In an attempt to replace any apps owned by billionaire fascists like musk and zuckerberg I created an account on Foto today. Hopefully it will help cut the instagram chord. It just came out of beta and there are bugs and server issues and the search function appears to be garbage. Still, it’s not a meta app.
My user name is the same as my Flickr account, robj_1971.
I feel gross using the facebook/instagram owned twitter alternative app, Threads. Really gross.
That isn’t quite enough to stop me right now though. I am such a social media hypocrite/whore.
Anyway, someone asked, “what are your guitar goals for 2024” or something along those lines. I responded with a few. I figured I would port the response over to this post and maybe add a thing or two because I ran out of characters on the app. First, does the embed code work? I tried just sharing a link the other day to see if that pulled anything in, but it didn’t. I found that each post includes some embedding HTML code. Betcha a dollar it doesn’t work…
Post by @reallytallredheadView on Threads
https://www.threads.net/embed.js
Based on the preview function in the editor, it didn’t work. Oh well. Here’s the text I wrote:
I want my cover band to finally get back together after a covid-hiatus and an exiting singer.
I want to write a shit ton of songs, record listenable demoes of all of them, and maybe have one or two that don’t objectively suck.
I want to play a bar gig for the first time since Feb 1, 2020.
After getting my 1978 Les Paul refretted a couple of months ago, I want to do the same with my 1979 ES-335 along with maybe getting a new wiring harness so that all four of my guitars will be in gig shape.
Me: https://www.threads.net/@reallytallredhead/post/C1ch8b9LyTx
Yes, kids… I just quoted myself. I dun did that.
Anyway, there are a couple of things to add.
I want to replace all of my guitar straps with heavy, leather straps like the one I have on my 50th birthday present Les Paul Standard. I have amazon shipping one for my Les Paul Custom and it should arrive tomorrow.
I want to buy either a Gibson Les Paul Junior, a Gibson Firebird, a Gibson Les Paul Standard with P-90 pickups instead of humbuckers, or a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. The order I wrote them is from most wanted to least most wanted. The chances of me buying any of these is about 0.0000001%… so there’s a chance.
With all of these goals in mind, mostly I would just settle for playing more. That’s what I really want to do.
I heard about a new app that is supposed to be an alternative to Instagram (no video, no tic-tok-ish bullshit) but it is only for images shot on film.
Sure, I’ll check it out.
Or I would if I could find it in the iOS app store. It’s called Grainery and it looks and feels and smells exactly like Instagram, except that when you post an image you have to include the camera, lens, and film used. Good thing I started taking notes!
I created an account on the web version of the app. The article I first read was written in June and it said the mobile apps were imminent. So maybe there is an app in the app store somewhere, maybe there isn’t. My account is RobJ_1971 (just like Flickr).
The only question left is will images from the site embed into posts here? I am guessing no, but let’s paste a link and see what happens….
https://grainery.app/p/3f3nWOWnwcxkvc05JKhM
Nope, doesn’t seem like it works… yet. Let’s get on that, Mr WordPress.com.
The iOS activity app that’s tied to the Apple Watch gives these little challenges every now and then and I like to complete them because I am easily manipulated by technology.
It had a challenge for the Lunar New Year to do one workout of at least 20 minutes between February 1st and 15th. I decided that today was the day. I was going to hop up on that exercise bike and ride for 20 minutes. I brought up an episode of Tacoma FD (s3ep12 Pickleball) on my iPad and put it on the little iPad holder on the bike’s handle bars. Then I told my wife that if she heard a loud crash coming from the bedroom it was likely because I died trying to ride the bike for 20 minutes, and off I went.
I actually went for 21 minutes. The Activity app triggers exercise time based on your heart rate and for the first minute of my workout (which I tracked in the Workout App because I am not only easily manipulated by technology, but I am also chemically dependent on using technology for everything imaginable) my heart rate did not increase enough. I wanted the 20 minute workout, but I also wanted 20 minutes worth of exercise time on the app, so I had to throw in an extra minute.
What a feeling of accomplishment! Well… I assume I would have a feeling of accomplishment for catching the little carrot that the little app dangled in front of me, but my legs hurt so much that I can’t acknowledge any feelings other than aches and pain and a general sense of blissful, pain masking numbness.
The next challenge is to do 30 minutes of exercise on Valentine’s Day. That’s no worry. I want to do 30 minutes total every day, so it’s a gimmie. Assuming I can get my legs to move again. That’s sort of a big if right now.
It was the last day of August 2019. Jen, Harry, and I had just played nine holes of par three golf and were out somewhere for lunch. Among the many things discussed were Flickr’s photo a day challenge (why?) and a scene in Family Guy where Peter takes a selfie a day for a year and turns it into a video. The next day I started a photo a day thing that has lasted for over two years now. I also started using an app to take a selfie a day and turn it into a video. I stopped that after one year, but a couple of months ago, while in my brief, ultimately unnecessary, quarantine adventure, I started another one.
The original idea behind the selfie a day app was that if I forget to take a photo one day, maybe I will have taken a pic for the selfie thing and I could use that. In the 2019/2020 photo a day thing it never happened. In the 2020/2021 photo a day thing it wasn’t an option, but it still never happened. In the current 2021/2022 photo a day thing… it happened yesterday.
I did take a picture of something but I deleted it. I think I took a picture of a letter where the text was too small for old people to actually read. I didn’t think that counted for the photo a day thing (why?) so I trashed it. Today I realized that I never took another pic through the entire day. But wait! Yes I did! I have a notification for the selfie a day app that posts at lunch time and I took that pic! I downloaded it, sent it to Flickr, and BAM! Back on track, babie!
Want to know something that would make me really happy?
It would make me really happy if the damn spam filter in Gmail would actually do it’s damn job.
I can’t tell you how many junk emails I get over the course of a day that I have already, on multiple occasions, marked as spam. I know I’ve already marked the from addresses as spam because when I send the new emails to the spam folder I don’t get prompted with the unsubscribe option the way you do when you send something to spam the first time.
It’s not the end of the world or anything, but it does get on my nerves. It is something small and annoying that really pisses me off when it happens.
Come on Gmail. I’ve been a user since 2005 for crying out loud. Do your damn job.
I’m feeling weak today.
No it’s not a physical strength thing. I’m still freakishly strong (or so they say).
No… it’s… a Facebook thing. There’s a part of me that wants to just say duck* it and install the Facebook app on my iPhone and see what’s going on in the old guitar gear groups.
Yeah… weak.
*I thought it would be funny to purposely use the word duck, which we all know is autocorrect’s go-to fix for fuck. Unfortunately, when I tried typing out duck it somehow autocorrected to suck. I must have mistyped, but it felt like autocorrect was making fun of me for trying to make fun of it.
We watch these things on the YouTubes all the time. Pitch meetings. Pitch meetings are tight.
So there is a hidden downside to working around the clock over the weekend.
There are a bunch of podcasts that I like to listen to during the work week that release new episodes over the weekend. This week I’ve listened to all of them. Now I have nothing to listen to during my actual work shift tomorrow.
Bummer, dude.
Unrelated to work, there was good news today. First, we got to see Bellana for about five minutes. She was passing through town and stopped in to say hello. Second, we had a FaceTime call with Harry! Both kids on a random Sunday! If only I had had a chance to shower and change out of yesterday’s clothes! Also, if I don’t get a haircut soon my head is going to collapse under it’s own weight. Keep an eye on the news. The headline will likely be, “Red Head’s Head Implodes. News at 11:00.”
Inside the Red Head's Head 