The SoapBoxers

Yes, you read that correctly.  The Casual Observer will cease to exist in the near future.

In the beginning, the site was a lone Casual Observer (kosmo) expounding on topics that interested him.  Over the past 18 months, the staff has grown, and we have people jumping up on their soap boxes to talk about all sorts of topics.  That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I started the site.

What was I to do?  I had no choice.  The Casual Observer is dead.

However …

In its place, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, is The Soap Boxers.  All of the existing content from The Casual Observer has been carried forward to The Soap Boxers and the site’s design is remaining largely unchanged.  If you notice any problems with the site, let me know.  Please update your bookmarks.  We will be re-directingt traffic for a little while, to

RSS subscribers and email subscribers should not be affected.  I use a 3rd party (Feedburner) and handle the underlying RSS feeds, and I should just be able to redirect content from The Soap Boxers to be delivered to the subscribers.  However, if you noticed that you don’t receive anything new for a few days, this may indicate a problem.  In this case check the web site for a status. I don’t expect any problems, though.

How will the content change?

It won’t.  We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing now.  If you loved The Casual Observer, you should love The Soap Boxers.

Why The Soap Boxers?

One of the things I disliked about the old site was that the formal name of the site differed from the URL, due to my inability to get the corresponding .com address.  Because many of us are often on our virtual soap box, I kicked around a few related terms before settling on TheSoapBoxers.com.

You may notice that I’m using the term “soap box” instead of “soapbox”.  Why?  Because our writers don’t pull punches – they are Soap Boxers!  Using the two word variation of the term allows us to use both meanings 🙂

We will be back to the regular schedule on Monday.  Remember – update your bookmarks and tell all your friends.

I haven’t released a volume of my fiction since January.  With two little ones at home now, it has been more difficult to make progress on the longer story that I try to include as a bonus.  However, I have been making progress lately, and should be ready to deliver a new volume later this month or in early August.  I’m pushing for late July.

Instead of the naming convention I have used in the past (The Fiction of Kosmo: Volume X), this volume will be titled The Victimless Crime and Other Stories.  Not surprisingly, the main story will be The Victimless Crime.  I’ve had a lot of ideas for the centerpiece of the edition before settling on this.  Some of the other ideas may very well make their way into the centerpiece of a future edition.  At the beginning of this story, police are interviewing a man they believe witnessed a crime.  The witness misunderstands the situation and confesses to a murder.  The rest of the story chronicles the efforts of the police department to piece together the crime.  In an effort to be as true to life as possible, I have engaged the services of a former law enforcement officer to serve as a technical consultant.  His assistance has been very valuable so far.

Of course, I’ll also bundle a bunch of other stories with The Victimless Crime.  At this point, twenty six other stories will be included.  The shorter stories have all appeared on The Soap Boxers, but their inclusion in the PDF allows you easier access to them – not to mention the fact that I have proofread them a second time.  The final version will likely have at least 30 stories (including The Victimless Crime).  How long?  I think we’ll be look at 100 pages and around 30,000 words.

I’m also going to make an effort to simultaneously launch the audio version of The Victimless Crime.  There will be three different purchase options –  The PDF eBook, An MP3 Audio book narrated by Kosmo (just The Victimless Crime, not the other stories), and a combination edition that may include a small bonus.  What’s that bonus?  Kosmo doing a very short stand-up comedy routine.  I’m not guaranteeing this, but it’s a strong possibility.

I’m still working on the pricing.  As usual, I’ll try to keep prices low enough for anyone to afford.  Also as usual, regular readers and RSS subscribers will get a discount on the basic edition.

This is the fourth volume of fiction I have released. The combined word count will be around 80,000 words.  This should go a long way toward quelling any doubts I might have about my ability to write a novel.  Essentially, I have created a novel-length work – I’ve just done it one story at a time.

The audio book edition of The Cell Window continues to get good reviews.  If you haven’t bought it yet, purchase it today.  I’ll happily refund your money if you’re not satisfied.

We’re deep into April already.  What’s going on in Kosmo’s world?

We’re a few weeks into baseball season. This is my first year with Direct TV’s MLB Extra Innings package. I’ve been able to watch a lot of baseball, in spite of the crazy blackout situation in the state of Iowa. I also like MLB Network (not carried by my former provider) which gives me Hazel Mae’s baseball coverage without the distraction of the other sports. The “baseball mix” channel is also nice – showing action from as many as eight different games. It’s also a great way to get around blackouts (albeit by watching a tiny image of the game).  I also got into a bit of a disagreement with writer Mitch Albom about fantasy baseball a few days ago.

The audio version of The Cell Window hasn’t sold many copies yet.  However, I have made it available to some of my co-workers as a beta test.  The reviews are more positive than I would have hoped for.  At least three people have asked if I plan to lengthen the story (one going so far as to suggest that I pitch it to Hollywood, which is probably an exaggeration of the quality).  I see this as a good thing.  If people would like to see more of your story, that means they like what they see.  If they’d prefer a shorter version, that’s a bad sign.

Will I lengthen it?  I don’t know.  I’ve have to make it somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-10 times as long to be novel length, and that’s a lot to add.  My short term answer is “no, but I’ll let the idea simmer on the back burner.”

I’m going to temporarily slash the price of the audio booklet by 30%.  Yes, for the next 72 hours, the price will be $2.79.  Even better, I’ll offer a 10 day money back guarantee.  You don’t like it, you don’t pay for it!  Just respond to the order confirmation email asking for a refund.  Take the plunge – you won’t regret it.

This product is a 48 minute audio version of one of my original short stories.  The Cell Window is the tale of a voyeur, and follows the disturbingly escalating nature of his activities.    If you have ever wondered what Kosmo’s voice sounds like, this is your golden opportunity!  You can buy the audio version of The Cell Window and other items from the Hyrax Publications Store.

The Soap Boxers will be getting an infusion of estrogen in the next couple of weeks, with more articles by female writers.  I’m always tried to achieve some semblance of male/female balance, but haven’t been very successful in reaching that goal.

After a couple of months of struggling along a bit, traffic on The Soap Boxers has picked up a bit.  March traffic was about double what we had seen previously.  This was due in large part to exposure gained through a series of guest articles on other sites.  April traffic has dipped a bit, but is still the second highest month on record.  We’re still looking to grow the brand, of course, so mention us to your friends (or even your enemies).

I have made it easier for you to tip your favorite writer.  Tip as in “give money in appreciation for a well-written article”, not tip as in “overturn”.  In the author blurb at the end of each article, there will be a link to that specific writer’s tip jar at the Hyrax Publications Store.  As always, tipping remains completely optional (we promise not to spit in your internet if you don’t leave a tip) – but if you do choose to tip, it’s a bit easier now.

We’re getting to the point where The Fiction of Kosmo, Volume 4 should be produced.  I’m kicking around three ideas for the longer story right now.  Three completely different ideas with absolutely nothing in common.  I really need to settle on one of them and get writing.  I’m going to try to finish up by mid-May.  Soon, I’ll also be selecting the stories that I will include in my entry for the 2010 Iowa Short Fiction contest.  I’m happy to have enough content to be able to pick and choose the stories that will make the cut.

Hooray!  After a few fits and starts, the first audio story is available in the store!  We expect to add stories as a regular basis, and within the next two months, we anticipate having the majority of the fiction catalog available.

The first story is Tale of the Wolf.  The audio is not perfect, since I’m an amateur making his first attempt at an audio version of a story.  The quality should improve as we move along.

You can download the MP3 for 40 cents in the Hyrax Publications Store.

thank you for your support.

Monetizing

OK, I swear, this is the last article in a long time that will relate to the finances of the site (although I may announce new store offerings occasionally).

I’ve been chasing the dime a bit lately.  After nearly 450 articles, the site really hasn’t produced much revenue.  Part of the reason for this has been due to the conscious decision to avoid showing ads to regular visitors.  This will change slightly in the future.  We will still block the large Adsense ads from being displayed to regular visitors.  However, we will have some smaller ads in the sidebars.  We already have two sponsors – Irrational Family and Lazy Man and Money.  I encourage you to visit these blogs to see what they have to offer.  More information on advertising can be found here.

We also launched a store, with the help of the free Zen Cart software (reviewed yesterday, right here!).  This was my first experience dealing with shopping cart software.  Even with my background in IT, it wasn’t completely intuitive, but I was able to get answer from other folks on the internet, and the store is basically configured the way I like it now.  My fiction eBooks (PDF format) are available for purchase ($3.65 for volumes 1 or 2, $1.95 for volume 3).

There is also a tip jar for the staff writers.  I stress that there is absolutely no obligation to donate.  If you don’t donate, you will continue to get all of the features of The Soap Boxers.  If you do choose to donate, simply place the writer in your cart and change the quantity to reflect the amount of your tip, in full dollars.  If the writer doesn’t fit in your cart, I’d suggest a fireman’s carry.

We will also be adding audio versions of the stories!  I haven’t finalized details, but my thought is that audio versions of the smaller stories will be 50 cents and that the 10,000 word stories will be $4.  In between stories (such as 2-3 part stories) will be somewhere in the middle (probably $1).

We will be modifying the current loyalty discount program on April 1.  Regular visitors  should click the tab just to the right of “Home” in the blue bar for details.  RSS readers should click the eBook link in the RSS feed signature for details.

We will also have an unlimited annual pass.    This will allow downloading of any the PDF eBooks as well as audio books.  Currrently, we have about 45 written stories in our collection.  Over the course of the next 2-3 months, these will be converted to audio.  For a limited time, the price of the annual pass will be set at $9.  Additionally, these passes will be good for 15 months, rather than 12! This is less than the combined cost of the three eBooks – and will also allow you access to unlimited audio stories as they become available.  Essentially, you’re buying the PDFs and getting the MP3s (as well as future PDFs) for free.  Once we have twenty audio stories online, this offer will disappear – so take advantage now.

We also expect to have combo packs for sports and crime – allowing you to download several audio stories for one low price.

I’m also looking for readers for the audio versions.  I’m not able to offer any cash up front, but will pay 30% of gross sales.  This means that it’s unlikely that you’ll get rich from this work, but if a story is reasonably popular, you might make a few bucks and gain some exposure.  If you’re a longtime reader of The Soap Boxers, perhaps you’d be interested in donating a bit of your time to read a few stories, rather than leaving a cash tip.  (Note: if you choose to donate your time, the 30% share will be split amongst the other writers of The Soap Boxers).  I’m guessing that you can knock out a story in fifteen minutes.

I have a degree in accounting, so rest assured that annual passes will be properly allocated (based on a weighted average of the cost of the items downloaded by annual pass purchasers) and that everyone will receive their fair share of the annual pass fee.

I’m looking for an assortment of voices and would like to match voices to stories.  If you have a bubbly voice, you’ll get an upbeat story.  If you have a gruff voice, someone will probably die in your story.  You do need to have the ability to create a good quality audio recording.  MP3 is best, but I can work with some other formats, if necessary.  unfortunately, I don’t have the free time necessary to provide tech support.  I provide everything else – the original story, storefront, payment processing, etc.

If you’re interested in lending your voice, contact me at kosmo@observingcasually.com

Olympics

We have dispatched a reporter to Vancouver to cover some of the happenings to the Olympics.  OK, maybe we found out about Joe Neuman’s trip and asked him to provide some coverage for The Soap Boxers while he is there.  You can also follow Joe on twitter.  We may try to do more of this sort of thing in the future – piggybacking on the exciting lives of others.

Random thoughts

I’ve been running low on sleep lately 🙁

Pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training

I was really bummed by Erin Hamlin’s poor performance at the Olympics.

This looks nifty diamond when I’m composing in WordPress, but is a bunch of jumbled paragraphs to you

Don’t buy gold coins, silver coins, or “state dollar bills” from magazine or TV ads.  The have negligible value to collectors.

Sarah Palin and The Family Guy are having a spat.  Interestingly, both part of the Fox family.

There may be an upcoming recall of Toyota Corollas.  Not a good year for Toyota so far.

I’m glad that Tiger Woods is sorry.  It would be disturbing if he wasn’t sorry.

Dude, that was quite the crash in the Super G.

OK, so there’s really just one small change.  We now have a store.  What’s inside the store?

• You now have the ability to leave a tip for your favorite writer(s).  This is, of course, optional.  If you choose to leave a tip, thank you very much.  If you don’t, that’s OK – you’ll continue to enjoy all future articles at The Soap Boxers.  To leave a tip, simply add your favorite writer(s) to your cart, and change the quantity to reflect the amount of the tip (quantity of 3 = $3 tip).
• Kosmo’s fiction eBooks are now available for purchase.  Volumes 1 and 2 are $3.65 each, while the shorter volume 3 is $1.95.  Again, this is completely optional.  We do anticipate having great discount coupons in the future to reward our loyal readers.
• The future?  Hopefully some audio books (recordings of the fiction stories).  It will be a little while before these are available.

We’re winding down 2009. When the year began, The Soap Boxers was in its infancy. I was the sole writer, and the schedule that I set for 2009 was 5-6 articles per month. Obviously, we’ve gone far beyond those expectations. We’ve also gone far outside the original topics of customer experiences, news, sports, and book reviews.

How did this happen?

Largely by chance, actually. The expansion of the staff occurred after I asked Johnny Goodman to write about his experience at The Masters. While I am not a golf fan, I understood how cool this experience would be to a golf fan. I liked what Johnny wrote, and offered him a weekly column to write about sports. If you stop to think about it, it’s a bit odd that a sports nut such as me would bring a dedicated sports writer on board. However, I realized that there is value in having different opinions on issues, as well as the fact that Johnny would be able to cover topics (such as golf) that were of minimal interest to me.

During the course of the year, we expanded the staff incrementally. This was done mostly to expand the breadth of subject matter that we cover, while also taking some work off my shoulders. Early in the year, I decided that I wanted The Soap Boxers to deliver fresh content almost every day – something that would have been impossible if not for my wonderful staff. We have had between 33 and 38 articles in each month between March and November (and are well on the way to 30+ again this month).

Early on, I also made the conscious decision to avoid becoming a niche blog, in spite of the fact that this best way to draw a large audience. I have always tried to run the site more like a magazine or newspaper, including content from a wide variety of topics. If it works for USA Today and The New Yorker, why can’t it work for us?

The Soap Boxers has also given me the opportunity to kick start my fiction writing, after enduring a decade where I wrote very little fiction. It felt a bit rusty at first, as if the fiction neurons had experience some atrophy. Soon, however, it was full speed ahead.

In a largely positive year, there have really only been a handful of negatives. The first was a situation involving plagiarism that I felt the need to deal with quickly and decisively. The second was the loss of a loyal reader who was offended by one of my short stories. Neither of these were things that I had a great deal of control over. The plagiarism was dealt with as soon as I figured out what was going on (hint: don’t copy from a national media outlet), and the story that was deemed offensive garnered positive reviews from many others.

The third negative is that fact that growth of readership seems to have stalled a bit. We seem to have reached a long term plateau. If we’re destined to move forward with this group, that’s OK with me. You’re a great group of readers. It would also be great to have a few more folks as readers, though, so if you’d mention The Soap Boxers to a friend or two this holiday season (or share through Stumble or other social networking), we would be grateful.

Beyond the actual writing, I’ve had the experience of interacting with some cool people – other bloggers as well as readers – during the course of the year. I’ve also had the experience of learning a lot about WordPress, as I took a free template and customized the hell out of it, so that the template designer himself probably wouldn’t recognize it.

So, what will 2010 hold for us?

The schedule may fall into a slight bit of disarray early in the year. My wife and I are expecting our second child in January, and this will of course take time away from my writing and coordination of articles. I’m trying to get a bunch of articles written in advance, so that the schedule doesn’t skip a beat. Logic would dictate that there will be some sort of impact, though. We’ll try to keep it minimal.

The Winter Olympics arrive in Vancouver in February. We will attempt to bring some unique insight and quirky biases (such as my fascination with luge) through a series of articles. Baseball will follow on the heels of the Olympics. I promise to overwhelm you with baseball coverage and make an effort to affect your All Star voting.

I’ll continue to chase down interesting stories and angles. I’ll definitely try to dispatch my alter ego, Scoop Chevelle, for a half dozen interviews during the year. January will bring us an interview with a famous blogger.

I’ll also be reviving the “Fake News Network” segment the debuted on Thanksgiving Day. FNN will bring you fictionalized news events. Some will be (very loosely based on real events; others will be made from scratch. You will probably note similarities between FNN and sites like The Onion. Am I ripping off The Onion? No – I’ve been writing these sorts of articles prior to the existence of that wonderful site.

My latest story, The Cell Window, took six weeks to finish. Key Relationships (the main story from The Fiction of Kosmo Volume 1 – roughly the same length as The Cell Window) took about ten days to complete, so I assumed I was setting aside plenty of time when I began writing a full month in advance of my projected publication date. I never dreamed that I would miss the date by two weeks.  (one of the nice things about being the Editor-in-Chief is that nobody breathes down my neck when I miss a deadline)

So, what happened? I try to avoid uses excuses too often, but I’m making this an “all excuses” edition of The Soap Boxers, just for kicks.

• I have been fighting off a few different illnesses. In August, I contracted the stomach flu twice. For the month of October, I have been dealing with a sinus infection that just won’t go away. I’m on the second treatment of antibiotics – hopefully this will do the trick. Needless to say, a sick Kosmo is a Kosmo who doesn’t feel like writing.  None of this stuff was particularly severe, but still enough to hamper creativity a bit.
• In the last month, my two year old daughter had decided that she doesn’t want to go to be at eight o’clock; preferring eight thirty or nine o’clock instead. This effectively cuts my writing time in half, as I often use the 8-10 PM block to write.
• I really, really wanted to read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and get a review up quickly.  Alas, that hasn’t happened quite yet, although I am about 70% of the way through the book.
• My Rockies made the playoffs!  There was important October baseball to watch.  My Rockies have made the playoffs three times in seventeen years – so Rockies playoff games will push a lot of things to the back burner.
• Issues related to the blog took up some time. Some other writers were also dealing with illnesses and were unable to meet timelines, meaning that I had to write more in order to fill in the gaps. Obviously, I’m not faulting them for this – it was completely beyond their control. There was a sudden unilateral parting of the ways with another writer that caused a gap. I wrote several articles to fill this gap, while also taking the time to line up some new writers to fill this spot.
• Finally, I backed myself into a bit of a corner. Typically, when I write, I rough out a plot, suggesting several larger scenes. I use these as benchmarks during the writing process. I know that on the way from point A to point Z, I’ll hit D, J, T, and X. Along the way, there will be a lot of “connector” material. I can’t simply skip from high point to high point – there must be a natural flow to the story. I skip around a lot during the writing process. I’ll write point J and then perhaps write the connector material between points X and Z. In the case of The Cell Window, I wrote too many of the main scenes first.  Effectively, I ate all of the dessert first and left myself with a plate of veggies.  This made the second half of the work much harder.  Lesson learned – leave some good parts for later!

So, what does the future hold, as far as fiction?

• First, I have a rough idea of the story for next quarter.  I’m not waiting until I have a mere month before the deadline this time around!  The working title is If the Walls Could Talk.  I doubt that will be the final title, as I’m not a big fan of it.  Anyway, the story will features stories-within-a-story, as the owner of a B&B reminisces about some of the past guests and their experiences.  The B&B featured in the book will be Buckingham Place.  If this sounds familiar (other than the reference to Buckingham PALACE), it’s because Hayley and Mike in Key Relationships stayed at this B&B.
• Also, I am finally beginning work on my novel.  Its working title will be Casting Stones.  I AM a big fan of that title, so there is a strong chance the book will retain the title. Casting Stones will be a murder mystery that follow a detective named Brooke as she attempts to catch a serial killer.  I don’t want to share many more details at this point, because most of the details that I have figured out would be huge spoilers and give away a ton of the plot.  Considering the other irons that are currently in the fire, I would be very surprised if I finish Casting Stones in less than two years.  I do NOT plan to make this available on the web – I actually intend to find a publisher.  Obviously, that’s a long shot, but it’s what I’m aiming for.

This blog has been live for over a year. In the last 6+ months, I have shared many fiction stories with you – roughly thirty thousand words!  At this point, no reader has been charged even a penny for anything that had been published on the site.  This will continue to be the case, with one small exception. Now, for the first time, I am making my fiction writing services available for hire. Here are the details:

• I will produce a custom written story, specifically for you. This will not be an ad-lib sort of thing, where I replace a few words and spit out a variant of a base story. These will be completely new stories, built from the ground up.
• When I hand the story over to you, I also give you the copyright. I promise not to publish the story in any form. You have the rights to use the story in any way you wish – including submitting it for paid publication. I do ask that you do list me as the author, and that you refrain from making material changes to the work (changing names to protect anonymity is fine).
• The stories will be a minimum of 400 words long. They could be slightly more, depending on my stream of consciousness during the writing process (most likely, I won’t finish a thought at exactly 400 words). There is no additional charge for stories that end up being slightly longer – this would just be a bonus for you.
• If you desire a bit of a longer story, let me know and we can work out some sort of arrangement. I’ll probably draw the line at about two thousand words – unless you make me an offer I can’t refuse.

So, what sort of story will I write?

• Stories that provide a caricature of a day in your life.  My story Tina is an example of this.  These stories will paint an extremely exaggerated picture of your life.  I will strive to splash the story with a generous amount of humor.
• Alternately, I could write a story that places you in a dream job (baseball player?).  This might be a good gift idea for a kid who has dreams of growing up to be an athlete, entertainer, doctor, or lawyer.
• I can also make you the bad guy/girl in a crime story.
• Fake news stories.
• I’ll also try my hand at children’s stories.  Read Ferdinand the Turtle for an idea of how these might turn out.  Perhaps you would like me to write a story about your kid and their favorite stuffed animal.  (Note: I can only do this is the animal is generic or if they are in the public domain.  Writing a story about Nemo, for example, would be a copyright violation).
• I’m open to suggestions.  Shoot me an idea.  I don’t do poetry, horror, romance, or porn.  I will not include any sort of illustrations, even for the children’s stories.  Honestly, I am one of the worst artists in the history of the world, so you wouldn’t want my illustrations, anyway.

OK, so what will this cost?

• For the first person who responds,  the price will be FREE!
• For at least the next ten people, the price will be $5.99.  Bear in mind that I’ll probably spend about an hour on a story – reading the email to get the details, formulating a plot, and doing the actual writing.  I’ll make a maximum of 1.5 cents/word at this rate.  Compare this to the price you pay for a greeting card, which contains a handful of words that weren’t even tailored specifically for you.
• Beyond the first ten, I’m not sure what the price will be.  I can guarantee that the price won’t go down from the $5.99 price point.  If I can’t make any sales at $5.99 or above, I’ll just scrap the idea.  I honestly have no idea whether this idea will be a complete dud, or if it will generate a solid amount of business.  We’ll give it a whirl.
• I will require payment up front.  I don’t want to take the time to write a story, and then end up waiting for a payment.  I will accept PayPal.
• Unfortunately, I can’t do rewrites of stories.  If I spend an hour rewriting a story that originally took an hour to write, my hourly rate has been slashed in half.  Read some of the stories in Fiction Friday to get an idea of the sort of stories I write.  While I’ll make every effort to produce a high quality story for you, there’s a good chance that it won’t match up exactly to what you were expecting, simply because of the limited interaction I have had with you.  I guess if you’re REALLY unhappy, we can sit down and talk about it.

So, what next?

• If you’re interested, shoot me an email at Kosmo at Kosmo@ObservingCasually.com. In the email specify the type of story you want, as well as details that might be relevant (such as names and physical characteristics of characters).  Note that I won’t make an effort to cram every single feature into a story, but I can highlight the hair color, eyes, etc of some characters.
• If the story is a caricature of your life, provide information about your job, hobbies, interest, pet peeves, etc.
• If you need the story by a particular date, let me know.  Bear in mind that I have a full time job, family, and other obligations, so if you need something “tomorrow”, I’ll probably have to decline the request.
• I do ask for an additional favor as part of the payment for the story – please let three people know about The Soap Boxers.  Think of a few people who might like the site, and send them a link.  (Note: this does NOT mean to spam all 200 people in your contact list).
• If you like your story, please consider writing a review that I can use in the marketing of my service.

What articles did you miss this weekend?

• On Friday, Kosmo’s real-estate theme short story, Realty Bites, and Johnny Goodman’s football picks.
• On Saturday, an article about Apple and Microsoft.
• On Sunday, Tyson discussed Canadian Current Events and Kosmo wrote what he hopes is the last episode of the HSBC saga.

This marks the 300th article in the history of The Soap Boxers!  We’re actually a bit above 300, as a small handful of articles were removed for  various (but very good) reasons.  By our formal counting, we’re at 300, though.

I was hoping that article #300 would be a splashy, fantastic article.  However, my productivity has really taken a hit over the course of the last week.  Some sinus issues have been causing some headaches and some other issues with my eyes.  Nothing serious, but enough to limit the amount of time I want to spend in front of a monitor and the headaches also make it a bit difficult to concentrate for a long period of time.  So I’ll just ramble for a bit today.  These issues are also hampering my work on the “long” story for this quarter, and that really sucks.  I’m on some steroid drops for my eyes, so if I start lashing out angrily at people, blame the ‘roids.  My left eyelid isn’t drooping involuntarily any more, which I see as a good thing.  Hopefully I’ll return to my usual verbose self quite soon.

Politics

Very soon, we will be adding a brand new feature to The Soap Boxers.  I have christened the feature The Political Observers.  Each week, a different political columnist will write an article on the topic of their choice.  The goal is to have two conservative writers and two liberal writers and alternate viewpoints.  I am still looking for an additional liberal writer.  We’ve had some delays getting this off the ground, but it WILL happen before long.  The columns will appear on Thursdays.

Although I strive to have balance within the political feature, I am not trying to pretend that the content of The Soap Boxers is neutral.  If you perceive a slant toward one particular direction, your perception is probably correct.  (If you’re not perceiving the slant, I won’t go out of my way to point it out).  For the rest of the articles on the site, I have made an effort to line up the best possible writers, with little regard to their political leanings.

The Lost Symbol

Yikes – I can’t believe that I don’t have this book done yet – but I simply haven’t had the time.  I’ve had a bit more time the last few days (due to being forced to limit computer time) and am creeping up on the halfway point in the book.  I really hope to finish the book up in the next week.  When I was younger, I could read a 500 page book in the course of a day … but I also had exponentially more spare time back then.