Flowers of the First Day of Summer #WordlessWednesday

To my Canadian readers a few hours from me, Happy Canada Day.  On July 1, 1867, the Constitution Act of 1867 took effect, creating the Dominion of Canada.   

On July 4, my country celebrates its 250th birthday. 

 I can't believe it's already July!  It's hot, too. I want to go back to some cooler times.  How about the first day of summer June 21 (for us in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway).

What was blooming on the first day of summer?

 My earliest day lilies, that's what!

The names are long forgotten but day lily season has just begun. 

This is one of two fuchsia plants I purchased from Select Seeds.   It's a variety called Pink Galore and I am loving those pink blooms.

Honoring Canada Day.

 Honoring our Independence Day coming on Saturday.

Times are tough, but I hope the friendship between our two nations can endure.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday. 

I Won't Give Up

 I  hope it was a glitch, but I'm not so sure.

The date of my post was November 19, 2014.  Don't go looking for it, because you won't find it.  It was disappeared (not a typo) on July 4, 2022, the day we celebrate here in the United States as Independence Day.

How ironic.  

I need to explain what happened, and I'll tip toe around some facts so nothing similar happens to this post.

On July 4th I was prewriting my Tuesday, July 5 post, "Finally Time for A New Phone?".

But when I tried to publish it, the blogging platform I use immediately tagged it as not meeting their standards for acceptable material.  It was put back into draft, and I was instructed, by a label they placed on the post, that I needed to review their standards and rewrite the post.  No explanation of what was wrong (from their point of view).  There was a link for me to read such standards.

I didn't see anything wrong with it.

I shortened it a little, and made a slight change to the title, and it published. 

I was sitting outside in the back yard when this happened, and when I came back into the house, my spouse said "What happened? You look like you just ate a cockroach."  I told him what happened.

Later that evening, when I checked my email, I saw a message that a different post had been pulled from my published posts and put back into draft.  No explanation, once again.  If I want to republish it, the post has to undergo a review. I'm noting this post was published in 2014.

The pulled post, in case you are wondering is about how certain technology that we think is relatively new actually isn't.  For example, did you know that the first electric car was made in 1890?  It was a post full of trivia.  That's all.

So, is said mega corporation crawling through all our posts, those of us who use that platform, looking for certain keywords?  Or was it some kind of glitch?  I somehow doubt it was a real person, looking for posts he or she could mark with a scarlet "C".

The post remains in my drafts with a big red symbol on it.

You who have self hosted blogs will probably tell me that since I don't have a self hosted blog, this could happen again.  I don't doubt it.  But it's not going to make me give up blogging.  Several times recently, though, hair has stood up on my neck when I'm ready to publish.  Maybe the cause of this incident was innocuous but it's necessary to summon the feelings of "something more".  It's the times we live in.

Right now, I need to remember how I felt the evening of July 4. I was blogging on my laptop in the backyard, and when I came in, my spouse remarked "you look like you just swallowed a cockroach.  What happened?"

Initially, I wondered  (because I linked to several sites where I obtained information about the age of the technology I was blogging about in that post) if one of those sites had been since taken over by a site which was now - ahem - not reputable.  That's one explanation.

Now, I'm not so sure.

I have prided myself in publishing one post (sometimes more) daily since I finished a blogging challenge in May of 2011.  Now, like a mouth missing a tooth in the front, I know there is something missing.  My writing tongue probes for the wound. 

This blog (I started it in 2009) has years of memories.  Years of information meaningful to me that I refer to from time to time.

Right now, I have to decide if it's worth the trouble to rewrite the post and try to republish it. I feel I am honor bound to do something.  I don't just want to ignore it and go on my not so merry blogging way.  The fact that it happened on July 4 is not lost on me. 

I should thank this blogging platform for doing this to me, because now I have a taste of what it feels like.  It's something brave writers have dealt with for years in other countries.

So my immediate question is one for those who use or have used this blogging platform.  Has this happened to you?

And if it did, what did you do?

Local Saturday - Je suis Paris

This morning, as we awaken, we turn first thing to the latest news about Paris.  Twice in 11 months...

The world declares "Je suis Paris" - we stand with Paris.  Which is a beautiful sentiment, But we can't just say it.  In our slang, we say: "we must just not talk the talk, we must walk the walk".

And how do we fight this savage foe of civilization?  How do we stay free and not lose the essence of our civilization?

First, perhaps, we realize we are all one planet.  I look around on my Facebook page.  I am an American, living in upstate New York.  I have a cousin married to a man who was born in France.  He has family there.  I have Facebook friends who have relatives living in France.   I have Facebook friends who live in Great Britain.   What affects one of us, affects all.

But now what?  Some say "Pray for Paris". Perhaps we should pray for wisdom to do the right thing, even if it is the hard thing.

Today, as many blogs fall silent, we must ask ourselves what the right thing is to do- and then, do it.  Do it completely, without hesitation, with bravery.

Tomorrow, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  In honor of France, I present some links from the blog which hosts this meme, May Dream Gardens, on the subject of France.

Monet's Passion (the giveaway is long over).
Differences between American and British gardening terminology (read the comments)

Day 14 of NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month.

Are We Willing to Pay the Price for Free?

Google.  Almost all of us online folks use one or more of their products. Is this a good thing?
 
(Note: This post doesn't even begin to touch on personal data collection, or the other prices we pay for "free" including the possible loss of personal liberty. That could easily be the topic of another post. Rather, I'm talking more about personal inconvenience.)



Today, I thought about just how Googleized (is that a word?) my life has become.  I like (and use) Google Maps (I love the iPhone app), Blogger (yup, the blog you are reading is hosted on Blogger), Google the search engine (I've tried Bing - yes, I like Google way better for searches I do), You Tube, and Gmail. I used to like to waste time with Google Earth, but haven't gotten into it recently. These products are all "free".  But, free has a price. And, it appears, that price has several components:

1. "We are going to waste your time by organizing you whether you like it or not."

Gmail gave me "tabs" for my email even though I didn't ask for them.  I don't want "social" and "promotion" tabs for my email.  Do you want to know how to get rid of those?

Google, give us inboxes or give us...oh, never mind.  But a quick search on...er, Google - reveals I am far from the only one not too happy over this.

2. "You are going to get our ads shoved in your face whether you like it or not."

Gmail has always had ads - after all you must pay for free - but now the ads are in your face.  The first "in your face" ad insisted on me viewing a Facebook link for winning a trip to somewhere I have little interest in visiting. The ad explained it was based on an "email I received".

So, Google,you just confirmed that you really do read my email, or at least keywords.  And I'm at a loss knowing which email I received that mentioned that country.  It could have been a blog post someone I subscribe to wrote about their trip to that country.

I couldn't get rid of the ad entirely, but at least now it's inviting me to download a free spell checker. (I'm not the best speller, and Google must know that.  Well played, Google.)

3. "You are going to start using your Google Plus identity whether you like it or not for sites such as You Tube, and if you don't want to have your real name associated with your You Tube Account, well, lots of luck with that."

My You Tube channel does not have public links.  It is under my blog's name and I want to keep it that way.  My videos are not quite ready for prime time, or any other time, yet. It took me over an hour figuring out how to undo what Google was trying to do unto me, and You Tube whined at me at every turn, insisting I undo the changes.  For now, I've won.  Ask me again next month.

I can see the day where my Blogger blog will insist on me using my Google Plus profile, and that will cause another level of aggravation and time wasting because I do not want my real name directly associated with my blog.  I've written enough about the neighborhood where I live, and I don't want a direct association with my name. Although, because I use Twitter to comment on a lot of blogs, my secret identity is actually not that secret.  Using Google you can...(sigh).

Yes, again, I realize their products are powerful, and they are free. If Google can't use ads and other techniques, their products won't stay free.  So yes, I know that free means "it isn't REALLY free; we just hope you aren't going to find the hidden "yeah, but" in our fine print."

So, each of us must make the decision:  Are we willing to pay the price for free?  So far, I've been.

Are you willing to pay the price for "free"?

Winter Wednesday-The Placid Stream

The  Internet community has blacked out to protest SOPA and to show what censorship looks like.

And with that, I would like to tell a true little story about small things.

Once upon a time there was a little creek in upstate New York.

On a late peaceful Sunday afternoon, near sunset, it looked serene, as the winter cold was starting to freeze it over (finally).

A few hundred yards away the creek meets up with the Susquehanna River.

Such a peaceful setting.   Nothing bad could ever happen in this picture, could it?

Well, one day in September, it started to rain.  Just a few harmless raindrops.  Few people paid attention.

But then the rain fell harder and faster.  A couple of days later, that placid stream was out of its banks and it and the Susquehanna River were pouring over flood walls and flowing down streets, a force that could not be stopped until hours after the rain stopped.  Finally, the creek and the river finally went home.

They took houses, jobs, memories, businesses and dreams with them.

What did we in upstate New York learn?

Bad things start small, almost beneath notice. Then they build.  And if we are not on guard, they may sweep us away.

We must always our safeguard our freedom of expression. The Internet has become the oxygen of our world.  It must be safeguarded.   The Internet was born in freedom, which sometimes lets bad things thrive  But we can't destroy the freedom of the Internet to fight the bad guys.

There has to be another way.  And we have to find it.

But SOPA isn't it.