I Gave In to The Facebook

I had a rough afternoon today. My stomach was feeling off all day and when it came time for lunch it went bad. Not to get into TMI territory, but there was a small amount of vomit involved. I was trying to have three ounces of turkey and I only got through 1.7 ounces. I did much better with dinner. Jen made beef stew and it smelled so good. I needed to get over whatever was wrong so that I could have some and fortunately I did. It was delicious.

Before dinner though I did something I don’t want to do anymore. I spent a little time on the Facebook. I got today’s Wordle in two tries. If I get it in three tires I post it to Twitter. If I get it in two I post it to the Facebook. So I logged on and posted my success story. Then I checked notifications. Then I joined a couple of Nikon camera groups. Then I vented my food frustrations on a Bariatric Surgery group. Then I perused my timeline a little. Then I came to my senses.

I went to the Nikon groups to ask for suggestions on what the next camera should be. I went to the surgery group to say that my stomach revolted but that I will get through it. I also saw someone who was afraid that he weighed too much and let him know that when I started I weighed even more. I don’t know if it helped at all, but I hope it did. Hell, I’ve lost 140 pounds. If my dumb ass can do it then his can too.

So I cheated on my Facebook ban. Sorry about that. I’ll do better. I just had a tough day but I’m better now.

Friday at Last

It wasn’t really a long week, but now that we’re up to Friday it suddenly feels like a long week. Eight hours and 11 minutes to go until the weekend. Who’s ready?

I was hoping for some car music today but I didn’t get a chance to write any lyrics last night. Maybe tomorrow. The plan as it stands now is to go to see a matinee of the new Thor movie tomorrow. That is both exciting and nervy. It will be our first visit to a movie theater since the pandemic started. That’s why we’re going to the first showing of the day. We’re hoping the place will be empty. We’ll see.

I thought about asking the bariatric surgery facebook group about the pros and cons of small amounts of popcorn, but then I re-declared the facebook boycott so… yeah. I’ll stick to water, thanks. Wicked smaht there, Robert.

I am going to visit my mother tonight. Hopefully I’ll get there once or twice more over the weekend. I need to stop by Dad’s too. We’ll see how things shake out.

I want to do some music, preferably car music and guitar playing and some lyric/melody/riff writing. The faux 50/90 is still happening, but I am about an astronomical unit* behind schedule. There are only six songs in the pipeline right now and none are even remotely close to finished. Also, July ends next week. I should have 13 songs complete by the end of the month. Not happening. Not even close. Still, it’s fun. I just need to get into the groove somehow. I was feeling pretty good on Wednesday. Let’s channel that and do some more.

Photography… I don’t know. Downtown Andover? Downtown Lowell? Boston and Cambridge? We’ll see. I want to have one or two more rolls finished (I have two finished now and one in progress) before I ship off to a lab somewhere, but that could take ages at this point. We’ll have to see.

Okay. Let’s get through the work day before we worry about any of this stuff. Happy Friday, folks!

*An astronomical unit is defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. That is a perfectly accurate description of how far off the pace I am at the moment.

The Ban Begins Again

I ended my personal facebook ban when the psychologist I talked to at the weight loss clinic suggested I join a bariatric surgery support group. I didn’t want to but I did.

I haven’t opened the app for a few days. A few minutes ago, on the spur of the moment, I deleted the app from my iPhone. Later on I’ll delete it from my iPad too.

The facebook ban has officially recommenced. If for some reason I decide I need that bariatric surgery group again I will end the ban again.

Until then?

Patches approves.

They Are Fighting Back Again

Facebook, man. I said the other day that I wasn’t missing it anymore and they were no longer trying to manipulate me into coming back to the social media teat. That was true at the time but not any more.

They are pushing back in a big way. I have received notifications emails from them three times in the last four days. Wow, desperate much? It’s over. Stop calling me. Go bother someone else for a change. Somehow I think this might be karmic retribution for something in my past.

Facebook is fighting back… does that mean caffeine is going to start fighting back too? Oh no!

On an unrelated note, there is no new Star Wars or Marvel show on Disney+ today so we won’t be having a watch party with Harry. That makes me sad. At least we know that Marvel’s Moon Knight is coming, even if it is over a month away.

One final note on the original topic. Facebook must have known I was writing this because they just sent me another notifications email. It’s the second one they’ve sent today. You’re just making a fool out of yourself now, Facebook. Stop before this gets ugly.

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.

Weakness

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.

Effin’ Facebook / Effin’ FoMO

Damn it. Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in!

It’s been two weeks since I visited Facebook. I wasn’t even thinking about it. Not being there was seriously becoming second nature and I was liking it. The ban/boycott, whatever we call it, was becoming less of a thing and more of a normal.

Then they sent me a friggin’ email. I’m pretty sure I marked Facebook notification emails as spam, yet they still come through. It said there were 18 notifications. No sweat. It said there were three friend requests. WhatWhatWhat? Fear of Missing Out officially triggered.

I mean, let’s be honest here… they are all going to be porn spam. That’s a given, isn’t it? We all know that. I don’t get a lot of that shit at Facebook, but given that I haven’t interacted with anyone in weeks it feels like a great big pornographic red flag.

I don’t know though… there’s a big part of me that really wants to log in and see who the friend requests are from. There is a big part of me that also wants to stay away. I am conflicted. I am in social media conflict.

Fuck you, Facebook. Fuck you right in your fucking eye*.

*I don’t think you need to actually see The Book of Mormon to appreciate its brilliance. You just have to listen to the soundtrack. If you do that, you’ll get the reference.

ADDENDUM: I caved. I looked. They were all spam. FoMO. I didn’t look at anything in my time line, I only looked at the notifications. So yeah I was there, but no I didn’t actually put myself into a real position to get sucked into anything. Well… just being there is risking getting sucked in, but I think you know what I mean. FoMO won today, but it’s been reset to zero again. For now.

Gone for Good?

I just installed the Facebook app on my iPad, left a super lame goodbye post, and deleted the app again.

The anti-Facebook crusade part deux is officially underway!

Oh, and of the 106 notifications, exactly one was actually for me. No one there will even notice I’m gone.

So long, bookfayce!

One Month

Today at a little before 2:00 (the end of my lunch break) will mark one month since I started my personal anti-facebook crusade. How many of you fine people have jumped on my little spartacus wagon and left with me? I’ll wait a second for you all to sound off.

(insert sound of crickets chirping here)

Anyway, At some point tonight I may pop in and actually tell everyone there that I’m pissing off. That and clear the 106 notifications (got another email today). I still have Messenger on my phone so folks can find me there, and there’s always twitter (@RobJ_).

After that? Will I be gone for good? I don’t know, maybe? I’m getting to the point where I’m not really missing it anymore. I don’t find myself tapping the spot on my phone’s home screen where the bookfayce app used to be. I take that as a good sign.

Outside of the facebook boycott, today is the day we get to ride out a nor-easter without having a furnace in the house. We have a space heater in Jen’s office and a the wall mounted heater in the bed room. I’m still planning on working from Harry’s room today. If the temperature starts bothering me I’ll move to the bed room. I really don’t think it will though.

Watch me as I eat my words.