More Musings

I´ve been slowly learning Facebook and looking at other social sites.  There are many sites that you can connect with, the most popular being Twitter, MySpace, Friendstar, Orkut, Linkedin, Windows Live Spaces, Bebo, Match.com, and QQ.  Most sites have different goals.  My first site to join was Linkedin which is a tool for connecting with people specifically for career networking.  While interesting, it never served a significant purpose in my networking.

Recently I started looking at Facebook as a way to stay current with my friends and close acquaintances, many who are scattered throughout the world – not only the USA and Canada, but, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, and England, including a few who are constantly traveling throughout the world.  Additionally,  I could see that it could an easy and useful tool to advertise Dolores´ Essence of Cuisine cooking school classes.  The Facebook Nation is now over 800 million strong and growing every day.  And all these people have all sorts of different goals.

My initial concern with Facebook was security.  I know you can share as much or as little with as many or as few people as you desire, however a recent article by John Dvorak in the July 2012 issue of PC Magazine gave me another slant on the subject.  The following, in quotes, is an excerpt expressing a line of thought that I had already been concerned about.

“…some people have long suspected that Facebook in particular begins to resemble a collection of dossiers…adding the newer timeline function adds a revealing background…which is useful when profiling a person…

A Facebook user was recently…posting that it was dumb for his old grandmother to have so much cash in her house.  The house was robbed shortly thereafter.   And a group of L.A. criminals was busted early on for tracking people on Twitter and other sites so they could go rob their homes when they were out doing things…

For all the good of these social networking products, this is the flip side of the coin…”

Please be safe out there and delight your friends with tales and pictures about your fun activities in the past tense.  It’s nice to know that you’re having a grand time at Joe Jacks, Hacienda Almeden, or winning at the Lone Ranger and Tonto Silver Casino; however, consider “we did” as opposed to “we are” in your postings.

A quick follow up to my previous blog on Puerto Vallarta in the Fast Lane,  Hurricane Bud – The Dud.  The rainy season is in full swing with the wet stuff visiting almost nightly.  The initial heavy downpour showed a slight flaw in the gutter-downspout installation.  On the buildings right side installation everything worked perfectly, however, the left side installation had a minor flaw.  Seems the roof line was not level and tilted away from the common downspout resulting in a heavy overflow directly on top of one of our tables’ picnic umbrella.  Not a big problema.  The contractor came back and I loaned him a level to use in correcting the water flow.  The subsequent rains have given us adequate proof that the flow is now in the correct direction – into the downspout.  That reminds me – have you ever noticed that in Mexico none of the contractors seem to have all the necessary tools.  I´ve loaned my step ladder to all who have to work above 7 feet, electric tape to the electrician, masking tape to the painter, saws and wrenches to the plumber, cleaning materials to the cleaning professionals, hammer-drill (and drill bits) to the installers – and Dolores feeds them all.  However, the price is right!

Happy Birthday America!