The SoapBoxers

Now that we have a complete writing staff on board, we’re going to make a push to increase the popularity of The Soap Boxers over the course of the next month.

To reward our loyal readers for spreading positive word of mouth, we are happy to announce a giveaway.

We will give away one copy of Eric Garcia’s Anonymous Rex (read once, nice condition) and four copies of the Pockets Full of Knowlege reference book, Dinosaurs (brand new, with a remainder mark).  Small prizes?  Yep.  Fun reads?  Certainly.  Free = good?  Oh, yeah!  Mini-reviews of the books can be found in this morning’s main article.

The giveaway winners will be announced on August 24.

How do you enter?  Here are the ways (you may enter via multiple methods, but you can only win a maximum of one book).  Staff members of The Soap Boxers are not eligible to win.

• Two books will be awarded to people who write comments in response to articles.  As long as you enter your email address in the requested spot (note: other readers will NOT see your address) I will be able to contact you if you win.

Anonymous Rex will be awarded to the person who posts the best comment during this period.  This is purely a subjective judgment on my part.

The writer of one random comment will be chosen to receive a copy of the Pockets Dinosaurs book.  You will receive an entry for each comment you write, up to a maximum of one entry per day.

• One random RSS subscriber will be chosen to receive a copy of the Pockets Dinosaurs book.  I don’t have a way to identify my RSS subscribers, so you’ll need to send me an email to enter.  As “proof of RSS”, copy/paste the copyright notice from the RSS feed (it is at the bottom of each feed item).  If you’re not an RSS subscriber, consider subscribing (it’s completely free, of course).
• One random Twitter retweeter will be chosen to receive a copy of the Pockets Dinosaurs book.  If you retweet one of our tweets, send a tweet to @CasObserver to let me know.
• Mention The Soap Boxers on your blog, and you’ll be entered into yet another drawing for a copy of the Pockets Dinosaurs book.  Send me an email to the blog post that references The Soap Boxers.

Don’t worry – I will NOT spam you if you send me an email.  I will only use your email address to let you know that you have won a prize.

Want the books, but don’t want to wait to see if you win?  Check out the Amazon widget on the right side of the screen.

Haven’t had your fix of dinosaurs yet?  Tune in tomorrow to find out what really killed the dinosaurs (fiction story).  We’ll take a break from dinosaurs after that.

I’ve implemented a bunch of changes.  I’m sure that everyone has noticed them.

No?

Ok, I’ll give a quick recap.  These are all pretty small changes, so they might be overlooked.  Some folks might find them useful, though.

• I’ve held the price of The Soap Boxers steady at $0.00!
• The author’s name in the byline is now a link that will take you take a listing of their articles.  In a similar vein, the right sidebar now has a “search by author” that does the same thing.  The author’s page will show you excerpts of each article, with 10 articles to a page.  I’m not sure how useful this function is.  I will be creating a special category for each author, so you could also just click on that category to accomplish the same thing.  The one exception is myself – there is no other way to view a listing of all of my articles.
• I have added the page numbers at the bottom of search results, category, discussion topics, and date searches.  This replaces the “older article” and “newer article” text.  If you don’t realize it, you can click on a category, discussion topics, or month in the left sidebar and you’ll be shown a listing of articles that fit that criteria.
• Search results, category, discussion topics, and date searches will now show 10 excerpts per page instead of 4
• At the end of the excerpts (when searching on author, category, discussion topic, date, or by using the search box on the top right), there is now a link where the reader can click to “Read Full Article”.  Previously, the course of action was not readily apparent (you were supposed to click on the title in order to view the full article.)
• “Discussion topics” was moved to the left sidebar.  This is a clickable listing of the topics that have been discussed most frequently.  The size of the words is proportional to the frequency of its use.
• New photo with the goatee

The Soap Boxers recently celebrated its 200th article!

We’re pleased to announce the addition of Jonna Wibelius to the staff of The Soap Boxers.  Jonna will write a monthly column that shares her thoughts of a US or world event from the perspective of an internation observer.  Jonna does not profess to be an expert on world affairs, and this is one of the reasons we wanted her to fill this role.  She will give the viewpoint of how an average citizen in another country may view an event.

Jonna is originally from Sweden,  but has also lived in England, Australia, Finland, and China.  Her current long-term base of operations is in China, but she is in Finland this summer.  Jonna details her adventures in China (and, now, in Finland) in her blog SHEinChina.

The Soap Boxers published a review of SheInChina back in May.

Catch Jonna’s columns beginning in August.

In addition to the changes announced last weekend, we’ve added a couple more writers to the staff.

• James Bathgate will be writing a monthly column on technology.
• Gabe Tyndal will be writing a monthly column on science and nature.

We’re still looking to round out the staff. We’re looking for these roles:

• A weekly entertainment writer – to write about new movies, books, video games, leisure activities.
• A weekly writer who writes about issues from a woman’s perspective. The role is fairly flexible at this point. Currently, every writer we have is male, and we are looking for something that will bring a fresh viewpoint.
• A monthly writer who will give an opinion of US and world events from an international point of view. We are looking for someone who is a native of a country in Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia. We are NOT looking for a US citizen living abroad. If English is not your primary language, do not allow this to become an obstacle – we can work with you to edit your article.

We are pursuing specific people for each of these roles, but do not currently have firm commitments.

If you’re interested, send an email to kosmo@observingcasually.com. Note that you would not be paid for your work, but there would be future profit sharing, if and when profits occurs. More details via email.

OK, so what the heck are we doing with all the changes?

The goal of The Soap Boxers is to be a source for a variety of different topics. news, sports, science, technology, politics, entertainment, international viewpoints, fiction and more. We style ourselves after a magazine such as The New Yorker or Reader’s Digest or a newspaper such as USA Today. Flip through our pages and you’ll see a wide variety of interesting articles – not just articles one particular topic.  We eventually reached a point where one or two writers couldn’t cover the variety of topics we wanted to cover.

For those of you who have been loyal readers – we thank you for your support. These changes are designed to bring new content that is more rich and diverse that it has been in the past. We hope you enjoy the new topics and the new writers!

The schedule may change a bit, but this is the current schedule:

• Monday: News
• Tuesday: Sports
• Wednesday: Monthly columns (politics, technology, science/nature, world view)
• Thursday: People, places, history
• Friday: Fiction Friday
• Saturday: Flex topic
• Sunday: Canada

OK, I said I wasn’t going to post any article this weekend, but here is a short one.

Back On April 15, we launched a Stock Market contest (click link to see insights from the participants) in which a team of Goliaths (personal finance bloggers) were matched up against a team of Davids (people who were not personal finance bloggers). At the end of May, the Dow stood at 8500.33 and had gained average 12.34 points during the course of the contest, making the Davids the favorites.

The market tried to tread water in June, however, closing the month down 53.33 points at 8447.00.  Once again, we’ll project the Dow’s year end close, assuming a linear trend.

At the end of the day on April 14th (the 104th day of the year), the Dow was at 7920.18.

At the end of the day on June 30 (the 181st day of the day), the Dow was at 8500.33

This is a gain of 526.82, or 6.84 points per day. If we assume that the market will contain to gain at exactly the same rate throughout the rest of the year (yes, a ridiculous assumption), the Dow will be at 9185.58 at the end of the year.

How do our contestants stack up?

I also invited visitors to play along at home. Let’s see how they are doing.

At this point, team David is still in the lead, but the fact that the Dow was down for the month of June has allowed team Goliath to get much closer.  Check back next month for the next update.

Note: there will be no new articles on Saturday or Sunday.  We will resume our regular schedule on Monday.  Scroll down to see the Fiction Friday story “Check, Mate” from earlier today.

In an effort to continually improve the product that we bring to you, we don’t let the grass grow under our feet.    We have several staff changes to announce, and hope to announce more in the coming days.  My long term goal for the magazine is to develop something that gives readers the variety of articles that the see in The New Yorker

Staff changes

• Entertainment Editor Bob Inferapels, has been waylaid by “life” and has notified us that he will not be able to contribute on a weekly basis.  We are, however, keeping him on board as a contributor.  We hope to see more of his articles in the future, and perhaps a return to a larger role at some point.
• To bring non-U.S. viewpoint to The Soap Boxers, we are pleased to announce a Canadian presence on the staff.  Tyson Turner will write a weekly column on Sundays.  His primary focus will be the issues, events, and places that are prominent in the lives of Canadians.
• Peter Rabbit will become a contributor on a monthly basis.  Peter will focus on politics and international issues.

What are we looking for?

We are still looking to add some writers to our team.  We are looking to fill several gaps in our coverage.  Could you be the right candidate?

• All of the current staff writers and contributors are male.  We would like to include a female writer on the staff, in order  to bring a different perspective.  Essentially, I’m looking for a softer, feminine edge to the blog one day a week.  If you are interested in this role, but don’t want to do an article every week, contact me anyway.  I could set up some sort of rotation if we have multiple people interested.  This is the only weekly spot I am looking for fill.  The other roles would all be once a month, or less often.
• Since a significant portion of our readers are from outside of the United States,  I would like to include some international contributors to write about one article per month.  In particular, I would like to  like to engage some folks from Africa or Asia.  If English is not your first language, don’t let this discourage you – I can edit your article to remove any awkward spots.
• Do you have an interesting role within our society?  College student?  Fireman?  Aspiring actress?  I’d love to see some article about your experiences.
• Are you a senior citizen who would like to tell people about things that happened when you were younger?
• Are you a poet or a cartoonist?  Perhaps we could feature some of your work.
• Articles will typically be in the range of 500 – 800 words.  We’re looking for opinions, in addition to facts.  Anyone can go to an encyclopedia for the facts – but only you can give your opinion.
• Reliability is key.  I understand missing an occasional deadline, but if you miss four deadlines in a row, that can be disruptive to the schedule.

Benefits

Why would you want to want to write for The Soap Boxers?

• Money – Well, this probably isn’t the right reason.  When profits emerge, I’ll share proportionally, after covering overhead costs (I can discuss this more deeply if you have sincere interest – it’s actually fairly simple).  At this point, we haven’t turned that corner, so don’t make money the reason why you would join the staff.
• Audience – You would have a built in audience from day 1.  We don’t have a huge audience, but it is steadily growing, and we do have a core group of folks who come back every day.  If you’re thinking about blogging, but don’t want to blog to an open room, this opportunity gives you and audience from the beginning.  If you later decide to launch your own blog, go ahead and jump ship – certainly some of the audience will also read your new blog.  If you decide that blogging isn’t for you, you can step away easily.
• Easy – You don’t have to know anything at all about blogging.  If you’re familiar with WordPress, I can get you up and have you compose articles on the site.  If you’d prefer to just email me your work, that’s also fine.  All you need to do to do is write.
• Resume builder – Will writing for us ensure that you get your dream job when you apply?  Of course not – but it’s something interesting to mention during interviews.  There are a lot of skills that come into play, such as meeting deadlines and working with minimal supervision.
• You get to work alongside a guy who uses lots of bulleted lists.  Talk about a barrel of fun!

What’s next?

• OK, so you’re interested.  What are the next steps?
• Send me an email at kosmo@ObservingCasually.com.  Tell me what sort of position you are interest in, describe your qualifications, and include a writing sample (this may be a link to a web page where you have some of your work).
• I will take a look at your work, compare it to the other submissions I receive, and decide if you are a good fit for a recurring column.  Even if you aren’t selected for a recurring column, I may be able to use your work on an occasional basis.

The process will be relatively painless, I promise.  I’m a very easygoing person, and I’m not going to rake you over the coals.  If I don’t think we’re a good fit, I’ll tell you that and move on.

Thanks for reading!

I bought a board game at a local secondhand store last night.  The box was taped shut.  It seemed a bit thicker than it should have been, but I assumed that contents had just shifted.

Nope.

I just opened it.  Inside the box, on top of the actual game contents, were 17 sealed envelopes from student loan lenders (and the Department of Education).

In an age in which people go to great lengths to protect their indentity, someone handed a gold mine to potential indentity thieves.

Oops!

Today, I will channel my inner Rachel Ray.

How am I like Rachel Ray?  Let’s count the ways:

• Am I a perky brunette with her own TV show?  No, not exactly.
• Am I a savvy businesswoman with a profitable line of cooking equipment for sale in many fine stores?  No, not exactly.
• Do I feature a star studded lineup of guest stars?  Hey, that’s debatable, with my stellar columnists and guest writers.
• Do I have a recipe to share?  Ooh, ohh, definitely.

Today’s recipe is one that I utlilize a lot during lent.  As a Catholic who is allergic to shellfish and dislikes the taste of other oceanic creatures, I don’t have a lot of things to choose from.  I did learn at an early age what a friend we have in cheeses.

Biscuit Pizzas

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Take one can of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (blue can).  Flatten the biscuits on a cookie sheet (you should have 10 flat biscuits at this point, not one big one)
3. Cover the biscuits with pizza sauce.  My personal preference is Contadina in the squeeze bottle – a good balance of taste, economy, and convenience.
4. Top the biscuits with shredded cheese.  My pereference it to put mozzarella on half and sharp cheddar on the other half.
5. Put the biscuits in the oven for 10 minutes.  You may need to tweak this based on personal perference.  10 minutes should get the biscuits nicely browned on the bottom.

Enjoy!

First of all, this isn’t the main article for today – scroll down for the baseball article.

You may notice a few changes to the layout.

Top

• Front Page – This was called “Home” in the past.  It takes you to the main page, which shows the most current articles.
• Archives – I have added an Archives page that shows all of the articles in the complete history of The Soap Boxers
• Cream of the Crop – This is the same as “The Best of The Soap Boxers”, just under a different name.
• Write for Us – We’re always looking for quality content.

Left side

• I removed the links to the main page and “Best of The Soap Boxers”, since those links are at the top.
• RSS & Twitter – I have changed the icons (for the better, I hope).  For those who aren’t sure what RSS is, click on it to find out more.  We post a link to Twitter whenever a new article is posted on the site.  We don’t do anything else on Twitter at this point.
• Archives – This was previously on the right side.  It shows the headline of each past article, grouped by month.
• Categories – This was also previously on the right.  It groups articles by category.

Right side

• Recent articles – This was  previously on the left.  It shows the seven most recent articles.
• Links to blogs – The was previously on the left.  Click on the links to see some of my favorite blogs.

I tried not to make any massive changes.  I hope you link the new design.  For those of you using IE 6, you’ll finally see the 3 columns properly.  What you had seen previously was a problem that was specific to IE6.

Have you ever wondered why you have to sign the credit card receipt when you return merchandise?

Essentially, your signature gives the merchant the authority to put money INTO your account.  Is there a particular reason why someone wouldn’t agree to this?  People putting money into my account is a good thing …