A Few Changes

Hi gals, this crazy hot and humid summer is *almost* over. Hang in there. 

Citrine has brought some things to my attention, and she said will be putting up a similar post on her blog soon too so look out for it.

But here's to let you know there will be couple of new changes to my blog:
1 - You've probably noticed that I've started to watermarking my pictures. 

Yes, I've known that intellectual thievery on the internet has always been rampant, but since 2007 when I started blogging, I've avoided watermarking my pictures. Of course because the watermark gets in the way and "uglifies" the pictures. My rationale was simple - since this is an amateur blog that stemmed from my hobby of squealing over sparkly pretty eyeshadows, people would leave it alone. But I was just being foolish and naive after all. Because neither myself or my blog hold any influence or clout over anything or anyone, it's even easier to bully me and steal my blog contents.

CuteOverload's Emo Bun disapproves of internet dick-faced thieves.


And on that note, big name and much more influential blogs get their news-worthy contents stolen by other for-profit blogs too! Hubby told me about the recent big rumbling about a well-established blog associated with the Wall Street Journal (tsk tsk tsk), All Things D, "re-breaking" techy news using contents from another popular tech blog, MacStories, all while condescendingly described and linked back to MacStories as some mere "enthusiast site." When yet another big name tech blog, Daring Fireball, called All Things D out on its pettiness, the All Things D blogger went on to add MacStories' domain name next to the disparaging description of "enthusiast site" instead of directly naming MacStories or its writer, still refusing to acknowledge the source's reputation. You really have to wonder if denigrating one's original news source would make her article read better or sound more credible. MacStories' contents were newsworthy but they're just a fan site? What to make, then, of the site that didn't even break the news, but rather "re-break" the news from just a mere fan site? Ha. It was a total dick move by a petty blogger who didn't realize that giving credits where credits are due will only help her own credibility. And apparently this particular blogger from All Things D is a repeat offender and this was not her first time committing such cowardliness.

Here's another sad attempt of obscuring a source of information among the beauty blogosphere, and I am not going to name names: an NYC beauty blogger re-blogging sneak peaks of a new collection from a Singapore beauty blogger, who had earlier used her multi-lingual ability to research and gather information from Japanese sources. The NYC blogger then "credits" the Singapore blogger's language bridging via a tiny font 5 word "source" at the very bottom of her lengthy post and even then, the link is broken. She didn't even bother to name the Singaporean source (who was a friend of hers!!!) or make the source link better visible. Even after the back and forth confrontation that ended their friendship, the NYC blogger still didn't fix the broken link. So very lame. I immediately stopped reading this NYC blog, and I used to read it several times daily. That was how appalled I was.

If the "pros," or even the "semi-pros," would stoop to such a level, how else would a no-name amateur like me protect my content and work other than watermarking the most visible aspect of my blog - its pictures? This blog makes no news, or even a single penny for that matter, but it's still work that I put lots of time and effort into producing every day. And yes, it is work, the work I enjoy doing very much, but work nonetheless. And for free too! Anyway, for now I've decided to leave older posts alone, but if I happen upon my older pictures else where other than my blog, I will go back and watermark pictures from old posts also.

2 - I will start posting "preview" info posts for products I own but haven't had the chance or the time use extensively enough to give detail thoughts and comments on for a full review.

These preview info posts, and they will be tagged with "previews," will only contain pictures and descriptions of the items after initial testing and sampling. They will not contain any detailed review for the product and should not be treated as a review post. I also realize many of my older posts do not contain a swatch for the product and I intend to leave them that way. If you would like to see a swatch, just request one in the comment and I will do my best if I still have the product on hand.

I finally admit that I will never have enough time to get as well acquainted with all my cosmetics as I would like in order to do a thorough review. It is a sad truth, one that I've denied for a long time, all while some of the best items in my cabinet sit neglected and languishing away with time. Cosmetics expire, and worse, when I do get around to use them long enough to review, many of them are no longer available. Unfortunately, and frustratingly(!), I have learned again and again that some of my most beloved items were discontinued. Shucks, but I guess that's just how things roll in the cosmetic world, so I'd rather put something up, at least for you gals to take a look before you buy. I don't know about you, but since 90% of my shopping is done online, I always google an item to see what it looks like when I don't have access to a store, or if I'm too busy/lazy (ha!) to trek out to take a look in person. I hope you will enjoy looking at the pictures and find these preview info posts somewhat useful, even though they do not contain an actual review of the product.

What I will not promise to do is blogging about the latest collection from any brand, Japanese, Korean, or Western. Not only that's not what this blog is about, but there are already tons of other blogs out there that are much more up to date. It's just unwise to compete in an already saturated field, and on top of that it's not a good use of my time or resource to do the same work twice. This is a place where I share what I like and the neat things I found. This is not a beauty news source, nor has it ever tried to be one.

As always, thanks for reading ^.^