One of the most exciting aspects of the work I do with my Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC is bringing a business or entity to the Web for the first time. A few months back I partnered with design studio Visible Logic, Inc. to launch the Web site for the new book OUIJA – For The Record by D. Lynn Cain. I have talked about the Web site here at The Hot Iron previously, as it is both an attractive and functional Web site, blog and forum.

What was unique about this project was I did not read the book before the Web site went live. Though I knew what the book was about, I didn’t know the full story. When I finished OUIJA – For The Record, I put down a fascinating story about a family who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960’s as the result of sessions with an Ouija board. Seriously! Where the story may be somewhat far-fetched to some, my only comment to people is to get a copy of the book for yourself, read it, and then form your own opinion.

As with all books I read, including non-fiction and novels, I have a list of takeaways from OUIJA – For The Record, including:

Tell Your Story - Most all of us have a unique story to tell. It may not be about all of our life, perhaps a small period of time. Even if it is not truly unique there will be someone else interested in what you have to say for a variety of reasons. It may be best told as a blog post or straight to a bound book. But tell it.

People Need Something to Believe In - Whether you are always on the move or live a simple life, we all want something to believe in. In the case of the family in OUIJA – For The Record, what they believed in was that they needed to go to the Middle East. Whatever that something is, it may not be even something you are necessarily looking for. What did that wise British philosopher say about not getting what you want, but what you need?

OUIJA – For The Record was a good read about a family that could be your next door neighbor, or yourself. If you like stories about every day people, or even in the paranormal as the Ouija board was a key element in these peoples’ lives, I highly recommend you get a copy of this book.

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Book Take-Aways • Diversions • (2) Comments • Permalink

As much as I strive to not talk straight politics here at The Hot Iron, it comes up. In this case, I recently read the book Common Sense by Glenn Beck.

If you are still reading this after the last sentence, thank you! I know some have strong positive or negative opinions of Beck, however I am writing this as I do about all books I read, penning my takeaways from it, which I received the book as a gift from a family member.

My greatest takeaway from the book was not from Beck's writings at all, rather from its appendix which had the full text of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, written in 1776. With this, Beck reinforces his points with the complete writings of the original pamphlet. Many authors I have read use numerous quotes to make their point, but not an entire piece. Granted it was probably easier as Paine's writings are in the public domain. But if you can, why not? It made it easier to read one set of points, then another.

Another takeaway from the book was to publish what you say. i am not a regular viewer of Beck's Fox News show, but I have watched it. What I read was in line with what he says on his show.

My final takeaway from Common Sense is to be a well-informed member of society. And I'll leave it at that!

Common Sense was a quick read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys political discussions or watches the author's show.

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Book Take-Aways • Diversions • Strategize • (0) Comments • Permalink

If you are a regular reader of The Hot Iron, you may have gotten a sense that I am surely glad 2009 is over and 2010 is off to a great start, both from a business and personal perspective. It surely is nice to see when things come together and progress, whether we are overtly looking for them or not.

One sign things are better presented itself to me when I wasn’t even looking for it. As I added a bottle of wine I just purchased to our wine rack at home, I realized the rack was full, as shown in the accompanying picture. For the record note my wife and I are surely not sommeliers, but we do like to have a glass of wine with a meal and friends. The brands stored on this rack are also more than likely not to appear in any article by Chicago Tribune food and wine critic Bill Daley. We always like to keep a few bottles on hand and will usually get something for special occasions. But the point here is this – last year, the rack was not full all the time last year. Not only is it now full, but the couple of bottles of champagne we have are chilling for the right time to pop them open.

Another sign of good times is there have not been as many posts here on The Hot Iron as I would have liked. For now, I will share this, and write more pointed pieces in the future.

Have you had any good signs this year?

Salute!

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Diversions • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

To all my friends and family and readers of The Hot Iron in the US and those who celebrate Thanksgiving around the world, may you have a safe and happy holiday, and most importantly - a great turkey! The photo above is of our turkey which, as I write this, is cooking and filling the room with some great smells! As there are plenty of photos out there of cooked turkeys, why not show what the bird looks like before?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Announcements • Diversions • (3) Comments • Permalink

As a way of promoting their E series of mobile devices, Nokia created a Web microsite called The Unloader, where you can upload a digital document and it is either recycled or destroyed through the site. It is a clever idea site which takes an image of the uploaded document and merges it with video and audio of “real” equipment doing the destruction.

The site has been out for a while, but I just rediscovered it this week. To play with it again, I decided to destroy the FTC guidelines for blogging! Below is the embedded video from the experience.

What else can you destroy here? Perhaps a PDF of a small paystub or a copy of your tax bill? The options are endless! And for the sake of full disclosure, I was an attendee at Nokia’s first OpenLab and the global device manufacturing leader lent me an E71 device to evaluate for a month at no cost, for which I wrote a review.

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Diversions • Mobile Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink