Whit bank holiday round up

The build up to the Whit Bank Holiday weekend wasn't great as I was seriously unwell for a few days before and getting into it so apart from resting and taking my tablets I did have to think a bit about handling the recovery as working flat out to make up for lost time could only hasten its return.

So  a few things got left off that I can at some later point return to as they're not so time critical while I slowly got back on me feet getting some fresh air and moderate exercise in going into the wood and enjoying the natural world free from any distractions.

I also cuddled up to my teddy bears.

I also planned some sorting out of of duplicate records as sometimes you might get through three or more copies before you find the one you're happiest with and really it's that which matters rather than what anybody else might think that ultimately matters.

This ties in with the unexpected Now Yearbook 93 and the 2006-7 volumes on cd coming in the middle of next month so I really need to clear some space for them in their book form editions, talking of which I did tidy the bookshelf out a bit with the Just William books among others 

Fortunately outside of the odd heavy shower, the weather held up for the various events including a traction engine rally that's held in a nearby field.

Photos, A.I and rights

 

Winnie knows things aren't always straightforward and one thing that is causing much talk is Artificial Intelligence (A.I) as it applies to images as while it has lead to an increase in posting, making it easier to have images that illustrate topics, that has lead to some issues.

People have been taking photographs from the victorian era, some went in institutional collections, newspaper photo archives but many stayed with individuals passed to family members or friends who themselves decided what to do with them.

As the modern internet took shape with websites, companies paid lots to buy up photographs which they then charged money to have the right to add to your site or magazine page (printing went digital to the press).

Because of advances in Computer techniques it is now possible to write a script and have a program create an image from it and this does threaten image rights holders (and does concern artist who may feel part of their work is in it).

It's important to realize rather like "The dog ate my homework" you can't say "I didn't do it, A.I. did" if the image you produce is sexually explicit, features indecent children, or abuse material Tm because as it's creator YOU are responsible.

On our site W-T-O and I are responsible for what goes up and it's our doors that would get knocked.

We also have to understand with regard to actual photographs if you use anything that is copyright (and most stuff published is) we'd be in trouble with our hosts for allowing it and you can be charged a lot for it or even told take it down OR else.

There is "fair use" but that like much of the law around rights is in something of a flux and messy is a good way to describe present so perhaps it's safer to avoid actual photos unless you have taken them or own them (like yout childhood snaps).

We're trying to explain in a way everyone can understand how we can use photos and the like with less risks.

Just keep your eyes peeled.

The Rifle and my Brother

When you write a bit about either things you have experienced or the past it isn't always you that's the subject, it might well be others.

In this country gun ownership is not common and in the main there's not a hand me down culture to owning a weapon but that doesn't mean some boys don't wish for some sort of gun that isn't clearly identified with a sport.

My younger brother for a period had a mania for more "macho" things and one thing was various forms of air rifle so despite unease by Mum and myself, Dad bought him one when he was fifteen  and a bit.

Part of our unease was our rear garden unlike the front is narrow and adjacent to neighbours who at the time had younger children who played near the fence.

Dad had kind of suggested to point his target toward the apex of the fence at the far end of the boundary but my brother wasn't into boundaries and despite cautions by me he had it aimed more towards the centre and this lead to a police visit and a verbal caution as our neighbours feared for their children's lives.

That to me was obvious - a stray pellet could go through anything - but caused ructures between Dad and Mum and with our neighbours ever since.

If you are to given a rifle of any sort, you really need to be responsible with it and in my opinion he wasn't remotely ready for that.

Co-ed schooling and uniform options

Following some discussion on forum, rather unexpectedly around the broader topic of school uniforms, presentations and co-ed schooling I do want to set out my thoughts as evolving as they can be around this.

The first and more important thing is that for me I never saw co-ed schools as being anything other than a school that admitted girls as well as boys.

For one thing they playgound was seldom really mixed with there being groups of children playing in single sex groups together not because teachers want that but because in practise that's what the children elected even if, like me you might of wanted to play the odd game with the girls (and at the time some girls wanted to play footy with us).

P.E. was co-ed but Games certainly wasn't even at the non competition level was us been taken out two year groups at a time for "boys games" and they'd be taken out for theirs so no chance for me to play netball and they never got to play football.

How sad.

People do confuse how you dress with your sex, something I find baffling, because simply the only difference is that fabrics are cut to different patterns that have at different times been associated with either sex.

Boys and men can wear kilts, a basically skirted item, and today not a few girls wear trousers both long and short.

Let's put it this way: I have no issue with any boy wearing a suitable possibly lined skirt to school if he feels more comfortable in himself as part of the uniform and on the odd time I had worn one too as baffling as it might of been to the "he man boys".

It's no different to allowing as we do girls to wear things other than pinafore dresses and skirts to school and I really don't see why we need to by having so much energy wasted on fighting it.

It's very much different than the vexed issue of social gender transformation and medical interventions as addressed recently in the Cass report as it applies to minors.

That is about presenting as another sex in settings such as schools with different gender identities such as a new name, use of pronouns and so on.

All I'd say is to make things easier for other children and for staff to adjust, I feel making a choice on a term by term basis for anything not requiring specialist clothing needs and keeping to that would go with that so if Robert wishes to wear a skirt and Roberta feels she wishes to wear short trousers then they can and their mates get used to it.

The month has ended

The week it must be said isn't getting off to the best of starts with the retrun of cold weather and indeed for most of Monday we had very strong winds not unlike you'd get at the seaside and rain of which to be truthful I'm really rather fed up of  having had it for most of this year.

The ground or more scientifically speaking the water table is really quite high so if you go to mow the lawn, play in the park or try to play footy everything is at least damp, if not muddy and yes as sightings have confirmed it's weather for ducks all right.

Being we are just in May, of course that means we have the first of two bank holidays next monday so seeing public transportation is off, one has to get things in before hand out here that can't be got from the local store and off license.

I'm slowly finishing off a box diary chocolates here as standard black diary chocolate is prone to giving me headaches if not full blown miagraines which are very debilitating while listening to some new cd's of music by Bach, Britten and a few others while I await at the end of the week the much anticipated super regressive Now Yearbook 74 to arrive with music that links to memories of junior school life with its little facts and figures booklet.