The SoapBoxers

Image via Wikipedia

Many are in awe of the technology we have today. Indeed, if you took someone from just a century and exposed them to the technologies of today (something forbidden by the Prime Directive), the person’s head would likely explode (a major reason why the Prime Directive forbids it). Cell phones, the internet, live sports on TV, microwaves ovens, cruise control, solar powered devices – previous generations would no doubt be very impressed by the technology.

However, I’m convinced that the future if we took a trip into the future, we like similarly be amazed by technological advances. I won’t try to look forward 100 years, but just 20. What will the world look like in 2031?  Here are a few of my thoughts.

Flying cars?

Flying cars have been on the drawing board for a long time.  There are a lot of advantages to flying cars.  There wouldn’t be wear and tear on roads, it would be easier to avoid collisions with other cars (since can move in three dimensions), and trips would be shorter as you could fly as the crow flies.

On the downside, planes (and by extensions, flying cars) are more difficult to operate (having a plane engine stall out is far worse than having your car engine stall at an intersection) and tend to be considerably more expensive.  Will be get there some day?  Probably – but not by 2031.

Automobile auto-pilot

Cars already have cruise control, crash avoidance systems, stability control, GPS, and some have the ability to parallel park themselves.  The next logical step is to take a page out of airplane handbook and add full auto-pilot technology to cars.  Pull up the GPS navigator, tell it where you want to go, kick your feet up, and let the car do all the work.

Electrified roadways

Researchers at MIT have developed Witricity – a technology that allows wireless transmission of electricity.

While it would be great to be able to cut the cord to consumer electronic devices, I think the real promise of this technology is related to automobiles.  Imagine driving down the road at 70 mph and have the battery in your electric car be recharged by Witricity stations in the roadway (powered by wind energy?)

iGlasses

There’s a basic rule when it comes to video screens.  As you get further from a screen, the screen needs to be larger in order for you to read it.

Conversely, the closer you are to the screen, the smaller it can be.

I wear prescription eyeglasses.  It would be great to watch whatever I wanted to via my glasses.  Books, movies, live sports, the internet, even the outside of my house could be flashed onto the lenses of my glasses.  This could make traditional videos screen redundant.

Expanded use of biometrics

I hate carrying around keys, credit cards, money, and other physical devices that do nothing but give us access to things.  I’d love to see expanded use of biometric – fingerprints, eye scans, or even implantable chips.  It would be nice if I could get into my home, office, or car just by being me – without needed to carry anything on my person.  Likewise, it would be great to buy things without having to pull out my wallet.

On a tangent … I’m a huge fan of NCIS, but they had a massive blooper in one episode.  A couple of people with high clearance were killed and their electronic chips were stolen so that some bad guys could gain access.  If this happened in the real world, you’d simply cancel the chip’s access immediately.  There are two basic components to a security system: authentication and authorization.  An id/password combination or biometric may authenticate who you are, but there needs to be authorization on the back end to actually grant you access.  Without both the proper authentication and authorization, you don’t get access.

Self-cleaning environment

You don’t have to be in the pew every Sunday to know that something’s wrong when we live in a country where we can send astronauts to an international space station but can’t get a toilet clean without getting down on our hands and knees.

Cleaning the house, washing dishes, and doing the laundry take a lot of time for the average family.  Surely there’s some technology that could allows things to be cleaned automatically, with not human interaction.

Transmogrifier

Seriously, if Calvin could invest one, why hasn’t the scientific community be able to duplicate his efforts.  Shameful.

While you’re at it, how about working on the food synthesizer from Star Trek.  It would be great to have a Monical’s pizza whenever I wanted one!
 

Image via Wikipedia

For those of you that do not know what Amazon Prime is, let me tell you. To be honest, I had no idea what it was until about somewhere around a year ago. At a cost of $79 per year (or $6.58/month for you math junkies), Amazon Prime members enjoy “free 2 day shipping, instant streaming of movies and TV shows, and instant access to thousands of Kindle books”. It truly is what it says, too. As a member I have not noticed any hidden “catches”. The 2 day shipping? It’s really true. In fact, in many cases, you get the package(s) that you ordered the next day. Now, don’t quote me on that because I don’t want any angry readers! But I can’t recall a time where a package did not come within the 2 days, unless the item was on backorder, unavailable, etc.

Free 2 Day Shipping

One of the main reasons we opted to join the Amazon Prime club….for those of you that are frequent Amazon shoppers, you know that to avoid shipping costs your order has to be from Amazon itself (not one of the “sellers” that just sell on Amazon) and also has to be $25.00 or more. In many instances, we found ourselves filling orders to meet the $25.00 requirement and avoid shipping. Why not just pay the shipping? Well, if I’m going to have to pay the extra either way I’d rather actually get something for the extra money, right? Yes, I’m right! So, since joining Amazon Prime, I can’t even imagine how much money we’ve saved from filling orders with stuff that we really weren’t intending to buy. Maybe not a TRUE benefit of the program, but definitely very helpful.

Another very minor (or major, depends on what you think) benefit…..if you’re like me at all, it’s kind of nice to be able to order something and get it within a couple of days, versus waiting 5/7/10 days to receive it. Again, minor, but the somewhat instant gratification of receiving what I ordered that quickly is nice.

For those of you that are rushing out now to join Amazon Prime, be careful. Only products that are Amazon Prime eligible will qualify for the free 2 day shipping. That being said (because I have to say it), in the past several months since joining Amazon Prime I have yet to come across an item that I wanted to order and it was NOT “Prime” eligible. So don’t let that stop you from joining. In fact, they have a free one month trial of the program. We did it, and that’s what got us hooked. It’s a way to verify that everything I’m telling you is in fact true.

Free Video Streaming

I spent a lot of words on the shipping aspect alone, because that is the greatest benefit for me. They do have unlimited instant videos and movies. This is secondary to me because the movie selection is nothing like what you’d find on Netflix or in the video store – it’s just a subset of the entire Amazon Instant Video collection.

The streaming includes a lot of older movies, but nothing of the new release nature. They also include a decent selection of TV shows, but again, nothing that is extremely new.  One thing I’ve noticed is that they include the first few seasons of a show, but not the later seasons.  It seems like they’re trying to get you hooked on a show, then charge you to get the later seasons – a pretty smart strategy.

The movie/show playback and video quality is good … not great, but not horrible either.  You do need a compatible device in order for the streaming to work.  You can read more details about the program here.

I just don’t see the movies/shows library as the main reason for somebody to join.  Nonetheless, it’s a nice bonus if you were going to join Prime anyway.

Borrow Kindle Books for Free

Amazon recently added a Prime feature that benefits Kindle owners.  You can borrow one book per month from the Amazon Owners’ Lending Library for free.  This is similar to the feature of being able to borrow books from your local library, except that there’s no due date.  You can keep a book for a year if you want … but you can only check out one book at a time (and a maximum of one per month), so you can’t borrow another one until you return the one you have borrowed.

The lending library is a subset of the entire Kindle eBook collection, but just on the teaser page, I see recognizable names such as Michael Lewis, Suzanne Collins, and Stephen Covey.  Don’t worry – the authors (and publishers) are being paid.  Amazon is creating a pool of money each month, and this will be split based on how many times a book is borrowed.  If The Cell Window is borrowed as often as Moneyball, Kosmo will get as much money as Michael Lewis (and his publisher).

Like streaming, it’s probably not worth it to join Prime just to take advantage of the ability to borrow Kindle books – but it’s a nice added feature.

Worth the cost?

So, is Amazon Prime worth the $79/year? Yes, it definitely is. But, to prove that to yourself, join the club for a month for free and see for yourself. You’ll be happy you did.

Each year when the weather turns bad in the Midwest, and the theme of holiday parties are in the air, we seem to hear more about accidents and fatalities involving drunk drivers.

Cameron Freeman was just 21 years old last fall. The date was November 23rd to be exact.

He was in a car with three other friends, who were hit by a person driving while intoxicated, and in a stolen pick-up truck.

Three of the friends were injured. Cameron was not so lucky.

Cameron was born on December 7th, 1989. For the historical buffs like me, that is a pretty important day in the annals of the history of our country. It also coincidentally is the day I lost my mother in law to cancer some years ago.

Most parents would be full of rage and hate. I myself have thought about I would have acted in this moment of crisis. I can tell you from some of my own personal experiences in life that you really do not know for sure how you react to extreme adversity until you are square in the middle of the situation and facing it. When adversity strikes with full force, you react based on your morals, beliefs, upbringing and values. In my opinion in these moments you don’t choose how to act or react, things you have done your entire life, the things you believe and who you really are has already chosen your reaction for you.

So instead of being full of hate, anger and resentment, Paul and Shelly Freeman, the parents of Cameron, responded this way….

An excerpt from the Lincoln Journal Star from November 30th of 2010 –

“Wouldn’t it be lovely if we used the number 7,” said Shelley. “Instead replace that anger with seven acts of compassion.”

And that’s how Shelley would like her son to be remembered.

“That could be Cameron legacy, I would love for that to be Cameron’s legacy,” said Shelley. “With fondness it would be nice if we could call that the Cameron effect.”

So, the Freemans forged full ahead and with the help of some friends started the Cameron Effect.

Many businesses in the Lincoln area have jumped on board. Union Bank has distributed money via some of their employees. These individuals go around town and hand out envelopes of money in the form of $100 bills to complete strangers.

Here at our workplace, the unit of people I work with is doing something similar this year. A pool of money was put together and then was a few of us will take the divided up funds and use that to make a difference to someone else. Our only charge is to report back to the members of our team with what you did, and why you chose the person or people that you chose to give your gift to during this holiday season.

The media locally tends to give this plenty of coverage and for good reason. It is nice to reflect on something good happening in the world instead of always reading about bad economy, unemployment, politics, the latest crimes, and all of the other bad things that fill our newspapers and evening newscasts.

So in this holiday season, be thankful for what you have and if possible, pass along the Cameron Effect to someone where you live. Tell your co-workers about it. Pay it forward.

Throwing a bunch of unrelated threads into this article.  Consider it an article casserole.

I’m in Iowa, so I’m hearing a lot of political ads these days. One of the most frequent seems to be a Rick Perry spot in which Perry says that if congress doesn’t pass a balanced budget “I say we cut their pay in half.”

This ad seems to underscore the God complex that seems to be prevalent with many (all?) presidential candidates. They don’t seem to realize that there is a separation of powers, and they can’t simply step in day one and impose their will upon congress (or the nation).

However, all presidential candidates have a big ego, almost by definition. If you think you’re qualified to lead the country, you likely have a pretty healthy ego.

Joran Vander Sloot, a suspect in the killings of Natalee Holloway and Stephany Flores, is suing Chile for $13 million, claiming that his human rights were violated when he was extradited to Peru. He goes on trial for the killing of Flores in January. If he’s found guilty, he might not have much need for $13 million. His lawyers, on the other hand, can probably find a way to spend their share.

Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine has been fired amid allegations of sexual abuse. I doubt that this will be the last case we hear about. With tens of thousands of head coaches and assistant coaches at the college level, it’s almost certain that there are at least a handful more predators lurking.

The Rockies traded catcher Chris Iannetta to the Angels on Wednesday. As a fan of Iannetta, I was a bit disappointed. Although Chris never posted a very strong batting average, his on base percentage and power numbers were very good for a catcher. If he can ever find a way to hit .260 on a regular basis, he’ll be an offensive force.

My advice to Denver Bronco fans – enjoy it while you can. At some point, Tim Tebow’s penchant for winning ugly is going to turn into losing ugly. it’s been a nice run, but it’s still a pretty small sample size – be wary of extrapolating.

I’m going to be a huge fan of Georgia football this weekend. I’m hoping the Bulldogs can hang half a hundred on LSU, to knock the Tigers out of the top two in the BCS. If LSU does win, and proceeds to lose a close game to Alabama in the BCS title game, expect LSU fans to gripe when Alabama is crowned the national champion. They’ll likely ponder this question: “Isn’t an LSU win at Alabama more impressive than an Alabama win on a neutral field.” That’s an interesting point.

Can Barnes & Noble’s new $250 Nook tablet win a head to head battle with the Kindle Fire?  Probably not.  However, the Nook does provide support for ePub files (the Kindle does not) and also has a microSD expansion slot.  Personally, I’d still lean toward the Kindle, but I think the Nook tablet is a solid option as well.  Barnes & Noble also offers free in-store tech support (although I haven’t tested the quality of the support), something that Amazon obviously can’t do.

A couple of bowl-eligible teams are attempting to set records.  UCLA will face Oregon in the Pac 12 title game – only because USC is banned from participating.  The NCAA has granted a waiver that would allow UCLA to play in a bowl game even if they lose to Oregon and finish with a losing record of 6-7.  If they’d lose a bowl game, they’d finish with 8 losses … as a bowl team.

And in Champaign, Illinois, the Fighting Illini are also bowl eligible at 6-6.  That doesn’t sound terrible … but once upon a time, the Illini were 6-0.  If they were to ride their six game losing streak into a bowl game and then proceeed to lose, I think they would be the first bowl team to ever finish the season on a seven game losing streak.

Of course, I can’t find definitive proof of this (they aren’t the sort of records people keep track of), but surely I’m right …

Christmas is around the corner, and people are turning to the internet more than ever before.  I’m a big fan of Amazon … are here are some gift ideas from the big A.

OK, that’s my motley selection of Christmas ideas from Amazon.  Are there any cool items you would recommend?

About a month ago, I had the idea to develop a line of apparel for the electoral college – celebrating the (non-existent) academic and extra-curricular departments within the college.

I ran the idea past a bunch of people.  Nearly everyone liked the idea.  I’m always juggling a lot of ideas at the same time, but I had enough positive feedback to greenlight this idea.

Since my art schools are best described as “pre-kindergarten”, the first step was to work with a graphic designer.  I chose Peter of LogosForWebsites.com.  Not surprisingly, Peter’s specialty is designing logos for websites.  I made initial contact with him to verify that his graphics would work for apparel (the biggest issue being the physical size of the image).  He assured me that this was not a problem and told me that he’d be able to get started on a certain date.

I spent a few more days fleshing out the design elements.  Then I went back to LogosForWebsites, paid for the logo, and handed off the specs to Peter.  Peter quickly responded, letting me know that a few people had skipped ahead of me in line by paying for their logo after I had made my initial contact with him.  That’s perfectly fair.  The other people paid, so they deserved to jump ahead of me.

Peter was able to quickly develop the logo, with minimal revisions.  I was quite happy with the logo. Peter is very easy to work with and has very good turnaround times.

I slapped the logo onto a shirt and developed about 15 different designs – Electoral College Intramural Luge, Athletic Department, Cheerleading, Glee Club, etc.

I chose Zazzle over its competitors mostly because it’s very easy to create similar designs by simply changing the text.  This was a big requirement – I can spin up a new design in about a minute.

Within the first week, we had sold five shirts.  In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll point out that I bought two shirts, Lazy Man bought two, and Martin Kelly bought one.  Still, there was good buzz building, and I was confident of some future sales, especially as the election drew near. I thought the shirts turned out well, and the quality (Hanes) of the actual shirts was good.

About a week later, it came crashing down.  Zazzle yanked my designs after a complaint from a trademark holder.  Did my logo too closely resemble another logo?  No – it was removed because it contained the text “Electoral College”. 

Yes, someone has a trademark on the use of the term “Electoral College” on t-shirts and other apparel (here’s the info on the patent and trademark web site.)

I  was stunned.  Electoral colleges date back to the first millennium A.D.  How could someone trademark a common, everyday term and exclude anyone else from using it on a t-shirt?  I wasn’t the only one to have designs pulled from Zazzle.  Some of the other designs merely mention the term on the text of the shirt.

I was greatly  annoyed at what I considered to be an abuse of the system, but I went back to the drawing board.  I asked Peter if he could tweak the logo to remove the text Electoral College from it and create a few versions of the new designs. Within an hour (I said he was fast), I was ready to go again.

I put up new designs on the site.  This time, the college in question was Electoral State.

Then I did something to test Zazzle.  Within the item descriptions, I referred to the school as Electoral State College and within the “tags” (search criteria), I use Electoral College.  You’ll note that the trademark is quite limited in scope, and I’d argue that neither of these uses violates the trademark.

Within days, the design had been yanked again.  When I made my case to Zazzle, the response was that I was not allowed to use the term “electoral college” in the image, text, description, or tags.  They seem to be granting the complaining party far more rights than the trademark itself conveys.  This seems strange, since I’m a customer and the complaining party is not.

I’ve put up a new set of designs, without using the offending text in the descriptions or tags.  Perhaps the third time’s the charm, but the dream has lost much of its shine at this point.  One thing is for certain – if Zazzle yanks these designs, I’m closing down the shop and going elsewhere. It’s even possible that they’ll throw me out because of my contentious responses. I stay professional in the responses, but take a very adversarial tone.

Where can you find my designs?  Go to ElectoralCollegeGear.com.  Wherever I end up (Zazzle or somewhere else), this URL will redirect to the current store.  Want a shirt for the underwater basket weaving team instead of the cheerleading squad?  Click the customize button to easily change the text.

It’s raining and snowing today in Iowa – with a nasty windy making the weather even less pleasant.  Winter is right around the corner.  Winter is my least favorite time of the year, but there are some creature comforts that can help get you through the winters.  Here’s a list of items you might consider giving to loved ones as a winterizing gift.

(Disclosure: we earn a commission on the sale of any of these items).

	A Kindle.  Whether it’s the $79 model (at left) or the high end $199 Kindle Fire, spending long hours curled up on the couch reading on a Kindle is great way to pass time when there’s a blizzard howling outside.  If you’re not sure which model to buy, I gave my thoughts in a previous article. If you’re the frugal sort, you can justify the cost by looking at the vast amount of public domain works you can download for free. While you’ll pay more for a Kindle version of a book than used paperback, you can also tote around hundreds of books on a Kindle – much lighter than a backpack filled with the paper version.  Also easier on the environment. If you’re looking for a good book to get you started, I’d suggest Lawrence Block’s short story collection, Enough Rope.  This is a massive tome with lots of great stories.  I already own hardcover and paperback versions, and am tempted to buy the Kindle version.
	An electric blanket.  Blanket + Heat = Good.
	Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns.  Nothing screams “warm weather’ like baseball.  Watching this 20+ hour miniseries might make you forget that it’s cold outside.
	Portable DVD player.  Want to watch movies without disturbing everyone else?  Nab a battery-powered DVD player.
	Or, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket, you can drop $2500+ on a 65 inch 3D TV.  Hey, it’s currently $400 off, so you’re basically making money when you buy it.
	I stubbornly cling to the belief that I should be able to remove the season’s snowfall with nothing more than a shovel.  If you’re not bound by such convictions, a snow thrower makes life much easier.  You can spend a little money ($99 for the Toro snow shovel) or a lot ($2000 for a Husqvarna 27 inch two stage model with power steering).
	Always have a set of jumper cables in the trunk of every car you own.  They should last for many years, so resist the temptation to buy the cheapest set.  Buy a good, heavy gauge set (lower number is better).
	Unfortunately, the best jumper cables in the world are useless unless you can get a jump start from another car.  A portable jump-starter doesn’t have that limitation.  It’s a portable, rechargeable device that charges your battery from its own battery.  One caveat – make sure to keep it charged. If you’re constantly having to get a jump start, verify that the problem is the battery (rather than some part of the charging system, such as the alternator) and get the battery replaced.  Most people can replace a battery themselves.  While a battery isn’t exactly cheap, trying to stretch the battery’s life to save a few dollars is a bad idea – as you’ll find out if you get stranded.  Over its life, a battery will likely cost you less than $20 per year.  If you have any concerns that the battery is dying, replace the sucker.
	If you must be outside in the cold, some hand warmers might help you avoid freezing to death.  Buy the 40 pack and have enough to get you through the winter.  Well, through December, maybe.
Electoral College Campus Security by ElectoralCollegeGear See more Electoral college T-Shirts	Picked up a hoodie to stay warm.  With the race for the White House heating up after Christmas, a nice Electoral College themed hoodie might be appropriate.

No new episode of Treasure Hunt today.  My creative energies have been diverted elsewhere this week.  A secret project is underway – more about that next week (hopefully).

If you’re thinking of buying a Kindle, check out my review from a couple of weeks ago.  I touch on the pros and cons of each model.  What’s great for you might not be a good fit for someone else.  If you like the article and decided to take the plunge, consider buying through the links on the site – we’ll earn a small commission on the sale.

You can now check out Kindle books at many public libraries.  Check out this feature!  I’ve been making slow progress on the print edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and downloaded the Kindle version from my library.  You can’t use 3G to download, needing instead to use either WiFi or USB to transfer the book.  Nonetheless, a cool feature.

This is article 1002 for The Soap Boxers.  Want to see them all?  Explore the archives.

The World Series is underway.  It’s currently tied at one game apiece, with the Cardinals taking game one and the Rangers game two.  A huge play in game two occurred when Elvis Andrus moved to second base on  slightly errand throw.  Albert Pujols touched the throw from the outfield ever so slightly, slowing its path to catcher Yadier Molina and making it impossible for Molina to cut down Andrus as he tried to advance.  As a result, the double play was no longer in order.  Making the situation even worse for the Cardinals, Andrus moved to third on a the run-scoring sacrifice fly by Josh Hamilton.  Had he been at first base when Hamilton came to bat, he would have been unable to advance on the fly, and the throw from right field to second base is much shorter than the throw to third.

Last Saturday, Chad Dawson scored a controversial TKO in a boxing match against light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins.  The key sequence in the match involved Dawson lifting Hopkins into the air and throwing him to the canvas.  An injured Hopkins was unable to continues and the bout was called.  On Tuesday, the WBC declared the match a technical draw and reinstated Hopkins as the champion (the reigning champion must LOSE in order to lose his belt; he retains the title in the case of a draw).  This is an interesting – and seemingly correct – decision.  I’m not much of a boxing fan, but find it interesting to see the result of a contest changed after the fact.  This simply doesn’t happen in team sports.

As a lover of Tigers, I was saddened by the shooting of 49 animals – including 18 Bengal tigers – after their owner opened their cages and committed suicide.  I fully understand the decisions that authorities were faced with, and can’t fault them for their choice.  I place the blame on the owner, Terry Thompson, who put the animals in danger by released them.  Thompson had been convicted of animal cruelty in the past.  While the Bengal Tiger is the most common of the Tiger subspecies, there are fewer than 2500 of them in the world, and the death of 18 in one event is a blow to conservation efforts.

On Thursday, we heard reports that Libyan leader Gadhafi (Qaddafi) was killed in a crossfire between his troops and those of the National Transitional Council.  His death ends a 42 year reign over the African country.  Observers wonder if this will embolden rebels in other countries, such as in Yemen, where rebels have called for the resignation of president Ali Abdullah Saleh.  For some interesting insights into Libyan/American relations, I’d suggest Nelson DeMille’s novel, The Lion’s Game.  It’s fiction, of course, so you can’t treat it like a history book (although many of those books indeed contain fiction), but it’s an entertaining introduction to the culture.

Today is the 1000^th post for The Soap Boxers. (Technically, we’ve had more than 1000, but a bunch of them had to be deleted after I discovered that a writer was plagiarizing). It’s been three years since the blog was launched. Has it been successful? Depends on what you’re trying to measure.

Financial Success

Regardless of how you measure financial success, the answer is probably no. My business first appeared on a schedule C for the 2009 tax year. The business recorded losses for tax year 2009 and 2010. Things have turned the corner this year, and I should make a slight profit. Still far below minimum wage, but black ink nonetheless. If things continue down this path, profit-sharing for the other writers should be triggered next year.

The core business – The Soap Boxers blog – still doesn’t generate significant revenue. I change the mix of ads, to no avail. I flash reminders of people’s favorite online merchant – Amazon.com – to no avail. I don’t even want to think about how many hours I’ve spent screwing around with the ads for the site. Definitely a poor use of time.

That’s not to say that there’s not money to be made. There’s fairly strong demand for my talents as a personal finance blogger. This is somewhat strange, due to the fact that I never set out to be a personal finance blogger (and have never actively sought any paying gigs in this niche). I knew that I didn’t want much focus on financial topics on The Soap Boxers, so whenever I had an idea for an article, I’d place it as a guest post on some other site.

From a pure dollars and cents perspective, it’d make sense to shutter The Soap Boxers and take on as many freelance gigs as possible.

But that wouldn’t be as much fun.

Fiction Writing Success

A major reason I started The Soap Boxers (or The Casual Observer, if you remember the old name) was to refine my writing technique in anticipation of a novel.

Is the novel done? No. But I’ve written more than 100 short stories, and I feel that my technique has improved greatly over the years. In the early days, I’d often crack out books on the craft of writing, to figure out how to attack a certain writing problem. I haven’t dusted off any of these books in a very long time. I’ve found my own writing style, and many people seem to like it.

[Looking for a collection of those stories? You can find my collection Mountains, Meadows, and Chasms in Kindle format. The fan-acclaimed short story The Cell Window is also available as a stand-alone Kindle book (it is also included in Mountains, Meadows, and Chasms).]

I also led a fiction writing seminar last spring. I had the intention of turning this into a recurring paid gig, but wanted to test on the process first, so I solicited a few students to join the first class, which would be free. It was supposed to be four students, but scheduling issues for one student caused the class size to drop to three. I quickly discovered that trying to provide analyses of several stories with a quick turnaround was difficult. The course ended up stretching much longer than expected, mostly due to my inability to meet the timelines. It was smart to pilot this idea with one non-paying group – I learned that, at this time, the fiction classes are not something I can commit to. However, the course was interesting, and I think the students got benefit out of it, so it might pop up as a future venture.

A Forum For Other Writers

I started out running a one-person blog. Eventually, I brought on Johnny Goodman to cover sports. That may have seemed a bit like taking coal to Newcastle, considering that I’m a huge sports fan. However, I wanted to free myself up to write more about baseball and dump the other sports on Johnny.

Since then, the group of writers has grown, and at this point nine writers are contributing on a regular basis. These folks are working for a share of profits. Since the venture hasn’t turned a profit yet, it means that none of them has earned a penny from their writing … yet. I doubt any of the writers will ever retire from the money they make from their writing on The Soap Boxers, but I am confident that there will be profits to share in the future.

So I’m a bit like Tom Sawyer, getting my friends to help whitewash the fence. However, the writers do get a benefit. I give them a soap box to jump onto, allowing their opinions to reach more people. During lunch on Monday (at a local BBQ joint) Martin Kelly commented that he sometimes feels that he should pay me for the privilege of writing on the site. That’s crazy talk, of course, but gives you an insight into the mind of many writers.

Friends

I’ve met a lot of interesting people along the way – both readers and other bloggers. I can’t possibly name everyone (and I’m sure to forget someone important) … but special thanks go to Evan, Barb, Lazy Man, SVB, Baker, and Mrs. A. (Yeah, you too, Johnny Sacks, even if you do cheer for the stinking Yankees).

1000 down … one million to go!

In the span of about a year, I’ve gone from thinking I would never use an e-Reader to being an owner of a Kindle.  Much of this was spurred by the ease of deploying Kindle books.  I currently have 3 Kindle books listed on Amazon – perhaps it was time to take the plunge myself?

In July, I bought a Kindle.  At the time, I thought it was a second hand model.  It turns out that I was actually the third owner of the device.  It was a second generation model, but this didn’t bother me much.  The third generation models have more storage space, but if you run out of space on a Kindle, you have a serious reading problems (also, you can always delete and re-download).  Sure, the new generation had the sexy new version of e-Ink, but I decided to be economical and went the used route.

What do I like so far?

Experimental Web Browser

OK, so it’s the tail wagging the dog.  The Kindle’s browser is not going to put the iPad or Android tablets to shame.  If you have a smart phone, your experience will probably be better on your phone.  But for those of us who pass up smart phones for reasons of economy and battery life, the Kindle is a serviceable option.  Currently, Kindles that use 3G allow you to surf the web with no monthly fee.  That could change at any time, but it’s a nice fringe benefit.

The Classics are Free

I loaded the Kindle up with Dracula, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Count of Monte Cristo, and much more.  All for the price of NOTHING.  There are a couple of organization who are working to make public domain works available for Kindle.  This list will get you started, or you can go to Project Gutenberg for an easy-to-browse selection.  During this process, I came to the startling conclusion that  Daphne Du Maurier’s works are not in the public domain – for some reason, I thought she was born much earlier than she actually was.

Exclusive Content

My favorite author, Lawrence Block, began releasing short stories and novellas for bargain basement prices.  Many of these had not seen the light of day in many years, while other had been included in his omnibus Enough Rope.  He even cobbled together the after words from his books into Afterthoughts.  I’m not sure how many people would storm the doors of a store to pay $19.99 for a hardcover version of Afterthoughts, but at 99 cents, it’s hard to pass up (and Block will surely reap profits as people realize that there are several of his books they have neglected to read.

I Read More

I seem to be reading more since I bought the Kindle.  Part of that is the fact that I’m reading Block, whom I’ve always found hard to put down.  Then again, I’m reading the dead-tree edition of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, and I also am entranced by Stieg Larsson.  Perhaps it’s the fact that the Kindle is a one handed device, while it’s a bit awkward to read a book with one hand.

Those concerns I had about battery life?  Completely unfounded.  I probably charge once a week, just to make sure I don’t run out of battery power – but I’ve never had the Kindle below half.

What About You?

Have I sold you on the Kindle?  Swing over the Kindle Store at Amazon, where you can buy a Kindle and fill it with eBooks in time for the cold of winter.