Musings

Polar Bears and Coca-Cola

Renee — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:53:52 +0000

Does anyone else feel as annoyed as I do that Coca-Cola is still using polar bears to sell their product? Besides being just weird, what types of messages are they projecting? I suspect a denial of climate change, that polar bears are just cute, not endangered, and all is well in the consumer world. Anway, regardless of your stance, i decided to write to Coca-Cola and tell them what I thought. Because I'm lame and didn't copy my letter before I sent it into the ether, I will highly paraphrase what I said.

"Since I suspect you will continue to use polar bears to sell your product no matter how gross I or others think it is, I have a Big Idea for you, it's really a no brainer. Give 50% of the profits you make from these commericals and donate it to an organization or two whose mission, or part of it, is to save polar bears and fight climate change. To save you some trouble, here are three organizations who do that. Or pick your own. Yeah, you may lose a little money, but I suspect it's a drop in the bucket compared to your overall annual profit.

Polar Bears International

World Wildlife Fund

Defenders of Wildlife

Etc."

If I actually hear back I'll update this post.

Open Studios is a-comin'

Renee — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:50:41 +0000

Once again I am participating in San Francisco Open Studios. This year I'll be showing at Public Glass, the center where I actually do a lot of my glass art activity. Come on by to check out my and 9 others' glass art, and I can show you around the facility too.

Moving Planet Day

Renee — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:44:58 +0000

Organized by 350.org, a day of living without fossil fuels. One day, that's nothing.

New Glass Portfolio on Tumbler

Renee — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:17:26 +0000

I realized I needed to separate by two businesses and create a separate glass site. I liked this theme from Tumbler and it's all about the images. It's a slow migration, but feel free to let me know what you think...

http://reneeandersonglass.tumblr.com/

Glass Show details

Renee — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:50:35 +0000

∆T + SiO2

[fire + sand = glass]

The alchemy of glass has been enriching cultures for over 5000 years.
Come see what a diverse group of contemporary glass artists from Public Glass have created with fire and sand.

Terry Ow-Wing (http://glassart.weebly.com/portraits.html)
Rene Hendrix
Sarah Cadwallader
Robin Humphreys (www.copperhead723.etsy.com)
Kelly Burlingham (www.stillmotionglass.com)
Eric White (http://artglasssf.com/lampworking/index.html)
Linda Bassett
Herb Dang (http://web.me.com/herbatlarge/Play_with_Fire)
Renee Anderson (http://www.propellance.com/sample-glasswork/)
Anne Hughes

- Kiln-formed, flame worked and cast pieces
- Both functional and sculptural

Come mingle with fellow glass lovers for our opening and enjoy food, wine, music and glass blowing and flame working demonstrations.

Opening - Saturday, May 28th 5:30 - 8:30
Hot Glass Cold Beer - Saturday, June 18th, 6-9pm
Closing - Sunday, June 26th 1:00 - 5:00

Also available for viewing during Public Glass open hours.
http://www.publicglass.org/

Catalyst Commons demo is live

Renee — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:10:32 +0000

One of the reasons I returned to the freelance world was to choose the types of projects that felt important to me, and that made my inner do-goody feel a tad bit better about being a lazy ass about political and social issues. I get Really Mad all the time about all the awful and really, really dumb things our politicians are (aren't) doing, but do I actually stand up and make a fuss? No. I'm not a Santa Cruz banana slug anymore, and dammit, I'm tired. But I also know that the greatest impact can be behind the scenes.

[This is not unrelated.] I am a snobby foodie. I love eating and will never be svelt. I can hardly go out to eat at fancy places anyore because Erik and I rock it at home. (Give me bahn mi anytime though, or mac and cheese with bacon.) I follow the trends, the blogs, the food network, new restaurant openings, closings, the soap operatic nature of the food culture in SF and beyond. After all of that, guilty over the unappreciated priviledge that goes with it, I make believe armageddon has arrived and there will be no more coffee or cheese (ack!) or sourdough bread. No more fancy.

This is where a large section of our population now resides. Food inequality in this country is despicable. It's one of the effects of the ever widening of the class divide, and again, something that anyone in a privledged position hardly bothers to examine. Including myself.

So how excited was I and my inner do-goody to find I could wipe away a wee bit of guilt by collaborating with Sarah Brooks, Laura Haertling and Cody Andreson on a non-profit startup, Catalyst Commons, aimed at tackling the entire US agriculture and food production system. A large undertaking no doubt. Scary. Look at the Big Picture infographic to get a feel for the breadth of what this non-profit is attempting to do.

The site is currently a demo, presented at a recent conference (click on the blinking arrows to move from static page to static page). Catalyst Commons, spearheaded by Melanie Cheng, a local SF Mission-based non-profit entrepreneur, is in the process of raising additional funding to build out the entire system. Once built, it will be both a data and information warehouse, and a matchmaking service between projects needing funding and VC's and grantmakers looking to fund new initiatives in the space.

Upcoming glass show

Renee — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:45:16 +0000

It will be at Public Glass, the opening is Saturday May 28 (Memorial Day). I will send out more details as we get closer to the date.

Gotcha!

Renee — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:29:16 +0000

ok, I read comments on news stories, CNN, Yahoo, places where the conservative media obviously pay stay-at-home randoms to be asinine (not that they would know what that word meant). I admit it's a horribly masochistic habit. So in a case like this, where there's a story about taxes, the disparity of wealth, and stats that can't be refuted, sigh. I love that there is nowhere a whisper from paid trolls and the brainless.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110316/ts_yblog_thelookout/chart-shows-low-tax-burden-for-rich

Support NPR and PBS

Renee — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:15:28 +0000

I'm always looking for simple explanations

Renee — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:56:52 +0000

I am so glad I stumbled across Karen McGrane's blog. I don't even know how I got there (that silly internet full of links and things). She writes about UX and IA and CS, puts presentations on slideshare, and is kind of funny in that geeky "you know you're a UXer-ish person when..." way.

I'm giving her full credit on this screenshot from her presentation "We are all content strategists now" - I love the simplicity, and I love that it's so effective in defending why content can't be forgotten.

And after reading Peter's post and resulting comments (if you're reading this, you know what I'm talking about), this was so refreshing. And calming. Oasis like.