So I am making a bigger post on my earlier post about deleting Facebook/Twitter and the like, which was just posted quickly by me during one of my many frantic moods

….. Okay so basically I had intended to write out all that has been going on and stressing me out, but it’s too much, it will come off as too whiny, and you don’t need to hear it all. Basically same shit different day . . . dissertation writing stress, living off saving stress, upcoming going back to work stress . . . add in the insane heat waves this summer which have just been migraine inducing as well as sitting around and gaining back way too much weight . . . yes I’m a barrel of laughs right now. There is also vacation stress, as whether we go on a vacation in January is yet again up to me. Part of me knows I’ll need a break come January (and I did have a great time last year), the other part of me knows I don’t want that on my credit card bill right now. I’ve been monitoring prices and right now they are going UP, so here is hoping they go back DOWN later on. Oh and then there is John having to work to 9-10pm every other night as well, so I never see him anymore.

So basically all this stress ends up leading to me breaking down and/or blowing up . . . and this last time I went and destroyed all my social networks. I deleted Twitter, Facebook as well as all the check-in apps like Gowalla and Foursquare too.

In part, I realized if I’m gunna be nuts online and vent on these places, I don’t need complete strangers knowing I’m nuts. Twitter/Facebook (because it’s easy to link them) are just too easy to go to and post a quick rant. The blog still takes time . . . signing in, writing the post, proofing it, etc . . . Twitter/Facebook it’s basically just bitch’n'go really. I decided 1) I don’t need to just be using these things as a bitch fest, cause nobody wants to read that and 2) I have way too many people on them I have no idea who they are, so they don’t need to know my private biz-nass.

So I just went on a deletion frenzy I guess I should have just deleted people off my lists . . . but somehow at the time I thought this was easier. I know people loved the twitter feed on the blog, but the problem is for it to work properly with the blog, your twitter account needs to be open. That means anyone can sign up and follow you, and unless you take the time to go in and block them . . . they know your biznass. Also for many people Twitter has seems to lost its appeal. The people I got on there to start following don’t use it as much anymore, and most of the updates I see anymore are people spamming 10 news article/links every hour.

As for Facebook . . . well before Twitter/iPhone I never really updated my facebook much. It was too much trouble. I also just approved anyone who asked to be my friend, even if I didn’t really know them, so now I have 300 friends and probably only can really identify who 50 of them are . . . 25 of which I’ve probably actually met in real life.

While my twitter (and 4square etc) accounts got irretrievably deleted, I did save Facebook from utter destruction. I just have too many childhood and obscure friends I’ll never be able to find again on there (though I’m an easy google if they need to find me, the benefit of years of the soap page). So at some point my Facebook will be back. However I’ve decided I need to take a hatchet to my Facebook. I need to go through my friends list and if I don’t recognize the name – - – DELETE! I also need to make lists of trusted friends and general friends, so I can decide who sees what. I need to learn to deny people’s friends requests if I don’t know who they are, and not be afraid to delete/block people – which so far I’ve never done to anyone. However if I’m posting sensitive and personal stuff, I don’t want strangers seeing it!

On the upside, my blog has gotten a lot more attention without Facebook and Twitter

PS Monster Mania this weekend! So I should be having some fun

Once again I found myself twittering tonight, then very angry.

Twitter and Facebook both permanently deleted tonight.

Not returning.

Fly away bird, fly fly away . . . it does not return . . . . *clap clap clap*

PS, who knew it actually was possibly to permanently delete your Facebook! It is!

*PS UPDATE* I am writing a longer post to address this one more in detail What is gone, what is saved, what needs to be changed big time before I can go back to it. However as usual, I’m multi tasking a million things right now, and a friend is coming over soon and we might be going out . . . some fun will do me good (especially since the last two times I tried to plan going out, they all fell through)

Okay so another day went by, and no tweet digest. I googled and surprise surprise, there are issues with this plug-in and the latest WordPress version. I’m going to increase the tweets in the sidebar to 10. Maybe the daily digest will kick in eventually, I dunno . . . . I am afraid to upgrade all my blogging software to latest versions though as I have heard there are issues.

Speaking of issues, OY! I was designated driver last night so I didn’t drink, and as everyone else was having a good time drinking I was like “Hello, haven’t eaten since thismorning, I know you all don’t care about this right now, but I have hunger pains so lets go to dinner.” When we finally did, I inhaled my food. Then we got back to our posh suite (it really is, Keith hooked us up this year, I have to take photos), and everyone decided I needed to drink since I didn’t all night. Let’s just say we are feeling not good today! My guess is nobody else is either since they didn’t get up and go to the gym like they said they were this morning!

More updates to come, especially since the twitter digest doesn’t seem to function

Today was the first day I woke up not feeling like total crap. I think I’m finally over this cold/pink-eye bug.

As you can see from the side bar, I brought twitter back. I tried to follow as many people as I could find again. This is a new account though, my old one is dead as a doornail and not working. So if you wish, you can follow me at the new one through the side bar (click through to the twitter page and follow me there).

I registered for the dissertation boot camp, which begins next week. It’s going to be hell, but hell I need. I know I’ll be able to make a giant dent in my pile of stuff and be almost close to done when it ends.

I downloaded about 5 html editor/design programs for the mac and have to find the time to fiddle with them and see if I like any enough to fork the dough over for them. I’m coming up with ideas for how I want the farm’s site to look.

Oh, the farm is running a full page ad in a local paper soon. I’ll scan it and post it, as I helped with it A lot of the photos I took are going to be in it too! We’ll have to add this to my resume!

So I’ve been running the farm’s website since last fall. However I didn’t make the look, someone else did. I don’t really care for it honestly and want to revamp it. Given I got this nice iMac I have been wanting to use iWeb to do it. Unfortunately I haven’t taken the time to learn iWeb yet. So I’m scouting for some cheap templates on the web with the look I like, and maybe can modify down the line to more of my liking, to use.

As part of their website I recently implemented Twitter to it, cause you know all local small businesses are using it nowadays. So yes I’m back on Twitter. I also keep getting comments here, on facebook and via email about how I’m missed on Twitter. Honestly I miss reading others on it too, I didn’t think I would as much as I do. So I’m probably starting up a new account soon. Actually I have one, I’ve only just used it for news stuff rather than personal use. That might change soon.

Anyway, back to cleaning my house, which is what I’m taking a break from to write this blog.

So I thought I should make a final post on the Twitter debacle. Basically yesterday I got an automatic email from Twitter saying my account had been restored. I put in about 40 million attempts to restore account because I didn’t want someone usurping my username and confusing people, not that anyone would, but I am paranoid like that.

Well finally something in the system clicked and it let me restore my account. Well actually only kinda. Everything was there, but I was getting no updates from anyone I was following after the moment the restore happened. I eventually realized I would basically have to go in and unfollow and refollow everyone to get it working again.

Unfortunately this only half-ass worked as well. Some people it let me refollow, others it was just giving me errors and making the browser is thinking/spinning wheel sign in the lower corner.

Not only was that a problem, but my photo got messed up and after about 20 attempts to upload a new one (which failed) I just got pissed off and fed up. It seems the photo problem has been an ongoing issue on Twitter since sometime in April based on their “Known Issues” page.

I didn’t want a half-ass working Twitter account, it would just frustrate me. So I re-deleted it, this time for good. This time it also told me that the restore account feature was now down, so this delete would be permanent and for good. I said “Byedeybye Captain Walkah” and hit the delete button.

I figured I originally deleted it for a reason, clearly it needed to stay deleted and gone. That is what the universe was saying I think. I’m sure my 8 million daily rambles aren’t missed I do however realize one thing Twitter was very useful for, knowing when people updated their blogs. Most of my blogroll was on Twitter so I always knew when a new post went up.

Anyways, learn some lessons from this kiddos. First, don’t delete your Twitter account unless you really want to, because like the Pet Cemetery, it will come back as something evil and only part alive. Second, if you decide you don’t like your Twitter picture, replacing it might be a gamble and you might end up with a broken link that you and everyone on your list has to look at.

Twitter has been a spaz lately, and it seems clear their servers weren’t prepared for the influx of new users that came on. I know they publicly claimed awhile back that this was not Oprah’s fault for talking about Twitter, but we all know it is. It’s totally Oprah and Ashton’s fault

I might down the road get a new Twitter for the sole purpose of knowing when blogs are updating and letting people know when mine is updated. However my guess is sometime this summer something new will be out to replace Twitter, basically making Twitter a Myspace to the Facebook of whatever replaces it.

So I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend, or relaxed. Our weather here has been a little skitzo. I basically just worked most of the weekend on school, then went swimming in the children’s pool they filled up this weekend. The house never got cleaned though, so I think that is on today’s agenda. I can’t take the little balls of pet hair floating around anymore!

The SciFi channel had a marathon of “Land of the Lost” yesterday. I have the first season on DVD, but never got the 2nd or 3rd. We came into the thing somewhere in the 2nd season and I watched through the abomination that was the third season when the show went to hell thanks to the arrival of Uncle Jack. The marathon of course was for the new movie coming out, which I can’t decide on. I am not a huge fan of Will Ferrell’s humor, I like him in a few movies basically. His “Land of the Lost” will either be really good, or make the third season look like Emmy Award winning television

Twitter suddenly came back last night, yet it’s still broken. It’s not updated since it returned. I think I have to kick start it by putting a tweet out, I don’t know. Maybe Jesus is still speaking to me and telling me “No!” Otherwise I haven’t used facebook, except for a slip-up late one dark stormy night *Confirmed* I’m being positively permanently punished. Twitter only shows my updates or replies to me, but nothing from anyone I follow. Time to give up the Twat!

I still haven’t eaten meat yet either, though the Big Mac is now haunting me. I kid you not, I was at the gym yesterday and “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” was on. I look up and the question is “Based on the famous jingle, what is not an ingredient in a Big Mac?”

Anyways, I have a few other things to share, but I’ll save it for another post. I still have to get my review of “EA Sports Active” up at sometime too.

So for the past few days we’ve had an ant problem in the kitchen. I have no idea where they are coming from, other than outside of course. This hasn’t ever happened before either. They are always on the stove or counter by the sink as well. Historically that has been a messy spot, as I usually prepare food on the stove because our counter space is limited. So I’ve been cleaning it almost daily, but it’s not helping. I finally put some ant traps down, hopefully if there is a colony somewhere close, it will be RAID’d!

My old Twitter account never got fixed, and I’m just accepting it probably won’t. Maybe God is telling me to stop Twittering for good I emailed Twitter support about the problems I’m having restoring it (ie it’s not working), but all I got was a bot form response saying “Based on your question, we think these known issue FAQs will be of help.” Um, no, they weren’t . . . and they made me read those before I could put in a help request. I replied back and emailed off a different support email. Maybe I’ll get a human answer one day soon.

I took an hour to go out to the Collingswood May Fair today. Basically live bands, rides for the kiddies, and a buttload of crafters and venders. Lots of people, lots of doggies, and the summer sun straight down on me. I just got back and am pooped!

I still haven’t eaten meat since last weekend, and I’ve eased up on the fish too. Carbs are gunna be a problem for me! I ended up getting some wraps to use in place of breads to see if that will help. So far the only temptation to eat meat has been a Big Mac box trashed by the side of the road that I kept passing while walking the dogs. Mmmm, Big Macs! I finally just picked it up and threw it away so I didn’t have to keep seeing it.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the hiking day, but sadly I’m not sure if I’ll make it. It will be almost an all day affair, leaving here around noon and probably not getting back till 6pm. I will have to see if I feel I can sacrifice the hours. I need to get 2 dissertation chapters done and fired off this weekend. They were supposed to be done by Monday, but I didn’t realize what shambles one of the chapters was in. I ended up rewriting it and adding a ton of new stuff. Now all I have to do is proof them.

Even if I get them done by tonight, I have other issues. Nikko it seems isn’t feeling too well, he’s having ass explosions I do not want to leave him home for six hours with no walks! It’s a holiday weekend, so the market is slamming busy, and John might not be able to get over to walk him enough. I also really want to clean the house really well, it’s long overdue, and might help with the ants

Anyways, that’s about all I have to say. I am going to have a review of “EA Sports Active” for the Wii up soon. I’m trying to get through a few days with it so I experience a good number of the excersises. The personal trainer option basically picks them out each day and they vary from day to day. I have to say, it’s been kicking my ass!

After 2 days sunk in, and several “What the hell did I dos” I decided to bring back Facebook and Twitter . . . . but there is a catch I don’t intend to actively use them till June 15th! Facebook I knew was only deactivated, which I appreciated, as I have too many people on it I couldn’t contact otherwise. Myspace, well I think that one is dead as a doornail . . . and I could care less. Myspace is so 2001! Seriously, I never used it anymore . . . evident by the fact I deleted it from my iPhone weeks ago.

I was able to restore Facebook entirely. Twitter told me I could restore my account, but as of yet it hasn’t happened. I actually went on to re-register the account name to protect myself from any fucktards who decided to usurp my ID, but it seems they thought of that already. My ID was saved and it told me I could restore it. It just doesn’t seem to have happened yet However like Facebook, I won’t use it for at least a month. I am not putting it back on my iPhone, I am not installing it back onto my Mac either!

So I figured I should make a post about my last post Why did I apparently lose my mind and delete all my social networking sites? Well I did much more than that, a bit on that near the end of this post though.

So why did I do it? To cut the IV that is the internet that has been keeping me alive for far too long now. Since around 1994 I have been way too connected to the internet. It started when I began my first webpages, the “Days” page and my old “Sega Saturn” page. I quickly found IRC and chatrooms and began nightly chats.

After the IRC died down, it was the chatroom on my site and later a forum I started. The forum quickly became a full time job though, trying to deal with and police fights, complaints, etc. I am not a bad cop, so I failed miserably at that. People walked all over me, and I idiotically let them because I didn’t want to be “the bad guy.”

After the page got sold though, the chatroom pretty much became a private room for the people who used it more as a social get-together space. It however is pretty much dead right now. Everyone went off and you know, got real lives I soon ended up becoming a Twitter and Facebook addict, and these took over. Twitter was so useful and easy that I started neglecting blogging because it just seemed like I was putting everything I had to say on Twitter.

Not only was I hooked into Twitter and Facebook, but I was told too many times that I whined, bitched and complained too much. Also I was always on my phone, at the dinner table, when out with people, even taking it to bed to check off and on. John nicknamed it the devil’s tool.

So I decided to pull the IV out. I deleted my MySpace, Facebook (they don’t let you delete it actually, they deactivate it) and my Twitter account. MySpace and Twitter are fully gone, deleted, dead. I can however re-activate my Facebook account, though I don’t know if I’ve lost all my friends, photos, posts or what not. So effectively this blog is now my only personal social outlet left really. From now on I’m also going to try and be positive and not bitch so much

With my social outlets gone, my iPhone basically is an expensive phone that has lost half of its use. Actually since I rarely even use my phone to talk, it’s pretty much lost all its use. I tried to see if I could drop my data plan and keep it as a phone only, but I couldn’t via the online account management. So I emailed AT&T asking if it was possible to do so. I’d still be able to use it as a phone, as well as use any apps that don’t require the internet. For those that do, I should be able to still do it through my wireless home network. Of course that means when I leave the house, it just becomes a plain old phone. I’m okay with that actually.

I need to get out more and meet real people and have real world friends. I love my online friends, but I need social interaction as well. I’ve already made plans to join a group that goes hiking every Sunday and will be going this weekend for the first time.

Oh as if all the above doesn’t seem insane as is, there is more. Because I’m now out of a job and don’t have one until I go looking for one, I need to be on a budget. I am not planning on looking till the end of June or July honestly, I don’t want to have the distractions of a job while trying to finish my dissertation. I’ve learned the long and hard way I’m not good at multi-tasking the dissertation and work So to keep me from spending money I shouldn’t be, and from borrowing too much from my savings to pay it off, I cut up every single one of my credit cards. No, I’m not kidding. I cut them up and put half in the garbage and half in the recycle bin (I hope they are recyclable). I am not someone who has their card numbers memorized either, so I’m shit out of luck if it can’t be paid via check or debit card. I still have a few things that I am billed for monthly or every few months, I’ll begin moving them over to my bank account soon enough.

Well I guess there you have it. I’ll probably be blogging a lot more now that Twitter and my other outlets are dead