Archive for August, 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post about Twitter.

And most of my Twitter related posts are full of suck.  I mean, my posts themselves aren’t full of suck, but Twitter is full of suck.  My posts simply express all the suck that is Twitter.  I’ll bet that’s just clear as fucking mud for you now, isn’t it?  I do that for you, my dear readers.

Anyhow, I figured today that I would finally write a post about all of the good things that Twitter has going on.

Then I logged onto Twitter and immediately got the fucking Fail Whale.

Needless to say, that made it really difficult to get the warm fuzzies and direct them toward the Twitter.  So while I was constantly refreshing the whale of fail, started thinking of something – anything – positive that I could say about Twitter.

Couldn’t do it.  I tried all my Twitter related apps, and not a one was of any use to me, because the suckage was all happening at suck-central, main tweet, Twitter-town.

When Twitter goes down, tweeters can’t tweet.  And that means that the little gems of wisdom that we drop into each other’s timelines are missing.  Which is a shame, because no one should miss tweets like this:

Some while later, after Twitter finally returned to working order (in other words, all the idiot Justin Bieber fans had gotten off Twitter to go shopping for Justin Bieber ball sweat cologne) I finally realized that even in the midst of the suck, Twitter still has one thing going for it.

It’s not Facebook.

In the end, that’s good enough for me.

I heart you, Twitter.

Yes. This IS how hard Facebook fails.

I could go on and on about books.
I promise to try not to.

The Little Wicked Chrissa has meme tagged me for a post on books, so I will try to spout my feelings on the matter in a succinct fashion. Or not. We’ll see.

Books are important to me.  And that is probably the biggest understatement since I said “music is important to me”.  I have piles of books all over my house.  I have overflowing bookshelves, and it’s to the point now where I consider piles of books stacked on the floor to be furniture.  You know, just a convenient place to put your coffee whilst you search for the next title.

I love bookstores, and I love libraries.  I love used book stores and book fairs and when I was a kid book mobile day was better than recess.  I’m not a book snob.  I’ll try reading anything that happens to catch my eye.  And even if a book seems to suck on the first read, I’ll give it another shot somewhere down the line, just in case something changed that will allow me to appreciate it.

There are some books, though, that I loved the first time out, and each time since.
I’m going to limit myself here to five. With a cheat or two, as some will be in series form.

The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton. I could have included all of Hinton’s books here, but if I only had to choose one, this would be it.  Yes, we all know the movie was good.  But the book is so much better.  It weaves a tale that is interesting and heart-wrenching.  This was the first book I’d read where one of the loved characters died.  It’s stuck with me.  So do the tears every time I read it.  It’s directed at young adults, but I couldn’t care less.  I still read it.

Cotton, Christpoher Wilson. The copy of this book that I have is called “Cotton.”  However, recently I have seen that – perhaps in a rerelease  - it’s titled, “The Ballad of Lee Cotton”.  I’m not entirely sure why this is.  What I do know is that this book was a gift, in more ways than one.  First off, it was a literal gift, and bears an inscription by the giver of the book.  This book is also a gift because it changed the way I think about the trials and tribulations of life, and what the meaning of a positive attitude really is.  It also serves to remind me that we can’t judge anyone because there but for the grace of bizarre circumstances go I.

Hitchhiker’s Guide, Douglas Adams. Not the first, all of them.  I can not mention one and not mention the others.  I adore this series of books.  They were also gifted to me – about twenty years ago – by a fellow that I worked with who thought I might enjoy them.  this guy also used to have a loving nickname for me.  Shiva, the Destroyer.  I have no idea where he’d get that from.  Anyhow, he was right about the Guide.  I still have his copies of the books, and they are totally frayed and falling apart.  So maybe he was right about the nickname, too.  A joy to read, which I do yearly.

The Moonlight Bay Series, Dean Koontz. I didn’t have to think twice about including Koontz, nor did I have to think twice about which books.  The two books in the series so far are called “Fear Nothing” and “Seize the Night”.  The characters  - all of them – I fell instantly in love and felt a connection that I rarely feel when reading horror/thriller books.  The only other character that Koontz writes that I feel that way about is Odd Thomas, and it’s rumoured that the culmination of the Moonlight Bay Trilogy will happen in a meeting of the worlds of Christopher Snow and Odd Thomas.  This is something that even thinking about gives me goosebumps.

Life of Pi, Yann Martel. Gifted to me by the same person that gave me Cotton.  This book is an incredible work that will change your life if you read it.  Then it will change it again the next time you read it.  And so on.  I’m not going to say another word about it.  What I will say is that there is a movie that is coming out of this book, and I would strongly suggest that no one see it.  There is no way that any movie could do it justice.  If you have to see it, I beg you to read the book first.  That is all.

Now.  I have a great many things on my reading list.  Some are books that I already have, so I know that they will eventually be read.  However, there are books that I have not read and that I need to acquire first.  These are a few that are on my wish list.

The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje. Recommended to me by John at Hydroponic Nirvana.  He also recommended the movie, which I loved and watch often.  If his opinion of the book is as high as it is, I am looking most forward to reading it.  I’m pretty sure I’ll need kleenex and quiet time, though.  I don’t really mind that.

The Princess Bride, William Goldman. It’s already been established that the movie is one of my favourites.  Thanks to someone very special for that.  I have yet to read the book, though.  And according to Chrissa and Scott, I really need to.  So, I’m taking them up on it just as soon as I find myself a copy of it.  You know, the anniversary copy.  Because I’m damn picky.

Spider Bones, Kathy Reichs. The continuing adventures of Dr. Temperance Brennan.  That’s right, from the TV Series Bones.  I have read all of the books and will continue to read them just as long as they are still released.  While a lot of the book elements are vastly different from the show, this actually makes me enjoy both more.  I don’t spend any time at all saying “but this should be that way”, so nothing but love for both the books and the show.

And finally, to close things out on a positive note – heh – the books that I hated beyond all others.   I know that people are going to disagree with me.  I know that I am about to bash some of the most beloved books of all time.  Whatever.  I stand by my hate.

Lord of the SUCK.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkien. I can not express my hate for these books clearly enough.  And before anyone goes off saying that I didn’t like them just because I saw the movies first: WRONG.  I read the books first.  And if you’re saying to yourself, well she just didn’t read them all, she has to read them all to really understand the genius! WRONG.  I choked down every fucking word.  Every painful, overly long, ridiculously drawn out word.  You know what?  It is my belief that Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings better.  Fuck all the useless shit and just give me the fucking story, will ya?  I’d rather have needles inserted into my eyes than have to read that shit again.  Oh, and hey… JRR?  I hated the fucking Hobbit, too.

There you have it.  a mere glimpse into my collection of books and thoughts on books.

I’m going to tag people in this meme.

In fact, if your name is lit up somewhere in this entry, consider yourself tagged.

‘Cept you, Chrissa.  After all, you started it.

Once again, Facebook has made a decision which affects our privacy.  Oh, sure, they’ve made it so that we can change it and reclaim what little of our privacy we have left.  But once again, they’ve made it an “opt-out” rather than an “opt-in” feature.

Other people may have done this already, but I’m doing it now, since I have just gone in to edit my privacy settings ONCE AGAIN in Facebook so that I am in control of who posts and sees what about me.  I’m doing this not for the techies out there, but for my friends who might not remember to do this stuff.

You know who you are.

Disabling Facebook Location Tagging

Click on link for full size.

Open up your account settings, then click on privacy settings.  As a reminder, you really should do this every once in a while to make sure that nothing has changed.

You will see in this case, that there is now an option for “Places I Check In”.  It is not set to anything remotely private to start with, so if you want to change that, click on the “Customize Settings” link.

This will take you to the next page, where you can customize what you want people to see about your location.

Next, you will see your options for customization on all of your privacy settings.

Click on link for full size.

Find the “Places I check in” option and change it to the privacy setting of your choice.  In my case, that would be “only me” because if I want someone to know where the hell I am, I’ll tell them myself, thanks.

Once you’ve got that all done, check the “Include me in People Here Now” to make sure that “enable” is not checked.

Scroll down a little ways – this is very, very important – and you will see the option to make sure that no one else can check you in to places without you knowing about it.  That I even have to DO this pissed me off more than almost anything else.

Click link for full size.

In this area, find the option for “Friends can check me in to Places” and make sure that it is disabled.

There, you’re done.

And yes, it wasn’t that painful.

But seriously, why can’t these be the default settings?  Come the hell on, Facebook.

Opt-in.

Not opt-out.