Posted by Doug
Thu, 03 Feb 2005 13:34:00 GMT
Today’s another missed snow day that I’m at work instead of at home playing with the kids. I shouldn’t beat myself up too much; I have to work. I’ve also gotten some good time in with them recently. I just miss working from home and the ability to see them more frequently. I miss being able to take an hour to go play during the day. Based on my current position, I don’t have any idea how to get that back though.
As many of you know, my last job was 50% working from home and 50% commuting four hours up I-71. The travel was hard, but working from home was nice. I kept trying to get my boss to let me have more time working from home. She never budged. I’m pretty sure she resented me asking about it. I think she felt like I was taking advantage of her.
I got some email from her last night. The group we both worked in was sold to a company in New Jersey. Pretty much anyone who wanted to keep their job moved there except her. She accepted a six month contract with them to help with the transition. So, she’s been working from home these last several months. I think yesterday was the third time she’s told me “I don’t know how you dragged your butt up here to Cleveland.” I think she really “gets” now the pleasure of working from home.
Maybe I’ll have that again some day. I’ll have to think about what type of career path would lead me there.
Posted in Family | no comments
Posted by Doug
Thu, 03 Feb 2005 02:07:00 GMT
I was contacted today by a local reporter who had found out I was participating in
EyesOnTheScreen by organizing a screening of “Eyes on the Prize”. He said he’s running a piece in the Sunday paper about it. I’m excited about the publicity. I’d love to have a good crowd next Tuesday.
There was some concern by my church leaders about hosting the screening. They were concerned about three issues: the content of the video, the legality of showing the video, and security for the building. The last issue is one I had largely overlooked, but is a good thing to think about. Our building is largely in-securable. What I mean is the outside doors lock, but almost none of the offices, class rooms, hallways, or supply rooms lock. One of there requests was to make sure there were four or five people at the event who could help direct traffic towards the auditorium and keep the other areas “off limits.”
As far as content goes, several of the church leaders had seen the video series already and could attest to both the quality of the production and that the content was appropriate to show in a church building.
The legality is another issue all together. It all boils down to
Fair Use. If you’ve been following the
EyesOnTheScreen event, you probably know that one of the larger sites hosting a screening has said they aren’t going to be able host because of legal reasons. I actually talked to Tiffiniy Cheng of
Downhill Battle on the phone about the issue. She said she had talked with the
EFF about it. It turns out some lawyer representing some unknown client told the School Board (where the screening was to be hosted) that they didn’t have a license to show the video. The school board lawyer wasn’t well versed in copyright law and said he’d have to believe this unknown law firm until he was able to research it further. My understanding is the
EFF helped provide a pro bono lawyer (although the lawyer may not be directly employed by the
EFF) who specializes in copyright law to represent the school board. Tiffiniy implied that the screening would continue as scheduled based on the school board’s revised understanding.
So where does that leave me? No one’s contacted me in a legal sense about the screening I’m hosting. I proactively contacted a friend of mine who’s a lawyer to ask about it. She put me in contact with an associate who specializes in copyright and intellectual property. We discussed the issue over the phone. She said she wasn’t able to give me legal advice based on the limited information she had, but that she believed my showing the video would be fair use.
I gave all this information to the elders of our church tonight. They agreed to let me host the screening as long as I was able to get some people to help me manage the actual event and as long as I would provide them with a letter indemnifying them. I’m willing to do both of those things. I’m pretty excited. It makes me feel like I’m part of something big.
Posted in Politics | no comments
Posted by Doug
Tue, 01 Feb 2005 16:55:00 GMT
I have received permission from my Church to use our building to show “Eyes on the Prize”. I’ll be showing at least the first episode at 8:00pm, February 8th. If you live near Cincinnati, I encourage you to come. The address is:
Northeast Church of Christ
12020 Southwick Ln
Cincinnati, OH 45241
You can contact me by
email or call me directly for more information (513-295-2844).
Posted in Politics | no comments
Today’s another missed snow day that I’m at work instead of at home playing with the kids. I shouldn’t beat myself up too much; I have to work. I’ve also gotten some good time in with them recently. I just miss working from home and the ability to see them more frequently. I miss being able to take an hour to go play during the day. Based on my current position, I don’t have any idea how to get that back though.
As many of you know, my last job was 50% working from home and 50% commuting four hours up I-71. The travel was hard, but working from home was nice. I kept trying to get my boss to let me have more time working from home. She never budged. I’m pretty sure she resented me asking about it. I think she felt like I was taking advantage of her.
I got some email from her last night. The group we both worked in was sold to a company in New Jersey. Pretty much anyone who wanted to keep their job moved there except her. She accepted a six month contract with them to help with the transition. So, she’s been working from home these last several months. I think yesterday was the third time she’s told me “I don’t know how you dragged your butt up here to Cleveland.” I think she really “gets” now the pleasure of working from home.
Maybe I’ll have that again some day. I’ll have to think about what type of career path would lead me there.
