Tag: #facebook

  • ODDS and ENDS: Facebooks is Alcohol, Bad Art Friend, and Gravy Recipe

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    I am clearly going to say I told you so, even though we all agreed beforehand, and I really wasn’t the first person to say this either… Everything is Facebooks fault. Every evil in the last twenty years, the root of it all goes back to them. Is that true? Not really, and I don’t believe it. But I believe the better way to think of Facebook is like alcohol. See, alcohol doesn’t make someone an asshole, but that person might have had a little bit of asshole in them that they could control before they started drinking. The alcohol just heightens their assholiness. And also, like alcohol, the more an asshole drinks, the more of an asshole they become, and sadly then they can’t stop drinking nor remember what life was like being a non-asshole. That was a long way to go to basically say alcohol companies need alcoholics to stay profitable. Check out the story from The Guardian, if you don’t believe me.

    Just read the story. There are so many takeaways from this piece, it’s hard to put it in one post. It’s about a writing group, but really, I see it as a story about how awful and needy people can be, especially creative people.

    And I have a gravy recipe that I am very proud of.

    Ingredients:

    1. 1/4 cup butter
    2. 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
    3. 1 cup chicken stock
    4. 1/4 cup cream
    5. ½ a teaspoon dried thyme
    6. Salt and Pepper to taste.

    Instructions:

    • On low heat, melt 1/4 cup of butter in a sauce pan.
    • Sprinkle 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour into the melted butter and stir this roux continuously for about 5 minutes.
    • Take 1 cup of chicken stock, and whisk into the roux, a little at a time, until well blended.
    • Whisk in 1/4 cup of cream, until well blended.
    • Add ½ a teaspoon of dried thyme, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Again, whisk it all together.
    • Simmer gravy until desired consistency.

  • Yes, Of Course Facebook is Lying

    How many out there really needed the whistleblower on 60 Minutes to confirm what you already knew was true? Facebook makes money off of hate, lies about it, and drags its feet when it comes to doing something about it.

    I’m not a religious person, but this has all the trappings of a devil’s bargain; You can do something good with your technology and become rich, or you can ruin the world and become stupidly rich? (Google had the same choice, and we know what their decision was. That’s why they quietly deleted their old company moto; Don’t Be Evil.) Mark and Sheryl and a whole lot of other people chose stupidly rich and evil. We know that’s true because the documents prove it.

    So, how do they sleep at night?

    Somehow, someway, they looked at this data and said, either or both, that it’s not that bad, or it’s not my fault.

    My guess is that they went with, it’s not my fault. I bet they said that people were evil and hate filled to begin with. That people are just using Facebook and social media in general as a platform to spread their self created hate. If they didn’t use Facebook, they would just use another platform.

    Hey, maybe I’m wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.

    But, this platform is out in the world now. It’s being used to do harmful things; from destroying self-esteem, to destabilizing governments, to justifying genocide. Something needs to be done, because the fact is that they cannot be trusted to do the right thing.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Autumn Traditions, Fantasy Football, and Facebook Knew

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    It’s Autumn, and not fake “I Want It to Be Autumn So I Put on A Sweater But It’s 80 Degrees Outside” Autumn. It is in the 60’s and leaves are starting to change. Which means in our home, we’re going apple picking soon! This is the cheesiest tradition we have in our house. I mean, I do love it, but it is cheesy. We drive way the hell upstate to find some out of the way farm that isn’t too crowded, and go crazy picking and eating apples. The kid can only take about an hour of it, but for the first thirty minutes, we all behave as if we are some sort of apple expert, deciding how many of each variety we want. But I love it. And this year, I promise I won’t make the same old line about how we’re paying the farmer to his job. No more of that Dad Joke.

    Just for the record, I have a pretty good team in my fantasy football league. Now, I admit that I had nothing to do with my teams’ selection, as I let the computer auto draft my players. But man! I’m like Stephen A. Smith around here! I do know everything!

    Yup, Facebook knew. We all know this. Facebook knew what it was doing; how awful social media could be to democracy, and mental health, and all of it. But we all still use social media. Will the whistleblower who will talk on 60 Minutes on Sunday, and Congress on Tuesday, change people’s behavior? Sadly, I doubt it.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Traffic Tickets, IG is Harmful, and the Sadness of a Bald Man Getting a Haircut

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    It’s Friday, which is normally the day I that have to do the Alt Side Parking dance in the City. We had taken the car to get inspected at the start of the week, and the parking spot we found was Friday 9:30 to 11am. That time really didn’t work with my schedule, so this morning I went to go get the car and move it to a place where I knew I could get an 8:30 to 10am spot, which is much better for all the stuff I needed to get done today. Anyway, when I got to the car this morning, I had a ticket on the windshield for “Illegal Plastic Cover on License Plate.” That’s a thing? I say that because the car has been in the city for a long time. Long enough for us to get a couple of other parking tickets, all while that plastic cover was on the plate. So… why is it worth a ticket now?

    The one story this week that went by that I say got no traction was the leaked internal report from Facebook that Instagram is harmful, even toxic, to girls sense of worth and self-esteem, even though Facebook had been denying that for years. Wait?!?! Corporations lie? I will compare this story to the one about cigarette companies knowing that smoking was killing their consumers. It’s the same thing how alcohol companies know they need alcoholics to stay in business. Doing the right thing and making money really don’t go hand in hand. As someone who has a daughter, this only makes me want to keep her off of social media as long as possible.

    I need to get a haircut, I am a balding man, and this is an uncomfortable issue that comes up every three months or so. Not the way you think. I am balding, and I am okay with it. I knew it was coming since I was a little boy, as my father, and grandfather were bald, and also my grandfather on my mother’s side. So, there was no avoiding this. What makes getting a haircut uncomfortable is that I have half the amount of hair, and yet I am charged the same amount of money as if I had a full head of hair. I should at least be getting some sort of discount. The barber doesn’t have to work as hard on me, as my only options are short, or shorter, or no hair at all. I think 25% off would be fair, as I feel like I am subsidizing full headed men on their haircuts.

  • I Should Be Working

    Not sure what I should be working on today. I keep thinking that some idea will pop into my head, but that hasn’t happened. I have been sitting here for an hour now and nothing has come to me.

    What have I been doing for an hour?

    I balanced the family checkbook.

    I watched an episode of the old Addams Family on PlutoTV with my daughter.

    And at the same time, helped the kid spell some words for a book she was writing for her mom.

    I read an article about the Battle of Harlem Heights, which happened this day in 1776.

    There is no school today, in case anyone is wondering why the kid is here right now.

    And now, I’m starting to think about what I’m going to be doing the rest of the day…

    Later today, I’m going to try and convince the kid to watch Tottenham play Stade Rennais FC in the Europa Conference League, but I’ll probably be watching that alone.

    I should be working on some home improvement projects today… I might do that next…

    Oh, I did read an article in The New Yorker about CRT. It was informative.

    I should do a water color sketch.

    You know, my blog posts aren’t getting the views that they used to. I used to get 4 views per post, and for the past two weeks it’s dropped to one. I think my quality of posts is declining, which would explain why the numbers are dropping. Or… WordPress is suppressing my numbers, just like FaceBook and IG do to control your viewing habits.

    But, perhaps I said too much…

    I guess I’m back to using Twitter.