rant.

I was browsing through the Ceramics and Pottery category on Etsy, and was commenting to Andy on how, um, nasty (totally my feeling) it's getting. More and more resellers of what people want to force into the vintage category, when in reality, it's something purchased last year at a sale, and now that it doesn't fit in their decor, trying to get rid of it in the ceramics and pottery category. And the resellers who refuse to put their work into the vintage category in the first place.

So I thought of something, that sounds simple and obvious now in thought, but would probably be difficult as hell to implement: Criteria popping up as you choose your category tag. Sort of like hints of what qualifies to be put in the category you're picking.

[And with the addition of 'Commercial' from the drop down box, this would be easier cuz no newbie is going to type in commercial as the second tag]

Example: For Ceramics and Pottery, 2 criteria, phrased like this -

...................................................................................................................................................................
You may post in the Ceramics and Pottery category if your item meets the following criteria:

- You made it.
- You fired it in a kiln.
...................................................................................................................................................................

There should be another question, but I can't remember what it was :)

I would think that keeping it general would be best, because not everyone is going to fit in what everybody thinks Ceramics and Pottery is. It sounds so great in my head, because I'm thinking 'how obvious IS that?', but I know, from dealing with the general public, that it is NEVER that easy. I would hope that the 'firing it in a kiln' would be the clincher. Both of these would hopefully make resellers hesitant to post in the category - That's basically why I started this rant. And don't get me started on what counts as vintage (I'm only 34 - 1987 is, for feck's sake, not vintage!!! It's retro :) )

The End.

-Nancy

Strange occurrence

[image "A customers work" by the dublinbarista on Flickr]

A few years back while watching late night tv, Nancy and I caught the indie movie "The last big thing". Its full of quotes that will leave you questioning the world for at least a few days and I still chuckle every time I see a Maxima or a Sentra and realize how auto makers are still making the same thing - The Car.

For the past year, another idea from this film has been stubbornly gnawing at my subconscious - basically any idea a person can have has already been thought up and will materialize in some form within a 4 to 6 week time frame. This movie came out in 1998 and while I pretty much believe this generalization to be true I think the time frame is getting drastically shorter. If one watches Etsy close enough one can see this phenomenon happen in a period of 4 to 6 days (it can make for some interesting forum discussions).

Since we started the cup a day project, Nancy and I have been brainstorming ideas and late last night we spotted an advertisement for the dvd release of "3:10 to Yuma". After the commercial was over we realized they didn't use the cool little image of the gunfighter that seemed so prominent during the theatrical release. At that point, the image of a coffee cup having a Western Style shootout stretched across its body was created. Within 5 minutes we gave it a goofy name (ten paces) and had nothing left but the grunt work.

Well, about 6 hours later, I found the above photo in the dublinbarista's Flickr pool - too weird.

Now, whatever this phenomenon is called, it seems to be accelerating at a Moore's Law pace and in about a year Apple will be coming out with a device (the I-dea?) that will be able to read your thoughts and within 4 to 6 minutes retrieve from somewhere online some example of the original thought you thought you had.
They had to have covered this on Star Trek...

andy

w00t! 2008 here we come!

Happy New Year!

We're hiding today. which is something I've been wanting to do for awhile. The weather's perfect for it too! Andy has a bit of a cold/sinus thing going right now, so staying in is best.

Cup-a-Day started today too, so I need to get on that :) If only I could find the image files...

n.