I have geraniums planted outside the window of my office. There was one growing wild in my yard and I transplanted it to a big bare space. That space is more like a jungle now. The geraniums are in the back and the roses are in front, and all are growing in wild abandon.
This geranium is tall – within a few inches of the bottom of the window. The dried leaves are from this winter’s snow drops.
I am amazed at the generous beauty of this geranium. I give it no care, but the little wild creatures (rabbits) that live under it may be providing some fertilizer.
Do we just follow along like a bunch of sheep when shopping?
Are we like a line of sheep – or lemmings – when we buy things? Do we just see the name and plunk down our cash so we can own something? What about paying money for knock-offs? By knock-offs I mean someone designed the article, gave it a good reputation, spent money promoting it, and then someone else steals the idea, manufacturers a copy using cheap materials, and sells it to someone who wants a bargain. The knock-off takes advantage of the superior company’s name, their design, their quality product, their advertising, and claims the product for their own.
Those who sell knock-offs have got it down to a science, but today’s rant is something that to me is totally ridiculous. Who would buy a jersey from someone who commented on a blog? Ridiculous! Who would want to do that? Who has any assurance that they’d even get the jersey after sending in the money?
If you have ever considered buying something from a commenter I advise you not to even think about it. If you want to buy something on the Internet it’s a simple thing to search for it. Buy it from the people who did all the hard work and put out a quality product.
The other possibility is that they want me, the blogger, to buy something from them. Ridiculous! Why would I buy something from someone who is spamming me? Yes, spam. That’s what it is: the big nuisance spam that irritates blog owners all over the world.
I’m going to list these people and what they sell. My advice to you is not to buy from these people. I also ask you to blackball the knock-off products they’re selling. Why, because somewhere out there is a sucker who thinks she/he’s getting a bargain. I have a hard time believing it, but it’s the only reason I can think of. A spammer has to do a lot of typing in order to annoy so many blog owners.
So:
Never buy anything from someone who advertises in a comment. Occasionally a blog owner will recommend that you shop with the blogger’s friend. Even be cautious there.
Never answer one of these comments. They may be trolling for email addresses and other information.
The chances are that these are knock-offs – not the product you want to buy
Don’t buy from any of the web sites or products listed below. (Apologies to Nike Air Jordan and Coach handbags, but you’re helping them.)
THE LIST
wholesale League jerseys: Nike Air Jordan
Stan Mikita Jersey: Nike Air Jordan
wholesale Bears jerseys : Nike Air Jordan
wholesale Bills jerseys: Coach Poppy Pink or Art White Handbags
wholesale Panthers jerseys: Nike Air Jordan
Coach Poppy: Air Jordan
whole Blues jerseys: Coach handbags
wholesale Clippers jerseys: wholesale Phillies jerseys, wholesale Pirates jerseys (add the team and another list)
Cheap Jordans: Nike Air Jordan
wholesale Bulls jerseys: Nike Air Jordan
Jordan 2 black: Nike Air Jordan
wholesale League Jerseys (didn’t we just list them?): Jordans, Air Jordan
Wholesale nfl jersey: Air Jordan
Tom Barrasso Jerseys: wholesale Blues Jerseys
Nike Air Max: cheap Coach handbags
Air Max 90 Boot: Air Jordan
Beats Solo HD: Air Jordan
Wholesale Custom Jersey: Coach handbags
Air Max TN: Air Jordan
Tom Barasso Jersey: Coach handbags
This is only half of the spam I received this morning. There is a boring repetition to them. I will continue to delete this spam, but I’d really rather it just stopped.
Last week I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and drove to Santa Fe. I added the bit of driving so I could get the feel of New Mexico before reaching my destination. Well, you have to love the Southwest in order to love that road. Fortunately, I do love the southwest. I love the long vistas and the huge bright blue sky overhead.
Santa Fe was delightful. I stayed at La Fonda, the conference hotel. It’s an old hotel and it’s well preserved in the Santa Fe style. That means stucco painted in some creamy sunsetty color, big logs sticking their ends out, shadowy places and smooth corners.
My room was small, but the bed was new and comfortable and the soaking tub was amazing. Do they still make those lovely deep tubs with a slant on one end so you can lay back with the warm water up to your chin and just relax? Wonderful.
The furniture was painted dark turquoise with a black trim and painted flowers all over it. The painted flowers were all over the hotel. Even direction signs were painted on the walls. Add to that framed posters from events in Santa Fe and some real pieces of art. The artist in me was singing and I hadn’t even been to the famous Santa Fe galleries.
Yes, I went there for a conference, not specifically for the hotel. I went there to attend Left Coast Crime 2011 (Santa Fe). I found myself explaining this to a lot of people. If you stand facing a map of the United States, the left coast is the Pacific Ocean and the right coast is the Atlantic. Just for fun, we westerners call it the left and right coasts. Santa Fe is not near the ocean at all, but it’s part of the area defined for this conference, so there we were.
Even before the conference began I knew this was going to be a good one. I saw it in the happy anticipatory faces of people who were arriving. They were expecting a party and we got one.
We heard the name “Tony Hillerman” splashed around a lot, so I wasn’t too surprised that at the welcome reception, a group of pueblo Indians came to do a Blessing Dance for us. This was to bless the conference. OK. Most of us were delighted to have them, and particularly the smallest who was 1 1/2 years old and dressed to dance. Well, mostly he stood around and looked cute while people took photos.
If I were to describe the dance, I’d say it was something like a line dance in costume. They were fancier than line dancers of course, because they wove in and out making different patterns to the beat of drums and the songs of the singers. In his books, Tony Hillerman often described these dances and it was a treat to see one.
Later in the program Hillerman’s daughter Ann and her husband showed slides of the sites where Hillerman’s books were set. Beautiful colors, beautiful skies, long lonely roads, male rain and female rain (I think male rain is the fall and winter rain while the female rain is the life-giving rain of spring.) About a year and a half ago my husband and I had toured Arizona and New Mexico and since we love Hillerman’s work, we surely would have liked to have Ann’s book about the places. Unfortunately, it wasn’t yet available when we wanted it, though I do have a copy now.
From there on, the conference just got better and better. I started most mornings with crusty, flaky croissants and coffee. Then we heard one author after another talk about how they solved writing and publishing problems. The writers there were so approachable. If they weren’t on one of the panels they were signing books or sitting in on another panel. It was such a friendly atmosphere.
I collected 10 free books at the conference and bought three more. It was not fun getting my luggage to the airport in Albuquerque, but once there I check them through, keeping one to read on the way home. I arrived home exhausted and happy.
Marilynne
If you want to check out Left Coast Crime, try this link. Next year Left Coast Crime will be in Sacramento. Here’s a link for that.
These photos are copyright by Marilynne Smith 2009, 2010, 2011. You may copy them for your own personal use, but you may not sell them or profit from having them in any way.
Watercolors, other art, and photos from guest bloggers are also protected under the copyright law.
Marilynne
