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I’m not a writer. I just pretend to be one on this blog.

Literature was my favorite class in high school and I dreamed of writing my own novel but I had read enough novels to know I don’t quite have what it takes to be a good writer. I’m a grammar rebel and not very good at being descriptive.

I don’t write this blog to entertain. This blog is my therapy. I’m a very emotional and analytical person and have always kept journals of my thoughts and feelings. Opening myself up in this very public format has connected me with so many people who “get” me and the connections that I’ve made are cathartic. I’m also an open book and often indulge more than I should. I’m also like this in person. I seem to have a malfunctioning TMI switch. Despite being so open I am careful about where I list my blog and what audience I want to target.
So what’s my point of sharing this?

It recently has come to my attention that there is a website that is publishing my entire blog without my consent. I’m not sharing my Google juice with this site so you will have to here to find out who is scraping my stuff.

Why does this piss me off? Let me count the ways:

1. Like I explained above, I write about very personal and sensitive issues. I often write about my estranged relationship with my parents. I’m also a control freak. I am very careful about where I share my blog feed and I certainly don’t want to make it easy for my parents to find my blog. This site that has stolen my content including publishing my photos. Is it no longer rude to hotlink? That’s right people, photos of my dog, my kids, and myself are published on this site on a page for my city. Uh, hello, I might as well put an ad in the paper with my photo, blog url and hope my parents don’t happen upon it. Check it out, my peeps. Not only will you find me listed in the sidebar but you can read my entire blog. Originally clicking on my post title would take you to another page within their site but once this brouhaha began the owner, Dave Mastio fixed it so now the title will bring you back to my blog.
2. I have asked three times to be removed from the site. I finally received a reply yesterday from Dave Mastio that my blog would be removed but 24 hours later my blog is still listed. If Dave wants to make friends in the blogging community then he needs to play nice. I asked to be removed and that should be honored. I don’t care about his fair use excuse. Clipgator was aggregating my blog last year without my permission and within hours of asking to be removed I was removed. It didn’t get nasty. This is getting nasty. It is MY words, MY photos, and MY stories and any respectable site would not use them without my consent.
3. Dave Mastio is making money off my content. The site seems to serve no other purpose than publishing blogger’s feeds to support advertising and not only do I not receive any revenue from the ads but I have no say in what ads show up along with my blog. Many of the ads are flashy and in poor taste. Don’t even get me started on how much I hate pop unders.
4. I am a control freak as I have established above. I want to control where my feed is aggregated. I’ve given Maya’s Mom permission to aggregate my feed because it’s tasteful, does not publish my photos, is a community of moms and with a click of the mouse I can remove my blog. It is after all, my blog.
5. Dave Mastio did not say pretty please. Seriously, I was not given a choice to opt in or out and I am at the mercy of Dave Mastio to remove me.

I actually thought I had added some copyright protection by using the wordpress copyright plugin which adds this to the bottom of all my posts:

Copyright © 2008 slacker-moms-r-us.com. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@slacker-moms-r-us.com so we can take legal action immediately.

Dave Mastio does not publish my full post so my copyright does not even show on his site. A lot of good that did me.

Bottom line is what I post here is mine and if someone is scraping my blog for no other purpose than their personal gain without my permission then my request to be removed should be respected. C’mon Dave, didn’t your mama teach you any manners?

Here are more posts on this topic:

Mamalogues
WOBL in Training
Super Fun Patrol
News-Bitch
Little Bald Doctors
STL Probloggers
State of Discontent
Prologos
The Broad Brush
A Bun’s Life

*Updated*
Wow! Within a half an hour of posting this my blog was removed from BNN. What a shame that it took a post rather than a simple email to remove my site.

I have found myself in a situation where a series of unfortunate events have left me looking and feeling like an idiot.

It all began with an item that was donated to our school auction by a business woman that I’ve met through blogging. A new family at our school bought the item at the auction which was last November. Three months later she has still not received her item. During the time I am trying to track down whether or not her item ever shipped Isabelle befriends this mom’s daughter and has her over for a playdate. While at my house and under my care the child falls and breaks her arm while doing cheerleader stunts with my oldest and her friend. Big oops! I felt horrible. There is nothing worse than having someone’s kid get hurt while under your care. It’s even worse when you barely know the family.

My hubby was afraid they would sue but so far they have been very understanding. I just don’t know for much how longer. I feel like I appear to be a real dingbat especially with the latest unfortunate event.

I tried to obtain a Love Frog Webkinz around Valentine’s Day to send to the injured child but was unable to find one here in town so I purchased one off Ebay. I was careless and didn’t read the fine print or take a close look at the seller’s feedback. I won an auction that only accepted money orders. Why in the world do money orders still exist in this day and age?

I begrudgingly mailed the money order and notified the seller that the Webkinz was a gift and to ship to the recipient. Two weeks later I asked the child’s mother if they had received it and guess what? They had not. What’s worse is while I’m having this conversation with the mom Isabelle is telling the injured child the story of how Connor jumped off our slide and broke his arm when he was three. The mom hears the story and makes a comment about what dare devil children I have.

Nice.

I look like such an ass. I hope this is the last of unfortunate events with this mom. Fortunately she is a very nice person because she would have every right to get nasty with me.

The upside is that her daughter’s arm is healing very well and she has graduated to a shorter cast. The item from the auction is currently being shipped and the owner is kind enough to personally call the mom. Now I’m working on the Ebay mess. I have learned a big lesson about thoroughly reading the auction listings and feedback before I bid. This seller has nearly perfect feedback so I didn’t bother to read any of it but he’s a powerseller so he sells so much that a few negatives don’t make much of a dent in his positive feedback. Turns out he has plenty of negative and neutral feedback for poor communication and extremely slow shipping not to mention he is very rude. I’m appalled with his replies to negative feedback. Just another example of Ebay’s flawed feedback system.

Hopefully this will all be rectified soon and I can redeem myself to this family.

Last summer I came across Mary who authors the blog A Grumpy Bunny after googling “canine nasal tumor”. Like me Mary also had a Golden Retriever that had a nasal tumor. Sadly we both buried our beloved dogs several months later.

Mary has come across a dog in need at a local rescue shelter. She has asked me to share his story with you since she knows I’m not above whoring out my blog.

Reign is a beautiful 18 month old German Shepard. He has a badly broken front leg from being hit by a car when he was 3 months old. He never received the medical care he desperately needed to repair his painfully broken bones.

It breaks my heart to think about how much pain he has endured in his short life and all at the hands of his irresponsible owner. After all he has been through he deserves a chance for a better life and surgery by an experienced Orthopedic Veterinarian, costing approximately $4,500.00 will possibly save his leg and end his pain and suffering once and for all.

This may seem like a lot to spend on a dog to some but I spent just about this much seeking a diagnosis and treatment last summer for my beloved Sonny. That’s how much I love animals.

If you are also a dog owner then I want to make a plea for your help to get Reign his much needed surgery and a chance for a better life. It would be one of those random acts of kindness I wrote about on Monday.

Please consider making a donation. Whatever you can give even if it’s $1. Every bit helps. The shelter has received $1000 in pledges already.

You can mail your donation to:

Animal General
C/O Donna Jiricek
35 Brookville Lane
Glen Head, N.Y. 11545-2301

or if you prefer PayPal I have a Chip In widget in my sidebar. I will match whatever I raise in my Chip In.

Thanks for your time.

Have you seen or heard this story? I love Ellen Degeneres. So much so I have a campaign to make my youngest daughter the next Ellen. She’s almost two which means she’ll be old enough to take over the show when Ellen retires.

Ellen is what I call “good people”. She’s kind, compassionate, sincere, and genuine. The fact that she broke down in tears on her show proves she isn’t all wrapped up in her celebrity. You can see the video clip here.

The story is that she adopted a dog, Iggy from a shelter but it didn’t work out with her cats. She gave Iggy to her hairdresser who was looking for a dog. Ellen thought she was doing the right thing so when the shelter called to check on Iggy she was honest and told them that she gave Iggy to a good home. Ellen didn’t realize that she signed a paper stating she would return the dog if it didn’t work out. The shelter took Iggy away from the family who had grown to know and love Iggy over two weeks. The hairdresser’s daughters in particular were devastated.

I know how devastated my kids would be if our puppy was taken away after being in our home for two weeks. My heart goes out to this family and Ellen. I understand that a shelter has to abide to their rules and regulations to insure animals are placed in good homes but couldn’t they just go and check out Iggy’s new home? Why put him back in the shelter when there’s a family who wants him? I’m at a loss here. I hope this shelter will give this family a chance and this story will have a happy ending.

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