today a penguin tapped me on the shoulder and mentioned that i took some of her ideas when i built my blog. yup, i did. should i have contacted her first and asked? yep. did i? nope. of course imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but none the less, when she asked that i change the look of my site, i quickly and happily agreed. the point here is that while we may ‘use’ or ‘borrow’ others ideas (and i use the term borrow very loosely – who among us has no mp3’s on their drive?), they aren’t ours, and if we don’t respect others rights to protect what *they* develop, create, and bring about, then why should others bother to respect yours? i guess this could be taken as some moralistic statement about everyone’s rights etc etc… the real point that i guess i’m trying to get to is that i found something that i thought was fantastic, and wanted to use it for my own purposes, neglecting how the rightful owner might think or feel about that. to jen: an open apology; i’m sorry, and don’t let my stupidity dull your creative juices :)

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