Goodbye, Facebook

Simultaneously, I am both addicted to Facebook, and I can't stand Facebook. Truly. It is my only contact with pop culture since I don't watch television. It is the easy, lazy way to get the news when you don't have time or inclination to comb internet news sources or read a real, live newspaper. So many great, thought-provoking articles and blog posts come through from people I admire and respect. I can watch the children of dear friends and family members grow up from across the miles. Truly, in many ways, it's wonderful. 

In many other ways, however, it is maddening and infuriating. 

Having already whittled my "friends" list down in a mad, moody moment from 800-something to 100-something, I am still considering deactivating my account. 

I really hate it even as I love it. The fact is, sometimes it stilts true relationship. It can make people mean. It can cause people to speak and behave in ways they never would in person. It can make me draw assumptions and form (sometimes unfair but always ungracious) judgements about people based on the stuff they post. It keeps me "involved with" and "worried about" far too many people I never see and no longer have actual contact with. It can cause or exacerbate relationship problems. It can cause hurt feelings. It can cause unhelpful comparisons with the self-presentations of others that are just that: carefully crafted self-presentations. 

So, anyway, I'm in a mood and tired of it all and have too much I should be doing in real life to be wasting so much time in virtual land. Goodbye, Facebook... at least for a while. It isn't you. Truly. It's me. Perhaps one day I'll grow up enough to use you responsibly. In the meantime, a week off couldn't hurt!

If I Had A Million Dollars

This is what a $180.00 teddy bear looks like!



*Entry 10, October - The 12 Months of 2014 Blog Challenge
The title is a line from the song "If I Had A Million Dollars" by Barenaked Ladies.

A Tradition Is Born?

Here are the official photos at the start of the half marathon. OG is the second of our children to run a half marathon with their dad and their aunt. I wonder if one day their little sister EL will join them?

 

Motion Media in Action

I recently received a letter from a young friend of mine. She is at an art school studying motion media. I was unfamiliar with exactly what that was, and I found this visual explanation interesting... fascinating, really. So, here is a video explanation in case you, too, weren't sure what this is.

So, just what is "motion media"?
"Motion Plus Design" Center : "What is Motion Design ?" from Motion Plus Design on Vimeo.

And here is a motion media video that my young friend made for class. I find it cute and fun as well as moving, haunting, and a little sad... pretty impressive array of emotions for something only forty seconds long and made entirely of animated images.  Enjoy!