Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Halloween costume motivation lingered at a strong zero throughout the month of October. Back in September, I entertained the idea of going as Random Party Guest at Downton Abbey, but I never bought or made the dress, and now I cannot imagine sitting around outside in thin material in order to celebrate a holiday.

I need a costume that is essentially my pyjamas. Like a onesie but not a onesie because those look hard to pee in. So… my pyjamas. I need to go out as a Person About to Go to Bed.

Are you dressing up this week? What are you going as?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

There was an article in the New York Times about a facial recognition database, called MegaFace, that got its images off of Flickr. The images were snapshots of 700,000 people that were offered at one point under a CC license.

The database “has been downloaded by dozens of companies to train a new generation of face-identification algorithms, used to track protesters, surveil terrorists, spot problem gamblers and spy on the public at large.”

If you ever uploaded images to Flickr, your pictures could be on it. Of course, who could predict this would happen? The article kicks off with the story of a mother who uploaded a few snapshots of her kids and found them on MegaFace over a decade later.

The article talks about “privacy nihilism.”

What happened to Chloe Papa could, depending on your perspective, argue for extreme vigilance or total resignation: Who could have possibly predicted that a snapshot of a toddler in 2005 would contribute, a decade and a half later, to the development of bleeding-edge surveillance technology?

Do you think privacy is impossible in this day and age? Is it worth putting out a solid effort to maintain it?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I feel like I’m entering a period of cocooning. I feel myself getting quieter and quieter, standing back and observing without feeling completely a part of things. I don’t feel the impulse to write — instead I have to convince myself that I want to sit down and type up a post. I don’t have an impulse to scroll.

If I let it happen, I know I emerge out the other side feeling more talkative, more engaged, more connected to the people and world around me. I feel a need, once again, to write. A need to check in on Facebook and see what people are doing.

If I fight it, I just feel like crap. So I’m letting myself cocoon a bit and observe. We’ll see what I notice this time.

Do you ever feel yourself pulling back and inward?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

Has there ever been a more fascinating line written? “In 1815, thousands of people came to watch George Wilson, the “Blackheath Pedestrian,” walk 1,000 miles.”

If I had been alive in 1815, I would have been in that crowd, watching the man walk in a circle:

[It was] a 1,000-mile walk, one of several feats of long-distance walking called ‘pedestrianism; that enthralled Britain in the early 19th century. He walked on a pre-measured circuit around Blackheath common, an area of public grasslands outside of Greenwich.

Like literally walked in a circle for everyone’s entertainment. People bet on the walker, consumed beer while they watched, enjoyed a day out watching a very slow, monotonous activity. That article, by the way, leads to more articles about competitive walking.

I found this completely fascinating. There’s a story somewhere in here.

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

*******

I usually don’t remember to put books on hold at the library until they’re already in circulation, which means that I end up with slot #5783870486 when it comes to popular books. (Yes, 5783870485 people in our library system get there before me, somehow.)

But months ago, I put myself down for Margaret Atwood’s new book AND Stephen King’s new book beforehand so I started with a low number on the list. They both popped into existence around the same time, and the race was off to see which book would come to me first. Except it’s a little like the catcher in the rye (like the actual metaphor of the catcher in Salinger’s book) because the books are coming at me at once, AND I CANNOT READ (or catch) ALL THESE BOOKS AT ONCE. So it’s a game of seeing which one pulls ahead and then quickly suspending the other hold so I don’t bring it home too soon.

Library hold stress, people. It’s real.

Have you read either book yet? What do you think?

*******

Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.