I think it's safe to assume that most of the regular readers (if I have any left) know I have a little side gig writing about movies. It doesn't pay (yet - I'm working on that bit) but it offers me the opportunity to do two things I love: writing (you'd be hard pressed to guess that considering the lapse in my posting here over the last few months) and movies. The entire project started right here as a side project on Blogger where I was reviewing movies.
Not sure how many people read those early posts but in 2005 I took the big leap and set up my very own website. MAD About Movies sort of put me on the map with a few other sites and individuals who were talking movies. Sometime after the site went live, Colleen, Dale and I started a podcast and we've been at it ever since. In 2007 I closed down MAM to join a group of passionate writers at a new place we called Row Three. We moved the podcast over and have been there ever since, basking in the glow of minor notoriety and awesome conversation.
I had no intention of ever leaving Row Three, a site I co-created but late last year I was given an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I'd been communicating back and forth with the great folks at Quiet Earth. It was a friendly relationship and one I valued since their knowledge and readership was so much bigger than ours. And then it happened. They offered me a job. I was a bit hesitant at first because I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Row Three but I also couldn't pass up this door-opening opportunity so after much debate, I made the decision to limit my contribution at Row Three to the podcast and the occasional post and came to call Quiet Earth home.
I've been there a few months now and the learning curve has been a bit daunting. I'm use to reporting news that are mainstream and QE is more interested in the work being done on the sidelines, the indie, foreign and genre stuff that doesn't always get attention. Having to dig for new stuff is a little different than just browsing the major sites and filtering what I thought was worthwhile. That said, it's been a great experience and one that's already starting to pay off.
I've come a long way in what seems a very short time. In 5 years I've gone from a little blogger blog that few read to a major film website. I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store. If this first full week of the year is any indication, it's going to be an awesome ride.
I've added a QE feed on the sidebar but if you're into film and are willing to try something new, I urge you to check us out!
So after hours of hair pulling, resizing, coding (badly) and basically giving myself a really unnecessary headache, I'm happy to say that I'm pretty satisfied with the new, clean and streamlined look of the site.
I was tired of the narrow column of text and the wasted space (which I'm sure web designers would argue that the space was there for some aesthetic reason) but I like the way this turned out.
In the process, I managed to lose a load of old comments (sorry) while also discovering that the podcast widget no longer works thank to my innability to track down the category RSS in WP2.7. Ah well, it'll eventually make a re-appearance but for now, it's MIA. Everything else seems to have made the transition nicely.
If you find something that doesn't work, is broken or you have a suggestion, be sure to share.
As you may notice over the next few days, I'm doing a little house cleaning. The site may look wonky something and I appologize for that. Trying to get it looking all nice and perdy for you!
As a student, you're always on the lookout for money saving ideas. I don't so much mind paying my fees heck - you don't have much of a choice, but what always irks me is shelling out hundreds of dollars for textbooks. I've been quite lucky in that I've only come across three occasions in the last couple of years where I've had to spend more than $100 for one textbook but then, I'm an English girl. As soon as you venture into the maths and sciences, books can easily start at $100 and work their way up.
I stumbled on a story over at Webaware today which highlights a couple of websites that have textbooks for rent. Yes, for rent. It's a truly genius idea and I must say, looking around I'm also impressed with the prices! Under $20 for renting a book for the semester? Better than shelling out $100!
To sort of "test" the sites, I devised an evil scheme. It's not really that evil.
I picked a book I've used in the past and which is on the summer course list for Douglas College. The text in question is David G. Myers' "Psychology" which is used for not 1 but 2 classes at Douglas - the Intro to Psychology 1100 and 1200. Cost of the book through the Douglas College Bookstore is $113.65+tax for a brand new book and $85.25+tax if you happen to find a used copy. I took the ISBN number and plugged into the three book rental sites and here are the results and some initial thoughts:
Bookrenter.com - Clean, sleek site, easy to navigate and find stuff. They didn't have the book for rent, only available for purchase. Other major problem at the moment is that they don't ship to Canada.
Whyrentblooks.com - Not as clean and nice and easy to navigate but they have the book in question. Their rental cost: 1 semester (125 days) for $17.14 or rent it for 1 quarter (80 days) for $17.04. There's also a buy option starting at $20 but I'm not quite sure how accurate that is. Site is such a mess, I couldn't figure out if they even ship to Canada.
Chegg.com - Also clean and easy to use. This is my favourite of the bunch mostly because they have the book and the usability of Bookrenter. Their cost: $4.97 for a semester, $4.47 for a quarter and $4.22 for a summer. Only downside to these folks is that currently, they don't ship outside the US. :(
All of the sites seem to charge shipping costs based on how quickly you want your book and those charges range from $4 to $20 but still, that's quite a savings, especially if you do your research early and can give yourself enough time to have the book shipped the slow route. To boot, if you can do this with more than one textbook, you could potentially save yourself a whole truckload of money. All of these places even have the option to buy at the end of your rental period. NICE.
Only downside is that from my bit of research, none of these services are currently available in Canada and there doesn't seem a Canadian site providing the same service. Hopefully, this will change soon! In the meantime, I'm sure creative folks can find a way around the restrictions. Whether it's worth it or not is another thing all together.
I met a pushy blogger. Really nice, but out to get her way. Can't say I blame her though...
She was bitching about a sticker she picked up at the conference and why, oh WHY, would any company use Vanilla Ice to advertise? Dude, it's Vanilla Freakin' Ice! It's genius!
I offered to trade something for it, I figured a few bucks would do the trick. Instead, she asked for a link. Thanks Raincoaster - the sticker ROCKS!
Update (6:04PM): Just for fun, I tracked down the video with that infamous line. Check it:
I particularly love the bit about the Coen Brothers adapting "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" which falls in the highbrow/brilliant quarter. Does that mean that to make the matrix PT Anderson has to adapt some equally strange sounding book? Not sure. I'd think that There Will Be Blood would count.
One of the reasons I've always loved NIN so much is because of they're constantly changing sound. Sometimes, the changing sound occurs withing a period of a couple of singles, other times, it spreads over albums. Though some folks might argue that remixing one's own work is making more money on the cheap, I take comfort in hearing new arrangements and mixes of material I already know and love hence, my love of NIN.
Now the band, namely the fantastic Trent Reznor, has launched a new website where you can upload, download and listen to remixes - by fans. Not quite sure how well this will work (ie. how will I know that the mix is worth listening to?) but thankfully, the entire thing is free so I'm much more inclined to check it out and if you're a NIN fan, you might want to head on over there and take a look. remix.nin.com.
I was making my weekly Monday morning pilgrimage to Post Secret and noticed a link to something completely cool.
It's called Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures and it's a website that posts pictures from found cameras (or memory sticks now that we're in the digital age) and tries to connect the lost pictures with their owners. It's a great idea. Go on over and check it out. You might know someone in the pictures!
At least I shared the same thought with The Bad Astronomer when I saw the above picture over at How I'm Becoming An Astronaut. Turns out, it's some sort of aircraft built to test/perfect heat shields.
Holy Mother. Dawn posted a link on her site this morning that ROCKS. I mean, *seriously* rocks.
This is the coolest damned thing.
EVER.
It's called musicmesh and it will save you from EVER having to search YouTube for that music video you so love. I've typed in a bunch of different things and it has videos for everything! BRILLIANT!
I had this great post all lined up in my head and then, just a while ago, the whole thing goes to shit when I find out that some bastard is pilfering my content. UGH!
I was wondering what had been happening to my traffic with the movie site the last few days and today I discover that some loser somewhere is taking my entire feed and posting it directly on his site. Now, if I was a big website with lots of traffic, I probably wouldn't miss a few hits here and there but this is BS! To boot, asshole doesn't have the face to post an email address!!!
I've sent a friendly email to the webhost and if nothing is resolved until tomorrow, I'm going to have to do something else but what? Anyone have any suggestions on how to get back at these leaches?
It's very late or very early, depending on how you look at it.
I had an extremely gratifying meeting with Dale regarding the movie site re-design. I've been up looking at website and 'stealing' (the highest form of compliment they say) ideas.
I'm REALLY excited to get started on the nitty-gritty foundation plan. Still needs a little work but almost there!
Ok. This is disconcerting. This morning, I stumbled onto Conservapedia. Confused? So was I. Looks like Wikipedia but the content is slightly off kilter. And then I found this in their about page:
Tired of the LIBERAL BIAS every time you search on Google and a Wikipedia page appears? Now it's time for the Conservatives to get our voice out on the internet!
Conservapedia began in November 2006, as the class project for a World History class of 58 advanced homeschooled and college-bound students meeting in New Jersey.
Conservapedia has since grown enormously, including contributors nationwide. Conservapedia already has over one-half the number of entries as the Oxford Dictionary of World History. Conservapedia is rapidly becoming one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind.
Hmmmmm yeah. To make matters worse, this was on the front page today:
Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Add to the explanation of what it means, and how it does not exist on other religions.
Sad. Sad indeed. It's true, we can make decisions as to where we get our information but the fact that some people only use this as reference is much like people only watching Fox News for their news. How unbiased and accurate is that?
In other news, my tooth is still sore from Sunday's procedure. We were trying to avoid a root canal but I don't think that's going to happen. It aches. Constantly. And Saturday I'm heading to a blogging conference called Northern Voice! I'm really excited. Looks like it's going to be awesome!
I'm off now. Lots of work to do but I encourage you to enjoy today's song. It's a good one.
I soooooooo don't want to be here. It's a beautiful day outside. It's Friday and I'm swamped with work up to my eyeballs. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I just want a few minutes to breathe, do some blog reading and maybe leave early (yeah right!). Lots to do this weekend including a paper, some reading, dentist appointment, movie outing and not to mention work on the new site. Ugh. Thinking about it is making me tired.
I was feeling all lame and kinda depressed and then I found the BEST thing ever online. I can't share it because it's simply too delicious to share but let me tell you, it put a HUGE smile on my face and made me all dreamy and stuff. Double ugh. I like the feeling but why can't it be about someone I can ACTUALLY meet? Yeah, I know you all know who I'm talking about but eh.
So today's KFF is FANTASTICO and expanded my already smiley face a little more.
And to finish off a hectic week, here's a little something stupid that some insane old men did:
On Mistake Identity Problems, All Too Typical
Mario Orsini, 73, faces assault charges for shooting and wounding his brother, Donato, 66, after mistaking him for a woodchuck, police said.
from a USA Today story
I even laughed again when I wrote it. WTF? How do you mistake a full grown man for a woodchuck????????!?!?!?!!
