Linkee-poo could be, dare I say it, Pope?

(Been searching like a mad man for that Bloom County strip to share, but, alas, my googlefoo fails me)

Amazon has filed a patent to re-sell digital media, including e-books. Some of the responses have followed down the expected lines of "Seriously, WTF?" And seriously, WTF? First people argue that e-books should cost pennies because there is no physical object being sold. Then there is the kerfuffle over Amazon pulling the copies of 1984 off of people's Kindles with the reminder of, "Well, you don't actually own what's on your device, you're just leasing it." So I guess Amazon could set up a scheme where you cancel your lease to receive a refund and then they resell the lease to someone else. But doesn't that negate much of what Amazon (and others) have been telling us about what e-books are? See, for reselling your dead-tree book involves quite a number of laws, including the rights of the first purchaser. However, IANAL and could be completely wrong about this, but I don't think that applies to sale of object (or leases) which don't have a physical presence. It would be interesting to see if the agency model (or whatever model the companies are running under) allows subletting the lease or if this would be even remotely legal.

Kristen Lamb with the Land of Good Enough being the enemy of the Art. I'm not sure I agree with everything she is saying here, but I agree with enough of it. Maybe it'll help you. That said, living in a garret above the Seine is only romantic when you're in Europe. Know what I mean? Within various "artistic" endeavors you'll find similar philosophies. It's a modern incarnation of the "you must die to the world before you can live". As someone with a Design background, part of me wishes to shout, "BS!" at it. I was once told/instructed/encouraged that whatever relationship I was in at the time would need to be destroyed before I could find someone who would be "supportive" to my art. The person telling me this had no idea what my relationship with my SO (at the time) was like. However, in their life all the designers they knew had divorced their first spouse, so that must be what everyone must do. There does come a moment where you must commit. It's that point you approach where talent will no longer work and to get any better requires hard work, time, and focus. At that moment, you have to ask yourself what you want. The people who succeed commit that work, time and focus. That said, a one dimensional life isn't a fertile ground for art (even when that one dimension is Art). At least IMHO.

And in case you want to ask, those critical commitment points keep coming. For writing this was when I decided to spend the money on Cons. When I committed to weekend retreats to write. When I committed the time and money to Viable Paradise. And just this past year when I weighed the time and physical energy it would take to go to Confusion and said "Yes, I will." I've had to say no to another writing event, but I tried to see a way to make it work. But the exhaustion I would feel the time out of studies coupled with the knowledge that I would have spent most of that spinning my wheels getting back into the mindset of writing, only then to lose it the next day. And this choice is because I've hit that "commit" point with the Rad Tech program. While I love writing, it's not bringing money in the door. And it's hard to be an Artist when you can't eat or sleep indoors. The Rad Tech program needs to be my focus now.

Using Twitter lists to organize your feed.

What interactive books or books with multimedia content should be like. A living map on Ankh-Morpork, from Discworld.

Jim McDonald with some of the various common scams and how they work. He includes this link to a list of grifts.

Overly-honest product stickers. Hahahaha. Although I do take issue with their claim about "All Natural", they should read Fast Food Nation. (Grokked from Random Michelle K)

Fred Clark with a glimpse into the future if Evangelicals get their way with remaking the US into a "Christian Nation." And here you can read "Evangelical" as "those supposedly Godly people who have traded in what is due God for what is due Caesar."

"…they are afraid that a girl with a guitar might just be more powerful than a man with a gun….and they are right…" An all girl band in India disbands in the face of death and rape threats after a Islamic cleric issues a fatwah against them. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

The "why isn't there a White History Month" brigade strikes again. To paraphrase the old quote, "Because every month is White History Month." (Grokked from the Slactivist)