Misc

Just saw that Amazon announced the Kindle 2 yesterday. For those of you who don't know, the Kindle is Amazon's ebook reader that uses that fancy, awesome e-ink. The original Kindle was met with largely positive reviews. Well--nothing but positive reviews about the service, but wishy-washy reviews regarding the hardware. Most of the complaints had to do with the button layout.

That's why this Kindle 2 announcement is pretty big. From what I've been able to see from pictures, it looks like Amazon has really tried to fix the hardware problems of the first Kindle. That's great, because like I said before, I heard nothing but positive reviews about the actual Kindle service. So now, with the Kindle 2, we have the amazing Amazon Kindle service, combined with a sleek and refined ebook reader--a total win situation.

There are two great things about the Amazon Kindle service that make me really want to get one of these devices. The first thing is that the Kindle is tied to the Amazon bookstore. One of the big pain with ebooks has always been that it is hard to find good ebooks. But Amazon, which is easily one of the largest (if not the largest) bookseller in the US, is working to make as many of its books as possible readable on the Kindle. That's pretty huge. Plus, the store is tied into the Kindle hardware. So you can search and download for a book directly on your ebook reader. To my mind, this is kind of doing for ebooks what Apple and iTunes did for downloading music with the iPod.

The second big thing about the Kindle service is that your purchase of the Kindle hardware includes EVDO always-on internet for free. The Kindle uses Sprint's cellular network to connect to the Amazon store, download blogs and newspapers, and even check your rss feeds. And this isn't some trial-period internet. You have this internet access for as long as Amazon is still a viable company and they're still using EVDO cellular networks. Brilliant.

Anyway...I guess the whole point of this post is that I would love to have one of these devices, but I'm poor. So, instead I'll just praise it on the internet with the hope that one of you will buy one so I can steal it from you. :-)

There's some really great news over at Ed's blog, Warfighter. I'm not even going to tell you what it is. You're going to have to go check it out for yourself! ;-)

As always, leave Ed a comment on your visit. Comments are great. It's how we online blogging entities know you care. Because we're not just zippy-zappy electrons. We have feelings too, you know.

Oh--I also wanted to direct everyone's attention over to EJ: Warfighter. It's been quite a while since we've had an update there, but Ed finally got around to telling us he's safe and sound, and currently on leave, gallivanting through Europe. Yeah...don't feel so bad for him now, do you? ;-)

Also, (since Ed won't be on leave forever) I wanted to point out that all of Ed's contact information can be found on EJ: Warfighter--most importantly, his mailing address where you can send fabulous care packages (both the "Contact" and "About" tabs have the mailing address).

Maybe I should start posting my mailing address so I can receive fabulous care packages. Hmmm...

Today is the day! The beginning of my Writing Sabbatical. So, I've done some preparations for anyone else who would like to participate, or if you just want to keep up with how it's all going for me. So, check it out:

• The forum is set up and ready for anyone who wants to join in the the writing fun over at the {art of language} forums.
• You can keep up with how things are going with me via my writer's journal.
• Also, I'll be posting smaller updates on my identi.ca microblag.
• And, everyone is welcome to come and chat and post writings and fun stuff in the #bdwhite irc channel on freenode.

I'm really hoping this will be a fun time, and anyone who wants to is welcome to participate. Any writing style, any subject! All you need to do is go and register for an account on BDWHITE.com, which will let you post your work in the forums and participate in the discussions.

So, for this next week, most of the action is going to be going on over at BDWHITE.com, so if there haven't been any updates here, go and check out what's going on over there. Thanks! And hopefully I'll have something to show for the work by the end of the week!

Truly awesome:

Because I am a fan of the classics, after all.

A snippet from the big announcement over at BDWHITE.com:

Starting Monday, July 28 (a week from today), I will be going on a "writing sabbatical" for 5 days, or in other words, one work week. I will be writing for at least 8 hours per day. What will I be writing on, you ask? Elixir, of course! My goal will be to hopefully finish up the rough draft of the entire book during that period of time. I don't know if this is a realistic goal or not, but we shall see!

In order to make things more fun for people, and to help give myself some encouragement (and motivation) along the way, I will be posting regular updates of my progress here, on my identi.ca feed, and I will even post some snippets of the actual writing in the {art of language} forums. I will be checking comments and emails regularly, so if there's something you'd like to see in Elixir, or if you have some critique for the snippets in the forums, feel free to speak out!

Also, I'm going to challenge other BDWHITE.com readers to take a sabbatical of your own. You may not be able to do a week like me, but how about a day, or even a couple of hours? If you register for an account here at BDWHITE.com, you can even post your own snippets in the forum!

It all starts next Monday, July 28!

Does anyone here remember my first attempt at a website/blog. It was before those big blogging sites had caught on. (You know, like xanga or blogger.) It was called the Blue Cathedral. I coded the entire thing in HTML (no fancy backend like I use now), and I was just learning about fun things like CSS. I was pretty proud of how the site looked back then, though.

So, today, I got curious. The files for the site were long ago lost in some hard drive format, but thankfully there is archive.org to the rescue. I looked up the old bdwhite.com, and there it was, in all its former glory:

Blue Cathedral v2.0

This is actually the second iteration to the site (after I had learned about CSS and no longer used tables for all my html formating). I think the design has stood up well over time. The other things I especially like, are being able to check out the old "sister sites" of mine. Head to the "Entertainment" link and click on "BC Anime" or "Felix-Fansubs". While I'm still into anime...I was really into it then. The BC Anime expose on "What is anime" is espcially fanboyish. :-)

Once again, though, I think the designs for these sites are pretty good even now...if not a little oversaturated in blue. But it was the Blue Cathedral, after all.

I really need to pull those sites off of archive.org to save them for myself. They're kind of fun pieces of memorabilia.

P.S. funny to see I was still promising new chapters of elixir even then!

P.P.S. double comment points to anyone who can tell me which song the header's tagline comes from.

Please don't be offended by the post below. I really am seeking for answers. I've just tried to be a little tongue-in-cheek about some of the language we use for these sort of situations, as I generally find that language very unhelpful at best.

If you are legitimately offended, though...do let me know. I'll do my best to set things right in the universe I have at least a little control over (i.e. my blog). Thanks.