Who "Owns" LOCI Pictures

There is a certain person who copies photos from Vincent blogs and publishes them on the Facebook page. Sometimes she does things to them first - including removing or overwriting watermarks. I'm getting pretty sick of it, especially since she now seems to be challenging the ownership of these photos. Maybe she thinks they just appear out of thin air. Well, I don't claim to own them to make money from them, like a certain Jeannette in her Attic on Ebay. They are really owned by NBC/Universal. Nevertheless we Vincent bloggers spend many hours producing stills from the programmes - and from Vincent's films. Typically it takes up to two hours to play-pause-capture, edit out the duff pictures, watermark them (so we can see when people like Jeannette is trying to make money selling them) and upload them to Photobucket (where I for one have so many pictures I have to pay the Pro fee). Initially, of course, I have to buy the DVDs. So the process is not cost-free. But it is a labour of love. Until some lazy little bint who can't be bothered to achieve the finished product by the sweat of her own brow nicks my hard work and acts like it's hers. No credit. No thanks. No, scrub that. I don't want your thanks. I just want you to do the hard work yourself and leave my stuff alone. (To those of you who save the pictures to enjoy them, I am only too glad to oblige.) So, Leann Gomes, Miss Lee, make your own originals, leave everyone else's alone (we're past my being satisfied with being credited with the originals. Just leave my pictures alone). Do you think the other Vixens would be happy with you if you annoyed me so much I shut my blog down? The only other way to go is comment moderation, and that means even more work for me, and I'm not prepared to do that. So Vixens, please join me is wishing this lazy, selfish person goodbye. Not sure who moderates the Facebook page, but perhaps you'd kick her off. I'm tired of getting emails with her stolen pictures in, so I'll probably leave it, too.

Folie a Deux - Day 5

Bobby scratches his ear. Oh no, wait, he's on the phone. You can't see it in that great big mitt.

Folie a Deux - Day 4

Mmm, thinks Bobby, something's not right here.

Folie a Deux - Day 3

First the profile, then the neck.

End of an Era

Today was my last day teaching Alex. After three-and-a-half years, it was a big wrench for us all. Alex will be going to college next year, and we visited today. It's going to be a huge change for him, but I think he will thrive. Our last school outing was to the recently restored clipper ship Cutty Sark. We had a great day. It's an interesting place, as you can see:

Above Alex is pictured with me and with his nurse. Below he is surrounded by figureheads from now-disappeared ships. Nannie, wearing her cutty sark, or petticoat, is centre back holding the tail of Tam O'Shanter's horse:

I didn't get round to taking a picture of the surprise we saw from the ship, but thanks to the internet, I can show you HMS Ocean, a helicopter carrier and troop carrier, here for the Olympics.  

No doubt you will have heard about the Olympics security bollocks-up. Private enterprise, so beloved of our wonderful government, has failed to deliver on its mult-multi-multi-million pound contract, but didn't own up till last week, and the Home Secretary didn't notice. So troops just back from Afghanistan expecting leave (and then, of course, redundancy) will have to do the job instead. Some of them will probably get to sleep on here. The lucky ones. Others will be in tents in fields.

Alex and his mum gave me a leaving present - a picture of us together in an antique-style frame, and a super-cute cushion similar to this one (but much better) of a Guinea pig in a Queen wig:

Pauses for a quick tear.

Folie a Deux - Day 2

Such a sweet profile.

Autumn into Summer

Remember the painting I did the other week that looked as if autumn had arrived before we'd even had summer?



Well, I bought some acrylics at the weekend and did what I said. I painted out most of the red, and here is the finished result:



The photo is a bit dark because the flash showed up the weave of the canvas. I much prefer this version.

Folie a Deux - Day 1

There's that big cuddly teddy bear again!

Faithfully - Day 10

Something about an attractive man with his legs wide open...

Faithfully - Day 9

Oh, that nibblable neck.