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You might be interested to know that there's two different kind of posts on this blog: "Thought of the Day" and "Normal". The "Thought of the Day" category is a once-a-day random tidbit, usually a funny video or picture, and the "Normal" is just what you'd expect from a blog like this:
Unicorn-Butterfly Soup.
--Kyle
p.s. the subscription options to the left (psst! <---- that way) reflect the same content options
mySHOUToutLOUD v1.0 Launch
We’ve launched v1.0 of mySHOUToutLOUD, and began a marketing campaign, for the Consumer side. We had a planned release of January 1st, 2008, but we were ready so opened it up a little prematurely.
Broken gadgets from Christmas? Customer support working against you, instead of with you? Go post a SHOUT!
Corporate release is coming in the next week or so…
I just got back from a week’s trip down to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It was an awesome time, hanging with all the cousins and family I don’t get to see much (hopefully that will change a little bit?).
But I came back to the digital world today, only to find one of the things that has warmed my heart more than humanity is Planet Earth:
Paris Hilton’s ‘fortune’ was taken away.
How awesome is that? I’ll leave the details up to the article, but suffice it to say that I hate Paris and all of her retardedness. She deserves to have no money whatsoever, be jail, and be dirty. Too bad only one of those has come close to being true…
Here’s a few things worth checking out from recent history:
In random, unusual, and extremely hilarious news, Santa apparently got arrested by a unit of Stormtroopers in LA for “killing an undetermined number of elves.”
I’m not sure which is more funny… the fact that someone thought of this and actually did it, or the statement given to the press:
“The Emperor wants to assure His subjects that Xmas will continue as planned. The pug-nosed fatso, however, will pay for his crimes,” [...] “He is also a perv, you know,” he added, “a guy who goes around his house clad in red velvet and has underaged boys assisting him all day long. Illegal sex? Forced labor? You gotta be kidding. We have the patent on forced labor too. Ask the wookies.” [...] “And what’s with the bloody flying reindeers anyway?” he said, “how the Force do they fly? I bet they have Twin Ion Engines up their butts. That’s classified technology, people. Fatso is finishing his days in the Great Pit of Carkoon, I tell you.”
I don’t know if this story is true or not. Obviously it is made up to a certain extent, but I wonder if the actual arrest and statement actually happened. If not, kudos to whoever wrote it… I’m in tears.
To the tune of “Dear Mrs. Robinson”, if whoever wrote it was evil, demented, and was a murderer:
Dear Mrs. Robinson, I already have killed you son
Now the time has come for you to die…
—-
I wish you all the best, especially in your death
Knowing it will be at my very hand…
—
Your daughter shall be next, I shall slice her neck
Like a good piece of pepperoni…
—
Your husband? Ah, well. He heard wedding bells
Went off to Vegas and married another guy…
—
Why all of this you say? You’re bleeding? Ah, touche
Give me all your money!
I saw a list over here just now with “Entrepreneurial Quotes”, here’s some of my favorites:
If you’re reading this, then chances are you know about Amazon.com’s Kindle, an e-book reader… kind of like an iPod for books. And you also probably know that it’s getting major criticism for everything from it’s battery life to it’s product design to if it’s even useful.
But one major market is being overlooked here, without anyone thinking about the potential effect it may have: students.
Expensive As Hell
Textbooks are super expensive, and it gets even worse when you go to college. $350 for a textbook? And it’s not made of silver? The biggest excuse for the price of textbooks (even if you buy them used online, they’re still very expensive) is the printing. Hardback + many many pages + color + nice and glossy pages = high printing cost.
I guess that makes sense. So why don’t you not print at such a high standard, and lower the prices a little bit, eh? BECAUSE YOU WANT MY MONEY!
Are you spanking for money? Or the money?
Heavy
Most high schoolers (at leas the ones that actually want to go to college) carry a backpack full of textbooks to and from school everyday. Not one of those laptop backpacks, but a super-size LL Bean backpack that is made of that funny material that’ll stretch, but not easily rip.
Doctors and parents complain this is ruining their children’s backs. College kids refuse to bring books to class because it’s so difficult to make that 30min walk across campus with 15 books in their bag, totaling the entire weight of a large hobbit.
Why don’t we use less textbooks then? Oh, maybe because there’s usually 2 books required, if not more, for the average college class, and rumor has it those “Barnes and Noble Campus Bookstore” places highly encourage the use of multiple books, especially when they’re new…
Remember Laptops?
Remember when laptops were going to revolutionize the learning process, about 10 years ago? How parents were fighting for their kids to be able to use laptops in the high school classroom? And colleges were promising to make the texts available via computer?
What happened to that? I know I haven’t ever used a digital textbook in college, and I don’t know of anyone else that does either. But the ones I do hear about are usually clunky: you have to install special software, only install once… sounds like something Microsoft would create, right?
Solution
So here’s my solution. Since publishers are apparently incapable of publishing full-color textbooks in PDF format, and selling them iTunes-style (not through iTunes, but the same idea of online distribution)… which would considerably cut costs, since not only is the book not physically printed, but it’s not shipped anywhere either… why don’t we take advantage of the “I want to be popular” technology of the moment?
“The Solution”
E-book readers like the Kindle (there are others, but this is the one to get the most coverage so far) could be the easy solution. Try this out on college campuses, where the kids have money to spend, and actually might want to learn:
“Oh but what if it breaks?!?!?!” Easy answer. I’m pretty sure that if you have to pay anywhere between $100-300 every now and then, even if it’s every year, to get your textbooks for a fraction of the cost ($30 Physics books anyone?), no-one is going to complain. So don’t give me that IT crap as an excuse.
Conclusion
Maybe e-readers are not going to be very popular in general population for another decade or two. I mean, seriously, a digital library of books isn’t going to impress anyone… no-one’s iPod or iTunes library is of any interest either, right?
I personally would have chose “Textbook Monopolies Suck”. Whatever.
But at least target the market that would benefit the most: poor college students who hate paying for textbooks every semester. College textbooks have been a problem since probably the dawn of time, and now here’s a way to alleviate the pain.
This is priceless. I hate the “Superman that ho!” song, it’s a bunch of almost-spoken-naturally nonsense, with whatshisface slurring a bunch of his words on purpose.
So when I came across this Jewish parody… I had to watch it.
[youtube 9oYDBtCN-hk]
You might remember me telling you I was working on a collaboration with a guy named Roy Wallen, awhile back. It was going well, but not really in the direction I had in mind, so I began writing my own book to encapsulate exactly what I’m wanting. Whether or not my work with Roy will continue, I don’t know, since I haven’t heard from him yet, but we’ll see.
Tentatively titled “Whispers Into Shadow”, it’s a SciFi/Fantasy book based in modern times. Here’s what’s defined as the concept:
A girl begins to discover she has magical powers, and becomes friends with two others (a boy, and a closet elf). Evil begins to grow from a whisper to a shadow, as the three friends start to understand the part they have to play in the upcoming struggle.
I’ve already “completed” (aka written for the first time) the Introduction and the first 3 Chapters, and I’m posting them over on Goodreads as I go (you’ll have to signup for an account if you don’t have one), at least up to a certain point. 
This will obviously be a long process, and this is only the first version of what I’m sure will be rewritten and reworked many times, but I’d like some feedback nonetheless…
I haven’t been making alot of posts here, because I’ve been busy (more than usual) with things, so here’s some stuff I’ve been reading, or found interesting.
