April 03, 2009
Bad, Google, Bad
So much for "don't be evil". Google is officially on my bad list now.
I received the below email. This is in regards to one of the first videos I made of Katelyn...the one of photos from the first month, with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in the background.
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Dear member,
This is to notify you that your video "katelyn_photostory1.wmv" from your
Google Video account has been disabled because it has been identified by
our Content Identification tools as potentially lacking the necessary
copyright authorization for use on the Google Video site. Content
Identification is a program that analyzes similarities in audio or video
between user videos and a library of reference content provided to us by
copyright owners. When a video matches a reference file, that video is
automatically disabled.
If you believe that this identification is a mistake, please click on the
following link to learn how you can dispute this
http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=82442
Please note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the
deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In
order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any
videos to which you do not have all rights, and refrain from uploading
additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others.
More information about Content Identification can be found at this link
http://video.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=82734
Sincerely,
The Google Video Team
http://video.google.com/
-----
This is beyond ridiculous. Seriously? What ever happened to "fair use"? I'm not making any money off of it, and I'm certainly not claiming or implying that I created the song. If anything, I'm giving the artist free publicity. People who may not have ever heard that song are now hearing it. Being used in the background of a slideshow of baby pictures is not in any way harming the artist or taking any money from his pocket.
The real enemy here is the record company, but Google has enabled their moronic behavior by caving in to their demands. It's one thing to have posted a copy of an artist's music video (although I still think there should be nothing wrong with that, since you're helping promote the song and artist and still not making any money off it), but it's entirely different for it to be used in the background of a slideshow. Are they going to start cracking down at people's weddings and not letting them show slideshows with music in the background? That's a public performance, after all...
I respect the concept of a copyright within reason, but this is unreasonable and stupid.
Oh well, I guess I'll have to move the video to Youtube now. When they get around to disabling it (since they are also owned by Google), I'll have to move it to Facebook. I'm not caving in on this, even if Google has.
February 10, 2009
26 Things...Better Late Than Never
[note for non-Facebook users: this is copied from a post I did on Facebook. The latest trend on Facebook is to post 25 things about you that people might not know. I did 26.]
1. I've always had an almost phobic fear of people I don't know. This fear has become less as I've gotten older, but it's still there. I couldn't bring myself to order a pizza until college (when it became necessary to survive), and I still do everything I can at work to avoid calling people I don't know.
2. The Office is my favorite show, and I have seen every episode, most of them several times. I think I have only watched it live one time, and that was only because we had my family over to watch it. What did people do before DVRs?
3. I have never watched an episode of Law and Order, CSI, Survivor, The Bachelor, The Amazing Race, American Idol, or Dancing With The Stars. The current shows I watch are House, Scrubs, Lost, My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. That's probably too much TV.
4. I apparently give off the illusion of knowledge. I'm really not smart, I just have a good memory (most of the time). Granted, I'm good with computers, but that's about it. I just tend to remember things that I've heard or read (although Tammy would probably dispute this about when she asks me to do stuff).
5. I love Chef Boyardee mini ravioli, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and macaroni & cheese with chicken fingers. I could rotate these three things out for supper each night and be perfectly happy (although horribly obese).
6. I've done such a good job at making myself like diet soft drinks that regular Coke tastes kind of weird now.
7. I got a full scholarship to the University of Montevallo when I was in 4th grade, and I probably would have ended up using it if I hadn't later gotten a free ride to Alabama.
8. My brothers and I each have an imaginary business (well, mine is real...theirs is imaginary) that has been one-upping each other for about 20 years. RAKCO will always be better than D.E. Sale and M.E. Services.
9. My pretend girlfriend when I was in elementary school was Valerie (after the Monkees song, I think). She looked just like Scarlet from G.I. Joe.
10. 99% of my friends and family have no clue what I do at my job. It's probably better that way. Here's a hint: I don't fix computers.
11. My most common nickname for Tammy while we were dating was Stewie, because of her last name (Stewart).
12. The big smile Katelyn gives me when I get home from work is the highlight of my day. It's even better when she claps.
13. I don't know anything about cars. I'm sorry if that makes me less of a man, but I don't expect a mechanic to be able to program computers.
14. The most catchy nickname people currently have for me is Rikipedia. See #4.
15. Despite all my efforts not to, deep down I really do generally care what other people think.
16. Back in elementary school, I was in a fashion show for Parisian and a local TV commercial for McDonald's.
17. On average, I use my cell phone less than once a week (to make or receive calls...I've used it to tell time ever since the battery in my watch died).
18. I talk to myself/think out loud in the car to and from work almost every day.
19. I only dated four girls in my life. I met the first one online in the pre-internet equivalent of a chatroom. I got to know the second one really well while helping her get over my best friend who had broken up with her. I got to know the third one mostly through playing cards. Tammy and I first met because we were on the same flag football team, but we really didn't get to know each other until much later. We were actually on a mission trip when we decided to go on a date when we got back.
20. The car that was to be mine when I turned 16 was a chartreuse 1970's Ford Pinto. But my brother's Camaro was stolen, so he got a replacement car, and several months later, his car turned up in Tennessee. So I got the Camaro instead. I need to send a thank-you note to the car thieves...they even repainted it for me.
21. I've only been to the emergency room once, and it was in college when I sliced my hand open during a drama skit at a church somewhere in Lamar County. Of course, the story I usually told was that I got into a fight with some guys who whistled at Tammy, but whatever.
22. I can't whistle or blow a bubble with gum. But I can hug myself behind my head, so I guess that makes up for it.
23. I don't see grammar and punctuation as rules; to me they are more like a set of recommendations or guidelines.
24. I compulsively track my money. I don't know how people got along before you could check your credit card and bank transactions online. I do it every day.
25. I hated the academic part of both high school and college. I'm not sure you could pay me enough money to get me to go to grad school. Seriously, you'd probably have to guarantee me in writing that my salary would double, and I'm not even sure that would be enough.
26. It really bothers me that I've essentially lost touch with so many friends from high school and college (reading Facebook profiles does not count as being in touch). I know that it's a pretty normal thing to happen, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
January 20, 2009
Am I Too Apathetic?
(This is not an anti-Obama rant. I am reserving judgment on him and giving him a chance. Granted, I disagree with a lot of what he proposed during his campaign, but we all know that there is always a huge difference between what people have to say to get elected and what they actually do in office. Any Obama-related quips that I make here and in the next few months are targeted toward the hoopla surrounding him and the media's love affair with him, not the man himself.)
Today, there are supposedly 2 million people packed into Washington, DC to watch Obama's inauguration. I cannot think of any place I would less like to be today. It's not because of who is being sworn in, and it's not even completely because I hate crowds that aren't related to a football game.
It's because I can't think of anything that would get me excited enough to take off from work, drive or fly to a place hours away, overpay for a hotel room that was hard to come by to begin with, wake up early, and fight crowds just to stand outside in the cold to see something that I could see for free and better at home on TV.
Seriously, I can't think of anything. There aren't many things I can think of that I would do ONE of those things for, much less all of them for one event. I'll fight crowds at a football game or very occasionally at a concert, and I'll get up early and drive somewhere for a vacation, but that's about it. There is no celebrity I would go out of my way to see. Honestly, if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were pumping gas for charity at the BP station by my house, I wouldn't stop unless I was on E, and I'd probably go to one of the other pumps. There is no "historic event" I can think of that I would go to another city to "be a part of". If the first manned mission to Mars was going to land at the Birmingham Airport for some reason when they returned, I'd probably work from home that day to avoid the traffic. There is no cause I would attend a rally or protest for. There is certainly no one who could be sworn in as president that would make me want to go to DC.
Does that make me apathetic? Do I lack passion?
It's really not that I don't care about anything. I care about a lot of things. I love Jesus, my wife, my daughter, my dog, my family, electronic gadgets, Alabama football, Little Debbies, and roller coasters. Maybe it's just political causes that I can't get excited about. I never have and most likely never will donate any money to any political party, and I can't see myself helping out with the campaign of anyone. I would certainly never waste a vacation day to attend a political rally or hold a protest sign.
I guess if Katelyn became president one day, and they were serving Oatmeal Creme Pies at one of the Inaugural Balls, and afterwards they had an amusement park rented out and I could sit next to Nick Saban on a roller coaster, I'd probably go, but that seems unlikely.
As for today, I guess I just don't get it.