Howdy inchvestors!

First, this is one of the last Kickstarter updates you'll likely get from us. But hold those tears in, it's because we're moving to a better updating system, and we're also adding a new payment system and on-ramp to LOVELAND that will make the experience of inchvesting much more fun and immediate.

Until then, there are mere hours left on what may be the second to last Kickstarter round for LOVELAND, and it still needs a little loving to hit its goal. So if you want to expand to the new property and support the project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerry/loveland-youre-a-very-nice-person-and-people-say-n . Massive hugs and kisses in advance for those who do, and a firm, approving head nod from Mary Carter Motor City Bad Ass: http://marycartermotorcitybadass.tumblr.com .

Now!

If you're regionally available, come meet us and other cool peops at 2 events this week! And if you can't make it (lord knows you're from all over the place :)), there's a couple new thing to check out with the site as we continue inching forward towards ever higher levels of inchfinite awesomeness, plus we'll record and post at least one of the talks.

If you're in Detroit tomorrow/Wednesday, May 12th, at 7 PM you're invited to a LOVELAND micro meetup micro party at our studio in the Russell Industrial Center. Details at: http://www.facebook.com/makeloveland...

If you're in San Francisco this Saturday, May 15th, at 7 PM you're invited to a LOVELAND micro meetup and party at the Noisebridge hacker house. Details at: http://www.facebook.com/makeloveland...

And if you're anywhere(!) you can now log into your land and microhood via Facebook. Visit http://makeloveland.com , login using your password, go to your profile, click edit, and then click the Facebook button to connect your Facebook profile with LOVELAND. Don't worry, it won't spam your wall or anything! Your Facebook profile picture will become your profile picture on LOVELAND, and whenever you return to the site you can click the Facebook button to log right in. How about them apples?

You'll also notice there are now Badge listings on your profile. If you're familiar with http://foursquare.com then you know how badges work. Basically, you can earn badges for doing things on the website like saying hi to your neighbors, connecting to Facebook, inchvesting in multiple properties, and other surprises, and also for doing things in the big bad real world like living in Detroit, visiting the property, building something on your property, and other things. The badge images are coming soon, but for right now enjoy the beautiful standard font! ;)

Check out our group blog for some more updates http://makeloveland.com/blog and I'll leave it there, though I recommend checking out the latest on http://projectlemonbattery.com in particular, our solar-powered time-lapse camera for the property. As always I'm at 908-343-1981 and jerry@makeloveland.com.

We'll be here working on awesome things for you. Thank you for all your support!

<3

Jerry and Team LOVELAND

http://makeloveland.com
http://facebook.com/makeloveland
http://twitter.com/makeloveland
http://makeloveland.com/blog

Dear Inchvestors,

As happens, we've been working hard and are approaching a new era of LOVELAND interaction. There's a Kickstarter round ending today that needs more loving. Please consider an inchvestment in the new property for yourself or a friend so we can keep working and paying the bills and reach our grant goals: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerry/loveland-continues .

To see what we've been working on for you, this blog pulls together project posts from Mary, Alan, and I in one place: http://makeloveland.com/blog , and Larry has been absolutely rocking updates to the site and mapping tools.

Some notable notes:

*The physical construction of Plymouth is very nearly complete. This week we're cutting the frame and will have your property lines on the ground shortly. This means that if you have a physical creation in mind for your land you should get it ready now. If you're outside Detroit you can mail it to us.

*We're just a battery shy of having the solar powered web cam up and running that will stream live pictures of the property. Read more on the remarkable Lemon Battery system here: http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/551855387/begging-for-batteries-what-we-need-to-make-the-solar and on http://projectlemonbattery.com .

*We're continuing to awesome-ify and refine http://makeloveland.com and the online property map features. You can read about the Neighborhoods, Inch Services, and Property Sponsorships we're working on here: http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/551022442/neighborhoods-services-and-sponsors-oh-my .

To that end, if you're an artist or maker and want to offer a service for free or for pay to other inchvestors, let us know. For example, if you're a sculptor or painter or crafter you might offer to create custom works that will fit on people's land for x$. We can feature your offerings right on the map so when people are wondering what to do with their land they can contact you directly and set that up. Bam! You're in micro business. :)

If you have any questions please get in touch at jerry[at]makeloveland[dot]com or call me directly at 908-343-1981. We aim to please and love hearing from you, so don't hesitate to reach out.

Many thanks and rock on!

<3

Jerry Paffendorf & Team LOVELAND

908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com

Buy land, have fun.

Pioneering Plymouth Inchvestors,

Check it out. Spring has graced Detroit, and yesterday we were out on the property beginning to terraform your land. Here's an awesome time-lapse video shot using our solar powered web cam system: http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/515891246/first-day-of-plymouth-construction-and-lemon-battery

Also, if anyone's interested in joining, tomorrow at 6 PM EST I'll be doing a live Skype and chat about LOVELAND with the fine creative folks from Basekamp in Philadelphia: http://basekamp.com/about/events/loveland
(also posted to Facebook with RSVP etc: http://www.facebook.com/event.php... )

And don't forget we have a new property opening up with Hello World. There are always interesting new peops moving into the microhood: http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/515817465/the-project-is-too-weird-for-me-not-to-do-it . Sure, these Johnny Inch-Lately's may not be as cool as the original Plymouth's inchvestors, which is all the more reason to get land there too, wag your fingers at them, and say, "I remember when LOVELAND didn't even have a website! Heck they didn't even used to have *land*! In my day, we used to buy *future inches*, and they used to update the blog by drawing on a piece of bark with some chalk. In fact, they called it a blog because it was made from a log, and we liked it that way, by gum!"

That is all. Proceed, play, and prosper! :D

<3

Jerry Paffendorf
908-343-1981
http://facebook.com/makeloveland

¡Hola inchvestoristas! Spring is in the air, Inchy is blooming, and we've been working hard for you. Click here for the update in succinct bullet form with great pictures and illustrations! http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/504088029/whats-goin-on-a-quick-loveland-update

Have a wonderful everything!

Jerry and Team LOVELAND
908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com
http://facebook.com/makeloveland

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The raw text:

Holy crudler, time flies. Here’s the quick scoop.

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☛ We’re beginning to fill in the new 50,000 square inch Hello World property. Please inchvest here at $1 a square inch: http://bit.ly/bTG8xD . We have a goal to hit over the next few days. 1/2 of the inchvestment money goes to 7 other grant projects in Detroit. The rest goes to us building rad stuff for you. Not that we’ve been prying into your affairs, but we have heard through the grapevine that you like RAD STUFF!

Here’s Hello World in progress, let’s fillerup!

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☛ People are logging into the new site Larry made and saying Hey! Definitely try it if you haven’t yet and see who your neighbors are. You definitely see some interesting activity. :) Here are some clips I captured:

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☛ The transformation of the Plymouth property begins this week! Here’s the property, pre-mowing, as modeled by Mary.

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☛ Here’s what we’re constructing to define the 10,000 square inch property: a 9 x 9 foot grid with foot wide border and path into the middle. The pole is for the solar powered camera that will stream it online:

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☛ We got our solar panel in the mail. Look at that badboy! (I’m talking about the panel, not Alan):

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☛ Mike R is working on an Augmented Reality overlay for the camera feed so you can toggle the property lines on and off (by the way, he just did A Ticket for Rush ;)):

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☛ And even overlay imagery of your choosing:

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☛ We had a meeting with The Villages Community Development Corporation last week (Plymouth is in the East Village area of Detroit) which was very encouraging as regards scaling LOVELAND up in the future. Imagine that the property map you log into on the website wasn’t only for inches, but whole neighborhoods or whole cities. We’re going to meet again to see if maybe we can share some tools and data.

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☛ Maybe we’ll try one out with the Russell Industrial Center first. They kindly sent over their floor plan and occupant map to us today. The RIC suffers from the same problem that a lot of communities do: How the heck do I know who’s here that I might like to meet or collaborate with, and how can we talk about what’s going on around us? Almost like a social network for space. Maybe we can use this as a real life test case, starting with the floor that LOVELAND’s studio is on.

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☛ We’re also starting to look seriously at grants and alternative forms of funding for the project. It’s become hard enough paying for everything we need to, let alone want to. To support LOVELAND you can inchvest in land here, but also if you want to support at a higher or different level, or sponsor or assist with gaining additional resources so we can keep things going at the speed and scope that they should be, please call Jerry at 908-343-1981 and we can talk it out.

Much appreciated. Spread the word, spread the love, spread the inches. Back to it… <3

Jerry and Team LOVELAND
908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com
http://facebook.com/makeloveland

Check out the brand new LOVELAND site at http://makeloveland.com ! Larry rocked it.

You can now log into your land, share what you plan to do with your space (for real like "plant a seed" etc, for fun like "build my robot army" etc, or whatever you imagine), see who your neighbors are and leave them messages, and fill out a profile and link to your website or contact info. Whatever you want, if you want. Just be sure to have fun and keep it PG. :)

It's a new system so if you have problems logging in you can email me at my fancy new jerry@makeloveland.com address and I'll get you in. Your feedback and ideas would be wonderful. In usual LOVELAND style, we're very flexible, figuring out what to do next as we go along and as cool ideas pop up.

We're also starting to roll into Season 2: Building The Bridge To Everywhere. Check out the little video on the homepage. We've set a new 50,000 square inch goal for a new property called Hello World and will be splitting 1/2 of the inchvestment from this season with 7 different projects in Detroit. Buy land, help make rad things happen. It's the entertainment fundraising way!

OK, back to bridge building,

<3

Jerry Paffendorf and Team LOVELAND
908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com
http://7billionfriends.com

Quick updates on a few big things:

The Pre-Season 2 LOVELAND mini-drama, The Legend of The Ghost Inches, completed its first episode and now has a new animated video and Kickstarter round at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerry/loveland-season-2-pre-game-continued-ghost-inches

We're looking for inchvestors who want to ACTUALLY LOGIN to their property online for the first time (w00t!) and give feedback on the sparkly new season 2 website before it goes live. Let me know if you want a login code. There's news on that and more current to do's and things being worked on at http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/452452163/whats-up-to-do-list-number-7-846-538 .

Lastly, we have a friend out of town for a little while, and if anyone from outside Detroit is interested in visiting and staying here for free for anywhere from a day to a week to possibly longer, we have space. Let me know if you're interested. We'd show you around the city, your new land, and of course, invite you to help work on setting things up for season 2. No free lunch! Only free-ish lunches. :p Drop me a note if you're interested and we'll see if this works out!

Rock on,

Jerry Paffendorf
jerryp[at]gmail[dot]com
908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com
http://7billionfriends.com

Question: What did the snail say when he rode on the turtle's back? Read to the bottom for the answer...

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Greetings inchvestors! Hello from the interzone between LOVELAND seasons 1 and 2, and also from New Jersey, an interzone of its own, where I'm sitting on the couch of my parents' house after visiting for my mom's birthday.

If you haven't seen The Legend of The Ghost Inches video in the pre-season 2 Kickstarter, check it out here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerry/loveland-season-2-pre-game-the-legend-of-the-ghos . Did you know Detroit has an unspoken past? A tiny, tiny, haunted, tiny past of haunted micro real estate? Well it does. The ghost inches are baaa-aaack, and they want to be caught so a new bridge can be built! : )

You want the truthiness? Well, can you *handle* the truthiness?? The video also introduces a new character in a parallel LOVELAND storyverse, the Detroit Ice Potato: http://detroiticepotato.com .

In addition to the birthday, I'm on the road for meetings and working with friends in different cities. I'll be in New York until the 4th, then I'm in San Francisco until the 10th, then I'm back in Detroit. Holler if you're wherever I am, I love meeting inchvestors. I'm never sure how everyone likes to follow along with progress, so I encourage you to join the Facebook group if you want more frequent, light updates: http://facebook.com/makeloveland and there's also the blog at http://7billionfriends.com .

I'm working my butt off to get your property in the ground. You can see some current planning at http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/419025798/lets-get-physical-plymouth-grid-update and http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/392213805/plymouth-grid-construction . And to get more deeds in the mail. Forgive me, we need to improve speed on that, I didn't expect to be so overwhelmed. Also, I've got a bundle of shirts on their way to me for shipping. Some new recruits will be helpful here (we just welcomed our first intern!): http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/409687867/say-hello-to-nicole-the-new-inchtern .

Aaand I'm working my butt off to prepare for season 2 which will start in the spring. As I liken it, I've been working like a printer, moving back and forth quickly leaving lines of dots that are adding up to a picture, and we're aggressively knocking out a series of checkpoints over the next few weeks that will put more into focus: http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/418369804/nothing-functions-like-a-deadline-preparing-for-march .

On the business side, I'm wrestling with whether or not to make LOVELAND an L3C, which is an experimental corporate structure that's part for-profit and part non-profit: http://7billionfriends.tumblr.com/post/419461554/to-l3c-or-not-to-l3c-that-is-confusing . So far LOVELAND has been entirely funded by inchvestor love and dollars. We are starting to talk to larger investors and looking at grants so we can stop scraping by from month to month, start hiring people, and move more chess pieces around the board at a faster rate.

Personally, I continue having the time of my life working on this for you. I'm excited, scared, inspired, and exhausted by turn, which is at should be. All this is...new, and we're doing it David style, not Goliath style, with naught but a slingshot full of inches. I enjoy picturing the not-too-distant future where the system is really up and running and we look back at this stage fondly. The quaint times! All of your support and inchvestment is more valuable than you can know. <3

Boldly we venture into the unknown,

Jerry Paffendorf
908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com
http://7billionfriends.com

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Answer: Weeeeeeeeeeee! : )

People of the realm, let me keep this snappy:

First, Welcome aboard! If you got 12 inches or more make sure to message me through Kickstarter or jerryp[at]gmail[dot]com with your mailing address so I can mail your deed packages etc.

As of this moment there are only 390 inches remaining in Plymouth, the first 10,000 square inch property. This is the final Kickstarter round and the link again is: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jerry/loveland-round-11 .

Now, what to expect. When we hit 10K, that will conclude LOVELAND season 1: the earliest stage of figuring this all out, exploring directions, welcoming LOVELAND's earliest pioneers (that would be you! :)) and testing the inchvestment model.

Season 2 will begin in the spring and I couldn't be more excited about it. What's new? Well, your inches will be physically installed and visitable. Hoorah! There will be a fresh new website with new map features to see and interact with your space online, a new side story-line, AND! We'll be coming out with 5 LOVELAND grants to support projects in Detroit, so season 2 will be about sharing new inchvestment money with people doing cool and important things in the city.

LOVELAND itself has been Kickstarted by all of you, and now it's time for it to start Kickstarting other things.

I could go on and on, and often do, so I'll leave it there. Thank you again and, as always, check out the blog http://7billionfriends.com and the Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/pages/Detroit-MI/LOVELAND/92964001574... and let's keep the energy going.

LOVELAND loves you,

Jerry Paffendorf
908-343-1981
http://makeloveland.com
http://7billionfriends.com