Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: blogs

Just a quick reminder, if your a Facebook Fan of any small business Page (like mine),
your probably NOT getting all of the updates you want to be getting.

If you’ve LIKED a page, you used to get all of the posts automatically… but now that
Facebook has “gone public” now they expect small businesses to actually pay money
to “”Promote” their posts to get them to their Fans! And most people don’t realize.
They may have noticed fewer posts in their News Feed & wondered why. Now we know.

Case in point, for the past five posts I’ve put on my business page,
I’ve only “reached” 5%, 6%, 6%, 16% and 19% of my Fans!
What’s up with that?! That’s not enough for my liking!

If you want to keep getting updates from your favorite Pages, follow these steps…
1. Go to the Page you want to see.
2. Click on the “LIKED” button and watch for the pull-down menu.
3. Click on “Show In News Feed.”
And hope for the best…

Then call Facebook and tell them you don’t like their new methods!!! We want our Fans
to get our Posts, and I shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to do it!!!

 

Categories: bike, sunrise

And a quick question… do you like the sunrise better on the left or right?!

Categories: special events, studio, television

If you’re setting your TiVO for my HGTV debut this Saturday night,
there have been a few “slight” changes. Nothing too big…
but this might help you find it on your DVR???

The new name of the HGTV show is “Meg’s Great Rooms”
and the title of my episode is “Kitchen Transformed With Texture.”
And it’s still all about me… well, at least 20-seconds of it?!!!

Remember, it’s on THIS Saturday night at 8:00pm Central… June 9, 2012.

Categories: blogs

FACEBOOK IS GETTING GREEDY AND WE DON’T LIKE IT.

You’re probably not seeing all (or perhaps any) posts from your favorite Pages (like mine)
in your News Feed because Facebook is now pushing us (page administrators) to pay to
“Promote” their posts to the Fans. Before they “went public” I could make a Facebook post
and it would automatically show up in the News Feeds of all my Fans… who have signed
up and CHOSEN to get my updates! Now, the new greedy Facebook is expecting small
businesses (like mine) to pay big money to “promote” their pages. In the last few weeks,
I can now see how many people have received my posts…
and we’re averaging less than 25%!!!

Click the link below to see what you can do, please share this info with all your friends,
and add Fire When Ready Pottery to your “New List” and click “Show in News Feed”
while you’re there too. Thanks for following me… and…
LET FACEBOOK KNOW WE DON’T LIKE THEIR NEW PRACTICES!!!

Click here for a link to a “shortcut” that might help resolve this issue!

In case you can’t find where to go on your Facebook page, here’s a clue…

Categories: GeoCache

This morning my new addiction took over… beside verbal alliteration…
The sunrise was a little anti-climactic after yesterday’s beautiful sky.
So I decided to play a bit more along the lakefront with my new GeoCaching affliction!

The first one I found today was located between the Waveland Golf Course and the lake.
Apparently, a little more “makeshift” than my first three. I was a little surprised to find a rusty
old Altoids tin as the GeoCache. It’s apparently been there for awhile out in the elements!
Even the scroll to sign inside has been a little water damaged & weathered!

The second one was on the other side of the golf course nestled in the hollow of a small tree.
It actually had a loop made out of duct tape to help you pull it out from the hole. Inside was
an old prescription bottle camouflaged with more duct tape, the scroll to sign and my first
actual “treasure.” Now my understanding is that I’m supposed to trade-out the treasure.
I’m supposed to take the dice and leave something else behind. But sadly, I was ill-prepared
and didn’t have anything to trade in my bike jersey pockets! So I just signed the scroll,
left the dice for the next person, and pedaled on.

My third one this morning was located in the Peace Garden. I looked a little bit longer
for this one, and finally found it amongst the rocks… carefully hidden by a rock that I had
to move. And again, another tube not-so-subtely-covered with duct tape. I guess if this one
weren’t hidden by the rock the colorful wrapping would have been a dead giveaway!
Again, signed the scroll and pedaled on… to finish my morning ride.

So for those of you keeping track…
these morning “treasures” were my GeoCache finds numbered Four, Five and Six!!!

Categories: bike, sunrise

Serene. Calming. Relaxing.
And yet I hate to admit it… a bit anticlimactic after yesterday’s red skies!

Categories: creativity, inspiration, pottery, special events, television, textures

Make some popcorn… set the DVR… cuddle up on the sofa…
for my big television debut on HGTV’s “Great Rooms With Meg.”
Airing this Saturday, June 16th at 8:00pm Central time.

Now sure, this isn’t my first television exposure… not to gloat, but I was on WGN’s
Bozo’s Circus when I was a little kid. And, not only was I on the show… I played the
game at the end when they would have a group of kids all playing the game. The challenge
was for me a my partner to stack cups & saucers on the flat end of a baseball bat. I held the
bat, and she stacked the cups & saucers… tallest stack a the end of the game wins!
Well, let me just say I was suddenly the proud owner of big prize…
a View-Master 3-D ‘Scooby-Doo’ Slide Projector!!!

But I digress…

Back to the real show… get ready to watch my “20-seconds of fame” this Saturday on HGTV.
I did a special project for them for a kitchen remodeling show they were doing. I made the
pieces and they came into my studio to do some filming of Meg and me. We did almost five
hours of filming… but I’m confident all of “my best work” will be left on the cutting room floor!
I’m sure they’ll craft all the pieces together to make a great show. I’m confident… or…
The editors thought it would be fun to see me all sweaty, flustered and rambling on like an
idiot on screen. It was seriously like 90-degrees in my studio. Trust me, it could go either way…

And let me just say… I still wish I had kept the ‘Scooby-Doo’ View-Master!!!

 

Categories: GeoCache

After the rain… after the red sky… after the sunrise…
I had already turned around and headed home, so why not stop to play a little?!
So the “dorky” hobby continues. And I found two more GeoCaches!

The first one was just feet off of the lakefront bike trail. Literally like a foot!
Can’t tell you exactly where it’s at, but I can tell you it was very small and magnetic!
So you just unroll the scroll, sign it and put it back. Keeping it very discreet & secret
so that some stranger who’s not playing the game from taking it and ruining the fun
for everyone else! So it’s back in place… a foot off the bike trail.

The second one was hidden inside a small stump under a sprawling bush.
Hidden so much that you actually have to use another small twig to “fish it out”
to get to the blue tube cache! Unscrew the top, sign the scroll, then it’s back in the stump!

So, for the record… that’s my GeoCache #2 and #3.

Categories: bike, sunrise

You know the rest… and yes, I did get rained on. But not too much. Just enough
to make me turn around & head home. Luckily, the rain was after a gorgeous red sky sunrise!

After a few sprinkles of rain, the red sky dissipated as the sun continued to rise.
The clouds were still filling the sky to create a dramatic backdrop for my morning ride.

And then the sun finally made it over the horizon, and up behind some clouds. Creating dramatic
bursts of sun streaming through the sky. The rain was gone, but the clouds were still there!

Categories: bike

Today, my friend Chris & I completed our first Century bike ride of the season.
A hundred miles of pedaling through the cornfields or Northwest Illinois, up into Wisconsin,
and back again. It was pretty darn windy out there… as the corn isn’t tall enough
to break the wind yet!!!