Good ‘ol StumbleUpon led me to an excellent literary resource online. Students, teachers, and literary fanatics worldwide can now access the works of more than 90 classic authors at ReadPrint.com. Supported by Google Adsense, Read Print is an excellent free resource to avid readers everywhere.
Authors include Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Sophocles, H. G. Wells, and Virgil. Check it out! No more need to spend money on even the cheap versions of the classics at Barnes & Noble.
That’s a question, not a statement. I was all excited by the prospect of faster download time, so I jumped at the opportunity to try the Safari 3 BETA. I tried Google first (of course), and all was well. I typed in CultureFeast.com, and the site looked good. By this time, I think to myself, I should blog about this! Safari rocks!
I log into my WordPress dashboard and click Write Post only to find that my CMS is all jacked up!!! The title and post fields are tiny and hiding down in the right hand sidebar below the fold. What the heck? WordPress isn’t Safari-friendly? Seriously?
Talk about a buzz kill. I’m back in Firefox just so I could comfortably write this complaint.
When I began copywriting for websites, I started by searching through some how-to articles for pointers. I was aggravated and disappointed to find everyone recommending simple, direct, and action-packed. Not that I have a problem with engaging content, it’s just that all the classics of literature take the time to establish the setting and characters. The most reputable authors wrote from a totally different perspective than authors today.
Who else can we blame except the expanding media channels? With the advent of information access came the simultaneous dilemma of information overload. An author 200-500 years ago had no television, radio, Internet, or telephone for news and information updates. They had word of mouth, some newspapers, pamphlets, letters, etc. The pace of life was such that the literature produced reflected a life of contemplation, observation, and stillness. There was no sense of frantic suspense or blistering action to be found.
Traveling was so inconvenient that many people only traveled into town once a month. They stocked up on supplies and news and headed back to the family farm. Of course, there were city dwellers who had weekly access to gossip. Still, cultures worldwide knew nothing of the mind boggling pace we endure in the 21st Century.
I blame the Internet and the television for poor writing skills. First, the television sucked up the hours of daily life previously spent on reading and communication with family and friends. Then came the Internet, Instant Messaging, and Text Messaging. With the advent of the Web, we have access to billions of information soaked pages, yet we have to choose a minuscule percentage of information available that we will actually give any attention to. This leaves authors and marketers around the globe scrambling to liven up available content. Competition is fierce (as in the publishing industry), and the selection is so plentiful that people don’t have to spend time on lengthy descriptions and soliloquies. With thousands of voices vying for our attention every day, we give time to those few that are most compelling and immediately accessible.
The art of writing has largely been lost as we fight against the clock to absorb and distribute unprecedented volumes of information. It seems that nothing short of a return to agrarian society could deliver us from our ADD-based writing and reading skills. In other words, either choose to read hyper-focused drivel or remain oblivious to the world today and return to the classics. Or live in the wonderfully frustrating tension of balancing the relevant with the artistic.
Just two months shy of a year old, my T-Mobile MDA smartphone is behaving more like a redheaded step-phone. While it was touted as one of the best best PDA smartphones
When selecting a smartphone last year, T-Mobile was my only choice because they had the best phone plan rates. Sure, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T probably offer more cool phones, but T-Mobile offered a deal for 1500 anytime minutes per month for something like $49.99. Phone options were fairly limited. It was either the T-Mobile Sidekick II, the MDA, the SDA, or a Blackberry. I knew I didn’t want a Blackberry, because at the time music players weren’t an option. Their functionalities were still too limited to work-centric. I wanted something more my style.
My choices were boiled down to the MDA and the Sidekick II. I loved the feel of the Sidekick keyboard. The bubbled out buttons made typing messages and emails easy. But, in the end, the Sidekick II lost out to the MDA because its screen display was much duller than the MDA. I’m wishing I had chosen the Sidekick now. Even with lower resolution, the screen wouldn’t crap out on me and typing would be much easier.
Now that my MDA is acting like it’s on the verge of crossing over, I look at what changes a year has wrought and I must say that I’m disappointed. Every other mobile phone service carrier has introduced great new smartphones like the Motorola Q and the Blackjack. T-Mobile seems to be behind the times now.
Who knows? I might give up and just settle for a Razr. I’d rather have a phone that works and is portable than a smartphone that costs as much as premium cable to operate.
Of course, now that I’m looking at switching to a family plan, T-Mobile still beats out the competition by at least $10 per month. I’m no cheapskate, but why spend more money than you have to, right? So we’re sticking with T-Mobile.
Congratulations to the team over at EnerMax Inc! Their new design has just gone live. For an independent oil and gas company in the Dallas / Fort Worth area, they’ve done an excellent job of providing a deep site with rich content about oil and gas drilling, oil and gas development, oil and gas investment, and the future of the industry.
That’s right! We have more Joost invites to give away. So this is how it works. In order to receive a Joost invitation, add a link to CultureFeast using the phrase “Dallas copywriter” as your anchor text. It doesn’t matter if you link to the Home Page or any other page on the site. Whether you just add one sentence about your favorite Dallas copywriter or your least favorite, if you make “Dallas copywriter” the anchor text for a link to our site, we’ll hook you up with an invite to Joost.
For those of you who are still unaware, Joost is Internet television access. You can watch all kinds of shows online through Joost. It’s a growing phenomenon which we expect to gain global popularity within the next 18 months. Get in on it now, and get in by linking to CultureFeast.com.
Thanks in advance for the link love! Post a comment with the URL in which the anchor text and link are located. Once we’ve varified that the link exists, your invite will be on its way!
I’m writing this for the benefit of my friends and the masses that are similar to my friends – i.e., those who have no clue about the latest and greatest news on the Web. I’ve briefly mentioned Second Life before, so use the site search engine on the right to find the other post.
Second Life is no joke. You may mock people who join online communities, but it is the wave of the future. When Reuters creates a website for the sole purpose of covering virtual community news, you know it’s worth a second glance.
LifeChurch, an Edmond, Oklahoma based church, is one of approximately twenty churches that have already bought Second Life real estate and formed virtual churches. The idea is to reach people wherever they may be.
My first reaction was that there’s no way a virtual church will thrive as an actual community of believers or as a successful evangelistic tool. I thought of the Christians who would jump on the Second Life bandwagon under the guise of “reaching the lost”, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.
Perhaps I was too hasty. I’ve joined Second Life and look forward to seeing the sites, so to speak (that is, if I ever complete the stupid training exercises!). Unlike other Christians, I’m not a member for any reason other than sheer work-related curiosity. Too many SEO and interactive marketing companies are still playing catch up by joining MySpace. Forget that. MySpace is old news. It’s so old, in fact, that I don’t waste my time on it unless I want to search for new music. That is the #1 contribution MySpace made to my life: free and convenient access to music sampling.
Second Life represents Web 3.0 technology. It’s not been said much, but it’s true. Virtual communities are the new frontier (to be followed shortly, no doubt, by 3-D holographic virtual communities). You don’t have to participate, and you won’t be “less cool” if you don’t, but you will be clueless.
And for those of you who still think Second Life is “just a game”, Second Life users spent nearly 1.5 million dollars within the past 24 hours (according to Reuters). Major brand names, including sportswear and automobile manufacturers have swept in to take advantage of the virtual advertising space.
This whole thing is huge. You’ll see. Soon enough Second Life will have its own doomsday prophets, referring to it as the path to Armageddon and the Antichrist… I know it sounds premature, but it’ll happen. I have absolute faith in the paranoia of the public.
Though I have to say, be careful if you decide to venture out into the virtual space of Second Life. There is a lot of X-rated stuff going on there that can sneak up on you. That’s actually one of the main reasons why LifeChurch has a presence there. They know that it’s a place for people to hide their sins, and they hope to be a light in the virtual darkness. Kudos to them for trying. As long as they don’t attempt to become the virtual TBN, I wish them the best.
I just read on Search Engine Land that CBS has announced that they will be posting full episodes of shows on web portals like MSN and AOL. This is great news for me, since I have despised InnerTube since I first attempted to use it. InnerTube is the name of the player CBS currently uses on their website to play full episodes of NUMB3RS, NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, etc.
Let me be as blunt as possible: CBS’ InnerTube is by far the WORST media player among the top 4 major network websites. ABC’s is probably the best. FOX uses MySpace, but since they refuse to provide episodes of House MD online, I give them the cold shoulder. NBC’s media player is middle of the road.
And then there’s CBS. I tell you, I have gotten so frustrated with CBS for their stupid media player. Unlike every other network, it’s shows drop off and require restart over and over and over until you just want to throw your laptop against the wall and curse CBS until you’re blue in the face. Well, you get the picture.
So now that they’ll be distributing their shows on other web portals, I can only hope that they don’t infest those portals with the scummy InnerTube. Here’s hoping each portal utilizes some sort of media player that actually works. Yeah… that would be nice.
Without consulting me, Joost just threw up a new version – 0.9.2. My apologies to those who just recently received invitations. Your invites may still work on the newer version. I just don’t know. Please post a comment here if your invitation is not working and I will see what I can do about getting updated invites.
Thanks.
Joost sent me an email today announcing the release of the latest version of the online television software. Leave me a comment if you are interested in watching the new shows on Joost and I’ll choose a couple people to receive invitations to download the Joost 0.9 software.
If you don’t speak up, I’ll give ’em away to somebody else!