Digital Textbooks At Last!

Yes, it's just a trial, but still...

If you Google my name, and if you're thinking of doing business with me I always assume you have, one of the things that comes up is a comment I made on an article about e-books a few years ago.

Basically I was saying that the most logical application I could conceive of for e-books was textbooks. Anyone who has watched a junior high student load 30lbs of books on their back understands why e-books would be the ideal textbook. The older the student, the truer this is since the books only get heavier.

Now, if they would only make e-books cheaper*...

*A friend loaned me her Kindle to play with. LOVE having 40+ books in my hand at once and being able to carry them all around in something lighter than a paperback. HATE how much Amazon is charging for a downloaded file AND the fact that there is no way to borrow books, library-style, for these things. Otherwise I'd beg Santa for one. Right now, if I got it I'd just be annoyed that I was too cheap to put any books on it.

Disclosure

I was going to try to hide it, but the effort is making me tired, already, and its only been 4 days.

I am ~not~ a full-time VA.

There, I said it. I've only been a full-timer a few times over the years, since work seems to come in waves. Very dilettante of me, but dh had a good job with a mega corp that supported my scribbling.

Note the HAD.

Yea. We both started job-hunting a week after has became had, and I won the who-gets-a-job-first lotto. As of last Monday, the 25th, I am a writer-mom with a full-time outside job (what my 7yo calls it). Sadly, not a writing gig, but we do what we gotta do. That 7yo likes to eat.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not throwing in the towel.

I'm still writing, just not as much, and I am a lot less available than I was--think 24-48hr turnaround on email--definitely the best way to find me these days! I'm finishing up projects I started before the pink slip came down the pike, but not, honestly, currently looking for more freelance work.

Once I get all the way back into the 9-hours a day in makeup groove I'll start cranking up again. Right now? Well, I haven't done the corporate machine thing since my daughter was 2 and I am, frankly, just plain t-i-r-e-d.

Trying not to say anything about it was even more tiring. 'Sides, if you are one of those who follows me on Twitter, well, I haven't exactly kept it a secret.

Fortunately I know a totally awesome VA/friend just getting started that I ~know~ has my back if something comes along I can't resist and I can't do it all myself. I'm betting she will be wildly successful, much more so than my dilettante self, in under a year. Soon as her website is up I'll come back and add a link.

Girl Power!

This is an interesting article on all-women networking and fraternal groups in the UK.

Update, Upgrade, Upheaval!

Ink Think is doing respectably well these days, after a long slow start, and I decided to reward myself this weekend. My old business (cell) phone has been having a harder and harder time taking a charge--the battery was fine, but the little connector thingy in the phone wasn't connecting unless you laid it down just right and held your mouth so. It was very WordPerfect 5.0!

After much thought and inner debate I decided to upgrade to a PDA. I denied myself 3 or 4 years ago when I got my last phone, unable to justify the expense for my tiny writing business. Now, though, I need it. I can edit documents while waiting for school to get out and not have to re-enter the hand edits on the soft copy when I get home. I hope. So I did it.

A cringe-worthy amount of money later me and my PDA headed home, a big grin on my face and a brand new picture of the kiddo, taken in the phone store, on my desktop.

6 HOURS later I finally got the ^&*%^# Windows Mobile syncing to work right and suddenly all was right with the world! My computer could see my phone.

Just not my email.

10+ HOURS later, and that's labor hours, real time is closer to 20 and yes, I did only get 5 hours of sleep last night, the process of migrating back to Outlook from Thunderbird is complete. Sort of. The messages are all there, and some are even sorted into the right folders, but some got lost, some ported over (a nightmarish 3-5 step process that either Microsoft or Mozilla needs to make easier!) blank, or were there but hiding in reams of code...

If you emailed me this weekend, well, it may have gotten lost in the shuffle. If I haven't replied, it's because I can't. I will be spending Monday on the phone with tech support, no doubt, figuring out why I can't seem to send through any of my SMTP servers. If you really need me, send me your Skype ID (or Yahoo, AIM, or MSN--pick an instant messenger) id in the email and I'll get back to you that way.

I wish this was it, but sometime this summer Ink Think will be migrating to a new computer, too. I must be nuts.

The Sitch

Good - More Time for Other People

Today is the last day of my onsite gig. It's been nice to see grown-ups who are not fellow parents at my daughter's school on a regular basis, but I'm ready for it to be done. I got out of the house, got to wear dressy work clothes for a few months, and got the job done, so it's time to end it.

Starting tomorrow I can borrow my daughter's Godzilla slippers to wear to work ;-)

Bad - Down Time

The old (home) office is switching from DSL to AT&T U-verse today, and I have no CLUE what the 'Net access downtime is going to be. I have a printed list of wifi hotspots just in case it's not back up by the time I get home, but, forewarned is forearmed if you need me today, you may just want to call (after 1pm).

Look at Me!

Wow. I was awarded the VA Networking VAccolade Business Entrepreneurs Award.



I am rarely speechless, but today, I am.

Paper or Plastic?

For your book, that is.

No, not what it's in, what it's made OF.

Check out this article at TheStar.com about a new environmental book printed on recyclable plastic.

Me? I'm a closet greenie, so I think it's a great idea.

Content is King, Again

"Content is King" has been a byword for web marketing on and off for the last several years. With the increasing popularity of "web 2.0" (an appellation that appalls me--it's the same web it's always been, folks!) and Flash, the importance of good text has gotten away from people.

Just ask the hotel folks. Their own industry publications are telling them they need better, more organic keyword-driven and sales generating web content, as seen in this article.

If you're a hotelier bent on taking this advice to heart, remember yours truly is a copywriter with years of hospitality experience ;-)

Writers for Homeland Security

I have to say, though, that I think they tapped the wrong kind of writers for this. Sure, sci-fi writers are unconventional thinkers, and all the ones in the group mentioned in the article have doctoral degrees in some branch of the sciences, but still... I would have tapped the military/political thriller writers first.

I am quite sure I am not the only Tom Clancy fan who read "Debt of Honor" (1994) and thought "I am SO glad I am not him!" on 9/11. Talk about predictions... *shudder*