My Aunt Gin
One of my Aunts passed away recently. I have been meaning to write a post to try and say a little something about her that will convey what an amazing person she was for me growing up but also what she meant to me in my adult years.
Virginia Sloan is one of four siblings to my Mother. To be exact, my Mother being the oldest, Virginia was second. I am not trying to write her biography, there are better writers in my family who will do her a far better justice in that regard. What I do want to say is that, I like to think, my desire and love of traveling, came from my fascination with Aunt Gin and her Husband Uncle Brian. They had the opportunity to live in some amazing places but I especially remember their time in Kaiserslautern, Germany. I never had the opportunity to travel there but the stories they told of their time there always enthralled me. I still have a souvenier stein they gave me.
Geography is a funny thing with my family. Over my lifetime I have lived in a few different places and many of my extended family have as well. Those places rarely seem to be very close to one another. While social media helps with that to an extent, it’s never quite the same as visiting in person. Circumstances allowed for that during a tough time in my life when I was going through a divorce and my Aunt Gin lived fairly close that she would have me and my Daughter over for visits to her condo almost once a month. Gin loved kids. Her own and pretty much anyone else’s, and that included my Daughter. The affection, attentiveness, and plans she would have to make sure my Daughter was loved and visits would be memorable. But it was the quiet evenings when my Daughter was asleep, that Gin would sit with me watching the boats on the waterway and just be a comfort and a good listener while I tried to deal with the loss, sadness, and anger that I was going through. I will always be grateful for that time with her, it still means the world to me.
I love you Gin and I will miss talking with you.
Champions
Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles. That was almost as impressive as my Seahawks over the Broncos.
Professional Napper
I believe there are no other breeds like Greyhounds that can go from hyperspace fast to almost unconscious in the blink of an eye. #Greyhounds
Tallahassee Half and Full Marathon
I will be running my 7th Half Marathon tomorrow morning. This is the 50th year for the event and approximately 2,000 runners are registered. Should be amazing weather and looking forward to the party atmosphere at the start, along the route, and at the finish. Tallahassee Marathon
Leaving
The more I use this blog service at Micro.blog, and browsing Mastodon, the more I am not just enjoying my time “online” but growing ever more firm in the belief in the federated internet. For a while now, I have grown tired and frustrated with the various social services I used, these included, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, and more recently Threads, and Bluesky. I was spending too much time using all of these apps, trying to keep up and battling my self imposed FOMO, I was most certainly developing a bad habit and this was never going to be good for my mental health. Some time ago, I began a process to ween myself away from some of this stuff.
First was Reddit. I decided to leave when they killed third party access for developers, and I almost exclusively accessed Reddit with one of those Apps, named Apollo. The native Reddit app was just terrible to use and partially out of protest to the leadership of Reddit, I quit browsing the site. I kept my account active and still reference the site for looking up answers and reviews of things, I just no longer browse it daily.
Next Twitter… or X… (what a stupid name change). Without getting too political, that service was done for me in a similar way as Reddit. Elon Musk after buying Twitter (for waaaaayyyy too much) killed third party developer access. Similar to Reddit… browsing Twitter with their native app was just terrible, filled with too many ads and an algorithm that was frustrating. Musk has become such a polarizing figure and for me, too much to feel comfortable using his service at all, I deleted my account and dived into Mastodon instead (more on them later).
Threads came along as a response to the Twitter exodus and to their business credit Meta was right to do so. I adopted it early on, and it seemed like it had promise. It was easy to use, had a proper timeline, and there were plenty of people and organizations to follow like I did on Twitter. Belonging to Meta, Threads has become another app/service that I am struggling to justify continuing to use. I will say more about Meta at the end of this post.
So, Bluesky has a very interesting history that I don’t want to rehash here. The short version is the App was developed by the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and he wanted to make a service that more closely resembled the early days of Twitter and I believe he was mostly successful doing just that. He started slow, on purpose, to make sure he was building the service to be stable and not get too big too fast. In the beginning you actually had to obtain an ”invite” from Bluesky to even open an account. Once I was registered, it definitely had that early Twitter vibe and when the above mentioned exodus from X began their growth only ramped up. I still occasionally browse but I find that it just doesn’t keep me coming back the way Mastodon does. I maintain the account for now.
And now we come to Mastodon. Of all the services listed here, it stands in a very unique position and is also the hardest to explain. Rather than a single company or person, owning the service, Mastodon is a free and open sourced service from a non-profit organization. Mastodon has actually been around for quite awhile but like some of the others here it benefitted from the Twitter exodus and has seen a substantial growth. Mastodon is a part of what is called a Federated internet. In simple terms, when you create an account, you pick from thousands of servers called instances that are all run by separate administrators under license from Mastodon. It doesn’t really matter which instance you select, because by the nature of the federation, accounts on one instance can follow and be followed by accounts on any other instance. Using the service is much like using Twitter, or Bluesky, or even Facebook, you pick accounts to follow and their posts show up in your timeline. A big positive of this timeline is it’s chronological and remembers where you last left off and the timeline has no ads or an algorithm. I can’t stress enough how pleasing it is to casually browse accounts that I selected to follow and the posts are not interrupted with ads from companies I didn’t sign up to see. In addition, being open sourced, the service also allows for developers to develop apps for access to your Mastodon account, and from the many choices out there I fell in love with one made by a company called Tapbots named Ivory. I use this app and the service on a daily basis and I get quite of a lot of my tech news, sports fandom, and breaking news from this service.
It occurs to me that, when I started to write this post, I didn’t really have any idea how long it might turn out, thank you for sticking with me. I now come to the real reason for writing all of this. Meta. When Mark Zuckerberg, a second year computer science student at Harvard, stole the idea for what would become Facebook, then using it briefly to rank other female students as “hot” or “not”, he then did realize he was on to something much bigger. I am not going to rehash the history of the service and how he became the billionaire he is today, I am here to state why I am leaving all of Meta and to what extent for each of their apps. I joined Facebook in 2007, and in those early times, I quickly learned what I think is the biggest reason for having a Facebook account… staying in touch with friends and family that you might not otherwise even see in person much less talk with on the phone. I used it for sharing life events with family, both happy and sad, kept up with news, laughed at jokes and memes, pretty much the same as billions of other users. As a photographer, both amateur and professional, I was also an early adopter of Instagram, before Meta bought it. It was an amazingly simple app that really answered the question…What do I do with the camera on this phone?
As I have been self analyzing my online presence and usage of my time, I have also been keenly aware of the dark side of social media. For every heartfelt story of connections there are just as many hateful ones. I have never tolerated it and was a stringent user of blocking and unfriending those that I deemed to negative for my life. I have now come to the conclusion, for me personally, that is not enough. Meta makes their billions from ads, its really pretty simple, as you scroll your timelines and come upon an ad or an account that you did not follow or friend, Meta made a few cents or dollars from that view. Yep… you don’t even have to click the ad, Meta gets paid for views not just click throughs. There is a saying with tech companies and their services, if you didn’t pay for the service, you are the product and they sold you someone else. Meta recently made the decision to halt their moderation (as lousy as it was) and now rely on community moderation (which never works the way they say it will) I no longer want to feed Meta more of my time. Meta only makes money from me if I use their their services, so I will be deleting the apps. It won’t register as even a blip in the Meta monthly bottom line, but I think I will feel better. I will keep my accounts, at least for the near future just in case I do have to return for some reason but my usage of them will be null.
I am teased on the regular for making what should be a short explanation into a long diatribe, and I think I did it again. I am going to continue to write here as frequently as I can because if for no other reason than I like doing it.
D
Chilly Run
Had to try out my new shoes. Topo Cyclones. Chilly 5k today and so far they feel great. #TopoAtheletic
Music That Influenced Me #2
I was having a conversation the other day about the bands and musicians that I had seen live and recalled that the first “big” concert I saw in person was The Go-Go’s with A flock of Seagulls as their opening act (there will be another post about the Seagulls). I believe I was a freshman in high school and Mtv had been on the air for about a year and if you are my age or there about, you know how obsessed we all were with these things called music videos. Among the most played artists during those early years were the five ladies from the punk scene of Southern California. Their most popular hits came from the first album “Beauty and the Beat” with songs like “We Got the Beat” and “Our Lips are Sealed” but their second album “Vacation” was where I really started to begin following them… and saved up to get that album. My favorite tracks from “Vacation” are the title track, “Get Up and Go”, and “This Old Feeling”. The band went through some typical ups and downs like many bands and the lead singer Belinda Carlisle went on to a successful solo career. But, for me the group and that concert will always have a special place in my memories.
President Jimmy Carter
I don’t believe there has been any President who did more good with their life than Jimmy Carter.
Merry Christmas
I am sitting at home. The house is quiet. Our tree is beautiful. Tomorrow is Christmas and I am thinking about family and past holidays. I think about mine growing up and how each one was unique in some way yet, the same in other ways. I think about the first ones with my Daughter and how you look at that day differently when you look at through your child’s eyes. Now that same child is all grown and looking at it through her child’s eyes. I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and remember to cherish these moments.
We Are Not the Jetsons Yet
It is an inevitability that there will come a day when all cars or at least a majority will be autonomously driven. That day is NOT today and to be honest, I hope it’s not in my lifetime. As amazing as the technology is, please do not reply upon it, keep alert and undistracted when behind the wheel. This post is not a political post per se, even though I believe Elon Musk is a con man and has gained his notority on the backs of many talented people. This video is a Wall Street Report on why Tesla’s Autonomous system in particular is not to be trusted and that Tesla as a company is also not to be trusted.
The biggest problem with these systems is they give a false since of security and lull you into thinking that you (and those around you) are being transported safely.
Intel Not Inside
To give you an idea of just how good a decision it was for Apple to make their own chips.
In 2003, Apple released a 64-bit dual-core 1.8Ghz system: Power Mac G5.
In 2023, Apple released a 64-bit dual-core 1.8Ghz system: Apple Watch Series 9.
The Watch is faster and has more RAM.
The G5 was too hot to put in a laptop. It’d use up S9’s Watch battery in under 2 minutes.
Just a Dog and Her Blanket
Sunny enjoying time with her Humans cuddled under a blanket. #Greyhounds
Short Run
Just getting in a short run after having been down with a head cold for almost a week. Baby steps.
Thankful
Here in the US we are celebrating Thanksgiving. I have many things I am thankful for but this year I feel a little extra thankful for my health and the love from my family.
New Clue
Did anyone else realize that Hasbro reshuffled the Suspects in the board game Clue? The originals were: Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Mrs. Scarlett, and Colonel Mustard Now we have a Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, “Mayor” Green, “Chef” White, and “Solicitor” Peacock
I am not sure how I feel about this.
Music That Influenced Me #1
I was listening to some music the other day, just a random playlist in the background, but a song came on and it struck a memory. It’s funny how our senses will do that to our brain, an aroma, a song, a picture, and suddenly you are reliving some memory or event or person that wasn’t even close to the front of your conscience.
This time it was a song, Maybe Monday, by ‘Til Tuesday, from their 1984 album Voices Carry. Most everyone my age (or near my age) probably knows the album and the huge title hit the band had that year, but this was not that song but a different track altogether. “Maybe Monday” is track 8 from the album and about 30 seconds into the song my Brain said “Hey…. Remember mowing the yard growing up and listening to this cassette on your Walkman?” I responded to my Brain by saying “Yes, I remember that vividly like it was yesterday and not literally 40 years ago. Why are you bringing it up now? I have work to do.” Brain said, “No reason, just thought it would be neat to think about that for the next 20 minutes.” ….. I replied, “Brain, you can be pretty weird sometimes…. But I do like the song and the memory.”
What? You don’t have conversations with your Brain like I do? That’s weird. Anyway, the memory triggered another thought about other albums that I have memories of that hold some sort of special place in my brain and that maybe it would be cool if I share a few on this blog every once in while. I may not have a post like this regularly and there will be posts that don’t have a long winded explanation like this post does. But here we go.
Today the Album is Voices Carry, by ‘Til Tuesday.
Sometimes you need to stop and admire the artwork. Lucky Goat Coffee
Still Rocking
Formed in 1976, Def Leppard have released 12 studio albums and the latest one, Diamond Star Halos, is as great as they have ever done. Check out the video for Take What You want.
Brilliance of John Williams
Nice quote from Steven Spielberg at the beginning of this trailer… “The greatest way to demonstrate how much music affects movies, play it absolutely with no music at all. And then, go back and do the whole scene again, with all the cues, and you’ll recognize the brilliance of John Williams.” He is absolutely correct. I cannot even imagine Star Wars, Superman, Jurrasic Park, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Olympics, list goes on and on without the amazing iconic themes he composed. Excited to watch this documentary.