renee’s stuff

1,2,3..Books!

nobody@vox.com(renee) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:11:11 -0800

Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
Include the title and the author’s name.

“Beside him, Alice began to cry. It was the sort of out-of-breath weeping a tired child might make. One who is used to punishment.”

from the paperback edition of Cell by Stephen King.

Meme from Book Through Thursday

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Challenge Update

nobody@vox.com(renee) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:55:51 -0800

While I have received exactly 42 emails concerning the Cookies and Dignity Challenge, no one has guessed the source, nor have they entered the writing contest. So…was the quote too obscure? Too short? Did it not strike anyone as funny? I found the phrase hilarious. Cookies and dignity just don’t seem to go together, and I thought we’d get some very interesting uses of the two. But I guess not. OK. I learned a little from this, and the next challenge will be different. In the the meantime, here’s another hint: (The first hint can be found in the comments to the original challenge)

The author is Rene Guttereridge.

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Tuesday Web Tour

nobody@vox.com(renee) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:09:38 -0800

Creating Passionate Users: Who’d You Make Smile Today? Going beyond the text-book formula of customer satisfaction and actually making them smile.

Free Fonts: Download hundreds of open-source font styles for free.

Texas Gas Prices: Monitor and submit gas prices in your area. Great resource to find the cheapest gas, and to avoid the gougers. Free.

LibraryThing: Create and maintain your own library catalog. Easy to use, easy to search, easy to share. Great for all bibliophiles. Free.

Texas Best Cowboy Culture: Artists, poets, real cowboys and more. All the best people, places, and things in Texas.

Web 2.0 Design Style Guide: Describes various common graphic design elements in modern web design style and attempts to explain why it works,as well as how, when and where to use, and not use, these design styles

That’s it for today’s web tour. I hope you find something to entertain, enlighten, encourage, or empower you and your business. Happy surfing!

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Rock the SAT

nobody@vox.com(renee) — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 18:17:12 -0800

This is a great example of *blend. “Rock the SAT”, a study guide that includes a CD of songs that most teens will enjoy, with the added bonus of improving their vocabulary…hopefully leading to higher scores on the verbal section of the test. When I first heard about it, I thought “My kids won’t listen. They want cool music”. But I was wrong. The songs were catchy, and no more corny than what they listen to every day. I also thought the songs would not be able to actually teach them new words, because teens are notorious for not understanding contextual use of words. But the lyrics go beyond just using the words in context, they actually define them without hitting you upside the head. It was impossible for my girls to listen to the songs and NOT know what the new words meant or how to use them.

You can sample two of the songs at the January 6 Weekend Edition on NPR. Listen to track one at the official web site for the Rock the SAT study guide. Or go ahead and buy it: it’s only $10.17 from Amazon

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What are you reading?

nobody@vox.com(renee) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 18:51:21 -0800

This one from Booking Through Thursday

Keeping it Simple
Let’s keep it simple today:
What are you reading right now?

My response:

Severance: Stories by Robert Olen Butler
Boo by Rene Gutteridge
and
Cell by Stephen King

oh, and on the non-fiction side: CSS, DHTML, & Ajax by Elizabeth Castro

My question…how many books are YOU usually reading at any given time?

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