Category Archives: Alan

May 17 2012

Why Does Facebook Hate Me?

Okay.   So I know all of my friends will just be shocked that I am pissing and moaning about Facebook again.  But today my friend Susan and I seem to have encountered some kind of really nasty Facebook bug.    Susan told me that for some reason no entries at all appear on her Facebook page.    So I went to her page and sure enough.  The header and the comment box load,  but no entries load. If you click on any of the time links at the right (I clicked April),  older posts to the page will load,  but there is no way to see the current posts.    So about an hour later I had to reboot and logged in to find my own page behaving exactly the same way.

It appears that Empire Avenue is tinkering with the algorithms for the different networks.   I notice that my Facebook score has been going up, up, up every day while my WordPress.com score goes down every day.   It seems to me that my networking on these two sites has not changed,  which is why I suspect (as several other players have recently observed) the scoring is undergoing some changes.   This may necessitate more re-writing to Walking Down The Avenue than I had anticipated,  although it is frankly too soon to know what changes might be necessitated in the book,  beyond simply mentioning them.   Also as of now I am assuming this is simply a temporary Facebook glitch that will be fixed fairly soon.   If the problem becomes wide spread and people stop using Facebook,  this could prove to be a significant social media turning point.  (Though I suspect the problem will resolve itself shortly.)

What about you?   Have you encountered the missing posts on Facebook user pages problem?  Do you expect it will be quickly resolved?     Have you noticed changes in the Empire Avenue scoring of different networks?   Has it changed the way you network?    Please leave a comment and let us know.

By Libdrone • Posted in Alan
20
May 15 2012

Flame: Don’t Spam My Facebook Page, Damn It!

This is a flame.    If you are part of the 99% of my Facebook friends who have never spammed my Facebook page,  please visit someone else today and don’t read this post.   If you have ever posted a foursquare checkin to someone else’s Facebook page,   I’m talking to you.

While I do have an account on foursquare,  I don’t have a cell phone so I rarely use that account.   And I would never post my own foursquare check-ins to my Facebook page,  because I know that most of my Facebook audience would consider it spam,  more or less.    I pay a lot of attention to my page most of the time.   I always delete game notices,  as well as most anything that strikes me as unduly controversial or likely to be offensive.   I try very hard to share content the is both (at times) visually and verbally interesting.

I want to be clear that by and large I really love it when my Facebook friends post to my wall.   A note to say hello,  or catch up on news or just to leave a joke….all of these get an A+ from me.   Leaving a funny picture or a non-spammy link to an interesting article.   That’s great.     But your foursquare check-in???    Are you out of your freaking mind???

I feel as though I exercised great restraint.   I did not un-friend nor block the guy who posted his foursquare check-in to my Facebook page.     I did unsubscribe from almost all of his updates.    And if he ever does it again I will block the mofo already.*    I was chatting with a friend yesterday about how I was the first one to reach Empire Avenue’s block limit.    (I block users on the Avenue whom I definitely do not wish to invest in nor interact with;  for me it’s all about keeping my streams free of things that make angry and very irritated.)   My Facebook page is for me to share stuff with my friends.   And if you think spamming your foursquare check-ins to my page is acceptable,   be assured you are not now nor will you ever  be a friend of mine.

/flame      We now return you to your regular blog content.

*As popular sex columnist Dan Savage would probably advise.

Apr 29 2012

Sideshow Monkey

I’m thinking today about the value of time.    I was surfing about and came across a picture of this new camera some guy invented.    Instead of a photograph,  it spits out a one or two sentence description of what was photographed.    It relies on something called a mechanical turk,  and in reading the blurb I learned that the camera creator paid someone $1.25 to write the two sentence description.   The price was that high in order to get a fast result.   I thought to myself,  ’I would be willing to write a two sentence description of a picture for a buck and a quarter’.   So I went to the site and checked it out.

It’s an Amazon site,  and seemed to remember everything Amazon already knows about me.   It was trivially easy to take on little jobs,   like checking the search engine rank of a particular url,  with a particular search time or grading various machine translations by comparing them to a human translation.     The job rewards range from as little as a penny to who knows what heights someone might pay if their request were urgent and complicated.      I did a number of very simple jobs for 5 to 25 cents and made a few dollars.     I plan to return from time to time to check and see what opportunities are available and to perhaps earn a few more pennies now and then,  just ‘cuz it’s easy and I can always do with a few more pennies in my piggy bank.

I think I would really hate it,  if I were in a position to have to be constantly doing these menial little human intelligence tasks,  desperately trying to raise enough to pay the rent or buy groceries .    On the other hand,  even doing a simple task that will earn only a penny seems to me a better use of time than sitting around complaining that you don’t have enough money or haven’t anything to do.     I also saw some listing where people wanted a mechanical turk to write a 300 or 500 word story and were only looking to pay 60 cents to a dollar and a half.      Of course,  having had experience on vWorker,   I know that global competition has brought rates for basic writing down to the toilet,  so sad though it was,  it was no revelation.     Honestly,  I don’t know whether to be grateful for this new opportunity to earn a few pennies in spare moments or to despair that occupations I might once have aspired to are now outsourced in tiny little bits for tiny little bits of money.

Apr 18 2012

Following My Passions

A conversation on a friend’s Facebook page today,  reminded me that to a very great extent these days I am extremely lucky because I am mostly living exactly as I choose to live.    I have a great huzband,  a mostly comfortable home, and I only work on projects that I choose because they allow me to say things I really want to say.

I know that some people might look at my Empire Avenue stats and see that my scores on all networks are trending down and think that I am still going through a bad time.    But that would be such a false impression.   The stats I achieved on Empire Avenue under my wallet name over the past 13 months or so were the result of both a lot of hard work,  and the web of relationships I have been cultivating online for more than 20 years now.

I am writing and publishing my new project under a pseudonym.     It seems to me that writers have long understood the value of a nom de’plume.    To me the Google folks insisting that wallet names make for a better experience for everyone seems hopelessly naive and spectacularly mis-guided.     The challenge now,   is that none of the people who I have met over this past year,   while talking about blogging, social networking and this, that and the other,  are part of the target audience for my new,  very niche project.     I think I might be able to become quite successful in this niche,   although I will have to do it from scratch under a pretty much completely new name.      Many of the lessons I have learned about building a following and chatting my way to success will apply just as much under my pen name.    But I am a bit awed by the added challenge of starting off from scratch with zero friends  :)

I really am so lucky to be able to spend my days doing just what I really want to do.     And while I know I will never be a hit on that corner where the other folks compare their toys  (though I will tell you I LOVE my CRUZ tablet,  which is superb as an ereader and serviceable as an emergency Internet connection.    I just love pulling over in a residential neighborhood and finding an un-encrypted hot spot and connecting to a web page to find out exactly what I need to know Right Now.    (If you’ve ever driven 10 miles back home to check one last thing on your computer in order to get to where you were going,   you will understand this.)

Apr 16 2012

Facebook Fatigue

Biploar disorder is really weird.   I am relearning today how my bi-polar life,  even when I Have and take most all of my medicines  (which is the case at present) my life is always a series of ups and downs. And having had a really great day,  that stretched for fully 30 hours,  and having slept about 12 hours I need to be sure to report that I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus.

It wasn’t Facebook fatigue I felt this morning– yesterday I was on FB some,  though I used it mostly as a tool,   among many tools in my arsenal to actually get dressed, go out, go somewhere and Do Something.    I had two separate visits,   many hours apart that would have amounted to four billable hours,  if I were the sort to charge a friend  :)  And while I am still manic today,   I am also physically tired.   I have done a lot of work on my new project,  and I fear that going forward my new project is going to take more and more of my attention,  since I will be trying to establish a new niche audience for a fictitious character in an “adult” niche.

I’ve written before about my sincerest belief that Google is tragically mistaken in their belief that forcing people to give a “wallet name”  on their social site provides some level of authenticity or credibility.   The fact that a brand new fictitious character that I am still in the process of creating was easily able to get a G+ profile.   And my wallet name has tons of different e-mails and accounts with Googles and my primary experience with all of Google’s different sites and services is one of intense frustration because I am forever being prompted to change to a different Google account.   Meh.

As it happens I have also been suffering from some actual Facebook fatigue.    I did an Empire Avenue mission the other day,  and found my self on some Facebook screen or another.     All of the posts were by my “Facebook friend”  Seaux N. Seaux.     With only the most cursory glance at the content,  I had clicked Like on the first item.   But when I looked up I saw that I was on a Facebook Page for SomeDamnThing.    And I really did try,  but quite failed to call to mind anything at all about my Facebook friend Seaux N. Seaux.      We own an equal number of shares of each other on Empire Avenue.   And we are connected on Facebook and Twitter.     And I haven’t even a clue who the hell this guy is.

It seems to me I have in some way mastered the art of building a bunch of Facebook friends.   I have an even larger number of friends under another name on another social network that I won’t mention.    I don’t know any of those people either.   Though I did like the pictures they posted of themselves or the way they played a silly little game with me.    I wouldn’t call any of these online friends at 4 in the morning if I had a problem.   They probably wouldn’t recognize me to say hello if we both happened at some time to be in the same public space.     I find myself wondering if I should do some housekeeping in my social networks and try to focus more carefully on a smaller number of more memorable contacts?

What about YOU?

Are You feeling Facebook fatigue.   Do you periodically trim your social lists of contacts whose name and icon no longer ring much of a bell?

Apr 10 2012

143

So my blood sugar this morning is 143.   Still a bit more to go to get down to the goal of 110,  but definitely better.   I have been consistent about taking my pills and injecting my insulin each morning when I get up,  though I do not check my blood sugar every day.    I remain convinced that constantly checking the sugar level mainly benefits the folks who sell the test strips.

I continue to find myself more and more frustrated with Empire Avenue.   Today for the first time in a while I put up a #definethis mission.    I was pleased of course to see some of my old friends participate on Twitter.   But I am uber frustrated–  the mission simply does not seem to appear on my Empire Avenue screens.   If I go to the create new mission tab,   it shows that I have one mission active,   but when I click on the mission it goes to the My Missions tab which shows blank.    It also seems that I have somehow reached the limit on the number of people I am allowed to block.    When I tried to block someone yesterday,  I got a pop up saying that I had reached my limit and to contact support.    I can’t find anywhere in the help docs what the limit on blocking is,  and I am not going to try submitting a support ticket,  as they have not replied to support tickets for the year I’ve been on the site.   Feh.   It feels almost as though they are driving me away.

If several different things work out,   I may drive up to Seattle today with a friend to pick up something I’ve really been wanting for several weeks now.    I don’t much want to drive all the way to Seattle,  but I am thinking it might be worth it to get what I need.     Here’s hoping that your new week is off to a good start.   And I will try my darnedest to get back in the habit of posting to this site every day.

Apr 9 2012

Trying To Get Better

So I had my doctor visit.   Got my insulin and my pills.   Came home and slept a lot.    Sad to say after a full week on the pills and insulin I still feel like dreck.      Honestly I’ve just been too depressed to post to this blog every day,  let along promote the posts, reply to comments and be real sociable on Facebook,  Twitter, etc.

I am thinking that next month when my Medicare starts I’m going to try to insist that my doc at the clinic send me to see a shrink,  who will hopefully put me back on anti-depressants and an anti-anxiety medicine.    I’ve long known of course that my bi-polar is cyclical.  and I also realize that I was manic for a long, long stretch.   Yet this damned depression seems to be hanging on for freaking forever and I am growing very weary of it.

And yet,  I try so hard to hang on to hope.   Hope that some day in the not too distant future that I will be able to get all of the medicines I need to keep me well.   That some day I will again feel real joy in my every day activities.  That the day may come when I can read a newspaper and not fly into a blinding rage at people who politically oppose health care reform and civil rights.   Yet I fear,  as Supertramp sang in their song Rudy,   “…that it may come too late.  Too late.”

Apr 1 2012

No Joke!

I _so_ wasn’t in any mood for April fools jokes today.   I have a Facebook app that notifies me when any of my Facebook friends either deactivate their Facebook profiles or un-friend me.   I was frankly startled this morning when it informed me that four people I like and chat with regularly are no longer on my friends list.    It was strange   I looked at each of their profiles and noted the friend button continued to be displayed at the upper right.   It took me a long time to happen to look at the screen where it told me it was just an April fools joke.

Ron tells me I’m suffering hypersomnia.   I really have been sleeping a lot lately.   Just when it seemed as though I had finally gotten back into the habit of sleeping all night,  I’ve found myself sleeping all night,  waking up for a few hours and then going back to bed and sleeping most of the day.   I’ve resolved that as soon as my money comes in this month I’m going to go back to see the doctor and try to get back on my insulin and pills.     I know the seroquel will at first knock me out and I’ll sleep for a couple of days but after that I’m hoping it will help finally ease me past this nasty depression.    And then next month (May 1st) I start on Medicare and hope to be on all of my medicines regularly again.

Here’s hoping that most of the April fools jokes you’ve encountered haven’t been at your expense and that your new month is off to a good start.    I’m going back to bed and will see you whenever I wake up.

Mar 27 2012

Having Fun

 I strongly suspect that I have not actually cycled up yet.   That the good day I had today was more or less just a high point or reprieve in a depression that will continue once I finally go to sleep and wake up again.   I’ve been up for about 28 or 30 hours as I type this.    I actually first went to bed around 9pm last night,  but I couldn’t fall asleep.   And my very thick winter beard  (untrimmed since sometime in the fall) started to itch.    I went to the bathroom,  took a hard look at my face in the mirror and fetched the clippers from the cabinet.

I started at the longest setting, nine,  and clipped my beard away,  going over and over my face while turning the setting a notch closer every now and then.    I used the clipper without the attachment to remove most of my beard,   though I did leave a short mustache and goatee.    I did not in fact actually shave my face,  so there is a layer of stubble on my cheeks and neck.    But I felt ever so much better after my beard trim and shower.    When I came out of the bathroom,   I put on some fresh clothes and rather than try to go back to bed,  logged on to my laptop.     Around 1:30 am,  a good friend who lives just a couple of miles away invited me to come over.     So I spent the night staying up at my friend’s house.      We had a lot of fun hanging out together and I did not come home until after 9am.

I am frankly pleased with myself for getting out of the house.   And thankful that I have such a good friend who lives so nearby.   And whose hours are just as irregular as mine are,  such that I was able to have a great visit and so much fun while most everyone else in this part of the world was asleep.      I really do cherish all of my friends,   both the ones I speak with online and the ones I see face to face.   And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being one of them.

PS–If the bacon chocolate peanut brittle in the background appeals to you,  click here to order some through a non-affiliate link.