Some more Solipsism

I am shaking up my online world in bits and pieces this week.  I'm quitting Facebook tomorrow, perhaps temporarily, perhaps not.  I'm having second thoughts about it, but wrote a big long essay about how Facebook is built on business practices I find gross so I think I'm committed.  But it is true, I hate everything about it.  It's not a free service.  It's just the price isn't money it's tiny little advertising pitches in the corners of your eyes, a complete surrender of the concept of online privacy and consent to disclose information all to sell you and our valuable metadata.  Metadata is the precious ambergris of our generation.  We the fat, simple whales tagged, tracked and skimmed for our precious, valuable clicks and buys and likes.  

I do go on.  Facebook sucks, and we all know it and it's not just the geocities era website aesthetic.  I don't think I can build better friendships on a platform so comprised at a core level in terms of basic human decency.  I choose not to do it.  I wish there was something LIKE Facebook, except not devoted to tracking and manipulating it's users, but there isn't, not yet.  Although the field is WIDE OPEN for a better way to engage on the internet.  Twitter is apparently thinking of tweaking people's timelines similar to the way Facebook uses and algorithm to manipulate user feeds.  InterNOT.

That was a Newsradio reference, which you should know because that show is wonderful.

I just switched my Goodreads name to my Twitter alias, which seems to confuse people.  I'm increasingly enjoying going by that name.  I'm increasingly considering going by the name in real life to new people.  I've been in a rut, mentally and spiritually for quite a while now and using that name helps me imagine other ways that I want to be. Not that I plan on going by a new name every time I try to make a behavior change, but I have been trying to get past some possibly fictitious barrier in my life for a while now.  From someone who is HERE to someone who is THERE and I think once that switch finally decides to flip it will be a noticeable change.  In which case the new name will seem more appropriate.  Also, I've been increasingly liking the idea of having a secret name with my tribe and a public name for the world, which, of course, I got from my latest rewatch of Dune.  The point here is, this makes sense to me on a level that I believe is not unreasonable.  And once I finish sorting it out it will seem more reasonable.  No, my secret name is not Usul.  On a related note, personally I am convinced Captain Von Trapp was Fremen.  It's the only thing that explains the names he gave his children.

I just figured out how to embed my goodreads reviews in my blog, so that's exciting.  Now I just need to figure what the hell is up with my blogs.  I like Contents May Settle, I like having a space to try and write more polished things, or more formal pieces not, say, about me, myself and I.  Many of my "reviews" don't really hold up to my own standards though, which makes me feel inclined to post them here, which is a more, uh, experimental place.  Or maybe I could stop being lazy and make a better blog site for myself, with tabs for reviews, blogs, micro-blogging, social media.  And maybe some bigger projects should I ever figure out how to wrangle my anxiety and undiagnosed ADD enough to actually finish things.  Maybe the process will be, first impressions on goodreads, and then the reviews I want to flesh out I can post on CMS.  Works in progress will go here.

Twitter can stay as long as it doesn't try to emulate its big brother too much.  I try to follow people who post interesting links to articles in my general areas of interest and trying to stay out of silly fights with famous authors and it's been more useful.

I think I actually need to start taking notes if I want my reviews to get better.  Just so I can quote some of the better lines and maybe help my thoughts come together.  The truth is the books I've been reading have been sparking good trains of thought and I want to talk about them coherently.  Notes would help.

Other than that, I think I need to start exercising, reading more, avoiding LCD screens more and getting into the forest to stay sane.  You know what I like about trees?  They don't try to sell me shit based on the pattern of my footfalls.

Upcoming pieces, which I've been dragging my feet on and should abandon but would like to actually finish:

Some thoughts on Terry Pratchett's the Long Earth and the ideas therein.

What's smart about Mieville's the City and the City and why I misread it so badly when I first started it.

A 4 book review opus plus essay dealing with paranormal topics, because why not and I want to.

About 8 short stories that I really want to write.

Some brief thoughts on this summer's movies.  You know that little movie Guardians of the Galaxy?  It's good.  You should see it.

Some thoughts on spirituality versus secularism and my struggles with it.

That seems like enough to start, I guess?

That's the haps.  That's the peeps.  That's the lint swirling around the old navel.