The Ochre Letter

The novel, "The Scarlet Letter", begins in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin – a badge of shame – for all to see....

Dear Multiply Folks,

I am shocked and outraged that you have branded the Premium members with that horrible Ochre Letter, "P". Not only does it infringe our profile images, but it is an embarrassment to have to parade through the blogs, "classed as an elite member".

I don't mind having "Premium" under my home page picture, but to have that ochre P show up on our icon is an unfair way to mark-et the fact that some people are paying for your services, while anyone without a "P", obviously is not.

What happened to respecting our privacy? I never bother to check whether or not others are Premium, because IT DOES NOT MATTER. Premium use is something we choose for our own reasons, and absolutely NOT to show off to others, because IT DOES NOT MATTER. Communication, and connection is what matters. It is also absolutely of no benefit to us to have that hideous P obscure our icons. All it does is put us in a seemingly cliquish group in an attempt to try to make us look like we are "better or different" from those who are not Premium Users. This is absolutely not the case. This is a very bad marketing tactic.

I request that you remove the Ochre Letter P from our icons immediately and return it to the previous system, for branding us with an ochre P is just as bad as branding a woman with a Scarlet Letter.

Oh, and I love you!

Cameron Switzer

(Letter sent to Customer Service)

GLC Community Swag: Get Yours Today!

Stefnee & Scooter designed some fabulous Globalized Love Community Swag for anyone and everyone who has the opportunity to meet other blogger friends somewhere in the real world. You already know that!

Today my order of swag arrived and I was very excited! Here is a video showing you what I ordered and how it looks. I think they will have to do a bit of tweaking to the buttons (which was supposed to be a magnet), but other than that it all looks great!

So pick up one or two items and show your support of the Globalized Love Community, and the Internet Axe Murderer's Club, PLEASE!

IGLU!

TheFabricGoddess on Etsy!!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5304787
Stefnee has created the most amazing line of bags that you could ever set your eyes on!

For those of you who already have one of her products, you know what I am talking about.

For those of you who don't, ... well, what are you waiting for? Remember we support our Globalized Love Community Members?

Head over to Etsy and take a look at the amazing collection that Stefnee has completed.

I love my HippyDippy bag, and I take it everywhere. I even use it exclusively on my bike to the bank, and even to the river to swim, sun, and snooze and stuff it full of lots of water, books, pens, IC recorder, towels, sunglasses, bronzing lotion, and so much more!

It has a reflector built into it to keep me safe, not to mention three external pockets, an internal divider, and three other internal pockets (one of which is articulated to hold a water bottle!)

Each pocket is lined with vintage kimono material to give it that really exotic, sexy look. And I asked Stefnee to put a couple of belt loops onto the over the shoulder strap so that it could become, as Scooter branded it, my "utility belt"! Now I can hang my sunglasses, my keitai, or a pen there for easy access to my "stuff". I love my utility belt!

The denim is designed to be ultra strong, and yet the edges are pre-worn so they will gently fray with age and become even more specialized as I continue to break it in. I plan on living until I'm 202 years of age, and I'm betting this baby outlives me!

And so it is. This baby rocks!

Really, the craftsmanship (I'm not going to say "worksmanship" because it is above and beyond that) is phenomenal. It really is.

The prices are really fabulous. I tried to convince her to sell them for more because I truly understand the value of these bags, but humble Stefnee, Little Miss "I'm just me", would hear nothing of it! She wanted to keep them affordable for the entire world, not just us white collar bank robber criminal types who people seem to think have infinite amounts of money to toss around. Well, for a project like this, for usable art (i.e. industrial art), and to support my best friends, I would certainly pay above and beyond these prices. Because I know the true value.

Enough of my blabbing; I'm wasting your precious time. Go see for your self, but be prepared to be "verily impressed" by The Fabric Goddess!

Congratulations, Stefnee! I hope that as time goes by, your shop gets more hits, then a few purchases, then a few more, and then you can turn what you love into an at-home business while looking after your family as well! I am so proud of you for getting this going!

I love you!

Cam

Summer in the Country, Japan 2008

This is the first photo I took in the morning (about 6am) while the mist was still heavy on the mountains, and the dew on the rice.

I love my inaka "roots" out here in the countryside of Japan. It is soooo different from what everyone in the rest of the world "thinks" Japan is like through watching TV and reading about Tokyo, Osaka, and other big, crowded, concrete, smoggy cities. Don't believe me? Then take a look at where I live! I love you!

Welcome to my summer

This morning I headed out in my flip flops about 6am to just walk around the rice paddies where I live. Joolz had asked if I could take some photos of the rice paddies, so I did!

You can see those images for now in my Summer in the country, Japan 2008 Set on Flickr.

The morning sun had not turned the entire area into a raging fireball yet, and the breeze was still pleasant, and not yet a hair dryer set to high in a sauna.

And then I took a very little video. Of me. On my digital camera. This is where my video-whoring origins come from... imagine ME taking maximum 80 second videos!?! Hahahahahaha... Well this is it.

Japanese Commemorative Stamps for Summer 2008

This blog has been bothering me all day because it didn't feel right to start it off with, "Does anybody want stamps?" And I have been mulling it over in my brain, so let me add the introduction to make it more of something that I would do, OK? Here we go.

Today was a hot, humid, summer day. I left the house before noon and drove into Fukui to pick up my video camera that I had stupidly used to squash a big wasp against Stefnee's house when I was there (I shattered the LCD and was making videos the entire time with only half a monitor... stupid me. Learned MY lesson, I did). Then I went next door to the recycle shop "2nd Street" but didn't find anything that interested me this time. So I headed on home as I had a few things to do back here.

I made a detour into the drug store on the way home and picked up an eyebrow trimmer for Mayu, some Seabreeze body wash for me (I like the cooling effect of the chemical menthol body wash in summer), some bug "keeper-awayer" for the cat if I can find him again, ZipLoc bags and water. Then I came home and put a package together that needed to go out today.

I hopped on my bike and rode through the rice paddies (which are looking fantabulous by the way, and probably ready to harvest by the end of this month) down to the post office where I updated my bank books (yep, the post office is also the largest bank in the world), and then shipped my parcel off.

As I was standing there waiting to have the enveloped weighed I noticed that the post office was selling their "summer collection" of commemorative stamps. I looked them over and was quite impressed by how beautiful they are this year. I immediately thought that there might be some stamp collectors out there in the world who would appreciate getting their hands on a sheet or six of these particular commemorative stamps for 2008!

Does anyone collect commemorative stamps from around the world?

If you are interested in collecting them, I would be more than happy to go to the post office and get any of the sheets that you like, and mail them to you. So contact me if you are interested and we can work out how to get you what you want!

I love you!

Cam

P.S. Ahhhh.... that's much better. Now it seems much more like a "Camblog" and not just something I tossed up there because I had nothing better to do. Now I can sleep tonight...

 

Hello Kitty 1 (On Sale from 7/23)

Hello Kitty 2 (On Sale from 7/23)

Patlabor (On Sale from 8/22)

Japan China Friendship (On Sale from 8/12)

Hometown Festivals Series 1 (On Sale from 8/01)

Hyaku Nin Issue Traditional Card Game Collection (On Sale from 7/23)

Hokkaido Series (On Sale from 7/01)

Edo-Era Ukiyoe Series (On Sale from 8/01)

Vornado Air Circulators

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

A few weeks ago my Nikkei Business Weekly newspaper was reviewing air circulators (we sometimes call them fans, but they are a bit different). I read the reviews of the various brands briefly.

A few nights ago, I was thinking how I would love for our home to have better air circulation because by the time the outside air cools down to a chilly summer 24C (74F but WET!), the house, even with the windows wide open is still sitting up at 30C (88F but WET!!). This house just doesn't cool down because the windows are not designed to allow for a better freeflow of air in the direction of the prevailing winds.

When I looked at that newspaper, one of the reviews was for the Vornado Air Circulator, and it was described as the best known brand in the USA. The price here for new ones is about $150 as opposed to other cheaper ones at $30 or so, but the reviewers said they were very different.

That got me to thinking, and I did some searching on Yahoo Japan Auctions, the premium net auction house in Japan (I like it better than EBay which is not here). I found several of the Vornados (Vortex + Tornado = Vornado) circulators up for sale (auction). The starting price was a meager 100 yen, but they all went up to about $60 in the end by the time the auctions ended.

So I bid for a few, and ended up getting this model 530.

And let me tell you that it is amazing! We use fans in the house but I have never had a fan that is this compact, that actually CIRCULATES the air in the rooms as good as this baby does!

The system focuses air into a tight, twisted beam that can travel up to 20m (60ft). The blades have a deep pitch that really scoop up the air so a lot of air is moved. It shoots out in a powerful (3 settings) vortex twisting beam that then breaks apart at a distance and starts to circulate back in upon itself, to once again be pushed back out again. You can bring hot ceiling air down to warm the lower areas in winter, move the cooler lower air (from AC, or night time open windows, up and around the room as well. So instead of having three different temperatures in your living space (hotter upper, medium mid area, cooler area around the feet) the entire room becomes more even. This allows you to lower your settings on your heater or AC, which should allow you to save on energy costs as well. And for the amount of air it moves, I must admit it is pretty darn quiet. Last night Mayu asked if it was raining outside... that's the kind of sound she heard, instead of the traditional VROOOOOOOMMMMMMM sound of fans that really only blow air, but don't offer a lot of actual circulation.

Here is how their website describes the difference between a "fan" and the Vornado:

"Unlike an ordinary household fan, a Vornado air circulator doesn't just blow air. Instead, it literally bends and twists air to produce true whole-room air circulation using Vortex Action, exclusive to Vornado. So rather than drafts and dead spots you get an even temperature and circulation through out the room. Vornado air circulators conserve energy year-round by working with heating and cooling systems. In the Summer months, place near a window or air conditioning vent to circulate the cool air. This enables you to raise your thermostat up to 5 degrees and maintain the same comfort level. In the Winter, take advantage of heat already in the room, direct the airflow upwards to circulate warm air that gravitates to the ceiling, back to floor level." (didn't I say all this already?)

Looking at their website at www.vornado.com, I can see that my equivalent product new costs approximately $60 (Vornado 630), so you could probably get a really great price on EBay or other auction houses.

I would say that if you are looking to consider decreasing your energy costs (they are going up, thanks to oil skyrocketing), and want a modern looking circulator with a small footprint, this is something you should seriously consider looking into.

Take a look at www.vornado.com, read through the great explanations, and see what you think. I got it yesterday, but I KNOW I'm in love with this baby already!

ADDENDUM: Matt, aka Harmaceutical has also purchased this baby and has been using it for a few days. You can see his amazing review (blog) at this link: Vornado Weather at the Harmaceutical


I love you!

Cam

P.S. For those of you wanting to give it a try... Amazon.com sells the exact same one I have for $39.95 and the shipping is FREE! Now THAT is even worth a small investment, dontcha think? Vornado on Amazon.com (scroll down to 530B to see mine)