We were talking yesterday about the online fundraising entity “Kickstarter.” There are many sites out there these days for the suddenly popular practice of “crowdfunding.” It isn’t so different from old-fashion panhandling, except you do it on the Web. I chose Kickstarter for our experiment, because it has been around; it’s a pioneer. Plus, they have real people in a real office somewhere in San Francisco. Several other things make Kickstarter different. It primarily serves creative projects, projects that supposedly have an appeal and a benefit to more than the supplicant. The biggest difference, however, is that fund raisers set a goal for a Kickstarter campaign at the outset, and if that goal is not met, no money is collected. I’m not sure why that’s a good thing, but it seems reasonable to me. Potential donors don’t get nickeled and dimed to death, I suppose. If the goal is exceeded, that is,well… exceedingly good.
It will work something like this. Readers, hereafter referred to as “you,” will not be buying anything. You will be contributing money to the project. More about that later. However, if you contribute at certain levels, you will receive a “reward.” Much more about that later, too. For example, you might choose to receive an Arlo & Janis back scratcher as a reward for pledging $25. Or more. (Did you catch that last part?) But don’t get excited; the back scratcher is just an example. More tomorrow.
182 responses to “Mr. Strand Man”
Looking forward to it!
Well, I’m still trying to figure out what you are panhandling for, but I guess that I will “stay tuned” and all will be revealed!
Thanks Mark for the explanation.
Thanks indeed, Mark. No cats in this household, so neither Jim nor I got it.
Steve and Nancy Kirk, you’re welcome. They make the stuff for dogs too. You have to put it on the back of the neck so they can’t lick it off. Treatment lasts about 30 days.
Kickstarter talks in circles a bit while describing itself. Functionally it’s a preorder system for people that have a great product but don’t have capital for a manufacturing run, so they need your money up front. Kickstarter is careful to say that this is NOT what they are, to account for projects that can’t get their act together and burn through the money while producing nothing.
A lot of Kickstarters are for things like video games or short films, which are more shakey since such things almost always go over time and over budget, things that may not be a big deal if a major studio is backing you, but may be problematic if you’re crowdfunded.
You can usually tell from the project description if it’s something that is already designed and ready to go on, or if there’s basically just a proposal and no real work starts until they hit their backing goal.
And then you have a lot of projects with the add-on trinkets route that plays like a donation drive. Add $30 for a poster! Add $50 for a t-shirt! Reportedly such things end up creating a lot of extra work for the project owner too. There’s also an entire cottage industry of services that help these folks with the management and fulfillment of their crowdsource backers.
Yesterday, when I stopped by the Main Post Office, I noticed actual street signs that had been placed on the “15 Minute Parking” sign poles in front that read “Pull Up Your Pants – No One Wants To See Your Underwear.”
My immediate response was, of course, “That’s not necessarily correct. If the wearer is an attractive female; the underwear sheer with black lace; and the pants sufficiently low, then I’d like to see it.”
How about a video parody featuring Disney-owned characters and the town I live in?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgOiBBhaoM
Ghost the key word is “attractive” On Sunday I went to the grocery store with my wife and mother-in-law and I saw a woman walking in the store dressed (?) in a tennis dress. The skirt was very high but all I saw were a couple of cheeks bouncing around. I let out a “Good God” and my wife and MIL both expressed their displeasure. Maybe if the woman had been 25 yrs younger, I might have kept my mouth shut.
Just finished lunch, what Alabama and Mississippi call a meat and three plate, all from garden except ham steak. Big pot of cabbage, dark greens, with new potatoes added at end, yellow squash with green peppers and the ham steak.
Cooked for my stone Mason who is out working in heat on my yard. No cornbread however. I counted those potatoes as third veg.
Southern women cook.
Last night at gym while doing my hour and a half on those three machines I had plenty of time to look at butt of both sixes. There was one young woman that Ghost might have liked. The rest looked like they needed to be there and keep coming.
The males were not much better, even the young ones, which is sad.
What you see around Oklahoma in groceries, stores, restaurants is more than sad, it is tragic. Plus how people dress or do not dress? Where is their self respect or their respect for othets?
Corn bread is not a vegetable??
Perhaps the physiology major will be back to my gym again this year on summer break. Cute, not beautiful, but as I mentioned previously, perhaps the most fit physical specimen I’ve ever seen in person. She also works harder in the gym than any of the male jocks, by far. This is not in the least intended to be a sexist remark…her butt is truly a work of art. The kind that makes you want to applaud and call out, “Author! Author!”
Our household has supported several Kickstarter projects. This one sounds unique. Will op in on this one as well, at least as soon as James opens it up. 🙂
Only wish either of our ‘darling” cats would be so easy to treat. The Maine Coon needs a portable squeeze chute for the safety of all involved parties.
I discovered that Chef Robert Irvine was in Detroit today, so I went to the event and got to meet him and got a free book. I have communicated with him via Twitter and really enjoyed our conversations but as he entered the building, I thought “What if he has some flunky do his Twitter?’ As soon as I introduced myself, he realized who I was and because there was not a big crowd, we had a nice conversation.
My Mother-in-law tried to watch his show Restaurant Impossible and immediately took a dislike to him. He can really get in your face (of course part of it is due to television) but as George Burns once said: “Sincerity is everything, once you learn how to fake it, you have it made”. Robert has always been very personable and honest in our social media dealings and he even tweeted how great it was to finally meet me! lol He is passionate about everything that he does and I admire that.
Passion is hard to take in some people. Is he as big as he looks? I would have enjoyed meeting him, I like larger than life people usually.
I once met a minor big deal in my floral industry by looking up at his very tall face from a foot and a half below him and saying, “My gawd, the photographs don’t show how tall and good looking you really are!” We had never met but he never forgot me after that greeting.
By the way, Jack looked a lot like those photos you sent that you look like Ghost. I may have stayed faithful for all those years but women look too!
Bought a cookbook “170 Ways to Cook Kale.” Read it last night at gym. Cornbread is a whole grain and a vegetable when laced with kale.
Kave some out in breezeway I need to soak to cook for dinner. Kale cornbread with fresh corn, cheese and some bacon sounds like good eats.
Jackie, as a number of my friends said, “I’m married but I’m not dead!”
I don’t know if you can see the picture in the link, but no, he is not very tall, but obviously has large biceps and torso.
https://twitter.com/sevans1956/status/743493974632062976
Yes Steve not as tall. He just always looked so large on the show. I used to watch him and liked show, boy have we aged? He was one of earliest Food Network celebs.
How do women keep looking younger?
There is a resort on Mackinac Island where I am VIP guest, not the one Steve and Jerry went to but another.
They are driving me crazy with special perk offers and meals, bonuses. I want to go back so badly but it is weather………It is lows in 50s and highs in 70s. This one is isolated and secluded and far from the 200 fudge shops down on Main Street.
It is too hot in Oklahoma. Time to go to Almost Canada.
For reasons known only to him, our host did not re-publish the third of the cartoons in the series he featured the past two days. I well remember it, and I was looking forward to seeing it again. But you know that don’t you?
Another reason I remember it is that I recall at the time, back in ’05, wondering how many newspaper-reading Mrs. Grundys acquired a case of the vapors from viewing and reading it. Or if perhaps, they just didn’t get it. In either case, I’m with Arlo on that one.
http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2005/05/19
Ghost you leave me speechless at times.
Re: http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2005/05/19
Sorry, but I disagree w/ Arlo on that. Tan + untanned = gross [untanned now in dictionary.]
Jackie
You are invited here if you want to be almost to Canada.
And emb is almoster- but we are supposed to be in the 90s
and humid this weekend.
Today is a palindromic day -61616- actually all the teens this month
GM Debbe
Did not look it up but heard that a corn truck and a chicken truck
collided this morning on I-95. Instantly thought of you.
Someone joked they were going to let the chickens clean up the corn before catching the
chickens.