Junior year is kicking my butt!
I know, I know, excuses. But I'm honestly terrible at Japanese, and I'm taking three classes in it, all on the same days, each of which assumes that it's the only Japanese class I'm taking so it had better cram as much larnin' as possible into my head and quiz it all as often as possible, so I'm constantly overloaded with readings and writings and testings and fillings-out-of-worksheets. And that's without even counting the other (phonetics) class I'm taking. Sigh! And I'm bad at time management or I wouldn't be writing this. Clearly. At 4:40 am.
Oh,
I figured out what that science-fiction-y stone is...prehnite, also known as green (or grossular, sometimes) garnet, with rutile inclusions. Pretty nifty.
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
A Research Blog
I've lately realized that, while I follow a lot of other jewelry-makers' blogs for techniques, inspiration and tips...that stuff is only interesting to me because I am also a jewelry-maker. And even then, the more interesting blogs have other stuff thrown in, too. Someone's scruffy husband being a dear and fixing the car on the dramatic road trip to the bead show. Someone's apple-cheeked kid spilling ice cream on himself. I'm a sucker for that stuff, and it makes them seem more like real people as opposed to just really-awesome-jewelry machines. I love jewelry, but I will never be a machine. Someone I can relate to is much more interesting.
And I, like every other jewelry-maker and -seller, also have to realize that my target audience is not, in fact, other jewelry-makers; it’s jewelry-buyers, or people who will tell other people about my jewelry. And I can only assume that a string of neat-looking stuff will not hold their attention as much as a real person’s life, because the same is true of me even though jewelry is one of my favorite things. Bottom line, it wouldn’t kill me to show some personality on this thing. Hence my “cooking for absolute idiots” posts showcasing what an absolute idiot I am about cooking. If anyone’s listening, stir-fry is NOT THAT HARD, I SWEAR.
Well, I don’t have a scruffy husband or an apple-cheeked kid...and dear, camera-shy Boyfriend of Mine would probably object to me putting his picture online...but I do have a life besides jewelry. In fact, it’s been taking up all of my time lately. When I said “It would take me 3 pieces a week to catch up” I didn’t mean that I would actually manage that. I knew it wouldn’t happen when I said it, at least not soon, and just recently I started my analyses in earnest, so it definitely won’t. But it is interesting nonetheless. (THOUGH I DID MAKE TWO PIECES TODAY, YES TWO. PICTURES UP SOON.)
So, prepare for a long, laughing, overdramatized account of my adventures in...(dun dun dun) LABELING SOUND FILES!
For anyone who doesn’t know (which is most of the internet) I’m a linguist by major, and my research for this summer has been studying intonation patterns in a production study. Basically I get people to talk into a microphone and then figure out how getting them to say certain things rather than others affects their pitch. It’s the kind of stuff that’s fascinating if you’re a linguist, and if you’re not, you don’t have any opinion about it, so how ‘bout that weather?
But I’m learning a lot of stuff that bears thinking about even if you’re not into intonation, phonetics or any sort of linguistics at all. General research stuff, like: How do you decide when something is an error and when it’s a data point? But back to that in a moment.
My analysis work so far has mostly been prepping things for computers to pull data out of them. I go through sound files and label certain parts, like high points in the pitch and where the vowel starts. Sounds easy, right? Until you realize that I went through a three-day stretch where all I saw was this:
Which by the way, zooms out to this:
Which is fine except it zooms out to this:
And a couple more times, to this:
Which is not quite as large as the whole thing:
Those are 1) the level I work at, 2) zoomed out twice from there, 3) zoomed out twice again 4) zoomed out 4 times from THAT point, and then 5) zoomed out a whole three more times because that’s all of it. Yeah. Eleven zoom-outs total. Notice the way the pitch track disappeared after the first one? That’s because if I have it calculate all of that even if I’m zoomed in to like 2 seconds, it slows down my computer. I have to zoom into ONE SECOND to actually see what I'm analyzing...and the file is ten minutes long. Long story short, I spent 22 hours straight staring at a screen that looks very much like 1) up there, got 8 hours of sleep and then went back to it for another 16. And I only got to halfway through subject 5 before I burned out. There are 6 subjects...I’m taking a break and doing some data-pulling, thanks.
Doing stuff like that really starts to mess with your head after a while. Somewhere in the middle of figuring out where the d ends and the m begins in this squiggly line:
(Hint: The cursor’s on it. Couldn’t tell? That’s okay, it means you’re sane!)
I realized that in trying to label the end of the consonant, I could not remember what consonant “consonant” started with. At one point I freaked out wondering, “Where’s the consonant at the end of ‘be’?? I can’t find it anywhere!” Only to remember that it is, and always will be, in the hammer space.
After several hours of each, I started to get thoroughly sick of nearly everyone’s voice (Okay, just the nasally ones...subject 2 was actually rather adorable). And of course, each and every subject came up with a special individual problem that I had to figure out how to deal with...one subject inexplicably changed all his Ds to Ns – don’t ask me, he doesn’t do it in person – another had a mysterious extra pitch peak that made her samples all look like little hearts, which was cute and all, but I have to label one of those peaks, which one? WHICH ONE? - another subject had weird lilts at the beginnings of the parts that I was labeling that made it impossible sometimes to make an accurate label...and even when it was possible, it was nerve-wracking because every time, I could be wrong. Here I was labeling important parts of the intonation contour, and suddenly this bizarre thing happens and I have no idea what to do...and then each subject proceeded to make his own individual weird thing happen like EVERY OTHER TIME. And since my mentor was on a two-week vacation and is absolutely terrible at answering emails even at the best of times, let alone while hiking with his kids...Yeah. Bad news. Some freaking out happened. When I got too crazy to label anymore, I ended up labeling a lot of them “m” for “help Me please” even when in my normal state they seemed totally fine. And that was for the ones that are totally fine.
Which brings me, by the way, to my previously-mentioned dilemma. How do you tell when something is an error, some outlier to be not counted with the rest...or a data point, a piece of useful information? How do you know when it’s important? For instance:
This is what the contour I was working with looks like:
So what do I do when all of a sudden it looks like this instead?
And there were a lot that were less obviously software problems. Do I assume “That can’t be right, it doesn’t look like the rest of them” or do I have to say, "Well...that’s the way he made it, I have to take that into account.”? Most of the time, it’s the first one...the software I’m using is notoriously unreliable when it comes to tracking pitch and is known to change its mind on what’s what pitch depending on things like how far you’re zoomed in, how far left you are of the pitch in question, and what settings you’ve chosen to display the pitch at. It’s usually reasonable, if something looks bizarre, to assume “That’s an error.” Especially the cases where you can see a normal contour under that, looking all groovy, and there’s just a few artifacts screwing it up. Or, if not by virtue of the software, it’s entirely plausibly throw-out-able just because the person got tired and said it wrong. A lot of them switched into listing mode, for instance, when we wanted a pitch contour that sounded like a standalone statement.
But then there are the brain-stirring errors that completely change everything and you have no choice but to just go with it against your will even though you know the sentence doesn’t sound like it looks like that and why is that bump there, but it’s too big to just be an artifact, what’s going on? MOM?!
My “m” labels go through tides of desperation with my sleep cycle...near the end of my “functional” periods there are lots of notes like, “That has to be an error, why would it look like that?”, “Should I be worried about this?” and “This one's high in a really awkward place, much like a stoner at a funeral.” Part of my way to keep myself sane was to think up a new emoticon denoting devastation whenever someone said it in a way that we’d have to throw out, like using the wrong contour, or coughing in the middle. If my mentor ever actually reads those (unlikely), I think he’ll get a new perspective on the art of iconography. They included upside-down, upside-right, backwards and to either side.
Halfway through Subject 4, I got the idea that I’d blog about it afterward...and that kept me going through another half or two of data set, stopping every once in a while to take screenshots. Every annoyance or delay was like “BOO-YAH. ANOTHER INTERESTING SENTENCE. I CAN TOTALLY HYPERBOLIZE THAT.”...including that one.
I still burned out.
Not to complain, though...it was just a strange time not many of anyone who’s going to read this will ever experience...and it’s probably the easiest job I could have that would still be intellectually stimulating, and the schedule is lax enough for me to still be awake at 5:00 am (now)...and if I had left myself more time to do it before it was necessary to get crackin’, then I wouldn’t have had such crazy days, but actually, it was rather fun. I’ll try not to do it again, but if I could go back and have the chance to do it once, I’d still do it the first time. I feel like that’s an experience I ought to have had, doing almost-grad work the summer after my sophomore year. And I’m learning a ton! Pretty soon everyone (who works in intonation theory) will start hearing about Tonal Center of Gravity – and if anyone asks, that’s my mentor’s idea, oh yeah. I know that guy. I could get you an autograph...if you’re nice.
Oh and also, Boyfriend and I had a second anniversary. That was fun. More rain than expected. Less being outside than expected. Therefore, more cozy than expected, so it's all good.
And I, like every other jewelry-maker and -seller, also have to realize that my target audience is not, in fact, other jewelry-makers; it’s jewelry-buyers, or people who will tell other people about my jewelry. And I can only assume that a string of neat-looking stuff will not hold their attention as much as a real person’s life, because the same is true of me even though jewelry is one of my favorite things. Bottom line, it wouldn’t kill me to show some personality on this thing. Hence my “cooking for absolute idiots” posts showcasing what an absolute idiot I am about cooking. If anyone’s listening, stir-fry is NOT THAT HARD, I SWEAR.
Well, I don’t have a scruffy husband or an apple-cheeked kid...and dear, camera-shy Boyfriend of Mine would probably object to me putting his picture online...but I do have a life besides jewelry. In fact, it’s been taking up all of my time lately. When I said “It would take me 3 pieces a week to catch up” I didn’t mean that I would actually manage that. I knew it wouldn’t happen when I said it, at least not soon, and just recently I started my analyses in earnest, so it definitely won’t. But it is interesting nonetheless. (THOUGH I DID MAKE TWO PIECES TODAY, YES TWO. PICTURES UP SOON.)
So, prepare for a long, laughing, overdramatized account of my adventures in...(dun dun dun) LABELING SOUND FILES!
For anyone who doesn’t know (which is most of the internet) I’m a linguist by major, and my research for this summer has been studying intonation patterns in a production study. Basically I get people to talk into a microphone and then figure out how getting them to say certain things rather than others affects their pitch. It’s the kind of stuff that’s fascinating if you’re a linguist, and if you’re not, you don’t have any opinion about it, so how ‘bout that weather?
But I’m learning a lot of stuff that bears thinking about even if you’re not into intonation, phonetics or any sort of linguistics at all. General research stuff, like: How do you decide when something is an error and when it’s a data point? But back to that in a moment.
My analysis work so far has mostly been prepping things for computers to pull data out of them. I go through sound files and label certain parts, like high points in the pitch and where the vowel starts. Sounds easy, right? Until you realize that I went through a three-day stretch where all I saw was this:
Which by the way, zooms out to this:
Which is fine except it zooms out to this:
And a couple more times, to this:
Which is not quite as large as the whole thing:
Those are 1) the level I work at, 2) zoomed out twice from there, 3) zoomed out twice again 4) zoomed out 4 times from THAT point, and then 5) zoomed out a whole three more times because that’s all of it. Yeah. Eleven zoom-outs total. Notice the way the pitch track disappeared after the first one? That’s because if I have it calculate all of that even if I’m zoomed in to like 2 seconds, it slows down my computer. I have to zoom into ONE SECOND to actually see what I'm analyzing...and the file is ten minutes long. Long story short, I spent 22 hours straight staring at a screen that looks very much like 1) up there, got 8 hours of sleep and then went back to it for another 16. And I only got to halfway through subject 5 before I burned out. There are 6 subjects...I’m taking a break and doing some data-pulling, thanks.
Doing stuff like that really starts to mess with your head after a while. Somewhere in the middle of figuring out where the d ends and the m begins in this squiggly line:
(Hint: The cursor’s on it. Couldn’t tell? That’s okay, it means you’re sane!)
I realized that in trying to label the end of the consonant, I could not remember what consonant “consonant” started with. At one point I freaked out wondering, “Where’s the consonant at the end of ‘be’?? I can’t find it anywhere!” Only to remember that it is, and always will be, in the hammer space.
After several hours of each, I started to get thoroughly sick of nearly everyone’s voice (Okay, just the nasally ones...subject 2 was actually rather adorable). And of course, each and every subject came up with a special individual problem that I had to figure out how to deal with...one subject inexplicably changed all his Ds to Ns – don’t ask me, he doesn’t do it in person – another had a mysterious extra pitch peak that made her samples all look like little hearts, which was cute and all, but I have to label one of those peaks, which one? WHICH ONE? - another subject had weird lilts at the beginnings of the parts that I was labeling that made it impossible sometimes to make an accurate label...and even when it was possible, it was nerve-wracking because every time, I could be wrong. Here I was labeling important parts of the intonation contour, and suddenly this bizarre thing happens and I have no idea what to do...and then each subject proceeded to make his own individual weird thing happen like EVERY OTHER TIME. And since my mentor was on a two-week vacation and is absolutely terrible at answering emails even at the best of times, let alone while hiking with his kids...Yeah. Bad news. Some freaking out happened. When I got too crazy to label anymore, I ended up labeling a lot of them “m” for “help Me please” even when in my normal state they seemed totally fine. And that was for the ones that are totally fine.
Which brings me, by the way, to my previously-mentioned dilemma. How do you tell when something is an error, some outlier to be not counted with the rest...or a data point, a piece of useful information? How do you know when it’s important? For instance:
This is what the contour I was working with looks like:
So what do I do when all of a sudden it looks like this instead?
And there were a lot that were less obviously software problems. Do I assume “That can’t be right, it doesn’t look like the rest of them” or do I have to say, "Well...that’s the way he made it, I have to take that into account.”? Most of the time, it’s the first one...the software I’m using is notoriously unreliable when it comes to tracking pitch and is known to change its mind on what’s what pitch depending on things like how far you’re zoomed in, how far left you are of the pitch in question, and what settings you’ve chosen to display the pitch at. It’s usually reasonable, if something looks bizarre, to assume “That’s an error.” Especially the cases where you can see a normal contour under that, looking all groovy, and there’s just a few artifacts screwing it up. Or, if not by virtue of the software, it’s entirely plausibly throw-out-able just because the person got tired and said it wrong. A lot of them switched into listing mode, for instance, when we wanted a pitch contour that sounded like a standalone statement.
But then there are the brain-stirring errors that completely change everything and you have no choice but to just go with it against your will even though you know the sentence doesn’t sound like it looks like that and why is that bump there, but it’s too big to just be an artifact, what’s going on? MOM?!
My “m” labels go through tides of desperation with my sleep cycle...near the end of my “functional” periods there are lots of notes like, “That has to be an error, why would it look like that?”, “Should I be worried about this?” and “This one's high in a really awkward place, much like a stoner at a funeral.” Part of my way to keep myself sane was to think up a new emoticon denoting devastation whenever someone said it in a way that we’d have to throw out, like using the wrong contour, or coughing in the middle. If my mentor ever actually reads those (unlikely), I think he’ll get a new perspective on the art of iconography. They included upside-down, upside-right, backwards and to either side.
Halfway through Subject 4, I got the idea that I’d blog about it afterward...and that kept me going through another half or two of data set, stopping every once in a while to take screenshots. Every annoyance or delay was like “BOO-YAH. ANOTHER INTERESTING SENTENCE. I CAN TOTALLY HYPERBOLIZE THAT.”...including that one.
I still burned out.
Not to complain, though...it was just a strange time not many of anyone who’s going to read this will ever experience...and it’s probably the easiest job I could have that would still be intellectually stimulating, and the schedule is lax enough for me to still be awake at 5:00 am (now)...and if I had left myself more time to do it before it was necessary to get crackin’, then I wouldn’t have had such crazy days, but actually, it was rather fun. I’ll try not to do it again, but if I could go back and have the chance to do it once, I’d still do it the first time. I feel like that’s an experience I ought to have had, doing almost-grad work the summer after my sophomore year. And I’m learning a ton! Pretty soon everyone (who works in intonation theory) will start hearing about Tonal Center of Gravity – and if anyone asks, that’s my mentor’s idea, oh yeah. I know that guy. I could get you an autograph...if you’re nice.
Oh and also, Boyfriend and I had a second anniversary. That was fun. More rain than expected. Less being outside than expected. Therefore, more cozy than expected, so it's all good.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Well, that was a PayPal adventure...
Today, my business account got hacked.
I check my email very often, and when I opened it up not an hour ago, I saw "Receipt for your payment to match.com."
Some jerk had used my account to spend over $40 on a month's subscription to match.com, with authorization for automatic renewals. Now, I have nothing against match.com, but that was NOT me. I have a boyfriend, and furthermore, that account is nothing but business. All the money that goes into it is from sales of jewelry. All the money that goes out of it goes toward Etsy fees, supplies, tools and similar things like business cards. That money IS my business. I did NOT want it hacked.
I did a few things. I changed my password and security questions (though there are not many people who both know the name of my childhood best friend AND the name of my first roommate - except my boyfriend and I'm pretty sure he wasn't signing up for match.com - I still changed them just to be safe) and I opened a dispute claim with PayPal. PayPal seems to handle such things with cold ruthless efficiency, which is great in most cases except it didn't inspire in me a lot of confidence that they would believe me. I mean, when you click on the Pay with PayPal button, you log in and then who knows, you know? Nobody can tell if it's the right person or not...and my name is Leo in my PayPal account, not my full first name, so the person could have found that information in my PayPal account, put my name on his picture and still looked plausible to PayPal, and then what would PayPal think?
So, this claim was opened and I had this feeling of impending doom...I mean, after the dispute was officially under way, it said "funds will not be available" - I've heard so many horror stories about trying to get money out of PayPal when something is up with your account on either your end or a buyer's end, and I sort of despaired either of ever seeing my money OR of ever being able to use the account, or the rest of the money that was in it, again.
Well, I called match.com, too. And they handled it much less ruthlessly, efficiently OR coldly. I talked to a very nice man whose name was either Rico or Ricardo - the signal was low and I didn't quite catch it - who said he'd never come across such a thing before, he'd see what he could do. I gave him my details, my PayPal email address, my transaction numbers and what have you...and after a couple brief holds while he talked to his superiors, a cheery lady named Stacy came on and told me all was well. Not only had I been refunded, but my PayPal account and credit card number had been blocked from match.com's systems...so even if I've got some sort of keylogger and the guy has my new password as well, at least he can't use it on THAT anymore...and maybe if he tries it again and I catch him again he'll give up trying to use my account for things - too much effort, I hope.
And the best part of having called match.com is knowing that the guy had his account blocked. I don't know if they'd bother with any sort of investigation into someone using someone else's PayPal account, but you have to admit...for some sort of hacker with at least enough skill to get my username and password together in the same login box, he's kind of an idiot...not only did he not change my passwords or anything, or try to hack my email account as well to prevent me from getting the receipt of payment (lesson learned, by the way - from now on my PayPal email and PayPal account have different passwords), but the thing he bought was something that could be cancelled at any time by the provider...not like if he'd had a TV shipped to him or something...and it was also connected to his name and pictures of him, at least in theory. What was this guy DOING?
Anyway, PayPal immediately closed my case as soon as it detected that the transaction had been refunded, so my account is unlocked and all is right with the world except that there are identity thieves in it. Full day.
Also I may have been bitten by ticks. We'll see how this goes.
I check my email very often, and when I opened it up not an hour ago, I saw "Receipt for your payment to match.com."
Some jerk had used my account to spend over $40 on a month's subscription to match.com, with authorization for automatic renewals. Now, I have nothing against match.com, but that was NOT me. I have a boyfriend, and furthermore, that account is nothing but business. All the money that goes into it is from sales of jewelry. All the money that goes out of it goes toward Etsy fees, supplies, tools and similar things like business cards. That money IS my business. I did NOT want it hacked.
I did a few things. I changed my password and security questions (though there are not many people who both know the name of my childhood best friend AND the name of my first roommate - except my boyfriend and I'm pretty sure he wasn't signing up for match.com - I still changed them just to be safe) and I opened a dispute claim with PayPal. PayPal seems to handle such things with cold ruthless efficiency, which is great in most cases except it didn't inspire in me a lot of confidence that they would believe me. I mean, when you click on the Pay with PayPal button, you log in and then who knows, you know? Nobody can tell if it's the right person or not...and my name is Leo in my PayPal account, not my full first name, so the person could have found that information in my PayPal account, put my name on his picture and still looked plausible to PayPal, and then what would PayPal think?
So, this claim was opened and I had this feeling of impending doom...I mean, after the dispute was officially under way, it said "funds will not be available" - I've heard so many horror stories about trying to get money out of PayPal when something is up with your account on either your end or a buyer's end, and I sort of despaired either of ever seeing my money OR of ever being able to use the account, or the rest of the money that was in it, again.
Well, I called match.com, too. And they handled it much less ruthlessly, efficiently OR coldly. I talked to a very nice man whose name was either Rico or Ricardo - the signal was low and I didn't quite catch it - who said he'd never come across such a thing before, he'd see what he could do. I gave him my details, my PayPal email address, my transaction numbers and what have you...and after a couple brief holds while he talked to his superiors, a cheery lady named Stacy came on and told me all was well. Not only had I been refunded, but my PayPal account and credit card number had been blocked from match.com's systems...so even if I've got some sort of keylogger and the guy has my new password as well, at least he can't use it on THAT anymore...and maybe if he tries it again and I catch him again he'll give up trying to use my account for things - too much effort, I hope.
And the best part of having called match.com is knowing that the guy had his account blocked. I don't know if they'd bother with any sort of investigation into someone using someone else's PayPal account, but you have to admit...for some sort of hacker with at least enough skill to get my username and password together in the same login box, he's kind of an idiot...not only did he not change my passwords or anything, or try to hack my email account as well to prevent me from getting the receipt of payment (lesson learned, by the way - from now on my PayPal email and PayPal account have different passwords), but the thing he bought was something that could be cancelled at any time by the provider...not like if he'd had a TV shipped to him or something...and it was also connected to his name and pictures of him, at least in theory. What was this guy DOING?
Anyway, PayPal immediately closed my case as soon as it detected that the transaction had been refunded, so my account is unlocked and all is right with the world except that there are identity thieves in it. Full day.
Also I may have been bitten by ticks. We'll see how this goes.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Pet Peeves from a Bead Buyer
Dear Bead Suppliers:
After a long few hours of scouring the internet for gemstones I want, I'd like to provide a few helpful hints that will keep you from annoying the heck out of your potential customers and scaring or pissing them off.
JUST A NOTE: These are pet peeves...as in, they are things that make me mad when bead-shopping. Therefore, they are a little "peeved" sounding. I recognize that most of the people who do these things probably actually don't realize it, mean it, or have in mind how it comes across, but I wanted to write down what goes through a customer's mind in case a bead supplier found it helpful to know...you never know, you might look back at one of your posts and realize that it looks a lot like you're trying to take advantage of your customers, even when that had never crossed your mind. That is the purpose of this post...to help you figure it out so you can fix it, and help you and help me.
So:
1) Put what it is in the title. ALL OF IT. "Carnelian chips" is better than "gemstone beads" but the best is "Deep orange natural carnelian chip beads 36" strand." Even "half strand" isn't enough, because that could be anywhere from 4 to 18 inches. If someone told you that people don't want to read a long title like that, that person didn't realize that many people are looking for something specific! I was looking for a lot of tiny, deep orange carnelian chips...I didn't want to waste my time clicking on "carnelian chips" only to find out they are 10mm long and light brown and I only get 4 of them. You see?
2) PLEASE, PLEASE, at least SOMEWHERE in your post, put how many beads there are. I know it's a big hassle to - *GASP* - COUNT them all, and I could *theoretically* calculate it (most of the time; see #4) using math, but let's be honest here: I just DID that and it didn't work. I came up with something like 98 beads of some size per some inch strand, and a post I read directly after that said, for the SAME STRAND AND SIZE, "approx. 66 beads." As you can see, that method really doesn't work... however, while it *might* make me think I'm going to get more than I actually am, and thus get you business...what's more likely is that it will just annoy me so much that I don't want to go through the hassle of doing the math, when I know that I will probably receive the beads and find out I was wrong...and therefore, the hassle of buying from YOU is just too much, compared to someone who puts a succinct "approx. 66 beads" on his post. I'm much more likely to buy something when I actually know what I'm getting, and if I only get 40 beads, I can call that guy out on it, whereas if I got a long strand of very loosely packed beads and didn't get nearly as many as my math said I would, I have no recourse, I wasted my money. I know that, you know that, and I know you know that, so just put the darn number in and there wouldn't be a problem.
3) A good picture is worth as much as everyone says. Get a camera with a macro setting, they're pretty cheap now. Get some nice colors in the picture, and no blurriness and don't let the shadows make them look like they're dirty. Also, dust them off before taking close-ups. I am not going to click on something that looks that unprofessional, and even if it's just an off day or you were in a rush, it stays up there for months or more - it's worthwhile to go back and get a better picture. I'm buying beads that I haven't actually seen...I want ones that look GOOD, so make yours look GOOD.
4) Don't switch out measurement units from one post to another. 48 beads in one post, "half strand" in another, then "14 inches" in one, and 13 GRAMS in another. How on EARTH am I supposed to know how many beads I'm getting by the GRAM? And there's no way I can calculate that given the irregularity of gemstone mass. Seriously, it may SEEM to work out advantageously for you to kinda-sorta-just-barely-mislead your customers, but some of us are wise to it and find it REALLY annoying.
5) Rondelles have two dimensions worth talking about. A 4mm rondelle and an 8mm rondelle look exactly the same? No, people just don't bother to name which dimension they're talking about and only bother with one of them...news: it makes a difference. One of them I want, and the other I don't...and if I can't tell if yours is what I want, I'll go with certainty for a few cents more.
6) Microfacets are tiny. ITTY-BITTY. Kind-of-faceted-just-to-make-them-look-better is a look I really like, and it is NOT the same as microfaceted. I am not LOOKING for microfaceted. Be accurate or risk losing the business of people who want what you're selling and are accurate when searching for it. People who search for microfacets are going to find your items, which are not microfaceted, and they won't buy them...and I will search for faceted nuggets or faceted chips, and I WILL NOT FIND YOUR ITEM because you thought it was fancier to say it was microfaceted. Fancier is not what you're selling. You're selling rough faceted nuggets.
6.5) BE DESCRIPTIVE. PLEASE. We're here to buy things that are important to us, and we want to know about them. Be as helpful as you can. Kudos to the people who write "smooth" on rondelles and rounds and such that aren't faceted (and are smooth). Some rondelles and rounds that aren't faceted are also not smooth, so the extra descriptor gets important.
7) By the same token, be enthusiastic. Obviously this is not required, and not as essential as having a good name, but if you say something about the luscious color that you just can't take your eyes off, I'm willing enough to be marketed to (after all, I'm on your site as a buyer, not a cynic) that I will take a second look at the color specifically, to see what you like so much about it...if it didn't strike me the first time, you've just earned another chance for me to get hooked on your lovely beads and just HAVE to "add to cart." Compare them to a lot of things that are inspiring in themselves..."rhyolite rondelles" vs. "rainforest jasper rondelles in shades from gold to forest green" - they are the same thing, but which is more picturesque? I can't believe that some people just don't consider that.
7.5) Also, if your product description is only one little line - basically, the essentials of the product: 36" strand carnelian chips deep orange. NOT ONLY have you lost any potential chances to make me look at your product again to see if it's what I want, to see it for what is good about it...NOT ONLY THAT, but it basically sounds like you just don't have the time or patience, and you just don't CARE about your products enough, to write a decent description. Personally, I write ridiculously long descriptions for my work because every piece is IMPORTANT to me...every time I mail one off, I feel like I'm sending a baby off to college...so to me, it's really repugnant not to care. That's not artistic or inspiring, it doesn't make me want to use YOUR items to make MINE, because they are so devoid of love, I'm afraid it will rub off. If I buy them, it will probably be because I want to give them a better home than yours. You know, no offense or anything. And you might like to know that many of my customers have commented that my "overly-long" descriptions made them laugh, had a lot of personality...that makes them willing to spend time on my site. Your descriptions depress me, and that makes me not want to buy from you.
8) If it says "natural" in the name, I expect natural color, not just "natural because it's a stone and it came from the ground at one point." "Natural dyed agate" does not make sense to me...and if you say "natural blue agate," that had better be a natural BLUE, not just a "natural" agate.
9) On that note, that crazy fuchsia? That ridiculous neon blue? That is not a color of natural stone...and I know a few tricks, like the dye stuck in the cracks? Yeah, even an ameteur can tell...and people who don't know "tricks" can still figure it out just by comparison shopping from more honest merchants...it's obvious if it looks the same all over but yours is the only one that doesn't mention dye. So why doesn't your post mention that it has been dyed? Are you trying to mislead people who can't tell into thinking it IS a natural color? I think so...and when you actually SAY that it's natural, then there's a problem. I will never buy anything from you if I notice you doing that, and I spend enough on beads just by myself that I and my demographic of people-who-can-tell are probably worth your time to woo. Just put it in the post. If I think it's pretty (and I never do about the crazy fuchsia ones, but it's because they're crazy fuchsia, not because they're dyed) I will buy it, so worry more about being seen as a liar than as someone who sells dyed agates like everybody else does. After all, if I can't trust you on something as simple as that, how can I trust you with my money?
Long story short:
Accuracy, Helpfulness and Honesty. These things should be on your mind.
Love,
Leo
Just having spent too much on beads again, but expecting a couple really amazing packages.
After a long few hours of scouring the internet for gemstones I want, I'd like to provide a few helpful hints that will keep you from annoying the heck out of your potential customers and scaring or pissing them off.
JUST A NOTE: These are pet peeves...as in, they are things that make me mad when bead-shopping. Therefore, they are a little "peeved" sounding. I recognize that most of the people who do these things probably actually don't realize it, mean it, or have in mind how it comes across, but I wanted to write down what goes through a customer's mind in case a bead supplier found it helpful to know...you never know, you might look back at one of your posts and realize that it looks a lot like you're trying to take advantage of your customers, even when that had never crossed your mind. That is the purpose of this post...to help you figure it out so you can fix it, and help you and help me.
So:
1) Put what it is in the title. ALL OF IT. "Carnelian chips" is better than "gemstone beads" but the best is "Deep orange natural carnelian chip beads 36" strand." Even "half strand" isn't enough, because that could be anywhere from 4 to 18 inches. If someone told you that people don't want to read a long title like that, that person didn't realize that many people are looking for something specific! I was looking for a lot of tiny, deep orange carnelian chips...I didn't want to waste my time clicking on "carnelian chips" only to find out they are 10mm long and light brown and I only get 4 of them. You see?
2) PLEASE, PLEASE, at least SOMEWHERE in your post, put how many beads there are. I know it's a big hassle to - *GASP* - COUNT them all, and I could *theoretically* calculate it (most of the time; see #4) using math, but let's be honest here: I just DID that and it didn't work. I came up with something like 98 beads of some size per some inch strand, and a post I read directly after that said, for the SAME STRAND AND SIZE, "approx. 66 beads." As you can see, that method really doesn't work... however, while it *might* make me think I'm going to get more than I actually am, and thus get you business...what's more likely is that it will just annoy me so much that I don't want to go through the hassle of doing the math, when I know that I will probably receive the beads and find out I was wrong...and therefore, the hassle of buying from YOU is just too much, compared to someone who puts a succinct "approx. 66 beads" on his post. I'm much more likely to buy something when I actually know what I'm getting, and if I only get 40 beads, I can call that guy out on it, whereas if I got a long strand of very loosely packed beads and didn't get nearly as many as my math said I would, I have no recourse, I wasted my money. I know that, you know that, and I know you know that, so just put the darn number in and there wouldn't be a problem.
3) A good picture is worth as much as everyone says. Get a camera with a macro setting, they're pretty cheap now. Get some nice colors in the picture, and no blurriness and don't let the shadows make them look like they're dirty. Also, dust them off before taking close-ups. I am not going to click on something that looks that unprofessional, and even if it's just an off day or you were in a rush, it stays up there for months or more - it's worthwhile to go back and get a better picture. I'm buying beads that I haven't actually seen...I want ones that look GOOD, so make yours look GOOD.
4) Don't switch out measurement units from one post to another. 48 beads in one post, "half strand" in another, then "14 inches" in one, and 13 GRAMS in another. How on EARTH am I supposed to know how many beads I'm getting by the GRAM? And there's no way I can calculate that given the irregularity of gemstone mass. Seriously, it may SEEM to work out advantageously for you to kinda-sorta-just-barely-mislead your customers, but some of us are wise to it and find it REALLY annoying.
5) Rondelles have two dimensions worth talking about. A 4mm rondelle and an 8mm rondelle look exactly the same? No, people just don't bother to name which dimension they're talking about and only bother with one of them...news: it makes a difference. One of them I want, and the other I don't...and if I can't tell if yours is what I want, I'll go with certainty for a few cents more.
6) Microfacets are tiny. ITTY-BITTY. Kind-of-faceted-just-to-make-them-look-better is a look I really like, and it is NOT the same as microfaceted. I am not LOOKING for microfaceted. Be accurate or risk losing the business of people who want what you're selling and are accurate when searching for it. People who search for microfacets are going to find your items, which are not microfaceted, and they won't buy them...and I will search for faceted nuggets or faceted chips, and I WILL NOT FIND YOUR ITEM because you thought it was fancier to say it was microfaceted. Fancier is not what you're selling. You're selling rough faceted nuggets.
6.5) BE DESCRIPTIVE. PLEASE. We're here to buy things that are important to us, and we want to know about them. Be as helpful as you can. Kudos to the people who write "smooth" on rondelles and rounds and such that aren't faceted (and are smooth). Some rondelles and rounds that aren't faceted are also not smooth, so the extra descriptor gets important.
7) By the same token, be enthusiastic. Obviously this is not required, and not as essential as having a good name, but if you say something about the luscious color that you just can't take your eyes off, I'm willing enough to be marketed to (after all, I'm on your site as a buyer, not a cynic) that I will take a second look at the color specifically, to see what you like so much about it...if it didn't strike me the first time, you've just earned another chance for me to get hooked on your lovely beads and just HAVE to "add to cart." Compare them to a lot of things that are inspiring in themselves..."rhyolite rondelles" vs. "rainforest jasper rondelles in shades from gold to forest green" - they are the same thing, but which is more picturesque? I can't believe that some people just don't consider that.
7.5) Also, if your product description is only one little line - basically, the essentials of the product: 36" strand carnelian chips deep orange. NOT ONLY have you lost any potential chances to make me look at your product again to see if it's what I want, to see it for what is good about it...NOT ONLY THAT, but it basically sounds like you just don't have the time or patience, and you just don't CARE about your products enough, to write a decent description. Personally, I write ridiculously long descriptions for my work because every piece is IMPORTANT to me...every time I mail one off, I feel like I'm sending a baby off to college...so to me, it's really repugnant not to care. That's not artistic or inspiring, it doesn't make me want to use YOUR items to make MINE, because they are so devoid of love, I'm afraid it will rub off. If I buy them, it will probably be because I want to give them a better home than yours. You know, no offense or anything. And you might like to know that many of my customers have commented that my "overly-long" descriptions made them laugh, had a lot of personality...that makes them willing to spend time on my site. Your descriptions depress me, and that makes me not want to buy from you.
8) If it says "natural" in the name, I expect natural color, not just "natural because it's a stone and it came from the ground at one point." "Natural dyed agate" does not make sense to me...and if you say "natural blue agate," that had better be a natural BLUE, not just a "natural" agate.
9) On that note, that crazy fuchsia? That ridiculous neon blue? That is not a color of natural stone...and I know a few tricks, like the dye stuck in the cracks? Yeah, even an ameteur can tell...and people who don't know "tricks" can still figure it out just by comparison shopping from more honest merchants...it's obvious if it looks the same all over but yours is the only one that doesn't mention dye. So why doesn't your post mention that it has been dyed? Are you trying to mislead people who can't tell into thinking it IS a natural color? I think so...and when you actually SAY that it's natural, then there's a problem. I will never buy anything from you if I notice you doing that, and I spend enough on beads just by myself that I and my demographic of people-who-can-tell are probably worth your time to woo. Just put it in the post. If I think it's pretty (and I never do about the crazy fuchsia ones, but it's because they're crazy fuchsia, not because they're dyed) I will buy it, so worry more about being seen as a liar than as someone who sells dyed agates like everybody else does. After all, if I can't trust you on something as simple as that, how can I trust you with my money?
Long story short:
Accuracy, Helpfulness and Honesty. These things should be on your mind.
Love,
Leo
Just having spent too much on beads again, but expecting a couple really amazing packages.
Monday, November 8, 2010
A very late first post
...You know how it is. I have class. I have homework. I am struck by sudden beading inspiration and nothing else counts until I'm done. I'm doing this because I managed to put "blogging" in the same category as "beading" in my mind. Let's hope it stays there.
So, exciting things have been happening on the Letterbox Lion front. Today was a landmark day in lots of ways, which is probably why I have such an urge to blog about it. I mailed my tenth online sale - of course, it's not my tenth sale, only the tenth that happened over etsy, but still. I started experimenting today, too. This was the first time I have worked with gold (!) ever (!), and since it wasn't as snobbish to work with as I'd imagined, I'd like to put it out there that I'm more than willing to do it again. I don't have much, since for my first ever gold project I didn't order much, but I'd be happy to have an excuse to acquire more, and use up the rest. ALSO TODAY I got my first gemstones.
Okay, let me stop to talk about that. I've always been wary of using gemstones, in the way of a little girl in awe of horses. Swarovski crystals are so consistent, and I shouldn't buy gemstones, I won't know what to do with them, they don't come catered to my order, they won't match with anything I have, blah blah excuses blah. If I want crystal, I can get it in practically any plausible (and some not-so-plausible) combination of color and tint and shade and coating and sparkle and opacity that I could POSSIBLY want. Gemstones, however, do what they want. They are all different. They are whatever color the earth formed them in. It's intimidating. It's exhilarating. I am having SO much fun.
I don't know why fusionbeads.com is discontinuing sodalite beads. They are gorgeous. I am so glad I bought them, even if it was because I wanted to try gemstones and those were the ones on clearance sale. If I had been updating this regularly, you'd already know that I have a weird fixation on dark blue beads...most of my inventory is some form of dark blue or something to complement dark blue. While I have been trying to branch out, I thought when I ordered them, hey, I lucked out - sodalite is blue, too.
Shockingly, though, it is ACTUAL blue. It's not some subtly purpley green shade of off-blue. It's not metallic or matte-coated iris shiny whatsitcalled. It's blue. It's unadulterated, I think I'll be light blue! I think I'll have a white band! I think I'll be this awesome stormy dark grey with blue flecks! Ooh, ooh, and I'll be deep ocean never-seen-light-before blue. (Spoken by individual 6mm beads). That kind of blue. I've already got big plans for these beads, not only because my crazy metallic-shiny-and-or-matte-possibly-sandbblasted-slightly-purple-or-green-or-both blue beads often go well with blue, but because I also have green. And honey-colored, and dark red, and more green, and amber. I have crystals and spacer beads. I have not enough spacer beads, as I discovered only halfway through my sodalite-induced beading delirium. I made a sweet earring with a design I'm very proud of, incorporating a lot of dark blue symmetry and silvery sparkle, and oh, I'm so happy with it. I am 6 spacer beads short of making the other one in the pair. And off to order more!
And here is a sad note, to explain my near-total lack of activity, as though anyone out there on the internet knew about it:
So, almost all of the pieces I have sold so far have been my flocks of cranes. I'm all right with that. They are excellent. They are my babies. They are cheap to make and cheap to sell. They are cute and rather awesome, they get lots of compliments, everyone likes them. I have a pair for every mood, and somebody comments almost every day. I was the only person on the whole internet (!!!) that I could find who would sell more than one crane on a single earring - nobody else seems to have thought of a flock. Too bad I can't patent the idea.
But they are a LOT of work. Like I said, they are cheap, but they take a very long time to make, and then I have to seal them with varnish because, come on, I'm not the kind of person to sell something that I would expect to fall apart immediately. They're made of paper, they're not in it for the long haul, but I still want to give them an advantage, and so I double- or triple-coat them in whatever the best varnish is that I can find. It takes FOREVER.
See: Even at five minutes per crane (a lowwwww estimate) 8 cranes per pair makes it 45 minutes JUST TO FOLD THEM. Forget measuring and cutting the paper into neat little squares, forget measuring the head pins and eye pins and making them all hang together. THEN the varnishing, which in itself takes a huge chunk of time because they need to dry between coats. And then, as if that's not enough, I have to photograph them in attractive poses (cranes are not meant to lie down) and resize those pictures and make them square and post descriptions...
I guess I've made my point. The whole process bogs me down. I feel the pain of poor Tessa Stone, the writer of the most excellent comic in the world, who just got absolutely killed by con season. It's all the extraneous stuff that takes you away from your art that ends up killing your inspiration. I really don't want that to happen to me...but since I lost my job, this is my sole source of income at the moment.
I am actually losing money on making those...that is, they do not get me enough money for all the time they take. If I didn't like making them and enjoy seeing other people like them so much, I couldn't do it anymore. I end up folding them in class, at lunch, in the middle of social events. Add to that the fact that I am losing money on shipping, too, since I've been needing to buy boxes in which to mail them, and I really don't make anything on this. I am praying that the word gets out that my work is good, and that soon I'll be able to start selling my higher-class items, the ones that cost me more and are triggered by artistic inspiration, not by ooh-that's-neat impulse. Not that I am expecting to make a living on Letterbox Lion just yet...but I need another job! So sad that what you're good at, what you like to do, and what make enough money to pay off your college loans don't always coincide.
END SAD NOTE. This has been a very good day.
And a big thank you to my boyfriend who gives me encouragement by sitting there and saying "I like it" when I hold things up at him.
So, exciting things have been happening on the Letterbox Lion front. Today was a landmark day in lots of ways, which is probably why I have such an urge to blog about it. I mailed my tenth online sale - of course, it's not my tenth sale, only the tenth that happened over etsy, but still. I started experimenting today, too. This was the first time I have worked with gold (!) ever (!), and since it wasn't as snobbish to work with as I'd imagined, I'd like to put it out there that I'm more than willing to do it again. I don't have much, since for my first ever gold project I didn't order much, but I'd be happy to have an excuse to acquire more, and use up the rest. ALSO TODAY I got my first gemstones.
Okay, let me stop to talk about that. I've always been wary of using gemstones, in the way of a little girl in awe of horses. Swarovski crystals are so consistent, and I shouldn't buy gemstones, I won't know what to do with them, they don't come catered to my order, they won't match with anything I have, blah blah excuses blah. If I want crystal, I can get it in practically any plausible (and some not-so-plausible) combination of color and tint and shade and coating and sparkle and opacity that I could POSSIBLY want. Gemstones, however, do what they want. They are all different. They are whatever color the earth formed them in. It's intimidating. It's exhilarating. I am having SO much fun.
I don't know why fusionbeads.com is discontinuing sodalite beads. They are gorgeous. I am so glad I bought them, even if it was because I wanted to try gemstones and those were the ones on clearance sale. If I had been updating this regularly, you'd already know that I have a weird fixation on dark blue beads...most of my inventory is some form of dark blue or something to complement dark blue. While I have been trying to branch out, I thought when I ordered them, hey, I lucked out - sodalite is blue, too.
Shockingly, though, it is ACTUAL blue. It's not some subtly purpley green shade of off-blue. It's not metallic or matte-coated iris shiny whatsitcalled. It's blue. It's unadulterated, I think I'll be light blue! I think I'll have a white band! I think I'll be this awesome stormy dark grey with blue flecks! Ooh, ooh, and I'll be deep ocean never-seen-light-before blue. (Spoken by individual 6mm beads). That kind of blue. I've already got big plans for these beads, not only because my crazy metallic-shiny-and-or-matte-possibly-sandbblasted-slightly-purple-or-green-or-both blue beads often go well with blue, but because I also have green. And honey-colored, and dark red, and more green, and amber. I have crystals and spacer beads. I have not enough spacer beads, as I discovered only halfway through my sodalite-induced beading delirium. I made a sweet earring with a design I'm very proud of, incorporating a lot of dark blue symmetry and silvery sparkle, and oh, I'm so happy with it. I am 6 spacer beads short of making the other one in the pair. And off to order more!
And here is a sad note, to explain my near-total lack of activity, as though anyone out there on the internet knew about it:
So, almost all of the pieces I have sold so far have been my flocks of cranes. I'm all right with that. They are excellent. They are my babies. They are cheap to make and cheap to sell. They are cute and rather awesome, they get lots of compliments, everyone likes them. I have a pair for every mood, and somebody comments almost every day. I was the only person on the whole internet (!!!) that I could find who would sell more than one crane on a single earring - nobody else seems to have thought of a flock. Too bad I can't patent the idea.
But they are a LOT of work. Like I said, they are cheap, but they take a very long time to make, and then I have to seal them with varnish because, come on, I'm not the kind of person to sell something that I would expect to fall apart immediately. They're made of paper, they're not in it for the long haul, but I still want to give them an advantage, and so I double- or triple-coat them in whatever the best varnish is that I can find. It takes FOREVER.
See: Even at five minutes per crane (a lowwwww estimate) 8 cranes per pair makes it 45 minutes JUST TO FOLD THEM. Forget measuring and cutting the paper into neat little squares, forget measuring the head pins and eye pins and making them all hang together. THEN the varnishing, which in itself takes a huge chunk of time because they need to dry between coats. And then, as if that's not enough, I have to photograph them in attractive poses (cranes are not meant to lie down) and resize those pictures and make them square and post descriptions...
I guess I've made my point. The whole process bogs me down. I feel the pain of poor Tessa Stone, the writer of the most excellent comic in the world, who just got absolutely killed by con season. It's all the extraneous stuff that takes you away from your art that ends up killing your inspiration. I really don't want that to happen to me...but since I lost my job, this is my sole source of income at the moment.
I am actually losing money on making those...that is, they do not get me enough money for all the time they take. If I didn't like making them and enjoy seeing other people like them so much, I couldn't do it anymore. I end up folding them in class, at lunch, in the middle of social events. Add to that the fact that I am losing money on shipping, too, since I've been needing to buy boxes in which to mail them, and I really don't make anything on this. I am praying that the word gets out that my work is good, and that soon I'll be able to start selling my higher-class items, the ones that cost me more and are triggered by artistic inspiration, not by ooh-that's-neat impulse. Not that I am expecting to make a living on Letterbox Lion just yet...but I need another job! So sad that what you're good at, what you like to do, and what make enough money to pay off your college loans don't always coincide.
END SAD NOTE. This has been a very good day.
And a big thank you to my boyfriend who gives me encouragement by sitting there and saying "I like it" when I hold things up at him.
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