Up North Part II

The French River

With a lifelong friend over the past few days up in Noelville, On.

The Hylands are a good bunch of people who willingly choose to have in their home someone who goes out of their way to sabotage their day.

Me.

:l

I give you a slideshow of our goings on, and of the beautiful French and Pickerel Rivers.

Read More...

Facebook not... Wastebook not

The ubiquitous Facebook logo

What is left to be said of Facebook.

Either through a browser or an app on your phone/tablet/phablet... hundreds of millions spend hours a week on it.

Some spends hours each day (I'LL CRUSH YOUR BLOODY CANDY!!!)

:l

Heck, from April 2007 and on, I usually checked out Facebook on a daily basis.

Let's Face it, Facebook has, in a very short period of time... become ingrained in... created really, a world-wide culture. With simple terms such as Poke me, and Like... (though many feels as I do that Facebook needs a Dislike button), have become everyday terms for, well... over a billion people.

'Gimme a call' has been replaced by "Facebook me".

In one way or another, we're 'all' on Facebook.

And Like any tech or code... it grows, it changes, morphs.
Facebook has certainly seen it's share of change, and not all of it seen as positive by its users.
Poor app launch, ClickBaiting, EdgeRank, PageRank, constant altering of one's Home Page/Timeline, Events, Notes, Places, Lists, malware, porn, Games, Games and more Games.

For a while now Page Managers have been voicing their concerns about Page Views dropping like a stone.

A few weeks ago, a blogger (and I've not been able to find the link, so, apologies) tested his NewsFeed for 24hrs. He removed what he didn't want to see, and found that no matter how many times he checked off not to see something, it would return. Time and again this would happen.

I can verify this myself.

It's been said that the reason the NewsFeed algorithm continues to change is that Facebook refines it on an ongoing basis, not to enhance our experience... but to sell ads.

Did I mention Facebook has Games?
Now, I've not played a Facebook game in a few years. Even then I only played chess.com with a few users.

Greg Godovitz of Goddo fame, 'famously' called the social media empire Wastebook, in one of his (at the time) rants. He's not on Facebook so much any more (as I can see.)

Like some, they've left.
Gotten bored, migrated to other social media sites.

It's the continuous 'tweaking' of the NewsFeed though, that's finally gotten my attention.
It's become largely irrelevant.
I was an early adopter of creating and using Lists to manage my feed.
I would then remove them from my feed, therein keeping the main feed for just those I know, rather than what I'd Liked/Followed.

And that's to be expected, isn't it?

Changes for the purpose of generating revenue.

It's time to re-evaluate Facebook/Wastebook.

As I'd said in an earlier post, my 'journey' to eat better, sleep better (etc)... take care of my body... fuck, just put it back together, can be exhausting at times. I'd added in more yoga poses/postures to my morning routines of late and have found it to be both enjoyable and invigorating.

Life altering really.

My body requires daily maintenance. For me, simply sitting up straight is a challenge.
I've also taken a look at how important rest is.

As such, I've taken to turning off my phone Saturday nights, sleep in on Sunday (my Sunday morning/brunch ritual of bacon plus, basically... bacon/eggs/hash-browns, etc, doesn't change in any way though...), giving my body a day of rest from exercise... basically just a day of rest.

And please, I won't entertain any biblical reference to the above pls & tks.

Where am I going with this rant?

I simply don't see what you're posting anymore.

I've recently un-installed the Facebook Messenger app from my S4.
It felt... nice.
And not because of the rumours of its nefarious information gathering.
No, because I simply don't use Facebook Messaging enough to warrant a special app.

I signed up for twitter in 2011 and find it's timeline/newfeed more to my liking.
Migrated to twitter.
Better newsfeed control.
More enjoyable experience, it updates my Facebook Page and my blog at the same time.

Perhaps... it was simply time to move on. Read More...

Upper and lower case.

I noticed the 'other day'... Loblaws (notice the s) had on sale their Signature Presidents Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie (See image on the right... for a taste) for $2.99.

So of course I grabbed a bag.

For me, keeping chocolate, ice cream... or chocolate ice cream (my Signature being Haagen Dazs... any flavour really, but Haagen Dazs) around my place isn't the wisest of things. Not that I'd go loco on it (well... I might), just that I've found it better/healthier to go out and buy something if I want to satisfy that 'craving."
It's worked out well.

At any rate... I, uh... opened the bag 'as soon' as I got in, and immediately was taken aback!

Something was clearly amiss.

The Presidents Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie was now (for a man the size of me), shrunk... to bite-size proportions.

The Presidents Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie was now a decadent only in name.
It was now a lower case cookie.
A decadent... chocolate chip cookie, but a small one now.

This imposter was in its stead.

Pythons famous Dead Parrot sketch

It has expired and gone to see it's maker!

This... is an ex-cookie!




First Timmy's and now this!

Our Canadian institutions are under attack by mediocrity!

We've lost our cookie... and are about to lose our coffee.

As a native Torontonian I am accustomed (somewhat) to this. I mean no one has seen our hockey team in years.

Peace... For me that's a damn shame. Read More...

What was that again?

Having been physically active over my days (more than what is generally considered 'average'), I am intimately aware of the pain and training discomfort.

I'd certainly done stretching and ab-work over a period of decades.

In what became my daily (well... for the most part daily... k!) regiment, I had been using a coupla (defined as two, or three) yoga poses for years now.

Both focused on my lower back.

My first yoga mat!

It just so happens that I'd been looking into a beginners class with the idea of learning something new that I could incorporate/borrow for my dailies.

It also happened to be the day after I'd had a bbq with Ali and Stirling (henceforth known as u2... or in this case, A&S), and Ali just happened to have a yoga mat that she was in the process of throwing out.

I know right?

I brought it home and decided to become familiar with this strange thing.
Though I've comfortably 'done' 25 crunches/situps/leg lifts through-out my days, 25 is, when you think about it, nothing special. I considered my abs/core my weak spot.

Weak spot independent of any injury related area.

You know... a rip/tear/break/disjointed/grinding/tense/or generally bloody and damaged area of what is now my bodies 51st plus year.

Of late *cough* I've been made aware of this on a daily basis.

Nothing you can do about that at this point.

And with that I made a conscious choice to focus more on my 'core.'

That is... my abs.

As the acknowledged weak area, I decided to investigate yoga a little further.

So much so that over the past few days I'd begun to put together what is known as a 'sequence.' I wasn't so interested in a dance (though I can... dance that is), but I certainly accepted the importance of creating a flow.

So online I went and quickly found an array of helpful sites.

Seriously, there are tons, easily found with a simple google search.

Using images and text, I got at it.

Though not completed (some fine tuning... perhaps over time even), today... was Day One.

With my stretching included... a good 1/2hr was spent on my core (abs not counting as they are done upon wakening.)

Talk about sweat?
It was quickly pouring off me.

I've a new appreciation for those dedicated to yoga.

And they are legion... aren't they?

Should I now include myself in that group?
Tell you this, I can't imagine every not doing this again.

It has had a profound effect on my over-all well being today.
Not to mention how my core feels now.
I cannot say enough on how different my body feels today.

I look forward to tomorrow... and the next day. Read More...