Doldrums – for us?
Doldrums – Where does it come from?
(Anyone else been feeling it recently? Just me? I think it’s mostly to do with the near constant poor weather we’ve been having and ………. I dropped my go-to lens, the one I take on just about every single walk. Devastated to say the least. It is repairable at a cost, of course so, it is currently away and awaiting parts )
I actually started that post 5 months ago! I guess the wind picked up and I sailed free of the doldrums for that particular day/week/month but, here I am again. Drifting.
It’s partly back to this “run out of photo space” issue, I’ve stayed static on it and I really need to move forward, DO SOMETHING 🙂
I got my lens back by the way, all fixed, cleaned and serviced so that was good but, up to date, my camera has just been sent off for repair. I do have another but, I can’t set that one up for all-night Aurora! Why is photography such an expensive hobby?
More importantly right now; I got an email(?) I think, from a fellow blogger who has been having theft issues on here but, I have no idea what i did with it. I have a feeling that I may have deleted it in a bulk clear out so, if you are that person, please re-send, get back in touch and sorry, I would have replied had I not lost your message. I’ve scoured Conversations etc. so it must have come to me via email.
I went for a new walk yesterday and loved it, another wee hidden loch, not hidden to Google maps of course and so worth the wander out to it, I will be heading back as soon as i get the right opportunity.
I just read through the above, what a whiner 🙂
OK, so that was about all there was to say about that 🙂
I hope you’re all well and I hope to sort my sh1t out and get back on it asap
Scozmo's Photery 
Hey Brian,
I just had another idea, alongside that FIFO (First In, First Out) principle I mentioned to you a few weeks ago.
What if you created a free site on WordPress? Unfortunately, they are limited to 1 GB these days, but you can still fit quite a bit on there.
You could use WordPress’s own Backup/Export function to take, for example, the articles and media from a particular year, such as 2016, 2018 or 2019, and export those parts of your main site. You can then import them into the new free WordPress site and check that everything works properly there. Once you’re happy that everything has transferred correctly, you can remove those years from your main site.
You can create several free sites if necessary and move different sections to different sites. Afterwards, you can simply link those archive sites back to your main site, so the older content is still accessible without having everything sitting on your main site.
I’m just thinking out loud, Brian, but it might be another way of dealing with the space problem without actually losing any of your older work.
Anyway, good luck with everything, and get some fresh air when you can. It does wonders for a lot of things!
All the best ! Marc.
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Hey Marc, I like your thinking 👍 I shall look into that ASAP, thank you
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No problem 🙂
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Good Morning Brian
Sorry to hear you got the doldrums. 😏 No it’s not just you, I feel the same.
Seems to me people are so arrogant, rude, snappy and all got their heads down, fingers stuck to phones, no conversation, no chance of having a normal face to face chat with anyone and if one tries to speak, smiles at someone, they get annoyed for disturbing their addictive habits on their devices.
Thats the state of the world now. It’s been that way since Covid struck. Life’s just not the same anymore is it?
Sorry to hear about your mishaps with your camera but glad its all getting sorted out, and yes, I agree, this photography lark is very expensive. I’ve even lost my inspiration to do any photography let alone write my poetry and book.
Anyways, the comment you made about “someone” – a fellow blogger, writing to you about having “theft issues” on Word Press, well, I am answering your question, IT WAS ME!!
Quite a few folk, bloggers, (and not so nice ones at that!) have been systematically downloading my poetry, in fact every poem I posted, re-writing / changing it slightly, then re-posting on their sites and taking the credit for it being “their work – their word’s”! I was and still am furious. That’s plagiarism.
There is one woman in particular in Spain, I’ve blocked her so many times, but she keeps changing her site name very slightly and still getting through to my site. I reported it to Word Press, did not get much support, told to block, gave them names and they will try to block on main site, but she’s still doing it, dont know how and cant stop it happening. So it’s no wonder I have lost inspiration, interest in blogging, it takes up lot of our time, its our work, only for it to be used for other’s benefit and them taking the credit, and that included some of my own photo’s.
Whats infuriating is that she has thousands and thousands of followers by re-posting other peoples work it seems and all because, as she said “she can and she likes it”
Thats what I meant when I said I am not so sure that social media is not social, it is very anti-social if folk allowed to do that, make nasty suggestive comments and get away with it.
Plus I was getting some unpleasant comments from some weirdo’s out there, my blog was to hopefully help others, to lift, inspire, give hope, not attract more of the same that I have suffered and that’s exactly what it seems to do and I do not like it.
Word Press have not been that supportive or helpful either. They want our money, I am sorry you have problem with no space left and make us upgrade, pay extra for more space or move to another platform or not even bother.
Mine is due for renewal and I am not so sure I am going to re-new. Had too many bad experiences with it all, which is very disappointing.
I did give you some advice as to what to do when you said you were worried about deleting some of your posts, photo’s, but obviously you lost my email so not to bore you again, but you wont lose it. You can download ALL your work, save it, then delete from site if you wish, that way, you dont lose anything.
It just wont show anymore and I remember you asking, “do people really go backwards and read old posts” and my answer was, NO they dont, it depends on the subject we posting. Sometimes, new bloggers will look back over our work, posts, to get to know us I guess, to catch up with our stories, but ones that already follow, I find do not tend to look back at old posts unless they remember they saw something they liked and this causes them to download it to their sites.
I have had quite a lot of folk write to me, telling me they had re-posted my poems on facebook, which I am not on, do not agree with it, its dangerous site and do not like FB. She said it was because she had to share them with her “circle of friends” as they were so good, moving, poignant, which was a nice compliment, but I wrote and told her all my work is IP protected, have my own registered Copyright and Trademark, and should not be copied, used, stored without my written permission.
She did apologise, said she took them down from FB as she did not know, but its anyones guess if she has or continues to post my work (I cant tell not being on FB) but thats the risk we take. Anything we post, can and does becomes others peoples property to do with what they want and it shouldn’t be allowed. It costs lot of money, time, effort, energy running our own sites and I know people copy, use, re-print stuff, even from books.
So I decided, if I can, I want to publish my book first, then I know its legally my work, my name, my copyright, my ISBN and if its copied because it’s helping others, then so be it, cant stop that, but at least I will know I will get my story out there before other, unscrupulous nasty people use my work and take the credit for it before my story is published and I lose my copyright, ownership of all I write, post, just as we all do, on a public domain, without knowing sometimes and there is nothing we can do about it, even if we prove it.
If we post stuff publicly then we lose control and I think that plays a big part in us getting the doldrums, feeling down, questioning if its worth it, if its not achieving what we set out to achieve, thinking we keep copyright and ownership. Not the case I’m afraid.
So you wont lose your work if you request to download all or some of your work, keep it safe, it just means it wont be available for others to see (or use) and you can free up some space to post more photos, rather than upgrade and pay extortionate costs in the process to gain or buy more space like they want you to.
Even WP have control over us and as to how much we can post. It’s all very limiting, disappointing, expensive. One has to way up the pro’s and con’s I guess, but it does cause us to feel the doldrums when things like this happen, so its not just you, Im feeling the same, I hear you!
Hope you get things sorted out but at least I have (hopefully) put your mind at rest as to who wrote to you to tell your about having their work stolen, even if you did delete my email 😏🤣 I forgive you ☺️😂
Take care
Carole’Diane R.I.I.D., H.M. N.P.U. (UK & ROI) 2026
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