What will you spend your minutes doing?
I love these lines from Rachel Zucker’s poem:
The most important difference is that when you’re reading something you wrote, you know what’s going on because you know how your mind works. But when reading a piece by someone else, you may be confused by the other person’s logic or thinking process and consequently find yourself unable to…
Learn how to transfer files the old school way
This takes me back almost a decade. But this morning I had to scan an illustration. The only machine in the office with a scanner is an old beige Power Macintosh G3 minitower with Zip drive. Because the machine is an antique it doesn’t connect to the network. So I dug up an old 100 Mb Zip disc, scanned the illustration using Photoshop 6.0 (it took two scans because the image is larger than the 8″x10″ scanner bed), transferred the art files to Power Mac G4 minitower with Zip drive, stitched the two scans together using Photoshop CS, and emailed the art file to my MacBook Pro.
The question you may be asking right now is why all the trouble? Good question:
- The scanner is so old it doesn’t have a USB connection.
- The Zip drives do not have USB connection.
- It’s Monday.
Sometimes I feel so used
Last week I received five direct mail envelopes from five different magazine publishers. Only two of those magazines have I actually had subscriptions (guess which ones). That means those two magazine publishers sell my name to other publications with similar demographic audiences.
Is 7:45 a.m. too early to be working on an illustration? I’m working on an illustrated advertisement. It’s more of a proposal for an… read more »
This takes me back almost a decade. But this morning I had to scan an illustration. The only machine in the office with a scanner is an old beige… read more »
Bonhoeffer Biographer on Bonhoeffer
Trent Gilliss, senior editorA listener from Greenwich, Connecticut (who asked to go unnamed) picked up on Shane Claiborne’s reference to a German Protestant theologian who participated in a failed attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler during World War II:
“And Dietrich Bonhoeffer who has been a good teacher for us on community, he says, ‘The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.’ And I think that that’s something that’s held us together is not just to fall in love with a movement or a revolution, but to try to live in radical ways and in simple ways.”
The listener recommended we interview Eric Metaxas, whose biography Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is currently on The New York Times bestseller list. Well, we did produce a show in 2003 on this great figure called “Ethics and the Will of God: The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer” and probably won’t be doing another show on him anytime soon.
But, this speech by Metaxas at a Socrates in the City lecture on April 9, 2010, the 65th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s death, serves as a great introduction to Bonhoeffer’s life. Heads up: the introduction is humorous but long; if you want to cut to the grist of the talk, start at the 14-minute mark.
(Source: http://vimeo.com/)
When I think of symphonic metal bands with female vocalists, two bands immediately come to mind. The Dutch band Epica lead by Simone Simons. read more »
If you’re stuck in a traditional media organization where executives thing Twitter is something birds do or look blankly at you when you suggest posting videos to Vimeo, then check out … read more »
How to improve your social media agenda
If you’re stuck in a traditional media organization where executives thing Twitter is something birds do or look blankly at you when you suggest posting videos to Vimeo, then check out Mashable’s tips list.
1. Share Content
2. Curate Conversations
3. Engage Audiences
4. Promote Your Presence
5. Customize the Experience
6. Track Everything
You’ll find links to all sorts of social media tools and resources.
Coffeehouse Junkie Podcast – Episode 15
This episode features an audio version of the three most viewed blog posts of the last week, including:
- Writing Tips from C.S. Lewis. Link
- 30 poems in 30 days. Link
- Mechanical, thoughtless and unengaged: a Facebook story. Link
The most read story from the archives:
- An interview with River District artist Eva Scruggs. Link
For questions or comments about the podcast, email me at coffeehousejunkie[at]gmail[dot]com.
Then cut out the middle man. Apparently that is what Scott Kurtz, of the popular webcomic PvP. His reason for leaving Image Comics (notably the fourth largest comic publisher in America) and… read more »
You want to earn money as a webcomic producer?
Then cut out the middle man. Apparently that is what Scott Kurtz, of the popular webcomic PvP. His reason for leaving Image Comics (notably the fourth largest comic publisher in America) and Diamond (the primary distributor of comics in the U. S.):
Sales through brick-and-mortar stores are declining and online sales are increasing…
Well, I could have told him that. Almost all the books I’ve helped authors publish have been released online exclusively.
Link: PvP Goes It Alone for Publishing, Leaves Diamond as Well
Stepcase Lifehack posted some tips to improve your writing including: “Befriend a dictionary” and “Keep a little notebook for moments of inspiration” as well as seven other useful tips to… read more »
while walking this morning in the foggy dew… i wonder if norway has mornings like this?
30 poems in 30 days: update three
As stated previously, Deborah offered a challenge to write 30 poems in 30 days. So far, I’ve been able to keep up with it in spite of a summertime cold and an urgent freelance job that evolved into a larger project than I anticipated. Still, the discipline of writing a poem a day, or at least a poem sketch a day, has proved to be rewarding in and of itself. Two benefits have come out of this exercise so far:
- the generation of new material and
- brain dumping stuff that’s been cluttering my mind.
At least one poem sketch so far helped articulate something I’ve been struggling with for a few months. Forcing myself to write at least once a day brought that struggle up from the subconscious and allowed me to form it into a personal poem. Somewhere in my reading I came across a poet, or writer, that said writing every day, even if it’s only for your own eyes, is good practice in writing content for others. My writing professor at the university encouraged students to write a novel for yourself first. Even if the novel is intended only for you, it is worth writing it. And sometimes it may find audience elsewhere.
Learn which company provides the best photo books
While searching for a place to print a family photo album I came across a couple photo book companies. I’ve used both Blurb and Shutterfly and am not particularly fond of either of their final product. Maybe I’m too much of a graphic design snob, but I really don’t enjoy the out-of-the-box templates and the poor image quality of the final printed photo book. Of the two, I prefer Shutterfly, but only because iPhoto makes it easy to order photos. Digital Home Thoughts provides a detailed product review of 10 other photo book companies and their top picks. I may try their top pick for my next photo book project.
Link: The Great Photo Book Round-Up Review: Who Makes The Best Photo Books?
While searching for a place to print a family photo album I came across a couple photo book companies. I’ve used both Blurb and Shutterfly and am not particularly fond of either of their… read more »
Publishers typically sign on new projects, do some big-picture editing, then pass the project to the editor, who does the more painstaking work of carrying the project from its detailed editing and design stages to production. The life of an editor and publisher involves more reading than you can fit into a day at the office. We have to keep up with the publishing world, know what people want to buy, work closely and diplomatically with authors, and lug around heavy satchels of manuscripts. People often liken editors and publishers to midwives. The industry is dominated by women who aren’t paid all that well, but who are working in this helping, nurturing role, counselling authors and helping bring their “baby” into the world.
How do you like that emotionally rich, evocative headline? Copyblogger offers 12 other emotive headlines with emotional benefits explained after each headline. The emotional benefit to the above… read more »
How to Take Command of Any Meeting
How do you like that emotionally rich, evocative headline? Copyblogger offers 12 other emotive headlines with emotional benefits explained after each headline. The emotional benefit to the above headline, How to Take Command of Any Meeting” is “feeling respected.”
polyglot
adjective • 1) containing, or made up, of, several languages. 2) versed in, or speaking, many languages.
noun • 1) one who speaks several languages. 2) a book containing several versions of the same text, or containing the same subject matter in several languages. 3) a program written in multiple programming languages (programming).
From Greek, πολύς (many) + γλῶττα (tongue, language)
Coffeehouse Junkie 
