I know by the title of this post, it sounds like I am trying to deny that I actually posted incorrect info on my blog post for The Flash season finale shoot where Nora Allen arrives to take barry away in to the speed force.
So here is the thing. Yes, I posted that it was Tracy Brand, not Nora Allen that was in the scene. In fact, the majority of the internet tried telling me it was Nora & I steadfastly stated it was not. As it turns out, the internet was right. Now was I wrong about what I posted? Yes. I posted incorrect info. But heres the thing, I had the actual facts about that shoot in front of my face, and the facts stated in no uncertain way, that Anne Dudek was in the scene as Tracy Brand, and that Michelle Harrison as Nora Allen was not even working that day. Theres really nothing I can do at that point. I have to trust the official info coming straight from the production. While they occasionally will make a spelling mistake, or a mistake in the order scenes will be shot in. I can never remember them ever 1- Forgetting a cast member all together on the cast sheet. 2- Having someone else stated in a scene that was not supposed to be there. So what happened? A few people feel that this was the studio trying to finally burn us set reporters by posting false info. While that could in theory be true.... it seems pretty illogical given what was presented. First off, why would they lie about a scene they tried so hard to block from the public seeing? Secondly, why lie about a scene that you could clearly see how the persons hair looked, and was dressed?? It really didnt make any sense. If this was their intention, it was a pretty wild try. The odds of it catching someone up was pretty slim. Like I said, only reason I did was, the facts suggested it. I even asked a 2nd source to verify what my info told me, and got the same info. So I feel the likelyhood the studio tried to purposely lie to mislead people like me on THIS fact, seems improbable. Not impossible, but improbable. While I dont actually know how this error happened on their behalf. I know how it happened on MINE. Simply put, I trusted info from an official source, that in all the shows I have ever covered has never been incorrect. Whether it was an error, or intentional. I did learn a lesson that, if this is the one they tried to trip someone like me up on, it was pretty anti-climactic. That lesson is simple. Take NOTHING as undeniable fact. Always make sure you know before you post, even when you have the official info in your hands. Below, I have taken the rare step of posting screen grabs of the call sheet from that day, so you can see the info I was given. Heres the funny part of it all, I was skeptical of what I was told. I questioned it, and was re-assured by my 1st source that the call sheet was right. I still was unsure after being told so, but eventually caved to the assumption that it must be true & that my admittedly poor eye sight was just having tricks played on it by the far distance, and poor lighting. I made a mistake. It is 1 I certainly wont be making again. It will definitely make me ask questions much more when I have doubts about a piece of info I have found. The funny part of this is, all the people out there who so often try and trash talk the flawless info I have had prior, none of them really took a shot at this. I COULD have easily let this slide by without commenting on it since few people asked about it.... but I am not like that. I screwed up by posting incorrect info, so I will own it and point out I learned the lesson from this. Kudos to The Flash. Whether it was intentional or not, you technically made me post incorrect info. Too bad you wasted it on such an underwhelming spoiler. Next time, if it was intentional that you try that.... you might be disappointed to find myself, and others who learn from this, wont bite.
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Back on March 8th I announced in a quick little paragraph on the front page of the site that I might be taking some time off from here because of some issues. I never delved too far into it. Outside of my good friends, those impacted by this all, and 1 or 2 people who i really feel are capable of keeping a secret, no one else knows even a fraction of the details.... and this post isnt going to really inform you fully. But, it will give a sliver of insight into the plethora of issues I have on my plate at this time.
Lets start off with, I made a LOT of mistakes in my personal life. These issues have nothing to do really with my professional life. In that regard, whether you like what I say/do or not, I stand by my decisions in that section of my life. I feel I do what I do quite well. For awhile now I have been aware that I have been involved in some unhealthy & unwise habits. I have been aware that I probably have been in need of some type of counselling/guidance/something for a long time. I know I act like a pompous know it all jerk sometimes on twitter, and unfortunately, that "know it all" part is a bit of a double edged sword in this case. I am smart enough to know I wasnt doing well. But "stupid" enough to think I could handle it myself. I knew I needed help, just too lazy to ask. Like most of society, I had the naive notion that I had my problems "under control". Ironically, I am the first to tell people that I think all adults should be in counselling. The world is just too complex & hard of a place for us to not have emotional baggage to work through by the time we are adults. Yet, it wasnt till I was essentially forced into a situation that I finally got my own. I am fully aware of the hypocrisy of that. I am also the first person to state, everyone is a hypocrite, myself included, on something or other in their life. What was the final straw? An intervention/confrontation by some of the people I offended/emotionally hurt with my actions. The sad part of all of this is, what turned into some pretty nasty & ugly things I said/did were to people I admire & to their credit, they didnt just cut ties with me over it (yet?). I was nothing short of a monster to these people in the way I acted, and they still seemed in their actions to be as concerned with my well being as they were with getting some type of understanding of what I said/did to them. To give you some idea how much thought they put in to how to approach me on all of this. This was an issue they were aware of for 10 months, and for the past 6 weeks leading up to the intervention/confrontation, they got together daily, for several hours, discussing what & how to say everything they did say.. They could have easily 10 months earlier just stormed up to me and angrily pointed out the things I did and they would have been in their right to do so.... and frankly, had they done it, I wouldnt have blamed them too much. They really had every right to be angry with me, and while I am sure some level of anger is there, they also have shown compassion & concern. That alone would have been a serious eye opening revelation that would have sent me reeling for the counselling that I now have sought. Hearing their anger/disappointment/disgust/concern over all of it would have been all that I needed. After all, I knew I needed it.... I just I guess had to hit "rock bottom" before I looked for it. But it of course, in typical Canadagraphs fashion, doesnt end with 1 problem. If I am going to have a serious life changing problem, there has to be multiple layers. Due to what I said, I was asked to move out of my place. After all, the people I am talking about are part of the small community I was living in. Although they never actually said the words, it was kind of implied by the actions & tone of the talk, there was concerns with safety for some there. I didnt for a second dispute that their feelings were illogical. While I assured them I wouldnt be any type of physical threat to them and that obviously the things I did to make this issue even come up were done, I completely understood why that couldnt be enough of an assurance for them,.... so, I left, that night. There was a "plan" in place by someone they had come in to help them with this talk, but that seemingly fell thru, and for that... and a few more mistakes on behalf of the 1 party, I do hold some misgivings about how all of this played out. The short term plan was to have me go get a Psych exam, and I did. They took me to the hospital, I checked myself in...and after a couple of hours, mostly spent waiting in the waiting room... I was released because the Dr. didnt think I was a threat to myself or others. So, with that situation abruptly ended, I found myself officially homeless for the 2nd time in my life. The first time I ended up homeless, it was about 2 weeks, and it was shortly after my mother passed away & happened because I lost a fight with my landlord at the time in a tenancy dispute only 3 days after her death when the moron in charge of the case opted to disregard EVERY single thing I submitted because it wasnt in on time..... that date that I missed btw for getting everything in by.... the day of my mothers death. That time I filled a few of those days with couch surfing at a next door neighbours place, then later spending nights sleeping in an internet cafe (ironically the very one I am typing this out in currently.... still in business 11 years later). Eventually, I was lucky enough to meet an advocate at First United Church in Vancouver who eventually put me in touch with the people who were my landlords for the past 11 years, till I messed that up. This time, things were different. The last time, I had warning this was coming. This time, it was just dropped on me. I had so many things on my plate that I was trying to balance at that time. Work stuff, personal things, and the pointless little things that seem so important when your life is functioning on a semi-normal basis. One day, I had a house, my belongings at my disposal 24/7, internet, and the next.... none of those things. I spent 6 weeks homeless. Living in a homeless shelter. By the ways, I know that society has a horrible outlook on what a homeless shelter is, and I know that some of those absolutely exist, but I can tell you, from my experience, there IS some that are "as good as you can hope for". It wasnt obviously as good as having my own place, but it was a lot better than I envisioned it could be. I really do owe a huge thanks to the Lookout Society for keeping the one I was in reasonably clean, serving good food, and having a staff of experienced problem solvers. They were singlehandedly responsible for helping me find counselling, giving me advice on things to do with the problem I had, and most importantly, they found me my new place. The 1 ray of luck this disaster has shone down on me, is I found a place thats clean, and RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the downtown core, and it is even $25 cheaper than the last place I was at.... but, it is also 2x2 feet smaller. So before you start thinking....well, sounds like crisis averted, all is well. Theres more to this story. Remember, I dont do single layered life changing problems. Mainly. legally, I might be in trouble. At first, the idea of any criminal investigation or even talking with the police about what I was doing wasnt even a serious notion in the initial talks. However, after more & more talks with some of the people, it seemed to everyone, I should go turn myself in & hope that it isnt. The biggest concern that came up was with the fact that someone I talked with online COULD potentially be a REAL threat to people, and I was really the only one that could offer information on that...... the problem is, by doing so, I would be turning myself in for things that I did that it turns out were illegal as well. While I am aware that from a moral standpoint I was doing things that werent terribly nice, I never at any time would have considered them legally wrong. As it turns out, I may be wrong on that. As with the way I treat what I post on my site, I am pretty thorough on most everything I do. Including in my private life. Am I a saint? NO. I've gambled online. Viewed porn. Probably even been mean to someone enough that you could say that I bullied them. But do I think I did things that were terrible enough that criminal charges could ever come from them? No. In fact the very matter I am dealing with, I was "reasonably certain" that I hadnt. Since all this happened, I have read up on the Criminal Code of Canada, and it turns out I have. Now, that said, theres entirely the possiblity they dont actually charge me with anything. I'll be brutally honest, and this isnt me saying it because its me, its me saying it because I know the context of everything, I dont think there should be charges. If for no other reason than the parties impacted by it have already dealt with me, and I am dealing with them in trying to correct the issue, the crimes involved compared to what I have seem others charged under the same part of the law with, this is incredibly minor. Not to say what I did was nothing, just in the context of this part of the criminal code, its as minimal as it probably gets. I've used this analogy quite a few times in trying to explain it to others. Theres two cars. One is driving along, going about 4-8 MPH over the speed limit, when 1 of his passengers tells him hes done so, he goes and finds the first officer he can find & tells him what he did. Now legally, he committed a crime. Would an officer charge him? No, of course not. Would an officer even give him a speeding ticket? More than likely, probably not. Perhaps, at most he'll give him a warning, or tell him to go to a driving class. This is essentially, after doing lots of homework on this stuff, is where I see what I did comparison wise. The second driver. He is doing 120 MPH over the speed limit. He has run a red light, he drove on a sidewalk, destroyed some property, and has been chased by the Police till captured. Now he committed the same crime (as well as others) as the first guy, he sped. Would an officer charge him? YES. Not even a question. That guy will absolutely end up with jail time. As he should. He knowing put the safety of society at risk and seemed unwilling to own up to it til caught. This is what I would call the type of cases the part of the code applicable to what I did was made for and seems to ACTUALLY go after. One of the positives thats come out of this so far (hopefully permanently) is the thing that got me into this trouble, I have managed to completely ignore doing since. I had done varying degrees of this stuff for several years.... and had tried quitting a couple times, and eventually, boredom kicks in and I would resume my ways. But I dont ever recall those other times, having the complete lack of interest in trying to do it again, where as the times prior, there was always the interest to... just was mentally trying not to. There is however a plethora of negatives from it. First, I dont have my computer, and 1 of my external hard drives which were VOLUNTEERED (not "seized" as 1 detective claimed in an email he sent me.... cant seize something thats given to you), this means I have had to work from internet cafes (like the one 11 years ago that I am currently in) and at the library. This is why I havent been able to post blogs nearly as often. It is why my photos have big watermarks on them and seem to not be as well lit as before, because I dont have my program for doing that at my disposal now. Thankfully my external with 99.9% of my bts/candid celeb photos I got back... but I am still missing 3-5 sets that I shot in February that I clearly will not get back in time to ever use. Secondly, having the discussions with my friends about it. There was a lot of confusion from some, as well as even more questions. Thankfully my friends know me well enough to know when I explain to them WHY & HOW I ended up where I did, that it wasnt intentional & not who I am. More than one of my friends even stated they arent shocked at what I did, just that I did something in it that was illegal. Third. Its been bad for my business. The 6 weeks without my belongings at my disposal 24/7 cost me a lot of work opportunities, and even more sales, as I had NO access to my belongings for about 10 days, and then after that, was working out of my storage locker, then out of a friends spare bedroom an hour away. It made doing things efficiently, impossible, and in turn it cost me a few "I need this soon" type of sales. Luckily, one of the other local dealers here gave me some work on some days early on when he knew I needed the help. So I wasnt completely incapable of working, just vastly limited in how much. Fourth. Its cost me financially. Theres been a plethora of costs I usually wouldnt have in a month, including the fact I now pay for internet by the hour, instead of using the monthly internet I STILL am paying for (oh contracts how I hate you). Theres the fact the area I live in now will cost me more for food, as there isnt the same places to buy groceries here, not unless I want to take an extra long bus ride now. Theres even more financial issue to come, as I owe the people I hurt $$ for costs they incurred in working on how to deal with this. They put out their own $ & time on the matter, and it is wrong for them to have to have taken that on... so eventually I need to pay that back as well. So this is going to cost me a lot of ways financially. Fifth. Definitely some shame/humiliation/pride thats been swallowed over all of it. Even IF there was no legal issues over it all, having the people I offended confront me was a pretty humbling experience in itself... and all the pieces that followed has added onto that even more. Telling some of my friends what happened was difficult. Even writing this, despite not delving into major details, is pretty humbling. If all of that isnt enough, dont forget 1 of the parties offended/hurt by all of this is/was someone I had a lot of interest in. Theres been a LOT of things from this entire situation thats sucked, but thats definitely high on that list. Sixth. Mental health. I have definitely struggled with that I think for a long time. I am obviously not "mentally ill" as society likes to label it with an easily recognizable "disease". But I clearly am not a person who is also completely fine. I am functional, but that doesnt make me well. While I definitely brought on the issues I am dealing with now, it still goes on this list, that the stress, and anxiety and probably even some physical issues I deal with all the time, has been compounded by all of this. Not a day has gone by since all of this unfolded that I havent thought about some aspect of it at least a few dozens times. Its mentally exhausting. Its a larger reason than not having my computer on why I havent done a lot of blogging lately, I just am not mentally focused enough to do them efficiently. Mostly though, knowing I hurt the feelings, and possibly done long term emotional damage to some people, including a couple that I think are pretty amazing people, from what I said/did is the largest negative of all of this. Thats also not me saying it to give them a pseudo apology... I am actually working on that separate from this which WONT be public since its for THEM and not everyone, and I dont expect them to ever see this, I have no intention of telling them about it. This is to "inform" my followers/viewers a bit on what is going on with me. So now you know..... a bit more. With any luck, I will never have to come here to explain any more. Comments will be closed for this post....because it isnt a place where people should speculate, because you will almost certainly be wrong. Its also not really a post where you should say "its ok, hope everything works out" because really, your basing that off my interpretation of things & knowing of me thru autographs, awards & blog posts I bring you. Like the celebs you come here to admire, just remember.... no ones perfect. Myself included. A couple tips on how to handle Twitter bullies AND a reminder.... celebs can be bullied too.6/27/2016 For those of you who are frequent users on twitter you probably are aware it is a place where anyone can interact with anyone..... of course, assuming that person reads their @ messages. This is no more noticeable than with celebs of varying degrees. Whether its your academy award winning legends, or your up & coming youtube singer, people use twitter day in & day out to tell celebs a lot of shit.
While MOST tweets are overly positive, maybe even to the point you question the sanity of those tweeting it. There is of course SOME negative ones, and sometimes those negative ones are mean... and I DO NOT mean the level of "mean" of something like "I wish the show would kill off your character because it sucks" level of mean. I mean with purposeful intent to attack and anger a celeb or even make threats against them. I'm not even a celeb & I get a handful of them annually and I only have 11K followers. So imagine what a celeb with 500K followers must get? No more obvious of such an attack in recent memory I can recall has happened than this past few days with Once Upon A Time star Josh Dallas. At the time of writing this post, I have reported MORE THAN 40 accounts in the 2-3 days I became aware of this issue from a user somewhere in Europe that has been @ messaging Josh with harsh & negative words. The users intention is to try and bully Josh into deleting his twitter account. Ironic, considering the user claims to be a huge fan of Ginnifer Goodwin, Joshs wife, and FORMER twitter user herself who left eventually because of an unfair amount of critical tweets about her. The users unhealthy obsession with Ginny has culminated in quite literally hundreds, possibly thousands of tweets at Josh, and 1 of Joshs fans, and now another actress that I guess Josh must have recently worked with. I'm not going to repeat what this psychopath has said. Needless to say, its at best rude, at worst unhealthy and obsessive. SO FAR, twitter has (albeit kind of slow on the draw after their first few were suspended almost immediately) been on top of things, suspending the 40+ accounts so far. But the user just keeps making new ones up, often several at a time then spamming Joshs @ messages with their same lunatic ramblings. This is where twitter IS failing. The fact they didnt block access to the IP address/phone number after about the 3rd suspended account is frankly bewildering. What YOU can do is.... if you see this troll posting, DO NOT engage them. I get the feeling they dont even look back on the profiles to see what replies they got since they have made so many of them. Just go to the report section (its the wheel looking icon next to the follow/unfollow button on a desktop... on phones, the icon looks different according to brand, but its usually next to the follow/unfollow button) go in there and REPORT them, you can go for Spamming, because they absolutely are spamming. You can also go for "abusive or harmful" which will then take you to a 2nd screen with more options where you can pick "engaging in targeted harrassment" this will take you to another screen asking if its you or someone else, which then you pick someone else & finally a screen MAY (not always) come up asking you to show examples of said offenses out of a handful of tweets they seem to randomly have picked.... just click on the ones that clearly show the proof & submit your report. Thats it. You can EVEN report them for both if you want to take the extra couple seconds. But dont engage the person..... EVEN if they comment in this blog post, DO NOT engage with them....... leave that to ME. By doing so, you are going to let them feel they've gained something out of this. Lastly, to the nutjob behind this attack. You can "block" my twitter account all you want. Like you have others. Feel free. It IS your right..... just know, like you, I have multiple twitter accounts as well, all in good standing & you will never know which one reported you. Also, I truly DO hope you are coming here in August like you claimed in several posts, I hope even MORE I find out and run into you. All I will say is, someone will not enjoy their trip. Also, be absolutely sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you wont be getting a chance to interact with Ginny. Security will be well alerted to this. Below is a screen cap of all the accounts (minus 5 that twitter suspended WHILE I was in the middle of reporting them so I lost the chance to bookmark them lol) twitter has so far suspended, and those soon to be suspended.... and I AM SURE in the time I have spent writing this blog post, they probably will have added to the list. So, anyone got any suggestions on how do deal with said nuisance? Also, have you ever seen another celeb attacked by 1 person so aggressively and what eventually came of it? Christina Grimmie. A name that many people never knew before they woke up Saturday morning to hear about the death of this musician that was on The Voice a couple years ago. Myself included. When I first heard the news of her shooting last night I knew instantly this was not good..... and I do not mean just for the simple fact someone was shot. I meant for how/where it happened and what it could mean in the bigger picture. The Youtube developed, The Voice elevated singer was doing a meet & greet with her fans, most of whom are quite young. She was taking time out of her day, as most entertains will since they know they are in a business where pleasing the public often equates to more success. She was doing everything right. Then something terribly wrong happened. A person (I refuse to name this coward) decided, for reasons we may never know due to his suicide after the events unfolded, decided to shoot Christina several times including in the face. Marcus Grimmie, her brother instantly tackled the shooter but not before he shot himself. Thanks to social media, we pretty much know most or all of the pertinent details. We've seen 1st hand reports of how a member of Before You Exit yelled at fans to run away, worrying about their safety first, and his second. We know of course about her brothers heroics. We know most everything there is to know.... except maybe why. But this blog post isnt here to dissect why it happened. There will be plenty of places talking about that. I am going to talk about the fact that almost everyone is going to be affected by this. Some more than others. If you are currently rolling your eyes at that assumption...read on. The shooting of Christina Grimmie is unusual for a couple reasons. First, it was at a free promoted event that anyone could attend. A concert, a place MOST people would feel safe, or at worst not on guard of a potential violent threat. Even more shocking was the fact the shooting happened at a meet & greet. The idea this guy got a pair of guns & a knife into the venue is mildly shocking (I'd like to say its more shocking than that, but its the U.S..... so no, mildly is unfortunately right), the fact he got it into a meet & greet scenario, got close enough to her without any security picking up on the fact he likely was acting out of place prior is appalling. The security for this event seemed minimal to non-existent according to tweets I found HERE and HERE from 2 from attendees saying security never even checked their purses. or a tweet where a fan says security actually ran away HERE. If this is true, thats 1 of the more cowardly acts I have ever heard of. At the very least, it is quite clear security was inadequate at this event. have been to a LOT of low security events, and while I have obviously never considered "how easy would it be to....", I have wondered a few times looking at some people "what do they REALLY want here?". So far, I have never encountered anything as scary as the events of last night, but I have definitely seen celebs, and other fans intimidated/scared/uneased by the actions of people. I have had a female actress tell me personally she doesnt feel comfortable when shes 5'3 with no one else around her being approached by 2, 6'0 tall men....and that was in a VERY public place. Its not a feeling I will ever know, but I can understand that hesitance/nervousness still on some level. Celebs, especially female celebs DO wonder much more than you or I ever will about security & are they truly safe in any situation. This is where last nights events will have an impact on YOU...probably at some point. This didnt happen at Madison Square Gardens, venues like that have pretty detailed screening, it happened in a smaller venue where security is usually pretty lax by the sounds of it....especially for an audience coming to see a 22 yr old singer who is famous for being on youtube & a music competition. Right now, around the world, especially in the U.S., tens of thousands of people at varying levels of celeb status, security, management and other facets of the industry are talking with venues, hotels or their own people about safety and security.
The most obvious reaction to it, will be increase security getting in, at every point. It wont likely be JUST for 20something musicians either, accomplished long time musicians always have that concern as well, as do athletes, actors and even youtube stars, like Philip DeFranco who talked openly about how at VidCon, an event seemingly full of people similar to him, he walks around with off duty Police as security in this video posted today. Everyone will be reviewing, and very likely stepping up their security protocols in light of this tragedy.... as they should. So you, the consumer of the products will probably be inspected a bit closer before you are allowed to go see a show, a sporting event, or a convention because of the very public attack on Christina Grimmie. That little bit extra waiting around that some of you are going to selfishly feel annoyed by isnt just to annoy you, it is for the entertainers safety, as well as everyone else including YOURS. this likely will even stretch beyond the entertainment industry. Businesses with any level of wealth constantly see news stories like this and go over their own security with a fine tooth comb. Something that your workplace might implement in the following weeks or months might be because of what happened last night. I have a job where interacting with famous people is a necessity obviously. To the locals, they know who I am, they know what I will/wont do. They know how to deal with me. We essentially have a mutal toleration of each other. But when I go to a different city, a different group of people in charge of assessing threats, I'm far more understanding if someone asks me a few more questions than seems reasonable. I get the place they are coming from. So if you are at an event, and that guard asks you a question or two, remember, they are doing it to minimize possible problems for everyone. Someone might see your actions differently than you might have meant them.... dont take offense to their inquiry. If you are somewhere, and you see someone that you feel isnt acting normally, dont be scared to report it to someone either. Several times I've reported something at a set or at an airport that turned out to be nothing, but never have I thought afterwards "that was stupid, it was nothing". As for me. This is surely going to have a major impact on my business. Every time something similar to this happens, celebs, understandably, get more guarded than they were before. Sometimes those feelings disipate with time, but sometimes the celebs just go into shutdown mode & refuse to interact with anyone. My world is sure to get a lot more tougher to do my job due to this. It was after all at an autograph signing this happened. How much more relevant to my job could it be? For awhile, I will absolutely be far more patient and understanding when/if some guard asks me something or a celeb nervously tries to avoid an interaction. I'll still try, I still have particular points I will bring up to try and put them at ease, but I will also understand that hesitation. Also, I know I stated this on twitter, but I will say it here in more than 140 characters. If you have ever emailed me, or tweeted at me, or even asked me in person "where can i find so & so?" and youve wondered why I am reluctant to share that info, perhaps this tragedy makes you understand far more. I generally consider myself nicer than most of the autograph hounds you'll meet. I'm willing to help out within reason, but I am also very cautious of giving people info that I feel they shouldnt have. I have always told people "well you can find them at set, or they are doing a meet & greet here..." instead of giving them their home address or their flight schedule. It is NOT because I am trying to keep that knowledge to myself, it is because I find the venues I stated more suitable for a celeb to encounter with someone they dont really know. If youve ever had the random luck of seeing a celeb while they are out at dinner, or at an airport and seen them get found by a flock of fans, you surely know, they are not comfortable with the situation more often than not. They might still take the time to meet them, but they are far far less at ease doing it than if they were at their film set or a meet & greet event where there are some level of safeguards in place to minimize risk to them. A story I have retold 100s of times in Vancouver is of an actress who still works here telling me & another autograph hound "you guys, I have no problem with, because I know what you want... its fans I dont like, because you never know what they really want". It isnt that this woman hates her fans, its that she has a comfort level with autograph hounds she can never have with a fan, because she never knows what it is they truly want from her, where as with us, she knows. I've heard similar stories to that from others in the past as well, just the way she put it sort of summed it up best. A lot of time I see fans gripe & bitch because I met someone, and they didnt. Sometimes, theres a reason for that, and its that the entertainer prefers dealing with people they understand as opposed to a wild card. In my experiences, far more celebs than you might expect prefer dealing with someone like me compared to a random 1 off encounter with a fan. This is why I dont give out details to people that arent public. A film set, a meet & greet, those are things where there is some control for them to deal with it. Their personal time is a terrible place for fans to find them, and I wont encourage that. So that is why I likely ignored your request in the past. Lastly, & most importantly in all of this. My condolences go out to her family, especially her brother who will feel things few if any of us ever will, to her friends, and to her fans. To any of her fans that were there and had to witness this, I wish there was something to tell you to make this better but it doesnt work like that. Only time will help minimize this feeling. If you are having trouble dealing with it, talk to your friends and family. This is why they are there. Or talk to a stranger if you feel it will be easier. There are plenty of places you can call/go to have someone listen. Rest In Peace Christina Grimmie, I am sorry I had to learn who you were like this. There is a Gofundme page set up for the Grimmie family. You can find it HERE So, let me start off by stating a couple obvious facts. 1- I dont actually LIKE teling people when they are wrong,. I'm just good at it & how many things that are clearly bullshit get passed off as truths in society because they go unchecked by anyone. 2- I had no intention of doing a post like this.... till the post that caused me to do this was made. Its a battle that shouldnt even be a battle, but, also one I am not just going to ignore. 3- You know how annoyed I am to even be doing this? Let me put it like this. I have currently 21 blog posts that I SHOULD be doing ahead of dealing with this.... thats how annoyed I am. So some backstory context. Two days ago a fan set photographer posted a photo from Once Upon A Time that was clearly taken from her phone off the back of her camera. She posted it to give the fans something to look at till more properly edited photos can be put up later. Now, neither that photographer, or myself are naive enough to think people WONT use our photos. I have had mine posted in major blog sites articles linking back to the originating post. That isnt (at least in MY case) what this was about. The issue was that someone else posted the photo, cropped in even more to make it look like a different photo.... and then claimed it was theirs. At that point I was still unaware of this issue. I became aware of it, when a 2nd person I follow commented about the argument between the pair. As those of you who use twitter know, if 2 people you follow are involved in a convo, it will show up in YOUR timeline...even if it includes people that you DONT follow. When I looked into this thread to see more about it, I saw the full story. The photographer called out this woman for posting her photo cropped. INSTEAD of the woman apologizing, or at the least, removing the photo & saying she didnt know.... she doubled down and defended it, saying her child took the pic. When multiple people told her she was wrong, she again DIDNT apologize, but doubled down even more saying its no big deal, her kid has never done that before and still not removing the photo. Then I got involved. I told the photographer, in a tweet that included the violators handle in it so she could see it too, that the photog should file a DMCA claim. The photog told me she didnt want to go thru that hassle. In that time, the violator DARED us to do it HERE .... so I made a request to the photog to buy the pic off her for $1, and once I owned it then I could make that claim. She did so. This then let me post a completely different cropped version of the pic (more of the image than was originally posted), heavily tagged to show I own the original file. With that, I made a DMCA claim against the woman...as she asked for. Once that was done, to ME the issue was resolved. Funny enough, it was brought to my attention the woman I filed the claim against was the mother of a girl that I had to make an example out of at set the day before for disregarding the rules everyone else was living by. This suddenly explained A LOT about how that girl was acting, if her mother is thinks shes this entitled.... well..... I wake up to "99+" notifications on my twitter. Not a rare thing for someone with 11K followers. But still a tad unexpected. It seemed 1/3 of them was a back & forth convo of 2 or 3 parties talking about how I acted about another tweet I had made, but in there was a handful telling me how rude, mean, disgusting I was for "bullying a child", as well as those of course defending what I did because they saw the facts, and not just what 1 party wanted them to see.... remember all the backstory I posted? Yes I supposedly bullied THAT child, by making a DMCA claim against her mom... not her, her mom. Now, this is where things get really interesting. the user posted several tweets victim blaiming. It started with this nugget. Yes, she WHINED that I filed a claim for her posting copyrighted material without consent...remember this is exactly what she TOLD ME to do. Oh, she also still implied it was her kids photo. She followed up with this doozie claiming I'm jealous of time shes spent with cast. We're talking about a cast I have met so often they know me and remember things they told me several weeks earlier, and remember when they made promises to me even when drunk. That cast? I dare to say I have spent more time in 1 conversation with 1 cast member, let alone multiple cast members than she has with the whole cast combined. There are points where I go out of my way to avoid seeing some cast because I run into them so often. there might be people who have met the cast more than I have, but I dont 1- care 2- believe she is 1 of those people. Next up, was playing the victim card...errr... the whole deck.. You did in fact block Kat...but you failed to mention it was after you claimed the pic was yours, and dared me to file a DMCA. You blocked her, as you did me (funny you NEVER make mention of me in any of this.... guess you know how to pick your battles) because we called you out on it. Next was this tweet, Kat isnt bullying you. You cant just throw around the "bullying" tag any time you dont get your way you imbecile. Also, YOU arent a kid. Are you? No. Lets not forget, your kid was outright breaking rules at set. Lets also not forget she knowingly stole someone elses work & passed it off as her own. Lets also not forget, you vouched for it, and TOLD US to file a DMCA. Thats not bullying. Even me calling you an imbecile isnt bullying. That is stating facts. Like it or not, sometimes, facts can be... mean? Not sure of a better word to put there. but mean is over stating it. Not Nice? Maybe thats better? I dont know. Facts are NOT one sided. They are NOT just happy, friendly, cheerful things. Facts DO include wrongdoing. In this case, the facts point to you doing wrong, either knowingly or not, and your daughter doing wrong, quite knowingly (any tween/teen knows right from wrong... she knows she didnt take that pic and her passing it off to you as such is wrong...and she knows it.). Perhaps you should take a class on bullying so you can accurately tell what true bullying is. This tweet, I dont even know where to start with this. Incorrect, actually you know... that was easier to do than i thought. I've actually seen FIRST HAND how YOUR child pushes her way to the front of things.... including infront of a barricade.The person you claim pushed your child, was standing BEHIND a barricade that your daughter stepped in front of, and this isnt even teh only example I've personally witnessed of this. This is why I made the stand I did... a stand by the way pretty much every regular there applauded dont forget.... oh wait, I'm getting ahead of the story, arent I?. This tweet. yes, that was ME. Do you know WHY that happened? No? Of course you dont, you werent there. It was done to show the absurdity of how YOUR DAUGHTER and her friend stepped infront of hundreds of people and just made themselves comfortable INFRONT of a barricade. Oh, and how did that all end? Right, security did NOTHING to me... because when he heard my point he knew I was right. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed they didnt take harsher actions.... like moving me AND your daughter & her friend behind...but in either case, the point was made and security in the end decided I wasnt in the wrong. More using the "bullying" card here. Have you? Really? Because you werent even at the set. I'd get just off the top of my head at least 5 crew who would call her (and even me) far more patient than we probably should be with kids like yours who just push their way to the front. Just last time I was in Steveston 1 of the security apologized to ME for the way "the fans" acted when they (shocker) shoved in front of me. Did I shove them back? No, I gave into their entitled demands and got shut out of what I was there for at the moment (luckily I made up for it 2 mins later elsewhere). When security are apologizing to a 6'0 230 lb adult male for being pushed aside.... something is wrong with the kids that did it. There is a good reason I'm allowed to do a lot of the things I do at set, including getting pics others cant.... because the crew understand my points of view, and some even respect what I say. Just like with the protest the other day, they know when I say something its not a delusional fan feeling robbed, its someone who has a history of pointing out facts... like when someones kid & friend are knowingly in front of 100s of other people who are behind a barricade. This tweet. Incorrect. I OFFERED to buy it, because she didnt WANT to go thru with the takedown notice, and I convinced her someone should or else you'll feel like its your right to do it again. She gave me the photo and "I" was the one who filed the DMCA notice... and I wasnt attacking your child.... I was attacking YOU. The one who posted the photo, refused to take it down & dared me to file a DMCA. YOU did that, not your child. I find fault with your child on some things, but this 1 is 100% on YOU, the adult. Just when I thought I was done with this, you've added more.... Who said you were lying? At any point who said that? Did I say you USED your daughters percieved issues, and your possible illness? YES. I stated THAT. Not once did I say that they couldnt be real. This is such a stereotypical victim blaming tactic. Use any and all heart string statements you can fit into something to make the percentage of people who are instinctively compassionate for "hard luck stories" to take your side. Was your cancer relevant to telling the story? No. You added it for sympathy. That ENTIRE paragraph was worded to garner sympathy, to make people feel bad for you and NONE of it was relevant to any storytelling. If you had stuck to facts, I probably would have not gone thru your entire twitter feed & torn you apart like this... I probably would have replied to JUST the letter. But, you had to try & buy sympathy. Heres a reality check lady, EVERYONE has their own battles. Everyone. So your "we've had it hard" story is a carbon copy of 90% of society in some way, shape or form. USING it to gain sympathy is pretty low & speaks of your character more than anything else so far I've discussed here. This tweet. You never removed it immediately because you wanted to find out for yourself? Fair point.... and I would have accepted that if you didnt actually DARE US to make a DMCA claim. That voids any claim of innocence on your side. that defiant 4 letter, 2 word tweet was the problem more than all the other things you said. This tweet. Incorrect. "She" never involved me... "I" involved me. Her first reaction was to just let it go. I am the one who decided to take this on so as to stop YOU from going on acting like the entitled brat you are. This tweet Not entirely true. It wasnt "paperwork" for starters, it was digital, thus the D in DMCA. But thats really semantics. the bigger issue is you continuing to claim "she" SENT me after you. Get it thru your head, I sent me after you.Why arent you attacking ME? You keep attacking her.... but not me. Is it because you realize that I am someone you cant just bully? Ironic. The letter that caused much of this brouhaha... lets break this down lie/irrelevant point by lie/irrelevant point. First paragraph... so far, I am okay with what was said. Second paragraph. You were called a liar AFTER you defiantly insisted it was your daughters photo. Twitter chain goes like this. Your post with the photo (since then removed via DMCA from "someone") Photographers reply "excuse me? Thats my photo".... Is she saying your a liar? NO. Stating a fact? Yes. Your reply and this is an important one "really, because my daughter took it" RIGHT. THERE. thats the moment you crossed a threshhold from innocent mistake to liar. from there on out, anything you say should be along the lines of "I'm sorry... it appears I'm wrong. I'll remove it". But you dont... instead, this goes on. Photographer then SHOWS you the original photo tweet You reply its from your daughters device, she doesnt need to take other peoples she has lots of her own..... doubling down on defiance. This went on for dozens more tweets before I even got involved. So, back to your letter..... you were TOLD and SHOWN proof the photo wasnt your daughters, and still defied the photographers requests? Even when others (including eventually me) came in to verify it? A normal self respecting person with any moral compass would cower to this evidence and accept they were in the wrong, remove the image, and apologize. Not you however, INSTEAD you dared her &/or I to file a DMCA against you. So I did. Also "just a kid" is a valid statement if she was 6 or 7 or 8, yours is like 12 or 13ish from what I see. If shes old enough to possibly be in high school, shes old enough to KNOW right from wrong. In this case, she KNEW, she just didnt CARE.... which is a problem not just on her, but her parents for raising her that way. Or, maybe she was raised properly, and she has developed reasons to ignore her training? In either case.... knows wrong from right, chose to ignore it etc. If your daughter, at that age DOESNT know she did anything wrong..... *heavy sigh* you are in severe need of help with her. I am not saying this next part to be purposefully mean, although I know how it looks... just stating facts. Shes either too stupid to know right from wrong, or, shes too ignorant to care whats right or wrong. In either case, its going to get her into bigger trouble when she gets older. You really should assess & deal with this now while there is still hope. "Not Knowing"?? How is that possible? Was she hypnotized when she KNOWINGLY saved the image from soneone else on her device?? Serious question there. I dont know how she can claim she did NOT know that she saved someone elses work onto her devide. That ones hard to get around. Incorrect about the selling it to me so that she could send me after you. I ASKED her to buy it so that I could go after you after what I had seen, because she was going to just roll over and take it because she didnt want the hassle. She didnt get me after you. I got me after you. Yes, I am that "same jerk" that did that..... and was supported by pretty much every regular there, and guess what??? Security in the end did NOTHING to me. Ummm WHO said what about old ladies crossing the street? I'd LOVE to hear that. I was quite sure I heard the girl your claiming said that praising him and stating how sweet it was. So, do you care to explain in more detail these alleged "awful remarks" because that there is libelous. Not that other things youve said so far arent as well...but this one is big enough that if it were ME you said that about... I'd be petty enough to make it a legal issue for you. Paragraph 4 is an ENTIRE "feel sorry for me" cavalcade of targeted keywords. Bring up your daughter is in tears (although a bit later you told someone shes fine) Add in the hard struggle life shes had that no one knows of... and a cancer survivng mother to it. then add in how you do this FOR HER to tell her children someday..... how can anyone NOT feel sorry for you after that entire paragaph. Luckily I am experienced enough in dealing with people like you, and jaded enough to know guilt building from motive free statements. You didnt post all of this because it was relevant, you posted this to gain sympathy. Even if each & every part of it is fact based, it doesnt make you right. Having some rough times doesnt make you above the law, or even slightly less guilty. It DOES however, show you as someone who will try to cash in on your issues. Everyone has issues they deal with, some worse than even yours. MOST people dont use it as a crutch to defend their actions.
I applaud you doing things to give your child a better life. Parents are supposed to do that...... HOWEVER.... they are also supposed to do the hard things. Like teach them wrong from right. Like let them know when they have done something wrong. it has consequences. Like punishing them if they do something wrong. Like not making them believe when they do something wrong that its someone elses fault. Your child is almost a teenager. I knew right & wrong when I was 6 or 7. I know this, because I remember vividly stealing candy from a local store a few times, getting caught by my mom and having to return it & pay back the store for other times I did it. When I did it... I KNEW what i was doing was wrong, I was too young to know consequences then... but I learned them there. My mother didnt try to defend me, or justify it, or even let me off with a warning. She taught me if you do something wrong, there are consequences.... and it was a valuable lesson. A lesson you SHOULD be teaching your daughter, instead of victim blaming. I am sure your kid has good characteristics. Most everyone has SOME. Doesnt mean we're infallable too. Quit treating her like that. You need to be a parent once in awhile. Be that. Stop making everyone else be her parent and you wont find yourself in predicaments like this as often. I know those of you who follow me are aware I complain A LOT about things. I complain a lot about fans online. I complain a lot about fans at sets, because they DONT know how to act. There is a reason 1 specific cast member on the show in mention once said to me "I dont mind you guys, because I know what you want... its fans I dont like". The person didnt mean that they hated fans... they meant they hated interacting with them because of how unpredictable, invasive and entitled many of them can be. There are FEW fandoms who I have had major temper tantrum type run ins with more than this subsection of the OUAT fandom. On average, there are more unpredictable, inv asive and entitled fans than the average fandom has. This example is sadly not even the worst I've ever encountered... but is now at least the 3rd I have had to address over the years. So there you have it. The far far more detailed run down & explanation of the issues that came up. Some people just dont know how to apologize when they are in the wrong. More concerning is, some of them are parents. Lastly, if you are reading this & are scared because you used one of my photos once. Heres the chain of how angry I get. 0- you used it, kept any watermark there was on it, and credited it to me. 0.5- you used it, kept my watermark on it but forgot to credit it to me. 1- Used it. Kept watermark. Knowingly didnt credit. 5- Used it. Deleted watermark, or if there wasnt a watermark, didnt credit it. 8 - used it. Deleted watermark. Knowingly didnt credit it. 9.8 - Used it. No watermark. Claimed its yours and dared me to file a DMCA. 10 - Used. no WM. Had DMCA filed, then re-posted photo out of spite after it was removed. Only 1 person has had the stupidity to try that... and her 1 month suspension for doing it seemed to do the trick funny enough. Moral of the story.... 99% of the time if you use my photo.... even if you screw up and forget to credit it, I probably wont care much. Be a prick about it... I suddenly care much much more. Today is January 27, 2016. To most people, this is just another day on the calendar. To some, its probably a special anniversary or birth date. To others, it might be something different. A reminder of something less joyous. Today is important, whether you were born on this date, got married on this date, or simply don't have a personal attachment to it. Today is Bell Lets Talk day. A day when 1 of Canadas largest telecommunications providers uses their influence and deep pockets to spur on the idea of getting people talking about, and hopefully helping deal with, Mental Health issues in our society. The Bell Lets Talk cause has been around since 2010 and has now raised over $100 Million dollars to help people with Mental Health issues. Everyone who has even a moderate amount of people in their life has someone they know who has a mental health issue. Some of you even reading this surely have ones as well. It is no longer that rare thing that people whisper about behind peoples backs, and the Bell Lets Talk cause has really helped with that. Just as many of us know someone who did suffer from any variety of mental health issues, that is no longer with us because of it. This movement is about helping to prevent that from happening again. Today (till 11:59:59 PM Pacific Time) any tweet or Retweet made with the hashtag "BellLetsTalk will be met with a 5 cent donation from Bell.
As well, any share of their Facebook posts today will also be bet with a 5 cent donation. While the site itself doesn't have at least not an easy to find one) place to donate directly, there are plenty of places you CAN donate if you want to set up a social media challenge like the one I did on twitter. As for this blog post. For each unique user view it gets today, I will also donate an additional 5 cents (along with my twitter donation) to the Canadian Mental Health Association of British Columbia. For each comment FROM A UNIQUE USER, I will donate 10 cents, up to a maximum of $25. So after you are done reading this, comment on it. Everyone has a story of someone they know who is dealing with mental health issues, or has in the past. Then share it with your friends, family etc. Then go on twitter and tweet, a LOT using the #BellLetsTalk hashtag, and go on facebook and share their posts. But most importantly, be willing to listen, and talk to anyone who may need it. Not just today, but especially today. You can find more info on the Bell Lets Talk cause HERE For the Bell Lets Talk Twitter account HERE For the Bell Lets Talk Facebook page HERE For the Canadian Mental Health Association HERE I was working on editing photos for some celebrity blog when I decided "fuck it, that can wait". Instead, I am going to tell you about a cat.
Not any cat, but a cat that was 1 of the best I have ever known. I have had lots of cats, I loved each of them, but this cat, 1 that wasnt even mine, was pretty special. Garfield looked exactly like the cartoon icon. The colouring was eerily similar. What seperated this Garfield though from the fictional one was, this Garfield was an energetic cat. An alpha male type, always reminding other cats it was his area. He was an exceptional mouser (I think maybe the best 1 I have known). He also had this unusually unique action, that he only seemed to engage in with me, and he really preferred my right arm over my left for it, but he would take which ever 1 was availale, where he would get all 4 legs on my arm & knead it with his back legs...and he would do this, literally for 1/2 an hour if I didnt stop him. I never got why he did it, why he only did it to me, but if he had the chance, he took it. He loved attention. He was all around, a great cat. Of all the animals I have owned, I really am not sure what happened to most of them in the end. Some moved on to new homes, some I know had been put down due to illness or an injury from an animal attack, but I dont think I ever had a cat die from being hit by a vehicle that I knew of. I had a cat get hit by a vehicle, but she survived & seemingly had no lingering side effects from the hit. Garfield didnt have that luck. He was hit in the head. I had the misfortune of seeing the immediate after effcts of what happened. I dont think I saw him get hit, but I dont really know what I saw leading up. My attention was divered to that area as voices escalated. This isnt a rare thing in this area. For someone not from this area, you would probably think there was 50 reasons to call the cops a night. But living here, you learn the difference between "not great" & "really bad" situations pretty quick. I didnt know yet what I was looking at, but I had my phone in hand, incase it was a "really bad" situation as the early signs of what I thought I might be seeing alerted me enough to put my shoes on & go downstairs. What I saw from my window was a woman, from my vantage point, it seemed she might be trying to escape a guy, I now know why. The way she was standing in the road, her hands on her head, bent over, I wondered if she was bleeding. By the time I got down the stairs to the porch, others had come over & were already leaving the scene. She was now standing upright, hand still on her head. A friend of Garfields owner saw me on my porch & asked me "thats not Garfield, is it?" I then realized, she wasnt holding her head out of an injury, but because she was horrified by what she saw. The man had tried probably to hold her back from what she saw. & thats what I saw in the dark from where I was, not her trying to get away out of fear, but because she wanted to check on the cat she just saw get hit. There was infact a dead animal on the road. I went down the porch stairs & promptly went over. By then someone had come with a large plastic sheet to put over the animal that I still had not yet seen. I heard "cat" as I got closer, so I asked the 3 people around there "what colour is the cat", only answer I got was "its dead". NOT the question I asked you. I pulled back the sheet & sure enough, I had the misfortune of seeing Garfield there, lifeless. I instantly told my neighbours friend to get the owner. Sure enough a minute later, he came out, his dad behind him. When his friend confirmed it was Garfield, he asked his dad to take care of it, he emotionally wasnt able to at that point. He told his dad "dont throw him in the garbage". This kid usually has it together, exudes a toughness that is either real or well crafted to seem so, but this was truly hurting him too much to deal with. I went & got a proper bag to put Garfield in, and his dad packaged him up to take home till his son could figure out what he wanted to do about him. In the past few months, Garfield had seemed a tad slower going down stairs. Going up them and on flat land he seemed his old self, but going down, a little off. I wondered, as did others if there was an unchecked injury. He also had become a lot more brave about travelling outside his area. He rarely crossed the street in years past, but was doing so on a more frequent basis this summer. What was he doing where he got him though was a bit odd, it was further away from his area than I usually would see him. Also, what caused him to dart out onto the street in the 1st place? I'll never likely have an answer to either of these questions. All I can do now is remember the awesomeness of the cat that his owner often called "G". I know when people wake up today & word gets out, a bunch of people from here will be sad to hear about his death. He was loved by most of the people here (even the 1 guy who often said he hated him & was allergic to him). Like the death of most animals, everyone will eventually move on, most will forget about him, some will remember him. Some, will miss him. Rest In Peace Garfield. |
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