Julie Barrett's Blog

I'm off to an early bed in a bit. It's been a busy, kind of geeky week.

Last night I got a look at a version of Windows Mobile 6.5. Zippy, but I don't know if that was due to MS or the fact that the ROM didn't have any of the phone carrier apps on it. It's had a nice, finger-friendly makeover. Some of it (like the "honeycomb" arrangement in Programs and Settings) will take a little getting used to. But this is a long-overdue makeover, and I look forward to seeing some WM 6.5 phones out in the wil

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A lot has changed since 1970, when the first Earth Day took place and had an unexpectedly large impact. In the current, uh, climate of global warming, eco-friendly marketing and recent attempts to gut environmental protections, how much of an effort do you make in your daily routine to help protect the environment?

I grew up camping and fishing. As a result of that, environmental awareness was part of my upbringing. Therefore, the idea of hugging a tree every year on a particular day seemed ... o

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It's certainly been a geek day around here the past 24 hours. More on that in another entry, because you're here for the cat picture!



Midnight just couldn't be left out on all the geekery, so here she is looking at the Fry's ad. You're not getting a big screen telly of you own, cat. No way.

To join in on the Feline Friday fun, visit Steven's (sometimes)photoblog.

Tags: Pictures, Cats, Feline Friday

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Take a look at this over at WritersWeekly. Yes, Angela Hoy owns her own POD publishing company, but the complaints she lays out in this series are fairly universal.

The worst POD publishers DO NOT CARE if you sell any books on your own. They do care about books you buy yourself...but they don't care if you ever sell those books because they've already made THEIR money on the sale - when you bought the books from THEM! Some large POD publishers openly admit the majority of their revenues come from

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Yes, it's April 23rd again, when writers, artists, and musicians from all over release a work onto the wild Internet.

To mark the event I have an original piece of fiction, never before published. It's a short short. Rather silly, really. I hope you enjoy it.

For more free stuff (yes, that's free!) visit the International Pixel-Stained Technopeasants LiveJournal community. And please, support writers and artists by buying their works.

Thank you!

Tags: ipstpd, Writing

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Victoria Struass of Writer Beware says that the sun has set on Desert Rose Literary Agency. The agency has been under investigation by the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office, and apparently they gathered enough info to act. Strauss writes:

I'm very happy to report that the investigation has been concluded. On April 9th, 2009, a Search and Arrest Warrant was executed on Leann Murphy at her residence. Numerous boxes of files, manuscripts, computers and other items were taken as evidence, and Leann w

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Yeah, I'm a day late, and I almost didn't blog today. I'm stuck in Ennui City and not enjoying it at all. No sir, not one bit.

Oh, there's plenty of reasons, but you don't want to hear about them. I will say that allergy and bug seasons are in full swing, which accounts for a lot. I hate bug season. It's not the bugs that bother me as much as the stuff we have to use to keep them outdoors. We had a pest control contract once, but the annual ritual consisted of an inspection during which I'd hand

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Yesterday I wrote about whether or not viral marketing really works for authors. I thought it would be interesting to see what response - if any - I got.

Through the magic of the Interwebs, my blog headlines get sent to both Twitter and FriendFeed with a link back to the post. Within a few minutes two Twitter follow notifications landed in my inbox. They were from marketers who use search terms to find suckers people to follow in hopes they'll follow back. The third notification arrived a few hou

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Predict one, two or three things you expect to happen (or so you claim!) before 2009 is over. It can be a logical extrapolation from current conditions, wish fulfillment, an attempt to show off your psychic ability, if any, or random silliness, or some combination thereof.

I'm not psychic, though I down own a cheap set of Tarot cards which I purchased because a character in a book I'm outlining reads some. I figured I'd better know what I was talking about when it came time to sit down and write.

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It's been raining pretty much all day here. We need it, so there are no complaints. During a break in the weather I opened the patio door. Midnight cautiously stuck her nose out between the vertical blinds, but decided it was too wet for her taste. She retreated back a few paces to watch the weather with a wary eye:



To join in on the Feline Friday fun, visit Steven's (sometimes)photoblog.

Tags: Pictures, Cats
, Feline Friday

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