Books

The knitting book I borrowed from the library is due back soon, so I'm going tomorrow to return it. I might take out another book if I can find one that looks promising.

There was a quilting book I was going to check out, more for my mom than myself, but today hasn't been a very good day for anything really. Been feeling rather numb, and if not numb, then upset and sick. I tried to work on quilting and knitting, but neither one has really grabbed my interesting beyond a few stitches or rows. Some shit has happened in the past couple days, and really, all I'm noticing is that I'm not good enough, or I didn't make good enough decisions in the past for where I am now. Really it just comes back to not feeling good enough. And well, really, that is the story of my life.

I don't know what kind of book to check out of the library - and the online catalogue is (once again) unavailable. Tempted to read some books from movies I've watched recently, also tempted to read some Shakespeare. But really, I don't know what any of them are actually about. And I don't know what kind of thing I want to read. Happy? Sad? Comedy? Self help? I think a crafty type book will have to wait since I couldn't get into it today. Maybe I won't take out any new books yet.

I'm kind of leaning towards Shakespeare. I do want to read more of that. I was hoping to go to the Stratford Theatre for my birthday, but that isn't going to happen by the looks of things. I'm starting to think I'll just spend that day in bed and avoid the world. Or maybe watch the entirety of Slings & Arrows. Again. For the umpteenth time. Maybe I'll borrow The Odyssey by Homer. Not that I know what it's about, but they read some of it in that movie, The Reader (good movie, I recommend it.)

Bloggers Beware

Today I was reading the news and came across this. A model had a lawsuit against a blogger, then dropped it, and now the blogger wants to sue Google for revealing her name. Woooo. Everyone look out! Here's the article

Trash-talking bloggers warned of perils
Wed, August 26, 2009
A court battle to ID a name caller is cited as a wake-ublogp call

MONTREAL -- Anonymous bloggers who like to trash talk online should brush up on the latest cyber etiquette, say legal experts.

The recent case of a Canadian model who won a court battle to reveal the identity of a nasty name-calling blogger should be a wake-up call about the legal implications of sharing derogatory opinions online, said lawyer David Fewer of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

"It should be an eye opener for most people," Fewer said yesterday. "They are not nearly as anonymous on the Internet as they think they are."

Liskula Cohen, a former model for Vogue and Flare magazines, won a court order in New York that forced Google to unmask the identity of a blogger, who had called her a "skank" and made other off-colour comments about her online.

Cohen has since dropped a multimillion lawsuit against the blogger, saying it wouldn't add anything to her life. Meanwhile, the blogger, Rosemary Port, is suing Google for violating her privacy by revealing her name.

Fewer said Canadian courts, as well as courts in many other jurisdictions, will likely give people the opportunity to launch similar court battles to reveal the secret identity of an online persona or the person behind an online publication.

"If you've got a non-frivolous legal claim you are entitled to your day in court," said Fewer, acting director of the clinic, based at the University of Ottawa.

Cohen's lawyer, Steve Wagner, said the case has struck a chord with people and he expects to see more of them end up in court. "It goes well beyond just trash talking.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2009/08/26/10613866-sun.html

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So... on one hand I guess we have stuff like harassment, defamation of character... and on the other a violation of privacy, and free speech and all that jazz.

Now, I don't really trash talk people on my blog. I don't like the majority of celebrities. It could just be I'm not a fan of whatever movie they've been in or whatever, but I normally can't be bothered enough to go through the effort of really trash talking. And thinking now, I don't even think I can trash talk most of them. Aside from calling some of them idiots, most of the stuff I would say would be that I don't like them, their movies/singing sucks, etc. A lot of stuff about them though is media hype (for the most part) which also makes me not get overly excited. I have sooo many better things to do. And so do most of my blogging friends. But well, just in case, I posted this.

I'm also highly amused to see the celebrity fight back. I'm also semi interested to see if the blogger wins against Google... though I have my doubts.