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By Keith, March 6, 2010 1:18 am

I don’t do different things to be different.  I do different things because different is often far more interesting.  That’s why I joined a new social networking site that couldn’t be more different than Facebook.    You could say it’s a lot like Twitter, but it’s definitely NOT Twitter.  I joined t.sina.com.cn, a Chinese social network.

Why would I do this?  Why does it seem that I have forsaken Facebook and Twitter for a social site in a foreign language?  For me, there is great appeal in talking to people quite unlike myself and unlike most of the people I see and communicate with every day.  I feel the need to be exposed to a different culture, and if I can’t afford to travel right now (because of Godzilla), I might as well put the web to good use.

I’m not on Sina to collect friends.  I’m unlikely to ever rise above 20 due to the language gap.  I was surprised to have any reciprocal ”fans” (what followers or friends are called on this site) at all when I logged on this afternoon.  After all, I had just created my account Thursday night, becoming a fan of only a few handfuls of promising people.  Some who have become reciprocal fans have noted how few Americans are on Sina.

There are no virtual farms or other games to play or spam messages.  It’s basic communication, something I have missed in American social networks, and now I am enjoying something different.

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By Keith, March 4, 2010 11:33 pm

I took tonight off from work, but I have nothing planned.  Big mistake.  Now I’m a little bored so I’m re-watching the latest episode of Lost.  Not one of my better ideas considering I’ve nearly lost all interest in this show this season.  It’s not because they are simultaneously showing what is going on with the parallel universes.  Its ludicrousiosity has greatly exceeded a level I can stand, and this vexes me.  Characters in the island universe just run around not telling each other what is really going on while people in the off-island world run around ruining their lives and the lives of those they care about, but have no real purpose.  It’s a bland and flaky formula of throwing together gratuitous action with some mysterious secrets that amounts to a bunch of ambiguous nonsense.  Throw in some terrible child-actors and a lot of meaningless extras, and you have a most unsatisfying final season.  I guess we’re supposed think “OMG! The show has gone all Apocalypse Now!  Cool!”  Meh.

Google Reader had new stories in some of my subscriptions so I read one from The Crescent (think “curved pastry with egg or sausage”) -News, the awful Defiance newspaper.  From the opening sentence, I thought the article was going to introduce some new merchants or restaurants coming to town, but then I made the mistake of reading the entire (poorly written) article.  Lots and lots of one sentence paragraphs, some of which articulating nothing new or specific at all.  I don’t know why I even bother reading anything from The Crescent-News.  Their writers are dreadful.  You would think English was their second language until you realize that most of them have probably never been out of the country.  Any way, the article turned out to be a bunch of disjointed sentences stating the obvious; times are tough, new businesses might be attracted to Defiance after the highway construction is done, and that Defiance has space available in case businesses do decide to locate here.  Duh.  My favorite part of the misleading article was the picture of the “reporter” standing in a snowy parking lot in front of the vacant Super K-Mart building in a cornflower blue sweater over a shirt with the collars sticking out as if he’s saying “Yep, this is where those new businesses I erroneously named (except he wouldn’t use that word.  He’d use several smaller words that mean the same thing as ‘erroneous’) we’re not getting isn’t going in.”  Ohio too is locked in an alternative universe of 20 years ago.

See what boredom does to me?  Makes me cranky!

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By Keith, February 28, 2010 12:46 am

It’s the middle of the night, and I’m looking for things to do so that I don’t sleep.  I don’t want to sleep, because I’m on 3rd shift, which means I’m working nights and sleeping mornings.  While I sit hear listening to a classical guitar stream from Shoutcast, I’m seriously considering going out on Facebook in a blaze of snarky brain-eating zombie comments Sunday.

I probably won’t do that.  Although very few people have voted in my poll regarding what I should do with my Facebook account, I’ll probably just go along with the response receiving the most (3) votes.  In the afternoon, I’ll check it again to see if there’s been any movement.  I suppose I could just leave my account active (if that’s what people want), posting only on special occasions like award ceremonies or zombie apocalypses and such.  It’s not as though Facebook will be missed by me all that much since most of my friends do have my email address and no how to reach me.  And I have this blog that I have been neglecting.  Oh look!  Actually, you can’t see it, but my notebook’s temperature is 49° F. </random>

The future is getting brighter.  Time I had spent elsewhere can and will be spent right here.  I’ve already removed my Facebook account from my TweetDeck client on both of my notebook’s primary operating systems.  That was a large step in the right direction in my separation from the book of faces.  After tomorrow, I’ll remove Facebook from my Speed Dial thereby adding another small hurdle to my accessing the site.

As you can see on the right side of the page, I’ve added recent Google Buzzes for people to see the type of stuff I frequently link to.  I wish Buzz would catch on with more of my friends, but I doubt most of them have any interest in learning  and adapting to yet another social network (if you can really call it that).  Buzz isn’t exactly straight-forward in its use, and doesn’t have a lot of shiny applications/distractions.  Its simplicity is exactly why I like it.  With a browser extension, I can easily link to a news story or anything online really, and drop a comment on it.  People who follow me can see the link, see my comment, and reply.  But it won’t catch on, not with my friends.

On a completely different note, I was watching Paul Merton In Europe, a show on BBC 5 (at least I assume that’s what the big “5″ in the upper left corner indicates) earlier tonight.  What a fantastic show this is!  Why aren’t there shows like this here in the United States?  Paul is traveling through Europe, talking to extremely interesting people doing extremely different things, and he does it with such flair and a sense of humor that I never get tired of watching his adventures.  Okay, enough chatter.  I’ll watch episode 1×5 now.  I believe he was heading to France next.

Have a good day light dwellers.

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By Keith, February 25, 2010 8:32 pm

Since my last post, I’ve been winding down my Facebook account.  First, I removed all of my personal information from my profile. Next, I deleted all but 2 photos.  I think they accurately summarize how I feel about Facebook.  They are my angry Mii and a picture of autumn leaves.  Finally, I deleted all access to my profile by applications and limited access to the very little that’s left to only myself.

What I may do is leave my profile active and just never post anything again.  If I do that, I’ll probably look for a way to disable Facebook messages, because I really don’t like receiving emails telling me I have a message, showing me what the message says, but not letting me reply directly via email.  An alternative would be that I disable my account and create a new account strictly for announcing blog posts.  That would stop me from spamming people on my friend list who really couldn’t care less.  It really sucks that I hate Facebook so much right now, because there are quite a few friends I enjoy keeping in contact with.  I suspect those connections would fade if I disable my account.  Hmm…

<looks for polling plugin for blog>

 Loading ...

There you go, democracy in action.  If you don’t like any of the choices, feel free to state your idea as a comment.

Comments (2)

By Keith, February 25, 2010 4:35 pm

My current feelings toward Facebook could just be a passing phase, a fleeting seasonal attitude.  I am aware of this much, I’m beginning to loathe Facebook and Facebook culture.  People like to rant about the dumbing down of America, but to what low standards they seem to hold their own internet usage.  Do I sound like a broken record?  Does Gen. Y or Z even know what a record is?

The new interface is not the problem, it’s what some people are doing with their Facebook accounts that annoys me, makes me avoid logging in.  Some people don’t seem to know or care that most of the applications they use on Facebook create spam for everyone on their friend list.  Some people don’t know or care that their applications spam their friends with invitations and clutter their friends’ walls with what most of us perceive as garbage content such as virtual drinks, flowers, or other “gifts.”  How many times have you seen that one of your “friends” has answered a question about you, but to see what they said, you must authorize this shady application to access your profile?  This bad behavior pisses me off.  It should piss you off too, if not at your “friends” than at Facebook for allowing their partners’ applications to act in such a dubious manner.  It seems that most people on Facebook don’t seem to have a clue about what their applications are doing or even what personal information they are allowing to be accessed.  I have scripts and extensions installed in my browser(s) that block the majority of spam Facebook spews onto my news feed.  Should I have to do this to enjoy a social networking site?  I think not.

I realize that people like to share information about their lives.  For the most part, I appreciate this.  What I don’t understand is the incessant posting of the most mundane trivial rubbish.  I get it that you’re tired after work.  Most of us are.  It’s these redundant messages that convey nothing of note that influence me to ignore Facebook altogether.  Most of the time, I too have nothing of interest to post.  That’s when I don’t post.

This brings me to the most irritatingly ridiculous posts on Facebook, those espousing some silly childish magical thinking.  I’m talking about the obligatory “I’ll pray for (insert whatever subject that is expected to make the original poster feel better but not actually do anything here).”  Really?  You’ll pray for someone or something?  These are the most pointless and ignorant posts I see on Facebook, and not just because study after study show that prayer does not work.  In my book, saying you will pray over something means you are unable or unwilling to actually DO anything to comfort another human being.  But I suppose it makes some people feel better to know that others are talking to imaginary friends or hoping out loud for a miracle as though some omnipotent being could be bothered to to stop her ego/belly button-gazing long enough to fix their problem.  It’s rubbish to me, and just makes me fear for the future of mankind.

What’s left for me on Facebook?  Requests and invitations sent via applications I loathe?  Advertisements for things I’d never be interested in?  ”News” that a “friend” has become a fan of something obvious like oxygen or sunlight?  Failed attempts at conformed cleverness where we all change our profile pics to represent our favorite cartoon characters?  People posting Farmville pictures to their photo albums?  Links to blog posts ranting about stuff that no one else cares about?

Nope, I think I’m done.  One more week, and I think I’ll be exiting Facebook indefinitely.