Mike DeWolfe : The Daily Edition

If you still want to sell on Etsy, you need to promote your wares. Here are 52 resources you may find handy. 1000markets.com/ 100craftlinks.com/ 43things.com/ - Make your items some of your own 43 favorite things. artzee.net/ blogger.com/ - Get a blog and crow about your cool stuff. bluecanvas.com/ byhand.me/ www.cafepress.com - Make some funky design and have them print it on stuff. cracker.com.au craftcult.com craftgawker.com craftjuice.com/ craftopolis.com craftsitedirectory.com/index.html craftstylish.com/ craftylinks.com/ craftytips.com/ craigslist.ca/ creativemiscellany.info/ - A great example of an arts nexus. creativity-portal.com/ daisycraft.com/ designstolove.com/ deviantart.com - Less cool than it used to be. dmoz.org/add.html - Add it to the directory. ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/ - Add it to this other directory. electroniccottage.com esellerads.com facebook.com/ - Make your own page in Facebook. flickr.com/ - Photograph your stuff as you go. freecraftfair.co...

Our daughter is in a split 4/5 class. There are two 4/5 splits in her school. My confidence is shaken in a school where they haven't grasped that 1/2 + 1/2 = 1. They really can take all of the Grade 4s from the two classes and put them in one Grade 4 class? Then, do the same with the Grade 5s? I honestly don't know why this is: I sit in the cheap seats and don't participate in the PAC (Parents Advisory Council). My daughter has had some earnest teachers who seemed to really try to give her the best education possible. In years past, I've come to know a lot of teachers outside of their teaching roles. My friend came from a family of teachers. My wife worked with a bunch of people who's spouses and their friends were teachers. Of these two samplings, what a bunch of bitter ambivalent people I've never seen elsewhere. It was like going to a Nirvana suicide pact clad in tweed. I think the teachers' hands are tied are tied by the curriculum, cutbacks and the heli...

Last month, I posited in a discussion on logic that anyone who places rational thought as the cornerstone of their decision making, should off themselves because life is ultimately futile. I don't subscribe to that approach, but that seems to be how the logic train would run. Before is a reproduction of what Whack job James Lee (Burnaby resident) says of the world's problems and his take on the solution. The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY: 1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions con...

Sunday morning, we were leaving the grocery store. This moron and his mate in a small black car eased into three small car spots. By parking at a right angle to lanes, we was able to use three small car spots with his single small car. He got out. His wife got our with the couple's Starbucks cups. He went to the trunk, fished out his reusable bags (aw... he's fallen for Thrifty's greenwashing). Then they traipsed into the grocery like all was right in their world. And why would this be wrong? After all: he wanted three spots and grey haired baby got three spots. He personalized his parking preferences. You go to Starbucks and you can personalize how much foam, de-caf, half-caf, room for cream, hot, cool, lots of water, no-whip, extra-whip, double shot, yadda yadda. Long gone are the days of getting a cappucino or a latte: you can have it exactly like you want. On the roads, we've been lopping out lanes that can hold lots of cars capable of holding four or more people in...

The question was Tweeted " vwould (sic) you support a regional levy (10$ per household) to help end homelessness?" to the Victoria people. That's one of those great questions: "Would I pay $1 to win $1 million?" Duh! Of course I would pay $1 to get a million. Moreso, I would pay $10 if that was all that it took to end homelessness and the suffering of the homeless. But just as I'm not going to make a million-to-one return on my dollar, $10 isn't going to end homelessness and it's ridiculous to think so. Homelessness is like the common cold. There are a hundred varieties so one solution isn't going to do it. As I said before, there are the dilettantes-- children of well-to-do locals who are downtown because it's hip (everybody hates a tourist). There are dilettante homeless: those who summer here like its the soup kitchen version of the Hamptons. There are the mentally ill: budget cuts and the mainstreaming of mental illness has made institut...

The title is a little hyperbole but it's close to the claims I'm getting in from these spammers/scammer/shrewd businessmen. One I saw this morning: Mike Filsaime mentored one of these characters to a product launch that netted $250,000 in a week. Really? I'm mean: really ? If it's possible to make $250k in seven days, then everyone should be doing it, right? So here's the challenge. Make me rich through online marketing, guys. Take me and mold me into a millionaire. - I write about programming, Drupal, Cthulhu, polymer clay, fiberglass, geekdom (eg. Star Trek), Victoria current events, dieting and cooking. It's what I know about that I want to write about. - I don't have a book. Well, to be technical: I wrote three unsalable novels, one unfortunate screenplay, one teeny cookbook, one massive IT book and a full novel that reads "All work and no play makes Jack a Dull boy" repeated 7600+ times. - I don't have a website. Again, to be technical: we...

*** DISCLAIMER: I tried and left Etsy some time ago. The recent experiences speak not to Etsy, but to the dynamics and shortcomings of Etsy's model *** I fight crickets. Crickets are that sound you hear when nothing else happens. Comedians hear it when they suck. I hear it when I put something out there and no one notices it. For example, over a year ago, I began re-imagining lawn ornaments as zombies. I dislike lawn ornaments, so I thought it was a befitting response to give the critters an undead patina . In the last year, I sold one, gave one away and then a month or so ago, I got a request to send out another one-- for cash! I mailed it. Supposedly, the address was incorrect, so it meandered back. Canada Post wanted to charge me to send the item, and they wanted to charge me to get it back. I sent it under a rate to be delivered in 5 business days. It took 15 business days to wander back. I was able to argue into not paying to get back what Canada Post failed to deliver. I hea...