This video from Indie5 collective pretty well answers the question. Short answer: worth it.

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I’m a True Blood fan, because I love women who kick butt (and Sookie does quite well!) and also because vampires were not meant to glitter. I don’t mind seeing scruffy Sam running around too much, either. Since I know a few people who would gladly volunteer themselves to Eric, Bill or a host of other characters on this show (and a few on say, Buffy) I designed “vampire groupie” composed of exactly the sort of things an enthusiastic person with an appreciation for Louisianna might wear: it has scents of walnut oil, nutmeg, anise and a magnolia bouquet. As one friend described it, “It sort of slides down your throat.”

Which, if you’re a vampire groupie, is exactly what you’re going for!

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This was from my “good colors” “bad colors” exercise in the Artist’s Way. The “bad colors” really were way more fun!

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It took me forever, but I finally figured out the Insert Gallery mode and how it differs from Insert Picture mode. Gallery allows you to present a series of thumbnails, uploaded into your blog, that visitors can click on to see expanded pictures. You can see some examples of galleries I’ve done on my artist’s cluster blog here and here. Since a Twitter follower asked me to share, I am at last delivering on that request (now that the quirk in my wordpress that allowed me to upload nada is gone!) I’ve collected screenshots – this is for the most recent version of Wordpress. While on older versions the same basic steps apply, it’s likely that it would really benefit you to upgrade if just to be more secure.

Step 1: upload your photos

After upload, the screen should look like this:

After several uploads, your menu should look like this:

Step 2: Click “save all changes.” After you hit that button, your screen should look like this:

Be sure to link thumbnails to the image file:

Step 3: type in the order in which you want your images to appear:

Step 4: indicate how many columns you would like:

After you click “insert gallery” your result should be something like what is below:

Try it out – share your galleries in comments!

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write up in perfume nerd

Swedish perfume blog Perfume Nerd treated Magickal Realism Perfume arts to a lovely, thoughtful writeup last week. This included an overview of Zombie Repellent, Vampire Groupie, If and more.

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Startup Singapore by marcus.tan.yi.wi on flickr

An article yesterday in the New York Times profiling a woman within a year of my age who, upon losing her contract position at Williams Sonoma, decided to strike out and start her own business provoked a bit of thought. While I’m envious – I wish I could get NYT to cover me! – I’m also curious and cautious. There are a lot of us doing this business thing now, and as the article itself notes, it’s a different response than what usually happens during a recession.

But then again, the game has changed – some of our jobs are lost through sheer location of population (India and China outnumber us so severely that more of them have what used to be traditional US jobs – but because their population is so high, there isn’t a notable increase of living standards for them despite the relocation of the jobs.) It makes me pause, and ask myself: why am I still doing this?

I started my perfumery thirteen days before I left a corporate job. I probably could have stayed at the corporate job, but employers and I frustrated each other – no one actually throws their ambitions into the pool with the CEO and the corporate machine, and I wasn’t even pretending like I was buying into it. My first vocation-identity has always been as a writer, my second is now as a perfumer, and my third is as a blogger.  I’ve never enjoyed a sense of security that these corporate jobs supposedly offer. I’ve never even enjoyed a sense of adequate training, and loyalty is a loose and dirty joke. Every time I took a corporate job, I always knew on some level I was signing up to be bullied, and that’s still how I feel about the corporate experience.

That isn’t to say I haven’t learned some valuable lessons in my corporate time. Here and there there are remnants left from when corporations were a positive thing, a smart way of doing business, a body of something that was constructed to bring ideally good things into the world. I did see value in delegation, and in compiling resources. While I to this day passionately hate meetings and phone calls, when used wisely and sparingly – with an agenda – I along with my teammates managed to stay on task. And to have a work partner who is on your side and who supports you professionally as you in turn support them in a well-coordinated effort of building mutual competence – it’s an amazing thing. Sadly, corporations often don’t like that, far too many still believing that they benefit most from internal cutthroat competition. You’re expected to “learn” from someone who makes you miserable – and seriously, when does that EVER end in learning something that is truly for your betterment?

By October of 2006, my health and my patience were no longer in line with the corporate game, and I was out. This was well ahead of the trend although there were warning signs even then of the looming economic crisis. And even then, old-timers on Etsy were bemoaning the influx of new shops; I could now be an old-timer on Etsy and the influx, it continues as more and more people are seeking out new ways to bring in income.

I have to admit, I like what I’m doing. I like getting up every day and knowing that what I’m building is for myself, and that the people I do business with are, as much as I can manage it, genuine connections based on shared values. While I’d love the larger paycheck and the better clothes that come with it, I can handle what I’m doing now, and I’m thinking ahead of how I can escape the corporate model trap of long-term unsustainable growth.

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My self-portrait for today was taken many moons back when the Post Secret exhibit came to the downtown library in Minneapolis. This appealed to me because it was the condition of my favorite cartoon heroine (Daria.)  I had not intended to center my own reflection exactly behind the sign – essentially, I pinned this one on myself.

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