I Made It To Tennessee

After 24.5 hours of travel, with 22 of those hours spent riding on a bus, I arrived in Tennessee this afternoon for a week-long visit with my sister’s family. Uncle Dennis has already spent time as a dog, a horse, read a couple stories, and been called a “baby butt” (my two nieces favorite new giggle-inducing put-down). I am exhausted from traveling—I will get a good night’s sleep tonight—but am having a blast and am SO glad to be here.

I Still Don’t Like Facebook

After the huge uproar over their revised Terms of Service, Facebook has “decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.” HA! So instead of owning the rights to your submissions forever—even if you leave the Facebook community—they only assert ownership rights over everything you submit while you are a member. Isn’t that nice of them: If you want to be a member of Facebook, you have to give away rights to one’s personal thoughts and photographs. Bah! I’m sticking with my WordPress blog where they assert I own the rights to everything I post unless I specify otherwise.

Consumerist – Facebook Reverts Back to Old Terms of Service

NYT - Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use

I Saw Orion Tonight

Walking back from the book store I looked up into the sky and there he was, bright and bold—It was a bitterly cold, clear night. I could see his belt, scabbard (for his sword), his bow, the star marking his left knee, and the two stars marking his feet. This was about 10:00pm EST (GMT 03:00 +1) looking west-southwest in the sky.

It was beautiful to see on my walk home.

You Wonder Why I Don’t Like Facebook

This is why.

Consumerist - Facebook’s New Terms Of Service Say It Can Do Anything It Wants With Your Content. Forever.

Prior to this change in their terms of service, Facebook said it could do whatever it wanted with your uploaded content up to and until the point you deleted your Facebook account. Now they have changed the Terms Of Service such that they assert the right that they can continue to do whatever they want with your uploaded content even after you delete your Facebook account.

That pic of you with a former boy-/girl-friend you take down after the relationship ends, they keep it and can keep using it long after you take down the pic. The comments posted on your job that you thought would only be seen by your friends, they keep even after you have deleted them. Anything you post on Facebook they keep and can use it for their own purposes without having to get permission from you to do so.

All my friends with Facebook are giving away, forever, their rights to all the content they upload to Facebook. And some of them are quite tech and/or law savvy. I just don’t get the willingness to completely give up all legal rights to one’s personal thoughts and photographs. It boggles my mind.

 

As for me and my blog here on WordPress, I own the copyright to all the personal content I post here. Unless I post something here from someone else’s website, all the content on this blog is copyrighted to me. (Except for the various WordPress icons, logos, and links automatically generated when I make a blog posting; Those copyrights belong to WordPress.)

Way To Go “Stump”

So yeah, I came back from the library tonight and my Mom had the Westminster Kennel Club showing on TV. I have always been a big fan of dogs and thought I would watch some of it. I sat down on the couch as they were doing the Working Dogs group and found it fascinating. (No, I have not seen the movie Best in Show. Thanks for asking.) I watched the Sporting Dog group as well and became a big fan of Stump*, a cute little chestnut-colored Sussex Spaniel.

Stump was quiet, attentive, ever so slightly playful, and walked a straight line without ever looking askance at the other dogs lined up along the edge of the ring. He wound up getting Best in Show and I gave a delighted shout when it was announced, much to the consternation of Roswell who had been sitting in my lap most of the time I was watching the show. (She is not much of a fan of dogs but will tolerate them if necessary.) Below is a link to the story of Stump’s win.

10-Year-Old Spaniel Completes Comeback

 

*My favorite dog overall was the Alaskan Malamute “Still The One”.