While I was ironing my new super fly Cameesa T and thinking about tomorrow I made an interesting connection: I think Rage would like Cameesa. Here are a few reasons:

1. No presence of “The Man.” Cameesa cuts out the buyer, who supposedly knows the tastes of the buyers, and replaces them with the actual market. Cameesa’s community decides what is printed and sold. There is no controlling authority.

2. Cameesa is run by its community, not a money-hungry CEO. By supporting a design, a community member is directing Cameesa’s activities. Cameesa prints what its community demands. Without Artists submitting high quality designs and the Community making them a reality, there is no Cameesa.

3. Fair revenue distribution. Before Cameesa makes a cent for its production efforts, the Artist and Supporters earn on every T-shirt sold.

4. American Apparel T-shirts. High quality Ts made in Los Angeles by insurance-holding, fairly-paid workers in healthy working conditions. Learn more about them here

I am not suggesting that Cameesa likes Rage (but we do), but these characteristics help define Cameesa. I believe that these principles can be respected by individuals around the world. Who knows, maybe Morello will be wearing “Take Me to Your Reader” at the Republican National Convention next week.

“Passion pulls you to something you cannot resist. Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do. If you know nothing about yourself, you can’t tell the difference. Once you gain a modicum of self-knowledge, you can express your passion”

The problem is people usually work on something for some end goal. Once the end goal is achieved then they’ll do what they want. Randy gives this problem a name, “The Deferred Life Plan”. I have to do something really unsatisfying first so I can make the money to do what I really want. If you’re going to put in all the hard work and time why not devote it to something you give a damn about? If things don’t go as planned at the very least the time will not have been wasted.

Anyhow, I always have a good laugh every time I see a new index card.  One index card I especially liked was “This is what 2.0 means”.

I checked it out, and noticed a few familiar names on the crowdfunding scene: Sellaband and MyFootballClub.  But there were two other companies that I had never heard of: Catwalk Genius and BeerBankRoll.  After poking around a bit, it appears that Catwalk Genius plans to use crowdfunding to sponsor fashion designers.  A noble cause, but I didn’t learn much more since their website is not currently functional.

The other company, BeerBankRoll is much further developed, and aspires to be a crowdfunded brewery.  They have received a fair amount of press around the web, and appear to be steadily signing up people who believe in the idea.  As I lurked around the nether regions of the site, I noticed that they are actually located in a suburb of Chicago!

It’s rare to find crowdfunding companies, but even more rare to find one in your own back yard.  It was encouraging for me to see that crowdfunding is starting to proliferate in the United States.  Hopefully we can catch up to our UK/European brethren soon.  I feel like the biggest challenge is education on the concept.  Once people grasp the premise they start to feel comfortable with participating.

How have I used Google Alerts?  Well, I told Google to e-mail me every time it comes across the word ‘cameesa.’  Get it?  So, I get an e-mail every time Google indexes the word ‘cameesa’.

Check out Google Alerts here.

They spent all this money to get the crazy flash interface and overlooked the basics.  How could something like this have slipped through the cracks?

To see for yourself:

•  Go to http://samsunginstinct.com
• Skip the Intro, and click on Touch at the botto
• Click on Explore Touch next to the phone

I would just give you a direct link, but they chose to develop an all flash site, making it impossible.  Let’s hope that we never do something like this with Cameesa.  If we do, you have my permission to flame me for it.

It was popular and caused waves in the community when initially uploaded. This weekend it heated up, quickly reaching the 100% mark.

I like Jon’s background on the piece:

From The Times, July 14th 1892: “Oxford: The academic community remains abuzz with gossip after the disappearance of young Jeremiah Mugglestone, MA (Oxon.), lexicographer, last seen on Saturday morning. Mr. Mugglestone, the youngest fellow of Balliol, whom Jowett described as being possessed of ‘the finest mind in the Empire’, had reportedly been in a disturbed state for several days.
“Colleagues state that he had become obsessed with the notion of ‘beings from another world’, and claimed to have discovered an ‘alien’ code hidden within the text of a pocket edition of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary. A close friend, Dr. Cadmus Bodway, puts Mugglestone’s behaviour down to ‘a suspected case of library fever’; nevertheless there have been no sightings of the scholar, while his distinctive bowler hat and personal copy of the aforementioned dictionary have been found abandoned amid a scorched patch of grass in the South Parks. A mystery indeed”

I’d like to thank our initial community for their participation on the site.  It’s growing quickly and things are going to become very interesting soon.