Both cats ignoring me. As usual.
Ignore Me
Nazi Hunting on Threads
So Meta/facebook/Instagram just launched a new Twitter clone called Threads. I created an account and then immediately regretted it. I don’t want to do anything to support Meta and it’s subsidiaries anymore. I still use Instagram but it’s a terrible place. I still use Facebook, barely. I just go there for the bariatric surgery support groups. That’s about it. If I see pictures of my niece and nephews I’ll check them out, but other than that I’ve moved on.
Why then did I open a Threads account? One part curiosity, one part being that it just takes your existing instagram account and rolls it into the new service. Mostly because I am still pretty much the same social media whore who started blogging on MySpace all those years ago.
I’ve only posted on Threads once and it’s basically just my Bluesky user name. Thumbing my nose and all that. I may have found a use to justify the account though.
There is a topic getting a ton of attention on Bluesky today where people are reporting extreme right (call them what they are, nazi) accounts for spewing hate speech only to have the content moderation allow the hate speech to stay… because Meta is as nazi as the rest of them.
My purpose for having a Threads account therefore is to find examples of hate speech and report them so that everyone can see that hate speech is acceptable to the Meta folks and maybe that will bring about some sort of public backlash. Doubtful, but it’s worth a shot.
Fucking nazis.
Vacation
Describe your most memorable vacation.
This one is easy. My most memorable vacation was my honeymoon. No question.
First we, ya know, got married and had a wonderful reception. Then we drove to a bed and breakfast in Woodstock, VT for a couple of days. Then we flew to Washington, DC for the rest of the week. We also made brief trips to Gettysburg, PA and Baltimore and Annapolis, MD while we were there.
The second week was spent in Southern California. My first trip out west. Most of it was in San Diego but we also spent a couple of days in Los Angeles as well as visiting the mountains and the desert and Palm Springs and Julien and the Salton Sea (which I’m pretty sure I just misspelled) and we also spent a ton of time communing with the Pacific Ocean, which was beyond amazing.
Yeah, my honeymoon was the best vacation of my life. Better than all of the destinations and events was the company. I love you, Jen.
2023 50/90 Challenge Day 4/90
Another less than spectacular day but still seeing some progress. Two new song ideas started. One is just a few noodles, the other is a full song form with a swing groove. Scary.
I’m up to eight ideas in progress now. Still no real instruments recorded, just MIDI tracks. Hoping for more substantial noise making tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Does This Work?
Years ago I was posting music on this page using HTML5 audio tags and links to my alonetone account. For some reason I stopped doing that. I think its because the audio file links were auto-downloading instead of just opening up in a new browser tab.
Everything on the wordpress.com side has changed too, but I wonder if I can still use the tags. I found some ancient posts (from 2014, I think) that are still functional. Can I use those tags again?
ADDENDUM: Nope. Doesn’t work in this editor. I tried a whole bunch of different variations on the tag attributes but nothing worked. No big deal. I’ll keep using hearthis.at when I want to post audio here. Okay, sorry to waste your time.
Dumpster Diving
I could have titled this one Spring Cleaning in Summer but Dumpster Diving seemed more dramatic, you know?
Photogenic Felines
I had to go upstairs for something. At the top of the stairs you’re looking into my beloved wife’s office. This was what was looking back at me.
I took that with my iPhone but a few minutes later I came back with my Nikon in hopes of getting another shot. Nope. Robin had left the room and Lily was uninterested. I took this for my photo-a-day thing anyway. The light is more interesting but the cat’s pose isn’t.
I had to go looking for Robin too and I found her in the living room.
Photogenic felines are always distracting, don’t ya know.
Random Thoughts on a Random Friday Morning
It’s Friday morning again, thank goodness. 8.5 hours of work day left until the weekend. My team at work is at half strength today (and Monday too) so I am a little nervous about what might happen today. I’m sure we won’t get slammed with urgent, critical issues or anything. It’s going to be a nice quiet day (he said while knocking on wood and crossing his fingers and all of that kind of stuff he doesn’t even remotely believe in).
I’ve been having a bit of a physical issue when I wake up in the morning. It’s happened at least four times now, including yesterday and today, and I am not sure what to make of it. When I wake up and get out of bed, the base of my left thumb is ever so slightly numb. It lasts for a good chunk of the morning. By lunch time or so it’s passed. It’s not a problem. It doesn’t limit me at all. It’s just there and I am not sure what it could mean, or what could be causing it. I don’t think I sleep on my hand in any funny way or anything. I’m sure it is nothing, but maybe I’ll try to see what position my left hand is in every time I wake up. Maybe there’s a pattern.
Speaking of annoying little health things, my right ear was completely blocked up when I woke up today. I slept on my right side for most of the night last night so that’s probably why. It was partially cleared within a few minutes of getting up and walking around, but it’s not 100% open yet and it’s been three hours. Maybe it’s time to invest in some ear wax softening stuff. Uh, I hate having blocked up ears.
What other random thoughts can I spew out at the universe today? Hamburgers. Yeah, that burger I had for lunch yesterday was so good. It was like a lunch time treat or something. If the weather is okay today I might do it again.
Speaking of weather, we rented a dumpster to help me clean up about a year and a half’s worth of junk that has accumulated in the cellar (mostly) and in the kids’ rooms. It is being delivered today and picked up on Monday morning. We chose this weekend because the weather forecast wasn’t bad. Now though, the forecast is showing thunderstorms over the weekend. I just checked the AccuWeather site and it says to expect storms in the afternoon both Saturday and Sunday. I guess that means I should plan on morning cleaning and afternoon music then? Something like that at least. Our dumpster delivery window opened over three hours ago and still no word. How long before I start stressing about the possibility of them not coming today?
I just got a spam email from Nextdoor on my work email account. Insert a hearty sigh of frustration here.
Okay, I am punched into work now. My exercise is done for the day (no running, just yogging) and breakfast is done and everything is set for a good start to Friday. Except music. I didn’t do any pre-work music today. Maybe after work I’ll sneak a little in. It’s time to start the day. I’ve got some stuff to get through today. Wish me luck.
Authority
I don’t think I am an authority on anything. There’s always more to learn about all subjects. I expect that once you think you have the answers, that’s when reality jumps up and bites you on the ass and proves you wrong.
Being an authority on a subject feels like a goal that is worth striving for, but realistically can never be achieved.
How’s that for deep thinking, eh? Did the idiot trick anyone into thinking he’s smart? No? Okay, I guess it was worth a shot.
2023 50/90 Challenge Day 3/90
Not much today. Two new song ideas. Just a handful of eight bar noodles that I can stitch together to make a couple of song forms.
There might be some guitar tracking tomorrow. I hope so, at least.
Inside the Red Head's Head 