About this blog

Writing should self-justify. But there are some conventions here. And so, in no particular order….

Comments
I hope you will. Polite, even impassioned comments, are the life force of a blog. Please stay (relatively) on topic. I shall probably close a post’s comments after a month or so. If you wish to comment on a post whose topics are closed, please get in touch. Trolls come from an alternate universe and are antimatter to blogs specifically, civilized behavior generally. Please do not feed them. I shall take unilateral and severe action against trolls. Remember that the First Amendment is about the government limitations on free speech. Private enterprises are not so bound. I take a dim view of antisemitism, racism, and sexism. And, yes, ageism.

Categories and Tags
Not yet. I want them to be helpful rather than annoying. So I’m going to see how the posts go, how the comments go (this is a plug) and then set up some functional categories and tags.

Monetizing
Not. I’ve paid extra so there are no ads here. Absolutely no affiliate links of any kind. Unless I say otherwise, you may assume I have purchased any object discussed or reviewed here; if I have received something gratis it will be noted prominently.

Pictures
When they serve a purpose. No gratuitous pictures here just to gain your attention or gin up page views. If you need pictures to get your attention, you’re probably better off on Twitter. Consider learning how to read. More than 140 characters at a sitting.

The current header picture gets things going. It may well be changed, regularly or irregularly. The current one captures  some of the contradictions this blog will address. The current one is via Flickr and Connie Ma. Pictures like this are everywhere; pictures this good are not. Notice the mirror, which adds extra point to the selfie feeding frenzy. And on the side, a woman who couldn’t care less. That could be me, with a few modest changes. Hopefully that last sentence applies to you too.

All pictures I use here under the “fair use” provisions of the DMCA. The recent appellate decision Lenz v. Universal has made it clear that fair use is not an excuse, but a provision of the law which must be considered. And then damages. This is the polar opposite of a “monetized” site. It would be rather hard to prove damages in the face of DMCA and damages…but I could very easily prove the value-added of publicity for the person producing the image.

Varia
A Latin convention meaning “this and that”. I use it for digressions and explanations which benefit the post, but are not intrinsic to its meaning. In print media where, incidentally, most of my published works appear, they’re called footnotes. Sometimes “footnotes” is a nice word for “digressions”.