Still don't like Facebook
...or Fascbook as I like to spell it.
I may be the last holdout on the planet; certainly it feels like I am. I do feel, though, that there is something morally wrong with vacuuming up people's private information and using it for profit. There is also the matter that dollars that might otherwise go to support my radio clients, and, therefore, me, are instead lining the pockets of Mr. Zuckerberg and his greedy Wall Street backers. Communities lose their newspapers and local radio stations, and thereby become less communal. Local elections go on with 10% of the voters showing up at the polls and no one knowing who the candidates are or what they stand for. I can't blame all of the social entropy rotting our democracy on Facebook, of course, but there are places I used to live that have declined greatly from the prosperous towns I knew in my youth.
No, I don't like Fascbook, nor Twitter, for that matter. We are going to end up with Donald Trump as our President on the basis of messages amounting to... what is it? 160 characters? What on earth can one say in 160 characters that can convey true understanding of even the least complicated thing?
I remember when I didn't like LiveJournal; I loved Usenet, though. There is not much left of Usenet or the communities it spawned, alas.
The older I get, the farther to the left I go. I quoted Lenin the other day on dailykos, arguing that Bernie Sanders could never lead a revolution from the White House. What would Christianity be today if the Romans had made Jesus emperor instead of crucifying him?
It afterwards occurred to me that many of the differences between Christianity and Islam can be accounted for by the fact that Jesus was executed as a rebel but Muhammad died as ruler of Arabia.
These people I interviewed with today did indeed offer me a job, and it looks like I will be taking them on as a client. Their politics are one hundred eighty degrees opposed to mine, ironically.
I feel myself at a crossroads; I can continue as I have been, or go to work for these people (or another group that wants to hire me full time), or do what I would do in the best of all possible worlds, buy my own radio stations.
Spring is turning into summer. Everything is lush green, and daylight lasts well into the evening. It is a glorious time of the year. The green frogs are singing in Framingham.
The more we look for answers, the more we find questions.
I have started rewatching one of my favorite TV shows, Seventeen Moments in Spring, about a Russian spy in the closing weeks of World War II. It was produced in the Soviet Union in 1973, and was filmed largely in the Berlin in which it is set. I am haunted by the score by Mikael Tariverdiev, especially the songs "Moments" and "Somewhere Far Away", sung by Russia's answer to Frank Sinatra, Josef Kobzon.
I may be the last holdout on the planet; certainly it feels like I am. I do feel, though, that there is something morally wrong with vacuuming up people's private information and using it for profit. There is also the matter that dollars that might otherwise go to support my radio clients, and, therefore, me, are instead lining the pockets of Mr. Zuckerberg and his greedy Wall Street backers. Communities lose their newspapers and local radio stations, and thereby become less communal. Local elections go on with 10% of the voters showing up at the polls and no one knowing who the candidates are or what they stand for. I can't blame all of the social entropy rotting our democracy on Facebook, of course, but there are places I used to live that have declined greatly from the prosperous towns I knew in my youth.
No, I don't like Fascbook, nor Twitter, for that matter. We are going to end up with Donald Trump as our President on the basis of messages amounting to... what is it? 160 characters? What on earth can one say in 160 characters that can convey true understanding of even the least complicated thing?
I remember when I didn't like LiveJournal; I loved Usenet, though. There is not much left of Usenet or the communities it spawned, alas.
The older I get, the farther to the left I go. I quoted Lenin the other day on dailykos, arguing that Bernie Sanders could never lead a revolution from the White House. What would Christianity be today if the Romans had made Jesus emperor instead of crucifying him?
It afterwards occurred to me that many of the differences between Christianity and Islam can be accounted for by the fact that Jesus was executed as a rebel but Muhammad died as ruler of Arabia.
These people I interviewed with today did indeed offer me a job, and it looks like I will be taking them on as a client. Their politics are one hundred eighty degrees opposed to mine, ironically.
I feel myself at a crossroads; I can continue as I have been, or go to work for these people (or another group that wants to hire me full time), or do what I would do in the best of all possible worlds, buy my own radio stations.
Spring is turning into summer. Everything is lush green, and daylight lasts well into the evening. It is a glorious time of the year. The green frogs are singing in Framingham.
The more we look for answers, the more we find questions.
I have started rewatching one of my favorite TV shows, Seventeen Moments in Spring, about a Russian spy in the closing weeks of World War II. It was produced in the Soviet Union in 1973, and was filmed largely in the Berlin in which it is set. I am haunted by the score by Mikael Tariverdiev, especially the songs "Moments" and "Somewhere Far Away", sung by Russia's answer to Frank Sinatra, Josef Kobzon.