Memorial Day Weekend

Isn't this just a beautiful view?

What'd you all do this weekend?

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Share Time

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend the annual conference of the Oregon Chapter of the American Marketing Association. The second keynote speaker was Kevin Carroll, and I have to say his presentation was very inspiring.

Most of all, he talked about the idea of sharing time. You might remember in elementary school when we all got the chance to share about the new book we got, the movie we saw, the soccer game from the night before, or whatever it is that makes you happy.

Well, I was inspired by his presentation and have put together a Google group for us "grown ups" to have our own sharing time. It's called "Inspire Me." I've opened the group to anyone and everyone and want it to be a safe place for all of us to practice being kids again and take a minute to share with one another. Stop by, sign up, and tell your story.

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New Idea

I'd like to propose a new idea, and I want to know what everyone else thinks of it. For a while, I've been posting on my own quasi-daily blog called "Eric's Weird World." The premise of the blog is that each post is a day in the life of a fictional individual called "Eric" (I was unoriginal when I came up with the idea and named him after myself). What I'd like to do now is create another blog and, once again, have posts put up daily. The difference is that I want to use more than one writer ...

Basically, I want two different writers to alternate back and forth for about two weeks. Each day will feature a 2-4 page section of the story, with the second writer following it and continuing the story the next day. Ultimately, I'd like to do a 100-day, 5-10 writer project, but all good things must start small. So I'm proposing a 10-14 day, 2-writer project with a common storyline, common characters, and daily updates. What do y'all think of the idea?

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Of Free Speech and Other Things

I'm a bad student and I frequently check my email during class when I should be paying attention. Because of an email I received last night from PSU President Daniel Bernstine, however, I will no longer be checking my email frequently when I should be focused on other things. Last night at about 8pm, President Bernstine emailed the entire university community with a message titled "Free Speech Issues on Campus." I was intrigued because I thought it was about content in the student newspapers (When I was at the University of Oregon we had frequent similar messages about our student papers). The email was not, in fact, about anything so trivial, though.

While I was at the University of Oregon last year, an organization called the Genocide Awareness Project held a presentation on campus. I was working for the UO at the time, so I found out about their visit several weeks ahead of time, but had no idea who the group was. At the time, public conversations about the on-going conflict in Darfur were frequent and I assumed, however erroneously, that the GAP had something to do with protesting international inaction in Darfur. Their somewhat stealthy arrival on campus (I was not allowed to tell students about the group until the night before they showed up) should have tipped me off to what was really going on.

The Genocide Awareness Project is really an effort to liken abortion with the infamous genocides throughout history of which we are all aware. Keep in mind, I am not trying to make a statement that is pro-choice, pro-life, or otherwise. I am merely trying to point out the naivety with which I received information while at the UO.

Flash back to last night and the email from the president of PSU. He was informing us that an organization known as the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform would be bringing a similar demonstration to campus today and tomorrow. I looked in to the issue a little further and discovered that the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and the Genocide Awareness Project are one and the same; just a new name for a new year. Their display is set up in front of the Millar Library on the Park Blocks in the center of campus. President Bernstine's email encourages students to avoid the area if they don't want to see the display. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the PSU campus, this location is centrally located in front of the library, the student recreation center, and the student union. Avoiding this part of campus is next to impossible for many students, which is the reason I'm sure the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform chose it as the site for their display.

Those of you who are reading now are probably wondering when I'm going to get to some sort of point. My point is not that this display should be censored, nor is it that their message is wrong. I will always support someone's right to exclaim a controversial message, but I feel this group is doing so in an inappropriate manner. Genocide is an act of hatred, performed by those who are in such a state of rage they lack any form of respect for the lives of their victims or how others will view their actions in the future. I refuse to accept the juxtaposition of unwilling mothers seeking medical help with the mobs of bloodthirsty Klansman that terrorized the south or the indication that certain medical professionals are as cold and malice-filled as Adolf Hitler or Yosef Stalin.

The images presented by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform definitely serve their purpose of provoking emotional responses from onlookers, but those responses are likely to be highly polarized. I respect the Center's pro-life position and, whether I agree or disagree, would be willing to sit down with them and talk about it whenever they'd be willing to. However, while I will support their right to make such displays and demonstrations, I feel the one on the PSU campus today and tomorrow is disrespectful and distasteful and will do more to emotionally harm those on the other side of the debate than encourage active discourse. No rational person would be willing to sit down and discuss an issue with someone who just stood on a podium, pointed at them in the crowd, and publicly placed them in the same column as the most hated murders of human history.

While I disdain the way in which the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform is promoting their message, I encourage you to not stop at my words to form your own opinion. Feel free to visit the display yourself, or to peruse their website. I warn you, though, the images on campus and on their website are VERY GRAPHIC and highly disturbing. If you disagree with anything I've said here, please leave me a comment and we can discuss both of our opinions.

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eBooks

So I'm trying to figure out how to publish my own eBooks. I have found one website, Lulu, that allows self-publication, but I can't format the appearance of my eBook with the cover and other elements the way I want to. Beyond that, I know my book will open in plain old Adobe Reader. The downside to this, is there are three really good eBook programs I'd like to use but can't.

I'd really like my PDF eBook to open in Adobe Digital Editions, but I can't figure out how to do that. My second idea would be to use eReader, but I don't want to pay the $30 for the software because I don't know if my stories will make enough money to cover that cost. Thirdly, I could use the free Microsoft Reader, but the formatting of the finished eBook is hit or miss, and my first attempt ended up with half the title page on one page, the other half merged with the first paragraph on another, and weird text formatting errors.

My other issue, and ultimately the one preventing me from moving farther forward in my endeavors, is selling the stories. Does anyone know an easy way to set up an online store where my stories will be sent automatically on receipt of payment to the purchaser? I could set up PayPal, but I'd still have to manually email out the finished goods. That doesn't go well with the "right here, right now" image eBooks propagate in the first place.

I am open to any and all suggestions as to how I can progress from this point. If I don't get anything, I might just have to go with a third-party publisher like Lulu.

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New Links

Check out the new links on the right hand side, courtesy of my friend Elaine.

Project Photo 365: http://brilaineproject.blogspot.com/

Today in E-Bomb's World: http://spilt-ink-project.blogspot.com/

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Writers of the Future

So I was randomly perusing the Internet the other day and stumbled on what appears to be the blog of the Writers of the Future contest. I'm still a little confused about its authenticity, though. The contest's first quarter ended on April 1. I receieved an email about a week after that deadline telling me to wait 10 weeks before any kind of announcements on finalists would be made.

This being said, the blog I found claims to have announced the first quarter finalists on May 23rd. That's only two weeks after the "wait 10 weeks before we make a decision" email, not ten. I'm still hoping there was some kind of error in reporting the finalists, though, because I have not heard ANYTHING official from the contest organizers.

Does anyone have any other ideas about this?

In the even that I'm not a finalist, I'm still very interested in self-publishing my story. I found a website called Lulu that allows self-publication of eBooks for free (well, there's a 20-25% royalty charged on your selling price). If I didn't win, I'm thinking of setting up an account and selling my eBook for $1.50-$2.50 per copy. Does that sound reasonable?

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