This insane vinyl toy collection makes my inner child very happy (and a little jealous).
- Ryan, Associate Category Manager for the Apartment team
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When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people because they put my poems up. They put my stories up. They put my stuff up on the web. I had this belief, which was completely erroneous, that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn’t tell them to take it down, you would lose your copyright, which actually, is simply not true.
And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad. And then I started to notice that two things seemed much more significant. One of which was… places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia where people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading around into the world, I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated. Then they were going out and buying the real books, and when a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies. I thought this was fascinating, and I tried a few experiments. Some of them are quite hard, you know, persuading my publisher for example to take one of my books and put it out for free. We took “American Gods,” a book that was still selling and selling very well, and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it and you could download it. What happened was sales of my books, through independent bookstores, because that’s all we were measuring it through, went up the following month three hundred percent
I started to realize that actually, you’re not losing books. You’re not losing sales by having stuff out there. When I give a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people say, “Well, what about the sales that I’m losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?” I started asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question. Which is, I’d say, “Okay, do you have a favorite author?” They’d say, “Yes.” and I’d say, “Good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands.” And then, “Anybody who discovered your favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book raise your hands.” And it’s probably about five, ten percent of the people who actually discovered an author who’s their favorite author, who is the person who they buy everything of. They buy the hardbacks and they treasure the fact that they got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it, and that’s how they found their favorite author. And I thought, “You know, that’s really all this is. It’s people lending books. And you can’t look on that as a loss of sale. It’s not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free.”
What you’re actually doing is advertising. You’re reaching more people, you’re raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright and of what the web was doing. Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things. Allowing people to see things that they would never have otherwise seen. And I think, basically, that’s an incredibly good thing.
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Neil Gaiman on Copyright, Piracy, and the Commercial Value of the Web (X)
(via lltheportmanteau)
(Source: roominthecastle, via papayapie)
New post at my new blog.
How cute are Will Arnett & Amy Poehler?
This last week, my roommate and I started watching Sex and the City together, and I have become incredibly envious of Sarah Jessica Parker’s hair. Also, The show makes me wish—even more than I already did—that I had more events to dress up for… and more money to buy dresses to wear to them…
^^ New post on my new blog. Check it out if you like.
Talking to my best friend who is in Spain!
She’s awesome :)
I have started a new blog. It’s focus is going to be on plans. Specifically mine and God’s and recognizing which are more important (hint: it’s God’s). It’s not anything special (yet?), but it certainly feels good to be writing again. I’m going to have a lot of academic writing as well, but I will do my best to keep postings regular. I’d love to attract followers who are interested and who will offer me constructive feedback and conversation.
I will still be on Tumblr, but the bulk of my content and writing will be there.
this is written in the sidewalk by my stoop! i never knew what it was from.
hese people hit Portland RIGHT on the head!
(Source: lizayzay)
Gotye - Somebody I Used To Know
(A great story via Hello Giggles)
THE WISE TEACHINGS OF THE PRACTICALLY NINE
I can tell you the secrets of boys. But these are not my epiphanies. These are not my teachings. I am only the messenger, but I feel I was recently in the presence of greatness and should spread the word.
The first note was written inside a sheet of pink paper folded in the sacred origami of grade school. Lissa, whom I’d just met, passed it to me with a look of urgency. She was eight years old. “Practically nine,” she added. Like all the great teachers she was small, bossy, with unruly hair and a cherry-red stain across her upper lip from an addiction to Kool-Aid.
I unfolded the note to read:
Met me on the bach poch tomorow. I will tech you ever thing I know
Unfortunately, I couldn’t meet her the next day. I told Lissa I only had a few hours left of watching her while her parents were out for the night. If she wanted to share her secrets, she’d have to do it right then and there in her kitchen, and quickly.
She scrunched her face, already frustrated with me, and reached for a fresh sheet of pink paper. Within a few minutes she tossed another carefully folded note across the table. She closed her eyes and quietly hummed a Lady Gaga song to herself. The prophet needed rest from my idiocy.
The new letter read:
Five Three Things That You Know
- Boy’s have 3% chemicals in them.
- Boy’s have smaller brains than grils.
- Boy’s hate when you said hey.
I asked Lissa if she could elaborate.
“More?!” she shrieked! “I’ve been writing all night! This is taking forever! Why can’t you just get it?”
“I’m sorry. I just don’t understand. What kind of chemicals do you mean?”
She sighed. She flopped herself onto the table. She got herself more Kool-Aid. And then she went back to her scribbles. Soon another pink sheet of paper was tucking and folding between her hands.
Another note.
- Girls have 100% chemical
- Ham is the best food.
- Boys have blue chemical
- Girls have red chemical
- This is all in my book “All About Boys” I am writing 100% truths.
I told her I still didn’t quite understand. “Is ham part of the chemical?”
Lissa slapped her face in exhaustion. “We have more chemicals than boys do because we are a lot smarter than they are,” she said. “Everybody knows that. It’s like, number two of things you learn.”
She stopped, looked around the kitchen, and then put her finger over her mouth to make sure I didn’t say anything. She then dragged one of the chairs from under the table over to the kitchen door, propping the back of the chair under the doorknob.
“Where did you learn how to do that?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Scooby-Doo.”
“Of course. Sorry.”
“You want to get a boy’s attention?” she asked. “Do not say ‘hey’ to them. It’s annoying. If you want to get a boy’s attention you have to call his name or walk up to him and say, ‘Hi.’”
“What’s the difference?”
“Boys get distracted when you say ‘H-E-Y.’ What is that, how you talk to your friend? How you yell at someone on the street? It’s rude. Boys don’t like it when you talk to them like you’re another boy who is mad at them or wants to play soccer. It’s complicated to get to know boys. Trust me. I dated one since the first grade and he cheated on me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you mean he–?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I just know boys don’t listen when you say, ‘Hey.’ I know that now.”
I thanked her for her wisdom. “I really learned a lot tonight,” I said.
“I can teach you,” she said, placing her small hand on top of mine. “Can you give me your address and your phone numbers and your email accounts? Because you have a lot to learn.”
(Source: linduhnguyen, via silencestepford)
