Facebook Deletion Didn't Last Long

When I went on that rant last night about Zuckerberg and Facebook taking over the inside of smart phones, televisions, computers and I wasn't going to put up with it ... deep inside I didn't think my absence from Facebook would last long.

Before I reactivated my Facebook account, I looked at all the questions therapists ask to make sure I wasn't addicted ... believe it or not, I'm not based on their questions.

It's convenient. Let me explain.


Unlike most of the 200 million Facebook users, I lead a pretty boring life when it comes to Facebook. I only have 35 friends listed, not thousands and really pick and choose who makes the list. I follow groups and those on my friends list. It's handy, it's convenient to keep in touch with them when 99% of them live a good distance from me.

Emails have been replaced mostly by texting now. Still we keep in touch by Facebook more than anything. Yet, there are a few on that friends list where we actually hold conversations on my flip phone and we have occasional in-person visits while living hundreds of miles away from each other.

I also am not a Facebook user that posts everywhere I am or what I am doing ... about all I post post are a few photos of the hounds for those to see that don't follow my blog. Those photos are only sent to my friends list, the basset hound group or the bloodhound group.

I have had my Facebook account locked down as much as they allow wth their security settings.

THE FACTS ARE ....

All of us lost our privacy when we started doing things on the internet ... from surfing websites, shopping, banking, taking photos and yes ... even blogging. So if I were to quit Facebook and was really concerned about a "footprint' being left on the internet ... then I should just cancel my Exede Account for internet service and stick to doing only Excel spreadsheets on my computer.

Mark Zuckerberg and I will never meet in person. I'll never see the huge wall around his property nor will I see all the houses of his neighbors being demolished because he bought them out for more open land so he can expand his fence. We don't have to agree for me to use his site for what I want to use it for. So all of that means nothing.

I am a very very very small drop in the ocean in all of this Facebook, Internet and Blogging stuff. After all my last employer (government) was hacked so all of my personal stuff was breached ... every bit of information that was filled out on their forms to process a security clearance ... they not only sent me a letter last year or so to confirm it but also gave me 3 free years of Identity Theft Protection and Monitoring.

So really, what does it matter?

If you are on the internet anywhere, you are being tracked, poked, purged, whatever ... all for profit and by every company that has a website. All my hound photos are on Google images in a matter of minutes after I post a blog post. I don't own them, Google does, Facebook owns them when I post there ... it's their site. They do whatever they want with those photos or what groups or sites I like on Facebook, all to make money. That's the object isn't, making a profit?

I use Facebook for similar reasons why I blog publicly ... people enjoy seeing the photos of the hounds and they feel the same way on Facebook when I post a few there every once in a while. I also enjoy seeing photos of friends along with the blogs I follow.

So this morning without a lot of in depth thinking, I logged back into my Facebook account and just like that the hounds were famous once again ... the account was active.

It always happens ... a string of bad weather makes me want to change things ... from blog templates, blog designs, what internet browser I use (now Opera) and even canceling social media accounts. I'll chalk up my "craziness" to the amount of time it has been since I last visited Nick's in Bloomington for one of their great stroms.

Or maybe it's time to put the top down on the Z4 and take a trip to 5Guys for a great cheese burger. After either one of those my blood counts will be back to normal and my thought process will be also.

A light fog this morning with hopes of a lot of sunshine to dry the yard enough for me to mow late this afternoon before the thunderstorms hit on Saturday. The hounds have been fed and are sleeping but they will be happy to know their photos are back on Facebook.

All is back to normal here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Quit Facebook

I'll get to the Facebook story later, but the hounds are no longer on Facebook.

The past two days here in 'the tropics' have been about the same ... overcast skies, then dark with rain and a little bit of sunshine.

Basically if Sadie had not talked me into a walk this afternoon I probably would not be blogging again today ... that is just how slow life in 'the tropics' has been this week.

So I decided this afternoon we were going for a walk no matter how wet, nor how muddy the field might be. The field was pretty dry yesterday before the rains came.

By this afternoon that freshly planted field has multiple spots of standing water. One good thing about the rain ... the high 80's turn into the mid 70's. One bad thing about the rain ... I can't keep up mowing the yard. I don't like to rake after mowing and I don't like to see clumps of mowed grass laying around after mowing ... so I guess there is a decision to be made.

I'm not sure what is here but this has been Stella's favorite spot for the past two days ... over by the burn pile. Really with the weather being the way it's been the past two days, she hasn't gone out into the field except to dump her tanks.

Finally with a restless Sadie I decided to take the walk no matter how wet it was. With my Merrell's shoes smelling like new since they were washed yesterday ... they have been retired from doing any walking in the field when there is the possibility for them to become soaked. I moved my "yard shoes" into "wet field shoes" where it doesn't matter what happens to them.

Both hounds were happy to get out of the house knowing we were going for a walk and not just to stand around in the backyard. Can't you see the excitement??

With all the rain and wind blowing the tall hay in different directions, our path was once again barely visible.

The rain and a little sun though is great for the wild flowers growing in the field.

With the hay being the tallest near the yard, my shoes and legs were soaked by the time we finished the short distance to the shorter hay. Water was squishing between my toes, my shorts were wet but with the camera held high ... we continued on as promised.

Neither hound cared about getting wet ... they just wanted to explore the field.

Sadie and Stella get some running in.

This field looks like they will be getting a bumper crop of hay this year, it's the best I've seen for a while but not as good as ten years ago when it was almost all grass with no weeds.

I am going to have to find and download a free bird book so I can start identifying what I am seeing taking off from ground level driving the hounds insane. The bird is small, not a bluejay but a very solid dark blue color.

I walked again today giving them both free reign where they could go where they wanted and at their own pace.  During this time the only time I am stopping is to take a photo.

This is their same favorite spot they had a few days ago when they refused to move. Today I told them to "come on" and they both took off running for the house.

Here are the New Balance running shoe that was designated my "yard shoes" 2-3 years ago. I didn't buy them at the time to run in, I bought them for comfort. I found out later that the sole design was perfect for yard work, where I would not slide on wet grass, could keep stable on the side of the bank and were ... comfortable.

Now for some ranting.

I've never been a fan of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, but I found his site convenient over the years. It was a good way to keep in touch with some old friends far away. It was also a good way to keep up to date with my interests in sports, bloodhound groups and basset hound groups. It was even fun sharing photos.

Yet the guy has been nothing more than a greedy prick.

I've deactivated and even deleted my Facebook account more than once over the years. The 14 day period gives everyone a chance to log back in and keep their old account intact but once that 15th day appears your account is permanently deleted.

I started getting a little ticked off when last winter he, Microsoft, Google, were all bashing the government on their "spying" on US citizens ... while it was known by their own admissions they did the same thing ... only they were doing for setting up advertising and generating billions of dollars in profit for themselves.

Yes ... they pay taxes, and they donate millions of dollars to charities but that's not my point.

Zuckerberg liked making comments about the wall being built on the Mexican border yet the asshole has a huge wall around his property and in the past week it has been announced that not only is he buying his neighbors out for their land but a few will get a new house built on his dime.

If you don't like walls, don't build them. But I let that go and kept reminding myself why I used Facebook. A couple of days ago news hit airwaves that Facebook was doing more than just spying on what their clients did on Facebook ...

They are in your smart phone as long as it's turned on and you have not changed any of the default settings. They are in your tv if you have the internet connected. They are everywhere in your life because Mark decided a long time ago that he would share your life all over the world so it can be more open and connected, then we can all be friends, a nice globe full of "safe spaces" and the skies will fill up with rainbows and unicorns.

One big happy family. You didn't even have to ask, Mark decided to do it for you!!

Now for me personally, Facebook is probably not in my life too much, besides what groups I 'liked' or the photos I posted of the hounds and the few comments I made on Facebook. Deleting my Facebook account is a good start of getting that creep away from me and the hounds.

Why??? Because I haven't had a smart phone since November 2015 and I don't have the internet hooked up to my large screen tv. When you pay for limited monthly internet data ... internet on the tv is a huge waste of data and I'll not pay for it.

So, for me deleting my Facebook account is mostly on "principal".

Don't shout to the world that Trump is wrong with his idea of building a wall on the Mexican border when you have a huge wall around your private residence. Don't shout to the world that it's terrible and unfair that NSA is "spying" on everyone via their phone and computer ... when you are doing the same thing plus more at Facebook.

They are even into the Google game of tracking the websites you go to even when you are not logged into Facebook so they can gear specific advertising to your interests ... even if you are not on Facebook.

I got finally tired of Mark Zuckerberg's bullshit and will do the least amount possible for him to play his game with me and the hounds. I know it's far fetched but all of what's going on now was far fetched 5 years ago ... so ask yourself what is next ... if Facebook can access your smart phone, your tv and listen in on phone conversations and read all of your Facebook messenges, what keeps them from getting into your bank accounts later on ... then claiming it's all their part to make the world a smaller, safer, likable place.

I've said enough here in the sunny 'tropics' of Southern Indiana ... I'm going to hide in my "safe space".

Sadie Says It's Never Too Late To Walk

Most of the time that I was writing that last post about an hour ago, Sadie was either standing in the doorway or next to my chair ... letting me know there was still time for a walk.

As we stepped outside the temps were perfect. It felt like we had moved into summer just like that.

Both hounds were pretty excited about walking after all they had spent most of the day stretched out either on the kitchen floor or the hardwood floor in the bedroom sleeping.

Stella was all over the place, darting from one spot to another. Her nose couldn't get enough of the scents.

Sadie was on the lookout throughout the walk for any kind of birds that might takeoff from ground level. She doesn't know that bloodhounds are not 'bird dogs'.

Stella didn't spend a lot of time behind us. She must have been smelling a million new scents since yesterday's walk.

As I mentioned before the hay is getting taller and now in most of the field it's hard to see either hound and the path I walk on has overgrown just in the matter of days. It is still barely visible.

About the time that I was going to call for Stella to keep her near instead of veering off to the right hand corner of the field, both hounds took off sprinting ... but I had not seen anything liftoff from the ground, nor did I see any deer.

They were close ... it wasn't long after they walked away that a bird took off from the deep hay ... it was hiding right between them in this next photo.

After they took off on the run, Stella turned but she was too late. I saw the bird fly away minutes ago. They still thought they were on the path to finding it ... but like I said, bloodhounds are not "bird dogs" ... they just think they are.

It's the time of year when the hay is so high that you can barely see the bloodhounds, that I remember when Winston would usually stand at the edge of the yard and field but not go on the walk with us. I could hear him barking as we would leave and I'm not sure but I think he probably barked the whole time we were gone because I'd hear him when we returned.

He didn't like walking when the hay was this tall.

Since I am not a morning person, or one that gets up at sunrise for the best light to take photos ... this time of day seems a lot better to get better photos. The problem is I catch my hands moving a lot when I click the shutter button ... because I can see the movement in the view finder.

We were close to finishing the walk and going back inside when they found something they were not leaving ... not even after calling them, bribing them by yelling their treat. I had time to go inside, load the camera card into the computer ... go back outside and they still would not come.

I finally walked out to get them plus I wanted to see what they had found so interesting but I found ... nothing.

With the temperatures and lighting for photos almost perfect after 8pm or so "tropics time" ... I may be posting later starting tomorrow because of each of those reasons. I don't like changing time twice per year but I love daylight savings time in the summer months. Of course to west coast readers, it's never to late to receive the daily post.

It's late but I'm thinking of some kind of food run here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.