

(Don’t you hate it when they play the music so loud it makes you want to leave? Even worse if it’s in loud, brain-jarring techno.)

I will have to go back another time to the Westmount area, to dedicated Birks stores.

Anyway, this is what I got:

6 Headbands = $14

I somehow snapped all of them and was down to my last headband. I saw them on sale, and didn’t hesitate.

3 sets of brown knee-high bamboo socks = $20.52

I love bamboo socks. Super soft, anti-bacterial and comfortable.

Plus, they don’t stretch out of shape and soak up the sweat from my feet (ewww gross) and stay sweaty the whole day.

A book on 101 essential French verb conjugations = $10.95

I thought I’d start off slow and memorize these first, then move on to the next billion.

A book on Cantonese Chinese for Hong Kong & Singapore = $9.95

BF laughed at me. I’ll show him!

First Aid Tape = $3.29

For the blisters I am eventually going to have.This will be used to cover open spots, that will let the skin breathe, but not chafe until it bleeds.

I’m still going to wrap my toes before I go out touring for the day in Asia, but I am going to get blisters, whether I like it or not, because we are going to walk like crazy.

Not pictured:

• Haagen-Daaz ice cream bar for BF= $4.39 (OUCH! BF has expensive tastes!)
• A drink for me = $0.99

Total Damage for the day: $65.14

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I still have to get those Birkenstocks, ear plugs and some adapters for overseas, but that about does it for my list of things to get for the upcoming trip & in general.

FB Reminder: I am away on vacation right now. This post has been scheduled ahead of time.
I won’t be moderating comments until end of August 2009. Thanks for your patience!

Lisa Joy said: Which books are you keeping, Minimalist FB? Tell me.. TELL ME!

Umm.. none. *sheepish*

I thought about keeping my favourites like the Anne Bishops, Kinsellas, Eddings, so on and on, but in the end, I dug deep into my soul and asked myself if I really wanted to lug all of these heavy books in an already limited suitcase space across the world.

Took me 3 seconds to decide to get rid of all of them. I was a demoness in cleaning out my room!!!

The only books I kept were:

• Manga I absolutely cannot part with (Usagi Yojimbo & Lone Wolf and Cub) — Back me up on this Revanche….
• My yearbooks (Call me sentimental…)
• 3 books I couldn’t find in e-books and were out of print

Everything else that could be found on (.pdf) or in an e-book, went away to live in other people’s homes.

I sorted them into “SELL” and “DONATE” piles, and let me tell you, that donate pile was 8 boxes FULL of books, even BF my Minimalist Partner in Crime was shocked.

BF: That’s a LOT of stuff. FB: Umm.. I like to read. You saw my old pictures. I was fat. How did you think I got fat? By reading. BF: Are you telling me that books made you fat? How is that possible? Reading burns more calories. FB: No. Eating chocolate while reading a lot as an inactive child made me fat. I didn’t read enough to burn off 800 calories every hour. Trust me.

I sold about 30% of the books I owned. Any book that is fairly recent, hard covered mostly, in like-new condition and fun went into my bags and I trudged downtown to sell them all.

Made $180 total, but I think my back is screaming in protest from what I had to lug around.

Note to self: Bring a suitcase on rollies next time.

By the way, a little tip from me to you, used bookstores are surprisingly picky about what they take.

They love books on Philosophy & obscure subjects I never read, so I was SOL there.

I could have definitely sold them on Amazon, but unluckily for me, I live in Canada, and shipping up here is a b*tch on crack. If I was in the States, no problem. Shipping is pretty cheap for y’all, but not up here.

Plus, I’m only there for a short period of time. I don’t have time to be listing and selling suitcases full of books just to make a couple of dollars, when living in a different city.

I just want(ed) the clutter GONE.

In fact, I’m itching to go back and donate more….

TWO FB GIVEAWAYS THIS MONTH!