Greg Loesch (compulsiveguile) – Blog

I just wanted to make a quick post sharing the good news. If you’re a student with a .edu email address, you’re eligible for a free year of Amazon Prime! I just signed up, and the process was very quick. I don’t think any strings are attached… just to be safe you might set up a reminder in your calendar a year from now to check and make sure there is no auto-renewal.

For those of you who like to buy books online instead of in overpriced college bookstores, make sure you take advantage of this. Free 2-day shipping and more? Heck ya. Keep in mind that this won’t include all 3rd party sellers that just post on Amazon. Hard to beat free, though. Enjoy!

Free Year of Amazon Prime for Students — Click Here!

I recently became one of Thomas Nelson’s “Book Review Bloggers” (BRB) and here is a brief review of the book The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns.

The Hole in Our Gospel proved to be a very challenging book to read, as I somewhat expected.  However the difficulties were slightly different than the ones I predicted I might come across.  The purpose of this book is, without a doubt, to force the reader to take a look at the heart and take a look outside of the typical life here in the United States. It’s a pointed finger at Christians and the reality that we, as followers of Christ, often fall short of all that God has commanded of us. Having said this, I expected to be convicted and brought to tears occasionally. While I definitely experienced conviction, I never really felt anything I read “tugged on my emotional heart strings.” I honestly struggled greatly with what seems to be my hardened heart and cynicism when reading this. Read more…

Don Miller responded within 24 hours of posting this, so there’s no need for people to keep pestering him. Thanks Katelyn (@KatelynGerber) for using your persuasive charm!

As people… as people with creativity and intelligence… as people with power, I ask that you join me in my official petition to Donald Miller, a well-known Christian author who wrote Blue Like Jazz. Keep reading… this may be the most important thing you do all day… all week… and… yeah, it’s not that important, but I’d still appreciate the help.

Let me explain my situation and how you can help me out by taking just a few seconds out of your day. I am currently blocked from following Don Miller (@donmilleris) on Twitter, and I have no answers as to why this decision was made.  He has over 15,000 followers, and I, Greg Loesch, a seemingly “nobody” as far as he would be concerned, am blocked from following his “tweets.”  I’ve made some attempts to get to the bottom of this, but all of them have ended in vain. By writing this, I run the risk of seeming possibly a little stalkerish. I simply desire to follow a guy on Twitter that has some thought-provoking ideas, a guy that I simply have a respect for.

Here’s where you can help me out.

It’s a very simple process that will take you all of 15 seconds if you’re a Twitter user. If not, it’ll take you maybe 2 minutes to create a user name and then 15 seconds to send the reply… plus you’ll finally have delved into one of the more mysterious and entertaining social networks.

I ask, as a fellow web citizen, that you follow these simple 2 steps:

1. Start Following Don Miller on Twitter (@donmilleris)
2. Send him the following tweet:

@donmilleris LUCY! I respectfully ask that you unblock @compulsiveguile. He’s really a nice guy. Check out his letter http://bit.ly/T3ns6.

For those of you questioning the “LUCY!” part, it’s simply to get his attention. I hope by “screaming” the name of his chocolate lab, if nothing else, he will take at least a second glance at the tweets and maybe see a recurring pattern. The link is simply to my “letter” to Don Miller, asking him to unblock me, or at least explain why I was blocked. You can see it by clicking here.

Any Stumble or Digg support you could give me would be awesome! I appreciate any of you willing to help me out. I hope I can one day repay the favor…

Cheers,

Greg Loesch

I just found out from a friend, Sam Schoutko (@Wasilly & check out his blog), about this book review program at brb.thomasnelson.com. The concept is relatively simple, and I’d assume quite effective in a marketing sense.

This is how it works:

You fill out an application that is composed pretty much of name, address, blog url, and book interests. From there, you wait to get approved (took about a day for them to respond). Once approved, you select a book, and they mail it to you for free! The only thing you have to do is write a review on your blog and a retail site of your choosing. If you hate the book, let the people know. If you love it, let ‘em know. Once the two reviews are finished, you send them the links and pick another free book.

I’ll be honest, one of my motives is to get “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller (@DonMillerIs) for free – despite him blocking me on Twitter… (what the heck is that about by the way, Don?!) – but I also hope it motivates me in that whole book reading area.

Like to blog and read? Go fill out that app! Tough to beat free (I’m pullin’ for your application to go through, Sammy).

I posted an entry about David Pogue’s book about Leopard on my Mac tips section, and I thought it may be of interest to some of you who only read my Blog. Opposed to duplicating my entry here, check it out at at my Mac tips page.

 Until next time…