Well, remind me not to run a contest over the long Labor Day Weekend again, will ya?  I’ve got 3 codes to give away and 4 people entered (not counting the couple I was forced to deny because they came in late).  What that does go to show is that you should always enter these things, you never know how good your odds are going to be. Could I get readers CSG, Kathryn Anderson and KLK to email me, and I’ll send along your promo codes! Please note that these are strictly controlled by Apple (not the software author), and they do have an activation expiration.  That is, they need to be collected and used within the next week or so or they will cease to exist.  Once you activate the software it is yours to keep, but the code itself does have a time limit. Congratulations to my winners!  Andrea, as a consolation prize I’m able to offer a code for the PC version of the software if you’d like it.  I feel bad that I basically had to pick one person not to win.  I did try to argue for more codes, but like I said, they are controlled by Apple, not the developer, and their hands are tied.  If you’d like a free copy of the PC version, please email me as well. Thanks for playing, everybody! And for the rest of you, get off your butts next time, huh?  The only way places will keep giving me stuff to giveaway is if it generates interest in the product!

Where my iPad people at? http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2010/09/contest-ipad-owners-got-shakespeare.html Shakespeare in Bits has a very cool Romeo and Juliet browser for the iPad where you get to watch a little animated movie of each scene, side by side with the play text, modern translations, character sketches…pretty much everything you need to study the play.  By bringing the iPad into it, these folks are really leading the way in what educational computing is going to mean very soon.  Right there in your lap you can get the play explained to you in whatever way works best for you. AND, they’re giving away three free copies!  Hurry up and enter, contest ends at 12pm EST tonight!

Well, it’s school time again.  My 8 and 6yr old daughters went off this morning, their 4yr old brother heads off to preschool next week. I am hoping that we’ll have some students (of whatever age) stop by to talk about Shakespeare, even if it’s just to get help with their homework.  Sometimes our discussions end up with a fairly high barrier to entry, like you’ve got to be an experienced Shakespeare geek before you can play, and I want to make sure random visitors know that this is not the case. I think that we should spend some more time on the basics – plot summaries, character sketches, that sort of thing.  I suppose I can do whatever I want, it’s my site :), but I want to put up content that will appeal to a wide audience. So, I’m casting for ideas.  If you’re a student (and by that I mean high school, college, or what have you), what would you like to talk about?  If you’re already a Shakespearean of whatever flavor, what do you think we should spend some time talking about?  I’d like to strike a balance between content that is useful and welcoming to folks who are hesitant to dive into Shakespeare, without boring those that would much rather dig deeply into the trickier questions.

Earlier today, Stanley Wells wrote on Twitter:

Also I never ever refer to Shakespeare as ‘the bard’. So don’t let me see any of you doing so either.

This set off quite the tweetstorm from his followers, many of whom (myself included) chimed in with admissions of guilt. I plead innocent on the grounds of technological limitation, though!  I’m only talking about times when I use the word bard in a typed form, such as web sites that won’t let me use “ShakespeareGeek”.   Or, of course, if there’s a pun to be made.  I can never resist a good pun. Spoken, though? I honestly don’t think I ever refer to Shakespeare as anything but Shakespeare when speaking of him. Thoughts?