No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on October 4, 2021

Or it’s October.

October tends to be rainy for us. Today is not going to disappoint.

I am dealing better with a lack of sunlight than I did a couple of years ago. Amazing what some mood stabilizers can do for one.

It is a grey day but I won’t let that stop me from completing the next couple of items on my punch list.

I got my outside work done yesterday with one exception that can wait for a couple of days.

Now I go for the inside list.

However, I am giving myself permission to take time for me today.

I have been in drive for a couple of weeks so it might be time to put it in neutral  or park for a bit. I do not need burn out.

I am listening to my body very carefully.

There is no push today more go with the flow.

Tomorrow I am back at work and have a long shift.

Then it is onto getting Peter ready for NYCC.

I might be in Friday afternoon/evening.

I am tired but calm right now.

I wish I could go back in time when I was at Yale and probably my lowest point to tell myself it will be alright.

And it is.

My life is not perfect, but it works for me.

I have been thinking about this a lot after reading about the Facebook whistle blower brought forth internal memos that shows how much social media is screwing with society as a whole. 

I am so glad that I was a teenager before the Internet as we know it existed. Because I think it would have screwed me up royally.

It has screwed up one generation and is having a go at the next one too.

Instagram makes young girls feel bad about themselves and their self-image by showing them these impossible lives and body types.

Facebook algorithms have, apparently, sowed more discord than they have helped us. It shows you things that you have previously shown an interest in. Thus, isolating you from new ideas and concepts.  It’s like they are putting you in your own box not letting you see outside of that.

I will still use Facebook and Instagram to communicate with friends but now I do it with a serious grain of salt.

Really wondering when the government is going to step in.

I have no idea how I feel about that but I do know I want young people to not feel bad about themselves and try for the unreachable. 

If social media is destroying one’s mental health, then one should step back and take a breather.  I have done so more than once in my life, and I am better for it.

I am willing to read and discuss ideas that are contrary to my own. The key word is ‘discuss,’ not get yelled at. 

I don’t need a hug box. The world has sharp edges and I must deal with those edges. I learned by getting cut a couple of times. I learned from that and moved on.

Now we are having a downpour that is a gulley washer.

It is cleaning the streets and watering the plants.

I am going to work on my next project on my punch-list until I need to take a breather.

I am grateful I didn’t get mixed up in social media until I was a developed adult.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 3, 2021

I have work today and I am picking Peter up from his first of three conventions this month tonight.

In between I have several things that need to be done. I have plotted how I am going to achieve my goals.

I have tomorrow off so I can pick up what I don’t get today then onto one of the big projects.

I am trying to be calm about the next couple of weeks.

I have several things that are about to hit the red zone. 

Random things I have been pondering

Because of COVID are lipstick sales down?

How soon is too soon to put out the Halloween decorations?

Will I get through Drawlloween?

How much can I fit into a suitcase?

Why does Figaro sit at the bottom of the stairs and growl at the other cats when I come down to feed them breakfast?

Why can’t I get my coffee balance right?

What is Caroline up to? (I usually get my answer later in the day)

Why do all the cats use one litter box when we have three?

Why do fans have to insist that they know better than the people producing the product they are consuming?

Why do people decided if they like or not something based on an announcement of casting or the first trailer?

I am grateful for my random brain.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 2, 2021

September 30 is an auspicious day for us and cats.

It was eleven years ago on that day that I found a kitten in a tree during a Nor’easter. Caroline bonded with the kitten over the weekend and Figaro became her cat.

Seven years we managed to finally catch a feral kitten that looked like six miles of rough road. She has conjunctivitis in both eyes and was seriously under fed. That kitten became my cat Inky.

The other two we got from rescue shelters four and two years ago.

(more…)

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 29, 2021

In one of the doll groups I belong to we had another round of ‘you stole my pattern’. 

Honestly there are only so many ways to make a doll leg. 

Also, the part she is complaining about.  I can find the same leg in half a dozen books I own on doll making.

There are only so many ways to make a costume especially if you are re-creating a character from a film or tv show. This is also true with puppets.

It just amazes me how people will get on their high horse about intellectual property theft when I can point to other people who have done the exact same thing or what they are doing has been done for over 100 of years.

A good example of that are shoulder dragons with moving heads. The mechanism has been used for years in puppetry using everything from piano wire to bike cables. Every couple of years we have to sit through a shouting match between a couple of people who insist they created the original shoulder dragon. I first saw them in the early 80s in an art show at a convention.

Intellectual property is a very specific thing.

There are, basically, five kinds of intellectual property.

Copyright– Copyright is a form of legal protection that protects “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.

This is the one I have dealt the most with in my creative life.  I did not know until today that software falls under this category. I thought it was under patents.

Trademark- A trademark is a word, slogan, phrase, symbol, or design that helps to identify and distinguish you/your business as the source of your products and/or services from products and services provided by someone else

Business Logos are a good example of this like Starbucks or Lego

Patents- A patent is a government-issued property right given to an inventor to exclude others from making, selling or using their invention for a set period of time.

These are important for inventors and other people who create physical objects so they can make money on their intellectual property.

Trade Dress- Trade Dress is the visual appearance, characteristics, and overall “look and feel” of a product or its container, packaging, or design, that uniquely signifies the source of the product to consumer

Think the iconic blue Tiffany box.

Trade Secrets- A trade secret is confidential proprietary knowledge that is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable by others that gives you and your business a competitive and economic advantage

These are a little trickier because they have no legal footing like the other four so everyone keeps those close to the vest. When I started working at Michael’s, I had to sign, basically, and NDA about how they do things at Michael’s. I am forbidden to work for another story in the craft industry and if I do move on, I am not allowed to talk about the inter-workings of the company.

When I was at Del Rey, I had to sign a number of NDAs before I could work on several projects. Those are still in effect to this day. 

Something that one had an idea for but never executed it cannot be copywritten. The ‘I thought of if first’ does not work unless one actually creates a fix tangible form of the idea. So two authors can come up with the same idea but the one who writes it first wins the IP  race.

I have plenty of ideas for stories and the like. My execution of those ideas is less than stellar. When I read something that reads like my idea, I just shrug and move on. I do not throw a temper tantrum and threaten to sue others on an idea that I had that I did nothing tangible with.

Again there are only so many ways to make a leg.

I am grateful that I have a decent knowledge about Intellectual Property.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 27, 2021

I have been thinking about 

Inaction (noun) – Lack of action or activity.

And

Action (noun) – A thing done: Deed

There are some that believe that inaction is a bad thing. They have to fill their day and their children’s days till they overflow.

Other believe that you occasionally have to put yourself in 

Idle (intransitive verb) to run at low power and often disconnected usually so that power is not used for useful work.

We hear the phrase, “I need to recharge my batteries”. I say it when I feel especially rundown and overwhelmed. I give myself permission to go from drive to idle for a bit to get my head back in the game of life.

Today I have my punch list however I am giving myself permission to take some time for me. 

Tomorrow I am back to work then I have a bit of a patchwork schedule which will allow me to get things done here at home. 

We need action and inaction in our lives. We need to give ourselves permission to drop from drive to idle or park. 

With all the stressors we have in our lives right now, we need to listen to our bodies when they tell us we are running close to empty. Mental stress can lead to physical stress on the body. 

So take a breather and don’t feel guilty about it.

I am grateful for recognizing when I need to take a break.

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