Posts tagged facebook
Up To Date
Dec 21st
Once again, logged into Wordpress and there is another update. Just like last month. Six plugin updates too. Guess I should log into Wordpress more often, eh? Damn that Facebook. Seriously, it’s so much easier to write, “Man this month went by fast!” as a Facebook status update over writing five paragraphs about it on this journal. But then it’s a lot easier to look up my past adventures here than on Facebook, which doesn’t have an archive feature other than “Click Here for Older Posts.” But do I look at my past adventures? Not really. So maybe I’ll turn this journal into something else, but until I figure out what “else” is…
Here is the 2009 Year End Catchup, brought to you by iGoogle – helping me remember what I’ve done lately since 2006:
We celebrated Halloween much like we did last year, only with a few more kids and adults. I still find it funny that the adults outnumber the kids on this holiday. I don’t remember it being like that when I was a kid. Maybe my family needs to produce more children. (Working on it!) Anyway, here are the kids:
And here are the bored adults:
Good times. Next up, we had a faux-Thanksgiving at my parents house because my long-lost aunts were in town. That was the original plan anyway, but instead we just got some deli trays because visiting is more interesting than cooking. Here’s a picture of the original Kaiser clan where almost everyone is looking in the same direction:
Then my mother-in-law celebrated her 20th anniversary of her 21st birthday. I have pictures but I will not post them because she doesn’t like when I do that without her signing off on the picture first, and she’s not here right now.
Then at some point last month The Girl got The Dude’s side of the room complete. Isn’t she talented?
Wait, didn’t I already post that? Maybe it was on Facebook. Oh well, next! Still in November. My brother and his long time gal decided to get married. Shocker, I know. I thought they were going to do the whole “engaged forever” thing too. Most of us didn’t see the ceremony because they don’t like public displays of affection, I guess? But the dinner afterward was nice and everyone had a good time. Here’s a picture where they both look about as happy as they get.
Congrats little brother! Now we’re in December and The Girl gets the tree up ASAP because that’s how she rolls.
That’s right fellas, I did that too her! (High Five!) The Kid helped with the tree too, and I took pictures per usual. Then my Best Good Friend and I went to Star Trek: The Exhibit. It was fun, if not a bit small, and renewed my love of Trek for about three days. And of course, I bought a bunch of overly priced photos. Here’s one of them:
Season 3 Captain Kirk gut totally on purpose. (cough) Then The Kid had part one of her December spoilifercation process by celebrating turning six with a blow out at Chuck’s:
And that about covers October through December, not counting Christmas of course, which hasn’t happened yet. We’re having Christmas at our house this year, assuming The Girl doesn’t go into labor first. Should be fun. It feels like the last arc of this year has really flown by, and I guess I can see why now that I’ve lay it all out for myself. I’m a lot busier than I used to be, but it’s fun. The Girl and I have been ready for Christmas, gift-wise and decoration-wise, since November 30th. Not sure I’m feeling it yet though. Maybe because I’m more interested in this:
He’s not due until next year, and let’s hope that’s how it plays out but…stand by!
Let’s Dance!
Jun 29th
God, I almost skipped another month! What is the point of this thing anymore? Stupid Twitter and Facebook! I need to challenge myself to write daily or weekly or something, or come up with something column-like to write about. Or not care and do what I’ve been doing. Hmm, that sounds easier!
I have been riding my bike to work lately because we have decided to be a single-car family, in addition to being a single-income family. My car was sounding horrible and wasn’t worth the price it would probably have cost to fix it, so I donated it to Cars For Kids and got a tax write-off (theoretically). I was only really using my car to get to work and back anyway, so using my brand new bike that I bought years ago and never used seems just as easier. I can’t say it’s much exercise, since the distance from home to work isn’t that far, but it does feel nice to get the blood flowing a bit after sitting at a desk all day. Maybe I should get a motorcycle or something. Oh wait, those cost money, huh?
In-laws are in town, and the families went to watch The Kid perform at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts with her dance class. Three hours of show for about three minutes of Kid time, but it was pretty cool, if not a bit long in the tooth. Those kids are really talented though, and a lot of them could easily go on to dance professionally in theater…or as strippers or something. (Man! they sexy those kids up young. Gah.) Over 100+ people watching the show, and no nervousness from The Kid, so that was impressive. I’d have been hawking up a liver backstage. She’s either too young to know better or she’s destined for stardom. Time will tell. Afterward, early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Need I say more?
I don’t think I accomplished any of my to-do list I wrote about last entry, so that’s consistent of me. Working on the garage again today though. Good thing it’s hot outside!
Feb 20th
It seems slightly more complicated than it needs to me. Or perhaps not so much complicated as user-unfriendly. It’s a status changer, I get it. But the reply function is just weird. Unlike Facebook, for instance, where you can click the little “comment” link underneath a status, and then it actually shows your comment (and everyone else’s) underneath the status, Twitter doesn’t really thread anything. You’re just supposed to follow who’s talking to who somehow.
You get used to it after a while, but I think it could look more intuitive on their site. It really helps to change the setting “@ Replies” to “@ Replies to the people I’m following”, so that you don’t see replies from the people you’re following to people you don’t care about on your main page. (You still see their replies on their main page, but that’s what you get for going there. Confused yet? I am!)
I was going to dismiss Twitter, but is seems like every site I go to has a twitter application option. And I can sync it to my Facebook status changes, so it’s not really going out of my way to use it. And John Cleese is on there, and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me. So anyone reading this got a Twitter page? I do! Let’s follow each other!
Another Facebook Fight
Dec 22nd
Last time I looked at the fan count of Batman vs Superman, with Batman the winner. Now let’s look at the two franchises that are closer to my heart, Star Wars vs Star Trek, and guess who’s going to win? (Der!)
| General Search | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Star Wars | 535,428 | Star Trek | 22,176 |
| Specific Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope | 971 + 20 | Star Trek: The Original Series | 1,281 |
| Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back | 2,032 + 72 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | 28,095 |
| Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi | 1,458 + 55 | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 7,885 |
| Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | 211 + 16 | Star Trek: Voyager | 15,546 |
| Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones | 772 + 20 | Star Trek: Enterprise | 3,801 + 1,561 |
| Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith | 216 + 63 + 24 | Star Trek (film) | 102,776 |
| Star Wars: Clone Wars | 1,509 + 693 + 224 + 65 + 44 + 21 | ||
| Ship Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Millenium Falcon | 351 | U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 | 289 |
| Character Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Luke Skywalker | 0 | James T. Kirk | 1,361 |
| Han Solo | 8,493 + 96 + 84 | Spock | 0 |
| TOTAL | 552,938 | TOTAL | 184,771 |
| WINNER: STAR WARS | |||
Did you see that coming? I did! Trek did pretty good on the individual entries but it was the generic search at the beginning that done ‘em in.
Tight Washing
Dec 15th
I should really be posting about real life stuff, but here’s something more interesting instead. On Facebook, they have “pages” for products, organizations, people, etc. I think the idea, at least for people, is for the page to be run by the actual person, or at least that person’s rep, but of course everything from Homer J. Simpson to Mr. Magoo has a page because anyone can start a page. And once you start a page, other people can be fans of that page. So I looked up Batman and Superman, and of course they are there, but in terms of fans, Batman is winning 143,999 to 104,831. That’s a pretty big margin. I always thought it was Superman and Jesus in terms of national recognition, but I guess Batman started wearing Kryptonite underwear. I generally like Batman characters and stories better than Superman, but for some reason I’m bummed Superman is not winning, all the same. Maybe because Supes was first, so should get props. Maybe because it means this world prefers cynical to optimistic. Whatever, here’s a funny picture:
Kingdom of Blood
Oct 24th
The Girl and I have gone to the gym a whole two times this week, so go us! We had engagement pictures to pick up on Tuesday and we’re meeting her brother-in-law tonight for dinner, so that cut down the frequency a bit. But we’re riding bikes after work and we have a Kid-less weekend coming up, so hopefully we’ll throw in a few more sessions. I am a bit sore today, so mission accomplished, at least on some level.
The engagement photos came out pretty good. I think there were 58 total, which we narrowed down to three for purchasing purposes. Unfortunately it takes three weeks for him to process the order, which includes some sort of tweaking on the computer. Isn’t that cheating in the World of Photography? Whatever makes me look good though, I don’t care.
I have become addicted to two games on Facebook. One is called Vampire Wars, where you try and get blood through missions and fighting, and you get through missions and fighting by buying abilities and adding to your clan count (through friends). Missions costs energy and fighting costs rage (and hit points and blood if you lose), but like any good vampire, those costs heal themselves. Of course, the more abilities you have, the more blood you need to spend to sustain yourself, so then you have to possess minions to get you blood on a regular basis. My current Blood Flow (income vs expense) is 161,715 per house, so not too bad! The more missions and fights you succeed in, the more experience points you get, which opens up more abilities, missions, minions and people to fight. And the bloody cycle continues.
The second game I am addicted to is Knighthood. This one reminds me somewhat of civilization in that you build your castle, adding defenses like walls and towers, or social things like marketplaces and hospitals, all in an effort to try and be big enough to defend against and attack opponents to get even bigger. If you were invited into the game, you start out as a vassel to someone else, though you still get your own castle. In my case, I am a sovereign, which isn’t much different, except I have no higher person to help me out. I could swear my allegiance to someone bigger than me, but I haven’t yet.
The cool thing is, one way to get vassals is by recruiting friends, but unlike most applications, if the friend doesn’t say yes, I still get to use them in my army, the downside being their power ranking stays at 10. But still, thanks Squire Jenna for your hard work in my Marketplace generating me money, and to my sister Squire Rebecca for patrolling my wall. And kudos to my brother-in-law for actually playing the game and becoming my most powerful vassal so far. I could not build as fast without you!
Now stop reading this and get back to work!
Presidential Cool
Oct 9th
I was browsing through Facebook pages the other day and came across a page each for both our Presidential Hopefuls. And then I noted they both had links to MySpace pages. So regardless of who wins, is this going to be the first time our President has a MySpace page? Maybe not, and I guess you have to do it from a advertising strategy standpoint, but kinda funky anyway. Like either of them are actually posting on their friends walls at 2am while watching Wings reruns.
Speaking of advertising, check it:
 |
VS |  |
Doesn’t the McCain ad look kinda creepy? Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like them staring at me. McCain looks somewhat natural, Palin looks like WAY TOO SUPER HAPPY OKAY THANKS. Obama’s is better, because they aren’t looking at us, they are too busy to make eye contact because they are happy and thinking about the better future they plan to implement. Also they are surrounded by a mass crowd of supporters that we can kind of see, while McCain and Palin have a christmas tree skirt with a spanged pattern on it behind their head. I don’t know why, but The Right just can’t pull off cool. It’s interesting that they both have the same blue with white lettering style. I wonder if that’s a proven ad color scheme or something. “Blue makes people like you!”
Speaking of cool, those images load all super-cool-like when clicked on through my Wordpress site, but unfortunately this awesomeness doesn’t translate too well when exporting to LiveJournal. Ah well…
