CoG’s Neighborhood

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day

5 comments

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

Dang, Sister Diane is keeping me full of good stuff today. I am very interested in the new zine post-script she received and the zinealogue that came with it. How cool! Frankly, all I have to say now is that I wish I was good about motivating myself to do these sorts of things. And I need to get me a copy of post-script.

In that typical internet way, I've found myself at a new blog today and a new opportunity to partake in the goods of others. In this case it's an online marketing course by Laura Bray.

I'm now trying to decide if I want to shell out the money to take it. Let's be clear on one point: I don't have a problem with the amount being asked. The question is can I afford to spend that money right now and (perhaps more importantly) will I really implement anything I learn. It's true, I am my own biggest enemy.

On the plus side, marketing is one of the biggest things I need help with. I think the art and craft I make is fine and dandy - I just need the market. (I could use some marketing help for my gallery too. Again, our art and cultural events are good, we just need the marketing.) I'm pretty burnt out on doing craft sales where I have to go set up for a day and waste my life smiling at people. I would much rather figure out how to be more successful online or to get myself out into more galleries and/or artsy stores.

I just went looking for info about International Reply Coupons since they are "appreciated" when entering the Mail Art Olympix (and because I pride myself in having a somewhat higher-than-average knowledge of the postal system). I quickly came across this disturbing story. Unnecessary fat-phobic comments aside, this has a good synopsis of info at the end in case one finds themself in a similarly unfortunate position.

I would also like to take this opportunity to (pretty much uselessly) state that the postal workers at my local post office are great and have never let me down. Okay, once, but that's the only one I can remember. I will be crushed if I ever go in and they give me any nonsense about IRCs being discontinued.

As noted below, a call for art arrived in my envelope of goodies. I am finally taking a good look at it and there is a website with all the info. Being the helpful little disseminator of information that I am, I encourage anyone out there to consider entering the Mail Art Olympix. (Whether or not I will get my act together is a whole other story.) 

Friday was a good mail day - an envelope full of arty goodness arrived in the mail:

3779

I don't know what I did to receive the goods, but my name and address are floating out there in the mail art world. And I am definitely not complaining. I only had time to shoot a few photos and then had to set this all aside because I've had some other stuff going on the past few days.

The envelope has an art stamp on it. For some reason I don't get particularly excited about art stamps. I mean, I think it's cool and I respect those who are into that, but it's just not my thing.

I'm not sure what's up with "Dada Poem" but I like it. It's a half-sheet of paper, photocopied art but individually signed.

What really excites me is this art money. Check out the full-size images. I love that it's "valid only after transformation by an artist". I also love that each one is individually numbered. If I actually get around to "validating" my money, I'm thinking I'll send one back to get another blank one. Not sure about trying to spend them, we'll see. There's a few businesses around here where I think it might work.

I really like how these fit into the tradition of local currency. I'm interested in local currency and the empowerment it can give to a community. Part of me finds it very conceptual and isn't sure how well it works to all of a sudden introduce a bunch of new money into a community, but I sure like the idea in theory.

There's also some calls for art that I may or may not have time to even consider. I'm hoping to make some new art to hang at my gallery - crazy, I know.