My New Ninja Name

Ninja Burger -- Games (of Death?): "Todd Finley,

from this day forward your
Ninja Burger ninja name will be

Sanjuro Futaba -san"

Mark Twain quotations - Afterlife

Cool site with bunches of Twainisms

Mark Twain quotations - Afterlife: "
When I reflect upon the number of disagreeable people who I know have gone to a better world, I am moved to lead a different life.
- Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, 1894"

More Hits by Teens Than Google!

...and I've never heard of it before. I'm getting old.

Do You MySpace? - New York Times: "Even with many users in their 20's MySpace has the personality of an online version of a teenager's bedroom, a place where the walls are papered with posters and photographs, the music is loud, and grownups are an alien species.

Although many people over 30 have never heard of MySpace, it has about 27 million members, a nearly 400 percent growth since the start of the year. It passed Google in April in hits, the number of pages viewed monthly, according to comScore MediaMetrix, a company that tracks Web traffic. (MySpace members often cycle through dozens of pages each time they log on, checking up on friends' pages.) According to Nielsen/NetRatings, users spend an average of an hour and 43 minutes on the site each month, compared with 34 minutes for facebook.com and 25 minutes for Friendster."

Rumi

Between birth and death
Three in ten are following life;
Three in ten are following death;
And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.
He who knows how to live can walk abroad without fear of rhinocerous or
tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn, tigers can
find no place to use their claws, and weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter.

EDUCAUSE REVIEW | Nicely worded review of what a Wiki is...

EDUCAUSE REVIEW | September/October 2004, Volume 39, Number 5

Television Tropes & Idioms - Main.HomePage

This could be converted into a neat TV script assignment.

Television Tropes & Idioms - Main.HomePage

Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

See it every night on the news.

Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression: "# Call the skeptics names like 'conspiracy theorist,' 'nut,' 'ranter,' 'kook,' 'crackpot,' and of course, 'rumor monger.' Be sure, too, to use heavily loaded verbs and adjectives when characterizing their charges and defending the 'more reasonable' government and its defenders. You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned. For insurance, set up your own 'skeptics' to shoot down.
# Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money (compared to over-compensated adherents to the government line who, presumably, are not).
# Invoke authority. Here the controlled press and the sham opposition can be very useful.
# Dismiss the charges as 'old news.'"

Corporations Fight for the Rights of Kids to View Ads

Let's exploit them while they're young!

American Newspeak

Know Your Hate Group

Tolerance.org: U.S. Map of Hate Groups

Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume

Has a nice discussion of being mission-oriented in your resume.

Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Resume: "# Unnecessary dates. Don't list dates that don't add anything to your resume; for example, dates you spent involved in college extracurricular activities. If you were involved in these activities during college, the reader can pretty much guess your dates of involvement, and listing the dates will just clutter up your document. Same with dates of involvement in professional or civic organizations; ask yourself if those dates will be meaningful to the employer reading your resume.
# Parentheses. Jobseekers have a particular tendency to set off dates of employment with parentheses. It's easier on the reader if you just use commas."

Quote of the Day: Deconstructed by Maureen Dowd

My Private Idaho - New York Times: "'We owe them something,' he told veterans in Salt Lake City (even though his administration tried to shortchange the veterans agency by $1.5 billion). 'We will finish the task that they gave their lives for.'

What twisted logic: with no W.M.D., no link to 9/11 and no democracy, now we have to keep killing people and have our kids killed because so many of our kids have been killed already? Talk about a vicious circle: the killing keeps justifying itself."

10 Steps to a Hugely Successful Web 2.0 Company

I like the emphasis on starting right away and solving a really simple and narrow problem...like providing resources for English Education Professors!

This is going to be BIG! - 10 Steps to a Hugely Successful Web 2.0 Company: "1. Solve the smallest possible problem (that is still big enough to matter) for the user and know exactly what problem you're trying to solve. Google's first and primary job was very simple: Help people find stuff. They didn't start layering on everything else until much later. Brad calls this the 'narrow point of the wedge.' Its the easiest, simplest version of what you're trying to do... the smallest bite your users will ever have to chew--small enough to get hooked on very easily."

All english education professor jobs | Indeed.com

Nifty little interface to find jobs. Want to teach in Edina, MN?

All english education professor jobs | Indeed.com

Cram Problem-Solving

The nutshell: put a bunch of people in a room for 48 with lots of food. The objective: create something. Interesting idea for mapping out a book project. I'll have to share this with my writing group.


Creating Passionate Users: Build something cool in 24 hours: "Storyboard Jam

We develop our books (Head First books, and the not-yet-announced new series we're working on) from storyboards, as opposed to outlines and TOCs. The storyboard is by far the most important part of the creative process for the books, and it's often the most difficult for authors... including those with tons of previous 'traditional' writing experience. Having everybody go off and spend hours with their storyboards (either alone or in collaboration with another person), then periodically getting back together for a show-and-tell with feedback would be amazing. In fact, we did do something like this once -- we called it a 'Head First Bootcamp' -- that brought together a half-dozen prospective authors plus our O'Reilly editor, for five days in Colorado, all staying in one house, and with food brought in most of the time. One of the outcomes of this intensive week were Eric and Beth's storyboards for the Head First Design Patterns book, currently one of the top five bestselling computer books.

There's no doubt they would have produced these storyboards back in their own home, but this total immersion week did kick-start things in a big way, and gave them the opportunity for vital real-time feedback."

100 Best Writing Sites for Authors

From Writer's Digest. It will take me a couple hours to check all these out.

WritersDigest.com: "Author Zone
URL: www.authorzone.net
An online community primarily for authors, this site also includes articles, short stories and book reviews written by authors and editors.

Authorsden
URL: www.authorsden.com
This site is a place for readers to follow their favorite authors and for authors to market to their target audience.

Autobyografy
URL: www.autobyografy.com
This site lists full-time job opportunities for creative types and includes products to enhance that creativity.

Autopsy Screenwriters Guide
URL: www.faqs.org/faqs/pathology/autopsy-screenwriters-guide
Find autopsy details, including who performs autopsies, why one is done and even the typical salaries of the workers.

Bartleby
URL: www.bartleby.com
Scour fiction, nonfiction, poetry and reference books at this online search engine."

Ulysses for Dummies

For the fast-forward nation!

Ulysses for Dummies: "Herewith, our stripped-down, revved-up version of Joyce's great work, which we, with one eye on the marketplace, have called Ulysses for Dummies. "

Education: North Carolina Political Leaders' Views

You can locate all the NC politicians on all the education issues. Tremendous site.

Education: North Carolina Political Leaders' views

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

All in one place.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Welcome to the Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993."

George Orwell Tells us How to Write

Work : Essays : Politics and the English Language // George Orwell // www.k-1.com/Orwell: "
Work : Essays : Politics and the English Language

(May 1945)
Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes."

How to Write a Book & Get it Published

SoYouWanna publish a book?: "If you've never truly considered writing a book, take another look at the rubbish filling bookshelves at airport kiosks. The 'authors' of that stuff are laughing all the way to the bank. While English majors and real literary types are screaming at each other in the stuffy halls of academia or the pages of The New Yorker, these clowns are quietly rehashing tired plots and making millions for it. You're a smart person, so we see no reason you shouldn't take a crack at making bank as well. (Heck, even if you're a ding-bat, we think you should give it a try. Al Gore's books sold millions.)"