Harry Williams

Let me just say that I love Amazon.com. Ever since they became popular, I’ve pretty much always bought my books from them. They “get it” with web site design - the site is very easy to use, and they have some great features. I’ve recently started using their wish list feature just to keep track of what books I want to purchase in the future. When I want to place an order, I can order all of them, and have them show up at my door 3-5 days later. No, this isn’t a commercial for Amazon, I just think they run a great business.

That’s why I’m really interested in seeing how well their latest product - the Amazon Kindle - is going to sell. I went to Amazon’s home page yesterday and there was a letter from the CEO talking about the Kindle. So, I checked out the page for it, and it sounds interesting. Check out the page here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA

Basically, the Kindle is a new wireless reading device for reading electronic books. The difference between this device and other devices is that this device is not backlit, and is supposed to be very easy on the eyes, not like a computer. You can wirelessly download books for about $10 direct from Amazon, and can also subscribe and receive magazines, newspapers, and blogs directly to the device. Then, once downloaded, you can store and read these books at will. It’s supposed to be great, especially for travelers, with around 88,000 books available for download, and it can store up to 200 titles at one time.

There have been other eBook reading devices before this one, and PDA’s have also had the option to store eBooks. However, they’ve usually been hard on the eyes like using a computer screen, and none of them have had the vast power of Amazon behind them. The Kindle is pretty pricey at $400, and it has mixed reviews so far.

But all of these things make this device really interesting to me. I’ll be really curious to see how this device does. I doubt this or any device will totally replace books. There’s really nothing that can compare to reading a real, physical book. But, technology like this could become popular with people, especially in the mobile society today where people travel a lot.

What do you guys think? Would you buy a device like this?

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Monsignor Luigi Giussani, was a well known Italian priest, known for founding the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation. He was fairly prolific in his writing up to his death in 2005. His writings usually cause me to stop and pause in life, especially this part that I read recently:

“The great adventure of human life is to reiterate that Man’s (Christ’s) proposal and to verify it. This is the great adventure that makes life and history pregnant with meaning, rather than a series of events. This is the great adventure that frees us from the feeling of futility and builds on the power of hope.”

This paragraph especially jumped out at me after seeing the movie Bella. For those of you who haven’t heard, Bella is the first movie by the Catholic film company Metanoia. The name Metanoia means “Change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion,” and it seems that’s what they’re trying to do - impact culture by helping people to change their lives for the better. The movie opened in the big cities first, and it finally made its way to here last Friday, opening at the Kerasotes Theater in Pekin.

Bella, which is Latin for “beautiful,” is a perfect example of Metanoia’s mission. It’s about a day in the lives of two people, and how their encounter changes their lives forever. It is a very well made film, the acting is very touching and sincere, and the core story is phenomenal. The Christian worldview is represented very well in the movie, and yet, they pull the whole thing off without becoming preachy or lecturing.

I think every Christian around should go and see the movie for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s made by a Christian company dedicated to making quality films. That’s a rarity, especially in today’s day and age, and we should support companies trying to create quality entertainment. Secondly, they’re doing it without becoming preachy, which is important if you want to reach audiences today.

Thirdly, it’s a really good film. It’s not a shoot-em-up thriller (which I sometimes like) or adventure / super-hero movie (which I love), but it’s one of those films that sort of just stops you dead in your tracks and causes you to think. Think about your life, about what you do, and about how you go about your daily lives. It makes you really see life as a “great adventure…pregnant with meaning, rather than a series of events” as Giussani says.

So, if you haven’t seen it yet, I would HIGHLY recommend checking out Bella for all of those reasons. It is rated PG-13 because of a few serious thematic elements (they do tackle issues of death and abortion), so I’d use discretion with taking kids. But for everyone else, just go see it. I doubt you will be disappointed.

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Boy, was it a busy weekend!  Last night, my dad and I got back from the Information Marketing SuperConference in St. Louis.  Most people hear that I’m going to a conference, and they say “Oh, that should be fun,” thinking it’s a fun conference from 9 to 5 with after hour parties and such. Well that’s definitely not the case with these conferences!

They are fun, but in a different way. You get information thrown at you for 4 days straight about marketing, running businesses, etc. Every day starts at 8 AM and goes until 9 PM or later, with about an hour off for lunch and dinner. So, these are far from relaxing conferences. But we sure learn a lot.

One of the speakers at the conference was Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity.com. He had a really interesting story and presentation telling about his experience with working with AmericanAirlines, and his move to create Travelocity.com, which revolutionized the travel industry. When you think about it, booking travel today is vastly different from 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, you usually had to go through a travel agent. But, after the start of Travelocity and other sites, 10,000 travel agents were put out of business, and today, the majority of people research and book airfare online.

His talk was a good example of one of the sayings that kept reoccurring throughout the conference - the only thing that we can count on is change. It’s an old saying, but definitely very true, especially today. Living in the Internet Age, things are changing faster than they have ever changed before. Google, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and blogs are just the big online phenomenons that have cropped up. Digg, del.icio.us, flickr, Technorati, and RSS are some of the lesser known technologies. Change is in the air, and business that adapt are the ones doing the best in this new world.

Speaking of YouTube, they showed some quick clips before starting some of the sessions at this conference. One of the funniest ones was from YouTube. Click here to view it.

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