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I'm still experiencing a bit of a holdup on releasing my new book, "Corporate Ties," for a number of reasons. The biggest, though, is that I want the book to be super awesome and not cause too many issues, which of course, is causing a delay. In the meantime, I've picked up a bit with the marketing side. I've enlisted two graphic designers to assist me with artwork for the book.
As a writer of workplace novels, I try to stay up on the latest and greatest new business books that are out there. There is generally a clear distinction between self-help and narratives, but I do not think it always has to be like that.
I received an email recently about a new movie and a contest for a trip to New York. The new movie, "Fix" starring Olivia Wilde, seems like it could be pretty decent. It's based on a true story, centering around the director trying to bail his brother out of jail in a single day.
I'm sitting in my cube right now, wearing shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes. On the other side of the sensibility coin, analyst firm Gartner is predicting that avatars will have business dress codes by 2013. How do people come up with this stuff?
The Library of Congress is up to its old tricks again. Chronicling America has a number of scanned newspapers from 1880 to 1922 from various American states. The site, which is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, allows users to search based on topics and zoom in to read papers from the more than 100 years ago.
You cannot escape the Internet. OK, you're right, you can. You can move to Uruguay. But for all the trouble, you might as well find a computer and get busy.
A lot of people have been talking about designing a "homepage," which has nothing to do with your living quarters. Simply put, a homepage is the portal to the most important information on a particular Web site.
Spring begins many things, including my first love -- baseball.
There really isn't much that beats a spring or summer day, sitting in a favorite ballpark, watching baseball, eating nachos and just relaxing with a friend or two or 36,910. I would someday like to travel to every major league ballpark, but I'm going pretty slowly right now. I've visited just seven. Plus, I can't seem to stop going to my favorite place -- Wrigley Field in Chicago -- so maybe at least I'll see all the teams play there.
I received a fair share of emails regarding my recent story about the RIAA and the price of CDs. I thought maybe it was spam, until I found out that the story was posted on Digg.
Not only that, but I received a handful of emails about my article. I'm glad my writing spurned conversation ... I wonder where that will leave the RIAA?
If you're a fan of "Fight Club" or "Choke," you won't want to miss Chuck Palahnik's appearance at 7 p.m. June 7 in The Clifton Center Reception Hall (2117 Payne Avenue). Carmichael's Bookstore is hosting the event, but due to the expected crowd, the venue has been moved just down the road. Palahniuk will be reading from his new book, "Haunted," and will be signing books as well.
I owe a bit to Palahniuk because after reading "Choke," I realized that maybe I could write "The Developers." Not that my stuff is as good, but it's a similar style ... at least, I'd like to think so.
QUESTION
Is it ever appropriate to use profanities in an email?
LAEL: YES
It's okay by my standards to use profanities in email to people that you would normally say profantities when speaking. However, you should becareful not to tell grandma to kick @ss in tomorrow's bingo tournament ... As with all things email related, you should be careful what you write because you never know who is going to see it.
AMANDA: YES