Toluu

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pario: latin for bear, produce, bring forth, make, get...create.

iUniverse Gives Amazon a Sweet Deal: Where is Robin Hood for Authors?November 17

You may remember I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the lack of sales information from iUniverse. Well, today the sales reporting software worked, and I just about choked on my hot chocolate. I called up iUniverse to see if I'd misread the figures, but nope, they were right.

To backtrack a bit, so you'll have some context: awhile ago Amazon decided to improve its own business performance and that of BookSurge, a print-on-demand printer it owns, by demanding that companies like iUniverse use BookSurge only to print all books sold through Amazon and, as well, that they reduce the wholesale price for Amazon. The story is long, the authors massively pissed, some companies outraged, refusing to be bullied. But not so for iUniverse. Actually, I didn't know what precisely iUniverse's response was to being bullied. AuthorHouse, which bought or merged with iUniverse, issued a statement back in April, and that was the sum total of iUniverse's communications with their authors. At the time, it sounded like so much nothing

CafePress has gone CanuckNovember 15

CafePress has gone Canadian. Yup, they've launched a CafePress website "localized for the Canadian market." When you surf to CafePress, you'll see a little flag at the top of their website with an arrow beside it. If you mouse over that arrow, you can choose from Canada, Australia, UK, and US Worldwide. Sweet!

Canadians can now buy my products in Canadian currency and receive enhanced shipping plus my "designs will now take center stage." In other words, my Canadian designs won't be lost in the plethora of Obama and US Thanksgiving designs. So now you have no excuse not to buy! :)

NASA TV is Place to Watch Shuttle LaunchNovember 14

In two minutes the shuttle will launch. Thanks to a fellow twitterer I learnt that there's NASA TV which broadcasts this live. It's fascinating! All the camera angles, the way they calmly discuss a potential problem, how they put the time on hold, the way there's a protocol to resume the countdown, all the information given for the viewers, the grand statements. And tonight there's the bonus of a beautiful, bright moon, a clear night, and the lights highlighting the shuttle and constant emissions. And now we're seconds away from launch. The sparks fly, the engine explodes into life. Clouds engulf the land, and a bright light lifts to the moon. Wow!!!

Of Vimy Ridge and Remembrance DayNovember 10

I saw the informative and affecting Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell on Global Sunday night. What struck me was how peaceful the archeological site looked, yet the neon vests, hard hats, and bomb disposal experts attested to the killing fields they once were. It was hard to imagine that people parts littered the ground underneath the grass, until they dug up bones, Canada flashes (they were made of metal back then), and the detritus of war life. It was well worth watching, and this is what it brought up in me:

The verdant field in France, lush with summer-rain grass, rolls softly over the ninety-year-old craters and trenches of the Great War, a time when mud and artillery smoke, sweat and fear, explosions and tunnels ruled, a time when Canadian Divisions came together to accomplish a feat no great nation had: to defeat swiftly the Germans encamped on the impenetrable Vimy Ridge.

In the white chalk tunnels, as they waited for the signal to storm the German lines, Canadian soldiers carved their names, their ranks, their birth dates. And they carved the maple leaf. Crude carvings, realistic carvings, ornate carvings, these white stone maple leaves tell all whose eyes fall on them that Canada was there. These young men, these boys, homesick for the peace of Canada, forged the identity of our nation in their ba

Where to Find the Poppies?November 10

So now that I know why I can't find poppies in the subway stations I used to always count on as a reliable source, I'm asking around. I've heard that, unlike the TTC, a public service, paid for by our tax dollars, private companies are showing the veterans respect by allowing them to sell poppies inside their stores. Starbucks and Tim Hortons are two in this list. If you know of any others, please leave a comment below saying where you found a veteran selling his or her poppies.