Wow, Ganesha is not what I had in mind but I randomly came up with this photo and it fits. Ganesha is the "remover of obstacles."Yes, God the destroyer--- the third part of the Hindu trinity of Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. Not that I'm Hindu, but sometimes these definitions are useful. Not that I seek to define God: as that would literally mean "to make finite".
Anyway somebody is in "take away" mode right now. And I'm not whining. No, I'm not. Not right now anyway. I mentioned Cafepress recently-- an outlet for artists to self publish their work, and the fact that thousands of artists just got about 60-80% of their money taken away. There is more to it than that, a lot more, but for now let's just say we're amongst that group. You could say that we're some of the lucky ones in that we never made much money there anyway. In essence we all got fired, just not all of us have admitted it yet. I have a grand theory explaining it all but I'll write that down here later. Anybody who has ever worked corporate knows that money explains everything, even ridiculous bald-faced lies and seemingly incredibly stupid decisions.
Then there is Craigslist; a free online advertising venue for goods, services and more. We had been using them for a long time. Just the other day we realized that they wouldn't allow any postings with photos under therapeutic services anymore. Then a day or two later we discovered that they are now charging ten bucks every time you place an ad in that section. Right there that makes it not worth it for us. Oh, poor us, but then those ads never really worked all that well anyway-- and they especially don't work out here in the desert. We no longer have an in-person, face to face practice because we are too remote from everything. Telephone sessions are what remains, and Craigslist is all built around that which is physically local to the shopper or potential client.
Another prominent marker of Craigslist is that they list a lot of "erotic services" ads, and unfortunately many of those ads have ended up in Therapeutic Services despite explicit warnings that they aren't allowed there; they have their own section after all. So, Craigslist decided to fix a few problems at once: no photos in that section kind of put the hurt on the sex ads, and then the ten dollar charge was supposed to discourage postings in therapeutic when they really belonged in erotic. You see, they had already started charging the ten-spot in Erotic, and for awhile it just made matters worse in Therapeutic. So now, if you check Phoenix, for example, therapeutic is almost exclusively sex ads which are mildly disguised as legitimate therapy. Because (duh, craigslist!) most sex workers can afford the ten bucks over and over, and most, say metaphysical counselors would rather raid the piggy bank to pay for lunch. Hilarious, really, that the sex workers now pretty much own two sections on CL, and us more mainstream types have been driven out. In Flagstaff, by the way, Therapeutic services contains exactly zero ads now. But hey, what in the world were we thinking having our ads right between "Sweet Melonie Massage" and "Man for Men Rub-a-Dub!"
More funny Craigslist stuff: I used to post ads for my art-work under for sale. If you post once in a while, you get very, very few looks. Maybe several the first day, then nothing after. If you post too often, people eventually get mad and the ad gets pulled down. Basically, abusing the free ad privilege pays off though, and a lot of people have figured that out. I abused it some. A little bit. I wasn't the worst of them. I tried not to be annoying. But CL got wise to me a couple of times. This time-- they pulled down several of my art ads at once, but not all of them. They left a single art ad in the middle untouched, in Paris, France. Sigh, I guess we'll always have Paris. I think they are trying to tell me something. I think they have an excellent sense of humor too. I just wish I knew who to write to and could thank them for it. Did those ads really sell my art well enough to be worth the time and effort of placing them? No way. Not even close.
The Jeep still works but a mouse crawled into the ventilation fan and built a nest. The AC part stopped working a while ago. For you Californians: we're in Arizona, and it's June.
A lot of stuff still works though and I am glad for that. I am thinking that Sheryl and I are being assisted with the concept of "One door closes, another opens." Sometimes it takes blind faith to close a door and stand in the darkness. But I do think that sometimes that door must be closed first, that it standing ajar actually prevents the better one from opening.
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