Photo of the Day.

A nice horizontal lightning strike from my back porch tonight.

Die Facebook, Die!

 "And I'll say it again, I need a brand new friend."

Jim Morrison Hyacinth House

For about the tenth time in the past three years, I have abandoned Facebook.  Mostly because it has abandoned me.   Oh Facebook, why hast thou forsaken me?

I know why.  It's because Facebook is a happy place.  It's a place where people can say, "Hey, Look at me! See what I'm doing!"  And mostly, I'm doing it without you.  That's where the forsaken part comes in.

We have real friends (or most of you do) and we have our Facebook Friends.  Facebook friends are mostly acquaintances that we otherwise wouldn't associate with if it weren't for the Internet and its so-called social interaction skills.  Part of those social interaction skills are supposed to bring together people with like interests.  What it really does is bring us together with people with whom we have one thing in common, and Facebook software links us up with others who have the same interests.  Either that, or we are persuaded to become "Facebook Friends" with people that we know but do not otherwise associate with.  Therein lies the problem.

Those of us with horrible, unfulfilled lives are subjected to their Facebook updates.  They are off doing things that we are supposed to "like" but instead, since we aren't part of it, we are forced to read about it and either "like" it or ignore it and wish we could be doing it.

They are enjoying some extravagant vacation (whether or not they work 12 months a year is irrelevant to their definition of a "vacation") or they are buying some expensive piece of technology or some toy that those of us on the outside would like to have but either can't afford or can't finance - and we are supposed to read about it and "like" what they have accomplished.

Moreover, I can't imagine anyone who would want to know about my daily activities.

Then, there is the "Hey, Look at Me!" aspect of Facebook.  All of those things that we don't do because we are  ... working ... and people on the outside are doing because they ... do not ... and we are supposed to look at their photos of their wonderful life and appreciate it.  Well, it ain't gonna happen.

I sit at my work desk, reading this junk and think, "Don't these people work?"  The answer, of course, is no, they do not. They prefer to post Facebook updates at 2:00pm of them off doing something extravagant while the people reading it are looking at cubicle walls.  We're supposed to "like" it and make some supportive comment like, "Hey, good for you!" with a smiley-face emoticon.  That's what we are supposed to do.

As for me, my life is so miserable and unfulfilled, I can't stand to read about their glorified existence. I harken back to the days when their glorified existence was kept to themselves.  If at all, it was restricted to their Christmas letter to their extended family.  It talked about all of their so-called accomplishments throughout the year. It was a condensed version of what would become their daily Facebook updates.

Besides which, I feel as though at least half of the people who have chosen to be my "Facebook Friends" have either unsubscribed from my posts or chosen to ignore them altogether.  What is the point of that? I'd rather have zero real friends (close to reality) than have Facebook friends who ignore what I say.

I once had a friend who, every time I saw him he would criticize some part of my life. Either my car wasn't good enough, my life wasn't right, I didn't have enough money ... something about me wasn't up to his standard.  I decided that I didn't want him to be in my life anymore because, when I saw him I never felt better about myself.  That's the way I feel about Facebook.  Whenever I'm logged-on, I don't feel good about myself.  Why would I want to be around something like that?

As for me, to quote Samuel Goldwyn, "Include me out."

it's not about me

These things usually aren't about me.  They are rants about what is going on in the world or what nonsense has affected my life that reflects on what is going on in the world.

However, the recent events in Colorado and some ancillary events have convinced me that we can't change the world one person at a time.  We can't even change it a thousand people at a time.  The world is a big place, and changing it has lost its purpose.  We won't change it.

We won't keep people from talking on cell phones while they are driving. We won't keep people from buying assualt weapons.  We won't keep people from throwing trash out of their car windows.

[Sidebar:  I saw a Prius driver throw a cigarette out of his window. If a Prius driver doesn't get the "World-as-One" concept, what hope do we have?]

We won't keep people from parking in the fire lane at the Shop Rite.  We won't keep people from singing-along at concerts.  We won't keep people from doing "The Wave" at baseball games when our team has the bases loaded.

In short (if it isn't too late) we aren't going to change the world.  So, what do we have left?  Make ourselves happy and those around us.

So, Thor is getting a can of food and I'm listening to Kristin Hersh on the computer.

That's about it right now.