BookFool.com » Kris

Thirth of July Street Party in East Nashville!

Kris — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:29:39 +0000

My neighbor Chris Thompson is at this moment setting up the Thirth of July Street Party outside my house. This is the fourth Third party he has held. In his own words,

“All proceeds go to support Adventure Science Center’s many educational programs and exhibits. That’s right, you can party AND support a great local institution.”

Chris Thompson - Thirth of July Street Party setup July 2009

Here’s some info on the event:

When: Friday, July 3 (today)
Where: 404 N. 12th Street, between Calvin and Ordway (East Nashville)
What: Big Block Party
Why: Just because
Who: All your neighbors and quite a few guests

The bands this year are some of Nashville’s finest: the mary nails, Scott Carter, Les Honky More Tonkies, Off the Wagon and The Silver Seas!

We’ll have food provided by Oinkers/Crazy Calvin’s BBQ (BBQ, burgers and brats), cold treats from The Jolly Rogue Sneaux Balls, an eclectic potluck, and more. There may even be a few surprises!

THIS IS A FUNDRAISER! ADMISSION IS $10

Brigitte and I moved to East Nashville / Lockeland Springs on July 1st of 2006. The day we moved in, our new neighbor Chris walked up and greeted us. He said something like, “Welcome to the neighborhood and tonight we’re having a big party. Wanted to let you know since we’ll be a little loud and there will be a lot of people.”

So, this was a great introduction to East Nasty. We THOROUGHLY enjoyed ourselves at the gathering. They had food, music, and Sideshow Bill.

The best part is meeting our neighbors and all the dontaions they raise goes to the Adventure Science Center.

East Nashville Listserv – Where Art Thou?

Kris — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:36:18 +0000

East Nashville bumper stickers

[UPDATE: Laura has set up a NEW LISTSERV with Yahoo! Groups. More info and sign-up here.]

East Nashville is an energetic and historic place and a true melting-pot of Nashville. It’s also BookFool.com’s neighborhood.

A few years ago, some East Nashville neighbors got together to create an East Nashville listerv using Google Groups. If you don’t know, a Listerv is an email list allowing for distribution of email to many subscribers. Therefore, when one person posts an email to the group, it is sent by email to everyone in the group. The Google Group listserv is a free service provided by Google.

For East Nashville, the listerv is like a neighborly chat over the fence. EVERYTHING is discussed. For June 25th, I counted over fifty (50) different new topics being discussed! Some of those included:

Local Organic Pest Control
Looking for House to Rent Near 5-Points
Wedding/Reception Venue? Please Help.
Dog left outside Tom’s Elite in the hot sun (This is one of many daily animal postings. I posted myself when my dog ran away. Oh, and Tom’s Elite Carryout is a great new eatery on Calvin Avenue & Gallatin Rd in Lockeland Springs. Delicious baked items – nothing fried.)
Eastland Kroger…again

As you can see, our neighborhood really takes advantage of our listserv. The number of daily emails can be overwhelming. But without the group, a lot of vital information would not be flowing between neighbors.

Listserv Gone AWOL

Yesterday, June 26th, around 10:15AM, the East Nashville Google Group and listserv was shut down by Google. According to Laura Creekmore, the East Nashville Google Group Moderator, “…Google reset its spam filters and apparently caught a bunch of legit lists in the process. They are going thru and manually reviewing them. Until they release the East Nashville list, they won’t allow any posting…”

Laura is giving updates at her site. If the neighborhood listserv comes back online or migrates elsewhere, we’ll both let you know.

In the meantime, neighbors might actually have to seek each other out to discuss area events, find lost pets, or find out when the listserv is back online.

Viva la East Nashville!

Wow, thanks for visiting! How Did You Find Us?

Kris — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:15:01 +0000

Today we were visited by a couple wanting to explore East Nashville. They found us online, called us, and were totally pumped to explore our shelves. This may have been only the fifth time for someone to visit us like they would a regular bookstore. Talk about an adventure. Thanks for coming by!

Not your typical bookstore!

When the Power Goes Out…

Kris — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:12:16 +0000

Yesterday at 2:15PM the BookFool.com lost its electricity due to a heavy storm. So, what does a group of BookFools do when the lights go out and the tornado sirens are singing?

Watch the storm.
Keep working (yes, there was one of us doing this and it wasn’t me or Lou).
Sit atop a large rack of books and relax.
Tell ghost stories.
Look for flashlights.
Lament.
Train your eyes to see in dim light.
Look for leaks in the warehouse roof.
Use your cellular wireless to check The Tennessean and NewsChannel5.com for up-to-the-minute weather news and check on the power outage in Nashville at http://www.nespower.com/OutageMap. As of 10:30PM last night, our area was still in red b/c there are more than 100 customers without power.
Lou constructed a nifty Boomerang type throwing device out of two sticks. It didn’t return to you, but we wanted more of a frisbee anyhow. Here’s a a How To of the basic design Lou made.
Throw awesome boomerang into the weeds behind Clifford where it could not be retrieved (you know who you are).
At 3PM, after the electricity does not return, leave for the Red Door Saloon with the BookFool.com crew and/or to Ugly Mugs with your preacher. I did both.

What did you do the last time the power went out?

Switching from Firefox to Safari

Kris — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:34:02 +0000

This week Apple rolled out a new version of Safari, its web browser for Mac and PC. They’re calling it the “World’s Fastest Browser.” For me, the browser is the most used program on my computer, so you’ll understand the gravity of this decision: I’m switching from Firefox to Safari for all my web browsing.

As you may know, BookFool.com is a Mac-based business. For the book industry, this is basically unheard of. But we’re not blind followers and fanboys. Before I made the switch official, I put the new Safari through its paces, and I must say it does seem quicker than other browsers. It definitely gives me a fluid, clean browsing experience.

I’ve always liked Safari, but there were two huge reasons that I stuck with Firefox:

Safari’s Find Feature (Command +F or Edit/Find) would not search inside non-editable text boxes. We ship thousands of orders per week from our browsers, and we sometimes need to find orders based on customer name or zip-code. The new Safari can search inside these boxes and does so with style:

It always drove me nuts that clicking a link in Safari opened a new window instead of just a new tab. Sure you can hold Command while clicking to pop links into new tabs, but I don’t want to do that! This was a barrier to full-time Safari use until I found this fix at MacTips.org that cleared the path to new-tab bliss.

If you gave up on Safari in the past, the new version is definitely worth a second look. Be dazzled by the improved Find feature. And marvel at its slick wall of Top Sites.

Oh, and did I mention it’s fast?

Tennyson Takes the Warehouse

Kris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:50:04 +0000

A lot of things have changed around BookFool.com in the past few months. We’ve moved to a new warehouse, we met thousands of new students through our expanded buyback network, and our website is about to undergo another seismic shift in functionality.

But the biggest change in my life has been the birth of my daughter in January 2009. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s two infant girls so far in ’09. Talk about a baby-friendly culture!

Yesterday, I brought my girl Tennyson to work with me. Here are a few pics from that visit:

14 Lbs Package of Joy

Kris & Tennyson at Dad's Desk

Kris & Tennyson: Computer Work

BookFool.com Group Photo at Warehouse

Transient Peddler – Yep, that’s us!

Kris — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:41:18 +0000

Today is the last day of buybacks for the Spring semester. For nearly a month we’ve been buying books out of our temporary locations in coffee shops, cafes, retail shops, parking lots, old Taco Bells, and more.

The temporary nature of our buybacks is why some municipalities define us as a Transient Peddler, one who sets up temporary locations for one’s trade.

But what if I have more books to sell?

Why Temporary Locations?

Because we were students when we started BookFool.com, we knew from the beginning that students needed more money for their textbooks at the end of every semester. But how to accomplish that?

Clearly the current system is broken, so you start from scratch. First you create a website and build a proprietary buyback program based on an entirely new way of pricing books that beats the socks off of the campus bookstore.

Then you keep your costs down. Maintaining a permanent location is an unnecessary cost if your focus is used textbooks. Your local bookstore must sell pencils, paper, sweatshirts, caps, greeting cards, day planners, candy bars, Scantron cards, blue exam books, and more…all at a significant markup…just to pay the rent on their location.

We have no interest in selling pencils, so we keep it simple and partner with local merchants. They get rent money and increased foot traffic. We get a place to conduct business. You get better prices on your books. And the local economy gets an infusion of cash. It’s a win-win-win-win.

In that context, peddler has a nice ring to it, we think. And tens of thousands of our customers think so too!

Thanks for the great buyback, all! See you again soon,
-The BookFool.com Team

To Do: Sell Books!!! (A BookFool Video)

Kris — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:47:22 +0000

Thanks to Davis and Julie for this look inside the busy schedule of a college student!

Thanks, too, to the College Corner Restaurant and ALL the students of Northeast Alabama Community College in Rainsville, AL.

We’ll be there Monday the 11th for buyback, one more day.

You make it look easy

Kris — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:20:15 +0000

Some people make it look easy. Some programmers can execute code that just plain works. Some accountants can make the numbers dance and the spreadsheets sing. They amaze you with their effortless success.

And some bike tricksters, well… [video link]

At BookFool.com, we have a certain affinity for bicycles. Our first website promotion was on the back of a bicycle at Ole Miss, and about 25% of our current full-time staff ride their bicycles to work.

Thanks to Danny and Inspired Bicycles for inspiring us with their mastery!