Wolf's Den

Ranty-McRanty, aka my response to an unfair suspension.

2009-12-06T22:30:13Z

Backstory- I play 'Mafia Wars' on Facebook. It's put out by 'Zynga'.

Last week, a player named 'Terry Tibbs', suddenly started hitlisting me, repeatedly, 6-7+ times a day, over the course of 3 days. Naturally, I retaliated. Mind you, I have a [now] 233 health, and a [now] 400 defense, as well as a 38 Stamina. That means, I can sit here and beat your ass repeatedly, 15-20 times in a row before I need to heal myself. Which is what I did, as well as getting my own Mafia after him.

For THREE DAYS. He'd hitlist me, I'd retaliate.

5 days ago, my account was suspended for several hours. It took FIVE DAYS to get a response.

"Customer (Wolf SilverOak) 12/01/2009 07:47 PM
I just went to my Mafia wars page to see if my energy had regenerated so I could work on some jobs and found this-

"Attention
Your account has been suspended for a violation of the Mafia Wars Terms of Service.
You have 3 hours remaining in your suspension.
Please contact Zynga customer support for further information."

I would like to know what in the world is going on. To the best of my knowledge, I have not violated any ToS whatsoever.

So I would appreciate information into this matter, as I am not happy with your service, and quite frankly, feel like quitting the game. "

"Customer (Wolf SilverOak) 12/02/2009 08:33 AM
I am still waiting for a response on this matter.

I would appreciate a prompt reply. "

"Customer (Wolf SilverOak) 12/04/2009 03:35 PM
3 days now. Still no response from you. This is extremely poor customer service on your part. "

FINALLY I get a resonse-

"Response (Zynga Customer Support) 12/06/2009 01:57 PM
Hi Wolf,

Thank you for contacting Zynga Customer Support.

We have instituted a detection for bots and illegal automated cheats or hacks that flood our servers and give the user an unfair advantage. By disrupting the bots and cheats any player that attempts to use one will see that it will no longer give them the unfair advantage they are trying for.

We recently suspended your account for a brief period because it was showing kind of play that fits the profile of a bot or illegal cheat or hack.

We apologize if you feel that you were caught unfairly.

Because the suspension is for cause, and for a limited time, we will not be compensating any player who has been suspended for any loss incurred during or because of the suspension.

You may avoid future suspensions by not repeatedly fighting with the same player, hit-listing the same player over and over or attempting to run a bot or other automated cheat.

Our goal is to make the game fairer and more fun for all Mafia Wars players.

You may read the Terms of Service for Zynga games here:
http://www.zynga.com/legal/terms_of_service.php

Best,
Zynga Customer Support "

OH HELL NO.

You just accused me of using a cheat in the course of defending myself. The ONLY game I have EVER used a cheat on was and is The Sims2.

This was my response back-

""You may avoid future suspensions by not repeatedly fighting with the same player, hit-listing the same player over and over or attempting to run a bot or other automated cheat."

So what you are telling me is that despite the fact that at the time of the suspension, *I* had been repeatedly hitlist, for 3 days straight, by the same person with no prior attacks, etc on this person, who decided to hitlist me 6-7+ times a DAY, for THREE DAYS straight, that when I retaliated by attacking him in return, and repeatedly asking my Mafia to attack, and that because I have a high Health and high stamina, it appears that I was using a 'bot' program.

So basically, in the course of PLAYING YOUR GAME, I was falsely accused of using a bot.

I call bull.

What you are essentially saying/claiming is that I can be repeatedly hitlist by someone I've never seen before, and when I stick up for myself, *I* will be punished for it.

Got it.

I'll keep that in mind and the next time I get hitlist 6-7+ times a damn day, I will flood your damn support box with reports on him. Otherwise, when I retaliate, I might just get accused of using a damn bot program again. "

Complete and utter bullshit on Zynga's part. I KNEW when I got suspended that it had to have been that asshole who kept hitlisting me. I KNEW it. Well, fine, next time an asshole repeatedly hitlists me out of nowhere, I will file a harrassment report against them.

After all, according to Zynga, they MUST be cheating.

I know it's just a game, and a free one at that, however, I was accused of cheating and that, I take exception to.

Edit 12-7-09

Well, they replied-

"Hi Wolf,

Thank you for contacting Zynga Customer Support.

Unfortunately, your account was caught for illegal play by use of a hack, cheat or bot.

Because the suspension is for cause, and for a limited time, we will not be compensating any player who has been suspended for any loss incurred during or because of the suspension.

We have explained this to you on more than one occasion. Any further contact with Zynga regarding this issue will be set to ‘answered’ without further communication to you.

You may read the Terms of Service for Zynga games here:
http://www.zynga.com/legal/terms_of_service.php

Best,
Zynga Customer Support "

To which, I directly emailed them and replied-

"You are full of shit.

I do not use cheats, I do not use Bots, I do not use hacks.

I know damn well I was falsely accused of any of the above, or possibly of harassment.

And as I stated in my last comment on this ‘question’ that you blatantly refuse to answer properly, I will now flood your damn support box with harassment reports when I am hitlisted repeatedly, over and over again, by the same person. Because otherwise, if I retaliate, *I* will again get accused of cheating.

And you can be sure that everyone in my Mafia will hear of this."

It will not surprise me to find my Mafia Wars account completely shut down after this.

Ranty McRanty. AKA I. Am. Done.

2009-11-03T21:47:18Z

1- If you set up a barter/trade with me- fulfill your end of the damn barter/trade. Don't keep giving me excuse after excuse. It should not take SEVEN MONTHS and me asking several times about your end of this, to get any sort of info. And it STILL has not been completed.

To that regard- I can't even go and get my own copy of what was supposed to be sent in exchange, as it's now out of print. Yeah. Royally pissed off about that one.

To that end- unless you are family, or someone I've bartered with before and KNOW you will fulfill your end of the deal, or a friend I've known for YEARS or can completely trust- forget it. No. More. Barters/trades. I'm done. I'm fed up with getting burned.

2- If you don't like something I create, then TELL ME. I won't bite your head off, for gods' sakes. Don't ignore me when I ask. It pisses me off.

3- Don't offer to sell a few of my scarves then bitch about the price I set on them. If you don't think you can sell the damn things, at a REDUCED PRICE NO LESS, then say so and don't make me waste not only my time getting them packaged up and ready to go, but the money to ship them to you.

You aren't doing me any favors. YOU are getting a cut of any that sell, so stop bitching about the price. I don't need your help selling them, I can do that on my own. I thought it would be nice to give you the chance to earn a little bit more cash when you do sell one.

It's ridiculous and it disparages my work. If I feel it'll sell at that price, then you have no business saying it won't. You don't want to sell them, say so.

I. Am. Done.

No more Barters. No more Trades. No more 'gifts'. No more sending my stuff to someone who says they can sell them. It's not worth it. I'm finishing what I have promised people, then that's it. Done.

Annnddd... now I'm being harrassed for not having a 'resale license'.

2009-09-03T02:29:37Z

Heh.

According to the IRS website, I'm a hobbyist, so don't even need a damn EIN!

Still re-looking up info in my City/County, but from what I understand, only if I register/apply for a business license, would I need a 'resale license'- which as I understand it, would really only do me any good if I wanted to buy my 'supplies' at wholesale prices. Well, most of my bead suppliers are fellow 'hobbyists' or on Ebay, so no reason/way to buy anything at wholesale prices there.

Also- I don't buy things from suppliers and turn around a RESELL it with the original tags/packaging, etc, at a mark-up. Yeah. That would make me a reseller. Obviously, I'm not. I buy supplies (beads, dye, scarf blanks, etc), create something from it, then either list it for sale if anyone is interested in it, or donate it to Rescues to auction off with no monies received by me, or plain give the items I create away as gifts to family and friends.

Good thing I'm not trying to make a living from what I do. I give away more than I've ever sold, heh. As for a profit, what the hell is that? I have NEVER made a profit at anything. I have the receipts to show for it too.

When I DO decide to try to make a living from my 'hobbies', then you bet I'll go get a business license and register my name, etc. Until then, this is my hobby. I happen to be good at it and like to do it a lot, as it's a great stress reliever for me, is all.

All this because I reported someone for reselling shit on Etsy.

Edit to add- It seems, that even though the IRS deems my work a 'hobby activity' and does NOT require any licenses, that my State/County/City do, anyway. Well, and so, that's being taken care of this morning. Yes, yes, I should have double checked a long time ago. Oh well, live and learn. I've not made any money off my items anyway and I have records/reciepts to back me up on this anyway. I'm rather anal about my reciepts. Heh.

Incoherant.

2009-06-25T16:33:27Z

Seven show dogs die in Jefferson County

KSDK -- The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is investigating the deaths of seven show dogs at a home in Arnold.

Sheriff Glenn Boyer said that on Tuesday, deputies responded to the first block of Kroeck Drive where the dogs had been kept.

Sheriff Boyer said that the custodian of the dogs reported she had returned to the home from a dog show in Iowa at about 1:00 a.m. on Monday. She said she started to place the dogs in kennels in the garage of the home, but due to the extreme heat
she left the dogs in their porta-kennels in the van.

The woman said that she placed six electric fans in the van to cool the dogs and left a door open with the vehicle's windows partially open.

The woman told deputies that she went into the home and went to sleep. She said that she woke up and checked the dogs at approximately 4:05 am and the dogs appeared to be fine.

She said that she checked on the dogs again at about 6:30 am and found three of the dogs were in distress and five were unresponsive, but breathing.

The woman said she gave the dogs first aid and transported them to a veterinarian in House Springs. One dog that was in the van survived.

The exact cause of death is unknown pending medical examination of the dogs. The dogs have various owners.

The woman told deputies that she went into the home and went to sleep.

Let me get this straight- you left 8 highly expensive show dogs, that YOU don't even OWN, in a van, in the garage, with only a door open, the windows 'partially cracked' and electric fans going, and expected them to be ok??

More Here.

This hits close to home with me, as Akitas are my chosen breed.

The Akita that died? Was the top ranked female Akita and the fourth ranked Akita in the country. She was worth thousands, if not more.

The others? Worth thousands as well- The purebreds included three Golden Retrievers, a Dalmation, a Siberian Husky, a Malamute and the top-ranked Akita named Jersey.

The second article, tthe vet says there's discrepancies in her story. That some of the doghs were already in rigor.

Yeah.

I want to punch the woman through my monitor right now. Instead, I'm going to go hug my Akita.

From the Etsy Forums, regarding the Meta title issue... long

2009-06-15T23:20:04Z

My thoughts and what I'm doing at the end.

Meta Tags on Etsy Shop Pages Adversely Affecting External Search Engine Results

June 10, 2009 at 6:03 pm · Filed under SEO, Search, Shop Sections, Tags · By GreenMamba

It has been brought to light that changes made to the Meta Tags on all shop pages may be causing Google and other search engines to bypass Etsy in results. What may seem at first to be an insignificant, single-word change - the addition of the tag word ‘handmade’ to all Esty shop section titles - has in fact resulted in dramatically negative results.

According to this Storque article, a number of SEO (search engine optimization) changes were made in April.

Meta keywords are a less critical component to SEO, and various search engines use them differently to help rank relevancy of a page in search results. For Etsy shop pages, we have automatically pulled the Section Titles for the shop to be used as the meta keywords. We observed that many sellers use basic terms for their sections that translate relatively well into keywords. For example, it’s common for jewelry shops to have Section Titles such as: bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings. To edit your Section Titles, go to Your Etsy > Sections. (excerpt)

While Etsy has downplayed the overall importance of Meta Tags, sellers are discovering that the use of the keyword ‘handmade’ in conjunction with shop section titles - regardless of top-level category - has rendered their shops and items virtually invisible to search engines. Running shop URLs through an SEO checker, such as scrubtheweb.com, has revealed some troubling results, among them ‘keyword stuffing’. This practice, repeated use of the same word in the Meta Tags data line, is forbidden by major search engines and could result in pages being bypassed or excluded from results.

Another issue raised by this overuse of the term ‘handmade’ is the fact that it is being applied across the board in every shop, regardless of whether they sell handmade, vintage or supplies, often causing inadvertent false claims regarding the products being sold. (To check your own meta tags, click on View>Source, or View>Page Source, in your browser’s menu bar at the top of your shop page - not Your Etsy page.) Or just pull up a listing and look at the top of the page, see what it says.

FTC regulations pertaining to the jewelry, precious metals and pewter industries specifically prohibit the use of the terms ‘hand-made’ and ‘hand-wrought’ etc. to describe products

… unless the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the construction, shape, design, and finish of each part of each individual product.

This is clearly differentiated from the hand-assembling of prefabricated finished components into other objects. Both ‘hand-made’ and ‘hand-assembled’ are allowed on Etsy under the ‘handmade’ umbrella, but they are not considered equal and interchangeable terms, according to the law. Forcing all shop sections to carry the ‘handmade’ meta-tag could go well beyond the search engine concerns, and brings up serious legal issues.

This is a very disturbing situation for vintage and supply sellers, as well as jewelry sellers and metalworkers, but also presents a problem for sellers in the other handmade categories. For instance, it is unlikely that a potential buyer would conduct a search for ‘handmade art’ or ‘handmade photography’. And sellers of such items would not choose to tag their listings as such. Experiments conducted by a number of Etsy sellers, representing all three top-level categories, have shown that their listings are no longer coming up in keyword searches that used to feature their items. However, prefacing the usual terms with the word ‘handmade’ will sometimes yield results. But, buyers aren’t searching that way.

Several threads have been started to discuss this serious issue, and to ask Etsy to take immediate steps to correct their meta-tagging errors. Etsy admin stellaloella has been reading along and has provided an official response to these concerns thus far:

stellaloella says:

. . . “Handmade” should not be appearing in the meta keywords for vintage or supplies items. There appears to be a bug or a flaw in the logic for how meta keywords are generated on shop pages.

I have requested that the tech team investigate and try to get it corrected. Like all things, this will need to be internally prioritized and addressed accordingly.

It should also be noted that while meta keywords are looked at by search engines for SEO purposes, they are generally not as important a factor in SEO as page titles, meta descriptions and other factors. SEO is a complex thing, and each search engine is a little different. Google, for example, is continually refining and tweaking how they rank web pages. This makes achieving “good” SEO kind of like trying to hit a moving target. We will also be refining and improving Etsy’s SEO as needed to help keep content optimized for search outside of Etsy.

Thank you for your patience.

For more info, or to voice your opinion, join these ongoing discussions:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6120182

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6180740

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6181465

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6181518

PARTIALLY RESOLVED - 11 June 2009

The keyword stuffing has been discontinued and the ‘handmade’ tag has vanished from all Etsy shop page meta keyword data, unless it was entered into the shop section titles by the seller. Here is stellaloella’s announcement:

stellaloella says:

Hi again. I am happy to say I have a good-news update!

The tech team has released a fix that resolves this issue. As I stated before, this was a flaw in the logic specified to generate meta keywords for shop pages from shop Section Titles. The word “handmade” was being appended in a way that did not make sense. It was inaccurate for Vintage or Supply shops, and was over zealously being used on each meta keyword.

With this fix, no longer will “handmade” be appended to meta keywords for shop pages. Your shop Section Titles will still be used to generate the meta keywords for your shop pages, so you still retain some control over this aspect of your shop’s SEO.

This article from Etsy’s blog, The Storque, further explains how you can control various SEO-related content in your Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/3835/

Thank you for your patience while we worked out this issue. My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Posted at 3:59 pm, June 11 2009 EST

There are still ongoing concerns over pre-formatted source code, including unnecessary and sometimes misleading or inappropriate category words, using up valuable space in Etsy shop and listing titles. For more information, please see this thread. (Many thanks to paperstreet for her literally tireless efforts in this cause.)

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6186413&page=1

JB Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 3:02 am

Etsy has responded to some of the issues today:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6186063
saralouhicks
Etsy Admin
saralouhicks says:
Hi all,

I’ve spent the past few hours reading up on all of the threads regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on Etsy and want to start off by saying that I appreciate your feedback and concerns.

This post is an attempt to offer some explanations about our SEO efforts and provide some insights into our future plans. SEO is very important for all of us and, like on-site search, it’s an ongoing focus area for us at Etsy; in some ways, optimizing the site for search engines is work that’s never finished. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to find your shops, whether they are searching on or off Etsy.

Let me start by offering a brief overview of our SEO efforts to date. In the beginning of this year we introduced the first phase of improvements for all of the category and search pages on Etsy. Once we completed this first phase of enhancements we then launched, in April, the second phase of improvements specifically around shop pages. Prior to these updates none of Etsy’s pages we optimized for SEO.

This article on Etsy’s blog, The Storque, provides an overview of the changes:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/seller-how-to-optimizing-your-etsy-shop-for-search-engines-3835/

On Thursday last week, we released an update that addressed an issue of particular significance for Vintage and Supplies shops. With that fix we acknowledge that our initial “one size fits many” approach wasn’t optimal. Essentially, the manner in which meta keywords were being generated for shop pages from Shop Section Titles included appending the word “handmade” in a way that was not appropriate for all shops on Etsy. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and want to stress that we’re committed to making ongoing improvements and adjustments.

With that in mind, now that we’ve made this update for Supplies and Vintages shops, we’re actively reviewing the logic for the page title for all individual shop item pages. On individual item pages, the page title format currently is:

• For handmade items – “Handmade [Category] on Etsy - [Item Title] by [username]”
• For vintage items – “Vintage on Etsy - [Item Title] by [username]”
• For supplies – “Craft Supplies on Etsy - [Item Title] by [username]”

We think we can improve upon these formats for item pages and thus we’re actively working to identify a new approach. We understand the urgency around this issue and will provide updates on our plans and progress in the next week or two. This issue is important to us, and we want to take the time to get it right.

Thank you for your patience while we continue to make these important improvements to SEO. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience our initial approach may have caused. Thank you for your patience while we continue to refine and iterate our SEO efforts. We welcome your feedback.

Kind regards,

Sara

JB Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 5:32 am

By the way, most of those “ongoing discussions” were locked on Saturday. One thread was left open, but was moved from Ideas to Etc. Then it was later moved to Bugs.
6.
6
cotswolds Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 9:46 am

A number of new threads appeared Saturday night, and will no doubt be locked — depending on who draws Sunday duty. saralouhicks forgot that sending an email to all sellers was warranted based on seller feedback to date. At least it would have spread the word about Etsy’s line in the sand (set in concrete).
Posting a No Comment blurb in the forums at the top of the page doesn’t cut it. In fact, that kind of “communication” smells like “take it or leave it, we don’t care.”
It also encourages some commenters to lash out at each other (again) and employ many of the same bulling techniques that Etsy has encouraged from the start. Etsy loves a good food fight; they wait until the hubbub dies downand go on to the next (don’t tell sellers) site “improvement”!
If sellers are encouraged to snipe at each other, they are too busy to realize that Etsy has pulled the rug from under their feet.
7.
7
morgansilk Says:
June 14th, 2009 at 10:11 am

With all due respect, Sara, the fact that this “first phase of improvements” was initially muffed by putting the same iniital tag on vintage and supplies does not change the real issue: Individual sellers are being usurped in the search engines.
This is Etsy’s plan to get more sellers; seems reasonable until we all realize that it is ruining our individual shops’ traffic.
Sellers’ visibility is being sacrificed for Etsy at large. It’s hard for sellers to find another viewpoint. it appears to indicate desperation.
Instead of burying the competition, this stragegy may very well strengthen it.
8.
8
AliciaMae Says:
June 15th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

so basically, they didn’t think it through, made the one size fits all change, said oops, and won’t roll it back - they’ll just tweak it live.

Do they not realize that once you’re blacklisted by a search engine it takes months to get off that list? They’ve basically signed the search engine death warrant for every shop on their venue this holiday season

http://etsynews.com/924/meta-tags-on-etsy-shop-pages-adversely-affecting-search-results/

I checked my listings. They do indeed say 'Handmade Accessories on Etsy blah blah blah, then the actual listing title, then by DantesSpirit. For example-

The words between ---><--- are still on my listings.

I did not put that extra wording on my titles. Etsy did. And by doing this, they effectively knocked every single one of my listings on Etsy out of the search engines. No wonder I've not received any Google Alerts with hits on my listings for the past few months. No wonder sales this year have been absolutely dismal and getting worse. No wonder my Google Analytics ranking DROPPED 31.47+% over the last 2 months, from being UP 61+% prior!

They refuse to remove it. In fact, most threads started in the Etsy forums about the issue are closed by Admin with people being redirected to a thread that originally had NOTHING whatsoever to do with the issue.

So, what am I doing about it?

Well, since I'm doing all the work of creating the art, listing the art, promoting the art and PAYING ETSY, while not getting a DIME in return as nothing can be found via search engine unless you know the EXACT name, I will no longer be renewing listings or adding new listings to my Etsy shop.

I've been there 3+ years now, that's a lot of work to just walk away from, which is why I'm not just closing up completely. However, once a listing expires, unless Etsy has fixed their screwup, that listing will stay expired. Eventually the shop will empty.

20 cents isn't a lot, but 20 cents times 43 listings(the number I have there currently) adds up. $8.60 to be exact, if I renewed every listing at one time. Now multiply that by say 4 weeks, every listing once a week- $34.40. Still don't think that's a lot? Ok, imagine if I renewed all 43 listings DAILY. $258.00 a MONTH on a 30 day month. $266.60 on a 31 day month.

See? It adds up. I can't afford that. Especially when I'm not making any money to even pay the renewal fees or listing fees with. But to get possible sales, with things the way they currently are, the ONLY way I'd be able to make anything there, is by renewing daily.

Yeah, really no point giving someone money I'm not even making, now is there? But since I've essentially already paid for those 43 listings, there's also no point in removing them and throwing that money away, on the extreme off chance somehow, someone will find me and buy something from there.

Right now, I'm concentrating on taking my Etsy listings and putting them up on 1000Markets, updating them as I go, making them look refreshed and better. All else fails, maybe my 1000Markets shop will become my new Etsy shop.

Game 3, Red Wings vs Blackhawks

2009-05-23T01:05:05Z

5 minute Major penalty against Kronwall of the Red Wings after a CLEAN, but hard, hit to Havlet of the Blackhawks.

Not only THAT, but KRONWALL WAS REMOVED FROM THE GAME.

What kind of fucked up refereeing is that?!?

So not happy.

Things I do not need...

2009-05-15T18:11:05Z

I did not need to have to rescue a beautiful Husky from the damn road, where he was almost hit by not one, but SEVERAL cars, only two of which STOPPED (one car alerted me to there being something wrong even before Caena started woofing, because I heard their tires squeal).

Glance out the window to see a car stopped in front of the house, and a guy in the parking lot across the street start to kneel down as if His dog had gotten loose somehow.

Saw a quick flash of white/cream, and KNEW, oh gods, a dog in the road, during lunch rush hour on a Friday.

I didn't even stop to make sure the screen door was secured behind me so my OWN dog wouldn't come running out, before I was down the steps and in my driveway, trying to coax this gorgeous full grown cream/beige Husky out of the road and over to me.

Thank gods he's very social, as he came trotting right up to me, so I could grab not only his collar, but HIM as well, and hold him until his owners, 2 guys in their mid twenties I'd say, came jogging up, thanking me profusely. According to them, he's very stubborn and has run down this way before (I wonder if this is the same dog Eric says he saw, and thought was Dakota, the female up the backhill?).

His name is Ringo and Ringo got a stern admonishment from me to stay out of the damn road, as I've seen way too many pets get hit, or have been found, in front of my house.

Seeing another get hit is something I do not need. Not now, not ever again.

Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy

2009-04-13T01:52:24Z

Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy
By Rachel Deahl & Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/12/2009 5:49:00 PM
A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy.

For most of the weekend on Twitter, in conversations with the hash tag "#amazonfail," users were discussing the fact that the e-tailer was removing the sales rankings for books that it deemed featured "adult content." Many readers, and writers, decried the fact that Amazon appears to be removing the sales ranking for titles that feature gay and lesbian characters and/or themes.

The director of the Erotic Authors Association, who goes by the pen name Erastes, told PW that many of her members "noticed their titles had been stripped of their sales rankings" on Amazon. One, Mark Probst, contacted a customer service representative at Amazon and wrote about the exchange on his blog. Probst wrote that the Amazon rep responded to his inquiry by saying that "'adult' material" is being excluded from appearing in "some searches and best seller lists" as a "consideration of our entire customer base."

Whether a glitch or new policy, titles like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain are among the titles who have lost their ranking.

I call bullshit and backpeddling.

Here we go again...

2008-12-10T04:02:29Z

So I was playing Sims2, building an apartment building.
Game started acting wonky, so I shut it down.

Desktop was wonky. Major wonky. Like started up in Safe Mode wonky.

So I restarted my computer. Or tried to.

It went through the 'Checkdisk' bit, as I ended up having to do a hard restart.

Then it stopped and just... sat there. so I restarted AGAIN. And it did it AGAIN.

Yes, folks, it was at that time I started swearing like the Marine I am.

Fucking computer crashed. Apparently something went wrong in the Windows operating system and the ONLY way to fix it is... yes, you guessed it.. a wipe and reinstall.

No. Just NO. This would have been the FIFTH TIME in TWO YEARS.

I am thoroughly fed up with losing shit. Yes, I've neglected backing up anything OTHER than photos. Those automatically go to the external drive (and gods help me if THAT crashes).

Any Sims2 stuff I've done in the last 3-4 months? Gone.

Any new bookmarks in the last 3-4 months? Gone.

Everything. Gone.

So because I am thoroughly fed up with that piece of shit computer (Dell Dimension DIM C521 Slimline), Mark and I traded computers. He's going to pull the drive, take it to work and see if he can pull anything I want/need off of it before he wipes it.

And now I get to uninstall stuff I'd never use on his computer, reinstall Sims2, Semagic, Kodak photo software, Zune software, ICQ, AIM... and whatever else I can think of.

So tired of this crap.

This annoys me to no end.

2008-12-02T01:36:37Z

The general misconception that simply because some of the supplies can be cheap, the finished product needs to be as well.

How do I put this...

I do this for a living, or try to. I KNOW what they cost. I also know exactly how much certain fiber reactive dyed for use with those scarves cost, what it takes in terms of my time and my energy to create ONE of my scarves. I also know how much it costs to simply list a scarf and sell it (20 cents to list, 3.5% of the sale, on Etsy), as well as how much it cost for packaging that I use and what it costs to ship.

Now, given this is my JOB, if I don't pay myself, then, yes, I could probably sell a scarf for roughly 20.00 and make a profit. Especially if they or I don't donate anything.

But given that I value my time, my energy and my talent far more than that, and given the fact that I donate 50% of my proceeds from each sale, I simply cannot sell a scarf at bare bottom prices. Which is what a lot of people do.

Yes, Dharma is relatively cheap, IF you only buy the Habotai, IF you only use certain sizes. I don't just use Habotai, I don't just use the smaller sizes. I use Crepe De Chine, Stone washed Crepe De Chine, Habotai, Charmeuse, etc, etc... as well as a wider range of sizes.

That adds up.

Then you add in the cost of certain fiber reactive dyes, that I do not buy from Dharma, and in order to get any sort of profit from THOSE, you need to buy in large quantities, and for certain colors, THAT adds up.

Add in Soda Ash, Synthrapol, PVC pipe for Shibori if you decide to go that route, string for shibori, Thioxurea for discharging, beads, FireLine, charms, semi precious stones, whathaveyou if you decide to embellish them, whatever soap and fabric softener you prefer to hand wash your finished piece in after rinsing the excess dye out, your water bill, your electric bill, and gee, it's not simply 5.00 to create one scarf anymore.

But customers don't see that. They see a gorgeous scarf at a low price, and they see another gorgeous scarf at a higher price and automatically want the cheaper price. And expect that everyone should sell at the cheaper price.

That's where I'm coming from.

Yes, it is a nice thing they are doing, donating their profits, etc. But for them, this appears to be mostly a hobby.

I don't.

I do this as my job and people coming in saying, oh it only costs such and such amount to create one of these, is wrong. That would be like telling a famous painter that because their paints were so cheap, that their canvases were so cheap, they should sell their artwork cheap too. It doesn't work that way.

Let's break $20.00 for one scarf down-

I mean breaking 20.00 down...

That's-

2.00 for the scarf blank.
2.00 for the mailing of said blank to you.
2-3.00 for a 2oz container of ONE Procion MX dye color, depending on the color, of which you can get maybe 2-3 scarves out of IF you skimp on the dye, so say 1.00 for dye.
maybe 10.00 for the water and electric you use to dye the scarf.
maybe 50 cents -1.00 for packaging, depending on packaging.
then 2-3.00 for mailing if you just stick it in a plain envelope and go regular mail.

Total- 18.50-19.00. You make ONE DOLLAR. That's it. That's not even minimum wage.

That's not even paying yourself for your time or the cost to list the scarf.

IF you list the scarf at 20.00 on, say, Etsy. Well, there goes another 20 cents right off the bat. You sell the scarf, there goes another 25-30 cents, roughly. You use PayPal for receiving payments, there goes ANOTHER 25-30 cents.

That's another 70-80 cents.

You make exactly 20-30 CENTS. That's it.

Could you make a living on 20-30 cents per item sold? I sure as hel can't.

Spreading the Word- DeviantArt Art Theft Alert.

2008-11-25T19:20:07Z

Via Draco-Samhain-

The Elven Blood Art Theft Ring

I am seeking help in identifying artwork in a game that is building a reputation for art theft. My goal is to have every single uncredited artist whose work is used in Elven Blood, to be sought out and contacted. The developers post a link where you can submit work to be showcased, but it seems they favor theft over honest submissions. I don't know how many images are legitimate submissions (very few are credited, maybe 5%) and that is what I seek to find out.

Elven Blood, for those who don't know, is one of four games in the Blood Games series put out by a company calling themselves the Royal East India Trading Company. Originally debuted on Facebook, they have several thousands of players worldwide and have recently launched onto Myspace. They claim to have millions of dollars worth of support from investors. If so, why would they fall so low as to steal so much art? Thefts have not only been from individual artists, but from those creating work-for-hire pieces, which are legally owned by the company they created them for. Whether this company is real or a complete scam, I don't know yet. I do know that of the artists I have contacted and heard back from, that 100% of notifications have been confirmed thefts.

Many of you wanting to help may say that you're not a gamer or even be on Facebook or Myspace. That is perfectly fine. I have supplied screen shots of most of the 78 locations here: [link]

If you do play the game or another in the Blood series:
-I am seeking screen shots of the first few and very last few locations in Elven Blood and any of the shops. I have all locations listed here on the bottom half of the journal. I need shots for locations without an asterisk * : [link] I will add more as I can get to them.

-If anyone has played a significant amount of Blood Lust, Skies of Blood and/or City of Blood and is willing to travel around and gather screen shots, please contact me. I'm not that far in these 3. I can however, create a list of locations such as the one I made for EB.

Please reference the screen shots I've provided for the range of the shot needed. It needs to cover from the top of the location banner down as far as your screen will allow. The location links at the bottom aren't as necessary as they're thumbnails of the banner up top. If you don't want to host shots you've gathered, send me the link of where you've temporarily posted them telling me so. I will transfer them.

The compiled links:

Main project page: [link]
11.23.08 update: [link]
11.6.08 update: [link]

Elven Blood screen shots so far:
[link]

*************************************************

Found list in rough order of appearance:
These artists have already been contacted. Credit to finders will now be listed at the bottom, as some of you have found a lot. Entries without a status are ones I'm awaiting replies on.

~Alfredsson's Knight of the Temple [link] at Saint Castletown. CONFIRMED.

~jnurp's Pirate King [link] located at the Northwest passage

`Saimain's Dark Warrior [link] located at Elven Moonwoods

~kankakanka's Baby Dragon [link] located at the shop in Garden of Eden

*infraberry's Black Dragon Attack [link] located at Orc Fortress

~Dajotoy's Orc [link] located at Orc Fortress

*aaronsimscompany's Satry Concept 1 [link] located at Forgotten Chasm

*ShadowUmbre's Unleashed [link] located at Cyrene Jungles

*Raphael-Lacoste's Masyaf [link] located at Neo St. Castletown

=Pretty-Angel's Drowning [link] located at Dream of the Past. CONFIRMED

=alexiuss's Equinox [link] located at Fourth Circle CONFIRMED

`treijim's black dragon: [link] located in the Ninth Circle. CONFIRMED

`blackeri's 7 sins... ALL CONFIRMED
Vanity [link] ...I forget the location. I just passed it though...
Avarice [link] at the Tangles of Greed.
Gluttony: [link] at Glutton's Desert.
Wrath: [link] at Peaks of Wrath.

*************************************************

Credited images:
=alexiuss's Neurotic Indisposition [link] located at Dream of Despair

(For the actual links and such, see the original article.)

This is why my head hurts sometimes...

2008-11-11T22:53:08Z

Reading comments like this...

"Oh, and they can be really aggressive towards kids. edit Actually nvm, I think the aggressiveness is from american Akitas, not shiba inus or even akita inus :3" From this post.
*headdesk**headdesk**headdesk*

Sorry, Caena! You, as an AMERICAN AKITA, have to stop being so nice! You're supposed to be AGGRESSIVE! What's wrong with you?!? You're doing it wrong!!!!

Oh and Shiba-Inus aren't aggressive? Bullshit. Tell that to the little fucker that threw itself at the fence, growling, snarling and barking like mad everytime Dante and I were out walking back in North Carolina.

ANY dog can be aggressive. It all depends on the OWNER.

Yes, there is such a thing as an American Akita-Inu line and a Japanese Akita-Inu line. The American line tends toward stouter, larger(heavier) with a more boxy face. The Japanese line is leaner, deeper chested with a more fox like face. Most times they are very hard to distinguish between though.

But they are ALL Akita-Inus.

Oh and thanks to that damn live feed video, Shiba-Inus will most likely become the next 'Hot Ticket Item' for Christmas.

Virginia Counties Threaten Animal Rescue Groups’ Survival

2008-09-16T17:24:02Z

County actions could lead to the disbanding of animal rescue groups who rely on foster homes to house the pets in their care. This would result in additional thousands of pets being needlessly euthanized.

CHANTILLY, VA September 11, 2008: In two separate Virginia counties, animal rescue group foster homes have been cited for zoning violations with respect to the temporary housing of dogs as a volunteer service to a legitimate 501(c)(3) animal rescue organization. In neither case are the foster homes being cited for exceeding County zoning guidelines concerning the number of dogs being kept; the assertion is that dogs are being housed for commercial purposes.

In Fairfax County the relevant sections of the Zoning Ordinance are Paragraphs 5 and 6 of Sect. 2-302. The notice of zoning violation states, in part:
“The keeping of dogs and/or cats in conjunction with an animal rescue service is not a permitted use in the R-3 District. Therefore, … these animals are not for personal use and enjoyment; rather they are kept for commercial purposes.”

Arlington County is more succinct:
CODE OR ORDINANCE VIOLATION
Arlington County Code, Zoning Ordinance,
Section 31.12.b.(6) and Section 31.12.b.(6)
(amended)
Operating a kennel, boarding facility or
adoption center form [sic] a residence
in an R2-7 Zoning District.

The zoning ordinances in each county allow for citizens to keep dogs, within
guidelines, for their own “personal use and enjoyment”; however, since the animals in question are kept in conjunction with a rescue organization, they are being considered “commercial use” and thus the right to house them is being challenged. A primary consideration for classifying something as “commercial” is a profit motive. The foster care providers that work with animal rescue groups are volunteers who offer their services without compensation, and frequently at great personal expense.

If the Counties are successful in classifying these volunteer services as commercial in nature, the ruling would force the closure of many hundreds of foster homes throughout Arlington and Fairfax Counties and would establish a precedent that could be emulated throughout the Commonwealth. These closures would cause an immediate influx of hundreds, if not thousands, of dogs and cats into the County shelters which are neither prepared nor funded to handle such volumes of animals. Since the shelters would be filled beyond capacity, this would mean the immediate euthanasia of many, if not most, of these highly adoptable animals.

Additionally, the classification of volunteer services as a commercial activity could logically be extended to non-profit organizations such as the Girl Scouts of America (troop leaders, annual cookie drive), the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation (fundraising events), church functions (bible study classes, fundraising activities), and innumerable others.

Ironically, even though Fairfax and Arlington Counties are citing rescue volunteers for fostering in their homes, the Counties themselves use citizen-based foster programs within their shelter program (Fairfax) or by their contracted shelter provider (Arlington). (Double standard much?)

The Commonwealth of Virginia has received national recognition for the adoption of strict new dog fighting and puppy mill laws. In a 2007 study, the HSUS found nearly 1,000 puppy mills operating in Virginia. Of those, only 16 were properly licensed. As of January 1, 2009, the date that the new Virginia puppy mill law goes into effect, each of these puppy mills will be limited to 50 dogs over one year of age. The remainder will be surrendered to shelters, sold, or killed.

As evidenced by the recent puppy mill bust in West Virginia, where over 1,000 dogs were saved, it is the rescue groups who step up to handle the sudden glut of dogs – publicly supported shelters do not have the capacity. A finding that volunteer foster homes are serving a commercial purpose could put the rescue group safety net out of service, forcing the euthanisia of untold thousands of dogs and puppies all at tremendous expense to Virginia taxpayers.

A Forever Home Rescue Foundation (AFH) is an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) non-profit (Tax ID: 43-1977921) incorporated in Virginia on September 11, 2002. AFH rescues at-risk dogs, provides them with needed medical attention and places them into loving new “Forever Homes”. In an average year, AFH places over 1,000 dogs into new adoptive homes. The organization is also instrumental in the transport of thousands of dogs from rural shelters to other pre-screened, reputable rescue organizations all along the eastern seaboard.

AFH has also been a key participant in many animal-related activities over the years. The rescue group made five separate trips to the New Orleans area following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, rescuing nearly 150 stranded dogs. It was also a keyparticipant in the recent shutdown of a West Virginia puppy mill that rescued over 1,000 dogs from the hardships of a puppy mill life (see www.aforeverhome.org).

During the 2007 reporting year, the A Forever Home Rescue Foundation alone placed 875 dogs with new adoptive families and had 105 animals on hand at the end of the year. When aggregated with all reporting entities in the Commonwealth, the number of dogs and cats that could potentially be impacted by this action on an annuallized basis approaches 250,000.

A Forever Home Rescue Foundation is expending thousands of dollars in legal fees to protect its foster home network. These are funds that would be better spent taking care of the animals. (And they aren't the only rescue group who will end up doing this. EVERY Rescue group with a foster home in Virginia will end up having to use the funds better spent on care for the pets, on legal fees instead.)

####

Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance Paragraphs 5 and 6 of Sect. 2-302:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/zoningordinance/articles/art02.pdf (see Page 9)

Fairfax County Animal Shelter Foster Program:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/animalservices/pdf/FCASDOnlineApplication.pdf

Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals - Appeal Number: A 2008-SP-025
Arlington County Zoning Ordinance Section 31.12.b.(6):
http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/CPHD/planning/zoning/pdfs/Ordinance_Section31.pdf (See Page 5)

Arlington County Animal Shelter Foster Program:
http://www.awla.org/foster.shtml
Arlington County Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development
Planning Division – Reference Number: CE083516

Virginia Puppy Mill Law:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+3.2-6507.1
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+3.2-6507.2
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+3.2-6507.3
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/companion-animal-breeding/article/357

Virginia Dog Fighting Law:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+3.2-6571
Virginia Department of Consumer Services Online Animal Reporting:
http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi

####

For additional information, contact Ken Cline at ken@aforeverhome.org

One of THOSE weeks...

2008-08-12T20:04:59Z

It appears, that despite initially registering, ie the computer recognizing that, yes, I have plugged in my device, when I tried to remove music from my 30gig Zune, it decided to go belly up.

Yup. It completely stopped responding.

When I tried all the troubleshooting tricks the website says, it still didn't work.

When I tried to submit a repair request, because that's what it says to do if you tried to reset the device and get a certain screen instead, the damn repair request website kept crashing.

When I tried calling Customer Service and tried explaining this to them, that I could not get past the submit screen, that I tried three times now, their response was, 'Oh we see the repair request right here'. Yeah, well that doesn't help ME one bit when I have no confirmation number, no address to send it to, no packing instructions, no NOTHING, now does it?

After attempting to explain THAT to the stupid bint, I got so frustrated that I told her to just cancel the repair request and hung up on them. This is the second time I've tried doing anything with the Customer Service via the telephone and have gotten nowhere.

Screw this. Other than the Customer Service, I've not had any issues with my Zune. It'd be easier to just go buy a new damn one. Which is what is going to end up happening by Thursday.

Been saying I needed an 80gig after all.

Remember the Orphan Works Bills? Be ready to get pissed...

2008-05-03T22:39:57Z

Because those bills are not about protecting the little guy, ie, you and me. They are about making the big guys even richer than they already are.

Don't believe me? Well, read on.

A friend has done some srious digging, this took mere minutes for her. I can only imagine what she'd find if she really looked. I have permission to crosspost and I highly suggest you do the same.

Spread the word, tell as many people as you can, artists and non artists. Get angry and go out there and do something about this. Don't let the rich guys get richer off our hard work.

"The Orphaned Works Bills are creating a battle that wages on all over the internet, an excellent sample of this can be found here: http://mollykleinman.com/2008/04/16/wonks-and-librarians/

To amuse myself I've been researching the Orphaned Works legislation everyone is wetting their pants over, people are drafting letters and poised, ready to fight. I decided to take a different route, I went looking for where it came from, seeking who pushed for it, and who owed favors that might help get it over the hump before i write any letters. This is probably the most important thing I learned while battling politicians down in Coos Bay Oregon, "follow the money". I ran into some interesting data, don't you just love the internet?

First of all the senate version is also called "The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (S. 2913) It was introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and lists Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) as a backer, I find this odd because Hatch appears to have drafted this originally. It's named after Shawn Bentley, who was an intellectual property counselor for Hatch for several years before he died from cancer.

Interestingly enough he also worked for years for AOL/Time Warner... who happens to be a major contributor to most of the people heavily involved in both versions.... $41,100 to Leahy alone, but they were not the biggest contributor.
Other major contributors include a litigation attorney who defends infringers, Disney, and TechNet, an interesting little group of tech moguls, (sniff: John Doerr), who do a lot of big money lobbying for "causes" that make their members wealthy.... $81,491 went to Leahy alone last year, that's a lot of gerbil food in my book. I find it interesting that they are already profiting nicely from operating registries for health care and financial information, so why not make a bundle forcing artists to register their works in a registry they run too? AND they are fighting to lower patent violation penalities... http://tinyurl.com/6gmgqq if you read the legislation both versions seek to lower and limit fines to next to nothing on copyright violations.
I feel some deja-vue coming on.... and I suspect people are gonna need to do more than write letters to stop this. I haven't stopped digging but there appears to be some major money behind these bills resurfacing, and some major players, and they are not use to losing. Maybe artists better start taking down their art and locking it up now.

I have to say I haven't had this much fun since I tracked down the skinny on one particularly powerful Environmental Impact Study company in the mid-90's that was up to their elbows in obtaining way too much Federal grant money for performing environmental impact studies (prior to public works projects that seldom actually ever occurred) in financially depressed areas, especially along the west coast. I also found a link from them to suddenly appearing HIGH interest home loans in those areas that were defaulted on at a very high percentage rate, leaving them in control of large amounts of property, some of which they sold off at a loss to local small town politicians, some they kept... the value of all of it rose dramatically within a very short period of time after they got control of it. No one cared then and I doubt they do now, so I imagine that is still going on.

Edit: BTW, It's impossible to ignore the fact that Technet CEO John Doerr sits on the board of Amazon, Google, Intuit (quickbooks), and the investment company he is a partner in is the primary funding behind Zazzle,(sorta like cafepress). I also discovered that additional donations were also made separately from Technet to many of the politicians involved, in the name of John Doerr, his wife Ann, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers ( the venture capital group where John is a partner)... and under the name of everyone I have tracked so far that sits in power at Technet. The contribution numbers will soar much higher than it appears on the surface..... we may never need to buy gerbil food again.

It is always about following the moola, either where it's going to wind up, or who it's being taken from who has friends in the highest places.

I haven't figured the total contributions yet I am still tracking them.

BTW, Doerr is Numero Uno on the Forbes Midas list:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/99/biz_08midas_L-John-Doerr_2946.html
What a great little capitalist he is.....

I am sure my daughter Ramie would admire the fact he has shoveled a ton of money into backing stem cell research and lobbying for it."

More as she finds it.

These bills are not about protecting our copyrights. These bills are about TAKING THEM AWAY. These bills will effectively take anything you or I create and are unable to afford to either get a Copyright from the Copyright office on or register with the 'database' these bills would create. Thereby opening the door for these people, THE COMPANIES, to swoop in, and take our work, giving themselves the credit, because, according to them, our names won't be on it, as we won't be in their databases, so the works are 'orphaned'.

The bills are about making other people rich. These bills are about making us even more poor. It's high time we told these companies exactly how we feel about their practices when it comes to our hard work and creations.

Let's see if I can properly explain my thoughts on this....

2008-04-30T00:23:22Z

Apparently, there's an outdated law in Pennsylvania, that says, if you are married to someone or cohabiting with them, you being male, even though you are sterile, have been proven, medically to be sterile, unable to father a child, and your wife gets pregnant, you are 'legally' that child's parent, biological or not. The law does not allow for paternity testing of any sort, does not take into account your medically proven sterility.

So if you divorce, or otherwise separate, because of this law, you are forced to pay child support for a child not yours. You have no recourse. The court will not allow you to have a paternity test to show the child is not yours. You lived with the woman, therefore, even though you didn't father the child, it's considered yours.

This is taking the point of view that the man had nothing, whatsoever, to do with the raising of said child.

I think the law needs to be updated.

Allow me to clarify- the law needs to provide for cases where it is medically proven, the man was and is sterile, incapable of siring ANY children. Adoption laws already cover those- the birth parents' right are severed, that child is YOURS, period, you divorce, it's still yours, so yes, you should support it.

But in the cases where the man was unable to have a child and KNEW this, as did the woman, why should he be forced to pay when they both know the kid isn't his? Why shouldn't the man who sired the kid have to pay? Because the man who was living with the woman was there when the kid was born? That's not fair to him, in my opinion. Especially since/if the woman left, taking the kid with her, not long after the birth of said child.

Siring a child, in my book, does NOT make you a father or a mother. I certainly do not consider the woman who bore me to be my mother in any sense of the word. My step mother, is my mother. That's another post for another day.

However, I do feel that, if you sired that child, you should help support it. And that means YOU should pay the child support, not the cuckolded man. He should only have to pay if HE feels its necessary, if he considers himself the father, regardless of parentage. But in the cases where the man does not claim the child, in ANY way, why should he have to pay, simply because he was under the same roof?

If that were the case, then all these women getting pregnant by random men, their 'Live In' boyfriend who may not have sired any of her kids, would be forced to pay child support simply because he lived with her. And it that's also the case, why, when step families break up, isn't the step parent required to now pay child support for the children he helped raise while married to their mother? He's not related to them, any more than the sterile man is, yet, he's not forced to pay while the medically proven sterile man is.

How does that make any sense?

I agree that SOMEONE needs to help support the kid, so why shouldn't it be the man who sired it? Why should the cuckolded man be the one to take all the responsibility? Simply because he lived with the mom when the kid was born? That's too simple. Because otherwise, there'd be a hel of alot of guys walking around scot-free while someone else not only raises, but also supports THEIR kids.

Oh, wait, that's already happening.

In regards to custody- if the man took the woman to court to fight for custody of the child, the fact that the child is not his could then be used as a reason for him not to get the child. Genetics now come into play. How is that fair in regards to the law?

( I will most likely add or rewrite bits of this as I clarify them in my mind. Comments will become screened if they degenerate into a flamewar. I won't shut them off, but I will screen if needed.)

Ok, NOW is the time to start worrying...

2008-04-28T22:44:51Z

S 2913 -Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 (Introduced in Senate)

To wit-

"SEC. 3. DATABASE OF PICTORIAL, GRAPHIC, AND SCULPTURAL WORKS.
(a) Establishment of Database-

(1) IN GENERAL- The Register of Copyrights shall undertake a certification process for the establishment of an electronic database that facilitates the search for pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works that are subject to copyright protection under title 17, United States Code.

(2) PROCESS AND STANDARDS FOR CERTIFICATION- The process and standards for certification of the electronic database required under paragraph (1) shall be established by the Register of Copyrights, except that certification may not be granted if the electronic database does not contain--

(A) the name of all authors of the work, if known, and contact information for any author if the information is readily available;

(B) the name of the copyright owner if different from the author, and contact information of the copyright owner;

(C) the title of the copyrighted work, if such work has a title;

(D) with respect to a copyrighted work that includes a visual image, a visual image of the work, or, if such a visual image is not available, a description sufficient to identify the work;

(E) one or more mechanisms that allow for the search and identification of a work by both text and image; and

(F) security measures that reasonably protect against unauthorized access to, or copying of, the information and content of the electronic database.

(b) Public Availability- The Register of Copyrights--

(1) shall make available to the public through the Internet a list of all electronic databases that are certified in accordance with this section; and

(2) may include any database so certified in a statement of best practices established under section 514(b)(5)(B) of title 17, United States Code.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

(a) In General- With respect to works other than pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, the amendments made by section 2 shall apply to infringements that commence on or after January 1, 2009.
(b) Pictorial, Graphic, and Sculptural Works- With respect to pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, the amendments made by section 2 shall--

(1) take effect on the earlier of--

(A) the date on which the Copyright Office certifies under section 3 at least 2 separate and independent searchable, comprehensive, electronic databases, that allow for searches of copyrighted works that are pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, and are available to the public through the Internet; or

(B) January 1, 2011; and

(2) apply to infringing uses that commence on or after that effective date.

(c) Publication in Federal Register- The Register of Copyrights shall publish the effective date described in subsection (b)(1) in the Federal Register, together with a notice that the amendments made by section 2 take effect on that date with respect to pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.

(d) Definition- In this section, the term `pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works' has the meaning given that term in section 101 of title 17, United States Code."

and

HR 5889- Orphan Works Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)

To wit-

"SEC. 3. DATABASE OF PICTORIAL, GRAPHIC, AND SCULPTURAL WORKS.

(a) Establishment of Database-

(1) IN GENERAL- The Register of Copyrights shall undertake a certification process for the establishment of an electronic database to facilitate the search for pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works that are subject to copyright protection under title 17, United States Code.

(2) PROCESS AND STANDARDS FOR CERTIFICATION- The process and standards for certification of the electronic database required under paragraph (1) shall be established by the Register of Copyrights, except that certification may not be granted if the electronic database does not contain--

(A) the name of all authors of the work, and contact information for any author if the information is readily available;

(B) the name of the copyright owner if different from the author, and contact information of the copyright owner;

(C) the title of the copyrighted work, if such work has a title;

(D) with respect to a copyrighted work that includes a visual image, a visual image of the work, or, if such a visual image is not available, a description sufficient to identify the work;

(E) one or more mechanisms that allow for the search and identification of a work by both text and image; and

(F) security measures that reasonably protect against unauthorized access to, or copying of, the information and content of the electronic database.

(b) Public Availability- The Register of Copyrights--

(1) shall make available to the public through the Internet a list of all electronic databases that are certified in accordance with this section; and

(2) may include any database so certified in a statement of best practices established under section 514(b)(5)(B) of title 17, United States Code.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

(a) In General- With respect to works other than pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, the amendments made by section 2 shall apply to infringements that commence on or after January 1, 2009.
(b) Pictorial, Graphic, and Sculptural Works- With respect to pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, the amendments made by section 2 shall--

(1) take effect on the earlier of--

(A) the date on which the Copyright Office certifies under section 3 at least 2 separate and independent searchable, comprehensive, electronic databases, that allow for searches of copyrighted works that are pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, and are available to the public through the Internet; or

(B) January 1, 2013; and

(2) apply to infringing uses that commence on or after that effective date.

(c) Publication in Federal Register- The Register of Copyrights shall publish the effective date described in subsection (b)(1) in the Federal Register, together with a notice that the amendments made by section 2 take effect on that date with respect to pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.

(d) Definition- In this section, the term `pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works' has the meaning given that term in section 101 of title 17, United States Code."

NOW you should start worrying about your works and NOW you should start contacting your Congressmen/women.

But FIRST, you need to read both 'Bills'. Keep in mind, they have only been INTRODUCED. They still have to be approved by Committee before they go to a vote. Also, there are TWO, and while they may say nearly the same thing, they ARE different. Keep that in mind when you contact your Congress person.

You've got to love the Internet sometimes...

2008-04-26T01:11:07Z

Poor rice harvests means there's MAY soon to be a rice shortage, causing some big box chains to limit your purchases of 20lb bags of rice.
This has translated to 'OmG!111 There'S A FOOd ShORtaGe!!11 ThEy'Re RaTionINg Food11!1!!!!'

And 'OMg!111 ThaT'S WhY PrIces are Going Up!11"

Umm.. no.

Rising fuel prices means that the cost to transport that same food stuffs from one place to another has gone up, translating into a higher cost to the consumer when they purchase the food stuffs.

Let's recap- Rising fuel prices=rising transport costs= rising food prices.

NOT rising food prices=food shortages/rationing by all grocery stores.

Can you say unnecessary paranoia?

There now, I knew you could!

O hai there InTarWebs...

2008-04-22T22:40:07Z

Apparently, telling someone to call their vet equates to being a jerk.

Yup.

Cause we all know, calling a vet requires hundreds and hundreds of dollars just to talk to the vet or a vet tech on the phone.

Wait, what? It 'DOESN'T?!? You mean, I can talk to my vet for free? The vet won't CHARGE ME?!?

No! Imagine that!

Out of all the comments saying 'go to the vet' or ' talk to your vet', my lonely little 'call your vet' is singled out as being 'OMGooZZzzz Yer So MeAn!111111!!!11!'

The stupidity, it burns.

Edit-

Nope! Wait! Others are now being told what idiots they are. Except this one, because dontcha know, they answered exactly what they wanted! Never you mind that they don't have a clue as to what exactly the worms are and are giving advice that could potentially harm the animal instead of helping.

Good gods. I do hope this fool is a Troll.

< a href="http://community.livejournal.com/naturalliving/4245088.html?thread=67939168#t67939168"> If only we were so lucky!!</a>

The idiot is now deleting any and all comments that show the least bit of disagreement. Takes real guts to do that. I am in awe. /sarcasm

Ugh.

2008-04-17T19:11:40Z

So, took care of the social security card bit.

TRIED to take care of the renewal of Driver's License bit. I will never understand why if you're renewing, you have to take the fool tests all over again. Which, i couldn't do, as I need new contacts, and my eye appointment isn't until NEXT Thursday.

On a good note, I don't need my SSN card. I just needed my marriage certificate.

I swear, if I knew it was going to be this much of a hassle to change my last name, I'd have kept my maiden name, Marine Corps be damned (they *forced* me to change it.Seriously. I had no choice while active duty).

Picked up Dante's meds. I love her to death, but the expense of her meds, I will so not miss when she decides to go.

Got more topsoil and a couple bags of compost to top off the front iris bed, and fill in the holes in the cinder blocks for the new raised bed. I'm thinking, I'll be planting my seedlings this next week, as it's supposed to rain Sunday, so I'll wait until the dirt is completely settled out, see if I need to add more and do so, accordingly.

We're considering heading downtown again this weekend, Mark wants to go to the Science Museum, I want to hit the Farmer's Market, then we're going grocery shopping, as we really need groceries now. Cupboards are looking abit bare. And the grocery list is getting longer...

My Buddleia bush out front has #$%#$^%&(#!@$!%^*&^&(*_()_+$@%!@#~!$#^%^*&^& aphids. (So is the blasted Feverfew, ARGH!!!) Got them off the Irises, now they're on the Buddleia. Too many for the numerous LadyBugs to dispose of. I'm down to one bottle of Safer Insecticidal Soap. Guess I'll make a batch of water, dish soap and baking soda up.

Driveway needs weeding too. Sheesh.

My Wisteria is doing well, that's all I smell when I go out front. Between that and the Lilac, my yard smells like a perfumery. Yes, I have photos. I'll upload them tonight.

Had to turn the AC on. In April. Yikes.

In other news...

no_comp_neededis a comm that you can join just to express your support for IJ. I personally don't care that we were down for two days. Accidents happen, and Squeaky kept us all informed the whole time on Twitter. It's amazing that he got things back up and running so quickly. And everything seems to be just the way it was before the crash. Besides, if you had lost your journals and didn't have them backed up...SHAME ON YOU, not Squeaky! (Me too--I have not yet backed this up!!!) (copied from techno_goddess}:P )

I joined with this journal, it's perm, what are they going to do? Add 2 days to infinity? Sheesh. I need to join with blackblade, even though that's a free account, it won't be when I get everything else straightened out and have the spare money again. InsaneJournal is vastly worth it.

I guess that's it for now. I need to run to AC Moore before going to get Mark from work.

Oh yeah, Twitter has frustrated me to no end. The sidebar? Isn't being a sidebar. It's glitched itself up to the top of my Twitters and is very annoying, because now, I have to keep scrolling down below it, to read the twitters. AND it keeps eating any posts I make. It ate four in a row today. No response from 'Help' yet, either. Shitty customer service, considering this has been going on since LAST NIGHT. I shut it down, it annoyed me so badly.

I have another rant, but that can wait until later.

Words in my mouth again...

2008-04-13T01:20:20Z

I absolutely love when people try to say I said something I know darn well I did not.

In regards this story, where I said that while I understood the reasons behind it, I thought the method was flawed.

Boy was I yelled at.

First off, I did not say she was stupid for doing it. I did not say she did not know the risks involved. I did not say she thought they did not apply to her.

What I did say was that she should have known better, in being a woman, alone and hitch hiking, in a foreign country, with the political climate the way it currently is, as well as the religious climate, than to attempt this on her own.

I did not, not once, say that I thought it was the work of a mentally ill person. Someone else did. I did say the possibility of it being a fanatic Islamist or an extremist was probable, given the area she was in, given the countries in and around that area, ie, the Middle East, and given how many of those countries, whose primary religion IS Islam, treat their women. Do we know for a fact it was someone like that? No, but the probability is there. And that's what I said.

I also said that as far as I know, Turkey had not closed its borders to extremists and fanatic Islamists, so the chances of it being someone like that, were also high. Could it have been a psychopath who happened to be a Turk? Yes, of course. Hel, it could have been a tourist from a completely different continent who did it. The probability is there, after all.

Not once did I say I thought what she was attempting was stupid. Not once did I say it had no merit. I said the method was flawed.

Yes, I think the fact she was a women had something to do with it. Killers like this are notorious for singling out women who are traveling alone. That's a given. Check out any serial killer, and you'll see that it is true.

Personally, I applaud her efforts, but I don't think it was smart to split up. I think they should have stayed together. The chances of this happening, more than likely would have been halved.

And yes, it is sad and it does say alot about the human race as a whole.

Etsy seems to like to run people off lately.

2008-01-21T19:19:53Z

Apparently over the weekend, they closed down 2 shops without prior warnings.

Closed down as in, GONE, account is wiped, etc.

There's been numerous threads in the forums lately pertaining to buyers suddenly contacting Etsy Admin, instead of the seller as they are supposed to, about non delivered packages. This in turn, generates a report on file for that seller, who otherwise had no clue that a package wasn't delivered properly. This creates a blemish on an otherwise spotless account.

According to the buying rules, buyers are supposed to contact the seller with any and all questions, to try to resolve any issues BEFORE contacting Etsy. Yeah, that doesn't always happen, nor does it get enforced by Etsy.

As a result, shops are getting shut down without warning.

Another thing that's apparently happening, is that certain persons in the forums are harrassing others, and when the seller being harrassed complains, THEY GET SHUT DOWN, with the excuse of 'history of conflicts' emailed to them.

Wow.

I honestly can't say I'm suprised at this. What with no time limit on when buyers have to leave feedback for purchases by, it leabes it open for them to claim a package was never received, up to 6 months later. Yes, an incident such as this was brought up in the forums. And yes, there are unscupulous buyers who would make such claims. In which case, you not only lose out on the merchandise, but run the risk of losing your shop, as well as the possibility of PayPal refunding the buyer if it's within 45 days.

Also, having a tracking number isn't by any means a guarentee that you won't get screwed over, as PayPal apparently only takes Deliovery confirmation or Insurance tracking numbers. So if it's an internationally shipped package, which you can't get insurance or tracking on unless you pay exorbinant prices ($25.00 for Express Priority, which does offer tracking), you're screwed.

Getting a straight answer from Etsy Admin as far as whether our discxlaimers in ouir shipping profiles will be respected or not, is like pulling teeth.

Then of course, there's the conflicting information from the Post Offices as well, as to which forms are outdated and which forms are now used.

Something else I've noticed- it's getting to where you cannot mention ANYTHING about a transaction or feedback, especially if it was a negative experience, without getting the thread shut down. This is a repeated trend that I've seen lately. Even if you go out of your way to not disclose any identification of the seller/buyer, just mentioning a bad experience, gets the thread closed. It's as if Etsy Admin doesn't want the world to know they are infallible.

Sometimes I have to wonder if it's all worth it at all.

(And apparently my Avatar has spawned copycats. Yes, it's the same Avatar on my main IJ page. Not sure whether to be flattered or offended. Except the other person's dog is a Beagle? or Daschaund? possibly and their hair is fuschia. Not to mention, has NOTHING to do with their shop- name or otherwise, whereas mine is named after Dante, who is prominant in my Avatar. Hmph.)

Unprofessional, to say the least...

2008-01-21T19:06:27Z

So I tried to buy some Zune Pass points last night.

Normally I don't buy them because most of the mp3s I download are free to download with my Zune Pass subscription (kind of like a Napster ir iTunes account). I just wanted 400 points because, as I've said, I don't use them that often. 400 points is $5.00.

I entered all my CC info and clicked confirm purchase..

It proceeded to tell me my CC number was invalid. 4 times. I was tired, so I kept double checking to be sure I was indeed entering it correctly. Tried spaces, tried no spaces, everything.

I checked my PayPal account, as that was the account the CC was drawing on. I was charged for the $5.00 worth of points I wanted. I looked at my Zune acount. No points were there.

I received an email- 4 times, that said my CC number needed to be validated before I could finish my purchase. Checked my account and IT said that the CC was valid and 'good', so now I'm getting frustrated and confused, as I know I had the $5.00 in my PayPal account, and I know I have no points to reflect where that $5.00 went to.

So I called Zune Customer Service.

Went through the rigamorale of the automated system, and got some guy who spoke so fast and with such an Indian accent that if he said his name I didn't catch it. The background was full of loud talking, laughing and music. Ok, I assumed he was in a large call center type place. The background noise should have been my first clue on how this was going to go.

I explained my issue and he went to pull up my account. Only HE can't find it. I have to literally SPELL MY NAME out to him. I have to literally tell him exactly how to find my account, which I was looking at in front of me on my computer screen, as well as my PayPal account.

He finaly finds my account, I have to explain again that I paid for points and did not recive them. After 15 minutes, with me repeatedly asking him to repeat what he just said because he said it so fast that I couldn't understand him, he puts me on hold, saying he was going to try to find someone from billing. That should have been my second clue that this wasn't going to end well.

After waiting 14 minutes, 13 seconds, he comes back and my gods, the background music was blaring through my cell phone. He literally, I shit you not, asked me if I could hear him. I said barely, I can barely understand you. He says a bunch of stuff, something about billing and waiting some more. I asked him several times what he was saying. I said repeatedly, I cannot understand you. It got so bad that at one point, I literally held the phone away from my ear, a good 10 inches, and could STILL hear the music loud and clear. I said, 'Dude, this is extremely unprofessional. I cannot understand a word you are saying over your music.'.

He rattled on, saying something about a ref number. I grabbed a pen and said ok, what is the damn number? he rattled it off, I repeateded it back- amazing how THAt came through clearly and he said something about me going BACK on hold again. I said you want me to hold for billin g again? I THINK he said something about either holding or calling back, hel if I know. I said fuck this shit, and hung up.

Mark came upstairs to see what was wrong, cause he could hear me downstairs- I guess I thought if I couldn't understand HIM, he couldn't HEAR me. he said when you call back, file a complaint. I planned to, believe me. I was pissed. No, I was LIVID.

I immediately called Customer Service back, and after going through the automated service again, got a woman this time. With a blessedly silent background and no decernable accent.

I gave her my name and said I have a ref number, which she then asked for. She asked for my phone number, which the first guy never asked for(he asked for my user name, email addy, etc), and she managed to pull my account up in no time.

I asked if the first guy's name was on the file and she said yes, I said good because I'd like to file a complaint against him, in addition to having my issue addressed hopefully. She got me a manager almost immediately, I only had to wait maybe 1 minute. He took down all the info, I said the guy had an Indian accent, which I know really means nothing these days, he laughed and said, yes, but he still had to ask. I explained that even after 30 minutes, my issue still hadn't been resolved, he agreed that that was wrong, that it should never have taken that long.

I also told him that the music sounded like 'Bollywood' music, if that helps any. He said indeed it did. So it sounds to me as if this guy has heard this before. so we got the complaint filed. He addressed my issue of being charged for the points , being told the card was invalid and not getting the points. Said he has no record of the transaction, and asked why I was buying points if I had a Zune Pass (he asked if he could ask me first), I replied that it was because sometimes I come across music I like that requires points, otherwise, as he could see, I don't buy them that often. He laughed and said yes, the record showed I last bought points in August, and before that, July.

He agreed that something was wroing in that my money was taken from the PayPal account, and yet, I didn't receive the points. He asked that I give it a day or so, see if the points either show up or if PayPal puts the money back, as he has a PayPal account as well and that's happened to him, though not with Zune. I said ok, and thanked him for his time.

That took 10 minutes. And that's how it should have been the first time.

As of today, neither the money or the points have shown up. I'm giving them until tomorrow before I call back.

Oh Hel NO.

2007-11-02T23:26:40Z

In a 'discussion' about Christmas and retailers' shortening it to 'Xmas', segueing into Christmas Trees, etc..

But, the Christmas tree? If you are not a Christian, do not celebrate Christmas, well, do not have a Christmas tree. But don't try to call it something different.

Excuse me?

Because I'm not Christian I shouldn't have a Tree?

A Tree/Tradition that YOU (global you) stole from the early Pagans in the first place?

Because I'm not Christian, I shouldn't celebrate Christmas?

Excuse me?
But YOU stole THAT holiday from us as well. It's OUR Winter Solstice/Yule.

Early Christians couldn't convert early Pagans, so they appropriated our major (and some minor) holidays to FORCE them to convert.

If the Christians really want to be oh so correct, then use a DogWood and celebrate 'Christmas' in the SPRING when Jesus was really born, not the Winter. After all, Census taking was done in the SPRING, after all the herds had dropped their babes. The better to garner more taxes, and all that.

Oh hel no. You want us out of YOUR holiday?

Too freakin' bad, WE were HERE FIRST.