Tag: ThemeMonday

Unforeseen

A mish-mash of themes follows; it's been a while since my last confes, er… blog post.

Um… Python programming is addictive. If I could use it at work to do engineering I'd be even happier!

Now:

Started last October, m second-ever Python script: PigPen, a social networking app for the https://pnut.io social network, Mainly feature-complete where features exist; apart from those that don't work. A mentions or messages alert companion application would be a good thing to write, sometime.

Crypto, a cryptocurrency notification and alert application, designed to send regular, timed messages over the Pushover system. Now with added 3-graph goodness of the previous 24 hours' movements! Currently also sends messages to my dev channel at pnut.io, but it currently seems a little pointless.

rssupdatepnut, periodically checks an RSS feed (currently my blog, but it could be a news feed) for updates, which it should eventually post to pnut.io and other networks. Designed to run periodically. Incidentally, the publication of this post will be its first live test!

The future:

I've set myself a few professional goals for this year. Yes, 2018.

  • My maths skills have atrophied; I'd like to be re-updated to engineering college ONC level by December. A project would be good, to inject a bit of real-world reality into the proceedings.

  • Organisation and working 'smart': I've adopted the Bullet Journal logging and diary system. With a bit of luck it'll help end my indecision and tendency to bury stuff. One of its strengths is the 'Migration', where incomplete tasks are pushed forwards during the weekly and monthly reviews.

Personal goals too!

  • Reliability would be great!

  • I missed February's pnut.io #ThemeMonday. Sorry all, it's been an odd, kind-of crappy start to the year.

Other:

  • I nearly blogged about my recent longest-ever poo, an epic of 35 minutes I'll never see again; and the effort in pre-flush preparation, I…

Fiction

For the last couple of weeks (it seems longer) I've not looked at any of my favourite social networks, and pretty-much ignored the news. I unintentionally missed May 2017's #ThemeMonday, and multiple #WednesdayChallenge writing opportunities… sorry.

So why? Why so anti-social, why not soak up the UK's political mood now that it matters?

I wrote a book. It's science fiction with a length barely-qualifying as a novella. So mine isn't a big one. It's not particularly pretty either, I've never written anything this substantial before.

It is here though:

https://github.com/bazbt3/the_thorgon_empire/blob/master/words/README.md

(The credits don't go nearly far-enough.)

Ascetic

As the year unfolds I am for the most part now leaning towards shunning social media. At least my involvement isn't quite as conspicuous as it once was. Part conscious decision, part response to external stimuli (e.g. Brexit, Trump), the result is somewhat confusing.

Returning to App.net for the last few weeks of that network's life, well, I'm not particularly enthusiastic; I'd stepped away last year as my life intruded, and all that's left to do is ensure I don't lose touch with those that matter to me. And that one final #ThemeMonday!

Social networks I'm still interested in:

  • 10Centuries.org (confused,)
  • Twitter (changed philosophy.)

Even Facebook is becoming annoying with its notifications of messages and friends's posts, all of which are simply non-existent when I open the app.

Hardly major grievances to direct at something that's become a network I use less for social, more for traders, but still annoying.

Ok, so where do I stand on the social graph? The low end of the bell curve, looking up. Forwards, backwards at it, who knows?

Looking at 10Centuries.org, the lack of apps is nowhere near as profound as I'd imagined. There's one usable, though early iOS app, and others on the way. I don't know if my Python thing will still talk to the API, but I'm developing an itch to try again.

Eventually I'll work it out. In the meantime, I'm likely to be even less conversational than usual, more biased towards 'witty' one-liners.'

Sorry.

Message: yes.

App.net #ThemeMonday

The App.net community was small-enough and its people got on with each other well-enough that little sociable initiatives blossomed. It was very much a fun, slightly-nerdy, place to be.

Anyone who spent time there might have come across the #ThemeMonday hashtag (link goes to my site.) People changed their avatars on or around the second Monday of every month, to a theme chosen by popular vote.

Now App.net will close on March 14th or 15th 2017 (official App.net blog) so at that time all of those digital memories will be forever lost (unless a volunteer-driven archive initiative, er… archives them first.)

I've been toying with the idea of running one final #ThemeMonday, to run over the week before the service shuts down. Votes will be first taken for themes, a poll created, and finally the theme list voted on. It's simpler than it sounds.

One tiny problem, polls.abrah.am no longer works. I won't be worried though if no-one really wants to participate; enough have left for greener social pastures, enough will simply not see this, and enough would rather rely on the glow of great memories than revisit the past in the present.

Here's the thing, discounting Facebook for now I'm on 3 public social networks:

  • 10Centuries.org,
  • App.net,
  • and though I've scaled back my usage, I'm on Twitter.

I'm willing to take votes from all three provided I'm mentioned, and I don't see a bar to changing avatars on any network. Solidarity, or something…?

Ok, here goes, I propose a theme:

Sunset.

The link to my page: http://bazbt3.github.io/thememonday/

App.net to close

During the springtime of 2013 I decided to join a new online community at App.net (Wikipedia entry). Heck, as it'd recently changed to a' Freemium' funding model I even paid for social networking! Today (Friday the thirteenth in year 1 PostCelebPocalypse) I found that the service will close in the middle of March 2017.

Its major strengths: no ads, 256 character posts, awesome apps, and a willingness by all to engage with and welcome newcomers. It simply wasn't too big. Though on the surface an oasis of calm amidst the chaos of the wider Internet there were indeed flaws, the business model wasn't perfect, but it didn't matter to me, I 'belonged'.

The apps that stood out for me in a network originally setup to encourage and to fund app and service development:

  • Felix by @billkunz (I bought a t-shirt),
  • Riposte and Whisper by @jaredsinclair & @jaminguy (I bought the t-shirt),
  • Chimp by @ludolphus (is there a shirt‽),
  • Kirby by @griff (no shirt).

So Baz haz a sad that the inevitable end is near. But why, seeing as I've not been an active participant since before the middle of 2016?

Signing up to App.net (ADN) resulted in the some of the best things, the most stimulating things (even including btinternet.chatter!) I've ever done online. Rather than simply participate I joined in.

My big but short, exhaustive but necessarily incomplete, list of stuff:

  • As-of right now I've posted way more than 28,260 things there, including reposts. That alone should tell you something.
  • I badly ran #ThemeMonday for a while after @berklee bowed out. Though it doesn't sound much we changed our avatars every month, created individually to a theme chosen by popular vote. It was fun!
  • I took over #QuoteSunday from @zephyr. (We posted quotations from famous, infamous, and not-so-famous people; all to suit our mood on the day.)
  • I created a rudimentary Linux shell script to interact with App.net on the command line. Baz the programmer! (I called it ayadn_shell partly in homage to @ericd's awesome Ayadn rubygem but mainly because, without that application onto which mine piggybacked, mine simply would not work let alone be possible!)
  • After a happening by chance onto a conversation started by someone tired of being tired I collaborated on an MMTPORPAG (minutely-massive-two-player-online-role-playing-adventure-game.) An Adventure of epic proportions; at least it would have been if my life hadn't got in the way. Thanks @mlv. (Incidentally, I can't get the specific Treeview.us thread to load, I'd love to archive the whole thread. Help please!)
  • I became a Wiki Editor for a while at the now defunct App.net Wiki, a volunteer-run repository for the minutiae of a social network. I tested new ideas at my personal site. Thanks @kdfrawg, for letting me fiddle for a while.
  • I took over #WednesdayChallenge (#WedC) from @nitinkhanna and ran that too for a while. A short story, to a theme again chosen by popular vote and in fewer than 256 characters; oh, how those creative juices flowed!
  • I helped out with @isaacjw's #TuesdayChallenge too, a weekly way for like-minded folks to showcase their artistic skills. (Me? I used a child's magnetic board.)
  • Oh, and footnotes.*

It's not a big list, and though I may have forgotten something big it's representative of the network's scope.

But, without all those lovely people, none of my activities mentioned above would have been remotely possible . I'm conscious of the fact others may have been involved prior to my arrival, but I'm speaking from my personal experience. And that's the key to ADN, a very personal experience, not shaped by the knowledge someone's looking over your shoulder with a view to monetising your post content.

Best-of-all I relaxed. I met some wonderful, chatty, clever, insightful, downright amazing people there.

Thankyou all, I'll never forget.

But, to perhaps understand what I'm thinking right now, you had to be there. I was, it was great.

I am @bazbt3 both on 10Centuries.org (Jason Irwin's burgeoning social/blogging/podcasting network, for which I have invite codes) and on Twitter.

*Let's just say I popularised them, albeit in a limited manner.

In Betweeners

Elaborating on (or maybe not, it's not my place to say) my 'Between' post yesterday, @matigo provided some nicely written (as-ever) insights into a modern curse..

'Curse' is my cruel trick; a word, a hook to drag you in. Oops!

Social burnout.

Most here will have a social networking networking history, may even identify personally with Jason's words… For me it's a case of 'the wrong time of year'.

For you…?

Choice. While I had only IRC and MS Chat, that's all I used. IRC was a one-day thing for me; i can't recall any actual interactions at all. Literally one day. I got online and, within the first month explored every protocol and service available to me as a new Microsoft Network (MSN) customer.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention ICQ in my blog post; a service I used mainly to connect to people I already knew online. In real time. Mine was, probably still is, a 6-digit user ID.

Nowadays though we've dozens of places we can go to express ourselves. There are social networks, forums, niche services… There we can chat about our desires, hopes, dreams… with other like-minded people, hopefully without troublemakers intervening. Most of us want a quiet life when we want a quiet life.

Yes, that.

So, App.net (ADN); it's a place with lots of good memories, good people, but it's been let down by its founders and those in search of a bigger audience.

Now mine's not a massive criticism. I'm hardly there at all, my feeling's more one of a remembrance of the emotional baggage stemming from the SOTN post, the frankly-ridiculous antagonism (I'll never understand why people don't simply block) and the network's inevitable subsequent decline.

And guilt.

I'm not doing #QuoteSunday (always a low-engagement thing) in part due to IFTTT's ADN support shutting down, nor am I running #ThemeMonday (once an entirely different proposition.)

That reminds me, I should really move the #ThemeMonday page at my site and replace it with… Sometime.

I must examine my other social network profiles linking to ADN, to see whether I must move them to where I'm most comfortable calling my social hub.

Or must I?

A perhaps-telling FYI; Last year, despite others not doing, I upgraded my ADN account to 'Developer'. More of a statement of intent, a gesture, an attempt to pay back in… I developed nothing of course but got a vague sense of wellbeing, and a hammer to add to my bio. THIS year I downgraded. To an 'ordinary' paid user account. Not all the way to '40'.

Hollow.

But here I am at 10C, with a Premium account paid-up until 2017 (over the top of Jason's invite) developing an 'app' for 10C. How odd.

So, back to the blog post. Burnout maybe, but I'm happy to call 10centuries.org (10C) home.

One thing to bear in mind; I'm crap at publicising stuff; hence the one successful invite. Kinda successful, I'm hoping the guy I invited will spend a bit more time at 10C…

And that others will follow. There's nothing to lose. No ads, no spam. Really.

And here be (more) Adventures! Maybe.

ThemeMonday 2016 January 11

In a new departure, I'm experimenting with a blog post to call ADN to choose our #ThemeMonday theme for January 2016.

For more information, see the ThemeMonday page.

So here we go, please think what you'd like to see this month and tell us all. Seasonal themes, silly , sexy or serious themes; it's your ADN to shape as you will. Make the most of this opportunity!

Please reply to ADN post thread when you see it.

Thanks!

Semicolon

2015 was a year with a lot of downs, and I'll be glad to see its end. Really. There were of course positives, but overall zero sense of balance.

2014 was equally odd in that regard; my wife nearly died in the July and, restricting myself to social networking, I'd:

  • Messed about with Linux doing some, what I'd call, rudimentary shell script coding based on top of Ayadn – a command line client for the App.net social network,
  • Inexplicably tailed off from my initial enthusiasm with the App.net Wiki, and have struggled to retain that,
  • Told everyone I wasn't going to be using Facebook again,
  • Or Twitter.

2015, a year in review:

This year I continued my idiosyncratic approach:

  • Increasing my use of footnotes* in social media posts,
  • Adopting the Oxford Comma more widely, occasionally even abbreviating the following "and" to "&"! And, even though I know it's not its only use case, preceding only "and" gives me room to grow,
  • Starting to use the Semicolon more frequently.

This last one puzzles me. Until late this year I'd almost never used it, succumbing as I did to peer pressure during my final couple of years at school by intentionally not caring about 'English' lessons. So why now?

A desire for self-improvement perhaps?

2015 also brought:

  • A late-year increase in the frequency of my blog posts, partially in response to installing the Journey (daily) journal app on my Android phone,
  • My slow-but-sure takeover of the #ThemeMonday hashtag on App.net (page needs updating.) I make the call to choose a shortlist of themes, collate, remind, and then post a poll to get votes to pick each. It's not hard work, not really.

So, this blog post ends as the year ends, on a low note:

2015 does not get Baz's Seal of Approval; really, it's had very, very few highlights.

The only standout was a weekend trip to London with my family, my first. (Family and trip to England's capital.)

[Edit:] Ruby puppy arrived in April. Now that changes my perspective a tiny bit towards favouring 'balance.'

*I can't honestly recall when I started using footnotes, it could have been 2014.

I reserve the right to edit this post as events unfold on this, the last day of the year. Naturally I reserve the right to edit all the posts but rarely do, aside from typos.