This past May two bloggers pirated some material from one of my blog entries (that I had decided to remove from public viewing) and posted it on their blogs. It took three months for both these quilters to do the right thing and remove my copyrighted material from their blogs. Turns out this statement may have been premature as as least one of the bloggers has put the entry on which she illegally published this pirated material on password protection. It may be that copyright infringement remains accessible to people of her choice if the copy of my entry remains on that entry.
Since it appears that “chatter” continues with regard to my supposed “nastiness”, I have decided to leave this entry public as it lets the reader draw her/his own conclusion on the matter and the parties involved. For the record, no further attempts to contact either blogger involved in the copyright dispute have been made in quite some time, nor will there be. To even suggest such a thing borders on delusional. 
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I would’ve preferred this entry remain locked under “private” but some individuals felt it was their duty to violate my copyright and re-post it on their blog. They would like their readers to believe this was a targeted attack on an individual(s).
One can plainly see that no individuals were named or implied. The particular timeframe was especially hard for MANY quilters and my cranky statement (however politically incorrect) in no way suggested that one should ever make light of anyone’s personal tragedy.
However, the vitriolic response I received from a particular reader admittedly generated a knee-jerk reaction from me. (The comments were interestingly not re-posted when these individuals were breaking copyright.) Therefore, I am republishing this entry ALONG WITH THE COMMENTS. Certainly, not my finest moment, but most definitely not what others might have you believe.
Any suggestions that I have “harassed” Ms. Steller or others is beyond ridiculous and they are, in fact, bordering if not outright, LIBELOUS. (Yes, Ms. Steller that would be libel, not slander. 
) The past misrepresentation of my postings leads to the question of who is harassing whom and if stronger action should be taken.
Since Ms. Steller seems unconcerned about her reposting of MY copyrighted material, am I to assume that she would not have minded my posting of her material? I think the added commentary about me on her once “public-now password protected” blog entry spoke volumes about her. I must admit I revisited it once or twice just for the laugh factor prior to its recent security change.
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(FYI, please note that in the following republished entry no editing of emoticons were made in my post. What you see is what was there and they have nothing to do with the plight of any individual as was suggested by the “pirates”.)
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Phew! I’ve been sick for almost three weeks now. The flu, infections and capping it off with a MAJOR eczema attack! And exactly how much mucous can the human body actually produce??? According to the news, a flu shot may not have help me to not get sick but it might’ve help in reducing the severity of the attack.
Even though I remain a bit crabby from being sick and tired of being sick and tired, I am thankful for this magnificent Monday! 
Thank the good Lord the weather finally decided to break and we have had glorious sunshine for the past couple days. Even feeling a bit groggy, it felt good to take a walk in the sunshine and hope for a quick arrival of spring. Alas, the weathermen are reporting another extended wave of crappy gray, wet and cold weather for a few more weeks. But I’ll take whatever hours of sunshine we can get.
As a result of my feeling under the weather, I’ve been fairly quiet on most of the quilting lists, even not reading some of them entirely. This has turned out to be a good thing. I have suspected for quite some time that 90% of that stuff frequently posted on these lists is nothing but unadulterated and self-indulgent crap. The fact that I can not read this stuff for days on end and never miss a thing of it, only confirms this suspicion. (I do recognize that for many, these lists are lifelines and there are some good free lists out there for those that “need” this type of thing.)
I have met some very good friends via the internet. However, I am not naive enough to think that I am much more than an acquaintance to 95% (or more) of the people I meet via this venue. In some ways, the internet quilting community becomes like a high tech chain letter. It is easy to get sucked into the game and fears of what someone might think of you creep insidiously into your thoughts when having to make tough choices, like do or do I not make a block(s) for this person’s or that person’s comfort quilt or do I make a donation to this person’s cause or continue instead to contribute to my local charitable cause.
I made an executive decision awhile back to treat these types pleas for help like I would a chain letter. I don’t bite. I can barely address the needs of my family and my community. I do not have the time, finances or desire to partake in the dramas of thousands of online quilters. I think of these ladies often, I correspond with a few and I remember many in prayer when I bother to pray these days. That is the best I choose to offer at this time. The world is too damn sad as it is without choosing to wallow in that sadness with people I do not truly know!
Whoa! That sounds cold and harsh, doesn’t it. Hmmmm…perhaps it is but no one can ever accuse me of being a two-faced bitch. 
What you see is what you get.
Ahh…the sun is calling me again. I think I need to take another walk. I took several pictures with my cell phone of spring poking its head out of people’s flower gardens yesterday. I’m going to see if I can figure out how to get them off the phone and onto my computer. A new challenge.
Speaking of computers, our old PC is officially TOAST! Yep, the hard drive is dead, dead, DEAD! 
Thank God I backed up my book manuscripts and graphics on a CD, along with almost ALL our pictures. The sad thing is that we may have lost DS’s entire music collection. Most of it is still on his iPod but not all of it. We are going to have to send it out to someone to try and see if they can retrieve anything off the hard drive. Crap!
Oh, well. It’s only a computer…
