E-readers take longer to read than books
Month: July 2010
The title says it all: Kindle and iPad Books Take Longer to Read than Print:
30 poems in 30 days challenge
Deborah (of 32 Poems) invites interested persons to write a poem a day for the next 30 days. The invite was sent out on Sunday (and I didn’t read it until today… so, I’m a bit late), but I think I’m up for the challenge. Anyone else?
Read more details about the challenge here: 30 Poems in 30 Days.
In our obscure life, for instance, how easy it is to turn from the masters falling into the sea. No doubt they were amazing— the whiteness of their legs in the green water!— but it is not an important failure. The living eat a cold peach delicious from the refrigerator or cleanse the…
Brewing a cup of coffee with an infuser A few months ago I began brewing my coffee through a tea infuser. The glass decanter for a coffee press I used had shattered and I was awaiting… read more »
The ritualistic ceremony of brewing coffee is not about speed
A few months ago I began brewing my coffee through a tea infuser. The glass decanter for a coffee press I used had shattered and I was awaiting shipment of a stainless steel coffee press. So I brewed a cup of coffee with an infuser and was amazed by an excellent cup of my favorite bean beverage.
The stainless steel coffee press arrived and I began using it daily. It took me awhile to get used to the taste (coffee tastes slightly different in a steel press). The convenience of putting the coffee grounds in the press, adding hot water, pressing, and (more often than I’d like to admit) hauling the press to the office.
Then a programmable coffee maker arrived and I was giddy at that thought of waking up each morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. After a few days of that I decided to revert back to the slow process of a single cup of infused coffee. The coffee maker added a plastic oily taste that I really didn’t enjoy. The steel coffee press had a slight metallic taste that reminded me of drinking coffee from an enamel metal camp cup (which wasn’t bad, just different). The glass coffee press had the best flavor. But there’s something about the slow, ritualistic ceremony of pouring hot water onto the infuser and watching a light layer of foam appear on the grounds that is very appealing to me.
When I read the following story in the Mountain Xpress, I found a local establishment that caters to me coffee snob tastes. Here’s five comments made in the article:
- Espresso beans are like bananas.
- Coffee shouldn’t be about speed.
- It’s espresso, not EXpresso, people.
- Dark roast does not have more caffeine than lighter roasts.
- “Fair Trade” doesn’t really mean much of anything.
It is not so much that I miss you, Dorothea Grossman
It is not so much that I miss you
as the remembering
which I suppose is a form of missing
except more positive,
like the time of the blackout
when fear was my first response
followed by love of the dark.
5 Blogging Tips
Here’s a five step approach to successful blogging list I discovered.
- Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You
- How Can I Be Helpful?
- The Actual Writing
- Review The Last Few Weeks’ Posts
- Repeat
Here’s a five step approach to successful blogging list I discovered.
Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You
How Can I Be Helpful?
The Actual Writing
Review The Last Few Weeks’ Posts
Repeat
read more »
Poetry fisticuff
In one corner Billy Collins. In the other corner CA Conrad for a dispute over Emily Dickinson’s sexual preference. This should be a great fisticuff battle… except it’s taking place in the American poetry scene which will be mostly ignored by the general public.
In one corner Billy Collins. In the other corner CA Conrad for a dispute over Emily Dickinson’s sexual preference. This should be a great fisticuff battle… except it’s taking place in the… read more »
4 reasons why ad agencies are impotent at branding
Repeat after me: Branding is product, service and experience.* It’s not a wicked cool logo with drop shadow and PMS color key nor a catchy slogan. It’s simple and complicated and it’s why ad agencies typically don’t get it.
- Ad placement drives profits
- Advertising creatives are spoiled. And entitled. And enabled.
- The integrated agency is a fallacy
- Advertising is a knock-knock joke. Design is a dialogue
Design is dialogue sums it up for me. Know your audience, build community, and provide consistent, satisfactory customer experience.
*Watch this video for an excellent overview of what brand is (via AdPulp).
A good book is like a good conversation with a good friend.
Repeat after me: Branding is product, service and experience.* It’s not a wicked cool logo with drop shadow and PMS color key nor a catchy slogan. It’s simple and complicated and it’s why ad… read more »
kipple
noun • useless junk, especially junk you don’t remember acquiring.
Coined by Philip K. Dick.
A baby albino crow is now a permanent resident of Monika’s Wildlife Shelter in Surrey.
The male crow, about five weeks old, was turned in to the shelter Wednesday. Monika Tolksdorf, who runs the centre, says it’s not “a total rarity” to find a white crow, but that the bird won’t survive if released.
“Usually they die, because most of them go blind because they have no protection from the sun,” she says.
Tolksdorf says the crow was not injured when it arrived.
On average, one or two albino crows arrive at the shelter every year.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/Albino+crow+taken+Surrey+wildlife+shelter+includes+video+attack+crows/3110245/story.html#ixzz0qBNsffSn
Hey, if Buddhism and other Eastern traditions are about compassion, why not skip the scented bath, skip making amends with the self, skip realization of “the opportunity to embrace aparigraha or non-grasping.” Instead, go down to the local soup kitchen or homeless shelter and help some people who don’t have the resources to send flowers to themselves, people who actually need help. Rather than continuing the endless processes of anointing yourself with overly scented candlelit self-love.
carfax
noun • a junction of four roads; the main intersection in a town.
From an Anglicisation of the Latin quadrifurcus “four-pronged, four-forked”
malapert
adjective • /mălˈə-pûrtˌ/ • impudently bold in speech or manner; saucy.
noun • an impudent, saucy person.
“Reading aloud lets you craft great writing” writes James (of Men with Pens) how goes on to offer a few tips on writing including: We Have Voices in Our Heads Have You Lost Your Voice? … read more »
Writing tip: Read it aloud
“Reading aloud lets you craft great writing” writes James (of Men with Pens) how goes on to offer a few tips on writing including:
- We Have Voices in Our Heads
- Have You Lost Your Voice?
- Reading Aloud Without Saying a Word
Link: How to Become a Better Writer and Get Readers Loving You
The last couple months I’ve been writing scripts for a proof of concept (POC) audio production. Often I’ll find myself pausing during a reading and re-write portions of copy because it sounds weak or clunky or maybe too upbeat when it should be somber. During a recording session with other voice talent, we may continue revising copy because transitions, though they look good on paper, may not perform well. So, yes, reading your writing out load us beneficial to improving writing skills.
I’m reading an anthology of steampunk essays and fiction titled, well, Steampunk. It’s a sub-genre of science-, speculative-, historical-fiction. What’s intriguing to me is the hard-boiled… read more »
Strange, like fiction
I’m reading an anthology of steampunk essays and fiction titled, well, Steampunk. It’s a sub-genre of science-, speculative-, historical-fiction. What’s intriguing to me is the hard-boiled speculative science with smartly dressed Victorian, British fashion. For those of you serious about Steampunk, would you believe there is a Steampunk Emporium (providing clothing and other accessories) and Clockwork Couture (another purveyor of fine clothing and accessories).
Writing tips from C. S. Lewis
Here’s a few writing tips from the author of Til We Have Faces:
1. Read good books and avoid most magazines.
2. Write with the ear, not the eye. Make every sentence sound good.
3. Write only about things that interest you. If you have no interests, you won’t ever be a writer.
4. Know the meaning of every word you use.
Coffeehouse Junkie 
