It's Siona. Time for a little update, hm?
First things first.If you were on the site yesterday, odds are you either ran into our “seaweed bath” page or experienced some general site slowness and wackiness. Our apologies.
We spent Wednesday night and most of Thursday flipping the switches on our new server cluster at
Engine Yard. As you might imagine, it takes a bit to shuttle a few billion bytes of data (including all your amazing words and gorgeous pictures) from one server farm (in LA) to another server farm (in Sacramento).
We'll be ironing out the kinks over the next several days so you might run into the occasional hiccup, but expect to see some noticeable increases in site speed soon. Until then, if you run into any less-than-zippy areas, please forgive us, and
please let us know: we'll be grateful. :)
And yes. A new home. It's nice to finally have found a place large enough for all 83,000 of you.
Which brings me to what some of you have been up to...Janeen, a film producer passionate about making a difference, has blogged a bit about her work with the 1 Second Film, a non-profit participatory art project with the inspiring mission of "bringing the world together, one second at a time." (If you've got a second to spare, you can certainly ask Janeen how you can become a part of their "Road to Oprah." And if you're in LA, well, they're looking for someone to help paint their biodiesel bus with the Zaadz logo. :)
Did you know we have a presidential candidate on the site? (He's a Buddhist, too :).
Stu Zimmerman, the voice behind the "Inside Wealth" radio show, is looking for a few additions to his spiritual family in Northern California. He's written a quick post about this non-virtual community here. If you've got a few free months, if labor and spirit go hand-in-hand for you, and if the idea of committing yourself to raising consciousness while raising a family is appealing, you might want to drop Stu a note.
Rob writes of his work in Nambia, where he helps organize a series of after-school youth programs. Amazing. (If you'd like to sponsor one of the children he works with, or see their photos, just visit his profile and follow the links.)
And if you're on (shh) Facebook, do a search for Zaadz; we've got a group there now. :)
Last but not least, a few words about what we're all about.I get asked, sometimes, about our "
Let's change the world" tag. "How can a social networking site change the world? Sitting and talking or posting blogs is all well and good, but what do you actually
do?"
I love these questions.
"
Let's change the world" is only one half of the equation.
The other half is just as important—it's about BEING the change. It's sometimes hard for me to remember this—I'll look around and see the ways I think others should change or the things
other people should do to make this planet healthier or the community more peaceful—but I know in my heart that, really, all I can truly control is myself, and my own actions.
The Zaadzsters listed above all know this. :)
If I want more peace in the world, I can be more peaceful. If I want a healthier environment, I can do more, personally, to reduce my environmental impact. If I want a more vibrant community, I can commit to being friendlier and to including others. For me, Zaadz is an ongoing reminder of this.
And I'm humbled, daily, by the way all of you model this on the site. I'm humbled by the support you give each other (it can be hard feeling you're the only one committed to making a difference!). I'm humbled by the way you respect the opinions of others, even if you don't always agree. And I can't help but think that even if one tiny percentage of the goodwill and joy that bubbles up on the site makes its way into the "real world" around us, we'll have done something beautiful.
By the way, have you noticed how close we are to 100,000
Zaadzsters? 100,000 people committed to being the change? Now that's really something.
Talk about changing the world. :)
Big hugs, and much love, and 'til the next note,
Siona and the rest of the
Zaadz Team 
