WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?I had meant to mention a strange thing

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

I had meant to mention a strange thing that had been happening on my Flickr site in the past couple of days. One woman commented under a picture of my 2-year-old granddaughter Emily that I had posted there that she wanted permission from Emily's mother to use Emily's picture, but it was very difficult to understand what she was saying about what she would do with it. My immediate reaction was to say "no" but I wrote to Jeff and Steph, forwarding the information, and asked for their opinion. Their answer was the same as mine -- they said "no."

I thought I would be able to perhaps e-mail or go to this woman's Flickr site but when I tried to, I found that her site had been deleted. Not a good sign! So I responded to her in a comment under hers on my own site, under the picture of Emily that she had been interested in.

At about that same time, I received the exact same comment under another picture of Emily on my site, although from possibly a different woman. I just automatically said "no" to her request to use it. I checked her Flickr site and she had pictures of young people kissing and of little children.

The next step I took was to go to both pictures and change them from being viewable by the public to being viewed by friends and family only.

I'm not sure why these two women (if they were different, and not the same person under two different names) were so interested in pictures of a little girl. Granted, it's flattering that someone thinks my granddaughter is so pretty, but I was made uneasy by these requests and my urge to protect little Emily, even just in photographs, was very strong.

I have taken similar measures in the past with pictures of my grandsons, when it seemed there was too much interest in them, but I had been warned by other online friends about pedophiles on Flickr and so I knew what I was protecting my grandsons' photographs from. I have to admit to being a bit baffled why there is so much interest in Emily's photos. Could the same kind of dynamic be at work when it comes to little girls? The very thought makes me sick!

I have considered closing my Flickr site down but I can use the option to have friends and family only view the pictures of the children when necessary. I do use my Flickr site to store pictures that I can transfer to my blog, too. Plus I have a number of nice friends on Flickr, and I enjoy looking at their pictures.

For now, the situation of the women wanting the use of Emily's pictures is a mystery. If anyone can enlighten me as to why that might have been the case, I would appreciate knowing, rather than just feeling a little bit paranoid about the whole thing. Maybe it was all very innocent -- and I hate to accuse people falsely -- but I have friends who told me when I started blogging that they would never allow pictures of their grandchildren or anyone in their family to be posted on the Internet. Maybe they were smart, I don't know.

MY RARE SHOT OF NOOTKA 4

MY RARE SHOT OF NOOTKA 4

I received a comment yesterday and one today regarding the following photo, which I took in 1991 at Sealand in Victoria, B.C. of an orca that I thought might be named Tillicum, according to what I wrote on the back of the picture. The date I took it was 10/18/91. As you can see by the comments that I received on Flickr and that follow the picture, from someone who knows, this was Nootka 4, a female orca.



My decription: I took this picture at a Victoria B.C. sealife aquarium in 1991. This was one of two killer whales there, one of which later killed its trainer.

My conversation below this picture with Marhi 226:

Marhi_226 says:

Its Nootka, one of the females. They had another two whales in 1991. You saw only females? I know that they held Tillikum (big male) apart of females in small pool next to main.
Really beautiful shot and very rare too!
Posted 20 hours ago.

SuzanneR Pro User says:

Thanks for that information, Marhi 226. And also for your kind words about the photo. I wondered if it could be rare. I wrote on the back of the photo: Smiling Orca (Killer whale) -- "Tillicum"? 10/18/91

As it happens, due to the killer whale's "smile," I am posting the photo also to the "Flickr: On Assignment" group as the theme there right now is "smiles."
Posted 19 hours ago.

Marhi_226 says:

Yes, its rare! It isnt a lot of photos from Sealand.

You can write on the back of the photo: Smiling orca - Nootka 4 (your orca on the photo is really Nootka).

Aquarium had 3 orcas in this time - Haida, Nootka and Tillikum. In december Haida gave birth to Kyuquet, first Tillikum's baby.
I found out that attack was on 21th february 1991. All three orcas were involve in the incident but only Tillikum was accused in this attack.
Posted 3 hours ago.

SuzanneR Pro User says:

I have changed what I wrote on the back of my picture. :-) Thank you for this continued information!

I checked Marhi's profile and she is actually Martina, from Prague.

According to Wikipedia, this was what happened during the incident where the trainer was killed:

"On February 20, 1991, a group of 3 Orcas (Haida, Nootka, and Tilikum) killed a trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand in Victoria, British Columbia (where employees were not allowed in the water with Orcas). After this, and due to Tilikum being bullied by the two females in the tank, Tilikum was relocated to SeaWorld of Orlando, Florida, where he remains. He is currently the largest Orca in captivity."

There is also a notice with this article that it is being considered for deletion, so it may not be up there all that long. I learned that the spelling of Tilikum in this paragraph is the correct one.

It is so nice to be on Flickr and communicate with people there from all over the world!

*****

I am happy to say that I found my missing pictures -- the originals of me and also my mom's obit that I brought back from my Idaho/Utah trip to go to her funeral. I got to thinking yesterday afternoon that they must have been put in my treasures trunk. I dug into it and lo and behold, they were there. I have them out in a dresser drawer now so they'll be easy to get to if and when I scrapbook again.

*****

I had a note from the mailman waiting for me this morning when I picked up my mail from my rural mailbox out front, in which he said that the flag had been up but nothing had been in the mailbox. It is obvious my mail was stolen. Thankfully, the only thing I had out there was a note to my friend Edith in Toronto, containing an article from Time Magazine on the FLDS situation in Texas. I can imagine the frustration of the person who opened that letter! It quite amuses me to think about. However, I did report it to a lady at the post office's toll free number. I was thinking I might let neighbor Bobi know about this, as well as Nick and Jeff at the shop, in that last instance in case mail was stolen out of our business's mailbox. Very, very maddening!