Plus One

At 01:32hrs on Friday the 20th of March (the first day of spring, and... the date of our last solar eclipse) Ali (herself having turned 23 the day before) and her partner Stirling welcomed their first born... a Son. Weighing in at a healthy 8lbs 14oz this little man has changed their world forever.

As a first time GrandFather I have to say that you, have changed mine as well.

Hello and welcome to our newest family member... Caelum Tristan Greensides.

Caelum

 

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Heinz...

* Happy New Year!
* Ali is now 36 weeks... full term. Caelum, we await your arrival;
* My Leafs suck... still;
* F**k this wind, seriously;
* 3rd floor of this house... you are now mine;
* 1st xmas with A&S was nice;
* Neo has still got the moves;
* Online discussions about serious subjects can rarely be had;
* a 2nd ablation looks to be required;
* had my 1st visit to the 'new' Hot-Box Cafe;
* Relationships... they come and they go. As long as you learn something, it wasn't a waste of time;
* explain please how I couldn't give my kids PB&J's for school, but YOUR kids can come with the measles, whooping cough, the mumps... need I go on;
* Happy-spend-money-to-prove-your-love-Day!
* My leafs suck... again. Have I already mentioned that? Read More...

Crushed

Candy Crush Saga

The makers of the ubiquitous Candy Crush Saga have been under a fire-storm of late.

Earlier this week King offered a 48hr window with which to purchase an block of time with unlimited lives, so to speak.
Shortly thereafter the connection required to make a purchase (in this case, the Play Store) has been unavailable.

Oh the site is there, it is Google's Play Store, after all.

No, there's been an issue within the game itself.

Thousands (millions?) are posting on both the games Play Store page, and Kings forums about having had their game progress 'erased.'

Now, as a relative newcomer to the game (am only on level 50) and having not invested any of my money on the game... ok, so the game is dead, no big deal. I can't get past level 50 without getting a ride, and I cannot do so as the game will not connect to Play Store.

However, I can certainly 'sympathize' with those who are a level in the 3, 4, 5, or 6 HUNDREDS and lose all progress.

Not good timing given Kings IPO offering.

We shall see what comes of this, until then... Candy Crush Saga is retired.

UPDATE: As of this Friday past, all is right in the world of Candy again. Read More...

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.

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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...