We are now officially HABITAT
Published on June 30th, 2009 Leave your comment (5 so far) »
Allow me to introduce, Frog 1:
We’ve named him/her Sam.
And spotted today, Frog 2:
We’ve named him/her Francis.
I’ve compared photos of their back spots/ridges and they are definitely different frogs. Plus, after going down to the pond for another look, both were in view at the same time. I am unbelievably excited over this little bit of nature in our back garden!
I’d love for more frogs to move in, but I’m going to quickly run out of androgynous names for my amphibians. Suggestions welcome. 
Hooray for nature!
UPDATE: 1 July 2009: Frog #3 spotted…
West Wittering
Published on June 28th, 2009 Leave your comment (2 so far) »
I covered my tattoos in sunscreen, but my un-inked skin is still a little pink across the upper back/neck area and my arms. I also have sandal tan; makes my feet look like they’re dirty…
West Wittering Beach is south coast gem just a little ways further than Chichester. I had been craving the sea and so Saturday we packed a snack, our camera gear, and pointed the car southbound. It’s absolutely lovely down there. If we weren’t already set on moving to Spain, I could seriously consider somewhere like Chichester.
See a few more pictures on my flickr page. Also, I hope to develop some possibly disastrous pinhole film photos during the week. Any worthwhile results shall be posted.
Folly Way
Published on June 26th, 2009 Join the conversation »
This type of scene is part of why I love the UK.
World of Today and Tomorrow
Published on June 22nd, 2009 Leave your comment (12 so far) »
For some reason today (planets in line? blue moon? spirit possession?) I tackled a small pile of mending. I grabbed my box o’ sewing notions and proceeded to pick thread colours. In there I found a handful of old Girl Scout badges. Some were Brownie, some Cadette, but all are what is now considered vintage. The rest of my Girl Scout stuff is packed away in the US, but these were the bits waiting to be sewn onto my sash and have been transferred from one sewing box to another for twenty-five years or so. Procrastination has been a life-long hobby of mine.
My favourite of the bunch is the cheapest looking one and simply reads (printed, not even embroidered) COOKIE POWER. Cookies are indeed powerful. Mighty, mighty cookies. And Girl Scout cookies? Though expensive, they are without a doubt, up there with Oreos as the most powerful cookies in the world. I’m just gonna sit here and drool for a moment while I think of Oreos and Thin Mints slugging it out like heavyweights in a vat of ice cream for my amusement and affection… Fight for my love, little cookies. Fight for it…
Back to the badges. I apparently earned a World of Today and Tomorrow badge called COMPUTER FUN (badge ID 9-756, bottom row – centre in the photo). I’m trying to identify the year, but so far my research only gives me 1963-1980. I’m certain I would’ve already been experimenting with a Commodore 64 in my gifted classes (a story for another day) but computers were never a part of my regular education until I had to briefly use one in Computer Aided Drafting at the Art Institute many years later. So I must’ve earned the badge around 1982 and then barely touched another computer until 1994– the year I bought one. Thank goodness COOKIE POWER saw me through my technological dark years.
I have attempted to decode my COMPUTER FUN badge and must report that though it is attractively embroidered, the numbers mean just shy of diddly squat.
Coverted, 0011110011 is:
<
Kind of a let down. Oh well. Still looks pretty cool. I guess COOKIE POWER would’ve been at bit much to embroider: 01100011 01101111 01101111 01101011 01101001 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010
And speaking of cookies– if you can’t get Girl Scout cookies where you live, make your own using this link.
*UPDATE*
The binary used in the badge is apparently ’simplified binary’ which seems to require fewer numbers. According to that system, badge reads GS, which is ever so appropriate. Points to Heather for translating. I never knew you could have binary that wasn’t divisible by 8… See the comments for links to the info.
Technorati Tags: Girl Scouts, regularjen
Happy
Published on June 20th, 2009 Leave your comment (4 so far) »
Photo taken under a bridge on The Thames in Maidenhead.
I have had an amazing three days. I have spent loads of time with Neil, I have painted, read, photographed, cooked outdoors, slept well, played video games, done some writing, watched embarrassing amounts of Star Trek, listened to great music, and have laughed and smiled more than any time in recent memory. I know there’s more, but I’m sleepy and am struggling to type this before I go to bed.
I am a happy girl.
We went for an evening walk by The Thames in Maidenhead this evening; you can see more photos from it on my flickr pages.
Technorati Tags: Maidenhead, Neil Dixon, regularjen
The danger of posting a decent photograph
Published on June 19th, 2009 Leave your comment (2 so far) »
Why, oh! why, do I bother putting photos online…
I’ll tell you why: because most people don’t steal stuff. Because it gives me — and hopefully a few others — pleasure. Because it’s an encouraging environment to comment and grow. Most of the time, the internet is a wonderful place to publish whatever you have — be it photos, words, video, etc. — but what never fails to knock me back is the unauthorised use of a person’s intellectual property. Today I found that a new site called Hunch is using one of my copyrighted photos without permission. Hunch has a really big problem: they allow user submissions. Hunch didn’t steal my photo directly; my photo was uploaded by a user of Hunch as a pick. I am not credited. I am not linked to. I happened upon the photo misuse by a random click and found it when scrolling through a page of pick results. (Hunch offers picks based on your answering of a handful of questions.)
Hunch, if you cannot guarantee that the content submitted is Creative Commons or the user has rights to the item, then you should not allow the contribution. Unregulated user submitted content will always burn someone, and once again I find it has burned me. I know this sounds unmanageable, and it probably is, but permit me my dream world where I no longer have to chase content thieves. I’ve had words and photos stolen in the past and it sucks. It is tiring to fight for what is legally your own. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could set some sort of example with Hunch? After all, one of your Product Designers co-founded Flickr… this issue is nothing new to you.
I have submitted an email to Hunch and am waiting on a response. I have tweeted to the Hunch account. Several online friends have retweeted my concerns. The unfortunate reality is that the problem will remain for others even if my photo is removed from their servers. I cannot be the only person who has an unauthorised image on Hunch. Hell, I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t stumbled into the results myself. Should I be concerned that maybe more of my images are on Hunch? Probably. Will I ever find them if they are there? Probably not. You see, my image didn’t link back to my original at all. The image was simply uploaded by a user as their own content. And this user? This is priceless. His profile biography says, “now i work at HBO in the business affairs/legal dept where i handle music licensing for original programming, documentaries, sports and licensed films.”
Yes, you read that right. It’s his job to deal with the legalities of licensing creative content.
Shame on you. You should know better.
UPDATE AS I AM WRITING THIS POST: Chris Dixon (no relation) at Hunch has sent me three wonderful words in an email: “We removed it.” Glad they took care of it so quickly because I really didn’t want to continue posting about it on Twitter. It is a rotten and emotionally draining thing to try to fight for your intellectual property. I am grateful for the swift resolution.
And finally:
Thank you to CC Chapman, 1timstreet, kimgarretson, brxbasingstoke, and anyone I’ve forgotten for retweeting the permission problem for me. You’re all stars!
For the curious, here’s a screenshot of the page as it looked with my image in place earlier.
And now I’m going to go do something fun.
Technorati Tags: art, copyright, internet, photography, regularjen
Hard-wired sucker for freebies
Published on June 18th, 2009 Leave your comment (4 so far) »
If the company you work for gives away promotional pens, chances are I have one or have had one in the past. I am incurable. This is a handful out of my desk drawer. This is only what I’ve accumulated in the past few years or the ’special’ pens I brought over when I moved from America. By special I mean: pens that are also highlighters, pens from Apple or Apple related events, any old shit… you know- SPECIAL.
I must get rid of these… well, all but the special ones.
Technorati Tags: regularjen, silly
Defiant
Published on June 14th, 2009 Leave your comment (4 so far) »
Taken on my walk home from work today. About a year ago I bought a small Nikon Coolpix for carrying around with me everywhere. I liked it in the shop, it met my price needs and seemed OK at the time. Turns out, I hate the thing. I know I’m spoiled with my Canon 450D, but my old Sony Cybershot from years and years ago pleases me more than the Coolpix. That said, I’ve slapped some batteries in it (which it eats up like a hungry kid in a pie eating contest) and am giving it another chance. It’s nice to have something besides my cameraphone with me for those times when I see a particularly defiant bit of greenery growing out of a brick wall.
Or yesterday’s IKEA shot. You know, the exciting stuff I need to record for all of history. 
Really, it’s a decent camera for what it is (a cheap, slow, battery hog with minimal features) but it still takes a photo that I can work with. At the end of the day, that’s what I need. It ain’t no Canon, but it never claimed to be. I got what I paid for and I’m learning to appreciate it.
I’ve been feeling a bit stale with photography lately, so maybe putting down my big gun and going with this quirky little piece of kit will force me to look at things differently, much like switching to shooting mostly with a 50mm lens did recently.
Technorati Tags: photography, regularjen
