The GirlAlive Blog

CafePress's legal department is useless.  I've had a few run-ins with them in the years I've had a shop there.  I like the money I make at CafePress, but I hate CafePress.  Let me explain why I'm looking for someone else to make my girlalive.com t-shirts.

A few months ago, all of the Princess Bride related designs were removed from my shop.  I did not make any direct reference to the Princess Bride in these designs.  I did not use any images from the movie.  I did not have anything copywriteable in the design.  Just obscure sideways references to lines from the movie.  Not even quotes.  These are the offending designs:

 

Apparently the movie company or someone got pissy about it, and the CafePress lawyers, instead of standing up for their designers and telling them that it wasn't a copywrited image, and they should go to hell, caved in immediately and made me remove those designs.  I went along figuring, "They'll lose more money than I will when I remove those."

Now, they have removed all of the designs that have quotes from Albert Einstein.  Maybe the Einstein estate complained?  Whatever.  I did not use any image of Einstein.  The "problem" images are these:

 

Quotes are pretty much public domain.  If I had reprinted an entire chapter from one of his books, that would be illegal.  But I just used a few well-known quotes from interviews.  And I properly attributed them to the originator of the comment.  Here's the kicker: if I had printed them without attributing them to anyone but myself, that would technically be plagarism, but I would never have heard anything about it from CafePress.  As it is, they have again caved in to baseless complaints about "intellectual property" and removed more of my designs.

Now I'm of two minds on this.  I would like to find another company that could make t-shirts and stuff for my web site.  But they might be just as bad as CafePress.  So here's my other idea.  I keep all the same search tags on my images and change them to these:

  


In the final version of these I would make it clear that they have been edited to fit the CafePress Content Usage Policy.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.  And if you know any good print on demand t-shirt stores, let me know that too.  I've looked at Spreadshirt, but they only do shirts and I like the tote bags and other stuff at CafePress.  Grr.  In any case, I'll post later to let you all know what I decide.

Alana

 

Posted by Alana at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm a little anal-retentive about geography.  I minored (almost a second major) in geography in college.  I have learned that the British are mildly retarded when it comes to geography outside their little island.  Especially regarding the United States.  I'm pretty sure they don't teach any geography in schools here outside of Europe and a few select Commonwealth countries.  

I saw an episode of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" where they asked a man "Which of these US states is located on the East Coast?" with choices of California, Oregon, Washington or Maryland.  He didn't know.  He asked the audience.  Less than 35% of the audience got it right.  30% of them thought California was on the East Coast.

Last night I was watching the Discovery Channel show "Ink Wars".  The Discovery Channel re-narrates all American shows with a British narrator, so they can say patronizing things about our measurement system.  This British narrator was talking about the Seattle tattoo convention on the "Eastern Seaboard of the United States."  He said that at least 3 times.  They must have moved Seattle in the last couple of years because when I lived there it was on the West coast.  (And they weren't talking about a different Seattle because they wouldn't stop showing the Space Needle.)

Maybe British schools teach that there is a West Pole in the middle of the Atlantic, and coasts closest to that pole are west coasts and the coasts furthest away are east.  Or maybe they're all dumbasses.

For the benefit of the British, a few corrections for errors I've heard while I've lived here:

The "zip code for New York" is not NY.  That is the state abbreviation.  Zip codes are 9-digit hyphenated numbers, and there are several hundred thousand of them in New York.  

Washington is not the capitol of the United States.  Washington is a state on the West Coast.  The capitol of the United States is Washington D.C.  The D.C. stands for District of Columbia.  The District of Columbia (or "D.C.") is our capitol, and the Washington part is just a modifier.

You cannot refer to a city as, for instance, "Chicago, America" or "Chicago, USA".  It is "Chicago, Illinois."  There could be as many as 50 different Chicagos in the US.  You must use the state name in order to tell them apart properly.  Do you prefer us to call it "Edinburgh, Scotland" or "Edinburgh, UK"?  It's the same deal.

Iowa, Idaho, and Ohio are 3 different places.  They don't even border each other.  Ohio is on the Great Lakes.  Iowa is in the middle of the country on the Mississippi.  Idaho is in the Northern Rocky Mountains.  You get annoyed when Americans get England and Scotland mixed up.  They at least border each other.  Iowa, Idaho and Ohio aren't even close.

The country is called "the US" or "the States" or "the United States" or "the United States of America".  It is not "America".   "America" is a pair of continents, not a country.  The proper name of the country is "The United States", and the "of America" is only a modifier to distinguish it from any other countries made of a group of states, such as Mexico or the former Soviet Union.   Canadians are from North America.  Mexicans are from North America.  Uruguayans are from South America.  You may identify me as American because I am also from North America.  But the country I am from is the United States.

I always hear statistics about how 18-year-olds in the US can't find Canada on a map.  I'm pretty sure 18-year-olds in the UK would have trouble figuring out which side of the paper the map was printed on.

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

No, I did not vote in the presidential primaries.  I can't.  You can do absentee voting for major elections, but not for primaries.  But I've been following stuff from over here.

Those who know me know that I'm a lifelong Republican.  But in the last few years I've been considering my position and whether I want to retain attachment to a particular party at all.  I even considered possibly voting Democrat in the next election, because I agree with their stance on healthcare a bit more than the Republicans.   But I still agree with Republicans more on other issues. 

Then I  saw Bill Maher on a talk show, and he entirely made up my mind for me.  I've been out of the country so long that I guess I forgot what pompous, hate-filled and condescending assholes Democrats can be.   Bill Maher never has anything reasonable and logical to say.  Every word from his mouth was essentially, "I hate Republicans and I think they should all die, especially Christians who are all morons."  So I'll be voting Republican, thanks entirely to Bill Maher.  I can't be part of a political party that spouts so much hate of everyone they don't understand. 

Alana

 

Posted by Alana at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Don Granholm and his family are some of my oldest friends.  I've known them all since I was about 8 years old.  Don and his twin brother were the photographers at my wedding.  Even though they are not technically related to me, I consider the Granholms family.  The following was sent to me by a friend of Don. 

 

I am writing to inform you of a Spaghetti dinner and silent auction benefit on behalf of Don Granholm. We would greatly appreciate your participation in any manner you are able. We need people to set up tables, people to decorate, severs, bakers, cooks, and cleaner If you can help in any way please call Rex or Addie Clyde at (218)879-9473.

Don was first diagnosed with colon cancer in February 2002. He was cancer free May 2002.. The end of May 2007, just two weeks before he was supposed to receive his,”Congratulations, you're a five year cancer survivor". The cancer reoccurred. We are doing a benefit to help the family with out of the pocket expenses and bills.

 

Place: The Gospel Tab (Cloquet)

 

Time: 12-5:00 P.M.

Date: Sunday, February 24, 2007

 

Cost  $8.50 for adults

$5.00 for children under 12 years

 

                              Dinner: spaghetti, salad, bread, drink, and dessert

 

If you cannot attend the benefit and you would like to send a donation, make checks payable to Don Granholm

Send to

Rex and Addie Clyde

1540 Schmitz Rd.

Carlton, MN 55718

 

If you're in the Duluth/Superior/Cloquet area of Minnesota, consider going to this.  If you're not, I can't think of a better place for a charitable donation.  

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My British food review site has a new review that I just uploaded.   I have posted the official review for digestive biscuits.  And if you want to try some for yourself, for a limited time my sponsor English Tea Store is having a buy one get one free sale on digestive biscuits, among other things.  Please check it out.  Thanks.

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got some pictures of the new hamsters.  They're not great because they are sneaky and tricksy little guys. 

First, two pictures of Carot in the bowl.  (We've decided to change the spelling of his name to Carot so that all of our pets have 5-letter names.  Yes, we're weird.)

 

 

Now a couple pictures of Nobby.  You can see that Nobby has a stumpy tail.  Chinese dwarf hamsters are supposed to have a tail about an inch long, but Nobby either has an old injury or a birth defect, and his tail is all stumpy.  As far as we can tell, it isn't causing him any problems.

 

 

We bought some little fleece pocket things and we've been able to put them into the pockets and play with them a little.  They're very sweet, but Nobby is definitely more comfortable with us than Carot.  And Carot can be a little bit bitey.  But we like them both, and they are looking to me like they're both boys, but I'm still only about 80% sure.

Alana

 

Posted by Alana at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm taking a day off and I feel ill. I'm not taking the day off because I feel ill. I'm taking the day off because I'm fed up with bus delays and cold weather, so I just didn't feel like leaving the house. (Mom: don't worry, I asked permission yesterday and it's just a day of annual leave, not a fake sick day or anything.) The reason I feel ill is because I was just doing some work in my food reviewing site, and a breakfast of cookies and chocolate bars is not a great idea.

The reason I was working on that site was that I just got a new sponsor for my site. The internet store English Tea Store has partnered with me so that you now have a place to buy some of the food I've reviewed in the US. It's pretty cool.

In other news, the new hamsters are doing pretty good. I don't have pictures yet because they are very quick and nervous. We bought some little fleece pouches that we can put hamsters in that make them easier to handle. So I've been able to hold them and play with them a bit. They're very cute and friendly.

Don't know what else to write at the moment. And also, my fingers are freezing and it's getting hard to type.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)