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I had food poisoning last night, so I was reading things but not with-it enough to respond to things. A post about patterns made me have some thinky thoughts.
I feel like as a society we may have created a two-headed monster, where one head goes “pay me for my things!” and the other head goes “give me things for free!”.
Personally, I am a huge fan of paying designers for their work – I appreciate free patterns but that is not my only criteria. If someone has put time & effort into making something and then putting together a coherent, well written, well edited, and tested pattern, I will give them money. By the same token though, I do not appreciate when I pay for a pattern and get some poorly thought out idea that was slapped into text with a photo. Not cool, designer, not cool.
But the designer has put a lot of time into making their finished object, and, hopefully, has put together a careful and complete plan for getting you to that SAME finished object. I can see why they would want some compensation. On a $/hour of my enjoyment basis, it works out to pennies, never mind the hours I could actually use said finished object.
Also, designers who publish patterns get feedback. If it’s a free pattern or a paid pattern, they will get emails of varying degrees of “help me” “hold my hand” “re-write your entire pattern to accommodate my particular method of crafting”. If it’s a free pattern, how much help would you want to provide? And if you don’t respond, people will leave snarky feedback about it and complain about the pattern (just look at the comments on many patterns). This is a corollary of “don’t read internet comments” – people are just MEAN. I would want to have got a couple of bucks to cushion the misery.
In a similar vein, I pay for books. I buy things from web comics I enjoy or hit their donate button occasionally, I buy PDF collections of comics or short stories, I support kickstarters to try to “fund creativity”… I want people who make things to continue to make them – and I am comfortable enough that I can do this at a low level throughout the year without a financial pinch to me. (I am not BIG supporting, but a $20 here and there). I think that if I support designers, writers, artists, creators whose work I enjoy, they will maybe keep creating, and I will keep enjoying. Wed, May. 5th, 2010, 08:58 pm
This morning it was snowing, the roads were icy, and the plane had to wait in line for de-icing before departure.
This afternoon it was mild, and everything is SO.VERY.GREEN. It's really lovely. There are a lot of things I do not love about Michigan, like the fact that I only come here for work, but the part of Michigan I am in is lush and blooming and SPRING. Ahhh.
A break from the Canadian version of spring was due :D
And being that it's September at the junction of bald prairies and rolling foothills, the mornings are 4 degrees C when I leave for work. And yet this is what I discovered in the back yard. One of our lilac bushes is deeply confused and has about 10 of these little sprigs of flowers. Dude - put those away, don't you know there will be snow in 6 weeks? 
Tue, Aug. 18th, 2009, 06:13 pm
Alberta Advantage my a$$. A $22million tax credit is sweetening the pot for my employer to shut our doors and relocate most (but not all) our jobs to Michigan. I will find out in September if a) I lose my job then & there, b) I keep my job (IS/IT support) until the plant closes, or c) I keep my job as ongoing support to a small office which will remain (very remote possibility). Suck, suck or suck (and not very likely).
Yelled over to me from the office, "How do you spell bludgeoned?"
First response: B-L-U-D (etc)
Second response: Um... what're you writing, Honey?
(answer, Nothing) Tue, May. 12th, 2009, 03:52 am
We went to Stonehenge yesterday, and G wouldn't stop quoting Spinal Tap.
He also wondered where the midgets were.
Friday the 13th is not a bad day, all told. My family has a tradition of not being superstitious about Friday the 13th, as my grandmother, who is universally adored, was born on one. As further evidence, I present my week (which was quite craptastic): - Monday: my company (a manufacturing company headquartered in Michigan) announces that due to continued low order volume, our plant is putting 25 mfg members on "temporary layoff" (meaning they qualify for EI, but can be brought back in the next 59 days... if not brought back, they get packages) AND we are going to a 4 day week for the next while (we get to pick whether those days are vacation or unpaid time off) - Tuesday: Further layoffs (not those announced Monday) occur - Wednesday: Layoffs continue, all office staff attend one of 3 mandatory "town halls", where the intent is to inspire us that things will improve by the end of the year and get us to stay focused, but which are actually somewhat terrifying - Thursday: rumours of layoffs at head office trickle up to us, the major project I am on (company wide ERP implementation) loses many of its consultants. - Friday: nothing out of the ordinary. I had a minor code implementation go a little sideways, but the developer found the problem and will take the fix live next week. Went for Pho with my teammates. Bought clearance valentines candy for the department (it cost us less than $3 to get candy valentines for 15 people). Friday 13, you are okay by me.
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slightly bemused
blue
chipper
drained