Month: December 2008

In Which Mur Lafferty and I Singlehandedly Save the Publishing Industry

By Evan — — Writing

As everyone knows, the publishing industry is in trouble. Like a drunken author stumbling across a campus quad, groping for enough saucy anecdotes about teen co-eds to fill out one last priapic literary novel, so too is the publishing industry groping for solutions to shrinking margins and an increasingly distracted public.

Well, fear not, publishing industry! I bring you… the future. Publishing 3.0! Publishing for Teh Internets generation! Publishing with Rounded Corners and Pastel Colors!

Afternoon of the CyberMonkeys: An Interactive Collaborative Twitterfic Publication (with special guest star: Mur Lafferty)

Note that this new super-advanced format has some drawbacks:

  • The posts are in reverse time order. This means that the best way to read Afternoon of the CyberMonkeys is to click the link, immediately scroll down, and start reading from bottom to top.
  • If at some point in the future I decide to change my Twitter favorites for any reason, the story will be destroyed.
  • Unlike works of fiction on physical paper, Twitterfic works are subject to “Failwhales” and other Web 2.0-style mishaps.
  • The story isn’t very good.
  • There is still no revenue model.

But these are minor bugs that I’m sure we can all work around.

JudahTube: The Hebrew Hammer

By Evan — — Personal

Dave admits he’s been “a little bit lax with yuletube postings” recently. Well, I guess someone has to pick up the slack. Who’s out there hard at work while you’re busy with Christmas? The Jews, that’s who!

From one of the more successful Chanukah/Christmas crossover movies ever made, The Hebrew Hammer. I chose this scene because as far as I can tell, it was designed by a focus group specifically to appeal to Dave Thompson. Dave might argue that it would have been better if the Nazis were also zombies, but you can’t have everything.

Bad Timing, Joe

By Evan — — News 
From: Joe Biden <info@barackobama.com>
Subject: A big misconception
Date: December 18, 2008 9:33:44 AM PST
To: Evan Goer
Reply-To: info@barackobama.com

Evan —

A lot of people think the work of a campaign ends when
the election is over.

Well, not if you win.

In fact, folks are working around the clock to prepare
our team to hit the ground running on January 20th. At 
the same time, supporters all across the country are
busy defining the role this grassroots movement will play
in the administration.

It's a new and unprecedented set of challenges, and
Barack and I still need your support. I know we've asked
a lot of you recently -- but that's because we're
continuing to do things differently.

Past transition teams have taken donations from
corporations and lobbyists. Our team will not accept any
donations from Washington lobbyists, and individual
contributions will be limited to $5,000.

So while half of our funding comes from a government grant,
the second half is in your hands.

Will you make a donation of $250 or more to support the
presidential transition team?

...

Dear Joe,

You picked a really bad day to beg me for yet more money.

I suspect from now on, most days won’t be much better.

Best regards,

Evan