Secret Birthday Wishes

My 36th birthday wish was to marry her some day.

So was my 37th birthday wish.  I bought a ring that year.

I did not change the wish for my 38th birthday.  I learned later that year she had no desire to re-marry.

I gave her the ring the following year for Valentine’s under the guise that it was a symbol of how much she meant to me.  It wasn’t a complete lie.

My 39th birthday wish was to spend the rest of my life with her.

I always blew out all the candles in a single breath.

She left me Monday.  Next week would have been our 4-year anniversary.

Stupid superstitions.

There Just Ain’t Enough Alcohol

…to make the pain go away.  Lord knows I’m tryin’.

Why I Hate FaceBook Apps

I’ve been using FaceBook more often over the past month or so.  One thing I still just can’t get into are the various FaceBook apps.

Long ago, when I first signed up for FB, I would accept any application that was sent to me, figuring my friends were sending these to me because they thought I’d be interested.  This resulted in eventually amassing a veritable assload of apps associated to my FB profile.  No sweat there as my FB usage slowly dwindled down to a “why do you even have a profile” level, and I stopped caring.

Fast-forward to recent times.  I’m a bit older, a bit wiser and a bit more careful about what and who I attach to my FB profile.  When time came to use one of the apps, I think it was one of those movie quizzes, I noticed some curious behavior.  After doing what I had to do (answer questions), I was presented with a screen that gave me the impression I can’t move forward until I invite at least X number of friends to use the app.  I found this curious, then looked closer.  Sure as shit, I was given a big, fat button to click on for inviting my friends, but if I didn’t want to do that, there was a nondescript hyperlink, in small font and really hard to see, that gave me the option to skip that step.

From my perspective, they were trying to trick me into recommending their app to my friends because a friend would be a LOT more likely to use an app I recommended than just one they just happened to see around somewhere.  If they weren’t, why make the “skip this step” link so easy to miss?  At the very least, I found it to be sneaky and lame.  At worst, the app developer was trying to get me to forward on their app to my friends like morons in the internet forward false stories.

So after catching on, I now almost always skip that step.

Sometime later, again after approving an app to pull information from my profile (since that is the ONLY way to get info about the app – more on that later), I had a “Test your IQ” thing on the screen.  It gave me the impression that a whole bunch of of my friends had already used it.  I clicked, and clicked, and eventually ended up on some external web site outside FB which, after a handful of questions, smelled of a big advertisement.  I had warning bells going off all over, so I just backed out of that and went on with my day.

Then I read an article about some of the issues with FB apps.  So I decided to be more observant and cautious.  The next time I saw one of those IQ ads, I knew immediately they were once again trying to trick me.  Not only was it telling me a whole slew of my friends used this IQ app, but it was now telling me I was being challenged to take it by some of them, and one even said the person said I was “dumb”.  I knew right then and there it was all BS.  My friends haven’t used that app, and none have challenged me.  It was essentially advertising trying to trick me deeper into the hole.  Now, whenever I see that “IQ Test” ad, I will give the app that provided it a low score and immediately remove it.

Anyway, so one would think the best way to determine if you want to use an app is to simply get some information about it.  The preferable method is to do so WITHOUT GIVING THE APP PERMISSION TO ALL MY DATA.  Guess what?  You can’t – or, to be more specific, I can’t figure out how.  If you’re lucky, some apps will have a fan page with some information.  So far, more often than not, the fan page is useless.  If it does provide information about the app, it’s extremely minimalist and generally un-informative.

This is especially frustrating if you are actually interested in an app.  For example, Mafia Wars.  Some of my friends use it, and one has actually invited me to join.  To date, I cannot find any information in FB about the app on how it’s played, what it looks like, etc.  I haven’t yet approved it’s access to my profile, so maybe all the details will be provided once I do so.  Is it really necessary to open up all my private information to this app just so I can decide if I want to use it (or, even worse, TRUST it)?

So, as things stand, it’s going to be rare for me to actually use any of those apps as I find a vast majority of them exhibit SPAM-like behavior.  Unless, that is, someone can show me how to get information about apps without opening my life to them.

Double Takes

On the way to the local facilities, I walked past a digital jukebox and saw some simple album art.  It said “Sand In The Vaseline” written in what I believe was red.

Approximately a second later, I was stopped in my tracks and had the following thought: “Wait.  What?!?”

That thought was the beginning of a line of thought which is not “family friendly”.

Post research: Why am I not surprised it’s a “Talking Heads” album?  Strangely I just brought them up in conversation within the past week.

The Truth About Time

“

Time is priceless, yet it costs us nothing.

You can do anything you want with it, but you can’t own it.

You can spend it, but you can’t keep it.

And once you’ve lost it, there’s no getting it back.

It’s just … gone.

“

- Allison DuBois

(character on the show Medium – season 5, episode 10 )

I Interrupt Your Web Browsing for this Short Geek-Out

I have officially completed the equivalent of a face transplant – for a computer.  I’ve replaced a cracked MacBook display with one from another MacBook which wasn’t broken, but had severe keyboard damage.

It all started when a friend of mine asks me how simple it was to replace laptop displays.  At first I told her it’s a huge pain in the butt and not for the faint of heart, even those technically-inclined.

Well, a lot went on between then and now, and I have to tell you, I was mostly right.  It was a huge pain in the ass.  Or, to put it another way, it was tedious.

If you seriously intend to walk down this path:

You will need to be meticulous.  You will need to be patient.  You will need to be gentle (especially those who wear a size 12-13 ring).  You will also need really good light and if you’re in your late 30’s, a big magnifying glass.  Finally, you will have to be creative when things don’t quite go according to plan.

All that, combined with the help of a couple web sites, you’ll be able to accomplish what I just did.  Maybe later I’ll blog about the geeky details, but for now, I gotta get back to my Fantastic 4: Silver Surfer movie as well as complete the updates on the aforementioned MacBook.

Say Hey

So that last post was rather dark.  Not a big deal considering, well, that’s my past, present, and, well, generally, my life.

So to keep things balanced, I bring you a song which brings feelings of the present. So, to Betty and her brood, if you only knew what you and yours have brough to my life.  All I can say is…..

One thing. That I love you.

The more I see, the less I know.

Mad World (Quick Peek Into My Life)

One song that can make me break into tears: Mad World by Gary Jules (as played on the movie Donnie Darko).  There’s just something about that haunting melody which reminds me of, well, too much.

The lyrics – it’s the soundtrack of my life between 8 and 20.

The music – it’s the soundtrack of my life.

I find it kinda funny.

I find it kinda sad.

The Allmighty Bubbler!

My first true “Out of Wisconsin” experience I can remember is my first month in Navy Boot Camp.  One day I became rather parched.  An easy task to accomplish in San Diego, in summer, at boot camp.  I asked someone “Where’s the bubbler?”

Not a single soul knew what the hell I was talking about.  To make matters worse, I new of no other term for “that device that squirts water out for you to drink”.

With the obligatory “Z, are you retarded?” rhetorical question from the Company Commander, he taught me a new term – “water fountain” – and I got my drink of water.

…..and that was the beginning of a whole new line of wisdom.

Oh, oops, almost forgot to post the link which motivated me to write this down.  I now know WHY I call it a “bubbler”.

mmmmmm….Pi

Catchy little tune:

http://pi.ytmnd.com