Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Crankiness

Edit: Please note that this post was meant to be funny but actually it really upset at least one person. I am leaving it up becuase general comments show that most readers got the joke, but do please read it now in comjunction with this post where I correct any unintended offence in full. In short here, this post is a crack against my own bad temper and is not a criticism of any other quilter.


I am feeling cranky today. This is probably due to lack of sleep,water and chocolate and would be more productively solved by obtaining all of the three items above ( but not in that order). But, the alternative of sharing my crankiness seemed more fun.

So what made me cranky?

1. Over breakfast I read Brenda's post on copyright. She has a thing about copyright. The lack of observance of it seems to make her cranky. (She admits to indignation but frankly there is not a lot of difference.) Everything she said is right and correct in law. I agree that it is bad, bad, bad to steal designs, pass them off as your own and make money off other people's work. But when people get upset because they showed a quilt in a public show at which photography is allowed and then someone showed the photo to someone else on a blog.... well, I am sorry but I think they are just missing the point and they are humourless, selfish, uptight people. ( I accept that when I have had chocolate and water and sleep I may think that they are lovely people who are just missing the point.) The point of course being that if you want your art to be seen why would you complain about people telling other people that they liked your art and showing them what they meant? You learned how to quilt by observing other people's art. Heck, Great artists joined guilds to learn to paint by copying other artists work and we don't complain about that. Just take the compliment and stop fretting.


2. I went for a shower. My new Radox shower gel says on the bottle that it is 'Proven to care'. About what? The state of inmate conditions at Guantanamo? The potential extinction of the lesser spotted meercat? The parlous state of copyright laws? I mean it would be irrelevant but a portion of the price of that gel (even if it is a tiny, tiny portion) went to pay for the ink to write on the bottle Proven to care. And it makes no sense at all. And how do you prove it? Did the gel have to answer a questionnaire about its social responsibility? Or was it secretly observed via nanny cam consoling the sponge when it got treated roughly by the loofah?

3. Yorkshire Bank's ATM informed me today, with a little picture on the screen, that it was voted best for overdraft rates in 2005. All that tells me is that it was not the best in 2006 and having failed to live up to its reputation failed to do anything about it in 2007,2008 or indeed 2009. Why would anyone advertise that they were less than spectacular and too lazy to do anything about it even though they clearly had the capacity to achieve greatness. And besides. I don't need to know. All I want is £50 of my own money.

4. My town has an unusual population cluster in that we seem to have an concentration of stunt people. Or very stupid people. Let me explain. Unless you have the skills to deputise for Bruce Willis in Die Hard ( Ok, its a while since I saw an action movie, I can't think of a better example), then, when you wander aimlessly off the kerb in front of my car without looking it is likely that I will hurt you when I ram your waddling backside with my bumper. It is a certainty that if I have to brake on an open road one more time to avoid having to scrape your waddling backside off my bumper I shall get cranky.

So there.
I think there might be some cooking chocolate at the back of the fridge.

11 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

As to number 1, I completely agree & had much the same response...

Gerrie said...

I agree with number one!! I also am very jealous of the class with Sandra Meech.

Gretchen said...

Still laughing from your post (especially #2). I couldn't agree more. As for any bank right now, there should be no boasting of anything.

Dennis said...

You may think thatall this crankiness is funny, but REMEMBER: I have to live with it!!!

Kristin L said...

I was going to say "Go get that chocolate and fast!" but now I'm thinking that someone needs to get Dennis chocolate too, the man is a saint. As for cranky point #1, I agree, and have to stress that Brenda's point about moral obligation is key -- a quilt is in a show to be shown, so when one shows it on a website then they NEED to credit the artist so they get all the adoration they put the quilt in the show for in the first place.

Unknown said...

Oh dear - maybe there's something in the air today as I feel like picking a fight with my own shadow too - jaywalking pedestrians hack me off too but nothing like as much as stupid other drivers who almost do something seriously dangerous near me - or is that me still ever so sensitive since my accident - good job it's still cool weather and the windows are fully up as my verbal outbursts really don't bear up to scrutiny!

Anonymous said...

Oh Helen! as Kristin has highlighted, the key point in my post is that if you are going to show photos of someone else's quilt, the least you can do is name/give credit to the quiltmaker.

Have to run, otherwise I'll miss the train and THAT would make me really cranky!

Nic Bridges said...

I'm sorry to be so amused by your crankiness, hope you located some lovely Belgian chocolate that you'd forgotten in the back of the pantry.

I'm all for credit where it's due, but public and personal rants (see #1) don't solve the (perceived) problem. There is serious breach of copyright happening out there, some innocently enthusiastic photos seem to be not quite the right target.

Donna said...

sometiems all the world deserves is out crankiness... that's my story. well, the lack of sleep, chocoalte, extreme cold, and PMS might have something to do with it too in my case :-)

Janet said...

Surely you have a secret supply of chocolate? I know I do!

Christine said...

Actually, I rather agree with Brenda, but more on the grounds of showing courtesy than observing copyright. What riles me is when people display work they have done from a class, or based on a magazine project, as if it were their own design with no accreditation to the tutor/author.

PS I've done 2 classes with Sandra Meech and learned absolutely tons. One of the best tutors I've met - and I'm not even a quilter!