I stumbled across Scrivener yesterday from a blog post I can no longer remember. I downloaded it today and I found the interface so initiative I’m already using it to write my college essays.
This Mac OS X app is great for efficiently writing. I am able to separate my writing into sections which have their own meta-data, such as notes and tags. I can also annotate and highlight my work. In addition, a live word count is always visible which is a big deal for writing papers which have a word limit or minimum. Plus, it has a full screen mode (similar to WriteRoom) that allows me to focus on writing by eliminating everything else on the screen. There are just too many good features to list here.
I’m not even a professional writer and I am loving this program for writing my small projects. I’d recommend checking out Scrivener, a product of a one-man operation, by download the free Beta 3 or the freeware Scrivener Gold (a very early beta of Scrivener).
I’ve tried both versions and they are both very nice. The Beta 3 is very polished and looks great and is simpler to use; however, I think I’ll stick with Scrivener Gold for now because it’ll always be free and has everything I need. 
Plus, I can always upgrade later to the full version.
So, if you’re into writing or just forced to in class, try Scrivener to save your sanity when writing your next work.
These next few weeks will be the most difficult of my senior year: getting applications in for college. I have most of them filled out but I still have personal essays (or “statements”) to write for a few colleges. The University of Illinois requires two essays: one for your personal description and one for your professional description. However, each of these are limited to about 300 words in length.
I’ve drafted my personal essay this last weekend and it weighed in at 750 words. It’s extremely difficult to say everything I want to say in such a limited amount of space, and given how these essays can make or break an application, it’s important to get it right. In all honesty, I wish that all colleges would require a personal interview with an admissions officer. That way, I could express so much more and answer concerns or questions that the school might have about my academic, personal, and professional backgrounds… much more so than I can squeeze into 300 words. Impractical? Maybe, but it would be better in my case.
By the way, I didn’t make class president (despite some awesome campaign stickers), but I did make class treasurer. I get to manage money and that’s fine with me! Plus, I got a senior parking space… it’s a win-win.
About a month ago, I followed the excellent guide to style a MySpace profile over at Mike Industries. He detailed many details about the challenges he faced in his blog that I shared when doing my own (still awful) modifications when I first signed up for a MySpace. I never thought I would be able to have my profile look as appealing as his styled goodness, however, he was nice enough to include some sample CSS for all to enjoy. Finally, I can seperate myself from the thousands of awful profiles that litter MySpace. Yay for Mike!
I took his code and with some changes and my own graphics I finally have a MySpace profile worth looking at (see screenshot at right). I’m very happy with it: it’s about as good as it could look without overlaying the whole page or commenting out chunks of HTML. Check it out, and have a look at Mike’s guide to make your own.
I just read an interesting article called “Social Currency” by Douglas Rushkoff. This guy really hits the nail on the head regarding the purpose of content to most people, both offline and online. Although the article is a bit dated (written in January 2001), the concepts he illustrates are still very relevant today.
He explains:
We think of a medium as the thing that delivers content. But the delivered content is a medium in itself. Content is just a medium for interaction between people. The many forms of content we collect and experience online, I’d argue, are really just forms of ammunition — something to have when the conversation goes quiet at work the next day. An excuse to start a discussion with that attractive person in the next cubicle: “Hey! Did you see that streaming video clip at streamingvideoclips.com?”
Social currency is like a good joke. When a bunch of friends sit around and tell jokes, what are they really doing? Entertaining one another? Sure, for a start. But they are also using content — mostly unoriginal content that they’ve heard elsewhere — in order to lubricate a social occasion. And what are most of us doing when we listen to a joke? Trying to memorize it so that we can bring it somewhere else. The joke itself is social currency. “Invite Harry. He tells good jokes. He’s the life of the party.”
I couldn’t explain it better myself. Check out the rest of the article.
Proof positive stealing can have more consequences that a guilty feeling: when a friend of Evan’s left her Sidekick II in a car and didn’t get a response from calling her lost phone, she was forced to buy a replacement. However, when starting her new Sidekick using her profile, she found pictures and the AIM login for the thieves who took it. For the uninitiated, the Sidekick stores all of it’s content on T-Mobile’s servers, so in the event of loss all of your pictures, data, and so forth is saved and ready to go. As a form of payback, Evan has posted pictures of the thieves and more information about them on his website.
Evan quotes:
Right now, I am more concerned about spreading this story. I want people to realize that what goes around, comes around. If you find a phone in a taxi or elsewhere.. it is NOT yours.. return it….and when u lose an item, then the same will happen for u. This is not a religious endeavor or a moral endeavor….this is a HUMANITY endeavor. I want these people SHAMED into realizing what they have done. The man below in the pic is 25 years old. He should know better.
I couldn’t agree more, Evan. Best of luck to you.
