Category: general

A writer laments that he has a huge Facebook following, but it doesn’t convert to readers of his book. From AdPulp:

Gregory Levey, communications professor and author of Shut Up, I’m Talking, says, “if my online fans can’t even grasp that the fan page they’ve joined is for a book, I’m not particularly optimistic that they’ll read the book in question – or any books at all, for that matter.”

Ad Age’s Simon Dumenco opines: “Facebook has become such a burden and a time-suck that they’re only able to devote a fraction of their shattered attention spans to it. They’re reacting to friends’ updates and clicking ‘like’ buttons and joining fan pages like Pavlov’s dogs — it’s becoming mechanical, thoughtless. The opposite of ‘engaged.'”

(Link: Yet Another Facebook Story: A Mile Wide But An Inch Deep)

After reading this I may just pull the plug on my Facebook account (though I know, like the Hotel California, Facebook doesn’t really let you leave).

wordjournal:

noun • 1) a reward for good news. 2) good news. 3) gospel.

From Greek, εὐάγγελος (bringing good news) from εὖ (good) + ἄγγελος (messenger).

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:

1. Espresso beans are like bananas.
2. Coffee shouldn’t be about speed.
3. It’s espresso, not EXpresso, people.
4. Dark roast does not have more caffeine than lighter roasts.
5. “Fair Trade” doesn’t really mean much of anything.

Link: Dispelling some espresso myths

poetry365:

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.

Here’s a five step approach to successful blogging list I discovered.

1. Decide WHAT the Post Should DO for You
2. How Can I Be Helpful?
3. The Actual Writing
4. Review The Last Few Weeks’ Posts
5. Repeat

Link: A Simple Blogging Formula

ireadintothings:

A good book is like a good conversation with a good friend.

wordjournal:

noun • useless junk, especially junk you don’t remember acquiring.

Coined by Philip K. Dick.

wordjournal:

noun • a junction of four roads; the main intersection in a town.

From an Anglicisation of the Latin quadrifurcus “four-pronged, four-forked”

wordjournal:

adjective • /mălˈə-pûrtˌ/ • impudently bold in speech or manner; saucy.

noun • an impudent, saucy person.