Author Archives: Tom

GoodBye FaceBook

When I first started using Facebook I naively thought that everything I did there would be private. I was under the impression that only people who I accepted as “friends” would be able to see my stuff. I was mistaken.

Over the years Facebook has made it increasingly difficult to manage our privacy settings. They want everything to be public, not private. You could say that Facebook has Twitter envy. For $$$ reasons, FB needs all your stuff to public. Why? Search.

If all your stuff is public, it can be searched. This would drive a lot of traffic from outside FB, say, from a Google search. If people from outside FB are clicking on links that lead them to FB then FB gets the sales advertisements and hopefully gains another FB user. It makes good business sense. But it’s bad for users.

Everything I’ve done on this blog is public. I always knew it would be public. I have written my posts accordingly. But not everything I’ve done on FB I want to public. Some things I’ve done on FB I intended only for a select group of people. I’ve had to maintain constant diligence to ensure that my stuff on FB remains private.

Well, I’m tired of wrestling with the FB privacy issue.

But wait, there’s more!

I’m also tired of all the drama on FB. There’s too much religion and politics (topics I’ve tried to avoid on this blog) on FB and all the arguing that goes along with it. And the weddings and baby pics. It’s the baby pics, most of all, that annoy me. Please no more baby pics.

Well, I’m done with Facebook. This is the end.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to learn to play the harmonica. That’s going quite well, actually. But that is a topic for another post. The main NYR was to quit Facebook, so that’s what I’ve done.

However, it wasn’t enough to just quit FB. With the constant intrusions to privacy I felt like I needed to erase everything I’ve ever done on FB. This required a lot of work.

There is no easy way to delete everything. I used FB for six years, and there was a lot of activity. The only thing I could do was delete every action, one by one. This took weeks of work and countless hours.

Every like, comment, post, photo, link, message, friend… everything. Everything I’ve ever done on Facebook I deleted, one by one. It was mind-numbing work. But I got it done.

When everything was gone I changed my name and e-mail address. I wish I could have just deleted my account, but FB won’t let you do that. They will only let you deactivate your account. You know, just in case you want to come back.

To all my Facebook friends: don’t take it personally. I didn’t just remove *you* as a friend–I removed everyone. It was an across-the-board nuking.

There is nothing for me to come back to. I have no friends and I have no history.

So, GoodBye FaceBook. So long and thanks for all the fish.

Potpourri

So I’m applying for jobs in Denver. My company has a big tech presence in that area, and I’ll have lots of opportunities to grow and move up in the organization. I’m excited about the possibilities.

I’ve been wanting to escape from the People’s Republik of Kaliforniastan for a really long time. Finally, I’m fed up with this state enough to really take serious steps towards employment in another state.

I’ve been exploring the wonders of grapes lately. I like wine but I can’t really get into it. Port and brandy and cognac on the other hand…

I think my favorite cognac so far is Remy Martin VSOP. Hennessey is good, but I don’t think I’ll be buying it again.

I’ve only just scratched the surface of ports. Right now there is a bottle of 10 year old Graham’s tawny on my desk. Delicious.

Been spending less time on FaceBook and more time on Google+ lately. My entire online presence is mostly on Google’s services, so I’ve been migrating in the direction of Google+. Tired of the ongoing invasions of privacy with FaceBook–G+ seems to play nicer. So look for me on Google+

It’s late January and the weather has been nice lately with sunny skies and highs in the upper 60s. My thoughts are consumed by fly fishing. Season opens in just 3 months. I’ve got my fancy new Tilley Hat ready. I just need to pick up some felt-bottom wading shoes and I’m set!

It’s been ten years since I quit smoking and I still get cravings, several times a week. It’s still hard to resist. Sigh.

I still don’t want a BlackBerry mobile phone.

Started new shift this month. I’m still on a 4×10 schedule. I get off work at 11:30pm and my days off are Monday Tuesday Wednesday. Yes, I have three days off in a row every week. It’s glorious. I never want to go back to working 5 days a week ever again.

“Liberty and justice for all” means EVERYONE–even people you don’t like or agree with.

Good vs Evil

There is evil in the world. You cannot legislate this evil away. You cannot bargain with or reason with the evil. You cannot ignore the evil and hope that it goes away.

Evil people are going to do evil things.

The only real solution is for good people to fight the bad. We already have soldiers and policemen, but they cannot be everywhere at once.

Which is why it is absolutely necessary that good people, not just soldiers and law enforcement, be allowed to fight back.

If you want to bury your head in the sand and pretend that the world is not a violent place where evil people exist, well, that’s fine by me. You can take a hands off approach and let the police protect you as best they can, if they can.

But you are not going to prevent me from defending my life and the lives of the people that I love. When seconds count, the police are minutes away.