Big Friendly

I’m a Google fanatic. I use it for everything, from solving work problems to finding the theme song for Wallander.  So I was doing a “How to …” search the other day when I paused and the normal Google suggestions popped up and it struck me as the perfect step by step guide to living a fulfilling life.

Just not sure about the “fall/get pregnant” duplication, would have thought it would be like riding a bike – do it once and you’d never want to do it again.

Habibti dragged me off to the “Fanwalk for Peace and Unity on Mandela Day Sunday 18th July 2010” and in typical Cape Town shoowa style it took forever to get started. This was actually very cool as it allowed us to meet up with some great friends and family before things got moving. Personal highlight was the Caramel Popcorn that I got from one of the stands, the fact that half the Cape Town police force rocked up to escort a few hundred people and the singing of our national anthem at the end. The only down side was the fucken vuvuzlias that pfaaaaped next to me head.

What I find amazing about the whole things was that it started off as a Tweet from Charly’s Bakery and grew from there. People took it up and expanded the idea to Facebook, blog posts and news articles. Much as I hate the whole social media thing, this just underlines the power and potential.

Walking for Peace with Habibti, the Noodles (3/4 of them in the above photo), Brother-In-Law, my NBF and her mom was worth the wait and a great way to spend a Sunday in Cape Town.

So my big announcement of last week that I’m deleting my Facebook account has come to naught. Not that I was weak of character, or couldn’t bare to be without my voyeur fix for the day. The truth is that I’m in the web business and more and more of my clients are wanting to be on Facebook and Twitter all the time and for me to advice them and assist them I have to be on it. So, I’m still there and will remain there for now.

I still think that we are being handed candy by strangers while all kinds of molestation takes place, but for now I’ll just have to take it and keep my info to the bare minimum. If you don’t drop your drawers they can’t slip you a fast one.

I’m on the couch with flu (or just a bad cold). I hate being sick, but seem to have exploiting it down to a fine art. I’ve watched two Super 14 matches, one very kak movie and been trying to do some work (NSFW). Winter has come to Cape Town and it’s nice and warm here under the blanky with Annie on my legs.

I’ve had my finger of the red button for a while now. I’ve been close to the edge a few times now, knuckles white and sweat dripping off my brow but time and again I blinked. I’ve read how Facebook changes it’s privacy policy over and over to suits it’s partners and own interests. It’s reached the point we are lining up at the Rohypnol vending machine so that Mark Zuckerberg can have his way with us. We don’t resist. We don’t object. We just till the fields while our homesteads are plundered. No more. Deleting my Facebook account makes no difference to the numbers, but every drip ads to the corrosion.

So, from today I will be visiting this site every time I feel the urge to visit Facebook.

For the handful of visitors to this blog, do yourself a favour and read “Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative”. Enough said.

Breaking up is hard to do. The relationship is stale and has become one sided. I seem to be the one doing all the work and investing all the time, and all it does is try and find new ways to fuck me over. I’m reading daily how it is finding new ways of exposing my most intimate details to a bunch of couch farmers. I’m tired of the friend requests from people who I don’t really know or even care about. The sum total of people of value in my life is about 20, not the 122 I currently seem to have. If people want to know me they do. If all the effort they are prepared to put into finding out how the hell I’m doing is opening a web browser then bollocks to them I say. Pish on them and their friendships.

Not that I’m exactly living my life on Facebook mind you, I do the occasional Like (why the fuck can’t I Don’t Like or Hate or Disagree or Love or Agree or Sneer?), make the occasional “clever” comment. I do post the occasional link though, like this one that has given rise to this rant. And I try and warn people off the scams that I’m aware of, the current one is “Disney’s Most Shocking Hidden Message! All of You Have Never Seen Before!”, don’t click on it people and don’t Like it, or Fan it. It puts Brooklax in your coffee, hides all your toilet paper, roller towels and tissues and sits in the corner sniggering at you.

I’m tired of all the apps, games and causes that you are asked to join. If you want to save the Whale or Lesser Known Rainbow Snoek or Kill Malema and/or Obama or protest the fact that Riaan Cruywagen has changed his hairstyle for the first time in 45 years of presenting the news, then get active. Do something! Joining a Facebook page isn’t going to change one little thing.

So, I’ll be harvesting the email addresses of the people who I really want to be in contact with this weekend and then it’s time to start removing my stuff off Facebook. I’ve read that the best thing to do is slowly removing your info before you deactivate your profile.

Update: Habibti has posted a “different” perspective on the whole Facebook thing. I still think Riaan should be allowed to do with his hair as he pleases.