Necessity and All That

If necessity is the mother of invention then desperation must be its father.  Yes, and desperation has forced me, yet again, to do stuff I dun wanna do!

I'm really not as antisocial as I seem [that's a lie] but I prefer not to engage in social networks as a general rule.  I enjoy blogging-mostly at my own site-and keeping up with friends as often as possible, but I'm not a big fan of globally recognized social networks.  The bigger they get the higher your chances go up for having some content you post or upload getting ganked.  Facebook recently lost a lawsuit over content they used from a woman's profile in ad targeting.  The content was a photo of the woman's child she shared on her timeline I guess.  I don't know all the details, like whether or not she opted out of that dubious bit of facebook's increasing creepiness, but I do know that I wouldn't want my pictures plastered all over the internet for all the world to see, much less my own kid.

Recently my son took up a hobby.  He makes YouTube video tutorials with tips and tricks for playing video games.  Unfortunately since Google own YouTube, they've made some changes recently that, frankly, I can do without.  I stumbled across this nasty little bit of change when I logged into my YouTube account and tried to add a song to one of  my  playlists.  Up popped this box telling me to create a YouTube channel, which requires creating the whole Google+ social network stuff, which I'd recently deleted.  I can't post comments, like or participate without the whole kit and kaboodle.

It's a nasty bit of business when you're forced to do things you don't want to do but this is increasingly the way of all things internet.  It's the new normalcy.

I used to peg myself as a raving paranoiac but I don't think that's the case.  I'm not paranoid.  I'm just private.  I'm individualistic, I hate conformity and uniformity in most of its guises.  Or disguises.  So when I sign up for A and am then told I must take B, C, and D to use A, I feel manipulated on general principle no matter how small and seemingly insignificant the issue.  It's almost always small things but when this is the way of 'all things internet,' it all piles up over time and it seems like every internet-related corporate interest has their nose parked right up your ass crack.

And none of this is news.  You guys all know this about me.  You've heard the arguments, the theories, the.... >.>  conspiracies. 

But...I really want to help my son out with his YouTube hobby and I guess it wont kill me to poke my turtle's head out of my shell from time to time.

Death | In Passing

I come with a foot in the grave,
Limping down some broad way,
A scraping, dragging, noisome reek,
“It’s just the wind.” I say.
They hurry on.

I smile – and no one  believes it!
‘It’s sinister – a grin!’
My canines flash ferociously,
“A closer walk with thee?” I say.
They look  away,
And hurry on.

My hand is gentle – cold and waxy,
A rasping on your shoulder blade,
Like restless leaves – or rotting silk,
“Share this cup with me?” I say.
They shudder,
And hurry on.

I pass politely – not  breathing,
‘They cannot hear me now.’
Footprints mark my leaving,
A long, uneven line.
That long exhalation follows – no stranger -
I hurry on.

“And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do, I don’t mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There’s no reason for it – you’ve got to go sometime.”
“I never said I was frightened of dying.” — Pink Floyd, The Great Gig in the Sky

I Gotcher Updates

Last night I took a scalpel and made some cuts on my website.  Okay, to be fair, it was more like chainsaw.  There was lots to prune.

Until the site picks up speed and membership, there's really no use for the social network and forum.  They're  not in use since no one there knows anyone else.  Not to mention that updating buddypress into wordpress often turns into a headache.  It's like a booby trap, or a gag gift in really poor taste.

The site-wide blogs are still up though.  I didn't delete any of those and they're intact, I checked.

Another thing I added was a subscribe function.  You type your email address in the box, hit the subscribe button and get my blog posts in your email.  You have to go to your email and validate it and if you use it you might want to check your spam folder and mark it as safe since it's not a certified secure site yet.

I upgraded my hosting package to allow for secure login, secure email service, etc.  Not sure how to go about integrating that feature but I'll get around to it.  Secure login is when you see the little padlock in the address bar or in the bottom, right hand corner of your browser and the addresses look like https instead of http.  I'll get around to tweaking around with it since Curiosity will get the best of me eventually and sloth will have to give way! 

I'm still pecking away at the tutorial and now that buddypress has been tossed to the curb, it'll make it that much easier.  wordpress really is a great blogging tool once you get familiar with all its features.

HNY!!

Happy New Year everybody! Lest old acquaintance be forgot, Auld Lang Syne and all that good stuff. :D