The Gurly Life

Panic

Wherein I freak out because no one was responding to my Facebook updates FOR TWO DAYS!.

Last Thursday or Friday, I downloaded a photo upload Facebook app for iPhoto. If you don't really get what that means, don't worry. What's important is that I downloaded a Facebook application. I did not realize this at the time, but said application screwed something up for my Facebook account, so that no one other than me could see my updates. As far as all my friends were concerned, I'd gone stealth.

The first hint that something had gone awry was when I posted updates that I was on my way to the airport to pick up my mom, and NO ONE RESPONDED, not even a like. My first reaction was, you bastards! Not even a like? Fine. Then you don't get to come have dinner and eat my mom's delicious food. Hurrumph!

I posted a link, a couple more updates on Saturday, and again, nothing. Ummh. Ok, maybe I'm just suddenly really uninteresting and my updates are ending up at the bottom of the new news feed, which decides for you what is interesting and important. So I made myself wrong about being boring for a little while.

In desperation, I posted the following: "I sprouted wings and flew to Canada, where I learned to make goulash." That, I thought, will elicit at least ONE question, even if only something like WTF??

Again, nothing. I began to feel isolated, and ignored. I tallied all the people who I hadn't heard from in a while, trying to remember who hadn't called me back. Could this be a conspiracy? Something fishy is definitely afoot here. Then I tried to remember if I'd written something deeply offensive on my wall and this was retaliation, or the online equivalent of social ostracism, a virtual scarlet letter, if you will.

The anxiety began to creep in. What if all my friends have hidden my updates? I have hidden about half of mine, but I think that's normal, right? You keep the updates of your closer peeps, and occasionally check in with your acquaintances? But what if that is a major FB faux pas, and the word got around and now interwebby vigilante justice is unfolding?

This morning I woke up in a crappy mood and almost didn't go to yoga because I HAD TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS. Can you imagine? I'm literally going over the edge in less than 2 days.

I emailed everyone I could think of who might have had dealings with FB tech support (and figured out how to contact them, though they assured me they are not likely to respond), got tips and links from all kinds of friends and friends of friends, and finally, after breakfast and tea and while on my way to yoga I remembered that application.

And before you can say Bob's your uncle, I had removed the application and was again visible. I could have run nekked through the streets, I was so excited.

In case you hadn't figured it out from the painfully detailed account above, the whole experience left me rattled. I have only been on FB for a little over a year, but as I am a compulsive communicator, it has turned into a vital tool for me. (Drat!) I read up on what people are doing, put in my two cents, hear from them about what I'm doing, post my blog posts, look at people's pictures, make inane comments about things I find interesting, and so on. More importantly, I have reconnected with long lost friends from childhood. What a community!

In my fog of panic, I thought about the adjustment I'd have to make if for some reason my profile was hopelessly corrupt and I had to close down the account. It's like my cell phone: I'm not on it all the time, but I want to be the one to choose whether or not I'm available, and I want to be reachable in case of an emergency, whether that be a boyfriend misbehaving of someone in the hospital.

And isn't it funny how each level of technology enhances our ability to be connected with our peeps, and how addictive that is? Anyway, all's well that ends well, and you can all look forward to my insane ramblings, just as you did prior to Thursday.

A curious phenomemononoemon

I can't say that word. Not the point.

Facebook came up with a new upgrade, which allows you to name your FB page so you don't just get facebook.com/andabunchofnumbers. So, for example, my FB pages is now facebook.com/elena.gerli. I think lots of people, many of whom I know, rushed to get "their" name registered, or claimed, or whatever. And those of us who did that, especially if we knew there were lots of other us's, were feeling pretty victorious that we got there first.

The point of this completely escapes me, and so far, has escaped everyone else. No one, so far, has been able to explain why it was so necessary to claim our name on FB.

This got me thinking about names and our human tendency to claim things and to bolster our identity. I have to admit that I jumped on the name bandwagon too, all the while thinking how pointless it was, but that by god I was not going to let anyone else have my name. Of course, my name is their name if they also have the same name.

I still have no clue what the point is about having the name on the FB link, other than it'll be easier for people to Google me. But so what? They can't see my page unless they're FB friends already. I suppose if it's someone out there in the world who is trying to find me and they don't know where to look, this will make it easier. If they're not on FB, though, they'll have to sign up before they can contact me.

But in reality, this is pretty pointless. The age of the internet has made it so that just about anyone who wants to find me, has. And as for privacy issues: who the hell cares? Every government agency in the country has my prints and all my information already.

A Blackberry incident

Yesterday I spent two and a half hours on the phone with Blackberry. In the 2+ years I've had my Blackberry, I've never upgraded the software, so I thought it was time. Of course, I backed up all my phone info, and then I clicked on that inviting UPDATE button.

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that the tech support at Verizon and Blackberry were not only extraordinarily helpful, but they also talked me down off the ledge. Well, I wasn't in a total panic because I knew I had the backup files, but it was a scary couple of hours.

Shoutout to Elvis, tech support at Verizon Wireless, and to Ian, tech support at Blackberry, for saving my Blackberry and my sanity.

It's all in how you use it

If you all remember, when the Internet first began to gain serious ground, the doomsayers were all, oh, people will get all disconnected, they'll sit in front of the computer all day long and never speak to each other, blah blah blah.

Well. This month I will have to privilege of hanging out with two internet friends. One, who will be in LA for a few days, is a real life friend from the high school days in Tokyo. We haven't seen each other probably in 23 years, maybe more. We recently reconnected on Facebook, and that's how I know she and her husband will be in LA this weekend.

The other is a virtual-to-real friend. She is a blogger, hailing from Australia but living in Sacraghetto. We met through the blogosphere, then in person in Sacramento when I went to visit Travelvixen, and now she'll be in LA for a couple of days, and staying chez moi.

How fun!

Problems with this blog?

Is anyone having issues when they come to this blog, like your computer freezing and having to restart the computer? Or any other issues? If so, please tell me so I can alert the service provider. If I don't know there is a problem, I can't fix it. Thanks much.

Of all the stupid things

My friend Ms. Mouse has pointed out that the most common way her blog is found through Google is through a "bears shit in the woods" search, or something like that. By far the one that gets my blog the most is "guiness record boobs." This was the title of a piece of spam email, which I thought was just curious. I did suspect, however, that pervs around the world would find their way to this bloggie thingy because of it. And it turns out, I was right. Welcome, perverts of the world. I hope you stay and read a bit, take your mind off your fetishes for a few minutes, leave a comment. Preferably not a pervy one.

Get OUT!

Jamaar forwarded me a link and I said "No. NO! You are shitting me." But he wasn't. And now, for your ticklement, I bring you:

Me: wealthy, and bored with the rigmarole of trying to find the right person, just want someone hot and easy to drag around to functions.

You: hot and easy to drag around to functions, and all you want in return is pretty things and that perfect island tan.

Sugardaddy.com, where the twain meet.

Damn, I wish I'd thought of it.

I'm officially an addict

An internet addict, that is. It's not even that I do nothing but surf the web all day, I check email and I have a few sites I go to (mostly, blogs), and my own blog and Flickr. I'm not on the 'net all the time, but I'm usually next to it so I can get on any time.

But this morning the internet was down, so I could not really deal with email the way I wanted to, and I could not check work email either. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I had work to do that did not require being on the internet, as I often do, and I plopped the modem with its blinking lights in front of my face, so I could lift my eyes and check it every couple of minutes without really missing a beat. By the time the internet was back up (and I'd been without for a mere 2.5 hours), I had sweaty palms and was on the verge of an anxiety attack. I knew we were back on within seconds of the service being restored. I may have imagined it, but I think the blinking lights went from blankly flashing to alluringly twinkling as I watched them.

Wow. Really? That is so lame.

Some things happen only in the virtual world

A few days ago, I got a friend request on Facebook by someone with the same name as my dad. Far as I know, my dad and I are already Facebook friends. Curious, I check out the guy's profile: he's a 20 year old law student in Naples, who loves the US even though he's not been here yet. He was wondering if we're related. I don't think we are, but so what, there's not that many people with our same last name, so why not decide that we are kinda related? He seems really nice.

So I now have a new friend in Naples. And here I thought Facebook was pointless. I stand corrected.

New comment features

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