Friday, July 17, 2009

Too much caffeine?

Last week during the class, I read this article, ‘Energy Shots’ Selling Vigorously, from New York Times. This is a quite interesting Phenomenon of Caffeine based ‘Energy Drink’.

The energy shots are usually 2 oz. small bottle packed with caffeine. Some of the facts are astonishing. Here’s a few
  1. The power drinks costs 20 times as much per ounce as Coke.
  2. It tastes so bad that most people hold their noses and down it in a single gulp.
  3. Despite the economy recession, sales of ‘energy shots’ soars.

I wonder, why? Do we still lack of caffeine? There is the Mountain Dew, Red Bull, Rockstar and etc, let alone thousands of Starbucks and other coffee shops around. However,
  1. People want a jolt of caffeine without having to drink a big cup of coffee.
  2. Especially students cramming for exams or partying into the night, construction worker, or drivers looking for a lift.
Caffeine is good to help you have a burst of energy for a few hours, but too much caffeine could give you negative side effects such as dizziness, headache, muscle tension, anxiety, dehydration, and etc.

Shall we pay more attention when we buy these energy shots?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

me postum

Ok I guess I'm supposed to post to this blog. Looking at the blog I can't see that anyone else has posted although the moderator has mentioned getting comments from other seminar members. So maybe I shouldn't be doing this. Dave Goodale. Google email: Whatistobe

NPR's Three-Minute Fiction Contest

It's not quite too late to enter NPR's Three-Minute Fiction Contest, but it will be soon. You have until 11:59 pm Friday night, July 18 to submit an original story no longer than 600 words. The prize is an on-air interview, your story read nationally, and the book "How Fiction Works." Click the link for official rules and other legally-type stuff.


Remember, it's the fame, not the fortune.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Adjusting privacy settings...

Gaining traffic to your blog...

Use Web 1.0 presentation abilities to add your blog to and participate in blogger media systems such as Technorati, and add your URL to search engines such as Bing, Google, Open Directory, Yahoo. Google is especially important, so be sure to take their advice for improving your visibility in their search results.

Use Web 2.0 social media functions to become part of the blogging community. Set up a blog list or links list of your favorite related sites on your blog. Comment on other blogs regularly. Become a regular on exchange networks--community-based surfing and social bookmarking sites such as:

Delicious
Digg
reddit
StumbleUpon

Become part of a social network to find like-minded individuals, and link your network to your blog. The top business and personal social networks include:

Facebook
LinkedIn
MySpace
Xing

Or, build your own social network system through services such as Ning.

Use Web 3.0 technology crossovers to keep people up-to-date even if you or they aren't able to reach a computer. Use services such as Twitter; make a mobile blog entry (video); or, create a podcast (video) and add it to iTunes.

Adding video to your blog...

Have you received your invite?

Some of you mentioned not receiving an invite for the blog yet. While it seems as is a few of you already accepted, I resent all the invites that were not yet accepted. If you have yet to receive the invite, it may have gone to your spam box. Check there, or let me know if you still haven't received it.