Venting

Life happens when we are making other plans.  In late August of last year I had a vertebra injury and now I've managed to come back somewhat and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.  I continued to create designs for my shop on Spoonflower during my continuing recovery because creating something always takes me out of myself and I don't think about pain for awhile.  This rant, though, is not about spinal pain.  This is a short rant about our Internet social media. (I heard on the NPR radio show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" that complaining actually lengthens our lives and helps us deal with stress so I hope I add a day, at least, to my life with this rant.)

Early on in my Spoonflower days, I learned how to link my project pictures from Flickr back to the design page on Spoonflower.  Everything went along okay for a little while until Flickr would no longer let us sign in using our Google accounts.  I adjusted with the move.  Then Flickr started messing with the URLs we used to link our photos from Flickr to Spoonflower -- very smart people in the Spoonflower Flickr discussion groups posted hints on what parts of the html to delete to continue linking our pics.  I adjusted again.  Then in mid August 2014, I received a message from  two of my Spoonflower Flickr friends asking me what had happened to my photostream -- everything was blacked out -- over 1,000 photos blacked out.  I received a message from Flickr telling me that my photostream had been deemed "unsafe"  -- not because of content, but because it looked too much like a shop!  I asked which photos were the offending ones and I never received a concrete answer so I began deleting links from my photos to Spoonflower.   I also deleted my little 60 second videos featuring designs and projects.  I worked on it for over 3 days straight deleting links even though at the beginning of my Spoonflower adventure,  I distinctly remember being encouraged to do exactly what I had done -- link photos from Flickr to Spoonflower.  Finally, my photostream was deemed safe, but, alas, it has not been the same.  My views have dropped precipitously and I'm always amused when someone wants to follow my photostream.  Why???

(I wish we could just upload photos from our computer to Spoonflower so there would not be an intermediary but then there would be no social media "connection.")

Then I thought I would try Instagram.  The problem with Instagram is that one takes pictures with one's smartphone -- small screen, small keyboard -- small, small, small.  (No, I do not have an Apple Iphone.)  I got an LG smartphone in December and tried taking a picture with the smartphone -- the quality is not the same as taking a picture with my Fuji digital camera.  Plus I cannot figure out to do the ever important tags on Instagram. It's such a commitment just to touch the screen of the smartphone -- I'm not sure where I will go next!!

Then, this afternoon, (as I said, recovery has been a slow slog), I remembered my blog -- poor blog -- I forgot it in 2013, the year both of my parents passed away, then rediscovered it sometime in 2014 only to forget it again in August 2014.  Yet it has always been here, waiting.  And I discovered that I can link my project photos from this blog to the design pages in my Spoonflower shop.  I am so happy.  A small victory maybe, but still!!  Many of you are now saying, "Well, duh!"  But it is a victory for this 62 year old woman who is trying to keep up -- well,  not keep up, but keep my head above water in this ever changing technological world we call the Internet.

Oh, and I just have to add, the other day I was listening to a program on NPR and a person mentioned that the Internet is like another planet and I have to say I agree.  A lot of us get to visit Planet Internet everyday!

Oh, and in case you are interested, here is my Flickr photostream.