Tag: social network

Random Thoughts

The last few days have put me into a prolonged, slow burning state of freak out. Fun.

My friend’s father passed away on Monday. My father went into the hospital on Tuesday. No details on either situation will be forthcoming. We just got clobbered by a thunderstorm which, it turns out, was rough enough to knock out the power in the hospital. The backup generators kicked in a second later, but woah.

I am planning to go to the hospital after work tonight. I need to make dinner first but then I’ll go for a quick visit before visiting hours end. Tomorrow morning is the funeral. I’ll go to the hospital afterwards. How’s that for a tough day? The last few days have been bad, but tomorrow… woah.

On less important (re: not important at all) topics, I have one more episode of The Umbrella Academy’s final season to watch. I strongly suspect that once I finish that final episode I will immediately start a rewatch of the entire series from season one episode one. I think that is going to happen.

Earlier today I was looking at Threads (the twitter alternative social network made by the same assholes who make instagram and bookfayce which begs the question why the fuck am I giving this new social network site the time of day) and I posted that musically speaking, today is a Porcupine Tree kinda day (from a mental health standpoint, of course… meaning heavy and complicated and confusing if you’re not paying close attention). TWELVE MINUTES LATER I got a notification that the Porcupine Tree instagram account had been ported to Threads. They haven’t posted anything yet but I guess I should say you’re welcome?

I don’t know what the dad situation is going to be like this weekend but I do know that Bellana, my step daughter, is coming over for a visit. All the bad, scary stuff going on feels a little more bearable when the kids come by. I am really looking forward to seeing how she did at her conference this week. I want all the sciency details.

Speaking of science, from a nutritional standpoint I screwed up yesterday. I spent the whole day at the hospital with Dad and when I left the house I forgot to take my pill case with me. I took my breakfast vitamin pills before I left, and took my lunch vitamin pills when I got home for dinner. I was going to take my dinner vitamin pills before I went to sleep, but I fell asleep earlier than expected and missed that dose. Dummy. Note to self: bring the friggin’ pill case tomorrow. Dumb ass.

What else? Word from the hospital this afternoon is that Dad is starting to show early signs of coming out of whatever was wrong. My fingers and toes and eyes are all firmly crossed. Again, I am not sharing details beyond a small hint of optimism. Enjoy it while you can.

Okay, Robert. Stop stressing and get back to work. You have stuff to do. Do it.

I’m Pissed at Elon

I was fine using twitter. I didn’t use it a lot, but I would bring it up when I watched a Bruins game or a Red Sox game and it was fun to see other people react.

Then Elon Musk… that prick.

Now I am stuck trying to decide which alternative social network I want to use in place of the twitter. Why? Why did that spoiled asshole have to screw everything up?

Bluesky?

Threads?

Mastodon?

Which one should I go with? I have been using Threads a lot but today I had the urge to go back to Bluesky. Why? Why do I care? What does it matter? I should just go back to myspace. Is friendster still a thing?

Saturday Morning

I slept late today. I didn’t get up until almost 8:00am. The temperature outside at that time? 31 degrees. Shit. Winter is here.

I did my morning exercise before breakfast today. Over the last couple of weeks I have been walking in place for a bit then running in place for a bit and alternating until I hit about 5k in simulated distance. Yesterday I just ran the whole thing About 32 minutes, I think. Today I did the same except I actually used the indoor run workout in the workout app instead of the indoor walk setting. I went a little over my distance goal so that I could get up to 700 calories. I ended up at four miles (simulated). My feet and my calves are hurting, but I feel like I accomplished something.

The plan for today is another small kitchen improvement project, a visit to my mother, and a visit to my father. Beyond that, I don’t know for sure. Guitar, I hope. Bond movies, I assume. I want to watch yesterday’s That Pedal Show but the topic is a Boss pedal and I don’t really like Boss pedals, generally speaking.

I just stumbled over the new clock app in the new MacOS. I opened the clock on my phone and it came up on the laptop as a handoff. Sweet. Now I can track my time between bites on my computer instead of my phone.

I started a Bond movie while doing my faux running today. A View to a Kill. The last Roger Moore. It’s better than I remembered it, but it’s not very good. Christopher Walken as the bad guy. Can he play the bad guy in every Bond movie going forward? That would be fun.

I haven’t done my pick for the World Series post yet. Game one was last night. No spoilers on my pick, but the Phillies won and I am happy. I’ll do the real post later today. The UMass Lowell Riverhawks won too, and the Bruins are off to their best start in 10000 years at 8-1-0 after another win last night. I failed to watch/listen to either game, but I followed the scores as best I could. It was the first time I didn’t listen to at least a few minutes of either team’s game. Oh well.

Last night Jen and I both threw our names into the hat to be beta testers for Jack Dorsey’s new social network, Bluesky Social. Over the last year or so this page has been the only sort of social networking service that I’ve really been using. Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate. I stopped using Facebook and I’ve nearly stopped using Twitter, but I still use Flickr and lately I’ve been using the Flickr Groups more than normal and all of that counts as a social network. I have no idea what Bluesky Social is going to entail, but if it lets me thumb my nose at Musk and Twitter a little then sign me up.

Okay, time to wrap this post up. Bond and Tanya Roberts just stole a fire engine and jumped a draw bridge and that’s not cartoonish at all, right?

How Goes the Facebook Crusade?

I haven’t mentioned the old anti-Facebook crusade that I started a while ago in some time? How’s that going, Robert?

Well I’m glad you asked. It’s been three weeks or so since last I mentioned it and I’m sad to say I’ve actually been on Facebook twice in that time. It’s okay though, I can explain.

First, now that I’m off my father decided to create a new account. I don’t think the two things are related, but the timing is a little crummy for me. My sister mentioned that he sent a friend request. I logged in, accepted it, and logged out. That was it.

Second, I was listening to a podcast focused on cover bands. One of the hosts mentioned a music venue in Manchester, NH that I wasn’t familiar with. I Googled it and clicked on the first link to come up. It was their Facebook page. I wasn’t logged in but I still clicked off as soon as I saw the banner. Nope, no Facebook for this red head.

That’s it. So since the whole thing started almost two months ago I’ve been logged in twice and on the system without logging in once.

I think I can do better than that in the future.

Ello

Let’s review the timeline, shall we?

Ello launched as a social network that promised to never sell add space, and to never sell your personal information, but no one on Earth noticed.

Then in September it was suddenly and without warning all the rage, thanks in part to Facebook being a dick about forcing people to use their real names on their profiles. Suddenly everyone and their Uncle is clamoring for an invite. Being the social media content whore that I am, I too put in for an invite… from multiple email addresses. I figured I’d have to wait a few days, maybe even a week.

Time wears on and I, like everyone else on the internet, lose interest and can no longer spare even the slightest thought toward this new platform that very much reminds me of tumblr.

Fast-forward to sometime after midnight last night/this morning and BOOM, there is my ello invite. Oh good, just what I really didn’t want anymore and had more or less forgotten about. But still… we are talking about me, a self professed social media content whore, so I accepted the invite and created an account. I also sent an invite over to my brilliant, charming, angel of a wife and she signed up too.

Here’s a link to my new ello page. Obviously you are all very excited about this. Yet another place for me to dump camera phone pictures! WOOHOO!

Now they just need an actual mobile app because their mobile site is a little clunky. Well, let’s be honest, the actual web site is really clunky, the mobile version is even clunkier. So here’s to an iOS app, and maybe the ability to post music via direct links (ie, alonetone) and not just through soundcloud (booo!). Maybe I’ll start an account for the band too. I can put anything I want on there and be safe because no one is ever going to see it because as a social network, ello is probably already dead!