I took most of this week off in an effort to finish the final publishing details for Loki Listens Volume 1.  I think the effort went pretty well.    You can now purchase my first book for download directly to your Amazon Kindle!  I’ll have details on the print release soon.  It’s in the final approval process.  I’m also working on a release for mobile readers.  More details on that soon.  Also, please remember the book is available in eBook(PDF) format for free on the ‘Classroom’ tab at the top of this page!

As many of you know, I am a regular guest on the podcast, Something Kinda Techy.  There is a new one up now.  You can listen to all of these podcasts from here.

In personal life, I’ve had some bad dental problems this week, but I believe they are now resolved.

With all of that out of the way, I think we are ready to head into Part 2 of The Cost of Magic.  Look for it tomorrow.

Jack
I Listen.

Monday Update
February 23, 2009

I was a guest on Cranky Tech in the early AM Sunday. Click the link to hear the whole hour.

This photo was censored on flickr without my permission or notification. I’ll be moving over to Picasa web soon.

I’d like to take a moment to thank a few great people at twitter. Phyrdancer was nice enough to design a logo for me.  Check it out below. Tonysteward was nice enough to give away 3 copies of Seth Godin’s Tribe. And I was lucky enough to be one of the receivers. Iaindodsworth, who created TweetDeck, was very helpful when I was utterly lost. Another twitter innovator, Mario, creator of twitterfeeds, was willing to go above and beyond to help me change my OpenID login info.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on with twitter again.

In blog news, there will be a post similar to this every Sunday now. Basic Ideology 101 lessons will be on every Monday now.

The eBook collecting the Developmental Theology 089 series is well under way and coming along well. For those of you that didn’t follow this series of articles, it focuses on introducing philosophical concepts to the average person.

-Jack
I Listen.

Fable 2 has sucked the life out of me all week.  I’m on my second play through.  My friends come over to play it constantly.  It’s a pretty big deal.  hah.  I have 39 of 50 acheivements, and 800 of 1000 gamer points.  Not bad.

You would really enjoy Fable 2, no matter what kind of games you are into.  It’s been catching a lot of flack because it’s not very deep, and the story is short.  But, come on.  It’s freaking fun.  I can’t get enough.  Seriously.

Aside from that, a lot is going on.

• My depression has lifted.
• Posts every Sunday.  No exceptions.
• Posts may be even more frequent.
• Fun Stuff coming.  Including a weekly podcast.
• My Xbox 360 writes it’s own blog!
• You can now leave tips, care of TipJoy.  Check the side bar—>
• Part time day job starting soon, as well as a writing gig.
• Developmental Theology 089 eBook in the works.

Is that everything?  I doubt it, but for now it is.

-Jack

Before the itinerary let’s go over a few things.

First off, Twitter Travels is a project that me and @scarab are starting. It’s a massive road trip, meeting as many Twits as possible along the way. We want to be immersed in your cultures. We want to walk the dark streets of your city. We want to talk to you and anyone else that we can.

So why? Well, modern media is failing us as a nation. It’s too impersonal. It relies too much on the “facts” given by police and the AP. We are just normal people like you, but we want to break this media power structure. They have not been doing their jobs. It’s time to call them out and let the public know the real truth. What is the real truth? It’s people. Just like any of us. Not politicians. Not hate mongering newscasters. Unless, of course, they want to step off their pedestals and talk to us as equals.
Okay, a short itinerary for the trip.

Chattanooga, TN (start)

Florence/Muscle Shoals, AL – April 12th (to meet with @BrookeinBama)

Atlanta, GA – April 18th or 19th (to meet with @corvida)

Savannah, GA – April 25 or 26

From there down the coast of Florida a bit, as Scarab as family there, and I need to see the ocean.

Over to Pensacola, FL shortly there after to meet with @Devyl

Over to New Orleans, LA next, possibly tooling around in Mobile, AL, or Biloxi, MS on the way.

Then we are northward bound. Stopping in a few major cities on the way. Eventually to end up in NYC to meet with @BrooklynBeast and then up to Vermont for the Vermont100, where we will be his road crew for this 100 mile race.

After that we’ll be moving around the upper east coast for a bit, stopping in Rhode Island to meet with @prp2

More details as they are available.

-Jack

I am based out of the South Eastern United States. I am considering all options and trying to build a portfolio. I would be happy to contribute to small magazines/ezines/blogs for free.

Quick Summary – I’ve been writing for 13 years. I wrote mostly poetry early in the life, as well as short fiction. Later I began to write non-fiction fairly often, as can be referenced in this blog. I worked as a copywriter for some time. I am a writer, photographer, and all-around writing catch-all.  My writing has a unique voice, I think that it really speaks for itself.

I have experience in many fields, including(but not limited to):

• Blogging
• Web 2.0
• Journalism
• All forms of Windows and several Linux Distributions
• Poetry
• Short Fiction
• Hiking/Trailing
• Photography
• History
• Pharmacology
• Therapy
• Psychology
• Philosophy
• Theology
• Copywriting
• XHTML
• proofreading/editing
• Entrepreneur/Small Business
• Technology; Computers, Video Games, Phones, Gadgets
• Nutrition and Health Supplements
• Politics

My writing background includes:

• 2 Years This Blog. 5 Years of web presence prior to this blog.
• Several months as co-host of the Something Kinda Techy podcast
• 4 months on the Twitter Travels team.  Co-Founder.
• 2 Poems published in the Canadian magazine, Waxing & Waning
• Several articles for The Entropy Report , Editor: Drake Frost
• Guest Blog at P.R. Seitz Books. Editor: P.R. Seitz
• Book Reviews for P.R. Seitz Books
• 2 Months Proofreading for Delegate2
• Speaking of Poetry, a self-published CD of Spoken Word
• Some articles and media at Associated Content.
• A consistent twitterer. I am often found helping people in web2.0 matters here.
• Currently a CNN iReporter in the Second Life world. If you would like to speak with me there, my SL name is Jayell Alter.

My regular work has included:

• 8 Years of Retail Management
• 1 Year of Call Center Technical Support
• 6 Months of Warehouse Shipping and Receiving
• 6 Months of Copywriting for a major eBay company
• 6 Years as an eBay Seller
• 2 Years as an entrepreneur, with my own graphic design company
• 3 Years as a Freelance Journalist

Contact me privately with job offers or comments in general. You may also reach me by phone with the widget below.

- Jack Lhasa

—————–

Jack was a mean old blacksmith in this small town, in the Smokie Mountains. This was a different time, mind you, when people still rode horses mostly, and blacksmiths were really important.

Jack was the meanest man anyone had every met. He hated the men, women, and children of the town. And they were scared of him. The only time anyone ever talked to Jack, it was to buy horse shoes, or plows, or the like.

Jack was so mean, if children ran into his shop, he’d throw hot coals at them. Yeah, he was that mean.

So one day Jack was hammering away at a horse shoe, or a plow, he really wasn’t that sure, and he up and died.

So mean-old Jack floating up, towards Heaven. And there he saw the pearly gates of Heaven, and Saint Peter holding a book.

“Hmmmm…. Jack! Oh, my no!” says Saint Peter. “You were much too mean. Just wait here.”

So Saint Peter calls his old buddy Lucifer, and tells him he’s got the meanest, baddest man that ever lived just waiting right here at the Gates.

Lucifer gets very excited. He calls up his two eldest, strongest, meanest sons, and tells them they have to go to the Gates of Heaven and get old Jack for him.

A few days later, Lucifer has not seen his sons or Jack. There’s a knocking at the Gates of Hell. Lucifer hears all kinds of crazy noise outside, I mean all of Hell was breaking loose!

So he runs outside, and about that time, Jack is walking up the steps to his castle.

Jack had beaten the devil’s sons and then crashed down the Gates, madder and meaner than ever.

No one much knows what happened after that, there’s a few different endings, some say Jack beat the devil and left. Other’s say that Lucifer had to chase Jack out of Hell with a hickory switch!

All we really know is that Jack was hammering horse shoes in that village again in just a day or two. Some say Jack is still in that place, hammering away, and since he’s so mean, and no one talks to him, and they all know Heaven wouldn’t take him, no one knows how long it’s been.

———-

- Loki

(Jack and the Devil, a Folk Tale, as told by me, in the tradition of Jack Tales)