Livescribe Savings and Freebies

Livescribe is kicking off a couple different promotions this week where they will begiving away their Pulse Pen. The first event is Target's After Hours Party. The Target at Tempe Marketplace is closing and reopening Thursday night from 10:30pm to 12:30am just for ASU students. Pulse is making its presence there through the "Tap to Win" promotion. We are passing out flyers that could win you a free Pulse Pen. Just take it to me or one of the Target Brand Ambassadors with the Pulse Pens.

The next event is ASU's Back to School Passport Event. Again, Livescribe is going to be present. We are raffling off 10 2GB Pulse Pens, so come by our table at the SRC Maroon Gym, watch a demo, play with the pen yourself, and fill out a raffle ticket to win for yourself.

If you can't come to these events or don't win a pen but still want one, you can enter my scribe id code at www.livescribe.com/store SCRIBE5A03. The pen has been a great tool. If you have any questions I'd love to answer them.

The Chronicles of Donut: We Call Her Mulet

Welcome back to the next segment from the Chronicles of Donut. As many of you who have visited in the last month or so may have noticed, Donut has experienced some changes. This is the story behind the transformation from Donut to Mulet.

Once upon a time Donut was a pretty, cuddly, little, kitten. She showed all the potential of being a wonderful pet, even for a cat. She would run, jump, play, and eat bugs like a good cat, and we were very pleased. She had it all, the looks, the personality, the spirit, no wonder it came as no surprise what happened next.



One night, as Callie and I were leaving to see Nim's Island or some chick flick like that, I saw in the corner of my eye our precious Donut getting fondled by the neighborhood big cat. I immediately exploded out of the car and chased the cat off her. Even though I knew it would have no effect on the results of the matter, I felt like a father trying to protect his youngest daughter and felt it was my duty to intervene.

Around the same time Dog numero two-o and pet numero three-o entered our lives in the name of Fergie. She may play a role in the cause for Mulet to be discussed later.

Well, as our story continues, Donut gradually got bigger and bigger and could pop any time. She had a pretty decent size pouch and was happy as ever laying on the tops of people's cars.

Then one friday in May I came home from work and started heating up some left over pizza when Donut comes out from no where completely drenched. I didn't think anything of it since she is constantly hovering in the toilet for her favorite drink. I just figured she must have fallen in. As I ate my pizza she sat and mewed at me and I would pet her and continue eating.

A few minutes later, Callie texts me wanting to know what we should do this weekend. I didn't have any plans so I just BS'd and told her we could look for Donut's babies. She text me back right away, "Are you kidding?" Now I had second thoughts. Donut did look pretty grungy, even for falling in a clean toilet. So I just text back Callie that I wasn't sure but Donut's tail and body were really wet and she did seem to want alot of attention.

When Callie got home we looked everywhere to see if Donut had indeed given birth. She was kinda freakin, she called the vet to ask if a cat could ever eat its kittens. After looking inside and outside for fifteen minutes, we returned inside and were surprised to find Donut nowhere. Obviously wherever Donut was there her kittens would be also. I remembered around the same time that I hadn't checked our laundry room. Sure enough Donut decided to give birth in the dryer all over our nice clean sheets and whites.

This is a nice story and all but the real story begins now. Around this same time we started to see the transformation begin. Notice in the above pictures how nice and fluffy Donut's head is. She had a mane, a collar, a lovely band of fur around her neck, now it is gone, vanished, capoot.

So now her hair is short on the top and long in the back, hence the name Mulet. Our theories for how she got that way range from shedding because of the heat, Fergie pulling it out, to a hair loss causing STD. Let's just hope her fur-due goes out of style as fast as its name sake.

Bryce and Callie's California Commentary

Last week we were in Chula Vista California enjoying a great vacation on the beach as well as a trip to Six Flags. This video showcases the great body boarding Callie's family likes to do as well as some rather pointless commentary by myself on whatever appeared interesting while on the vacation.

Enjoy!

Livescribe, All Signed Up!

Sunday, I described Callie's idea she came up with concerning her smart pen. That night I applied for the position I had read about.

The next day I got an email from one of Livescribe's interns saying her boss had forwarded her my resume and wanted to have her interview me asap.

Tuesday I had an interview with the intern, which went very well. She let me know that I would be a good match for the job and asked if her boss, Livescribe's marketing manager, could interview me that afternoon.

I was down, so a few hours later I was on my second interview in just a day's time. Karen, the marketing manager, told me about the job and asked me about my experience with the Dell Rep Program. It was a really enjoyable interview.

So, after applying, a day later I was hired as a LCR, Livescribe Campus Rep.

I love marketing. I get to play with fun gadgets and get lots of neat give aways. I even get to pick out a couple friends to give some of the products to to help me out with promoting. I also get to throw parties with lots of pizza and drinks. Plus, I get to work with a great start up in Silicon Valley, strong brands like Dell, and a top notch marketing agency.

I guess I just have an urge to keep three jobs and do full time school afterall. Although working for Bank of America had great benefits, being a Dell Campus Rep, Microsoft REACH Evangelist, and now a Livescribe Campus Rep are all going to be a blast and will make for a tough decision come graduation.

Beachin With the Nephews and Nieces

While on our recent vacation, I took the opportunity to take advantage of my very cool and new video camera. What better test objects than some of my little neices and nephews. As with many children they can be quite entertaining. I hope family and friends can enjoy some of the pleasure I've had making this.

The Gadget Callie Thought Up and Then Lost!

Sitting in class one day Callie began to think up a clever invention that would make her day as well as many other students, notetakers, and doodlers a much needed tool. It was called in her mind the Smart Pen. It would record the audio of what you were hearing as you wrote, it would translate the words you wrote into whatever language you wished, and it could do math.

So it came as a surprise today, as I checked my emails and saw a job opportunity sent to me from a company based out in Oakland California called Livescribe. Seems they made Callie's pen and a little more. I was curious what this company was about and decided to look into it a little and was impressed immediately.

They created a pen with a computer in it. The pen comes equipped with two mics and a camera that records at 72fps. So why would you want a pen with two mics and a camera? Sounds excessive huh? Well with two mics, the pen can record the audio while you write and eliminate background noise. The pen is used on a special printed paper with tiny dots, the paper can be printed from a printer. The camera is used to track what you are writing exactly where you are writing it so you can upload it to a computer document, easily. With video and audio you can sync precisely what you were hearing with whatever you were writing. You want to know what you were hearing when you were quickly trying to copy a graph off the board? Now you can.

That's just the main function. You write Beer on your paper and tell the pen to translate in Spanish. It says cervesa. Fun, could be beneficial when working with people who haven't grasped the best words for what they are trying to say in a foreign language. Would be fun to have with you when you travel to a foriegn country. Need to know where a nice restaurant is? Simply right it down, the pen translates, hand the pen and pad to them, they write, it translates back.

It keeps going, draw a keyboard on your paper. You can start playing keyboard, you can even change the insturment to steel drums, cymbals, etc. Want to go another step? Why not add some rythym beats to it.

The pens' software is community friendly so new programs such as games, music, and even magic tricks are being created for free. You can easily upload your doodles, notes, whatever you've written and recorded to whoever you want.

As a marketing student I'll be sure to keep an ear open to Callie's novel invention ideas more often ;). As for the job opportunity, I applied. We'll see how that goes. I just hope they let you keep one if you work for them. Although the price, $150 for a 1GB and $199 for a 2GB pen, is higher than one would pay for any ordinary pen, it may be enticing for a student/doodler. However, working for the team is probably the cheaper way to go.

You should check out some of the examples at www.livescribe.com