Linkee-poo wants to be sedated

Just a note to all my friends, without happing my laptop function, my reading of blogs, etc, has gone way down (as has my own writing). There's been plenty you've written about that I've wanted to comment on, many of you have been ill and I wish you better health, some of you have been doing interesting things with models (physical and business) and travel, and some of you have written exceptionally poignant and witty things. I just haven't had the opportunity to tell you this. Very busy with life, the jobs, classes, etc and my evening "catch up time" is lacking because of the laptop loss. On the plus side, I'm getting really good at Angry Birds on my Touch.

Of interest to writers, the Journal of Universal Rejection. Bwahahaha!

Then I get to have the, "Holy crap, I wrote about something like that already…" moment when Tobias Buckell mentions that Japan offers to help California pay for high speed rail. Granted, we'll buy Japanese trains with that deal. But, shit. I really hope if California goes for that, the result isn't what's in my book, because that would be bad (for those of you who are first readers you know what I'm referring to, everybody else, sorry, I have to be cryptic here).

It's weird when one part of my life overlaps and intrudes on another part. That's an article on how "Storytelling is the Future of the Web" told from the perspective of designer/media marketing. There's some pretty profound stuff in there (for both sides of the story). First is, hopefully, a little more explanation of what brand is and how it (should) function. Also, there's some pretty good charts in there (the carts are very basic in their design, which is disappointing, but the data is very important). Those charts basically overturn the cultural zeitgeist that we're becoming a nation of schizophrenic multi-taskers unable to focus for anything more than a few seconds (book lengths are getting longer, so are movies and TV shows). Now, while some of the conclusions are a bit misleading in the wording they use, it's still pretty good to know. People pay attention to stories. Give them a good one, and they'll stay with it. But, now you've got your chocolate in my peanut butter.

Of a related note, books are doing surprising well. Yes, from all the doom and gloom you've heard, the number of book titles seems healthy, as do their sales numbers, as well as their profits. Armageddon avoided.

I love me some old school letterheads. Yes, I do. And even more letterhead. I'm in geek heaven.

A primer on internet tracking from the marketing standpoint.

Hey look, real voter fraud happening right there! Oh, wait, it's another Republican. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.