Thinking The Sounds

Okay, I’ve been a big fan and user of Facebook for a long time.

I have really enjoyed connecting with some amazing people in really personal and meaningful ways.  I’ve reconnected with old friends from the past.  I’ve been more involved in the day-to-day lives of my extended family.  I’ve found friends who share my interests and weird perspectives on life.  And I’ve learned from the experiences and opinions of my friends.

In short, I have enjoyed interacting in a community whose discussions happen to take place across cables rather than cafe tables.  And Facebook has provided that place for us.

But, oh, how the place has changed since I first came to the neighborhood.

I, like many others, was drawn away from MySpace which at the time was becoming way too slimy and weird, with lots of porn spam and just the sense that everything was a little too much in the open.  If MySpace was the Vegas Strip, then Facebook seemed to offer something a little more like Main Street where there was a simple private place to share time with friends.  And Facebook grew enormously because so many of us felt we were connecting personally to real people who we know and care about (rather than getting messages from what was probably a middle-aged guy posing as a hot 19-year old girl…).

Sure, then came the games—Farmville, Mafia Wars, Scrabble—that wasted so much time, but that still could be like sitting around and playing a board game with your friends.  And there were the countless remodelings that drove us all crazy (“Bring back the old Facebook!”).  But still, at the heart of it Facebook was a place to connect with friends (and organizations and products) that mean something to us.

The heart of the problem with Facebook has been the incremental removal of all of the safety and privacy that was so crucial to its growth (Here’s a great interactive representation).  I have repeatedly used the term “bait-and-switch” in referring to this process, but it may be more like the frog in the boiling water.  The “switch” has been so gradual that many people don’t see it as a switch.  It just seems natural.  And that’s what Facebook would have us believe (as it’s in their best interest to be able to sell our information to the highest bidder).  CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who’s all of 26) recently said “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”  (As if Facebook hasn’t been actively moving the goal post the whole time.

Look, I have loads of information about me all over the web.  There are sites and blogs and forums and comments that I have chosen to be public.  I’m no Luddite sitting in a barn in the dark, alone in a corner.  I believe in the power of public discourse and the need for more public interaction and engagement.  I don’t hide my feelings about many topics and don’t shy away from discussions of difficult issues.

But then there are aspects of my life and my world that are only for certain eyes and ears.  We all have many personas and we sometimes have aspects of our lives that we like to keep separate.  (I teach young kids and there are certain things that I “like” that are perfectly appropriate for the adults in my life but which I prefer not to share with them.)  Privacy isn’t an all or nothing operation (this great article has a quite a few good arguments about this…).  I doubt that I know many people who would be comfortable with having either all OR none of their information public.  We have different aspects of our life that we like to treat differently and that’s something that Facebook used to be good at doing.

Now, they want to let it all hang out.  And not just on Facebook, across the rest of the internet.  And now they allow their partners (makers of apps, quizzes, games and junk) to keep all the information about you that they want.  And if I want to include my hometown (go Philly!) or school (Explorers!), I have to automatically link to a page and that information goes to everybody.  (Now, obviously, I’ve already made those two facts public, but I don’t do so for everything that I “like”.)

So I’m very disillusioned with what Facebook is doing.  I know they’re a business and I know they exist to make money.  Again, I’d gladly pay a monthly fee to have the service as is but with real control over who sees what.  But for now I’m going to take a big step back.  I won’t delete my account just yet.  I’ll deactivate it and wait and see.

The upside is that I’ll probably be posting here more often….

See also:

Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook
More Reasons Why You Should Still Quit Facebook
Farewell, Facebook

My wife chides me for this plenty, but I’m the kind of guy geek who does loads of research before buying any type of electronics or appliance.  Consumer Reports, Amazon reviews, CNET, blogs, the works.  I do my research.

Part of the problem is that I often overdo it, getting to a point where I’m too frozen to buy something because of all the competing reviews and arguments swimming around in my brain.  Since there never is a perfect choice (especially when you’re limited in funds), there will never be the perfect choice.  But my mind tricks me into thinking I can do and find just what I’m looking for.  (Yes, I’m an idiot.  Tell me something I don’t already know.)

Except this time it worked….

The phone

It all started when I bought a new phone a while back.  I decided that the bulky Windows Media Smartphone that I had was just overkill.  As much as I wanted this to be the tool that kept me organized and on top of things, it wasn’t.  And I hated (hated!) the touch screen for the phone.  It would turn off in the middle of a call and I had to switch back and forth between seeing the keypad and using other functions.  And the screen would get oily from sitting against my face (you know it happens to your phone too…).  And the thing was just big and bulky.

So I went looking for a new phone—a perfect one.  Of course I didn’t find one.  I basically wanted a phone with real buttons, relatively small, and I would like it to play music so I didn’t need two devices—a phone and an MP3 player.  So I got this pretty decent little Motorola Renew (made from recycled water bottles) that pretty much fit the bill.  And it was only like $25.  Points for me.

Except the MP3 player is crap!  The sound is tinny and bad and I couldn’t get any other earbuds to work with it except for the ones it came with.  Still, it’s a decent little phone that does what I want—lets me make and take phone calls.

Music, music, music

I suffered along with it, figuring I could deal with it.  Then me and the missus signed up for Napster and all the world’s music was ours for the listening for $5 a month.  So I wanted a new MP3 player to download all that great music to have at my beck and call and I started looking.

Now I foolishly assumed this included Napster-To-Go which lets you transfer the tracks to compatible MP3 players.  I found out after some checking that our $5 plan, wonderful as it is, didn’t include the ability to transfer music.  However, at this point I was already stoked by shopping for players.  And Father’s Day was coming up….

So, I had pretty much settled on one of the Sony Walkman models.  Now I know in the age of iPods that the Walkman name brings chuckles from those of us who remember strapping what now seems like a huge cassette player to our waists.  But Sony never killed the Walkman brand.  They used to sell portable CD players (remember those?) and now their MP3 player line also carries the name.

Now, I have to say that I think iPods are beautiful devices.  But I think they are terribly overpriced and I hate the iTunes software/store with a passion.  So I really had no interest in an iPod.  I went for the Sony because it seemed they offered good devices for the price.  One feature that stood out especially for me was sound quality.  Everywhere I looked, the Sony players were given high marks for sound quality.  As a former sound engineer with picky ears, this was a big enticement for me.

Now there were several other features about the Sony that spoke to me.  One was that the models I wanted allowed you to browse your albums by album cover rather than by name.  I’m really visual and like to browse my music this way.  I’m better at identifying the covers of some albums than I am at naming the artists (I do have several thousand albums…).  I also liked that some of the Sonys had built-in noise canceling.  One place I use an MP3 player is to make mowing the lawn more tolerable and noise-canceling is a must.

Choices

Okay, so now I began the hunt for the right player at the right price.  This was not an easy task.  The new models (the E series) were well priced but didn’t have the album browsing or noise canceling features.  The A series had album browsing but no noise canceling.  The S series had the noise canceling but some of the prices were out of my league—unless I wanted to compromise on capacity and go for 4GB instead of 8.  And then there was color.  Was I prepared to save $20 for a pink player?  (The answer, by the way, is yes, though I didn’t end up going that way.

I combed Overstock, Amazon and Ebay.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go for just 4GB to get the noise canceling.  Of course, part of me thinks 4GB of music in my pocket is pretty obscene.  How could I be dissatisfied with such abundance?  Especially when remembering the old cassette Walkman and carrying around a pouch of tapes.  I went back and forth on all of these and still didn’t have a definitive answer.

Another issue is that I was looking at discontinued models.  This meant that I couldn’t pop down to Best Buy, take a look, then walk home with some audio instant gratification.  I had pretty much resigned myself to having to wait for something to be shipped to me.

Our hero sets out

So, here we are at Father’s Day.  We had a nice breakfast at a great little local diner—The Coffee Pot.  Josie asks what I want to do and I tell her that I’d actually like to go out shopping, even though I’m not going to find what I’m looking for.  She suggests I go out alone, take a break from having the kids full time.  So I do.  I figure I’ll head down toward Gurnee, Il and see what I can find.  Go to the mall.  Check out BestBuy and see what else is around.  I have low expectations since I’m looking for discontinued models, but figure maybe there might be some backstock or whatever.

As I’m heading down Rt. 94, coming close to Pleasant Prairie, I remember that Prime Outlets used to have a Sony outlet.  I hadn’t been to the outlet in years but figure it’s worth a try.  Of course as I get to the exit I see that it’s closed.  I’ll have to drive another 3 miles and circle back, but I figure it’s worth the time.  I’m out for the day with nowhere to be so why not.

I drive around the outlet mall and don’t see it anywhere.  I realize that they added a new section a while back and figure I should look there.  Sure enough, there it is, the Sony outlet!

The goal

I go in and make my way toward the MP3 players.  I look around and see they have the old models.  There’s a 4GB with noise reduction for $80 (about what they’re going for online) AND I can take it home!  But wait!  There next to it is an 8GB for $99, way less than online!  Then I also see a sign that says all MP3 players are %20 off.  The one I want has an orange sticker with $99 and decide to buy it.

I take it to the counter, put it down and say to the clerk, “I guess that $99 is the sale price.”  The clerk responds, “No.  You get 20% off that price.”

I can’t believe it.  I found exactly what I was looking for.  I get to take it home and play with it right away.  AND it cost me less than the ones I was willing to settle for.

Situations like this don’t happen often.  Not to me.

I took it home, opened it, and it sounds great.  So I’ll be living with the earbuds in for a while and just blissing out.

This is me immediately after getting my head shaved back on April 25th.

I’ve washed this t-shirt something like 5 times since then and the collar is still infested with my hair.  Wearing it is almost unbearable.  I’m not sure why my hair is so tenacious.  Maybe it’s finally starting to catch on to all that I put it through….

Anyway, today I finally tossed the shirt.  Time to head to Jockey for some new black tees.

How long I have known my wife:

From and including: Tuesday, July 2, 1985
To, but not including : Wednesday, July 2, 2008

It is 8401 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date

Or 23 years excluding the end date

Alternative time units
8401 days can be converted to one of these units:

• 725,846,400 seconds
• 12,097,440 minutes
• 201,624 hours
• 1200 weeks (rounded down)

Or the shorter answer:

Not long enough.

I’m truly lucky.  We both are….

Working on some photoshopping projects with the kids at school and I came up with this.  It’s a bit creepy, no?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This song has been lodged in my “head” all week.  I wonder why.