bbm_got_me_good pointed me towards photobucket's contact page, so I figured instead of whining I might as well send them a message. Who knows, maybe somebody will actually read it and pass it up? Feel free to snag and adapt if you feel similarly inspired to complain.

Hello,

I was recently collecting images from Prop 8 rallies in California, and in the process, searched the term "gay rights" on your site.

I was more than a little surprised when instead of seeing the results of my search, I got a page telling me I was probably searching for adult content, and that "Photobucket does NOT host sexually explicit content."

I hope you can understand my shock and upset at this. As a queer woman, moments like that remind me how much of society believes we are dirty, simply because of our sexual orientation. Perhaps whomever made that decision did so in good faith without realizing the impact it can have, so I'm writing to point out that classifying "gay" as something adult, explicit, and inappropriate is not a decision that hurts no one. I was pleased - and also confused - to see that lesbian, queer, and homosexual do not give the same warning, but that doesn't negate the initial disappointment. Please reconsider this policy, particularly in light of the recent negative press companies like Amazon have received for their homophobic search policies.

Thanks for you time,
(insert real name here)

Since when was "gay rights" a term that probably relates to adult content and requires a reminder that Photobucket "does NOT host sexually explicit content"?



Click for larger, or search it yourself.

NOTE TO PHOTOBUCKET: "GAY" IS NOT RATED NC-17. Shall we send you over to Amazon so you can learn why?

Yes yes, the Miss California Debacle is old news, but I just stumbled across this dude (don'taskhowplease) and his hilarious youtube vids, and this one made me crack up awesomely:

( it's just the way she was raised! )

ETA. Oh google. Why do I love you? Because you think of little random details. Like, changing the hrule in google search to a rainbow for searches with the word "gay" in them.

So, I always thought the whole ``Aryan Race´´ thing of Hitler´s with blue eyes and blond hair was a little odd, because, seriously, blond hair and blue eyes is not that common.

Uh, not in Germany. I swear, the last time I saw that many identical blue eyes was at a family reunion (Seven out of eight of my cousins have blue eyes. My sister is the only exception with her green eyes. My grandma had one brown-eyed child, my dad, and the story goes that after the birth of each grandchild she sang to her little brown-eyed baby, even though none of us were). Guess that´s what growing up in a city of first and second and third and MAYBE more if you´re special generation citizens does to you - the idea of ethnic homogeny within caucasians never occurred to me. I mean, there are obviously lots of brown-eyed Germans, but I didn´t see them.

Only been in Berlin for a few hours, mostly have just napped an ate. The train station was intense - shiny new metallic and glass thingy. We´d arrived from four nights in Prague, which I do believe has been, hands down, the most overall beautiful city we´ve seen. I´d only really heard of Art Nouveau architecture before, but now I think I really understand it! It´s a funny city, in a way, such a hodge podge of architectural styles that somehow all work together. I loved loved loved the gothic cathedral in Prague Castle, St. Vitus´s, especially: I´m often underwhelmed by cathedrals but the combination of the enorminity and relative starkness of the interior architecture and the lush and incredibly colourful stained glass that warmed the walls made it really quite stunning. But mostly, Prague was our musical city! (Paris was art, Rome ancient history, Florence food, and Prague music. Not on purpose, this is just how it´s worked out.) We saw the Prague Symphony Orchestra in the (amazing Art Nouveau Smetlana hall of the) Municipal House, a string quintet doing Vivaldi´s Four Seasons in the Hussite Cathedral in the old town square, and on the last night, we had dinner on a jazz boat with a ridiculously fun swing band doing Louis Armstrong era jazz. Serious win! Also, Czech beer for the win.

NO.

(And this happens all the time. People. I know the US is the biggest and bestest country in the whole wide world, but that does not make you A WHOLE CONTINENT.)

(Er, context: a lot of webpages, particularly those selling things, make you choose your country before seeing the webpage. When you hover over the US flag at the sims 3 website, it says "North America".)

Dreamwidth is open (beta) for business! Hurrah! I've already purchesed my paid account, and am looking forward to getting invite codes to hand out. I currently think I have onebrightroad and notevery who asked and - I think - aren't there yet, but if you would like one or I've promised you one before and lost track, leave a comment and let me know.

1) MONEY. How I loathe you. I transferred money from one account to another (online, same bank) in order to write myself a cheque to an account I can access in Europe, except the transfer never happened so the cheque bounced and I (we, it was a joint account) got an NSF charge. At first I thought it had been my fault - i.e. that I hadn't made the transfer - but then when I tried to make the transfer again, it SEEMED to work, only to disappear from all existence half an hour later. WTF? So now I have to call bank 1 to complain and ask WTF, and then go to bank 2 with a cheque of Real Money (tm). Fuck.

2) CELLPHONES. My cellphone's service isn't working! I get "emergency only", which B says happens sometimes, but I am all nervous after the above money issues. I checked, and they did indeed take the usual payment off my credit card on the 20th, so they can't have disconnected me or anything. But when I was panicking about the above, it was really annoying - I ended up downloading and paying for Skype. God Bless the internet.

3) AMERICAN IDOL. VOTE FOR ADAM YOU AMERICANS BECAUSE I CAN'T. Fuck. I watched it with my sister and mum, who don't normally watch it, and they must think I'm insane now for all the freaking out I did. I think he wasn't actually 2nd lowest, but 3rd, since Ryan never actually said "this is your bottom 2", but I digress.

The idolatry interviews with Anoop are awesome, btw. I never clicked with his music (and he wants to do comtemp R&B, so that makes sense) but he's intelligent, articulate, and really funny and straight-forward. Well-worth watching! And Adam's studio recording of "Feeling Good" is un-fucking-believable, especially the parts that weren't in the live performance at all. He basically sings as a countertenor for a few moments there, for crying out loud.

4) BOYFRIEND. Is being pissy because he is sick and keeping a totally ridiculous schedule because he absolutely MUST turkey hunt every day. I think this is as ridiculous as it sounds, even though hunting and fishing normally puts him in a good mood. Anyway, he is being super-tetchy, though he hasn't quite blown his top at me yet. I'm hoping I can avoid that and skive off to Europe, because dude. I am not responsible for your fucked-up-sleeping-schedule. Of course, if he keeps this crazy schedule wherein we do not cross paths very often, this won't be very hard.

Aw crap. I totally have a crush on this guy - and the more of his Upright Cabaret songs they leak, the more I totally adore him. But, good god, that voice! What I can't get over is the range, and more than that, how flawlessly he can sing in that usually dangerous mid-range that could be chest voice and could be falsetto. Apparently this transition is called passaggio and is part of the reason why people are enchanted by his idol performances even if they don't like the style or the song or arrangement. Almost all of his most-lauded performance (Mad World) was smack-dab in that range.

( Anyway, here's a cut behind which I share my favourite youtube vids of his pre-idol performances, but really, you should take a look, even if you think idol is ridiculous. Because it is, but this guy? Is not. )

I had a moment of absolute, gut-wrenching despair last night. While doing the dishes, as these things are wont to happen, and fortunately B was in the living room or I might have taken out my frustration on said poor, blameless dishes.

( Read more... )