Am I back in my Cupboard?

I thought I had put up a notice to say that  Cupblog has moved. Mainly because I kept getting locked out of Blogger because I couldn't remember the correct email or password. Miraculously I seem to have stumbled back in. My other blog is more to do with practical Italy. As usual, I am a bit of a slug in blogging terms. Anyway do come over if you want to visit. http://www.nodoff.co.uk/practical-italy-blog.html

Someone gets it

I passed a copy of Nod off in Spanish to a young cyclist who heads off to Spain shortly for a few months. His comment after listening to it was:
'Ah, so that is why you say that.'
Which is exactly the reaction we want. Especially from someone who didn't rate themselves much as a learner. Most language learning involves very little explanation as to why a word might operate in a certain way. I believe this is what people would really like to understand.

Barely enough time to breathe never mind write an exam

I was looking at past papers for Standard Grade Exams (this is the last year of them in Scotland before they move on to the Curriculum for Excellence exams) and was shocked at how short a time students have.

Last year's Maths General started at 10.40 am and finished at 11.15 am. That is just 35 minutes! Barely enough time to settle your beating heart before you are asked to lay down your pen.With concentration  becoming more and more elusive in today's world, I reckon they should introduce compulsory 5 minutes' breathing before the students start. At least it would settle their minds. There is no simpler way to bring the mind under control than focus on your breath. 

We are back

Somehow or other, I have managed to find my way back into the Cupblog. Siamo ritornati! Very best wishes to all for the New Year. There is nothing like the turn of a year to feel like starting afresh.

In just such a short time everything changes. The biggest thing I discovered last year is that life is increasingly been run by databases, most of them migrating to the Cloud. Our every breath is being tracked in the digital world and converted into data for companies to analyse and decide how best to use it.

Here is an interesting post about algorithms from the Italian e-publisher 40K books.

Last Post

The poor old Cupblog is going out to pasture. You can keep up with the Nod offs and Nodblog at our sister website www.nodoff.co.uk.

Many thanks for visiting and we hope to see you at the other site.

Arrivederci!

e-authors taking off

It is clear that some authors are doing very well self-publishing their titles as e-books and are quite happy to steer clear of traditional publishers and earn lots of royalties.

From reading the various blogs, I think successful authors do 2 things:

1. They have a body of work. If it is fiction, they tend to write in genres and series. I think e-readers (humans as opposed to devices) devour books so they want more books from authors they enjoy whether it be science fiction, crime or romance.
2. They have a blog presence on the web where they actively engage with readers and would-be authors.

They have often spent fruitless months trying to engage agents and publishers - the one time gatekeepers to the reading public. Now that they can tap into their reading public themselves, they can get the appreciation they knew was out there.

The Cupblog is more about publishing

The other blog on the Nodoff.co.uk site 'Learn a language blog' is for just that - learning a language. Do drop by both!