History Lessons

“Where would you go if there was time travel?”

I’m going big!

I want to be able to read the first four volumes of the Discourses of Epictetus as recorded by Arrian. I’m guessing that if we have time travel and I can choose a location there might also be a way for me to read it in the original Greek with an understanding of the culture in which Epictetus taught.

Because we don’t know what happened to the first four of Arrian’s eight volumes, I’m going to guess they were in the Great Library of Alexandria but were lost during the Roman Empire for lack of funding and support. Imagine libraries losing support from the government.

If I’m already in the library reading Arrian I might as well take time to read Didymus and Archimedes in the original language.

Then again, I might take a much shorter trip. Maybe I’ll go back about eight weeks before tumblr terminated my account closing access to a multitude of photo galleries I’d deposited on its servers.

All the original photos are still in my local archive. What’s missing is the online collection displayed and curated by subject.

St. Paul Sunday Morning, The Blue Plate Special Kitchen, MNMLST, Farming Westerville, If I Died Today, and Stores Closed At Night are some of the galleries now offline.

Tumblr has yet to respond to any of my support emails.

I’ve known for a long that when you post content on social media platforms, like tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, and X, you often don't own it outright. These platforms have terms and conditions that grant them certain rights to your content. This means they can delete your content as per their policies and the policies are often nebulous at best and rarely defined in a way that benefits the user.

Most of the policy documents seem to have been written by bully lawyers. “Do it our way or don’t sign up. It’s our football. Play the game our way or not at all.”

Is anyone interested in a book of The Blue Plate Special Kitchen photos? St. Paul Sunday Morning or Farming Westerville or Fourth Friday or …?

I’m starting to collect my photos in printed editions. Working to make what tumblr terminated into books and magazines so I will no longer be at the mercy of an online corporate set of policies that include that they don’t have to explain themselves.