For those reading enthusiasts who have e-readers – we’ve decided to celebrate our successful year at Wormhole Electric Publishing by cutting the price of everything published by Wormhole Electric by 50%. This includes the latest Science Fiction Anthology, the Fantasy Collection, Captain Jackson and the Long Trail, and The Serpent Bearer. This also includes all the Transport magazines (ebooks for sale page). I guess this would be our contribution to Black Friday, eh, Don? But, as a publisher, I’m a firm believer in reading, and you can buy from the comfort of your own home – you don’t have to spend any gas money or fight anyone in line! And you can buy internationally! And if you prefer audio books, on the website we even have a link to Colby Elliott's works. What a deal! Good morning Don,
And The
Hobbit is open! I really enjoyed your thoughts about how to pronounce
Smaug. Believe it or not, Dragon Dictate actually had Smaug in its “spell that”
feature; I was impressed. I can imagine what people have done with your last
name – all I have to do remember is what they do with mine and mine is phonetic.
Keeping up with your dictionary mind is
hard for me sometimes so I was thrilled when I ran across an article by Rick
Newman on the 15 words and phrases we
should retire in 2013. He hugely
recommends that we retire such great
words as bromance and the acronym YO LO(you only live once), and breaking bad should go because it is now
normal to break the bubble of gamification as we have taken edutainment
too far in trying to establish the new
norm and keep up with our social
business. Another one of his pet peeves are words that start with “man”– mancave, manpurse… I think you get
the picture. 
One of the biggest peeves is the “online waiting room” as with
Healthcare.gov concerning Obamacare and having to wait for assistance or
answers. Newman maintains that “The whole purpose of the Internet is to
eliminate waiting around.” True! And it has created a society of impatient people
who believe that not only should they get everything they want, they should
have it now. We’ve gone beyond the Burger King Society of just having it your
way. This is one of the belief systems that my research into the Wired
Generation has uncovered that is not very complimentary of technology and its
effects on society.
I have to agree. I have lost sight of
how long it takes me to do certain things. The “click and read” mentality that
the Internet fosters has helped me develop a bit of impatience with most things
that take longer than an hour to do.
I did have an encouraging experience
talking with one of my older students though. He mentioned that his favorite
class was a problem solving class. When I mentioned the problem solving idea to
a classroom filled with what I thought were bright hopefuls, the overall
response was “why would I do that?” The glimmer is there – I want to find a way
to fan it into a flame.
I just started a book called Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff. It
is about the effects living in the now has on us individually and as a society
and culture. I’ll let you know more as I read it.
And thanks for the encouragement, Don.
The evaluations and assessments have been completed. Those students who took
the time to do the work in a timely manner passed on to bigger and greater
adventures than how to write a paper. I wish your daughter well. Quite often,
by this time in the year, I need a week to sleep. Hope your daughter gets enough
down time to enjoy Christmas.
I enjoyed your thoughts about thunder
storms in December. It reminded me of some of the winter thunderstorms I
witnessed as a child. My father was working a mine up above Crested Butte back
in the late 50s and sometimes he took me with him when he went back up the
mountain. One night we got caught in a sheet lightning storm – lightning would
strike the mountain and roll down the snowy hillside like a sheet of
electricity unfurling in the night. It was impressive! My dad always teased me
that what was really impressive was my hair, static electricity caused it to stand
end – he thought I looked like a cat in a spat.
I think I’m going to have to give
riddles a rest too. My mind just isn’t churning out the words that would give a
riddle some sense!
Have a safe trip visiting all the
in-laws and relatives, Don. Mine are too far away – for all I complain about
technology, for skype I’m thankful.
Everyone, I hope you all find the
Christmas presents you are looking for at the prices you’re willing to pay.
Carolyn
All images downloaded from Google Images
Book covers designed by L. Varvel for
Wormhole Electric
Fig 1 – Dictionary Archives: Reality
Checking 101 retrieved from realitychecking101.com
Fig 2 – Gamification fo Education retrieved from www.knewton.com
Fig 3 – Waitingroom – article – 2449200 retrieved
from www.dailymail.co.uk
Fig 4 – Reckless impatience retrieved from
evilhomer145.deviantart.com
Fig 5 – Last minute
Christams shopping deals retrieved from Christmasday-2013.com
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