Saturday, April 4, 2009

Goodbye?

Directly after posting this, my Matt will be reformatting my computer. He got the internet to work again after reinstalling the driver, changing the wi-fi to a different channel (he thinks), and reinstalling the software. After an entire day of sitting on his butt in front of my computer reading magazines while reinstalling all my software, we discovered that my photo editing software no longer recognizes my camera software, and my graphic design software won't correctly install at all. So Matt downloaded all the Windows updates (which he reinstalled Windows to get rid of yesterday, suspecting that might be why my internet wasn't working), futzed some more, and has decided that reformatting the computer is really the best idea.

Did any of you ever watch Home Improvement on cable? They should totally remake that show with a geek husband instead of a carpenter.

In other news (since I can't download to my computer or upload to you any photos of what I've been up to), I wish you would check out, if you're crafty-minded, the editorial I wrote for Crafting a Green World this morning about how one of the etsy teams I'm a member of, Team Craftivism, recently had itself declared by the leadership a left-wing political group. I'm a big nerd so I'm mostly concerned that the team name no longer accurately represents the team, but the debate over my post there has gotten, um, quite heated, and I'd love to hear your opinion of the whole business.

Reminds me of the wool versus acrylic incident that I started a few months ago.

I am possibly an "inciter."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely an "inciter." But in a good way. :)

cake said...

i know your matt will get everything back up and running in no time. sadly, i am the computer geek in our family (which is not saying much. my partner is a luddite). when something goes terribly wrong, i have to contact geeky friends and neighbors.

Anna said...

This is totally unrelated to your computer woes, though I'm certainly sorry you're having them: how do you always magically know when Goodwill is having special sales? Do you know if there's anything coming up soon? Thanky!

julie said...

Ah, my best kept secret--for you and I, my friend, I give you goodwillindy.org

Look under Shop at Goodwill, then Retail Shopping, then Sales and Specials. Goodwill posts the date of the next 50%-off storewide sale, and they range from being behind on the 50%-off color of the week to posting it for the next 5 weeks.

It pays to keep up on the site if you craft from junk like I do, because once last year Goodwill posted a bonus 50%-off storewide sale. It. Was. AWESOME!

Ugh, your guy is probably nicer to his in-house computer geek than I am to mine--"Why isn't my computer working?!! Fix it NOW! You're taking too long!!! When you're done, please clean the litterbox", etc., interspersed with threats like, "If you can't get the scanner to work, I know which one I'm going to upgrade to. Um, it's really expensive, though..."

Anna said...

Ah, thank you for that! I own Very Few Clothes, and it would be nice to remedy that in an affordable sort of way.

UnionMaide said...

Correction and lets make a deal:
The etsy craftivism team hasn't recently "declared itself...by the leadership," as you say, "to be a left wing group" in a way that misrepresents our name.

We have always said this about ourselves: The Etsy Craftivism Team is a team of progressive Etsyans who believe that craft and art can change the world. Some of us use our work to carry
messages of protest and political activism. Others
believe that the act of making craft can be an act of
resistance. Still others see that by buying and
selling directly from the maker we are challenging the all pervasive corporate culture that promotes profit
over people. Some of our members make t-shirts,
jewelry, pottery, and art with
creative,thought-provoking messages. Others spin yarn,
sew, hammer, forge, glue, knit, knot, alter and sculpt
with an eye towards creating new forms of commerce and
the making of goods. We gather to learn about and
promote each other’s work; to learn about how art and
craft are being used as acts of resistance and change
around the world, and to creatively join forces in
order to spend less, sell more, and empower each other
so that we can work towards a more hopeful, thoughtful
future.

From day one this has been our mission. Now some members (a very few, really) say that they didn't know we were "liberal."

During the presidential campaign we had very spirited discussions mostly about our member's frustration, for example, over Sarah Palin, Obama bashing, etc. Many of us worked for the Obama campaign.
It is hard to imagine that anyone read these posts and DID NOT know that we're a liberal group.

Here's the deal I'd like to put on the table.
I promise, that when I tell people about this conflict in our etsy team, I'll tell your side of the story as accurately as I can.
Please, do the same, and report this issue accurately.
Some people want us to change our name.
Some people want us to change our mission statement.
We have never misled anyone or deceived anyone. If people joined the team without reading our mission statement, they need to be up front about that when reporting on this conflict.
We don't own the word craftivism. Either do you.
Anyone is free to start another craftivism group on etsy.
Our view of craftivism is this: We are artists and craftspeople who either make things with overtly political messages, or who are simply interested in the juncture between art/craft and activism.
This sounds reasonable to me.
If it doesn't sound reasonable to you, please don't disparage us.
Etsy has numerous teams calling themselves "green."
Etsyans are free to start their own craftivism team. They are also welcome in ours, but please don't ask us to change who we are.
Our team members have stated a desire for us to continue as per our original intent, and to be a place where like-minded people can gather.
.
We have a right, as do you, to form groups that reflect our beliefs and to not be bashed or accused of things we are not, such as intolerant.
Team members who feel differently, are welcome to leave.
They are also welcome to stay (which is how much of what we are discussing has been disseminating all over the internet).

And truthfully, we are a bit perplexed by people who say that they'd like to:
change the world, end hunger, end poverty, do away with racism and homophobia, promote diplomacy over militarism, create a world where people are more important than profits, and promote equal rights for women, and then add that they are NOT political.
We don't know how any of these things can be achieved with political activism and action.

BUT, if you think they can, then please start a team that reflects your views and do not try to change ours, and then claim we are intolerant because we do not want to change our mission statement and name.

tags: craftivism, etsy, etsy teams

Matt The Husband said...

I know the repair process wasn't pretty, but as they say, "any crash you can walk away from..."

julie said...

Ugh. Please do NOT tell my Matt that the Internet? Is wonky again.

I can just hear him, "Well, if reformatting your hard drive didn't fix it up the first time, maybe it'll fix it this time!"