Empire Avenue

OK, I am annoyed right now. Earlier today I logged into EA, checked my social graph and went about my business. Just tried to go back on my lunch and found my account has been deleted. I'm not sure what I did or what I clicked, but unless someone decided to hack into my account, I must have hit something. I did modify some privacy settings in facebook this AM, but, I was under the impression that EA was a separate entity. Now I am not so sure.

It would appear that my whole account is now gone. And I'm not going to spend the time bringing it back. So, if we connected on EA along the way, I'm sorry for this error. If Empire Avenue can figure out how to salvage my account, then I'll continue, but since my primary peer groups never connected there, this might actually end up being a blessing in disguise.

Oh what a tangled web we are weaving.... this is certainly a wake-up call for what is connected where.

Facebook

So, yesterday facebook changed everything again. Annoying. Most of my friends reacted negatively too. Couldn't find things I normally scanned in the morning, lost the train of the feed on several occasions etc.

Interestingly my college aged son wondered what the big deal was. He has the updated feed but didn't care about it. My high school daughter didn't even notice, but then again she only uses FB on a mobile device.

Which got me to thinking. Why was I so annoyed and they so unaffected? My guess would be that they share everything with their friends. I don't.

I started sorting into two main groups over a year ago, people I actually know and acquaintances. The acquaintances got sorted into a group that locked them out of the details of my life. We could message one another, we can play games together, they can invite me to their events, but they couldn't see the pictures of my kids. I also used the lists option to sort my feed, my preferred method was to view status updates and I hid the feeds of many of the games, groups I was asked to like etc. When it was time to play Cafe World or Mafia Wars (yes, I got sucked into those games by my kids and I still play) I could sort the feed for game updates and send gifts etc. I was very happy.

Now, facebook has sorted all my friends for me and the feed lists option appears to be gone. If I click the FB games list, I don't see my friends there who play games with me, only the acquaintances. I have to click several places now to see the info that used to be at my fingertips. From a work perspective, I am concerned that the pages I promote will get buried... that we won't be "top news" cause we publish in waves of info and our fans might not see the info we do share.

This afternoon there was a press conference explaining why all of this is so great. Honestly, it just feels like a targeted advertising demographic grab. If I am forced to sort all of my friends into all the categories in which I hold them, Facebook learns a little bit more about my likes. And someday the ads will be more personalized. Honestly, if I wanted to sort everyone into groups I could use google plus :)

So, if you are as fed up with facebook as I am, come find me on google plus. I've already got the circles started over there. I won't leave facebook, too many friends and family there, but I don't think I'll spend the time curating my peeps the way FB wants. I'll just figure out how to view the basics and play the games. And continue to try to keep my private life private.

Metamorphosis

So, September kept it coming. After my Mom got hurt, so far this month my son broke a toe, my cat needed emergency surgery and my Dad needed a trip to the ER. So, now looking forward to October :). I am having a personal metamorphosis as I learn how to juggle it all. I appreciate my family and support network even more than ever. I am changing day by day and hope I transition into something amazing at the end of it all.

But, in the midst of the insanity, a little touch of magic from Mother Nature. We had to babysit caterpillars for a neighbor. I know, not the most common of neighborly requests, but we said OK. And got to watch one change into a pupa. Managed to capture it on film.

This morning while we were waiting for buses, our neighbor came out to say that two of the butterflies emerged last night. I got to take some photos of them, and one shows how the pupa changes. So amazing.

The photo of the toad was just because we were happy to see him today :)

Going to HigherEd Web in Austin

My first conference since joining UB and my first professional conference in years. Roswell used to send me to work the booths for their conferences (not that I fit the classic definition of a booth babe by any stretch of the imagination) but I don't think I've traveled for learning in over seven years, maybe longer. I am truly looking forward to a chance to think outside of the box.

Let me know if you're going to be there too!