Myspace

Daily writing prompt

How do you use social media?

In the early days of social media I used the holy hell out of it. Yahoo 360 was first for me. It had a blog space. I started writing whatever crap popped into my head. Not long after I moved over to Myspace and planted my social media flag there. Again, I used the bejeezus out of the blog there. Everything I posted there has been ported over here. Back in 2006 I connected with a woman through Myspace. She was nice and charming and funny and wonderful and today she is my wife. How is that for a social media success story?

By 2008 Myspace was history and Jen and I both started Twitter and Facebook (Bookfayce) accounts. I used them a lot. I mean, a lot. In November of 2008 I also started a stand alone blog on Blogger. Two of them, actually. One was public and the other was private. I kept anything related to my kids on the private account. Everything from both blogs now lives on this blog, just like the Myspace stuff. In 2009 I started an account on what might be one of the original social media platforms. Flickr. No one uses it socially anymore, mostly, but it is still the best site for hosting photos. I have a few there. By “a few” I mean over 55,000… so yeah, I use the hell out it.

When Instagram came along I sort of saw it as a companion to Flickr. I opened an account right away but closed it after a while. Then after some time passed I opened another one and then closed it. I can’t remember how many times I did that. I just didn’t like the interface. Scrolling kept “accidentally” marking things as favorites and it drove me friggin’ nuts. Eventually I just gave in and kept an account live. I still pop in once or twice a day, mostly to look at Les Pauls. I post there now and then but I don’t really interact with anyone. It’s like Flickr. It is a social media platform, but I am not terribly social on it.

A few years ago I got fed up with all of it. Facebook was turning into a cesspool as the fascist maga cult was pulling in people I knew and they were getting louder and louder and the idiotic algorithm was showing me more and more of that garbage and I just decided I didn’t want to go there anymore. I’ve missed out on a lot of family and friends stuff, but from a mental health standpoint I feel better about the world. When I started the weight loss surgery process it was suggested that I join some support groups on Facebook, so that pulled me back in for a while, but eventually I had a good enough grip on the situation that I wasn’t learning anything new anymore so I backed off again. I still pop in now and then to see what people are going through with their recoveries, but I don’t do it often. Twitter went from a similar sort of cesspool vibe to an absolutely ridiculous den of scummy bullshit when that musk putz bought them out. I don’t use that at all anymore.

I’m trying to keep my toes dipped in the social media world via a few Twitter alternatives. I want to pick one and just use that when I need a social fix, or when I am bored and want to kill a few minutes. Threads has a good music community but given that it’s a bookfayce product it makes me want to vomit when I use it. Bluesky and Mastodon are okay but I don’t really have a community to connect with on either platform so I don’t use them often. This blog cross posts to Mastodon so there’s that at least.

So the answer to the actual question, How do you use social media is that I try not to. Not really, at least. I was 100% invested in it back in the oughts and early teens, but now I just feel like it’s mostly outlived its usefulness. Instagram, Youtube, Flickr… yeah, I still use those regularly but I don’t really use them as social media outlets. I get all of my public bitching and moaning ya ya’s out on this page. I still use this thing a lot. I mean, a lot. Way too much. I mean, way too much. Part of me wants to stop entirely but I doubt I have the will power for that. Although… I thought the same thing about Bookfayce once too. Maybe… Maybe it’s time to just quit cold turkey. Probably not today though. Yeah, I am sure I can quit any time I want. You know that song, right?

To Rebel Moon Or Not

To Rebel Moon Part 2 or not to Rebel Moon Part 2? That is the question that vexes me so.

Actually, it doesn’t vex me at all.

I watched the first Rebel Moon movie. I forget what it was called. It was a whole movie where effectively nothing happened. It was the first half of a heist movie. You know, the part where the heist gang leader puts together the heist team? Then in the second half of the movie everything actually happens. That is what I assume is going to happen in Rebel Moon Part 2. In Part 1 they put together the team and didn’t advance the plot even the tiniest of tiny bits. In part 2? All plot, all the time.

But do I want to watch it? Probably. Do I want to watch it tonight? Probably not. The bigger question is this… because nothing happens in Part 1, I have absolutely no memory of anything that transpired in it. Due to that, do I have to watch Part 1 again before I watch Part 2? When I watched Part 1 I told myself that I would watch it again when Part 2 came out. Do I want to put myself through that though? Should I? Should I just go in cold and hope the who’s who just comes back to me?

So many questions. Too many questions. Too many questions for what is likely to be a shitty movie, at least.

I’ll let you know.

I Want to Go Back

I want to go back to Disney World. Maybe not, but I do… I want to go somewhere. I want to go on a trip. Somewhere that my wife and I can hang out and relax and let the cares of the world go away for a few days… and I can take a lot of pictures on film.

Yeah. That’s the ticket. Let’s go on a trip!

NHL Playoff Predictions

The first round of the NHL Playoffs start tomorrow. It’s time for my pointless, stupid predictions post. As is generally the case with pro sports these days, I have not been following the league as a whole that much, just my home town team. That means most of these predictions are very close to blind guesses on my part. Therefore I will also include a flip of a coin prediction and when it’s all over we’ll see if I was better at picking winners than randomness.

Are we ready?

As always, we will start with the Eastern Conference.

Panthers vs Lightning. The battle of Florida… in hockey… ugh. Nothing like cold weather spots in Florida. The Panthers had the better regular season, but I am optimistic that their luck is running out. I am going to pick Tampa Bay. It will probably go seven games, but the Lightning will come out on top. I promise this pick has nothing to do with the Panthers bouncing my Boston Bruins in the first round last year. Really. It has nothing to do with that. Now, which team does the coin pick? The rules are the higher seed (Florida in this case) is heads and the lower seed (Tampa Bay) is tails. It’s tails. The coin picks Tampa Bay.

Bruins vs Maple Leafs. I live in Boston. I root for Boston teams. There is no way I am picking against my Bruins. That’s a given. Beyond that, the Leafs have a killer offense, but it will not be a match for the Bruins defense and goalies. Sorry, Leafs fans. It’s going to be yet another in a long line of Boston wins over Toronto. Nothing personal, friends. The Bruins will just have your number again. The coin flip is heads so the coin picks the Bruins too.

The Rangers vs the Capitals. I hate both of these teams. I hate the Rangers more. That’s not why I am picking the Capitals this time though. The Capitals have been playing playoff intensity games for a while now. The Rangers breezed into the playoffs. The Capitals fought their way in. I think the momentum will carry the Caps through the first round. Probably not too far beyond that, but I’m looking for a serious upset here. The coin flip is tails so it also picked the Capitals. I see a pattern developing here.

Whalers vs Islanders. Okay, Robert. Stop calling the Carolina Hurricanes the Whalers. It’s not funny anymore. Then again… both of these teams were the parent club of the AHL team I used to have season tickets for. The Lowell Lock Monsters. Both teams pulled out on us and left my minor league team hanging. Due to that I can honestly say I friggin’ hate both of these teams. I want to pick the Islanders here, but they are from New York and I can’t pick a New York team without feeling gross about it. I’m considering it… but I think I am picking the Whale this time, even if it is painful to do so. The coin flip picks the Islanders though. Finally it picks the team I didn’t pick.

On to the Western Conference…

Stars vs Golden Knights. I don’t know. I really don’t. I want to pick Vegas but… no, I am going to pick Dallas. I could go either way with this one, but let’s officially pick The Stars. The coin flip picks Vegas.

Jets vs Avalanche. Again, I could go either way with this series. My gut is telling me to pick the Avs for the upset, but I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. I am going to pick The Jets and I will probably kick myself for doing so. The coin is tails again so it picks Colorado. That coin sure does love the underdogs, right?

Canucks vs Predators. Okay, I am going to pick an underdog this time. Nashville will take this one in an upset. As silly as it is to have an NHL team in Tennessee, I foresee a Vancouver choke coming. The coin flip agrees with me as it comes up tails for the fifth flip in a row.

Oilers vs Kings. Last but not least. I have always like The Kings. I haven’t always liked the Oilers as they beat my Bruins in the Cup Finals in both 1988 and 1990. Eventually something happened (I don’t know what) and I started to like them too. I am going to pick The Oilers this year. Sorry, Los Angeles. Edmonton is going to beat you. Nothing personal, it’s just business. Hockey business. The coin flip finally comes up heads so the coin picks Edmonton too.

There you have it, folks. My stupid, pointless, blind, uninformed predictions for the first round of the NHL Playoffs. It’s Stanley Cup tournament time. The best post season in all of professional sports. The games start tomorrow. The Bruins take on The Maple Leafs tomorrow at 8:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Go Bruins!

Duplexiversary

On this day in 2008, 16 years ago, Jen and I moved in together. We rented a duplex in Methuen that had three bedrooms. Well… one bedroom might have started it’s life as a big closet, but it was a bedroom in theory by the time we moved in.

I don’t have a lot of pictures of the building. Why? I have pictures of people hanging out in various rooms, but very few of the external. The only good one I could find is actually the back of the house. The left half of this building was our half.

Easter Dinner and Brunch 010 — The kids were so little!!!!!

Note, the neighbors who lived in the right half of the duplex had access to that third floor, and rumor has it there was a hot tub up there. We didn’t have any access to the third floor at all. I think it was actually the attic. The other tenant also had a lot more basement space, but what we had was enough. I recorded a lot of RPM Challenge stuff in that tiny little basement space.

We moved in on April 19th. One month and one day later I proposed to Jen, right there in that tiny little back yard by that very gas grill.

Good times. Good times.

I Played Today

I played some guitar this morning before work. I have a nice, positive feeling of accomplishment. Granted what I needed to do was practice for this weekend’s band rehearsal but instead I recorded lead guitar parts for two songs. Quarantine Tunes Volume Seven is done with tracking. I have to mix the two songs I worked on today and then it is on to Volume Eight… which I already have one song that is a guitar solo away from being ready to mix.

I played through the direct output of two amps today. No noise. Headphones only. It is most definitely not as much fun as cranking out some actual sound and moving some air around, but it’s still always great to play. I used my ES-335, as you can see in the obligatory photo…

Brain Drop

Daily writing prompt

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

View all responses

The first thing that comes to my mind? What if it is completely uninteresting? Worse, what if nothing comes to mind? What if my brain is entirely empty? Oh no! That doesn’t leave us with much to discuss. This might be pretty weak as a writing prompt, eh?

Fortunately for me and my tiny old person brain, there was a thought that came to mind as I read the prompt. Unfortunately for you, my readers and only friends* it is nothing interesting. Just before I sat down at my desk and brought up wordpress.com, I had finished my daily exercise. 46 minutes of running (jogging, pronounced “yogging” with a soft J**) in place. The thought that was going through my head at that very moment was…

Holy crap my legs are dead. 46 minutes of jogging (yogging) in place is tough to pull off.

That is it. That was the first thing that came into my sad little brain. I wish it could have been something more interesting and exciting and intellectually stimulating but alas, no. My sincere apologies, friends.

*This is not a movie quote. It’s a paraphrase of a movie quote. A Clockwork Orange. In my teens and early 20’s it was a huge movie for me. When I was a little older I had a friend who had dealt with some bad things when she was young and it changed my perspective on the movie. It was triggering for her, though we didn’t use that term back then, and I saw it in a new light. Once I met Jen and Bellana I suddenly understood her problem with it and felt like even more of a fucking idiot for not having seen it before. The movie includes A LOT of violence against women and girls and now that I had a woman and a girl who were more important to me than anything else in the entire universe I understood that I could never watch that movie again. Now the movie is triggering for me too, in a different way but still pretty painful. Never again. Never ever. I still find myself quoting a few lines now and then because they are so completely burned into my brain, and the language created for the story is pretty unique and amazing. The treatment of the women in the story though… yikes. What the fuck was I thinking when I was a kid? How could I have been so blind and selfish? Never again.

**This is also a paraphrase of a movie quote. Anchorman. This one is something I can watch over and over again. Yeah there is a lot of misogyny in the story, but it literally exists to show how stupid men were toward women back in the 70’s. I mean, 60% of the time it’s accurate every time.

Dickey Betts

I was never an Allman Brothers fan. I went through an At Fillmore East phase the way most guitar players do. I was a huge fan of Duane Allman’s playing on Derek and the Dominoes Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album and at some point I needed more and that brought me to At Fillmore East. Duane Allman’s playing is other worldly on that record. In between the stratospheric heroics there were the moments featuring the other guy. That other guy is Dickey Betts. When you step back and look at it closely, his playing is just as good as Allman’s. Maybe not equal (because that’s asking too much from a normal human), but close enough.

On top of being a fantastic lead player, he wrote some incredible songs. “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” is pretty much perfect. I spent a lot of time in my youth sitting in front of my cassette player trying to figure out how to play that song. Just picking up what I could. It’s a twin lead guitar instrumental that to my ear is closer to Fusion than Southern Rock. I’d play along for a while, then stare at the speakers, slack jawed, when Duane’s solos came up, then I’d play along with Dickey’s solos.

Outside of that record though, I never really had much use for The Allman Brothers. Southern Rock as a genre has its moments but generally speaking it wasn’t for me. Respect where respect is due though. Dickey Betts as a song writer, guitarist, and singer is deserving of all of the respect.

He passed away this morning at age 80. Rest in Peace, Dickey Betts. Everyone go give At Fillmore East a spin in his memory.

End of the Work Day

It’s coming to the end of the work day. 25 minutes left before I can punch out for the day.

It’s feeling like a long week, though it’s been mostly quiet. It’s weird. It’s cold and rainy here today. I was hoping to be able to open the windows again, but no dice. The cats are clearly disappointed. The forecast for tomorrow is pretty crappy as well. Oh well.

There is a little bug in the office with me right now. Robin Sparkles the Cat is hunting it. It’s a little fascinating. I think the bug is just screwing with her. Could be.

If you haven’t guessed, I have nothing interesting to write about in this post. I just feel compelled to post something. Funny how that happens sometimes, right? No? Just me? Crud.

I want to go on a trip or something. Even if it’s just a day trip somewhere. New York is calling me in a big way. I think… maybe. It might actually be my cameras that are calling me while pretending that they are New York. They are manipulative little bastards sometimes.

I’m streaming the Apple Podcast app from my MacBook Pro to a HomePod on my desk and it just stopped playing. What’s up with that? There was only 30 seconds left in the episode I was listening to. I skipped to the next entry in the queue and it’s fine now. Weird.

I have a toothache. Tylenol is handling it, but I have a toothache.

Crud.

Okay. Clicking publish now. Future generations will look at this post and marvel at the pointlessness of it all. I think they’ll marvel at the pointlessness of the entire blog, but what can you do, right?

Publish.