Passion
Keeping the Oxford Comma
No matter what, I’m continuing the use of the Oxford comma here on Pulpconnection. I never knew there was a term for this, but I’ve been an user of this serial comma forever. The Oxford comma is the last comma used in a list. For example, in this sentence:
Pulpconnection is focused on addictions, passions, and pulp.
The comma between passions and pulp is the Oxford comma. To me, that one comma helps separate each item in a list. Often times, you don’t need it, but it eliminates confusion by including it. Whatever your opinion is, I’m holding on to the Oxford comma.
New Advertisers – Lijit and Starbucks
Along with the tinkering, you, dear readers, might have noticed a few other changes. Pulpconnection is now running ads from Lijit and Starbucks.
Lijit has always had its advertisement network, but I never tapped into it until recently. They match your content with advertisers and display appropriate ads on your site. My Lijit ad is buried in the footer, but it does add some needed color pop to the gray footer area. Already, I’ve noticed ads for Nike, Tivo, and Starbucks so they’ve match my content accurately.
Along with Lijit, I also qualified to show ads from Starbucks’ online store (a member of LinkShare). If you need to buy any Starbucks coffee, equipment, cups, or gift cards, consider shopping here. 🙂
Tinkering, Always Tinkering
You know I’m always tinkering around, adding and removing things from my blog. Here are the latest changes.
JetPack to JetPack Lite to JetPack
The earlier version of JetPack was bloated and so so, so I changed to the leaner but unofficial JetPack Lite. Then in the past day, a new, more feature rich version of JetPack was released. I switched back to test the new features.
Subscribe by Email
Speaking of new features in JetPack, there’s a subscribe by email function. In the past, I’ve let FeedBurner handle that, but let’s see how JetPack fares. In the right sidebar, kinda down you’ll see the Subscribe via Email section. Provide your email address to get started. If this works, I can remove a FeedBurner plugin to specifically handle email subscriptions.
Improved Search
I never realized the built-in WordPress search function was so basic. It worked good enough or so I thought. Then I read about Relevanssi (I guess that’s supposed to sound like “relevancy”). It boosts the WP search functionality with features you assumed were already there.
The Relevanssi search index is still building so you won’t see any of the features just yet.
Breaking Dawn Breaks the Bank
From its midnight premiere, Breaking Dawn Part 1 pulled in $30M. This, however, did not eclipse the record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $43M. Still though, expect solid ticket sales for this weekend and over the upcoming Thanksgiving break as fans flock to see Team Edward, Team Jacob, Team Bella, and even Team Alice.
Be sure to read Myong’s review of Breaking Down over on Nonstop Honolulu.
Have You Tried Starbucks’ Cup Magic?
Have you downloaded and played with Starbucks’ new mobile app, Cup Magic. Okay, so it’s really a front to inject Starbucks into the mind of users during the Holidays, but it’s a fun reminder nonetheless. The concept? Fire up the app, and point your mobile device’s camera at special items in the store or online. Once recognized, the app will augment the reality by displaying animation superimposed on the image displayed on the camera. It’ll look something like this:
It’s fun to see how companies are combining and leveraging technologies to build their brand name and inform consumers of updates.
(Sorta) Failed First Google Music Purchase
Now that Google Music is rocking, I figured I’d give its accompanying Android Market a run and buy a song. From the radio, I soundtracked Young Blood by The Naked and Famous on their album, Passive Me Aggressive You. As a quick test comparing Google, Amazon, and iTunes, I searched for “young blood passive me aggressive you” on the respective services.
Here’s what I got on Google Music. No match found.
Here’s what I got on Amazon’s MP3 Store. Entire album found with the single costing $0.99.
Here’s what I got on iTunes. Entire album found with the single costing $1.29.
What would you surmise seeing these results? I’d say Google Music fail, right? It’s the only music service that doesn’t offer this song. But… I changed my search terms on Google Music and looked for “naked famous”. And guess what shows up?
The single is actually there, hiding in plain sight. This is really strange, since Google being Google is synonymous with search. Why wasn’t this song found when searching for its title and the album name? Maybe the songs are still being indexed or something, I don’t know.
Once I found Young Blood, I easily completed the purchase and shared a listen on Google+. I downloaded the single via the web and imported into iTunes. Then I uploaded the song to my Amazon Cloud Drive.  Sadly though, this Google Music-purchased single won’t be available in iCloud without subscribing to iTunes Match.
Overall, a bit of a rough start with Google Music.  I’m pleased I eventually found the single but am confused why searches didn’t find it initially given Google’s searching strength.  Maybe the service is just being passive aggressive during launch?
The Prius V Cometh
Here are some shots of the new Toyota Prius V. Didn’t have time to take extensive pictures of the station wagon hybrid so just snapped pics of its distinguishing exterior posterior (aka the station wagon butt).
Oh yeah, this V is not mine, and I like the Clear Sky Metallic blue color.
Google Music Now Open to the Public
Take that beta tag off of Google Music. It’s now available to everyone!
Upload your music to the cloud and access them anywhere you’re connected. Play back your music on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet. And it’s all free (up to 20,000 songs)! You can also purchase songs from Google’s Android Market, and the store offers a bunch of freebies as well.
So there’s yet another player in the musical cloud market: Google Music, Apple’s iTunes and iCloud, Amazon’s MP3 Cloud Drive and Player, and even Spotify. What the heck, have accounts with all of these services and scatter your music in the clouds. Think of this as a backup to the backup to the backup.
What to Expect from the UH Men’s Basketball Season?
The UH Rainbow Warriors had a solid start to their season beating Cal State Northridge late in the night on ESPN’s Hoop Marathon. With several new faces, I wonder what we can expect from the Bows this season? Here’s what I’m hoping to see.
Most momentum changing shots. This has to go to freshman, Shaquille Stokes. Coming from the courts of NYC, Shaq is a battler and keeps coming at you. Sure, he’ll make freshman mistakes, but he’s going to have moments where his shots and drives will shift the momentum of the game.
Most daggers. No doubt Zane Johnson’s triples will be the proverbial “nail in the coffin” for opposing teams. When the opposition makes a run, Z’s 3 will squelch that and demoralize the comeback.
Breakout game. Hauns Brereton will have one game where he gets rolling… and rolling… and rolling. Think Tony Akpan a few years back when he was in that magical zone. Hauns will do it from the outside, midrange, and inside with nifty drives (like a more mobile Mindaugas Burneika).
“Oh thank you.” When the clock is ticking down, who gets the ball for the last second shot? No, it’s not (yet) Bobby Miles. But, he’ll actually come through on occasion where all the fans will think, “oh thank you.”
Most ejections/technical fouls. Toss up between Joston Thomas and Vander Joaquim. Vander is playing the role of inside enforcer so by default, his confrontations will draw attention fromm the refs. Joston still will have quick fouls and his frustration will get the better of him, and he’ll let the ref know about his displeasure.
Most improved. The early candidate is Trevor Wiseman. So he’s still not a power finisher, going for layups instead of throwing it down. But it seems like he has a semblance of a growing offensive game, not purely relying on hustle and garbage points. He might be able to knock down some jumpers.
Another exciting season awaits!
A Floater at Sea
Now this is how you shoot a floater at sea. North Carolina versus Michigan State onboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier.
More awesome pics found on BuzzFeed.
