Creating from the Reality Provided the Reality Desired
mArtica is a company predicated on the understanding of Compassion as the enduring human truth that benefiting others benefits ourselves. Those closest to us socially are most likely to work toward our personal better interests along with their own, and to experience our well being as keeping with their own better interest and benefit as well. The ramifications of this are far reaching, extend beyond municipal understanding, are startlingly pertinent to our lives and - I believe - hold the key to understanding meaning with significance and personal value in excess of our society's traditional norms. Current projects are Tacoma's Outsider's Guide and our joyful Lumins Festivus. |
The Meaning of Life, the Universe & Everything
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The Guide, and mArtica
My company name is taken from my WA State driver's license, adopted from my name. So my company is just me, and represents in simplest terms the views I hold on the world, my own place in it, and how I desire to foster in my community benefit exceeding the value of a dollar. Since I, in effect, am mArtica, this Guide is a mArtican concept*.
Presenting those people, organizations, places of interest and businesses I believe offer the better experience in my adopted home town, my goal is to connect together those providing us our better ways of life, and to promote the individual, local, regional and global better interests of you, me, our loved ones and our broader communities together and as a whole.
The Means, and History to this Point
By Winter of 2009 I had concluded a time of travel back home, to the Texan South, along with a visit to family then living on Cape Cod, MA. No place on earth could be more diametrically dissimilar to the thriving green Pacific Northwest landscape than the sweltering concrete sprawl of the city of my birth (Houston), and no place busier, more self vaunting and unapologetically brash than Massachusetts in tourist season.
During my time away I missed our modest, softer spoken over-achieving town. I missed our ways of life, developed a deeply seated appreciation for the higher quality of life our Northwest region offers, and began to contemplate a local-only Guide to my adopted home town, Tacoma, WA. I love this place and appreciate those that make us the standards-exceeding town I daily experience. So this Guide is my attempt to introduce outsiders to the greater value throughout our landscape and to benefit those daily creating the environment in which we live. By doing so I hope to bring value to our community in my own way.
By Autumn 2011 I had accomplished a simple task: In effect, had written the first version of this Guide, having removed categorically the larger corporations that compete with our local ways, providing a personal account of those places I and friends most enjoy and respect for what they offer. The Guide originally numbered 80 pages, and I felt in order to be a legitimate Guide to our community, it needed most the feedback of our Community itself.
The Great Power of 1 Social Degree
In Tacoma, we say ours is a 'community of 2 degrees,' which means if I don't know you personally, someone I know knows someone that does know you. And in fact, socially (i.e. in the business realms and the arts) we are almost a community of a mere 1 degree, which means if I don't know you, someone I do know knows you directly. (For more on social degrees, read here, and for how this translates into numbers, read here)
Reasoning in this way, I sought to involve those I knew were like-minded, community-oriented and well respected people for the part they play in Tacoma - I desired their input specifically. I made my list of recipients in the Winter of 2011 and emailed it off with the request that others add to it what I had overlooked. It was well received by the 60+ people I hand-picked, and within 2 weeks the Guide had grown from an original 80 pages to about 120 - a 50% increase. The Guide was then in a PDF format, and called 'an Outsider's Guide to Tacoma's Better Life & Culture.'
I have spoken with dozens (maybe hundreds) of others developing the Guide these last few years, and throughout this entire process have realized many things, the most important of which are:
1) People here do actually care - having invested in our town, we perceive our well being as tied directly to the lifestyle means made available through the work we independent ones more or less effect throughout our landscape. We desire these options in increasing variety for ourselves, our loved ones and future generations.
2) I would likely receive more feedback than I could personally handle alone (this Guide is a project of love - no one else had yet offered to help, but now there is a platform for that).
3) a PDF was not adequate to the needs of such a resource, and a website was inevitable - facilitating access is the progress.
4) Possibly most important, I realized that within our local artisan and small business community our competition is not with ourselves, but with the larger, impersonal out-of-state, life-in-a-box businesses that occupy our busiest intersections, inundate our senses with their messages disproportionately in our media, and often encourage us to make decisions less in keeping with our personal better interests, and more in keeping with their own disinterested profits.
Such may be business in 21st Century America, but such is not the best business available to us - so this Guide intends to connect us to those that do in fact provide us real personal benefit, who provide value beyond a dollar daily creating the local landscape our community thrives in.
Sledboarding, a Sprain and a Blessing in Disguise
In February 2012 we finally had snow, and I was out in it, in Wright Park, treating sleds like snowboards and I . . sprained my ankle. Immobile for the better part of a week, restless and highly irritated with myself, I set about something productive and built the first rendition of the current website, renaming the project, 'Tacoma's Outsider's Guide.'
I did no search engine optimization (SEO), and no advertising - in fact I originally kept the face of it very boring, specifically hoping to avoid those more concerned with their media presence than the authenticity and integrity of this Work. I simply sent the site to friends, and soon had hundreds of visitors.
The average time spent on the website, for the first 2 months, 200+ visitors in, was 55 minutes (really - people were reading, and reading . .) At 4 months, the average time was about 44 minutes. 800+ visitors in (conservatively), the average time spent was still over 22 minutes - an outrageous time to spend anywhere online.
And I stopped looking at numbers, understanding the real value latent in this work: Our community cares as much as I do.
Since then and In Conclusion
Some time ago I stopped adding businesses to the Guide until it was ready to present as it is now, ready for additions from others, designed well enough to be effective and with the processes in place necessary for maintaining integrity and authenticity both, always allowing the interpretation of the community environs to be in the hands and words of those closest to them - the Artists, small business and family communities. One thing we really need as a community is an intuitive way to offer clear presentation of the benefits provided by known and dependable, independent small businesses in a variety of fields - we need road maps for where to find what we want within our own communities, and it is my aim to develop them with like minded others under the platform of this Guide.
Family owned companies excel in providing real benefit, adding to the strength and prosperity of our local culture a value far exceeding that measured by a dollar. So I build them up by presenting a window into who they are and what they offer. Focusing on this aspect myself, with others adding as they desire their own input and perspectives, we will soon have an intuitive, easy-to-understand road map for finding what we want nearby where we are. We will also have the resources needed to delve into our histories, legends and community goings on if we like to.
Also, every Autumn I and a growing community of others celebrate life in the Sound with an Autumnal Procession of Lights called the Lumins Festivus. This celebrates our community as we are, and life in the South Sound as it is. We hope you'll join us for it, help us in the creation of this Guide, or both.
I wish you find your pleasant good place here, and entreat you to experience the town I have come to love so much.
What You Can Do
Destiny Home
Thoughts on indi
My Business Background
*Donations, however, are not run through my company - nothing is purchased, but they are gifts encouraging my personal efforts.
Presenting those people, organizations, places of interest and businesses I believe offer the better experience in my adopted home town, my goal is to connect together those providing us our better ways of life, and to promote the individual, local, regional and global better interests of you, me, our loved ones and our broader communities together and as a whole.
The Means, and History to this Point
By Winter of 2009 I had concluded a time of travel back home, to the Texan South, along with a visit to family then living on Cape Cod, MA. No place on earth could be more diametrically dissimilar to the thriving green Pacific Northwest landscape than the sweltering concrete sprawl of the city of my birth (Houston), and no place busier, more self vaunting and unapologetically brash than Massachusetts in tourist season.
During my time away I missed our modest, softer spoken over-achieving town. I missed our ways of life, developed a deeply seated appreciation for the higher quality of life our Northwest region offers, and began to contemplate a local-only Guide to my adopted home town, Tacoma, WA. I love this place and appreciate those that make us the standards-exceeding town I daily experience. So this Guide is my attempt to introduce outsiders to the greater value throughout our landscape and to benefit those daily creating the environment in which we live. By doing so I hope to bring value to our community in my own way.
By Autumn 2011 I had accomplished a simple task: In effect, had written the first version of this Guide, having removed categorically the larger corporations that compete with our local ways, providing a personal account of those places I and friends most enjoy and respect for what they offer. The Guide originally numbered 80 pages, and I felt in order to be a legitimate Guide to our community, it needed most the feedback of our Community itself.
The Great Power of 1 Social Degree
In Tacoma, we say ours is a 'community of 2 degrees,' which means if I don't know you personally, someone I know knows someone that does know you. And in fact, socially (i.e. in the business realms and the arts) we are almost a community of a mere 1 degree, which means if I don't know you, someone I do know knows you directly. (For more on social degrees, read here, and for how this translates into numbers, read here)
Reasoning in this way, I sought to involve those I knew were like-minded, community-oriented and well respected people for the part they play in Tacoma - I desired their input specifically. I made my list of recipients in the Winter of 2011 and emailed it off with the request that others add to it what I had overlooked. It was well received by the 60+ people I hand-picked, and within 2 weeks the Guide had grown from an original 80 pages to about 120 - a 50% increase. The Guide was then in a PDF format, and called 'an Outsider's Guide to Tacoma's Better Life & Culture.'
I have spoken with dozens (maybe hundreds) of others developing the Guide these last few years, and throughout this entire process have realized many things, the most important of which are:
1) People here do actually care - having invested in our town, we perceive our well being as tied directly to the lifestyle means made available through the work we independent ones more or less effect throughout our landscape. We desire these options in increasing variety for ourselves, our loved ones and future generations.
2) I would likely receive more feedback than I could personally handle alone (this Guide is a project of love - no one else had yet offered to help, but now there is a platform for that).
3) a PDF was not adequate to the needs of such a resource, and a website was inevitable - facilitating access is the progress.
4) Possibly most important, I realized that within our local artisan and small business community our competition is not with ourselves, but with the larger, impersonal out-of-state, life-in-a-box businesses that occupy our busiest intersections, inundate our senses with their messages disproportionately in our media, and often encourage us to make decisions less in keeping with our personal better interests, and more in keeping with their own disinterested profits.
Such may be business in 21st Century America, but such is not the best business available to us - so this Guide intends to connect us to those that do in fact provide us real personal benefit, who provide value beyond a dollar daily creating the local landscape our community thrives in.
Sledboarding, a Sprain and a Blessing in Disguise
In February 2012 we finally had snow, and I was out in it, in Wright Park, treating sleds like snowboards and I . . sprained my ankle. Immobile for the better part of a week, restless and highly irritated with myself, I set about something productive and built the first rendition of the current website, renaming the project, 'Tacoma's Outsider's Guide.'
I did no search engine optimization (SEO), and no advertising - in fact I originally kept the face of it very boring, specifically hoping to avoid those more concerned with their media presence than the authenticity and integrity of this Work. I simply sent the site to friends, and soon had hundreds of visitors.
The average time spent on the website, for the first 2 months, 200+ visitors in, was 55 minutes (really - people were reading, and reading . .) At 4 months, the average time was about 44 minutes. 800+ visitors in (conservatively), the average time spent was still over 22 minutes - an outrageous time to spend anywhere online.
And I stopped looking at numbers, understanding the real value latent in this work: Our community cares as much as I do.
Since then and In Conclusion
Some time ago I stopped adding businesses to the Guide until it was ready to present as it is now, ready for additions from others, designed well enough to be effective and with the processes in place necessary for maintaining integrity and authenticity both, always allowing the interpretation of the community environs to be in the hands and words of those closest to them - the Artists, small business and family communities. One thing we really need as a community is an intuitive way to offer clear presentation of the benefits provided by known and dependable, independent small businesses in a variety of fields - we need road maps for where to find what we want within our own communities, and it is my aim to develop them with like minded others under the platform of this Guide.
Family owned companies excel in providing real benefit, adding to the strength and prosperity of our local culture a value far exceeding that measured by a dollar. So I build them up by presenting a window into who they are and what they offer. Focusing on this aspect myself, with others adding as they desire their own input and perspectives, we will soon have an intuitive, easy-to-understand road map for finding what we want nearby where we are. We will also have the resources needed to delve into our histories, legends and community goings on if we like to.
Also, every Autumn I and a growing community of others celebrate life in the Sound with an Autumnal Procession of Lights called the Lumins Festivus. This celebrates our community as we are, and life in the South Sound as it is. We hope you'll join us for it, help us in the creation of this Guide, or both.
I wish you find your pleasant good place here, and entreat you to experience the town I have come to love so much.
What You Can Do
Destiny Home
Thoughts on indi
My Business Background
*Donations, however, are not run through my company - nothing is purchased, but they are gifts encouraging my personal efforts.
