A Little of Everything...

Falling out of a habit is much easier than creating a new one, and that is all of the justification I have for not publishing much over the past week.

The school year is about to start and I am frantic to finish those grandiose plans that I promised the library I would do this summer.

So today, I would like to draw your attention (and clean out my bookmarks) to a few different articles and sites that have captured my attention over the past couple of weeks.

1) Where I Write is a photography project that is looking at the different places authors do their work. This part of the series is focused on SciFi and Fantasy authors. There is something wonderful (voyeuristic?) about seeing places where people create. All of the spots are different and varied, like the authors themselves, but there is one uniting feature - personality reigns! It gave me pause to think about my office/creative space - I wonder if this space is created or comes about organically.

2) Shortly after writing about two particularly good shopping experiences, Chris Brogan wrote about Warming the Mug - something a wonderful waitress did for him once. This is about how, when you are doing your job well, you are passionate for it and you put yourselves in your customer's/user's/patron's shoes. All of that goes into making a perfect experience, making them feel welcome, taken care of, and appreciated. Who thinks to warm the coffee mug? Now I am going to have to start doing that for myself!

3) An experiment took place, a few months ago now, letting poets and authors take over the news for one edition of the Haaretz newspaper. This article is fascinating for anyone who is a journalist (might make you mad) or an author with a more creative bent (might make you say "Darn right!"). I found it interesting because I am neither! Shaking up the business, any business, is always an eye-opening experience. And, though I have some serious issues with this particular example, I think that it at least gets the discussion going.

4) And, finally, here is a great slide presentation from Murdoch University about using emerging technologies, specifically in a university classroom. Though not much of the information was particularly new, some of the visuals were impressive and helped me to understand some of the concepts in a different light.