Hot Tomato Haiku Contest Winners 2010
The Fools and I had a great time at the Tomato Art Fest this weekend. We sold a whole bunch’a used books from our booth, as well as hundreds of cold bottles of water. But the highlight of the day was announcing the 2010 Hot Tomato Haiku Contest winners and handing out gift certificates and, yes, an iPad!
With over 500 entries from 140 poets, the judges had a very difficult task this year. But they pushed through and crowned the these winners in the following categories:
Basho’s Beefsteak:
out in the garden
red globes like lights on a vine –
Christmas in July
Tiffany Jyang
Alpharetta, GA
Plum Humorous:
Seed savers rejoice
The heirlooms get all the girls
Monsanto be damned
Sarah Gann
Nashville, TN
Formal Champion:
tomatoes plumping
round stakes, midsummer steaks, round
plumping tomatoes
Temple Cone
Annapolis, MD
Stinky Tomato:
Ms. Tomato was
puréed as the driven snow
until she got juiced.
Peggy Landsman
Pompano Beach, FL
Fried Green Tomato:
King of tomatoes!
Beefsteak, wear your crown of leaves.
Mustard is your gold.
Nell Harris
Nashville, TN
Melissa Duke’s Best In Show:
The livin’, easy –
you’re the plump juicy Romas
in my Caprese.
Dana Delworth
Nashville, TN
Scenes from Buyback Spring 2010
Buybacks are rocking this semester. This promises to be our biggest semester yet! Here are some early shots coming in from around the Buyback Map.
Bottles hanging over Emory Univ. in Atlanta.
ARROOOOOOOOW!!!
ARROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!
Underground Coffeehouse. Searcy, AR.
Special Buyback Helpers at Harding.
The Harding Billboard Car.
The Harding Billboard Car, part 2.
Sewanee Rock Pose!
The NEMCC buyback team posters their car in response to the Harding team.
What do you think?
We would take more pictures but we’re too busy buying books!!!
Is it Time for Plan B?
Revert to Plan B (cc) Flickr user mringlein
This American Life did a fine show last year on Plan B:
There’s the thing you plan to do, and then there’s the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon…switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.
Conan O’Brien got bumped to Plan B a few months ago. A lot of good people have had to revert to Plan B during this recession, and all the animals at the shelter are waiting for their Plan B to begin.
But Plan B doesn’t have to be a bad thing. How many of you have found that Plan B led to a better life than you ever imagined under the original plan?
I asked the Fools to share their plans for their lives before BookFool. It was an open-ended question, so we had a wide variety of responses. I’ll kick it off with my short entry:
Luke
My plan went Motorcycle Driver > Chef > Radio DJ > Teacher > Videographer > Marketing/Strategy. When I was a kid, I thought that people driving motorcycles up and down the highway were being paid to ride. Then I planned to be a chef and talked about that plan a lot, so much that people I knew then still ask me when I’m going to culinary school. I guess now I’m on Plan F.
Kris
I’m on Plan B.
- Plan A: Play in the NBA.
- Plan B: Entrepreneur, which started when my father gave me a huge wooden desk around age 6 or 7.
Accountancy was the best avenue I saw to make Plan B work. From age 6 to 14, I went back and forth between Plan A and Plan B.
Like this, only much much bigger! (cc) Flickr user H is for Home
The Story of the Desk
My father’s office of Arthur Young was closing in Fayetteville, AR, I think around 1987. He chose not to move to Austin for the company. The office was giving away all the furniture and my mom pushed my dad to take something. So he snagged a desk. He didn’t take the nicest desk nor did he take something small.
The desk landed in my tiny bedroom and quickly became the fixture of my dreams. I would site behind this tectonic slab of wood and play “store.” I had old checks from my parents I kept in the drawers that felt like real money. There’s no telling what else I had in the drawers. I know I stored my basketball card collection there.
This is the desk I use today. The desktop needs refinishing, and I’ve never had a key to lock the middle drawer, but I hope to use it for many more years.
Casey
Still on Plan A. 
Nicole
Jet Fighter > State Senator > Political Legislative Assistant > Human Resources Manager > Customer Care. I thought I was going to join the Air Force and be a Jet Fighter. Then I wanted to be a SENATOR only to find that the Political World was too harsh for my kind heart, but I fell into HR, which has led me to Customer Care and I couldn’t be happier!
Lou
Well, it kinda went like this:
- In High School I wanted to be a starving artist.
- At the end of High School I was starving and in love!
- Married and had a child soon after graduating high school.
- Entered the Air Force where I would live my life with my family and the military…Plan A.
Plan B Happened….
- Marriage ended in divorce.
- Was introduced to Lisa, my current wife, who was also in the Air Force.
- Left the Air Force to go to college for Advertising Design (starving artist related!).
- Started a wonderful career in that field and progressed to management.
- Landed on BookFool.com mountain and am loving every minute of it.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
YOU!
How about you? What’s your Plan B?
We Have the Best Customers
Businesses are made up of individuals. Obvious, right? But how often do we forget this?
(cc) Flickr user Archie McPhee Seattle
When we complain about unfair treatment, we start off mean and super-aggressive, shaking our fist and raising our voice, as if that’s the only way to get our way. And then when we get what we want, we never go back to say thanks, even if it was our own mistake that caused the problem.
We forget that it’s a real person we’re complaining to on the other end of the line.
The textbook industry has notoriously bad customer service, which is something we’re trying to change. But considering how poorly our customers have been treated by other sellers, I’m always surprised by how generous and good-humored they are to us.
Just last week, Jenise and Ashley came by to pick up a book and brought cupcakes for the whole crew so we could help them celebrate their birthdays. Happy to oblige!
Last night, I received the following email from Aundrea:
I just wanted you to know that I have been using your service for quite some time and I am VERY pleased. This semester I bought all my books using the BookFool.com service and it saved me around $500!!! I also love the buy back service that comes around to my school. When I used it two semesters ago, I was able to buy my books for the next semester with the money BookFool.com gave me for my books! Again Thank you so much for your service!!!
Last week, we received this message from Alexandria:
I love bookfool.com! You’ve been to my school to buy back books. And I love it. And I’ve ordered my books through you guys for this semester. I’ve saved about $150 so far because of bookfool.com. Continue with your greatness! Thanks!
Needless to say, receiving compliments out of the blue really makes our day. Apropos of nothing, these customers (and many more) have taken a few minutes out of their day to send us a virtual cupcake. We forward them around the office, print them out, and then work extra hard to be worthy of such praise.
Question of the Day: Who should you send a virtual cupcake to today? I guarantee you will make their day.
(cc) Flickr user Bev (Sugarbloom Cupcakes)
Dormology Chapter 2: How to be a Roommate
[Series Table of Contents: The Fool's Guide to Dormology]
Chapter 2: How to be a Roommate
By: David, Intern to the Stars
Headphones: Good for everybody. (cc) Flickr user AndYaDontStop
I have found that it is in your best interest to be a good roommate. Often by being a good roommate, you will encourage your roomie to do the same, thereby creating an atmosphere of mutual goodness crucial to enjoying dorm life. During my freshman year, this is the kind of relationship I had with my roommate. We never really spoke, aside from the occasional “where are the paper towels?” but the mutual respect made dorm life quite pleasant.
Of course, there are other times when one might prefer to be a bad roommate. For instance, being a bad roommate can be the perfect passive-aggressive approach to convincing your roommate to move out.
Good roommates shower (cc) Flickr user dotbenjamin
I have three friends–let’s call them the powderpuff girls–who used this approach quite successfully. The powderpuffs were living in a suite-style dorm, which means two rooms are connected by one bathroom. Thus, one dorm room has four occupants, rather than just two.
These three girls requested to live together but were placed with another girl they didn’t know. They wanted to get rid of that girl. So they each played the “bad roommate” card (see the second list below). The fourth wheel simply couldn’t take living with three bad roommates and moved out. I’m not saying it was right, but it was a great victory for the powderpuffs.
Because different situations call for different responses, I have created two lists. The first will help you to be a good roommate. The second will provide tips on being a bad roommate. Use the one that suits you best.
How to Be a Good Roommate:
- Shower. Body odor is generally quite undesirable in a roommate.
- Do your laundry. The reasoning behind this is similar to the reasoning in #1.
- Buy some headphones. When sharing a room, headphones not only provide an escape from the noise of your roommate, but they also prevent you from being the obnoxious noise maker.
- Learn the appropriate time and place for long and intense telephone conversations. Hint: your dorm room is not the place and the middle of the night is not the time.
- Smile. But not too much. That would be weird.
- Wash your dishes rather than leaving them in the sink or elsewhere to attract bugs and create foul stenches.
- Take out the trash on occasion.
- Plan to go out of town every now and then.
- Try not to wake up Roomsie when you come in late.
- Don’t tell your roommate when you begin to notice their “freshman 15” happening.
How to Be a Bad Roommate:
Significant others make bad roommates. (cc) Flickr user Elmo Alves
- Get a boyfriend or girlfriend.
- Spend the majority of your time in the dorm talking sappy with your significant other. This can take place either over the telephone or in person.
- Borrow your roommate’s stuff, specifically food items and hygiene products.
- Party hard. Every night.
- Invite someone to move in with you for a while.
- Secretly tell your RA whenever your roommate breaks a dorm rule.
- If your clothes are dirty, feel free to wear your roommate’s.
- Follow your roomie when he/she leaves the room.
- If you break something that belongs to your roommate, quickly hide or dispose of it.
- During times of boredom, read your roommate’s mail or journal.
