El Rocío and Internet Losers.
I just uploaded a brand schpankin’ new set of pics to Flickr, this time detailing all the fun had at the Huelva parade for el Rocío. Although religiously themed, if you’re the sort who likes to PARTY (and you’ve got no freaking business reading this blog if you’re not), then this is the celebration for you. More on El Rocío in a sec…
But before we do that, I wanted to post a quick PSA on perverted internet weirdos. And I’m not talking about the regular sort of perverted internet weirdo like you and me. I refer instead to the dangerous, predatory kind, and wanted to issue a quick warning to those of you posting all your cute kid pics on Flickr.
I’m having a huge lover affair with Flickr right now. I’ve got a new digicam, and this service makes it incredibly easy to share my pics with ones we love who live thousands of miles away (and there are a lot of you). There are privacy settings baked into Flickr, but most people leave all their pics publicly accessible, figuring that only the people they know are ever going to bother seeing them. But that ain’t necessarily the case.
A few days ago, I was scanning one of my sets that featured Rubén in the bath (and then out of the bath, but still in the buff). Flickr automatically shows you the number of times your pictures have been viewed by someone other than you. My jaw dropped open when I saw that those scantily clad (or non-existently clad) shots had 3-4 times the number of views than the others. The best I can figure, I used the term “naked boy” in one my captions, which some of these creeps have been subsequently searching on. Just the thought of someone looking at my little boy as an object of sexual desire makes me want to put my fist through the screen…
At any rate, I immediately set the accessibility of those pics to “private,” and I’m strongly considering making the whole collection private. While I don’t think anyone would ever show up on our doorstep (esp. since most Flickr users live on a different continent than we do), I ain’t taking any chances.
So here’s the deal. I will continue to post cute pics of my little guy, but they will only be accessible to friends & family. At some point, all my pics may have the same protection. If you want to keep viewing them, here’s what you do:
1. Get an account with Flickr if you don’t already have one. Their basic account is free, and their pro account is only $25 a year. I would love to see more people make use of this service. It really does rock.
2. Make me one of your contacts in Flickr. My username is “danielrpark.” If I know you, I’ll respond in kind.
3. Enjoy!
If any friend or family members are having trouble figuring out how to do this, let me know and I’ll make you a video.
While I hate making people jump through hoops, this is too important to ignore. It’s also a good reminder for the rest of you. If you post cute kid pics to Flickr or any other service (Hello!, Snapfish, etc.) or even if you just have them on your blog, please make use of the available privacy protection tools to make sure that your kid isn’t a potential target for some scumbag with a net connection and a lot of dirty thoughts in his head. Remember that unlike the rest of us, some folks are drawn to naked kid pics for more than their cuteness value. So be safe.
Now that that’s out of the way, on to El Rocío…
This is a four-day religious festival that takes place in a tiny village normally having a population of under 100 people. But one weekend a year, the little town square gets mobbed by A MILLION PEOPLE. Literally. It’s a veritable fuster cluck of good food and good times. It’s like the Spanish version of Woodstock, except that it’s bigger, happens every year, the food is better, the weather is nicer, and the music is home-grown.
It’s a religious festival that celebrates the virgin Rocío, but the religious aspect typically takes a back seat to the par-tay. Guitars, amazing food, and lots of alcohol are what makes El Rocío what it is.
My brother-in-law is really into it. He and his wife go every year with the same group of friends. If you don’t have money, you camp out. If you do have money, you typically rent a large house, along with 5-10 other couples. The rent for just this one weekend STARTS at around $12,000. Typically, you also hire kitchen and service staff, so that the only thing you have to worry about is eating, drinking, having fun, and looking fabulous.
The pics I’ve taken are just from the parade out of Huelva, where the wagons (along with people on horseback and on foot) begin their 1.5 day long pilgrimage to the site where the celebration is held. Now, María José and I have been invited by Emilio (bro-in-law) to visit them there on Monday. So I’ll post an update and more pics after we’ve been there. I just hope there’s still jamón and beer left, and that people aren’t too hung over at that point to provide entertainment. We’ll see.