five great things someone else said, vol 35

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This wasn’t just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. – Dorothy Parker

Some days have extra raisins, to paraphrase Dotty Parker.

Monday I punched out my imaginary timecard (the thing we freelancers seem to never do – as though if we did we might melt), to be with my sister. Whatever projects and deadlines and anxieties could wait because I wanted to be sure she was OK. That’s a big sister reflex I’ll never grow out of. Ever.

About four months ago, a friend was helping to rehome a French bulldog. Since I have one, she thought of me. I may have wanted to take him home the first time I met him. Possibly regretted my first reaction that I couldn’t have another dog. What’s cuter than one French bulldog? Two, right?

It just so happened I knew the perfect home for him as my sister and her fiancé were looking at Frenchie rescues. I was so happy that they were so happy. It was like playing matchmaker only better.

Until Monday, when she came straight from the vet where he’d passed away quite unexpectedly and horribly.

I didn’t know what to say. Tears came easier. I spent a good part of the day trying to wrap my head around the fact that the sweet pup was gone. I felt a gnawing guilt knowing that I brought them together and that the pain they felt was in some way introduced by me. There’s this part of me that always wants to protect her. Always. Like when she was in kindergarten, and I would walk over from the big play yard to the kinder fence at recess to say hi rather than head to the monkey bars. Just to make sure she was OK. She always ran over to say she was.

Monday afternoon, she and her fiancé played with my dogs and we talked and played with the pups some more. They made the afternoon tolerable.

Heading out the door that evening, she thanked me for the three months and ten days she had him. How much they’d meant to her. I didn’t know what to say. I’d spent hours trying to find the right words to comfort them and here she was comforting me. It seemed wrong.

Some things never change. I will forever want to protect her from the world. And she will always be there to tell me everything will be OK. I can’t protect her from reality anymore than she can assure me things are always going to be fine. But we’ll try.

Goodnight, sweet pup. xo a.

And now, four more great things someone else said about, well, not saying much:

I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty. – Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Not everything has to have a point. Some things just are. – Judy Blume

In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves. – Rumi

We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about. – Best In Show

If Emily Posted: Safety Pins

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The conversations about whether Pinterest is acting as pusher in a sea of potential copyright infringement issues have been incredible. For the most part it assures me of what I truly believe: people don’t set out to do the wrong thing, and most, upon learning they are, want to know what they can do to fix it.

I am writing this at the same time many others are asking similar questions, and in the last several days, Pinterest offered some additions to their site, like coding to add to make your site un-pinnable. For some, I think this is a great thing. But those who like Pinterest and want to be able to share our original content with permission, we need other options.

For now, a SAFETY PIN seems as good a solution as any.

don't save this one - it's going to send a double message

Since most people can install a widget, it doesn’t require coding that must be added to every page of one’s site. Simply choose the one that fits your needs at the bottom of the post and place it somewhere highly visible on your sidebar. While it doesn’t guarantee that people will honor the “thanks but no thanks” option, I think that it’s a start. (To add a SAFETY PIN to your site, simply click one of the images at the end of the post and save. I don’t know if I’ll ever say that again. But please, right click and save this one.)

The battle that is being waged about copyright and credits on Pinterest is complicated. While I believe in the importance of copyright and defend it, I am all for the ability to share and learn from one another online.

Sharing isn’t stealing. The two are not mutually exclusive. And proper credit is crucial to keep one from becoming the other.

I’ve had my work misused because it wasn’t properly credited. Copyright issues aside, what I found must unsettling with each situation was the lack of attribution. In one instance, after a photo of mine was published without consent, the publishers were quick to remind me it would bring me exposure. I had to remind them that if they googled the name credited, no one would find me. If the person who had taken my work and used it had at least credited my name properly I could have seen a silver lining in it. But improper credit = no exposure. Lose, lose.

I read comments on various posts written about the issues of copyright and credit online. When people, many sharing the surname Anonymous, write that you shouldn’t be online if you don’t want your work seen, I worry. Not so much about the work, but about the misinformation these Anons perpetuate.

In the last decades we’ve watched digital replace analog. The days of mix tapes are over. And so are the bad quality of a fourth generation copy of a movie. Piracy is crisp and clear on CD and DVD.

Still, the film and music industry continue to create and sell their work. And people buy it.

So, please do not tell me I don’t get it. There are plenty of people happy to play by the rules.

I am all for sharing. That’s what we do online all the time. But what I share and what someone does with what I share are two different things.

From country to country copyright issues vary, the idea of Fair Use is defined differently – these legal issues cannot be answered simply and tied up in a pretty box with a bow. But the issue of giving proper credit is simplistic in comparison. Use what you have permission to use, and make sure anything to share is credited to the original source. If you don’t have those things, bookmark it the old fashioned way. xo a.

A quick question: When you see corporations and companies creating Pinterest boards featuring their content, do you think that mans they’re telling us we can repin with their permission? I’m looking into it with several brands now but just thought I’d ask your POV.