(View entire post here)

I don't know about you, but I find spending time exploring the Internet to be pretty relaxing.  I love just trolling around, searching fan sites or playing on Facebook, and a recent hobby of mine (for lack of a better word) is spending time on Twitter.  Although I'll confess it can become the ultimate time suck, it's also a fascinating way to keep up with pop culture, current events, and friends.

So when I started thinking about our blog discussion this week, i.e. How the Spartans Will Spend Summer Vacation, I had a bit of an unconventional thought.  I decided that one of the immortal warriors should take up tweeting. Naturally, one of the seven Spartans particularly popped to mind as the one who should spend his summer vacation hanging out on Twitter.

Any idea who I might be thinking of? I'm curious if you're already guessing who, precisely, I think would enjoy life in tweetland.  Let's just say this: there's one Spartan in particular who wields a clever tongue and a smart mouth.  I think 140 words maximum per post would suit his irreverent humor just perfectly.  For those of you who are fans of the series, I'm betting you already know who I have in mind. Guesses anyone?

(View entire post here)

The Penguin Employee Book Club met last month to discuss English by Wang Gang. This book was picked in honor of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, which occurs in May. Check out Wang Gang's answers to some of our questions below.

Penguin employees who are interested in joining the next interactive book club should look out for the HR announcement of the the next book club pick.

1. I noticed that the main characters in the novel all have very unique names, like Love, Sunrise, Second Prize, and Garbage, while all of the secondary characters seem to have "normal" names. Is there a reason for this, other than to have them stand out more as characters?

Names in Chinese are very different from English names. Actually, the names of the main characters are all real names. I took them from people that I have known in real life, changing some of the details. Love Liu, for example, was the name of a female classmate of mine. I gave the main character this name because there was not enough love during that time in China. But really, the world has always needed more love.

(View entire post here)

Got a new hat a few months back for the tour of The Dark Horse, and those of you in the West know just how traumatic that can be. It's kind of like, and I'm guessing here, when a woman gets a new hairstyle. You know the old saying, ‘Never approach a bull from the front, a mule from the back, or a woman with a new hairstyle from any direction'.

 I tried the darn thing on about twelve times before buying it and then shipped it off to my hat guru, Mike Thomas, at H-Bar Hats in Billings for a little tweaking. As usual, it was back within the week--transformed into a wonderful facsimile of the one Jimmy Stewart wore in all those Anthony Mann westerns such as The Naked Spur, The Man From Laramie, and Winchester ‘73. He did a fantastic job, but when I pulled said hat from the box, something else came out with it-another hat.

It was a silver-belly, conservative, cattleman's crown with a moderate brim; handsome, but not mine. I figured Mike must've accidentally stuffed somebody else's hat in on top of mine and then shipped it off. No big deal, I'd just put it back in the box and return it to him. Then I got to thinking--Mike is a gracious soul and given to giving gifts, so I tried it on.