text:
Do-it-yourself entrepreneurs typically start small, making every item they sell with their own two hands. But when they start to see success, it generally snowballs into the same problem:
How do you scale DIY into a business?
In this episode of Shopify Masters, you'll learn from an entrepreneur who went from selling homemade products to scaling her business by becoming a reseller.
Ana Dee is the owner of Alien Outfitters: a lifestyle brand that sells a variety of graphic tees, kinky accessories, rainbow knives, and rare specialty items for aliens who are no good at fitting in.
On a daily basis, I like to have one sample come in to see if I like it personally before I put it on the shelves.
Tune in to learn
- How to get your first 1,000 Instagram followers.
- How to run your business on social selling sites.
- What it means when you have a high engagement but low sales product.
Listen to Shopify Masters below…
Download this episode on Google Play, iTunes or here!
Show Notes
Felix: Today, I'm joined by Ana D. from Alien Outfitters. Alien Outfitters is a lifestyle brand that sells a variety of graphic tees, kinky accessories, rainbow knives, and rare specialty items, and was started in 2011 and based out of North Caroline. Welcome Ana.
Ana: Thanks.
Felix: Very interesting niche. Interesting products that I just listed there. Tell us a little bit more about the business. Describe your typical customer to us.
Ana: Well, we started the whole online retail store in 2011. I started just like a lot of people, on Etsy and eBay, hand making a lot of my products. Over the past few years, we finally transitioned to Shopify and rebranded into Alien Outfitters. I like to sell that we sell a wide variety of unique items, all catered to girls who aren't afraid to be themselves. We are the only online destination where you can buy clothing, blades, adult toys, and smoking accessories all in the same place. It's a very unique website, and I'd like to say our customer is very unique as well.
Felix: Very cool. So all those types of accessories that you mentioned, they are typically ones that a lot of entrepreneurs avoid because it's harder to advertise. I know you have advertising platforms that don't allow things like adult toys, or any form of paraphernalia, that could be smoking or whatever else you might have on the store. Has that posed an issue for you in terms of getting the word out, because advertising platforms are, oftentimes tight about those policies?
Ana: Absolutely. It's been a huge obstacle to overcome. One of the biggest was with our payment processor, because there's a lot of payment processors that won't allow that, along with social media platforms, like you suggested. But, I think it also is an advantage for our store, because there are not many online retailers providing the products we provide. As I pack the orders myself, I start to see these patterns of girls who are buying, for example, the adult toys along with the smoking pipes. It's interesting to see that this customer wants to buy all of these things in one place. For the most part, they don't want to do it in person, and online retail's the perfect opportunity to do that. There's definitely the advantages and disadvantages, but it's nice to have a product that we can claim is exclusively available at our store, versus most clothing brands who offer similar items. It definitely has its ups and downs, but we have learned over the years that it's more of an advantage for us than a disadvantage, I'd say.
Felix: Yeah, it certainly helps you stand out, and like you're saying, there's not much competition that you have to stand out from because lots of stores do shy away from selling in those industries. Now, when you ran into those issues with the payment processors, or social media platforms, talk to us about how you work your way around those issues.
Ana: Well, it happened, I think our first or second Black Friday, where Shopify halted all of our payments. They said they didn't realize we had certain product in our store, and in their privacy policy they couldn't process those payments. I was in sheer panic. I was Googling, "Payment processors that allowed this and that." Luckily a Shopify guru pointed me in the right direction, and we now use a processor called authorize.net. They process anything and everything. They literally saved the day on Black Friday, because you know how it is when you can't get through that checkout screen. It definitely hurts the sales. But once we started up and running with them, everything has been smooth sailing. That was, again, one of the obstacles that we needed to encounter in order to better our backend.
Like you mentioned before with the social media, you kind of learn when and where you can market these products. Like I said before, it's a lot harder, particularly with Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, but you figure out along the way little loopholes and different ways to market, depending on your product.
Felix: Right. I think it's interesting, too, where it's not just that they are not allowing you to post specific products. It could also just be because you're selling things like adult toys. Even if you're not advertising it or posting about, because it exists on your site, sometimes that's enough for the policies to kick in, and they will shut you down. Or you'll run into these issues even if you're not actively promoting the products that they are "banning" from their platforms.
Now, you mentioned that you first started off on Etsy. Was that your first business? What's your background before getting involved on ecommerce?
Ana: Well, it's kind of hard to put into words. I like to tell people that my success is built on mistakes. When I was 17, I was hanging with the wrong crowd, and I got a DUI, so I was kind of forced to stay at home. I didn't have a driver's license, and my friend had the bright idea of selling some of our stuff in our closet on eBay. So, we started just selling everything we had. It was pretty exciting to see that you could really make a living off of just online retail. I just kind of immersed myself in it. eBay really taught me the ground rules I needed to learn on just how to sell a product, how to ship it, how to make the customer happy.
A lot of people around me where just pushing me in this direction to get on Etsy, and really start making a name for myself. When you're young, you're just really open minded to try everything. Just like any 17, 18 year old, I was really into DIY and doing things myself, so I would go to Goodwill and thrift stores and find leather, denim, any really nice material I could find, and I would patch it up. I'd stud it up. I like to call it an up cycling process, to turn something that wasn't so nice to begin with into a beautiful creation. That's how my Etsy store started.
When you're teaching yourself how to build a brand, it's completely different than what eBay is teaching you. Etsy, essentially, is helping you with marketing and really creating this user experience. I just felt, again, I was so immersed in it, and almost obsessed with this brand, that things just kind of got out of control. A singer, her name's Ellie Goulding, if you're familiar with her, she purchased a pair of tights off of my Etsy store, and overnight, our traffic just started going crazy. It was a little nerve wracking to see one girl coming out of high school, not really sure if she should go to college or not, and now a celebrity across the world is buying a product from.
A lot of girls how ask me how to start an online store, I highly recommend just staring with eBay to learn that process. Then training with Etsy to really build that brand, before you have the confidence to move to Shopify and let go of the platform restraint.
Felix: Right, that makes sense. On eBay you mentioned that one of the most important things you learned by starting there was how to make the customer happy. I think this is the key to survival a lot of times, when you're starting out and you're just a small company, you're just one person running this business. What lessons did you learn here? What are some key lessons that you think other entrepreneurs should try to learn on how to make a customer happy?
Ana: Well, I like to see the customer as myself, and someone who does a lot of online shopping, I feel like I know how to be treated as a customer. I follow those rules when I'm treating a customer, and whether they're spending $5 or $500, each one is so valuable, and you can't really discriminate between customers because inevitably, they could all come back a week later, a year later, to your store. I really just try to treat them how I would want to be treated, like my friends. That's what's kind of cool about our store is that our whole customer base is really this fan base of love and positivity, and we all feel as one based off of our uniqueness, the fact that we are all so different. So, not only is it a place you can shop, but it's also a place where you can feel very welcome being yourself.
Felix: Can you give examples of how you try to treat customers in a way that you want to be treated?
Ana: I feel a lot of that has to do with customer service. If someone receives the wrong item, or something is damaged, it's the great opportunity to make it right. Not only do you want to replace their product, but you want to go above and beyond and say, "Hey, here's a gift card so you can give us another chance." Or, we'll add a few stickers or freebies to their replacement order. It's really just going above and beyond to show that you really care, because I feel that being genuine is what a customer will remember, versus an automated computer responding to them. I handle all the customer service. I respond to every single email. I never let anything just pass me by.
Felix: Makes sense. So, when you transitioned from eBay over to Etsy, you mentioned that there was this introduction of this new process that you had to bring into, which is building a brand. It was no long just listing things on eBay and then not having a real brand presence on there, if people were searching for things and finding a product, but they weren't associating it with a brand. Now, you're on Etsy. You have a digital storefront on Etsy. Talk to us about what you had to actually do on a daily basis or a weekly basis to begin this process of building a brand on Etsy.
Ana: There was a few hurdles that, again, were so necessary to the learning experience. I feel like when you find your brand name, you have to all of a sudden trademark it, copyright it, LLC it. Whatever you do, there's just a long road of legalities ahead. I used legalzoom.com. I felt like they were really affordable for starting small, not having that much money to invest in much. So that was something necessary, and not everyone knows what they're doing when it comes to legalities or things like accounting. But, you really need to build that strong framework for your business, because without that strong foundation, everything could collapse at any moment.
At the time, I felt like I was digging a hole in my pocket just paying for the domain names, all these trademarks. When, in actuality, I couldn't be more thankful that I just got it over with. Another thing, like accounting, was pretty difficult. I use now, a system through godaddy.com. It's a bookkeeping software that they offer. It pretty much categorizes all my expenses for me. It keeps track of everything going in and out, and does a lot of the work that at the time, I didn't know how to do and wish someone had told me.
Another thing with the storefront is graphic design, which not everyone can just learn at any given moment. I'm pretty proud to say I was part of the Myspace generation, so I knew a little bit of HTML off the top of my head. But that was something at the beginning that was taking up a lot of my time, was designing logos and building this storefront. I'm happy that I spent so much time and was very careful with the choices I made, but I also wish I had reached out to people who specialized in that. Just because it's a lot more difficult than you think.
Felix: So you had this legal framework. You had everything registered. You had help with the accounting. So a lot of the problems that you didn't have to worry about on eBay started to pop up on Etsy. What did you do to build that brand so that the brand name of Alien Outfitters stuck in people's minds? What did you have to do differently now that you're out on your own, essentially, or at least more out on your own, to make sure that the brand was front and center and not just a place where people came buy and bought products, and didn't even care to see the brand associated with it?
Ana: I have two answers for that question. One, I think social media, the whole experience with the customer coming from a social media platform to the store, that's crucial. That's how our brand was built on, was that. Engaging our customer directly from a platform.
Then, B, the packaging experience was what we felt was keeping our customer around. With Etsy, as your building your brand, or our brand, we felt that it was necessary to have packaging in place that would stand out from the rest. Think about it, when you go into a standalone store, you're getting the experience from the store, from what you're seeing, from the customer service in front of you. But when you're online, all of that is kind of behind a curtain. So I felt that when our customers opened our packages, we wanted confetti literally to jump out at them, so that they would remember how awesome it was to come to our store, and we want them to come back.
So, I think social media is a crucial factor into building that brand. Creating those hashtags for your brand. Having your customers post photos and hashtag those photos. But also, I think the word of mouth about how awesome the unboxing experience is is what really kept our customer coming back, and all of our reviews being extremely positive.
Felix: That makes sense that by having a presence on social media, and having your customers talk about your brands, your products, is one of the best ways to develop some evidence of a brand. I think people do pay attention to that. They will go and check out your Instagram profile to see if you have a presence or not. I think when you're on a website like eBay, it doesn't really make sense to have an Instagram right away, because people might not even bother to look you up. But then once you have your own storefront, it certainly makes sense. Not having any presence outside of your Etsy store can certainly hurt you, because people might not think that your legitimate or that you don't have a strong brand.
So that you had success on Etsy, how much time were you on there before you decided to branch off and then open up your own, own domain through Shopify?
Ana: Well, I was on Etsy, I want to say, for about two years. We still are that way. Our products are on more platforms. But with Etsy, it's really a handmade market along with vintage items. I started seeing real profits in reselling items that weren't just handmade by myself. I just had one of those breakdown moments where I was just working way too hard, and I was trying to figure out how to work smarter. There was just a lot of products that I wanted to sell on Etsy that weren't allowed. The only way that seemed possible was to open a storefront where I could sell my handmade items, along with reselling similar products. So, I think that's where Etsy kind of, or I guess I surpassed what I wanted to do. Everything just kept growing and growing. I think a lot of people experience that, where you just outgrow where you are, and it just meant that we were ready to open a new door, which was Shopify.
Felix: So, this bottleneck that you experienced by not being able to sell certain products you wanted to sell, and also because on Etsy, you're forced to sell only handmade products and you weren't able to sell, or re-sell other vendors' products, you decided to open up your own store, your Shopify store. Can you give us an idea of how much of an impact this made on your business? Like how much did it grow once you moved from selling handmade products to reselling products as well, on your Shopify store?
Ana: It grew at such light speed that I was able, I want to say, within 90 days to afford the car of my dreams, and to help my mom pay her rent. It was a lot to digest when numbers started coming in like that. I strongly and firmly believe so much had to do with our loyal following. Whether we were on eBay, Etsy, or Shopify, they just stood right by us. I would, particularly myself, go on social media and I would talk to our fans about our transition, where we were going. I think that honesty helped our customer remember that we are real people too, and just engaging with them on that level helped the loyalty when we were bouncing around different platforms.
There was just so much we could finally do when we went over to Shopify, and the help that Shopify gave us with the apps that they have, I can't even put into words how much that fueled the growth. I had no idea that until I jumped into this new world and I finally realized that I wouldn't have to go to college because I was creating my career right in front of my eyes, without myself even knowing it. So, I have to say every time we transitioned, every time we grew or rebranded, growth was always [inaudible 00:21:05] to that.
Felix: Now, you, when you transitioned from Etsy over to Shopify, you had this big boost in revenue. Did you already have, at this point, a pretty large Instagram following? How were you able to kick start the success on Shopify, essentially, so easily, or it sounds like, at least, very quickly, for you?
Ana: We definitely had a few hundred thousand followers, so it definitely helped. Snapchat had just started off and was extremely popular, so we just tried to ride the bandwagon of all the new social media platforms, and kind of went on a whirlwind between those. Every time we made a post, we just made sure it was posted on all ten plus avenues, to get as much exposure as we could. But the following definitely helped. It's hard to tell someone how to generate that large of a following, because we never paid for any of our followers. It's always been raw, organic, word of mouth. I really don't have that much advice on how to gain that follower, since it just happened for us. So, it's hard to explain how to do it, without just give it your all and pouring your heart and soul into. I think that's what people see in our brand, and they latch onto that, and they relate to that.
Felix: It may be that you didn't have a grand plan to grow your Instagram following to almost half a million followers at this point, but what did you do on a day-to-day basis back in the early days to get to your first thousand followers?
Ana: Instagram is tricky, and they keep changing it, which makes it even trickier. There are a few things I did. If we did have a competitor, I would go to our competitors page and perhaps follow some of their followers to say, "Hey, you might like what we have, if you like what they have." Another example would be to go on the popular page and leave comments and likes to pretty much strangers, but just finding your audience and talking to them.
Felix: This is all like a manual approach that you took?
Ana: Yes. 100%. I know it takes time, and I'm sure you could always have a friend hang out and do it with you. Open some wine, and just go on Instagram and talk to strangers. But, anything like that, as far as manual work to get your posts across the board and engaging with the users is the most important thing.
Felix: Do you still do that or have to do that these days, or is the growth pretty much, not automated, but because you have such a large following already, do your current followers just help spread the message? Or do you still use these techniques?
Ana: Yeah, I mean the followers are definitely putting in the work at this point. If we post something and it gets thousands of comments, the comments section is where they are telling their friends about us, etc. So, it's not as much as me reaching out anymore. It's more of me deleting people and deleting comments that are hate comments and what not. So the anxiety kind of leans more towards filtering out the bad eggs, versus finding new customers. Because once you reach those numbers, it just generates itself.
Felix: Now, do you remember like an inflection point where that happened, where you were no longer the largest source of followers, and your followers started bringing in more people, I guess, than you were doing yourself?
Ana: Yes, it's kind of a large gray area, and when you're immersed in almost every aspect of the business, it's hard to pinpoint those certain changes. But I feel like when we reached, I want to say, 250,000 followers, I felt like that was the tipping point because you used to get excited about every 50K you would get. Then, I realized our next tipping point's going to be 500,000 and then it's going to be a million. So, once you hit those numbers, it's very nerve wracking and kind of bittersweet.
Felix: Yeah, I do wonder, once you have such a large audience, you have such a huge megaphone, is it more nerve wracking on what you should be posting, how you should be presenting yourself. How have you experienced that?
Ana: I, 100% agree. The more eyes that are on you, the scary it is to stay honest and be yourself. I think that's lesson that I take upon myself every day to try and continue to follow, is to not filter myself a certain way, just because a certain audience is looking at me. I think, again, that's something that's so unique about our brand, is that we aren't going to change in that way. We're always going to be loud, and noticed, and crazy, and different. And I think our customer is, and that's why there is this amazing bond that we have.
Felix: You mentioned that you are on a ton of platforms, and that any new ones that are gaining steam, you guys are trying to be on. What's been the most successful platforms for you today?
Ana: So, I would have to say my top two right now are Poshmark, and I think it's called Depop. I think that's how it's pronounced, but Poshmark, and Depop, they are two new applications, very similar to Etsy and eBay, kind of like the [inaudible 00:27:11]. But, they're definitely two of my favorite apps that we're using right now. You can definitely see the range of user are definitely more of our youth and a lot of Instagram famous models, they go on their page and promote their customers to shop their Depop closet or their Poshmark closet. So are, I'd say, the top two that we're into right now.
Felix: Oh, so these are like social media platforms, but also you can sell on them?
Ana: Yes. There you go.
Felix: Got it. When you come across these, how do you decide, because there's so many that pop up all the time and it sounds like what's worked for you is to get in early. But, how do you know which ones to actually invest your time into? What are you looking at to decide, "Okay, Instagram was working for me for a while, now let me try to devote some time to Depop?" How did you know to divert your attention there?
Ana: I think a lot of it has to do with the inspiration that I follow. If I see that they're using something, and they are seeing good feedback from it, then I will, perhaps, jump on that bandwagon, and it's easier if you're constantly immersed in social media because you get to see what people are liking, what people aren't. I think a good example was the Periscope app, where you can go live and talk to anyone in the world. Of course, we signed up for it, and it wasn't really a platform that we needed, so I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn't something I would put my time and energy in. But, I wouldn't had learned that had I not tried it. So, the best thing, I would say, is just to try everything. If it sticks, it sticks. If it doesn't, move on.
Felix: How do you know how much time to give, because, I think, especially when people are starting out for the first time, they don't have that confidence in their decision-making. They see everyone say, "Oh, you have to be on Pinterest. You have to be on Depop." They go on there, and it's not the best fit. They could be spending their time better elsewhere, but they just think that they're maybe not doing it right, they need to devote more time to it. I think that's a challenge for a lot of newer entrepreneurs to decide when to pull out of a time investment and go somewhere else. How do you know when it's the right time to make that decision?
Ana: Well, there's a fine line where you figure out what you're spending too much time on. Time is money, so if you realize you're spending the majority of your time just listing things on different platforms, then you need to sit down and say, "Hey, is there a friend, or a family, relative that could come over once or twice a week and help me list these certain things."
That was something very helpful for me in the beginning. If I did a huge thrift store haul, I would have my mom or a friend come over. One of us would take pictures. One of us would list the items. I would oversee and, you know, you can pay people in different ways. Some people just want to hang out and enjoy your company. But, I saw in different circumstances where my time was too important, for one thing. I think listing product is so time consuming, so if you can speak up, make a Facebook post, see if there's someone who wants to intern for you, put it on their resume, it's a great way to reach out and get help for things that are just way too time consuming.
Felix: Got it. So, you basically tried to improve your process so that you can test new platforms more quickly, and not spend so much of your time, which can be more valuable elsewhere, doing those tasks. Now, I was going to ask, how do you, at a high level, how do you manage all of these different platforms that you're on? And, onboarding new platforms, is there a master process for controlling, or keeping an eye on all of these?
Ana: For me, I am really hard on myself when it comes to scheduling. But I've also seen other people use different apps, websites, and tools to help with their product inventory across the board. I, myself, I'm pretty good about it, and I definitely have a schedule, Sunday to Saturday. Certain days are list days, certain days can be Poshmark days. As long as you delegate your time fairly, and also allow yourself some free time and some balance, I think that's key.
But, if you're going to be your own boss, then you have to set schedule times to do things that aren't so fun. That will definitely pay dividends in the end.
Felix: So you mentioned listing a couple times, does that mean that a big part of your job today is just testing new products on all of these platforms?
Ana: Yes, and we live in a world where it's all new, new, new. People wants what's new, so we're constantly trying to have new products. Being the first to have this. The first to have that. So, I think the buying process is very important when it comes to having new inventory. It's a constant struggle of buying, and listing, and selling. Buying, listing, selling.
Felix: How many new products are we talking about? How many a day, a week, was your goal to roll out for your site?
Ana: Honestly, on a daily basis, I like to have one sample come in to see if I like it personally before I even put it on the shelves. I'd say on a daily basis.
Felix: Wow. What's your process for finding and researching these products? Do you have like a main supplier? Because you have so many new products coming in, I do wonder what is the supply chain like that you've built out?
Ana: We get so many different things from so many different people. I think that's why I could never give the job of buying to someone else besides myself, because it's all not coming from one place. For example, our in-house brand, we get from one supplier in the US. Everything's hand printed for our brand. But other things, like accessories, shoes, these are all coming from different manufacturers who constantly are sending us new look books, new products.
But other than that, a lot of my manufacturers, I like to keep on the down low and not give those secrets out, just because it took so long for me to find a lot of them. But, when people say, "Hey, where do you go to buy stuff?"
My first instinct is, "Go to Goodwill, because that is a goldmine." You know, there's treasure in the trash.
Felix: Yeah, I mean, you definitely don't want to give out your suppliers. But when you, let's say you do go to Goodwill, and you find some interesting products, how do you go from there to finding a supplier to get you a whole inventory full of that product?
Ana: Well, a lot of the times I'm on social media and I'll see something in my feed. My first instinct is, "Oh my God, I have to have that." My second instinct is, "No, I have to sell that." You ask the person who posted it where they got it, or you go on Google and you search for some terms that might help you find the product. It's as simple as that. There's so much information on the internet, and all you have to do is search for it, find it, and simply ask if they wholesale, and most of the time they do.
Felix: Got it. What's that turnaround time, typically, when you do find a product that you like? How quickly have you been able to get that from seeing a product that you like to saying, "I need to buy this. I need to sell this." To actually having it on your store?
Ana: It depends on how fast the manufacturer can give use the quantity that we need. Another great idea is to put things on pre-order. So if we receive an item that I know that is going to be great, I test it myself first, and then get it listed on the site. We will advertise that it's up for pre-order, that way you can get an idea of how many people want to order it. It's also helpful for the manufacturer so they know if they need to make 20 versus 200. It gives you this kind of safe space where you can get the sale from the customer, and also give it to them in an allotted amount of time.
Felix: When you get these samples prior to listing them on your site, if you weren't going the pre-order route, what are you looking for to determine if it's a product that's worthy of you selling it?
Ana: I think that it's a sixth sense that I have. A lot of people who are in online retail and ecommerce, they can agree with what I mean when you have something and you love it so much that you fully endorse it. For me, a typical process of seeing if a product is good enough is simply by wearing it or using it for even a day or a week's time. If it's still in the condition it was, and it still is likable as it was when I first saw it, then in my eyes it's a winner. Sometimes you hit or miss. Sometimes it's not as great as you thought it would be, and that's when you put it on sale.
Felix: Now, when you see others selling that same product … Let's say that you find a product that you see on Instagram or on Depop, and you're like, "Wow, that's something that I want." Then you starting saying, "This is something that I want to sell," but you see other people selling it already, do you get encouraged or discouraged when you see that?
Ana: Well, it is the name of the game. I think it's a positive competitive spirit that also fuels you to keep going and stay passionate. It all depends on the product. If it is a best-selling product, but everyone and their mother is selling it, then I'd say, "Hey, continue selling it, if it's selling." But if it's something everyone has, and it's not selling very well for you, then I would say, "Dump it and put your energy into something completely new, completely different that people can't replicated."
Felix: When you do list a product on your site, what are you looking for to see if it's going to be successful enough for you to order more, or if it's not going to do well and you decide to put it on sale? What are you looking at?
Ana: I start with the numbers, starting with the sample item at one. Then I'll buy four. Then it turns to 12, then to 24, and that is something I've just done over the years that has helped so I'm not investing too much, and kind of playing it safe from the beginning stage. It's very different with every product. Once again, a lot of our items are so novelty that people will rant and rave about them on social media, but they won't, perhaps, purchase the item for themselves, if it's along the lines of a gag gift, would you say. But, again, it's different for every product and there's been times where we thought something was going to be great, and it didn't do so good. Again, you just learn and move on.
Felix: Yeah, this is an issue where an entrepreneur will list a product on their Facebook ads, or on Facebook, on their page, or on Instagram or whatever platform they're using. It gets a ton of engagement, right? A lot of people are interested in it. They're liking it, they're commenting on it, and then they end up selling none of it, or selling very little of it. What are you are thought on, why does that happen? Why are there some products that get a lot of engagement, a lot of people interested in it, but no one's buying it?
Ana: Well, it's like when you see a girl in the mall and she's trying on some diamond encrusted shoes that are glorious. But she has nowhere to wear them, so she's not going to get them. It's just not practical. Again, it's so vague and different from product to product, from person to person. You have to try to find this fine line between novelty and practicality I would say.
Felix: Yeah, it's one of those things that if you put a product out there that's just super interesting and it generates a lot of conversation, but no one actually wants to use it or wear it, like your saying, it's not a practical product for them. Might be interesting to look at, interesting to comment on, interesting to share, but no one's actually going to make use of it. I think that's a gap that a lot of store owners might fall into. It's just that interesting product but not something that people would want to use on a daily basis, or use at all.
So you mentioned as well, offline, or off this interview with me, that you use a lot of email marketing to help with the store. Tell us about that. What's your email marketing strategy?
Ana: We're using MailChimp right now, and I feel like we like to let our customers know once a week about the new products we have. We typically like to do a sale once a month or every season. Email marketing is one-on-one engagement with our customer, and since we can't take advantage of social media marketing, for the most part, our email marketing is what we lean on when it comes to getting out new products and getting everyone excited about what's to come.
We recently have been working with an app called Gift Wizard. They are helping us create these email campaigns that offer gift cards within the campaign. So, for example, you could release a campaign giving out five dollars to everyone on your subscriber list, which is a great way to entice customers to come shop at your store. That's just a new marketing technique that we've been using that we find to be extremely valuable and it lets the customer know, "Hey, we care about your wardrobe. Come in. Here's some credit. It's on us," and I think they really appreciate that.
Felix: Yeah, and I think one of the benefits of the kind of business you have is that you always have new products, so you always have a reason, or I guess an excuse, to reach out to your past customers, get them to come back. Because there's this constant, almost chase for the next product, for you and for your business, are there some products that are evergreen, that just have been around for the last few years that you have been on your own store?
Ana: Yes, I would say that is our knife section, our weaponry that we have. We have such a wide variety of it, we have a few hundred blades that we offer. They're all very, I would say rainbow, holographic, titaniums. They're just super unique knives that are targeted to women, target to help you defend yourself if needed, God forbid. But I feel that a lot of girls are starting these knife collections, which is just really interesting because when I started the store I didn't even think anything of it. I simply had a knife collection of my own, and all my girlfriends would always ask where I got these things. Down the road, I felt like it was something that would sell. Ironically enough, they have and they are constantly selling, whether it's a holiday or not. We seem to just be throwing knives in so many of these orders, which is really awesome.
Felix: Do you have to market these kind of products differently? Not because they're knives, but because they are products that just seem to sell themselves for longer periods of time than your other products, do you try to market them differently?
Ana: If we do market the knives, it's typically in a sale where we will be offering a percentage off of that certain collection. But again, high risk high reward. This is an item where you need to make sure your legalities are on track. You need to make sure where your privacy policy is. You just need to, all across the board, make sure your website is safe enough so people are legally purchasing these items, if that makes sense?
We encountered a situation where my lawyer said, "Hey, you need to have a popup on your website that says, 'Are you 18 and up?' before you enter. Because that would save us a lot of grief down the road, and just certain little things like that, so that you can sell these specialty items."
Felix: Yeah, it's funny. When I got that popup going to your site, it actually made me more interested. "Oh man, what kind of stuff are they selling on here?" because of that, "Are you 18 and up?" I actually got a different response to it than you probably necessarily expected. It made me more interested in the products, rather than being worried about what you're selling. Because you're putting so many products into your store, do you ever remove products? Like, what the thought process, I guess, behind whether you should keep a product in your store or remove it?
Ana: Well, the great thing about Shopify is they allow you to draw up your own reports. So, I could go into our Sticker and Patch Collection, and I could see over the past year or the past month, how many items in this collection have sold. I'm going to look at the items that aren't selling and make a mental note that when they sell out, that we need to remove these and make space for newer and better products that are going to sell faster.
Felix: Is there a number of products or number of SKUs that you try to stay under?
Ana: I've never really thought about that, but our website, if you go to the "View All Products," you're going to see between 5 to 10 pages of products. That's where we've always felt safe, I'd say. But it could change down the road.
Felix: You know, speaking of your site, could you talk to us a little bit about the applications, whether they be Shopify apps, or apps outside of Shopify, that you rely on to help run the business?
Ana: Yes, I'd love to because had I known about these Shopify apps sooner, I would have merged to Shopify way sooner than I had. The first one I'm going to mention is Kit, K-I-T. I refer to her as a female, but she is a wonderful app where you can get your Facebook analytics. You can create re-targeting ads to your customers who might have put stuff in the shopping cart but then never checked out. She's super affordable. You can text her on your phone to get her to work to create campaigns, etcetera. she has been so helpful for me, someone who has no idea how to use Facebook when it comes to these analytics that they offer for the business side of things. So she's been very helpful.
I mentioned to you earlier about Gift Wizard. It's a gifting app, where your customers, instead of checking out for themselves, they can send their purchase as a gift and it has all these customizations for the buyer, versus the receiver. The app is now offering email campaigns to send out gift cards to your customers, which we highly recommend.
There's two more apps I want to tell you about. One is Photo Resize. Photo Resize is an app that charges pennies to turn all your pictures into a square format. Years ago, I was resizing, I want to say, thousands of photos into this format before I realized that an app could do it in, literally, minutes. So, that was something that saved me a lot of time. Not to mention, on your website, it's really aesthetically pleasing when all of your photos are the same size, and maybe have a white background as well.
The last one I'd like to tell you about is the Cross Sell application. Cross Sell is an app that allows you to suggest other products on the product page to your customer. That way you can upsell things that are similar that they might not have looked at on the site until the application pretty much does it for you. Those are the ones that I'm really into right now that I would recommend to others.
Felix: Yeah, it certainly sounds like a lot of time saving applications, which I think is, like you mentioned before, time is money. Especially when you are running lean. Now, can you give us an idea of the success, the growth of the business? Any numbers you might be able to share on how successful you've been able to grow this business?
Ana: Sure, well, last year we hit a goal of ours, which was to gross a half a million dollars. This year, we are on our way to grossing our first million, which is still unbelievable that that's even coming out of my mouth. On a good day, we generate at least 50 sales. If we do a big sale over the weekend, we can expect upwards to a thousand orders. So, that's typically what we go through day-to-day basis.
Felix: Wow, very amazing. So, what's the goal then? What's next after you hit this one million this year? Where do you want to see the business next year?
Ana: Honestly, my goal is just to be happy and to make sure my customers happy. I never want money to get to my head in any certain way. I feel like if you lose what you had when you started the business, that magic that you had at the beginning, if you lose that, then your business will fail. So, I think a lot of it is me just continually trying to find this magic within me, and to offer it to the world. I hate to put any restraint or goals on myself, because I don't want to get disappointed, I'd say. I kind of run the business day-to-day, and it's hard for me to sit down and look at it year-to-year. I'd rather be really grateful of what we have.
Felix: Amazing. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, Ana. alienoutfitters.com is the website. A-L-I-E-N-O-U-T-F-I-T-T-E-R-S.com. Thank you so much again.
Ana: Thanks Felix, it was great talking to you.
Felix: Here's a sneak peek for what's in store the next Shopify Masters episode.
Speaker 3: We like to think of ourselves as the store that has done all the research for them.
Felix: Thanks for listening to Shopify Masters, the ecommerce marketing podcast for ambitious entrepreneurs. To start your store today, visit Shopify.com/masters to claim your extended 30 day free trial. Also, for this episode's show notes, head over to Shopify.com/blog.


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Some recent projects I've been involved in have required some serious processing power to render gigapixel images and the original 2xDual Core XEONs weren't up to it. I found a matching pair of cheap E5345 QUAD core processors on eBay and fitted them (that's another post that will be on here soon along with photos of the CPU swap out process). I threw some SSD's in a RAID array in there for good measure too and the combination of those two things made a phenomenal difference to the rendering times. My Snow Leopard 10.6.7 install was nice and stable, not a single crash/hang/kernel panic or reboot.
Then Apple released a Snow Leopard update 10.6.8 to "ready you for Lion" so I dutifully upgraded the 10.6.7 I had installed on my SSD's and it all went terribly wrong. The system now erratically rebooted itself and a look at the logs showed Kernel Panics all over the place. I have a second OS X 10.6.7 for emegency situations, booted into that and ran that for a few days and it was all fine. I rolled back my 10.6.8 to 10.6.7 using a TimeMachine backup and everything was stable again.
Continue reading "Apple update 10.6.8 and Lion (10.7) cause Kernel Panics on MacPro 1,1"

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome Back!! Once again we have a fabulous sketch for you and we can't wait to see your creations. Happy Scrapping!!
The Sketch Contest begins Oct. 16 right here on our Sketch Blog.
The deadline for this contest is Nov. 14 (midnight EST, USA).
The deadline for this contest is Nov. 14 (midnight EST, USA).
The winner will be a random draw and announced on Nov. 15.
Only 1 layout per participant.
LO's for this contest may NOT be used in any other challenge or contest.
LO's must be newly made for this sketch. So, please don't use a LO that has been posted anywhere before the contest begins each month.
LO's must be your own work.
October's Sketch...by Kim Keane
Jodi Baune - Sketch DT
Bonnie Friesen - Sketch DT
Veronica Goh - Sketch DT
Cynthia Renaud - Sketch DT
Debbie Weinhold - Sketch DT
Carla Marchee
Anna Zaprzelska
Zoe Nemburt
Luz Maria Bruna
Melissa Vettorel
Upload your LO's to the Link Tool below. See the tab at the top of this blog for linking instructions. Please add your full name to the link tool.


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Add-ons are packages of code and content that extend the core functionality of the Sitefinity CMS. Add-ons are made of custom ASP.NET code, configurations, content, and assets. Add-ons can include, but are not limited to Pages, Page Templates, Widgets, Widget templates, Libraries, Dynamic modules, Static modules, images, CSS, and JavaScript.
Add-ons should distribute a single piece of functionality to many consumers to solve a common set of problems across a wide range of web applications. Each add-on should have an owner who can maintain it and issue new versions.
RECOMMENDATION: We recommend using add-ons only in cases when you need to solve a common problem across many web applications. We do not recommend creating an add-on for every piece of customization of your system. Implementing an add-on for every piece of functionality in a system is not feasible and not recommended, as it can add significant complexity in the upgrade process and increases the overall development cost.
Add-ons are contained and distributed in NuGet packages. The .nuspec file and folder structure for each package is automatically generated by the Sitefinity CMS. The folder structure contains files with all structure and content data of the exported types. All custom developed functionalities, such as Providers, Widgets, HttpHandlers, Services, etc. are contained in separate projects that are referenced in the .nuspec file. The produced NuGet package contains all necessary custom code and data that works out-of-the-box when installed.
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New View of Undersea Giant Kelp Forest "Canopy"--From Satellites Above
Find related stories on NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research Program at this link.
Marine scientists have a new view of the giant kelp in the Pacific Ocean--through a scuba mask and a satellite's "eye."
Forests of giant kelp, or Macrocystis pyrifera, are found in temperate coastal regions and are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth.
In a melding of data from the beneath the waves and from the skies above, researchers have developed a method for studying how environmental factors affect the kelp forests.
The results have allowed scientists to look at changes in giant kelp across hundreds of square miles in California's Santa Barbara Channel over 25 years, from 1984 through 2009.
The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
Obtaining a quarter-century of imagery from the same satellite, in this case the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper, is unprecedented, says David Siegel of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), one of the paper's co-authors.
"A satellite mission that goes on for more than 10 years is rare," says Siegel. "One that continues for more than 25 years is a miracle."
Until recently, the high cost of Landsat images limited their use in research. Then in 2009 the Landsat image library was made available at no charge.
"In the past, it wasn't feasible to develop long time-series using Landsat images," says Kyle Cavanaugh of UCSB, the paper's lead author. "Once these data were released free of charge, however, we could access hundreds of pictures that show an area over time."
Images from the Landsat 5 satellite provided the researchers with a view of how giant kelp forests change over time across a broad geographic region.
"Giant kelp forms a dense floating canopy at the sea surface that's distinctive when viewed from above," write the scientists in their paper. "Water absorbs almost all incoming near-infrared energy, so the kelp canopy is easily differentiated using its near-infrared reflectance signal."
In southern California, giant kelp is found primarily on shallow rocky reefs distributed in patches. The plants' numerous fronds extend upward in oceans and bays, forming a canopy at the surface.
The plants grow to lengths of more than 100 feet, at a rate of up to 18 inches per day.
Giant kelp provides food and habitat for many ecologically and economically important near-shore fish and other species, says David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research along with NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.
The kelp is also an important source of food for many deep-sea species. Giant kelp that's uprooted from the seafloor is transported offshore into deeper waters, where it sinks and fuels deep-sea ecosystems with "phytodetritus."
Through the recent research, scientists found that giant kelp growth in exposed areas of the Santa Barbara Channel is mostly controlled by large waves.
The kelp's growth in more protected areas, however, is limited by low nutrient levels.
During winter months, storms in the north Pacific Ocean create large swells that enter the Santa Barbara Channel. Waves breaking during and after these storms are a major source of giant kelp death in this region.
Giant kelp is particularly sensitive to changes in climate that alter wave and nutrient conditions.
Using Landsat data, the researchers discovered that most years had a seasonal kelp cycle, with minimums in the winter followed by rapid growth in the spring and early summer. This growth in turn led to maximum amounts of kelp in late summer and early fall.
Short lifespans of both fronds and entire plants--four to six months for fronds, and two to three years for plants--produce a kelp forest that renews itself six to seven times each year.
"We know from scuba observations that individual kelp plants are fast-growing and short-lived," says Cavanaugh. "The new data show the patterns of variability that are also present within and among years at much larger spatial scales. Entire kelp forests can be wiped out in days, then recover in a matter of months."
Information collected by scientists at the Santa Barbara Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, one of NSF's 26 such LTER sites around the world, was added to the satellite data.
Dan Reed of UCSB, a co-author of the paper and principal investigator of the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER site, has spent many hours as a scuba diver studying giant kelp.
"The kelp occurs in discrete patches," he says, "but the patches are connected genetically and ecologically. Species that live in them can move from one patch to another.
"Having the satellite capability allows us to look at how the different patches are growing, and to get a better sense of how they're connected," says Reed. "We can't get that information through diver plots alone."
Continued large-scale and long-term observations are needed, he says, to understand how ecosystems--including giant kelp forests--might behave in a future climate.
The fourth co-author of the paper is Philip Dennison of the University of Utah.
The research was also funded by NASA.


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January 10 – February 16, 2013
Artists' reception:
Thursday, January 17, 2013
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
"Tall Poppy Syndrome" is a term used to describe a social phenomenon in Australia in which successful people (the "tall poppies") get "cut down to size," criticized, resented, or ridiculed because their talents or achievements distinguish them from their peers.
ClampArt is happy to announce the opening of "Amy Stein & Stacy Arezou Mehrfar: Tall Poppy Syndrome." The exhibition is accompanied by the artists' monograph of the same title from Decode Books (Hardcover, 96 pp., 9.8 x 7.9 inches, $60).
In 2010, American photographers Amy Stein and Stacy Arezou Mehrfar embarked on a month-long road trip throughout New South Wales—Australia's most populous state. They were interested in investigating "Tall Poppy Syndrome." Is the syndrome even real? Can it be documented or observed? Stein and Mehrfar set out to explore quintessential Australian life and find what evidence they could of the existence of this phenomenon. They spent their days meeting and photographing everyday Australians—from schoolchildren in their plaid uniforms to young surfers playing at the beach to grandmothers meeting at their social clubs—all the while learning about the relationship between the group and the individual within Australian society. The resulting photographs in "Tall Poppy Syndrome" present their findings.
Amy Stein's work explores man's evolving isolation from community, culture, and the environment. Her photographs have been the subject of numerous national and international exhibitions, and are represented in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; and the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; among many others. Her first monograph, Domesticated, was published by Photolucida in 2008.
Stacy Arezou Mehrfar is a first generation American artist and lecturer currently residing in Sydney, Australia. Predominately working on long-term projects that explore cultural identity, her images have been exhibited in the United States, Australia, Poland, and Germany. She has received distinctions from the Moran Arts Foundation, Photography.Book.Now, the Camera Club of New York, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, among others. Mehrfar's images are held in several public and private collections worldwide.


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Aquamarine Bracelet, Micro Faceted
Aquamarine Bracelet, Micro Faceted
Aquamarine is soothing and inspires truth and opens the channel for clear communication. It is associated with the throat chakra and is excellent for teachers and speakers.
Shipping & Returns
Shipping & Returns
I create in small batches so while I do have a small amount of inventory ready to ship, most orders are made at the time of purchase. I do my best to ship within one week of purchase but please allow up to two weeks.
Custom orders may take even longer depending on product availability. Please discuss processing time if this is a concern.
For more information on shipping & return, please visit the Policies page.
Sizing Info
Sizing Info
Each bracelet is constructed of simple but durable materials. Bracelets are made 7 inches (my most popular size) but can be made other sizes - just add a note to your order at checkout.
Please see the Sizing page for full details on how to measure for your correct size.
Care Instructions
Care Instructions
All jewelry is carefully handmade. The high grade latex-free stretch is long lasting but can wear out over time. To ensure they last as long as possible, please roll your bracelets over your wrist rather than pulling them to put them on and take them off. Also, removing your bracelets before bathing and bed will keep them in their best shape.
Jewelry with Intention
While traditionally used for meditation practices, a personal mantra is a phrase that you repeat to yourself throughout the day. You can use the properties of the crystals or it can be something as simple as YOU GOT THIS. Mantras are great tools to ease anxiety and create a more positive outlook. Having a statement that you visualize and repeat to yourself will help to keep your intentions at the forefront of your mind.
Handmade & Reiki Charged Jewelry
All jewelry is made from genuine crystals and semi-precious gemstones. Each crystal is hand selected. Each piece is handmade. Everything is energetically cleared and charged with Reiki to bring you the highest vibrations of the energy you seek.
Read the Blog
Want to learn more about chakras, essential oils, crystals, and more? Check out the blog.
And make sure to sign up for my newsletter for information directly in your inbox!


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A few weeks ago a few friends and I fell in for a routine Cubensis show at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach. It was "just another Saturday Night" in a way as we made the familiar drive, found a parking meter, and made our way inside the Lighthouse Cafe.As we got some seats near the stage, there was a troupe of belly dancing ladies on the stage gyrating rhythmically. My friends and I ordered food and sodas as Cubensis loaded their two drum kits and numerous amps onto the cramped Lighthouse Cafe stage. We saw many familiar faces going back to the era of Grateful Dead tours (with Jerry). That is one of the nice things about going to a Cubensis show – I always run into someone that I never thought I'd see again…Everything seemed just groovy as Cubensis started their show with a loose, free form jam (and belly dancers in tow). Things started to pick up steam as they played a few first set classics like Bertha and Operator. The bassist Larry Ryan was beginning to feel the groove and as he was rocking back and forth on the wooden stage his amp behind him was also thumping and swaying with the beat.That Old Familiar Feeling
Midway through the first set, an old familiar feeling swept over me during the Cassidy jam. I was transported back to the magic and wonder of the Grateful Dead live experience – and all the adventures that surrounded the culture of being a Deadhead and going to the Dead shows. I was, in fact, experiencing such fond and forgotten memories spurred on by the swirling Cubensis jam that at the very moment that my friend Al turned to me and shouted "this is making me feel HIGH," I was choking back tears. I should mention that our group of friends have left our drinking and partying days long behind us so I assure you that Cubensis alone gets credit for my emotional retrospection and Al's elated state of mind.
Cubensis – The Best Grateful Dead Cover Band
I've seen a few Grateful Dead cover bands in my day and Cubensis is hands down the best.
Cubensis has been playing Grateful Dead music for over twenty years and I have been seeing them infrequently since my friends first took me to one of their shows at Looney's Tavern in Torrance in 1993. We were avid young Deadheads who just couldn't get enough of Jerry's music and the wait in between Grateful Dead tours seemed like an eternity. Cubensis shows were a godsend for us to go hear the music we loved and spend time with like minded souls. I used to go to "21 and Over" Cubensis shows before I was even 21 and just hang out in the parking lot, talking to other heads and listening to the strains of the music coming from inside the venue. These are great memories.
Through the years, Cubensis has evolved and added a key member to their lineup and now I would say they are absolutely in their prime. If you live in Southern California and like the Grateful Dead then you should rejoice because you can show up and experience Cubensis in person as they take you back in time and evoke the spirit of the Dead.
Five Reasons to Love Cubensis
5. Nate LaPointe
I'm not sure when exactly they picked up Nate LaPointe, but I do know that a few years ago when I moved back down to Southern California from San Francisco, I went to a Cubensis show after a long hiatus and there was a younger guy on stage with them who intrigued me.
I noticed that Nate LaPointe is a great guitarist in his own right but nothing was to prepare me for the laughter and enjoyment that my friend Eric and I would experience when Nate LaPointe would do his Bobby Weir impression. Nate's voice is spot on and he honors Bobby's every signature falsetto yelp and it is extremely fun to hear Nate do so. Nate LaPointe also has been featured on an instructional DVD of how to play Grateful Dead Music.
4. They Play ALL of the Grateful Dead's Music
One night at a Cubensis show as I was listening to their Keyboardist Tom Ryan sing a great rendition of Tons of Steel (he does a great impression of Brent Mydland's voice) and I thought to myself "I love Cubensis for reminding me that this song exists!"
If you are a fan of the late era Grateful Dead then you will appreciate that Cubensis plays a lot of "unheralded" Grateful Dead songs – and plays them well. Cubensis will play the classics for sure but you will always get a revolving lineup of rare gems like Picasso Moon, My Brother Esau, and others. They also play songs from the JGB repertoire which is always a highlight for me.
In fact, in my younger years back in the 1990s when it wasn't so easy to amass tons of Grateful Dead music by sharing digital files, I was introduced to a lot of the Grateful Dead's music at Cubensis concerts before I was able to hear it on those infamous "tapes" that would circulate. The first introduction I had to some songs like Loser andSaint of Circumstance were at Cubensis shows. By the way, if this looks familiar to you then you remember the era that I'm talking about:
[Interesting note: at the very moment I am writing this blog entry, a friend just texted me to tell me that Cubensis played a Terrapin ->Let it Grow -> Terrapin yesterday at the same venue – sound intriguing? It does to me!]
3. Vince Welnick played with Cubensis
I write this blog because I love the Grateful Dead but above all I am a Jerry Garcia fan. Jerry liked playing with Vince. I have heard some disappointing things about the treatment that Vince received from the remaining members of the Dead after Jerry's passing and he was not included in any of the "post Jerry" permutations of the Dead.
Well, Vince played with Cubensis for a little bit and I am glad that I got to see him and meet him before his unfortunate passing. I am glad that Vince was able to be appreciated by Cubensis and their fans and I hope he had a great experience being a part of the Cubensis family before his untimely death.
Vince Welnick, R.I.P.
2. Cubensis is a Cool and Humble Group of Guys
Craig Marshall is the guitarist and de facto leader of Cubensis. He is very kind and approachable to chat with before and after shows. Craig sends out the Cubensis emails and he always responds if you give him a shout back. Cubensis' keyboardist and bassist are brothers (Tom and Larry) who are obviously devoted to delivering quality Dead. The drummers are also nice family guys who play Dead music for the love of Dead music.
A year or so ago, Craig sent out an email announcing the change of Cubensis' name to "High Five." This kind of rubbed me the wrong way but of course he sent out a follow up e-mail a day later to announce that it was an April Fool's Joke. Most rock bands wouldn't joke around with a topic as serious as changing the band name. That is just one example of Cubensis' sense of humor – they don't take themselves too seriously.
On that note, when I point out to Craig that I prefer seeing Cubensis to the current various "post Jerry" Dead projects, he always acts incredulous and sheepishly deflects the compliment. He tells me "you're entitled to think whatever you want."
1. Cubensis Fans
Not only are the guys who play the music nice, but there is a great scene of Deadheads that surrounds Cubensis. Every time I go to a Cubensis concert I remember something I had forgotten about the Grateful Dead experience. Maybe it will be the way that someone is dancing, or maybe it will be a scent in the air that takes me back.
The Cubensis fan base likes to party and dance and have fun. By the time Cubensis was done playing their gig at the Lighthouse Cafe that recent Saturday, they had the venue completely packed full of people all dancing to Sugar Magnolia. When the audience made it clear that Cubensis was not getting away without an encore, Cubensis came back on stage and played Loose Lucy. How cool of a choice is that for an encore?
I like the Cubensis crowd because there are some really fun loving party people who wear what they want and act the way they want to – regardless of what society deems appropriate or acceptable. In Orange County where I live and work it seems like the culture is becoming increasingly superficial, homogenous, and boring. During my daily grind, I feel like I am a long way from the Grateful Dead tours stops at Shoreline and Las Vegas that I remember very fondly. So it is really nice to show up to a Cubensis show and seem some lady wearing a crazy purple high school dance outfit and boogie around for several hours straight.
Cubensis – Even Better Than the Real Thing?
When I convince a Deadhead friend to come with me to a Cubensis concert, they are usually agreeing to go because I speak of the Cubensis experience in the highest terms. I feel like Cubensis is very effective at evoking the true spirit of the Grateful Dead when it was at its peak. I think Cubensis' devotion to the Dead music is unequaled and I think that nothing I have seen since Jerry's death has really "taken me there" like Cubensis does regularly.
I would include in this comparison the current Dead incarnation with Warren Haynes and the various projects like Phil Lesh and Friends, Rat Dog, etc. These projects just don't really "do it" for me (the one exception would be The Other Ones Concert on 2/24/1998 at Shoreline with Steve Kimock – that show was pure magic).
Most people who come with me to see Cubensis for the first time seem doubtful that Cubensis can live up to the hyperbole I used to describe them. However, I've noticed that every person is utterly blown away by Cubensis and they always want to go again to see Cubensis and hear what they'll play next. People will always talk about "the experience of seeing Cubensis" because it is more than just the music.
When it comes down to it – if I want to feel the spirit of Jerry and the Grateful Dead's music, there's only one place I can find it and it is at a Cubensis show.


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Exclusive: Major U.S. media outlets insinuate that President Trump's advisers are traitors for secretly talking to Russians, but they ignore the history of Henry Kissinger doing the same thing for Richard Nixon, writes Gareth Porter.
By Gareth Porter
Last week's leak to the Washington Post of an intelligence report about President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in early December to discuss a possible back channel to Moscow appears to represents the climax of the campaign of leaks against the Trump team regarding contacts between Trump associates and Russians.
The leak about Kushner came shortly after another sensational story broadcast by CNN on May 17 about U.S. intelligence picking up conversations among Russian officials during the presidential campaign in which they bragged about having cultivated a relationship with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and expressed the belief they could use him to influence Trump.
Those two leaks sandwiched extraordinary testimony by former CIA Director John Brennan before the House Intelligence Committee on May 23 in which he said he was concerned about "intelligence" regarding Russian efforts to "suborn" certain Americans – meaning to induce them to commit unlawful acts. That may have been a reference to the leaked interception of Russians bragging about their relationship with Flynn that had just been reported.
"It raised questions in my mind about whether the Russian's efforts were successful," Brennan said.
Then, Brennan offered an inflammatory comment reminiscent of McCarthyism. "Frequently people who go along a treasonous path do not know they are on a treasonous path until it is too late," Brennan said.
Unidentified former Obama national security officials immediately condemned the Kushner proposal to Kislyak for a backchannel – which occurred after Trump's election but before his inauguration – as "not only highly improper but also possibly even illegal," as Politico reported.
In an interview with the PBS NewsHour, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper followed that script, suggesting that the attempt to "mask this dialog" with Russia made the Kushner request inherently suspicious.
"Why all the cloak and dagger secrecy?" asked Clapper. "One wonders if there was something worse than that or more nefarious than that…"
Clapper also argued that the proposal for the channel was illegitimate because the meeting was held before Trump became president. "There is a distinction between reaching out, establishing lines of communication versus substantively interfering with the policy of the present administration," he said.
The Kissinger Precedent
But the Brennan-Clapper line insinuating that the Kushner request for contacts with the Russians was potentially treasonous collapses in light of the well-documented story of how President-elect Richard Nixon's national security adviser-designate Henry Kissinger established his own personal backchannel to the Soviet leadership in 1968 using a known KGB operative with whom he had been meeting for years as his contact.
Historian Richard A. Moss of the Naval War College recently published an authoritative book-length study of the Kissinger backchannel showing that that Kissinger began setting up his backchannel to the Soviet government leadership through his Soviet contact in December 1968 soon after being named Nixon's choice for national security adviser.
And it shows that Kissinger seized on the one Soviet government contact he already had to establish the backchannel. That was Boris Sedov, whom Kissinger knew to be a KGB operative. Kissinger had been acquainted with Sedov from the latter's visits to Harvard. The two continued the contacts after Nixon's election in 1968.
Moss's book recounts how Kissinger used the Sedov channel to introduce the concept of "linkage" of different policy issues into negotiations with the Soviets. Sedov gave Kissinger a Soviet government paper on Middle East policy, according to Moss's account. Only after Nixon's inauguration did Kissinger and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin agree that all further communication would be through Dobrynin.
Both the Kissinger-Sedov and Kissinger-Dobrynin channels were kept secret from the rest of the Nixon administration's national security apparatus, as recounted by Moss. Nixon agreed to set up a secure phone line in the White House linking him directly to Dobrynin. The U.S. intelligence agencies, the National Security Council staff and the Pentagon were kept in the dark about these conversations.
And to complete the parallels between the Kissinger backchannel episode and the Flynn and Kushner contacts with the Russians, Moss reveals that Sedov later bragged to a Lebanese-American about his contact with Kissinger –- a boast that was immediately picked up by FBI surveillance of Sedov.
Further, Oleg Kalugin, the head of the KGB's station in Washington, surely boasted to his Kremlin bosses about having "forged a close back channel tie with Henry Kissinger" – as Kalugin put it in his own memoirs – that would be useful in influencing Nixon's policy toward the Soviet Union.
Sedov later boasted to Kalugin that he had been so successful in cultivating Kissinger's assistant Richard Allen that he wanted to try to recruit Allen as an agent, according to Kalugin. But Kalugin rejected the proposal. (Allen went on to become President Ronald Reagan's first national security adviser.)
This history of Kissinger's Soviet backchannel in 1968 reveals Brennan's breathless alarm about Russian "suborning" Flynn or using the backchannel to manipulate Kushner as unworthy of a serious intelligence professional.
Nothing in the Kislyak report intercepted by U.S. intelligence suggests that Kushner's desire for the backchannel was for anything other than to discuss how to increase cooperation on issues of common interest. Two unidentified sources told ABC News that the Kushner-Kislyak meeting "was focused on the U.S. response to the crisis in Syria and other policy-related matters."
Need for Secrecy
And the Trump transition team's reasons for wanting a private channel of communication with the Russians that would not be visible to the U.S. national security bureaucracy were precisely the same as those of Nixon and Kissinger.
Moss, the historian of the Kissinger backchannel, recalled in an opinion piece on the Kushner affair that Dobrynin's memoirs quote Kissinger as telling the Soviet Ambassador that the Nixon administration wanted to conduct a "most confidential exchange of views" with the Kremlin, because "The Soviet side . . . knows how to maintain confidentiality; but in our State Department, unfortunately, there are occasional leaks of information to the press."
The leak of the intelligence report of the Kushner-Kislyak meeting to The Washington Post underscores the problem faced by the Trump team amid the flood of leaks about U.S.-Russian discussions that were conducted through official U.S. channels.
Demonstrating the intensity of the anti-Trump attitudes among many Obama officials – both those who have left the government and those who remain as holdovers – someone with access to the secret report was so determined to expose the Kushner backchannel as to reveal to the Russians what must be one of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence secrets of all – the U.S. capability to intercept Russia's diplomatic messages.
The idea of depending on a secure line of communication within the Russian Embassy for the backchannel was inherently unrealistic, but not because it would give the Russians some unfair advantage in negotiations. The real problem was that it would have been too awkward for a U.S. official to go to the Russian Embassy every time he wanted to use the channel. Indeed, it appears that the proposal was not pursued further because the Russians themselves were wary of it.
Moss, who says he is speaking for himself and not for the Naval War College, told this writer in an interview, "Better relations with the Russians would be a good thing." He noted several "areas of opportunity" including energy resources and cooperation on counter-terrorism in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. "If Kushner and Kislyak were discussing how to defeat ISIL that would be a perfectly legitimate thing," said Moss.
But Moss warns that the underlying political crisis in American society is a formidable obstacle to any shift by Trump in relations with Russia. Trump "feels he won the election fairly and that unelected bureaucrats are working against him," Moss observed, but "The people who suspect possible collusion between the Trump and Russian interference in the election may feel Trump is an illegitimate president."
Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn are obviously no Kissingers. But the insinuations from Brennan and others that Trump's advisers may have somehow crossed the line into treason is itself the crossing of a dangerous line into McCarthyism. And the mainstream U.S. news media is participating enthusiastically in the campaign to impugn the loyalty of Trump's advisers, even though there is still no public evidence to support such suspicions.
Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of the newly published Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.


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A note I wrote while listening to a sermon, said, "Jesus added manhood to Himself. Human nature did not take on divine nature or His divine nature take on human nature. He had both at the same time." This was not clear to me until the Lord opened my understanding. Jesus was God and Man at the same time! Two different identities in one body. Suddenly the words in the gospels became clearer. For example, when Jesus said, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." So it was not His words He was speaking but the Fathers, and it wasn't Him as a man just Him teaching and doing mircles, but the Father. Of course, Jesus could know directly what the Father wanted Him to do and say. "He possessed all things as God but as man He had no place to lay His head. Through His poverty as man He made us rich." When we were born again we became a new person. We literally were born again! But the old sin nature still lives in us. Unless we recognize our dual nature and believe that Jesus lives in us we are prone to allow the old person we were to control our life. We are commanded to "put off the old man" because we were crucified with the Lord Jesus. So we have two personalities - Jesus and our own. Our personality is being changed to be like His as we ask to the Holy Spirit to fill and control our life. Our old sin nature is still with us but we don't have to let it control our behavior. When we forget God's power lives in us we we mess up big time. Then we must confess our sins and remember that "The blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin." We can have continual communion with the Lord by turning our attention to Him. Believing what is written about our death with Jesus is the action required to realize we do not have to give in to temptation. We died on the cross with Jesus so we don't have to let our old sin nature control us. When tempted, just say, "No. I don't have to do that." Believing is the action we take. Faith describes the process of believing. "God with us!" Memory Verse: "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20 NASB) Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for all my sins. I am not afraid to confess them to you for you already know everything I've ever done. I praise that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin. I invite you to be Lord of my life. And I depend upon you to guide and direct me. Amen. |
© 2004-2024 www.insightstofaith.com |


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This year's Oscar producers are Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, and they've already made a handful of very promising changes to the telecast.
They've jettisoned the performances in the Best Song category, which means half an hour of the telecast is no longer dedicated to a minor, forgettable category. They hired Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to host the show. Both men are extremely funny, and able to satisfy the humorless, Botoxed egomaniacs sitting on their hands in the Kodak Theater. Furthermore, the fact that the Best Picture category includes a whopping 10 nominees adds extra intrigue to the whole affair.
But Shankman and Mechanic have been adamant about retaining a bit that originated at last year's Oscars ceremony. If you recall, when the four major acting awards were presented last year, the producers sent out five presenters (all past winners in the category), giving each time to make a heartfelt speech to every nominee. This was long, and painful, and annoying, and only served to make every nominee feel like a winner. Worst of all, in doing so, Oscar producers didn't even remember to show CLIPS of every nominee's performance.
This aggravated me to no end. The whole point of watching the Oscars is to see the clips of the nominated actors emoting at their fullest. "YOU CAN'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LIVE WITH CANCER, DARLENE! YOU CAN'T!" Those clips are awesome. They allow me to sample the devastating performance of someone like Mo'Nique, without actually having to sit through her entire flick, because that movie looks totally depressing.
Plus, you get to watch the actors react to their own clips right after they've been shown. And they all have the same smug look on their faces when that happens. "Yep, I was awesome in that scene." I always enjoy that. And last year, that enjoyment was THWARTED! Savagely and cruelly.
Mechanic and Shankman have already said they are bringing back this presentation format. Fine. I can live with the droning speeches. But guys, do me a favor and bring back the clips. Please. Last year, I had to hear someone warble on and on about how awesome Heath Ledger was in "The Dark Knight." But then, they never showed a clip of him, you know, BEING AWESOME. I'd rather be shown something than told about it. So please, Bill and Adam, show me the clips. And spare me the endless chatter.


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schedule — Adds a new score event.
schedule insnum, iwhen, idur [, ip4] [, ip5] [...]
schedule "insname", iwhen,
idur [, ip4] [, ip5] [...]
schedule iPar[]
insnum -- instrument number. Equivalent to p1 in a score i statement. insnum must be a number greater than the number of the calling instrument.
"insname" -- A string (in double-quotes) representing a named instrument.
iwhen -- start time of the new event. Equivalent to p2 in a score i statement. iwhen must be nonnegative. If iwhen is zero, insum must be greater than or equal to the p1 of the current instrument.
idur -- duration of event. Equivalent to p3 in a score i statement. .
iPar[] -- event parameters as an i-time array. .
ip4, ip5, ... -- Equivalent to p4, p5, etc., in a score i statement. The opcode also accepts strings as arguments for p4-pN.
schedule adds a new score event. The arguments, including options, are the same as in a score. The iwhen time (p2) is measured from the time of this event.
If the duration is zero or negative the new event is of MIDI type, and inherits the release sub-event from the scheduling instruction.
Here is an example of the schedule opcode. It uses the file schedule.csd.
Example 962. Example of the schedule opcode.
See the sections Real-time Audio and Command Line Flags for more information on using command line flags.
<CsoundSynthesizer> <CsOptions> ; Select audio/midi flags here according to platform ; Audio out Audio in -odac -iadc ;;;RT audio I/O ; For Non-realtime ouput leave only the line below: ; -o schedule.wav -W ;;; for file output any platform </CsOptions> <CsInstruments> ; Initialize the global variables. sr = 44100 kr = 4410 ksmps = 10 nchnls = 1 ; Instrument #1 - oscillator with a high note. instr 1 ; Play Instrument #2 at the same time. schedule 2, 0, p3 ; Play a high note. a1 oscils 10000, 880, 1 out a1 endin ; Instrument #2 - oscillator with a low note. instr 2 ; Play a low note. a1 oscils 10000, 220, 1 out a1 endin </CsInstruments> <CsScore> ; Table #1, a sine wave. f 1 0 16384 10 1 ; Play Instrument #1 for half a second. i 1 0 0.5 ; Play Instrument #1 for half a second. i 1 1 0.5 e </CsScore> </CsoundSynthesizer>
More information on this opcode: http://www.csoundjournal.com/issue15/phrase_loops.html , written by Jim Aikin


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BEIRUT, Lebanon — The images of recent days have an eerie familiarity, as if the horrors of the past decade were being played back: masked gunmen recapturing the Iraqi cities of Falluja and Ramadi, where so many American soldiers died fighting them. Car bombs exploding amid the elegance of downtown Beirut. The charnel house of Syria's worsening civil war.
But for all its echoes, the bloodshed that has engulfed Iraq, Lebanon and Syria in the past two weeks exposes something new and destabilizing: the emergence of a post-American Middle East in which no broker has the power, or the will, to contain the region's sectarian hatreds.
Amid this vacuum, fanatical Islamists have flourished in both Iraq and Syria under the banner of Al Qaeda, as the two countries' conflicts amplify each other and foster ever-deeper radicalism. Behind much of it is the bitter rivalry of two great oil powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rulers — claiming to represent Shiite and Sunni Islam, respectively — cynically deploy a sectarian agenda that makes almost any sort of accommodation a heresy.
"I think we are witnessing a turning point, and it could be one of the worst in all our history," said Elias Khoury, a Lebanese novelist and critic who lived through his own country's 15-year civil war. "The West is not there, and we are in the hands of two regional powers, the Saudis and Iranians, each of which is fanatical in its own way. I don't see how they can reach any entente, any rational solution."
The drumbeat of violence in recent weeks threatens to bring back the worst of the Iraqi civil war that the United States touched off with an invasion and then spent billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers' lives to overcome.
With the possible withdrawal of American forces in Afghanistan looming later this year, many fear that an insurgency will unravel that country, too, leaving another American nation-building effort in ashes.
The Obama administration defends its record of engagement in the region, pointing to its efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis and the Palestinian dispute, but acknowledges that there are limits. "It's not in America's interests to have troops in the middle of every conflict in the Middle East, or to be permanently involved in open-ended wars in the Middle East," Benjamin J. Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser, said in an email on Saturday.
For the first time since the American troop withdrawal of 2011, fighters from a Qaeda affiliate have recaptured Iraqi territory. In the past few days they have seized parts of the two biggest cities in Anbar Province, where the government, which the fighters revile as a tool of Shiite Iran, struggles to maintain a semblance of authority.
Lebanon has seen two deadly car bombs, including one that killed a senior political figure and American ally.
In Syria, the tempo of violence has increased, with hundreds of civilians killed by bombs dropped indiscriminately on houses and markets.
Linking all this mayhem is an increasingly naked appeal to the atavistic loyalties of clan and sect. Foreign powers' imposing agendas on the region, and the police-state tactics of Arab despots, had never allowed communities to work out their long-simmering enmities. But these divides, largely benign during times of peace, have grown steadily more toxic since the Iranian revolution of 1979. The events of recent years have accelerated the trend, as foreign invasions and the recent round of Arab uprisings left the state weak, borders blurred, and people resorting to older loyalties for safety.
Arab leaders are moving more aggressively to fill the vacuum left by the United States and other Western powers as they line up by sect and perceived interest. The Saudi government's pledge last week of $3 billion to the Lebanese Army is a strikingly bold bid to reassert influence in a country where Iran has long played a dominant proxy role through Hezbollah, the Shiite movement it finances and arms.
That Saudi pledge came just after the assassination of Mohamad B. Chatah, a prominent political figure allied with the Saudis, in a downtown car bombing that is widely believed to have been the work of the Syrian government or its Iranian or Lebanese allies, who are all fighting on the same side in the civil war.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have increased their efforts to arm and recruit fighters in the civil war in Syria, which top officials in both countries portray as an existential struggle. Sunni Muslims from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have joined the rebels, many fighting alongside affiliates of Al Qaeda. And Shiites from Bahrain, Lebanon, Yemen and even Africa are fighting with pro-government militias, fearing that a defeat for Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, would endanger their Shiite brethren everywhere.
"Everyone fighting in Syria is fighting for his own purpose, not only to protect Bashar al-Assad and his regime," said an Iraqi Shiite fighter who gave his name as Abu Karrar. He spoke near the Shiite shrine of Sayida Zeinab near Damascus, where hundreds of Shiite fighters from around the region, including trained Hezbollah commandos, have streamed to defend a symbol of their faith.
Some Shiite fighters are trained in Iran or Lebanon before being sent to Syria, and many receive salaries and free room and board, paid for by donations from Shiite communities outside of Syria, Abu Karrar said.
Although the Saudi government waged a bitter struggle with Al Qaeda on its own soil a decade ago, the kingdom now supports Islamist rebels in Syria who often fight alongside Qaeda groups like the Nusra Front. The Saudis say they have little choice: having lobbied unsuccessfully for a decisive American intervention in Syria, they believe they must now back whoever can help them defeat Mr. Assad's forces and his Iranian allies.
For all the attention paid to Syria over the past three years, Iraq's slow disintegration also offers a vivid glimpse of the region's bloody sectarian dynamic. In March 2012, Anthony Blinken, who is now President Obama's deputy national security adviser, gave a speech echoing the White House's rosy view of Iraq's prospects after the withdrawal of American forces.
Iraq, Mr. Blinken said, was "less violent, more democratic and more prosperous" than "at any time in recent history."
But the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, was already pursuing an aggressive campaign against Sunni political figures that infuriated Iraq's Sunni minority. Those sectarian policies and the absence of American ground and air forces gave Al Qaeda in Iraq, a local Sunni insurgency that had become a spent force, a golden opportunity to rebuild its reputation as a champion of the Sunnis both in Iraq and in neighboring Syria. Violence in Iraq grew steadily over the following year.
Rebranding itself as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the group seized territory in rebel-held parts of Syria, where it now aspires to erase the border between the two countries and carve out a haven for its transnational, jihadist project. Sending 30 to 40 suicide bombers a month to Iraq from Syria, it has mounted a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis in 2013, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence there since 2008.
In recent days, after ISIS fighters rode into the cities of Falluja and Ramadi, they fought gun battles with Sunni tribal fighters backed by the Iraqi government, illustrating that the battle lines in the Middle East are about far more than just sect. Yet the tribal fighters see the government as the lesser of two evils, and their loyalty is likely to be temporary and conditional.
As the United States rushed weapons to Mr. Maliki's government late last year to help him fight off the jihadis, some analysts said American officials had not pushed the Iraqi prime minister hard enough to be more inclusive. "Maliki has done everything he could to deepen the sectarian divide over the past year and a half, and he still enjoys unconditional American support," said Peter Harling, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. "The pretext is always the same: They don't want to rock the boat. How is this not rocking the boat?"
The worsening violence in Iraq and Syria has spread into Lebanon, where a local Qaeda affiliate conducted a suicide bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut in November, in an attack meant as revenge for Iran's support of Mr. Assad.
More bombings followed, including one in a Hezbollah stronghold on Thursday, one day after the authorities announced the arrest of a senior Saudi-born Qaeda leader.
"All these countries are suffering the consequences of a state that's no longer sovereign," said Paul Salem, vice president of the Middle East Institute in Washington. "On the sectarian question, much depends on the Saudi-Iranian rivalry. Will these two powers accommodate each other or continue to wage proxy war?"
For the fighters on the ground, that question comes far too late. Amjad al-Ahmed, a Shiite fighter with a pro-government militia, said by phone from the Syrian city of Homs, "There is no such thing as coexistence between us and the Sunnis because they are killing my people here and in Lebanon."
Ben Hubbard reported from Beirut, Robert F. Worth from Washington, and Michael R. Gordon from Jerusalem. Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 5, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the year in which, according to the United Nations, more than 8,000 Iraqis died in a campaign of violence by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a Sunni insurgency that had been known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, which sent more than 30 to 40 suicide bombers a month to Iraq from Syria. It was 2013, not this year