Category: General

I’ll get straight to the point: I’m a coward.

I would like to think I am brave and that I’d be the person to tackle someone else out of the way of a speeding vehicle, but I know that these thoughts are good intentions rather than tested reality. Yelling makes me feel upset. I don’t even like debates between my friends, and I often break them up my turning the subject into a joke.

There are a number of reasons that could be the cause for this, or the reasons together are the cause. That’s not really the point of this post.

I take a ‘consent is cement – do no harm’ view of the world. I am perfectly happen to let people do as they please so long as it doesn’t negatively influence anyone else.

Now, I know this is a grey area in and of itself. What is ‘harm’ to some isn’t harm to others. So I fully admit the limitations of my worldview and the bias that is an inherent part of it.

Recently, with Dear Anonymous submissions and some calls for zine submissions, I have had people express their uncertainty about what they are submitting. Whether it be ‘too dark’ or something that’s ‘too out there’ for DA or for this blog. I didn’t think anything of the submissions at first, and I happily reassured all of them that it was okay.

Note: I do have my limits for what I’ll put in my zines and on this blog, but no one has come close to that line.

The thing is, though, that other people’s lines will be in very different positions. By the very nature of our current society, to take one step in any direction is to move in opposition to someone else. To do nothing is, by its own nature, still an action that causes opposition because you are immediately not doing something that others have.

This tenet of our lives is something I struggle to accept, but it’s existence doesn’t rely on my acceptance. It exists. Therefore, I also need to accept that I can never make everyone happy or bow to everyone’s wishes. I simply must be and do what brings me peace at the end of the day.

Therein lies the struggle of what to post and what to publish. Accepting that someone, somewhere is going to be angry is not something I want to do. At the same time, I know I can’t use huge amounts of my energy trying to keep everyone happy.

I’m not asking anyone permission to post what I want here. This is my blog, so there is no call for that.

What I am asking is that this blog continue to have the positive energy that I put into it. Openness. Acceptance. Plus some understanding at the times when I can’t be open and accepting because of the things that have shaped the person I am today.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. Whether you agree or disagree, I appreciate that you’ve given me your time.

“The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” – Thomas Paine

TL;DR

I’m doing my own thing and walking my own path here at SGZ. Some things might offend you. Please don’t take that out on me or anyone else here. It is your choice to be offended or to close the page and walk away.

Yeah, I’ve become a tad bit obsessed with ‘Bokeh’. No more bokeh posting for at least a month!

Hehe.

Okay! So, it is the first day of a new year, and it also happens to be a Thursday. No review for today (if you hadn’t already guessed that), but things will be back to normal tomorrow.

Yes, as the post title suggests, I am in the midst of collecting my thought bubbles. I’m feeling pretty good and confident about what is happening here on SGZ with posting and such. I do, however, have two other blogs and a stack of zines I would like to create.

Dear Anonymous 3 is at the top of the list. I’ve had a few more submissions come in, so I’ve slipped back from being about halfway through. I’m still shooting for a January launch. There is also Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2 coming up after that as well as a SOOPER SEKRET ZEEN that I am so excited about.

If I had only that, then things would be going a lot faster. But I also am in the middle of designing a 2015 planner that will also help people with mental illness (focusing on the up/down nature of bipolar) track their moods and mood influencers. (That is too a word, WordPress!) The 2014 holiday season really packed a punch this year, so this planner is for me. I am planning on releasing a less Nyx-specific planner/mood tracker a bit later.

So that’s what I’m up to and what I’m thinking about. I don’t know if anyone actually likes these posts (besides me because I am such a voyeur interested in people’s lives). It does feel good to sit down and sort it all out in my head, though.

Upwards and onwards!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 690 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 12 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Postage to and from Australia can be a bit of a piss off.

We’re kind of stuck here with a long way to go to get anywhere. So, of course postage is going to suck. Even so, you can imagine my shock when a potential trade went up in smoke because:

I went to the post office… and they wanted to charge me over $20 to send three zines.

Wait… wait… What?

I know we’re far away and all, but in no universe does it cost that much to send zines to Australia. I took a couple pictures to prove it:

This envelope contained three zines (US half-fold), a greeting-type card and a business card.

This one contained one zine (US half-fold), a mini-zine, and a single-page note.

If your post office tries to tell you that sending a few zines costs more than $20:

1. Make sure they are charging for letter post, not parcel post. I’m not sure if those are the exact categories in US mail, but it all comes down to sending documents versus sending other items.

2. Ask for other shipping options. They might be trying to put you down for first class, express shipping or some other such stuff. They might be assuming that you want extra cover, sign at the door, blah blah blah.

3. If they still insist that it’s $20+ (and you’re definitely sending paper material only), then screw them and either go to another office or go pre-paid. Even a pre-paid First-Class Mail® International Large Envelope only costs $12.60 USD. How do I know?

4. Look it up on the USPS International Postage Calculator. If you do that, then you can say you did that and hold them accountable.

There’s my little rant for the day. It may seem like a small thing to some, but it’s definitely not to me. For reasons.

I mentioned Friend/ship Books in my Happy Mail post this week, and a question came up as to what the things are.

Friendship books (also known as “FBs” in their abbreviated form) are small booklets made by stapling paper together, or are sometimes just sheets or strips of paper. They are usually decorated and the person who starts the book writes their name and address as the first person sending the book. People often include a list of interests as well. The FB is then passed around from penpal to penpal, and can often also become a way for one to meet new penpals. Most people hope to see the book again once it is full so they add their return address to the back cover of the book too, or inscribe “Return to Sender” on it. People also sometimes make FBs for someone else rather than themselves, in which case they write the name and address of the recipient on the front/at the top. Some people find friendship books fun because you can see where they have been in a trail back to the original sender/recipient.

– Wikipedia

Here is one of the ones I received:

Post-its with black marker were put over the addresses, but you get the idea. This is one of the nicer ones. The others are a bit ‘rougher’.

Inside, people write their addresses (if they want) along with specifics in regards to the people they want (and don’t want) to write to them.

If I recall correctly, there are little codes that are used to designate these things shorthand. Ah, yep! At the bottom of the Wiki page, you’ll find the abbreviations.

So there you go! Some people find them annoying, some people think it’s fun to see where they get to in the world… (Once it’s filled up, you’re meant to send it to the person who made it/whom it was made for.)

Have I mentioned how much I love Sticky in Melbourne? It’s a great place and one I am very glad to say stocks my zines. I spent a bit of time in Melbourne last week. More on that to come later.

I’ve been thinking about how I want to proceed with this blog and my zine activities in general. Some might say too much thought at this point, but I want to do things right. I also want to do things in a way that makes the sustainable.

What you might not know about me is that I have bipolar disorder. While I manage things quite well now with the medication, I still can get into depressive swings that make it hard to keep up with things. So I want to do things in a way that will make everything habit. Routine is the saving grace of people who deal with mental illness. With that in mind…

I’m going to keep calls for submissions on the weekends. I love posting up things and getting a bit of a shout out going for different zine makers, but I don’t want this blog to become the grand index of calls for submissions. It sounds like fun, but that’s not a part of the project I want to take on (at least at this point).

Zine reviews are coming! What does my bipolar mean in terms of zine reviews? Only that I’ll be doing them in bunches, but you won’t notice all that much. I’ll spend a high energy day doing a bunch of reviews and then post them up at once or twice a week. That way I can post a little ahead and cover any blue days. The good news is that it’s coming to summer in Australia, and I have much more energy in summer than I do in winter.

Zine review… videos?! One of the reasons I haven’t jumped right into the zine reviewing stuff is because I also want to do video reviews. I’m sure no one is particularly interested in seeing my face, but I think videos could add something a bit new and different. I’m a little nervous about putting my face – and voice – out there, but I could only find one other person on YouTube doing it.

If you think reviews are good in text only, let me know! I don’t want to start making videos if people think reviews should be text only.

Those are my thoughts right now on the whole thing. Again, maybe I’m thinking too much about it, but I don’t want to drop the ball or get overwhelmed by poor organisation. Until next time…

I think zine reviews could really help round out this blog. (And give it more content. Let’s just call that kettle black.) I was doing reviews for a while before life took me away to other things.

Now that I’m ‘back’, I’ve learned a few things about review in the book world. Specifically, I’ve learned about the stigma that exists against authors doing reviews of other books. The thinking is that there is some sort of conflict of interest (I’m not sure how, as any writer worth their brass does a lot of reading) but also in that it opens the author to ‘revenge reviews’ and the like.

I’d like to think that sort of nonsense doesn’t exist in the zine world, but am I naive in thinking so? In hoping so?

I’ll probably go ahead and do it anyway, but if people aren’t inclined to me doing so… shout out!