A New Mission Statement

    

I've been treating this blog very simply; picking ephemera from the day's eBay listings, and sharing here. Usually with some input from Chat GPT, because Chat lets me have a little fun with the wording of the ads. With Chat, I’ve learned it’s not just the question you ask, but how you ask your question. You can ‘sculpt’ the answer, and the style of the answer, by the asking. Humor, drama, ad-speak, double-speak, a bit of Shakespeare...

But it occurred to me that this has never been how I write blogs. I've had several, none really profitable... but all of them were fun to write and expressed my personality.

On a separate line of thought, I wrote with the idea of using Adsense on the blog to supplement our income. When it felt ready, I applied to Adsense, and they told me the content was thin. Fair enough, I was trying to write a specific volume, without enough to say.

At the same time, the internet privacy situation has been getting scarier and scarier with tons of new laws from multiple countries, and from nearly 20 states so far with more on the way. It’s impossible to follow guidelines… whose? Which state? Which country? And none of them are straightforward. And it’s all too overwhelming.

So I’m going to post things when I feel like, about whatever feels pertinent to the theme. No Adsense, no Affiliate links. You can visit mine and Monique’s eBay stores if you want, or don’t. Doesn’t matter. The link’s there because I talk about eBay, and what I do on eBay. It makes sense that you might want to see what I’m talking about. After all, the whole idea of selling pages cut out of extremely old magazines is kind of hard to wrap your head around if you’ve never heard of it before.

I want writing this blog to be fun again. Writing for the pleasure of sharing ideas. Hopefully someone will enjoy it besides me, but if not, so be it.
With this in mind, I do have a rather esoteric change of subject (or maybe a very deep drill on the same subject) on my mind, something that nobody else seems to have noticed but has driven me mad for nearly a year. Google’s Gemini encouraged me to write about it, and I will. Next post.

1962 General Electric Americana 2 Oven / Ekco Flint Radiant Cookware Print Ad

    I did a nice 2-for-1 today, where I like both ads equally, but for different reasons.  The first is a full-page General Electric ad for a double range.  It's got a lot of description, and a pop of color for the oven.  It's visually appealing, and really 'sells' the product with all the text.

    The second ad is for Ekco Flint Cookware.  This one appeals mainly for the image.  If I was going to keep this ad, instead of sell it on eBay, I'd trim everything away except for the image.  I'd use the 'white space' around it as the matte, and put it directly into a deep rich polished mahogany frame.  The whole display, with her staring pensively at it, the little bird at the top... and whatever the heck those two 'sticks' coming out of the right side, done in gray tones, really catch my attention.

    On to our collaboration with Chat GPT... below is Chat's take on the New Americana '62 GE Oven.  There was so much text, I didn't get tricky with the request at first, but the output was... nice, but uninteresting.  Decided to try again, but asked for a re-write that was "florid and medieval" in style.  The result was fun, and made me laugh a couple of times.   Hope you enjoy Chat's creativity!!

1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Rocket Action Car Romantic Toronado Print Ad Vtg

     I couldn't resist this one.  My first car I bought after leaving home was a shiny black Cutlass Supreme, back around 1982.  It may not have had ALL the options, but it had a fair few, and might have been the best-looking car I ever owned.  I'm not a car guy, but it looked awesome.  I also nearly destroyed it within three days of buying the car.  Being a Georgia boy, I'd never driven in snow until moving to Indiana.  Was in front of a semi when we hit a patch of ice.  Started drifting to the right, I made a mild correction, started drifting to the left, another mild correction.  At that point, it went into a multi-360 spin and there was no chance of correcting any more.  

A couple of times my friend and I were looking straight into the eyes of the truck driver behind us, while he was staring right back.  Still spinning, we eventually skidded off the road, and the trucker kept on going.  A nice guy behind him stopped, and he happened to be driving a truck with a winch.  As we were hooking his chains to our car, he told us he saw the whole thing and thought the semi was going to flatten us.

    My friend John was calm and collected the whole time.  The first two times we started drifting, he warned me "You're gonna lose it, Alan."  Both times I said "I know, John."  When we started spinning wildly, all he said was "You lost it, Alan."  I said "I know, John."  Those were the only words spoken until we came to a full stop and stepped out of the car.

    Ultimately, the only damage the Cutlass took was the loss of one hubcap.  Plus it looked like we'd been mud bogging.  I guess when you go through that much excitement with a car, you get attached to it.  It really was a great car!!