bstrangely's Open Salon Blog

Duck Season

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:11:25 -0500

I saw this story on Digg today:

"A mother whose daughter was murdered is suing American Life Assurance of Columbus (AFLAC) because it has refused to pay the death benefit on life insurance the daughter applied for shortly before her death."
http://digg.com/d31AEoR

I don't know how often AFLAC refuses to pay claims for unsolved murders. The longer I am involved in the health care battle, the less I trust these large entities. There are no requirements for them to file reports on how they maintain their profits, no surveys on how long it takes to pay claims... it can make a person profoundly depressed about their chances to be treated fairly.

But, today at least, there is a fun way to try to fight back. There aren't any bills to reform the life insurance industry in Congress, so put down those picket signs. Instead, purchase one of these little guys:

http://aflacholidayduck.com/purchase.html

Then murder him spectacularly, and upload the video to Youtube or Google video or whatever your preferred host is. Be sure to disguise your identity. Remember, 100% of the money goes to children's hospitals, even if they cannot solve the case! Here's some inspiring footage to get you started...

The Second Best Breakfast Spot In California

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:11:47 -0500

Is at my house. It's the one with the lovely, lovely fresh laid eggs. People are always saying how great fresh eggs are, so Mr. Strangely and I tried to conduct an experiment.

As you can see, the eggs we get are varied in size. Most are not as large as a "large" egg you'd get at the grocery store... the grocery store egg is the white one in the carton dwarfing the others. We have gotten one or two eggs that are bigger than store ones, but they're rare. When we make scrambled eggs, we're using 7 eggs for the two of us rather than 5.

When we ate the fried eggs, the difference was obvious but hard to describe. The white was more tender and not as chewy. You can see that it held together more, instead of spreading across the pan like the store egg. The yolk was very different... the store egg wasn't bad, but it was decidedly pasty in contrast to the creamy fresh yolk. Scrambled eggs were a revelation. The flavor is totally different. When I was young, my dad would sometimes comment about how different food tasted to him as a child. And as a child, I thought he was crazy, but I wonder now. What else am I missing out on? Why are they different? Is it just the freshness or is there something else? I've read that farmers can feed marigolds to hens to get the yolk color deeper. Personally, I don't feel like we're doing anything special. It's almost like magic. Our chicken magicians make em out of weeds and our kitchen scraps (I'm calling this a recipe).

Ta-dah!

The Best Breakfast Spot In California

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 23:11:14 -0500

It's not anywhere you'd expect. For the last two years though, we've made a pilgrimage to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, for the annual donor breakfast. They open the aquarium two hours early and you get all the docents and tanks to yourselves, to enjoy with coffee, fruit and a surprisingly good variety of scones and pastries. It's one of my favorite things, and I took some video this morning, so I can enjoy it again and again. Hope you enjoy it too...

My Election Rejection

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 15:11:10 -0500

Last year I witnessed the birth of a wonderful use for the creative force of the internet. During the presidential election, a page called Design for Obama emerged. You could participate as a designer or a user. Designers uploaded poster after poster for the Obama campaign, then, they and the users voted on them and downloaded them for use at campaign events and house parties. It had nothing to do with the DNC or Obama's campaign or staff, it was just a mass of people feeding off each other's inspiration. It was such a neat experience. I uploaded a couple posters, got involved in the election locally, and promptly forgot. Until April, when I got an email. It said that a big publisher was going to be releasing a collection of works from the website, in honor of the election, on the anniversary. And it said one of my posters had been selected. It had some instructions for how to transmit my file and a release, and when I went searching for information I found others who had gotten the same email. We congratulated each other and I was thrilled to be participating. I was also relieved that there was no further culling process, according to both the bloggers I found and my own queries to the publisher representative. We could start bragging immediately to our friends.

I submitted my file on time, as directed. We only had a few days to get our paperwork together before their deadline, but for an opportunity like that, I really would have done anything they asked. That's why, a week later, when they told me there were problems opening my file, I leaped into action. Even though I was on vacation with my parents in New York. My dad helped me out a lot. A few files flew back and forth, and eventually, they had a file they could use. I double-checked to make sure.

That is why I was so surprised to get this email a couple of months later:

"Thank you very much for contributing your poster design to Design For Obama, the book from *. Unfortunately, I must inform you that, due to insufficient print quality, your poster was one of several not able to be included in the book."

I wouldn't have been nearly as angry if I hadn't emailed over and over, "Are you sure this will work? Please let me know so I can supply a file you can use!" I've tried to remember who I told about this, so I can let them know it fell through, but I'm sure I'll still get a note or two wondering and that will still be painful.

Now, the reason I bring this up is to highlight a particular quirk in our copyright system. I had wanted to use the design in question for food drives with my MoveOn council, but they had balked, fearing copyright claims from... I don't know, but at any rate, they wouldn't touch this piece. So, you can imagine how tickled I was when a major publisher had decided to include it in a book that would actually be for sale. If anyone would check the legality or illegality of this work, it would be someone like that, right? Corporations don't just adopt works without checking for license snafus, right? Well, maybe they do, but they said my piece was rejected for quality reasons. And it's a shame that they never asked for a higher quality work. I still don't know what was wrong with it. One fundamental truth of working with volunteers is that they take exclusion extra hard, because the reward is serving the cause. It's not like they also got paid for their time and labor. At least a little feedback would have been nice.

At any rate, I am still proud of the piece, and obviously someone, somewhere wanted it in this book, right? So, here it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43103096@N00/3003609570/

Feel free to download it and staple it into your copy, should you elect to seek one out. No hard feelings, but this is why I give my work away before anyone toys with my emotions like this. I would rather just see it out there, and that means I can't wait for large entities to show interest. It was a nice compliment, but it also confirmed that we've set up a very bad system for artists to inhabit. I would also like to point out the comment I got on one of the other designs I submitted:

"Just wanted you to be aware of someone trying to profit from your art. Did you give this person permission to sell your image? http://www.zazzle.com/weoffermore/gifts?cg=196918861616767696&pg=9"

If you ever see someone wearing this shirt or bag or whatever, PLEASE send me a picture. And for your enjoyment (one of these appearing for the first time ever (because I found DFO a little squirrelly)) here are a few more pieces of election art I did last year. And if you add any of these to any books you happen to buy... or anywhere else... I'd be thrilled to know. Permission is nice, but for the work, there is really no greater compliment than imitation and proliferation...

This Is What It Sounds Like

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:10:03 -0400

When chickens purr.

It's hard to hear, but she's just purring her little head off. It's a partly beautiful day today. Mostly sunny with some light rain. And the chickens are sitting on the back porch, purring.