daysoflore.com

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I have been a long and faithful user of photobucket.com and have enjoyed the site’s services in hosting my photos for free. Granted, I hated when they resized my pictures, but I liked them nonetheless.

Today, my good friend Trina, exposed their dastardly ways on a forum we are both administrators on.

I submit to you Photobucket.com’s TOS:

Terms of Service

* Updated 03/02/06

Before you use this site, please read these Terms of Service carefully as they govern your use of the services provided at Photobucket.com (the “Services”). By using the Services you agree to the Terms of Service set forth below as they may be updated from time to time by Photobucket.com, Inc. (”Photobucket.com”). Photobucket.com may modify or terminate the Services from time to time, for any reason, and without notice, including the right to terminate with or without notice, without liability to you, any other user or any third party, provided that when Photobucket.com does so, it will update these Terms of Service. You are advised to periodically check the website for changes in the Terms of Service.

“User Content” means any videos, photographs, images text, graphics, news articles, charts, presentations, communications photographs, illustrations text, graphics, news articles, charts, presentations or other materials provided by you to Photobucket.com. Photobucket.com does not claim ownership rights in any User Content. In order for Photobucket.com to permit you to use the Services, you grant to Photobucket.com a perpetual, universal, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, license to use, copy, distribute, modify, print, display and otherwise exploit in any manner any User Content and to enable third parties to use the Services to do the same.“

This basically means that in you using their “free” services, they in turn reserve the right to use YOUR photos in any means they choose, including selling them to third parties (as stock photos, etc.)

I know many people who use that site to post pictures of their families, and many other fellow photographers and shutterbug enthusiasts such as myself also use it to host samples of their photography.

I for one am appalled by this, and anyone’s photos are at their disposal as long as they sign up for a free account and use their hosting services.

As for me, I say thank goodness for Flickr.com.

Photobucket can keep my avatars and whatnot, but my photography and other photos are outta there.

Protection, originally uploaded by Tom Lister.

Google has added a feature for your front page, where random flickr pictures are circulated. This one happened to grace my screen tonight and I love it!

Read the rest of this entry »

I got something interesting in my inbox tonight. An invite to create a wordpress.com blog. I don’t know what I’ll do with it though, not like I need another weblog.

On another subject, James hurt his eye today at school, and only squints but won’t let me come near it to see how bad it is. I opted to take him to the ER but with our copay going up to $100 this year, I was advised by my mom and friends that if he’s opening his eyes to peek at the tv then it couldn’t be all that bad. Plus the fact that we’d probably end up waiting for our turn to see a physician for three to four hours, doesn’t look like too good an idea. At least here at home, I can make him as comfy as possible on the couch. I just wish he would let me check it out. He’s just being pretty stubborn about it and now he’s taken a nap. I’m still a bit worried though.

*edit 10 nov 11:15am*

So we ended up taking him to the ER after Chris got home and he still wouldn’t let us look at his eyes. I was afraid there was a foreign object in there and I didn’t want to take the chance. We had to of course wait for around 3 hours till we were seen (got there and were signed in at 9:11pm and saw the PA around 11:30pm). She performed a light test which scared the heck out of me to see the yellow-orange dye poured into his eye, but when I saw the scratch on his cornea I almost cried. My poor baby has a corneal abrasion and that’s why he was in so much pain and wouldn’t let me even look at his eye. Last night he couldn’t open it because it hurt too much, and I feel so bad thinking he was just being dramatic. Gah, I could kick myself.

Anyway, we were given prescription for sulfacetamide drops for his eyes, picked it up at Wal-Greens (woo hoo for 24-hour pharmacies), and ended up back home around 12:40-ish. We administered the first drops on his eyes before we went to sleep, and those drops are to be given every two to three hours so I set my alarm each time to wake up and give him the drops.

I made a follow-up appointment to see our family doctor this morning and she said for toddlers they will heal in about 3-5 days so we should just keep administering the drops and allow him to heal.

James was too funny since he is so verbal now and all throughout the course of last night and this morning, he would say things like “I not sick, I not go to the doctor!” or “Wait! Don’t hold me, don’t touch my eye!” (when Chris and I held him down to give him the drops).

Oh the things he gets into now and only being three years old– I am bracing myself for what he will do to himself when he is older… I just hope I don’t have a heart attack before I turn 40.