Happy Thanks-day to All Our USA Java-pals!

Our Java-pal, the "Leather Lawyer"

Our java-amigo, Daniel Denton, is a lawyer, a former organic chemist for the pharmaceutical industry, and also a gifted leather artist.  The photos above are a small representation of the colourful and exacting leather work he does.  For more examples, go to http://www.facebook.com/flyingd.leather.  If you've a project in mind -- say, a customised seat for your motorcycle, a briefcase (you should see his!), a wallet, whatever -- get in touch with him.  His work will be featured soon in "Cowboys and Indians" magazine, so get in touch with him before demand drives his prices higher.

Caveat Venditor, Starbucks...

This cartoon is by the ever-brilliant Mick Stevens, New Yorker magazine
Buy the framed print at http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Braithwaite-Starbucks-How-may-we-help-you-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8543850_.htm

"What Starbucks has created around coffee is

an extension of the front porch.

If you look at the UK, the English pub is an extension of

people's homes but for a different beverage.

Our stores have become a gathering and meeting place

in addition to the coffee."

~Howard Schultz, Chairman/CEO Starbucks

After several weeks of finding local store and office personnel unresponsive to issues regarding faulty Wi-Fi and an approaching remodel of the store, a group of us who are regulars at Starbucks Location X decided to "bump the thread".  We met, listed our specific concerns, and Gitanajava Productions drafted the following letter, written to Starbucks via their website.  We posted our letter the evening of Friday, 6th April 2012.  Now, we're waiting to see what, if any, response we'll get from Starbucks.

Buckle your seatbelts, here we go...

Lo, the Winter Is Past...

Free Screensavers!

Photo & Design by Gitanajava Productions, copyright 2012.
Free for personal use ONLY. Original at http://tiny.cc/JASMINE.

Photo & Design by Gitanajava Productions, LLC, copyright 2012.
Free for personal use ONLY. Original at http://tiny.cc/GATE.

Our lives have seasons, passages of change we endure or enjoy.  One season, we dance gracefully through; the next season, we crawl or braille our way slowly, excruciatingly.  I've been in a long winter, punctuated now and then with hints of spring.

Just a quick word of encouragement to you, my reading friend, and for myself, too:  

Falling Headlong Into Another World...

Design by Gitanajava Productions PR, LLC
Find it at http://tiny.cc/JAusten

If I'm a Jane Austen fan, it's as an admiring bystander of the language, customs, and history of the Regency/Napoleonic era more so than as a Janeite or romantic.  So, as I flipped the pages of Cindy Jones' book, My Jane Austen Summer, trying to decide whether or not to add it to my already lofty stack of books, I was braced to bolt and run at the first sign of words like swoon or limpid or cerulean orbs.  I needn't have worried.  I was hijacked and hooked anyway -- how'd that happen?

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon...

Free screensaver from Gitanajava Productions, right-click to save OR
go to http://tiny.cc/SailOn. For your personal use only.

Free screensaver from Gitanajava Productions, right-click to save OR
go to http://tiny.cc/Wanderlust. For your personal use only.

Friends, I hope your Sunday was a blissful balance of tension, joy, good news & uncertainty, friendship affirmed and strangers-becoming-friends.  Wind in our faces, waves lapping at the skiff, hot, fragrant coffee in the thermos, indulging our wanderlust along newly-discovered roads.

Today, I learned a beloved friend is cancer-free and has a new four-legged companion, "Angel" by name and nature, a black and tan dog of unknown breed.  All this, plus an extraordinarily beautiful day, part autumn and part spring.  Life is Good, even when you've more questions than answers.

See you on the patio!

Our Steamy New QR Code ;-)

Scan this!
(If you have the QR code reader app installed on your smartfone.)

Our thanks to QRilize.com, currently in Beta, for designing an easy, yet elegant, tool for generating QR codes.  Did I mention QRilize is free, but you must register to save your files.  QRilize, you rock!

See you on the patio!

Follow the Love!

Free Screensaver, for you from Gitanajava Productions LLC.
Right-click to download.  For your personal use ONLY.

Your Nonprofit: Ready for Take-Off or About to Crash & Burn?

Photo Courtesy of NASA.gov

Fiscal Sponsorship for

Wannabe & Transitioning Nonprofits

Are you the founder or idea person behind a wannabe nonprofit organisation?  Is your fledgling nonprofit poised and ready to raise funds, but lacking legal nonprofit status?  Are you the designated hitter for the turnaround of an existing nonproft that's drowning in a quicksand of legal, financial, and operational troubles?  Fiscal Sponsorship may be the solution you need.

Stop SOPA, H.R. 3261