Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

It's 2003 again. At least on Facebook, where everybody keeps posting those things (they're not quizzes, no, neither they are memes; what are they...), like 'Which Superhero are you'? or 'Which Hollywood sex symbol are you?'. Which we all saw on our timelines on LJ twelve years ago. I couldn't see the point of that sort of thing then, I cannot now. Still, whatever floats your boat.

Interesting piece in Zdnet, if a little bit rather a personal attack, on the guy at Google who came up with Google Plus. Ephitets apart, it does reflect something that I've felt about Microsoft, Google and to an extent also Apple: they may have good intention to begin with ('do no evil..') but their developments and policies encroach in our lives in a way that in time may make Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' look like child's play:

http://www.zdnet.com/thanks-for-nothing-jerkface-7000030306/

Hating the new livejournal layout. It took me a while to find how to log in again, even. Yeah, let's make it simple and put large fonts and make it more like facetwit. And mobile.

[Edit ] Ah, it has reverted to the previous look once I logged in. Confusing. The info page still has that 'My Little Info Page' look, though.

it would seem like the livejournal so-called memes have moved to Facebook. The sort of 'Which character in famous movie are you' type quizzes. I thought those things had died in 2004. Never understood their appeal but then, there is so much about pop culture that I don't understand.

Funny old livejournal -or at least my f-page, which of course I do not know whether representative of LJ in general or not.

In the last couple of weeks there had been a lot of posts, including a flurry of 'is anybody still here' ones from people who'd been away and, for various reasons, came back at least that one time. And then.... nothing much for the last couple of days; two posts yesterday apart from my own (and my alter ego, flavio_matani). And one was from grrm promoting his new cinema. Quiet quiet indeed. Not quite as dead as dreamwidth.org, mind. DW just came too late to the game, when people were worried about the Russian owners of LJ but were already moving tent to Facebook. Or maybe I just haven't found the right people over there?

One little thing about terminology of these things: I much prefer the Twitter use, 'following' rather than 'befriending', which invests it with connotations that make it harder when people (especially people you know) ignore you or don't 'befriend' you back. By 'you' I mean of course 'me..'.

Even quieter than usual here. May have to rethink about keeping this DW account. A bit like my Diaspora account, my Identi.ca account and even my App.net account -all of which would be promising if the people I know actually were in those networks... but they're not, they're in Facebook and Twitter and (still a sprinkle of them) in livejournal.

At least none of those accounts (apart from App.net) costs money to keep...

One small niggle with social sites -including LJ as one- is that whenever someone posts some announcement (normally clubs or gigs) you get to see a gazillion copies of it in different places and, in lj, on different communities taking over your entire friends' page -oh, ok, that may be a slight exaggeration and it only feels like it. And the perception (not the reality) of it is that it is always events (it is always events) that you don't intend to or cannot attend that have this effect. There is a very fine line between making people aware of what you're promoting and... spam. This line probably lies largely at the receiving end and, again probably, changes from person to person.... for me, it's as simple as three or four big banner posts in different communities so I have to scroll miles down to see what other people in my friends' list have to say (and the people posting the promotion banners never see something like this as most often they don't subscribe to my lj). But then I may be getting cantankerous in my old age...

This year I put up a little xmas tree, a table top one -there's no room in the flat for anything bigger. I hadn't put a christmas tree since I was a kid, so a little out of practice with these things. Like, I ended up putting the lights last of all so it looks a bit sort of strangled.

A couple of weeks ago I had started to read 'Hitch 22' then stopped to .. read 'Anathem' again, and then I finally got started with the 5th book in grrm's 'Ice and Fire' series, Dance with Dragons. Once I finish this -if you can talk about 'finishing' a book that will not have an ending- will go back to Hitch. There's a little practical problem, one that I would not have foreseen a couple of years back: I've got used to read ebooks a little bit too much: I mostly read whilst on public transport and very late at night in bed. I bought Hitch's book in paper form. I already carry so much stuff with me, when out and about doing my guitar lessons -guitar, laptop computer, a couple of kilos of music.... if I already have the iPad or kindle or indeed the phone (the iPhone makes for a quite decent ebook reader) I don't really want to carry seven hundred pages of book as well. I'm loath to buy the thing again in ebook format.... yes, yes, I know; there are ways, but...

Same little problem (if it is a problem) with the Isabel Allende book my sister brought me. Started it, got some twenty five pages into it... and there it's stayed, four weeks on. that is in Spanish (and why would I want to read it in English) and you probably cannot get it in ebook format.

On the other hand, I do like physical books, the feel of them and even having them on display, it's a bit like declaring to the world something about who you are. You can't do that with ebooks...

Well, today I got up at 5:30, as I will twice a week (and once a week at 6:annabit) for the foreseeable. Second day of school was quite good, although for some reason they gave me rather few pupils this year. So I came back home in time (just!) to go to the gym, do some 40 min of cross trainer and a couple of other things, go to the swimming pool and get from one side to the other and back again a few times, then run to my next lesson. And then my two lessons for this evening both cancelled. 

So, it was looking like rather a good day until I checked Facebook. What a horrid mess. Found a temporary run-around by switching the main language to Spanish, which brings it back to how it was this morning -just a bit horrid instead of comprehensively horrid and with the Better Facebook extension helping make sense of it. Which doesn't work in the New Facebook, but did once I switched to Spanish. Of course, the Fantastic Improvements in User Experience will reach there shortly, but in the meantime I only have to learn what the menus mean. In my native language...

So, unexpectedly free evening, but no money to do anything. Looks like I'll have to read, then *. Or, perish the thought, watch telly. But there would only be telly on it so not worth it...

* Currently reading: 'The Greates Show on Earth', by Richard Dawkins. And some science fiction by Poul Anderson.