I went fishing for the first time and caught three fish!

This is in response to the Random Time Lords Podcast episode 39.

Since the discussion is *still* going on, and people refuse to move on I have to write this post to defend myself.

I left FriendFeed because as another user said “it’s become Lord of the Flies over there.” It’s true. It’s a deserted island and the users are turning on each other at the drop of a hat. The drama and argument threads have moved beyond single topics; now they become lynch mobs. Then there are people who abuse the system by creating fake accounts, deleting and signing up again, etc. These people not only abuse the system, they also abuse the trust of other users.

When the developers left for Facebook, the site started falling apart. I originally left because most of the features I used on the site were broken, and the developers were not doing anything about it. They finally moved the servers and fixed a number of the problems.. mostly. So I came back. That was my first mistake.

Even while I was “gone” the first time, I was still hovering. I’d check the site, see what my friends were doing, check out some of the rooms I was a member of, but I was still there.

So this time, after WEEKS of ridiculous drama between mostly two users that spread over many people’s threads, I had had enough. If I announce I was leaving, I’d get flack for it. So I just deleted and moved on. I had to do it, otherwise I’d just return and this vicious cycle would continue.

Yes, threads got deleted that I had participated in. The Tex-Mex Movie Reviews got nuked. Honestly? I don’t care. There was nothing of real value anyone outside of me and Steven could get out of those threads. To an outsiders view, it was just random comments about a movie we were watching. No one had commented or even brought up those threads in MONTHS.

So why didn’t I just remove my feeds? Because I had to. I wanted nothing to do with that site anymore. I didn’t want any more comments, I didn’t want any more participation, I didn’t want to see that site anymore. As Amber pointed out in the podcast, even removing the feeds doesn’t work because the SITE IS STILL BROKEN. They would still have imported, and I don’t have the patience to wait for the FF devs to get off their high horse and fix it.

When it boils down to it: it’s just another stupid internet site. It’s just another forum, another space on the web. I’ve made connections there, friendships, and even enemies. I will continue to have those friendships AFTER i’ve left.

So here we are again, another long winded ranty blog post about FriendFeed. I tried to announce why I was leaving and got criticized. I deleted with no warning and ALSO get criticized. I can’t win, and that’s just another reason I feel good about leaving. I don’t need that nonsense in my life.

I’ve moved on. It’s time you do too. Let it go.

Yup.

Another use for an iPad: cat head scratcher.

Helping out the company and our client FitFamilyChallenge.com at the Cinco de Mayo parade today on the West side of San Antonio.

I’ve been working on this bar/shelf thing since I started in October. We lost an employee in March so I moved to his desk today. Hooray!

Rewards of the Pluckers club: free dessert!

Bee enjoying the celebration. The drums, not so much.

It’s been a couple years since I redesigned the blog, so after boredom struck on Sunday afternoon I found inspiration instead. The black and white theme was so played out, and I needed a splash of color and to.. brighten the place up a bit.

Using a few new design tricks and a fancy background from deviantArtist SailorSilverStar, I’ve spent the last few evenings crafting the new theme.

As usual, written from PHP and CSS3 in Notepad++. The headline rotator on the front page is a javascript applet I’ve been using on some of the sites at work. I also added a Buzz, Twitter, and Facebook sharing buttons to the posts.

Enjoy!