09th Dec2008

All Out Of Sorts

by Aaron

biorhythm-composite

Hey CN-ers out there! Talk about a busy and unexpected day yesterday. I was going to post a few things here about writing, freelancing and most importantly progress on Spirit Hackers. I was surprised to see that my wife took an almost full day off of work (I say almost because she went in for 2 hours) and we got to spend a whole Monday off together. Luckily I had a ‘future-post’ set and you guys got some Kindle goodness to read.

The day started off planned out and then we decided to go out and get some lunch. Four hours and some shopping later…. my initial plan was shot, but it didn’t matter as I hadn’t had such a great day with my wife in a long while due to us working opposite shifts.

So…. where does this leave me and Copious Notes? Really it’s just a day behind. I had a post planned for today and plan to post that in just a few hours. I’ll work on Monday’s items for tomorrow and then I should be back on track for everyone.

I hope all your writing is going great and you are all keeping stress-free in this time of busy shopping and planning for family visits!

Category : Just me
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2 Comm
08th Dec2008

Capacious Kindle for December 8

by Aaron

I came across this great article on CNN last Wednesday about the Kindle and thought it was perfect for the Capacious Kindle series. You can find the whole article here.

A year later, Amazon’s Kindle finds a niche
By Zach Pontz
CNN

It has the curves of a Lamborghini, looks like something an astronaut might take into space and weighs only 10.3 ounces. Amazon’s Kindle e-reader is wireless and can hold about 200 books, plus newspapers and magazines.

Amazon.com’s electronic Kindle reader — a device meant to remove the paper from the page and make reading both more convenient and eco-friendly — is celebrating its first birthday.

Released in November 2007, the Kindle has sold more than a quarter million units. Its texts account for 10 percent of Amazon’s book sales despite the fact that 200,000 titles — a tiny fraction of the books offered on the site — are available in digital form.

While exact sales figures are hard to come by, recent estimates have put the Kindle’s sales on par with other high-profile mobile devices in their first year. Amazon.com says that the Kindle is currently sold out due to heavy demand.

So what has spurred its success? After all, electronic books have been around, in small numbers, for about a decade. Even Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, has admitted that the book is “elegantly suited to its purpose. It’s hard to improve on.”

One thing that’s helped the Kindle is marketing. Where other readers failed to connect with consumers, the Kindle has excelled. The media-savvy Bezos has hardly been publicity shy, gaining his electronic toy a level of exposure most CEOs couldn’t begin to fathom.

“You can’t discount the prominence of having Amazon behind this,” says Paul Reynolds, technology editor at Consumer Reports. “Jeff Bezos is respected for what he’s done with Amazon, and if he feels this is a future product in media, people are willing to trust him.”
(more…)

Category : Ideas, Just me
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4 Comm
04th Dec2008

Lyrically Speaking for December 4

by Aaron

As most of you already know, I am a big fan of Dido. Her first two albums are filled with great words and melodies that speak to me. I’m sure there are songs of hers that you specifically enjoy. Well two weeks ago she released her third album Safe Trip Home, bringing us a new bunch of songs to enjoy. So far I’ve have good times listening to the album but there is one track that really speaks to me. It is a bit long (8 minutes) of a repeating beat, but it’s mellow and really just sounds beautiful. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

From the album Safe Trip Home, this is Northern Skies:

i have returned to northern skies
where summer hasn’t touched
the clouds that pass above

i have returned to the sombre greys
of days too early to come
and too hurried to stay

i have left a million stars
and an ocean light and clearly blue

i have left the warmth of the sun
and a million adventures
not yet begun

for once there was beauty here for me
under the wide northern skies
and once there was magic here for me
under the wide northern skies

i saw trees as green
and this dark as blue
heartbreak and poetry
with deeper roots

but now i know
this is lonely country
and it leads me only back to the sea

for once there was beauty here for me
under the wide northern skies
and once there was magic here for me
under the wide northern skies x 2

Category : Ideas
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3 Comm
02nd Dec2008

You Gotta Start Somewhere

by Aaron

Printing press

Back in this post in April I talked about the idea of freelancing. Honestly, I forgot all about it and have been just working on Spirit Hackers these past few months. Last night I was searching around the Absolute Write forums and found an entire freelancing section. An interesting thread popped up that talked about Suite101 and freelancing for them. This jogged my memory.

I went back to the site and saw that I had signed up but didn’t fill out an application. Now, of course I’m not really expecting to make anything significant from the site, but I think it would give me writing experience to place on my writing resume and get my name out there a little. I also believe this could be a possible first step into a transition of a writing career. The idea in my mind is that if I want to change careers towards the direction of writing, I cannot just sit in front of my computer typing stories. I need to have other things to work on that will also get my name out there and possibly generate some income.

I don’t know where all this will take me. Of course I have the grandiose dream of completing S.H., querying agents and getting it sold. Realistically I know that takes a lot of time and there is anything far from a guarantee. I think branching out into another project that doesn’t take up huge amounts of time may be a good way to get my feet wet.

Category : Ideas
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12 Comm
01st Dec2008

I Finally Wrote

by Aaron

Typewriter

I figured that this was such a special occasion right now, that it needed to be blogged. After way too much time not touching Spirit Hackers, I finally sat down today and got some more words down. I didn’t do spectacular, but it’s a start. More importantly, it’s a step in getting back into a writing groove that is much needed. So here’s today’s stats after a month-long break:

Total written: 964 words.

This brings my total word count up to 11,395 words and 30 pages. Again, not spectacular but I’ll take anything right now. Lets just hope the drive grows and I get more down on the page.

Category : Spirit Hackers
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3 Comm
01st Dec2008

Capacious Kindle for December 1

by Aaron

Welcome back from an extra-long weekend! Today I’m posting the second of two parts of Oprah’s show from October 24th. As I said last time, there was a lot of buzz about a new gadget Oprah was going to unveil on her show as her new favorite gadget ever, which turned out to be the Amazon Kindle.

In this second part, Oprah spends some time talking to Jeff Bezos about the device and showing you all it can do. It’s a great piece that will hold your interest, and compliments the first segment.

Enjoy!

Please follow the link below to watch the video:
Click here to see the Video.

Category : Just me
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0 Comm
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