Play Book Tag discussion
Archives 2016-2017
>
Beyond Books
We were on holidays for a couple of weeks, in beautiful BC (read the license plates, they say so, too) visiting family, see some friends I haven't seen in about 30 years, etc.My son played Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on 7 public pianos during our several days in Vancouver. This one piece of music is the only reason he's stuck with piano, and he started learning it as a reach piece (ie one a fair ways beyond his level)--he's really a trumpet player.
Note: we live much wealthier than our income allows as my parents a. flew us on points and b. about 25 years ago bought an apartment in Vancouver when it was still affordable to do so (now that little 2 bedroom apartment is worth at least double of what our house is worth, including the yard). I have no idea what it costs to spend 5 nights in a hotel in Vancouver! Plus my parents live elsewhere in BC (even better than the city, but not as fancy).
Karin wrote: "We were on holidays for a couple of weeks, in beautiful BC (read the license plates, they say so, too) visiting family, see some friends I haven't seen in about 30 years, etc.My son played Gershw..."
Welcome back! That sounds like a wonderful trip - - I LOVE Vancouver. Wish I could go live there. And how neat that your son has such a passion for music.
I adore Rhapsody in Blue. I fell in love with it as a child when I watched a film about Gershwin. Sounds like a fabulous holiday Karin.
Susie wrote: "I adore Rhapsody in Blue. I fell in love with it as a child when I watched a film about Gershwin. Sounds like a fabulous holiday Karin."Anita wrote: "Karin wrote: "We were on holidays for a couple of weeks, in beautiful BC (read the license plates, they say so, too) visiting family, see some friends I haven't seen in about 30 years, etc.
My son..."
Thanks! Every time I wish I could live in Vancouver again, 2 weeks in BC cures me of it, although it is lovely. If I were to ever move back to BC it wouldn't be in the lower mainland (an actual area term there).
I love Vancouver but haven't been in ages. I definitely have considers moving there though, I like the hustle and bustle, and love its ethnic diversity.
I need to vent. Facebook is making me insane-o. Today, I feel like I was told I'm unethical (for eating meat), who I should vote for (um, I can decide for myself thanks), and exposed to a continuous onslaught of "news" from sketchy sources and clickbait headlines (if I want your news, I'll go to your website). All I really want to see on Facebook are people's happy vacation pictures, pictures of animals, my friends' nice life events (babies, weddings, graduations, new jobs), book recommendations and maybe a little bit of friendly sports banter.
I guess the solution is to just quit it altogether, but really do hate to miss out on the joyous parts and the connections to distant friends.
But honestly, each day I'm a little closer to throwing in the towel. I'm going to try to hang out here more.
In the meantime, I'm absolutely not going to share or like anything else that is remotely political no matter how good it is . . .maybe my feed algorithm will adjust accordingly? What are the chances?
UPDATE: I went through pages of my feed and basically hid every single political post . . .let's see how well Facebook can take a hint! It felt cathartic at any rate . . .and one kind PBT member sent me some adorable animal pictures that lowered my blood pressure.
Good luck Anita! We recently had an election here and I had election fatigue too. It's the same information being rehashed over and over. I'm a little fascinated from afar by your election but agree with your thoughts. I've seen Trump eating KFC with a knife and fork a million times. Who needs to see that? I find myself increasingly being more interested in this group than in FB.
It does take a bit of doing but you can rid your Facebook account of unwanted posts. Unfriending may be needed and using their privacy settings helped me get rid of a lot.
Anita wrote: "I need to vent. Facebook is making me insane-o. Today, I feel like I was told I'm unethical (for eating meat), who I should vote for (um, I can decide for myself thanks), and exposed to a continuou..."You know how I feel about facebook right now, considering my imposec 5 month hiatus. After only 1 day I felt so much better. I am now on day 3 and feel fantastic. I was actually able write something. Write! And it wasn't a book review either. I still have to check the groups my for my boys' hockey teams because that is where the bulk of our communication is, but honestly I can do that without looking at my feed. I feel like I can breathe again. I may never return.
Rina, I have hidden lots of people too. One racist post and bam, hidden. Alas they are parents of my son's friends so I can't defriend them, but I will not have racism in my news feed. I deleted the app from my phone too, and only check it once or twice a day now instead of incessantly. I agree Sara - much easier to breathe!
Susie - - Thank you! I don't even feel it is just the election (though that is a huge part of it), but more this generalized self righteousness that seems to have grabbed hold. Rina - I went through and hid slews of posts and am hoping that adjusts my algorithm. We'll see tomorrow. I feel bad unfriending (though I did do one person) in part because some of the worst offenders also post great things that I often like. It's beyond annoying. But I'm going to see what I can make happen, but if it doesn't work, I will take a page from . . .
Sara!
I actually didn't realize you were taking a five month hiatus. I missed the five month part. Ok, I'm going to check back in with you in a week and see if you still feel the same, and if my feed isn't markedly improved, I may try to follow suit . . .at least until after the election. I am sure I am wasting boatloads of time on it too, so it probably would be a worthwhile experiment. Thanks for sharing.
Susie wrote: "Rina, I have hidden lots of people too. One racist post and bam, hidden. Alas they are parents of my son's friends so I can't defriend them, but I will not have racism in my news feed. I deleted th..."Removing the app from your phone is a great idea. That's a concrete thing I can do. I'm going to do it. Once I figure out how to remove an app from my phone lol . . .(it's a pretty new one for me).
Anita- you can unfollow rather than remove a friend. That way you are still friends but just don't get all their posts.
Anita wrote: "Sara!I actually didn't realize you were taking a five month hiatus. I missed the five month part. Ok, I'm going to check back in with you in a week and see if you still feel the same, and if my feed isn't markedly improved, I may try to follow suit . . .at least until after the election. I am sure I am wasting boatloads of time on it too, so it probably would be a worthwhile experiment. Thanks for sharing.
..."
I think I said January is when I would return, so I think that is 5 months, unless I a worse at math than I thought. ;)
Jen wrote: "Anita- you can unfollow rather than remove a friend. That way you are still friends but just don't get all their posts."This is exactly what I do also. Just unfollow a person, and their posts never show up in your feed. You can still see them if you go to their personal page though.
I don't understand how people think they need to post 9 times a day about literally nothing. I'd never be able to give up facebook since that is how I stay in touch and communicate with my out-of-country friends, but the unfollow friend button is my friend!
Biggest facebook pet peeve: Gushy romantic posts from significant other to significant other. You two live together, things should be private!! I don't need to see you say "I love you so much booboo" to him twice weekly on his wall. I totally get and partake in fun vacation photos together, or an anniversary post, but if you need facebook to validate your relationship, it's probably not a healthy relationship.
Anita wrote: "I feel bad unfriending (though I did do one person)..."I also have a very tough time unfriending anyone. Good luck with "fixing" your feed!
Sara wrote: "I think I said January is when I would return, so I think that is 5 months, unless I a worse at math than I thought. ;)..."
That is what you'd said. I'm going to miss you...
Thanks for the unfollowing vs. unfriending instruction. There certainly are some news organizations and people I can do that with without missing a thing.Sara, I must have blocked out the January part lol! I was just sad you were going . . .
Lol, Joi! It is good to know I am not the only one with FB pet peeves.
I defriend at least one person every Friday -- Defriend Friday. There are people who I do not interact with anymore, I do not particularly care what is going on in their life, and they do not need to know what is going on in mine. It is liberating! And, if I change my mind or reconnect then I just refriend them. I purge friends on FB and TBR books on GR. The secrets to life when my day is stressful. Lol
My daughter lives in another country so I stay on Facebook to talk with her but I only go on maybe once a week. Any time I go on it, I feel assaulted by game requests and advertisements. And if I see another like message - "Emily likes macaroni" - I am going to scream!
Joi wrote: "Jen wrote: "I'd never be able to give up facebook since that is how I stay in touch and communicate with my out-of-country friends, but the unfollow friend button is my friend!..."The vast majority of my family and friends are on the other side of the country. My mom hates that I am going on this hiatus as she loves my posts about my boys, but facebook had become so toxic that I just had to say no more.
LibraryCin wrote: "Sara wrote: "I think I said January is when I would return, so I think that is 5 months, unless I a worse at math than I thought. ;)..."
That is what you'd said. I'm going to miss you..."
I will miss you too. Its a good thing I didn't leave PBT after we moved to GRrrrr.
On a sidenote, does anyone else hate the new homepage layout?
Nicole wrote: "I defriend at least one person every Friday -- Defriend Friday. There are people who I do not interact with anymore, I do not particularly care what is going on in their life, and they do not need ..."LOL, well that is interesting! I am just not Facebooking right is what I'm learning from all these posts. I'm hiding and unfollowing and saying I want to see LESS of these types of posts . . .and will report back on a) whether it works and b) how long it took for FB to catch on. So far, I'm still seeing a lot of political stuff, but I'm feeling better because I'm taking some control.
So thank you for all the tips!
Annoyingly, one of the people who was making me the most crazy actually pm'd me with her annoying link that I already saw on FB. ARGH!!!
I think I give people the wrong impression because I'm actually fine with discussing politics in person and am interested in people's thoughts when they can be probed further and elaborated upon. It's the one-way pushing that I am finding super irritating.
Sara wrote: "Joi wrote: "Jen wrote: "I'd never be able to give up facebook since that is how I stay in touch and communicate with my out-of-country friends, but the unfollow friend button is my friend!..."The..."
I am super glad you stayed on PBT - - really can't imagine it without you.
The GR home page is definitely a de-provement. I switched (or was somehow switched) right away so I've had it for awhile now and am getting used to it. But I preferred the clean look it had before. But it isn't bothering me now after a couple of months.
Kathy wrote: "My daughter lives in another country so I stay on Facebook to talk with her but I only go on maybe once a week. Any time I go on it, I feel assaulted by game requests and advertisements. And if I s..."Ha ha, you don't care that Emily likes macaroni? I have to confess that food posts are some of the ones I do like best. But that one sounds a little pedestrian!
A few of the people I finally unfriended, I unfollowed to begin with and then when no one noticed I had done anything- I let them go entirely. Anything political is gone. Anything remotely negative about work, again gone. Anyone with a soapbox rant- gone. I now have pretty much what I want to see. Travel, cooking, interesting quirky stories about people, nature, clothing etc. And Vet Ranch. And HONY. And a family that is renovating a French chateau- love her stuff.
Another option that I love to use is when someone shares something from another page you can go to the posts drop down menu and select "Hide All From [that person/page]." That way you still see your friends stuff in the feed but don't have to see the stuff they share/repost from poltical sites. I discovered this when a dear friend of mine started posting stories about animal abuse often. While I support his cause I did not want to see pages of abused animal photos every day so I simply said hide messages from that organization and I rarely see them anymore. I have also used this to hide stuff from unreliable news sites and political pages.
Sara wrote: "On a sidenote, does anyone else hate the new homepage layout? "I think the new homepage has some improvements and some de-provements. I know many people asked to have an easy way to navigate to groups on the homepage and that was not incorporated, which I think is a big negative.
Some of the small details about the update feed page kind of irk me but I really like the larger book covers and pictures. I am not ashamed to admit that I judge books by their covers and the older, smaller covers were hard to see.
Like Anita, I switched over quite some time ago when they announced they had the Beta version so now I am pretty used to it.
Cora wrote: "Another option that I love to use is when someone shares something from another page you can go to the posts drop down menu and select "Hide All From [that person/page]." ..."That is super-helpful! I had no idea you could do that. Definitely implementing that strategy.
Joi that is one of my facebook peeves too. If you are a couple I assume you know how much you love each other and don't need to post it constantly on facebook, total attention seeking behavior.Antia unfollowing people and hiding all from certain pages should definitely help. I'm constantly hiding posts from pages that annoy me. I've also unfollowed one of my fiance's relatives who constantly posted political stuff I disagree with. Now I'm not annoyed by her and no drama from unfriending her. I'll never leave facebook because it's how I get pictures of family members that live far away and of my friends adorable babies. I'm just getting more selective in who I friend and have unfriended a few people who I just am not really close to any more.
I'm actually not on FaceBook, and I managed this year to get invited to my 30th HS reunion anyway..... I think in general, we have to figure out how to rise above negativity and stay with joy! I applaud all of you for figuring that out, and living that truth. We need it. Good luck, Anita.
Anita wrote: "I need to vent. Facebook is making me insane-o. Today, I feel like I was told I'm unethical (for eating meat), who I should vote for (um, I can decide for myself thanks), and exposed to a continuou..."Yes, I agree!!! Remember when it was all about connecting with friends and family from all over? There are a few people I don't follow and just go visit their pages from time to time. I may be doing more of that as the election gets closer.
I can't unfriend people with different political views since no one has views 100 percent opposite of mine, there's just no party that fits my combination of platforms. Plus, I don't mind if people disagree as long as it's polite and OFF Facebook.
Over lunch, I defriended about 15 people and hid about half-dozen ads. I already like my FB feed more.
Joi wrote: "Biggest facebook pet peeve: Gushy romantic posts from significant other to significant other. You two live together, things should be private!! I don't need to see you say "I love you so much booboo" to him twice weekly on his wall.."Lol, Joi!
I am continually amazed at the gushy posts where they go on to talk about their fights or days they don't speak to each other - but they love each other.
I also have my posts set to custom so that only the people I really want to communicate with see them. I think many people use FB as a networking tool so they friend everyone they meet. They don't need to see my family pictures. I also unfollow people.I think one of the things that bugs me most is the people that drop from my feed that I really do care about. It remains a mystery to me how FB determines what I see.
Nicole wrote: "Over lunch, I defriended about 15 people and hid about half-dozen ads. I already like my FB feed more."You go, girl!
Cora wrote: "Another option that I love to use is when someone shares something from another page you can go to the posts drop down menu and select "Hide All From [that person/page]." That way you still see you..."YES! Thank you for this - - I see this now, and that's definitely going to help me a lot.
Sara wrote: "I will miss you too. Its a good thing I didn't leave PBT after we moved to GRrrrr...."Agreed!
Nicole wrote: "I defriend at least one person every Friday -- Defriend Friday. There are people who I do not interact with anymore, I do not particularly care what is going on in their life, and they do not need ..."I do something similar, but probably horrible morally- I defriend people on their birthdays. It's when they pop up on the right corner of my facebook page. Birthday's only come around once a year, so if it's been over a year since the last time I cared about what that person said- probably time to unfriend.
I need that French chateau thing in my FB feed. Less than 100 days to the election!
LibraryCin wrote: "When exactly is the election?"Tuesday November 8th. It's always the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
Joi wrote: "Nicole wrote: "I defriend at least one person every Friday -- Defriend Friday. There are people who I do not interact with anymore, I do not particularly care what is going on in their life, and th..."This made me laugh!!! Both Joi and Nicole!!
I didn't know you could block certain sites --- I will try that. I don't post political stuff, but unfortunately my mom is always liking/sharing stuff. We are on opposite sides of the spectrum so I will try with her posts
Ladyslott wrote: "LibraryCin wrote: "When exactly is the election?"Tuesday November 8th. It's always the Tuesday following the first Monday in November."
Thanks, Linda. Of course, it's all over the news here, as well, so I was just wondering when the "deadline" would be. Of course, it could get interesting afterward, too...
I understand how you feel about Facebook. I left back in December because I couldn't deal with the drama AND I didn't want to be on Facebook once all the real politics started. It has been liberating. I love it. I do miss the interaction with some of my family and friends, but I figure the people I really want to connect with find me other ways (e.g. phone calls, texts, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads). I've thought about going back after November/January, but I don't know if I will.
Ladyslott wrote: "LibraryCin wrote: "When exactly is the election?"Tuesday November 8th. It's always the Tuesday following the first Monday in November."
One of the biggest political things I had to get used to down here was the set date for virtually all elections.The other is the electoral college.
Feel free to discuss personal news, announcements, and any non-book related items here!