48 Days (I think)

I often start my lunch break with a visit to Google News where I just pick a handful of articles to read. I saw one today that talked about Tumblr and how, while it seems to be a dead platform, lots of younger people are starting to use it. The implication was that many of the younger people who are ignoring Facebook and Twitter are ending up there. That’s nice. I always like Tumblr, but they made the same fatal mistake that Flickr made when they let Yahoo buy them out. That mistake was, of course, letting Yahoo buy them out.

I think I had two Tumblr accounts and I am pretty sure they are both active… pretty sure. One is just a copy of this blog. Anything I post here gets cross posted there. I would tell you what the address is, but I can’t remember. I just know that when I look at this account’s dashboard there is a reference to it. The second account sometimes gets used when I work on a music project like RPM. I post daily (mostly) progress that are pretty much meaningless to anyone who isn’t me, and after a few days they all look exactly the same.

This post, however, is not about Tumblr. It’s about Facebook.

Reading that article made me ask myself how long it had been since I logged in to Facebook. Turns out it’s been 48 days. December 2, 2021. That’s nice, huh? I’ve only received one notifications email from them over that time and I just trashed it. I don’t think I ever considered my boycott to be permanent, but it’s pretty nice the way I haven’t felt any need to check in for as long as it’s been. I imagine that there is a magic number of days that the boycott will last that will fully satisfy my need to stay away and once I hit that number I won’t get pissed off at myself if I go back.

Something like that.

robertjames1971

Wake Up

When the pandemic started I declared that I was still going to get up at the same time each workday morning that I did before the company sent us home. That means I would have to be up and ready to go out the door by 7:30am.

I stuck to that for a while but eventually the snooze bar started getting pressed an extra time or two. Today I got out of bed at 7:00am. Last week there was a 7:15 and a nearly 7:30. Soooo. Nope, not sticking to that particular lock down promise to myself.

Today is the day that my company is trying to reopen the buildings. This is their second attempt. The first was last summer. We’re going hybrid so we are only supposed to be going into the office a small percentage of the time. Last week they gave us the option of delaying our come back to February 1st if we were worried about Omicron. Am I worried about Omicron? You bet your viral ass I am. So I won’t be going back today.

Still, with the hybrid return on its way I should really try to start getting out of bed earlier again. It would be the smart move. I should really do it. Will I do it? No, probably not.

robertjames1971

Tough Day

We took Harry back to school. We are empty nesters again. We’re happy and sad and yadda yadda. I miss him. I miss Bellana.

I don’t have a problem with them being at school. I am loving the trip, seeing where they are going and how they are getting there and all of that.

I am just tired of all the other shit. I am so tired of Covid. Just feeling overwhelmed and absolutely sick of it all. I want our lives back. I want to get back to a world where stopping for gas isn’t something that makes me feel afraid for my health and the health of my family.

I don’t know. I just want this crap to be over, you know?

robertjames1971

Rush 1984

Listening to the audio from the Rush Grace Under Pressure Tour video today has had me in the mood to listen to bootlegs of complete shows from that tour.

Here’s a good one:

1984 was memorable for my Rush fandom. I first started listening in 1981, but they slipped the Signals album and tour past me without me being aware. I was 11 years old, so that’s not too surprising. By the time we got to ‘84 I was a complete fanatic and I had run out of records to buy. The Grace Under Pressure album was the first one I had to wait for, and the first one I had my first listens to at the same time as the rest of the cult.

It was also the first time I had knowledge of a tour. They played the Worcester Centrum. I didn’t go, of course, but after the show one local radio station played every song on the set list and I heard a tape of that. As lame as it was, it was still pretty exciting.

So when bootlegs became a thing I could dip my ears into (thank you, internets) I was always kinda drawn to shows from 1984.

Yes. Nerd. Obviously.

robertjames1971