May I borrow your creative works?

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I want to turn your attention away from Covid and away from the riots for a moment to get back on track. 

Like the posts containing “Covid-19”, “Corona”, “Rona”, and other names I have been calling it, I could be talking about racism until I am blue in the face, stand up and sing soprano all day long.  It is an uncomfortable subject to talk about, but there should be active as well.  I do not have all the answers, but one of the actions should be an understanding of another person’s race, gender, and culture.  Even to this day I never could understand the problems that others have with African Americans and women or even American Indians.  All three I identify with, although I do not know what tribe my grandfather’s mother comes from. All people want to do is to live the life given to them. It is the ones who cause the problems in the very beginning (slavery for Africans and restrictions for First Nations and women) are the ones who fail to understand that we are all humans and we all have needed to thrive within this country.  I am done with this conversation, for now, let’s move on.

 

Different types of creative works.  
Photos by Pixabay.com

I am actually a pretty good soprano, reaching a C6 when I was a teen, for those of you who are musicians, for the rest of you, it is called a Mezzo-Soprano.  These days, I am just a soprano, or second soprano, inching closer and closer to a first alto.  Oh, I do not mind, as long as I have some ability to still sing soprano.  It is what I am comfortable at.  I blame allergies for this problem, as well as when you age, you lose some elasticity in your vocal cords.

In addition to being a content creator, a freelance writer and graphic designer, and singer, I am also a musician (almost classical trained), a dancer (ballet, jazz and contemporary, tap, and liturgical), and I know a little bit about computer coding.  All of these “hats” allow me to be creative and put my stamp on a piece of music, recording sessions, writings, choreographed works, and websites, if I put my mind to it. This brings me to a question that was asked on Quora.com, This person wanted to know if it was “okay” to use someone’s created media in their product for a video that he was making on YouTube.   He did not say YouTube per se, but I assumed that he was hinting towards YouTube or even Vimeo. He also wanted to know if that person can sue him. My answer to that was this:

“Yes, you can be sued. They might be nice and send you a cease and desist letter, asking you to remove the music. you really needed to ask permission from the creator if using the music is okay or not.

I want to leave you with two examples. The first one is I am also a creator of music. I am not perfect at it, and I have not published any of it online. If I had published my latest, which is called, Corners of my Mind, and someone did not ask for permission to use the music, I would write a cease and desist letter because I feel that I could go further with this piece of music before it was perfect in my eyes. I have several reasons for not being satisfied with this piece of music. one of them is the keyboard I originally recorded it on is limited in the potential that this piece of music deserves. Most of the time, people share to let others know of their process and to find out that someone who is too lazy to create their own music is using a taking credit for that piece is disheartening to me. It takes time to create a piece of music. Yes, computers make the job easier, but the work is still there, as thoughts of music are coming from the head of composers into something tangible for the world to enjoy, not the for the vlogger to take credit for their own personal gain.

Likewise, when I first started blogging, I used someone’s photo, and I forgot to give that person credit. A couple of years later, another blogger asked for my permission to use the photo. I could have said yes, but instead, I explained the situation, then I quickly changed the photo to prevent others from asking to use it.

I am not saying that you are lazy, but you must give credit and/or ask for permission before using the creative works of others.”

Explanation of the answer.

We would all like to be talented in the art of creating that perfect piece of music, a piece of art that will drive millions to see it, or even a t-shirt that speaks volumes, but not everyone can do it.  Some people are not interested in learning how, and there are some people who feel like they do not have a creative bone in their body.  Some are too shy to do it.  It does not mean that you are lazy, and I do not see the problem of a person sharing their works.  The problem lies when a person who worked hard on a piece is not given the credit they deserve when someone takes a copy and puts it on their project. 

We have all done it, even me, and I got caught.  Not by the original photographer themselves, but by another person, who wanted to share it on their website or blog.  I felt embarrassed by the gesture.  I wanted to say yes, because I placed the perfect font on top of the photo, centered it just right, and it was gold to me.  When I saw it, it was the perfect photo, and I could have placed any of my photos under the font layer, which I should have.  As soon as I replied to the blogger, I quickly went to my blog and replaced it with one of my photos.   To be honest, I did not remember that I had done it.

I also explained to the questioner on Quora that I am always nick picking about my latest piece of music called, “Corners of my Mind”.  I am always changing the speed of the music, the rhythm of the drum kit, and the instruments that would accompaniment the drum kit.  Most of it is slight deviations of the original song.  For the moment, on my Casio CTK 631 (made in 1998), I have a Rave for the drum kit (oh so 1990s), the tempo is between 78 and 84 BPM, and I created a piano 1, an organ 2 (which is as close to a Hammond B25 AKA church organ as I can get it), and a soft wave (I think, I am not looking at my keyboard at the moment).  I have had the song in a Trance rhythm, 105 BPM, a Piano 3 (created), saw synth, saw wave, you name it for instruments.  I have even changed notes and transposed it a couple of times.  I am due for a new keyboard, and my goal is a Yamaha Modx7, which is the latest Yamaha, with all the bells and whistles to make further changes to this song and to create plenty more with that came from.  I have played on the Yamaha Montage, which is a bit pricey for me. Apparently, Yamaha thought so too, so they created the Modx6,7, and 8 with the Montage powerhouse inside at a lower price point. And you thought all that I know about was social media, content, freelance writing, Disney, organization, decorating, and graphic design.  Give me a musical keyboard, a tutu, and some tap shoes, and you have seen nothing yet, LOL.  This was the reason I talked about Abby Lee Miller so bad back in 2012 if you have been reading this blog that long. (to this date, it has received over 2200 views)

OK, I got off track, time to pull it all together.

The point I am trying to make is If it takes that much thought into my little song, can you imagine how much I can mix it at a recording studio with all the bells and whistles that a recording studio can give.  It gives me chills when I know how much a recording engineer can do to a basic song to make it a hit.  It is things like these that make a composer tell a video maker to get their own music if all that person is going to do is make it into theme music for their little video.   I do not mind sharing my music, but since I spent all this time composing and having someone mix it for me, I better get the credit and it better get lots of air time.   This is the thought that goes through people’s minds like Beyoncé and Katy Perry and companies like Disney, as that thought turns into music like “Single Ladies”, “Roar”, and “Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2.

That is the reason I gave this person the answer he or she asked. 

I am talking about:

·         Photos

·         Graphic designs

·         Poetry works

·         Novels and e-books

·         Computer programs

·         Prototypes of products

And the list goes on and on.

“So, Patricia, I get it.  How do I solve the problem?”

First of all, do not beat yourself up for it.  Everyone makes mistakes, and with mistakes, there is a solution.  To prevent you from getting caught either by the creator of the media you want to use or by someone who thinks that you are the creator of the piece of media that they want to use going forward:

·         Ask Permission.  When you see a piece of media that you want to use, contact the creator of that piece.  As a writer, I put down my contact information on every piece of a blog post when I write for someone.  I used to do that with my own blogs, but Google got picky.

If you are a writer, you can do that too.  write a quick footnote like this:  Patricia is the writer and owner of My Ambiance Life, Home Prep, and P. Lynne Designs blog and website.  If you have any questions and/or want to reuse any of the material written in this post, please contact her at plogan721@att.net. It is simple and to the point.  You do not have to write how you are the president of the Yacht club, you are the parents of 15 wonderful children, or that you own a plot of land in Shri Lanka. All of that information should be in your bio (or should it?).

·         Give Proper Credit:  When you contact the creator and they say it is okay to use that item, they will often times mention how they want to be credited.  I simply want to be credit as Patricia Logan-P. Lynne Designs or Patricia Logan-P. Lynne Designs’ The Writing Cove if it is a written piece.  If you are in the US, you should know the proper way to footnote something. Logan, Patricia, “May I borrow your creative works”, My Ambiance Life Blog.  The good news is a long time ago, you had to write the whole citation.  Now you can write a shorter version of it. The author, the name of the post sited, and the site.

·         When the creator says no or when you cannot contact them:  It is not you.  remember the example I gave the person on Quora.  The piece may not be shared because it is not ready.  It is in process or this maybe this person’s private piece.  You may wonder why share it in the first place?  There are many reasons why they have shared their works.  

·         Use royalty-free products.  For photos, I use Pixabay.  For music, I use Epidemic Sounds.  I do have a photographer friend who can help me with authentic photos and videos around town or I take them myself.  He is not free, and I would not have it any other way because he has a family to feed.

I want to stop right here with the last statement, a family to feed. The reason why most people do what they do is because of the passion, the dedication to the craft, and they have bills and a family to feed.  What a person does 9 times out of 10 will not amount to that of a millionaire unless the money they make either with their craft and skills, a 9-5 job, or both is to invest in something.  If half the things I have not learned how to do as a child or a young adult did not earn me a seat at the table to buy at least a tube of toothpaste, I found other ways of getting it.  That is what I call, earning multiple streams of income.  You cannot just sit and do nothing.

That statement I just mention is the statement that helps me sleep at night.  To know that if things are done properly, we would all win.  Asking the author for permission to use his/her materials and finding other ways to help yours when they say “no”, will allow you to make your passion and your job much, much easier, but hackers and scammers just. Do. Not. Get. It.  I hope you do.

I am done.  Be well. Stay safe.  I will talk to you later.  God bless you.

May you please go away

I am looking forward to June.  June is not my month, but it is close to my month.  July IS my month.  This is the month where my parents welcome their firstborn child, ME.  I will talk about June and July in their prospective months.  In the meantime, I hate to do this, but it is reflection time.

May the pandemic

Photo by Pixabay.com

There is no doubt that May continued the lockdown.  It wasn’t until May 16^th that things started to open back up.  Was it too soon? Probably, people are just too glad to get out.  To wear a mask or not wear a mask in my opinion is a personal preference.  I prefer to wear one for safety since I have to go visit my parents, who are elderly and sickly.  I have mentioned that in several of my posts as of late, and I am not about to change that stance soon. 

Because of my stance, I have postponed my family’s trip to Disney.  I have mentioned in a previous post that the trip that was canceled in October 2019 for a totally different reason and will not be rescheduled until July 1, 2020, for the date of December 2021.  I have other reasons too, including that Walt Disney World will not accept reservations until July 1, 2020, so I have no choice.

I have stepped into two stores since the state of Ohio opened back up. It was yesterday.  I had to get an air filter from Lowes and water from Dollar tree.  My air conditioner needed the filer and I needed some water to put into my toilets.  Why?  Because my water was shut off due to an outside pipe bursting from the winter thaw.  It started leaking the Thursday before, and from where the sound was coming from, I thought that it was the next-door neighbor’s pipe.  I ignored it.  I was going to take something to my parent’s house when I found a note on my back door.  I grabbed the note and showed it to my dad, who tried to see over the next several days on how to get the outside pipe, which was not in my fence.  To make a long story short, the water was shut off.  I could not bath, wash clothes, wash the dishes (thank God for being able to hide dirty dishes in a dishwasher), and found out that my attic is attached to my neighbor’s attic and only separated by a divider. Got to love the designer for these buildings.

My water is now turned back on.  It is in moments like these that allow me to respect outhouses😅.  Tip:  if you have a Dollar Tree or any dollar store, getting water from there for $1 is wonderful.  You can get $10 worth and store them in case of emergencies.  When the emergency is over, refill and save for next time.  The good news is water does not spoil.  If you feel uneasy about refilling the bottles, buy 10 more sealed new ones for $1.

The cat is in heat again. I tell you, I feel brand new when she does this.  Thank God she will be fixed soon.

May the activist

I do not have to tell you about what has been going on in the African American community and beyond.   It is another sad story of an officer overstepping his authority, and he put his own agenda over the person who he was arresting.  The man died, and it took the officer’s superior and department a day after George Floyd died to arrest the officer. At first, it was going to be just a firing. People started peacefully protesting, then it got out of hand from there. They are even protesting in my city. I found out that it is only an arrest for 3rd-degree murder.  If it had been the opposite, George Floyd would have been charged for 1^st-degree murder.  The officer needs to be charged for 1^st-degree murder.

I have or will have mentioned this in my last post, but I am tired. My people are tired.  When you see a photo of a tired person, it is of an African-American.  We have been down this road oh so many times until we cannot count anymore.  We do not have to be doing anything but going about our day, just living in the moment.  What do I mean by that? Let see:

·         Going to work

·         Sitting in the back yard

·         Going to the mailbox

·         Talking to a neighbor

·         Getting something to eat

·         Sleeping in our own home

·         Walking the dog

·         Going to the store for some skittles (remember Treyvon Martin)

·         Having an outing in the park

·          Add sitting in a car or having anything to do with a car (Sandra Bland and now George Floyd)

·         Enjoying a night of fellowshipping (the 9 that were killed in a North Carolina Church during bible study)

·         Jogging (Ahmad Avery)

I have a whole list of things that we want to do without some white person getting upset, calling the police, and wasting taxpayers money, and putting in false reports, or becoming a vigilante and take matters into your own hands.

This started well before these incidents.  There was:

·         The 1960s

·         Jim Crow

·         Sharecropping

·         Slavery

To name a few.  When will it end?

Now, I am not saying that all white people are racist.  I have some good, decent white friends who have my back.  Not all black people are cheaters and anything else that we are being accused of. I do not want to spend any more time on this than I have to.  I have started back my YouTube channel (I took a break from it), and I have addressed it there.

So, May was not a good month for me.  I want a do-over, but, I would then ask for a do over for a lot of months and years, including the months where I almost took my life, the times I did not get the job I wanted, the times I ran completely out of money and had to depend on my parents, and the times where I wished I was taking care of someone other than myself, only to find out that in one big swoop that ability was taken away from me.

Those disappointments were replaced and filled with great big moments of joy, happiness, “Yay, I got the job”, “yay, I have enough money to go on that trip or to buy something I really wanted”, and “yay, I am going to be an aunt and niece (or nephew), aunty is going to spoil you like nothing else matters, but I am also going to teach you something.  I cannot wait until the newest Logan is old enough for me to give her the same treatment that I gave her cousins, uncle, and father have gotten before her. Aww, heck, she gets it now.  I am trying to think of an outfit that will make my 3-month old niece look fly. (Oh, do they still say that?  Let me know in the comments section). 

It is times like these that keep a person on their toes and to remind us that everything is not always going to go our way.  I am trying different techniques like journaling, meditating, exercising, and being kind to myself and others.  Yes, these are angry times, and for that, I try not to watch too much news, pray about a situation, and try to take a positive approach, which includes trying to ignore the tyrant in the white house.  It is hard when your race has once again become the subject of white people acting ugly and black people responding ugly.  Find your happiness or calmness in the midst of this storm of illness and protests.  You will be surprised how much better you will feel.

Until then, I pray that June will be the start of something better for all of us.

Goals for May 2019

Today, I am going to talk about my goals for this month, May 2019.

For those of you who are first-timers to my blog, I am displaying my goals as a way of being accountable with myself and to others.

Now some people do not care to hear about other people’s goals, but on this Motivation Monday, I feel that if I can work on my goals, so can you. So if this is not for you, please skip this blog.  I am finding more and more bloggers are saying that, and it is perfectly ok to skip.  Not everything I talk about on my blogs is going to be for everyone, but I try to reach the majority of people.

There is another reason:

I am not going to spend too much time on this, but, as an influencer, it is important to be able to influence people.  Influencing includes anything that I do for my individual blog, to my Instagram and other social media accounts, to anything that a sponsor wants me to do for them.  What I love about being one is when it comes to sponsored posts, I can pick and choose what I want to talk about, but at the same time, there are certain requirements I need to meet in order to be effective.  So, with that, my goals are as follows:

·         Social Media:  Instead of targeting all of my accounts at once, I decided to concentrate heavily on one account, while still working on the others.  You always need to work on these accounts if you are an influencer.  Why? Because when sponsors see your numbers, they will ask for you specifically.  You also do not have to pitch as hard to get them to see you.  This does not mean that the moment they see 1000 followers on your account, sponsors are going to immediately fall in love with you and your content.  There are other things to consider because what you have to offer still may not be a good fit for you or the sponsor.

o   Instagram.  Last Month (April): 714.  This month: 750 Up by 36 new followers.  I was working on Instagram because this social media platform is quickly growing in general.  People are starting to share more pictures.  Sponsors love it because the influencer can show their product in action, through photos and video.  By the way, I shared my first video.  It was a happy accident because it was an accident.  I am not the person who likes her cat niece hanging around craft tools in their working position.  I was working on a bookmark project, and while trying to watch out for Gizmo and loading paper into my Cricut machine.  Hit “go” on the machine and the mat went one way, the paper when another way.  I tried to hit pause and got a nasty paper jam.  It took an hour to clear it, and while doing so, I am posting to my Cricut groups about it, looking up on YouTube and Google on how to clear it.  Finally, customer service said to email and upload a video.  Well, after taking a craft knife and a small kitchen knife to it, I got the paper jam free.  Later on, I decided to upload to Instagram, and VOLIA, I got 20 likes, 10 more followers, and a comment, my first comment.  I have comments about that later on.

o   Facebook:  No change except I added one person.

o   Twitter: (April) 1,683 This month: 1,679 Humm, I lost a couple.  Just to know I am still trying to figure out both Facebook and Twitter, and they were the first social media I joined.

o   LinkedIn: (April) 358, this month: 362.  I gained 4 followers.  Consider that this is the account that I will probably work on next month.

Notice, I never mentioned Pinterest in this month’s report or last month’s report.  Guess what?  This is the social media account that needs no help at all.  I am also not mentioning YouTube, not for the same reason, but I want it to grow organically, mentioning the channel in my blog posts, on YouTube growth groups on Facebook, and so forth. 

I am also not mentioning my other blogs for this month.  I am still working on getting them to the WordPress platform.  I have the basic bones of the sites, such as securing them because Lord knows that I do not want another disaster like my first P. Lynne Designs website.  (May she rest in peace for the moment). This will come in the form of individual reports in the coming days.

As for My Ambiance Life, As I told you, the new address is going to be http://patriciallogan.com (please do not go to this URL as of yet), and the security is set.  As soon as I get finished with P. Lynne Designs, the new one, I will start the backend of this new site.  Hopefully, it is this week and if not, Next week.  Things got a little bit behind because of life and I was working on some bookmarks for Mother’s day.  My goals are to be completely finished and ready to roll out some posts for WP My Ambiance Life within the next couple of weeks.  I will keep this one up, which I am calling Blogger My Ambiance Life, for about a year, so that anyone who is currently subscribed to this blog can find their way over to WP My Ambiance Life.  I will have links to each blog on the other blog’s site.  So does that means I will have 6 blogs?  No, it means I will still have 3 blogs, with 3 blogs as archived (older) blog posts.

Well, that is it for today’s post.  The Takeaway for today is:

1.       Do not be afraid of telling anyone your goals for the month.  At the beginning of the post, I mentioned that not everyone will be in turn with what you are trying to achieve, and not everyone should read what your goals are.  I am making mine public in case someone is thinking about doing goal setting this way. 

2.      Do write it down somewhere is this is not public information. By the way, it is, if you know how to look up stats.  Anyone can go to a free website, such as Alexa (not the AI from Amazon) and pull up stats on a website.  Alexa is not totally free, but there are some features that require a pro account.

3.      Have some idea on why you want to keep track of your website stats (such as growing your account for fun or work-related). Do not pull up your websites and social media stats if it means nothing to you.

4.      Finally, if you do want to increase your following, you need to engage.  What do I mean? You need to do the following:

o   Post content.  Not just any content.  Post content with a purpose.  That 5-minute clip I posted of me having problems with the jammed paper was meant for a customer service rep at Cricut, but it turned into a “you can have this problem too” moment.  I will be posting more short video clips in my Instagram now that I know how to do it.

o   Answer all comments.  Let me rephrase that.  Answer all comments that make sense.  Now, all comments are going to be related to your post.  I go be the “read and move on” approach.  If someone is cursing at you and making threats of any kind, report them, ASAP.

o   Comment on almost everything you read.  Again, some content is not worth the reply.  If you enjoy that person’s post, at least say that.  It helps them to know that you at least clicked the link to read it.  I usually replay with TFS (Thanks for Sharing) or Enjoyed your post.  If I have something further to say, I will say it at that time.  If I did not enjoy it, I move on.  Also, please like it and share when you can.

o   Finally, subscribe back if someone subscribes to you, or at least check out their profile.  If they have at least 2 things in common, and they go by your values and beliefs, sub anyway.  If not, some people go by the “sub for sub” rule.

Well, I am finally finished. Have a great day, you are more then enough, and God bless you.