Be Excellent To Each Other

I don't think it's thoughtlessness. Actually, I think it's a wee bit entitled to make the conscious decision not to be on Facebook then expect your friends to go to the effort to individually send you their updates. Not for actually important matters -- for important stuff you can't rely on FB anyway because of the vagaries of its algorithm -- but for general updates, day to day stuff, baby pictures and witticisms, sure. And that stuff is actually fairly important in aggregate.

If you choose not to have a Facebook, you're going to miss out on a lot of ambient chatter from and between your friends. C'est la vie.

I was sure the song didn't go like that.

Ambient chatter I was happy to miss out on but I specifically meant stuff like nights out and gigs that were sometimes arranged and I wasn't included. In this day and age there are a metric fuckton of ways to contact people so to demand that someone use a specific private website or you won't make arrangements with them would be entitled to me. I realise I wasn't too specific in my original post but, also, you've jumped to a massive conclusion there that I was demanding some kind of private feed of everything in their lives sent to me.

I think that if you don't use the tool that everyone uses to organise events, then you shouldn't be too surprised if things happen and you don't know about it.

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not really interested in getting into it though.

I'm with Bamba here.

I'm on Facebook, but don't spend all fucking day on it like a lot of people, so if some shit's going on I would email friends and they'd email me.

Thst's because you're a crusty old Luddite.

I don't do Facebook.

My wife tells me all about what's happening with everyone I don't give a fuck about.

No, it's because I actually work, rather than sit around playing with my phone.

What are you going on about?

On Facebook, I mean. All fucking day, like half the people on Facebook.

/glances at Mr Chris's post count

I've largely trashed Facebook. I miss things but overall I'm happier with the world.

I had a cunning plan for avoiding that: I don't FB friend people I don't give a fuck about. Works pretty well.

Ha, yeah. Well, the per day count dropped off a while ago.

Pretty well isn't good enough.

You never accepted a friend request mostly out of politeness?

I sometimes accept them out of politeness, but then if I don't find that they post anything that interests me I put them on mute. I also set my posts to often post only to particular people (work, friends, family, etc).

I haven't accepted requests out of politeness for many years. I do have a corpus of people I don't care about, from years ago, but they are all muted. The less people you have in your stream, the less fucking about the algorithm will be doing.

Originally I accepted a bunch of semi-randoms that just happened to be on forums I used, but now I'll only add or accept people I'd be happy to meet and socialize with IRL (though geography means that some I probably never will), and I find I'm getting much more proactive in binning anyone I don't want.

Anyone who posts Britain First pictures goes, as does anyone posting "hilarious" borderline racist comments about refugees or other thoroughly unpleasant stuff. I don't mind a difference of opinion, and have had some interesting discussions on there, but I have no time for copy & paste stupidity.

Well my wife spoke to her step mother and apparently after the first heart attack they fitted a stem? stim? Something like that and then gave him the complete all clear.

Apparently his Facebook post was along the lines of "thought it was heart burn, turns out I had a heart attack".

But yeah, apparently after they cleared the artery he was given the all clear and didn't know he was going to die so it's a little easier to live with.

Won't be rejoining Facebook any time soon though. After Mrs JC's lump and my uncle's recent scrap with cancer we've decided to go all old school and actually visit relatives and loved ones in person and weekly rather than sharing our lives with the internet.

It always made me laugh how people would post 'in progress' pics of their holidays, then wonder why they'd been burgled when they got home.

Serious, close your Facebook and see how many people actually give a fuck. If you can count them on more than one hand I'd be amazed.

That's what they get for being Facebook friends with burglars, which is what would have to be the case for this to make any sense at all.

Fewer.

Ahahahaha! (Myp, I do hope I am doing this correctly)

You've got more than twice the number of people added as I do, though. I don't feel bad about not accepting friend requests from people that bore me. I turned down requests from my sister and cousins, but there are some people I like that mostly talk about Rice Crispies or whatever, so I add them in case I want an easy way to get in touch in the future but don't care about their breakfast to read about it seven times a day.

Also: minions.

What is the fascination with those? People will post any old crap if you stick a blinking minion on it.

Do not understand.

It won't last. My kids are bored of minions, so the childlike will be soon

.

My birthday today and have a really shitty chest\flu bug.

So took the day off as I didn't want to pass it around work.

Stuck at home with son who can't believe his luck as dad is around on a Monday but he has no concept of "dad is ill leave him alone"

He also chose today to demonstrate he can climb the stairs unaided.

Glad I got in on the ground floor.

My basic rules are - I'll accept a friend request from anyone that I've met in real life. If I've not met them, I have to have spoken with them online in some manner (forums etc.)

However, anyone posting anything unpleasant - racist remarks, homophobic remarks, sharing anything from Britain First or the like, and even people that fall for those "Apple have 1000 iPads they have to give away because they can't sell them" things - instant removal.

Very much this. I do occasionally purge people by looking down the list and if nothing comes to mind about them pressing 'unfriend'.



If keeping the contact might be useful, I just unfollow them. I'm always surprised by who 'likes' various posts as most are intended for certain circles.
I've never had cause to block people, but a handful of people are unfollowed as I don't want to see references in comments to people who have blocked me.

(Probably not a Nay thread subject?).

Being ill on your birthday sucks. Hope you get better soon.

I did that, and was quite surprised at how many dumb people I knew.

In the end though I just closed it down. Way less aggro.

It's been a strange old day today. The Gooch's dad, Jezzy was put down today. He was 12 years old and I met him when he was just 2 months old. He'd been suffering from liver cancer. The vet wanted to put him down almost 6 months ago but the family said no and he lasted another 6 months. I saw this morning when I dropped the Gooch off at the folks. He'd had another bad night apparently and as he was "end stage liver failure" he'd started having coughing fits. Mum was rubbing his chest and I went and gave him a fuss and he licked my nose like he always does. His eyes seemed bright even though his body was grossly swollen from ascitis. Then I got the call from my dad at about lunch: they'd had him put down. Jezzy had a coughing fit earlier and couldn't get his breath so they took him to the vet and decided to have him put down. He'd had 5 months of pain. My dad told me he'd brought his body home to see the other dogs so they knew what had happened and he was just going to the doggy crematorium with the body. He started to cry so he put the phone down.

I was a bit angry at first because I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to him. I could have asked to see the body before my dad took him but decided against it. I don't know why. But later I realised that the decision to put him down would probably have been made quickly at the vet so I don't blame the folks for not letting me say goodbye. My dad told me later he held him in his arms at the vets as he passed away and his body just went limp at that moment he slipped away. I've had lots of mixed emotions today, not really having lost anyone before, but I've seen Jezzy almost every day of his life.

I can't imagine what my dad was going through today. He's obviously had a cry but to carry around Jezzy's body - he must have a steel will. It makes you wonder what dads do and how they cope. I don't have any children of my own but, by Christ, dads must do some rough things. Mum's too of course. I'm just thinking about what my dad has done over the years. Me and brother's bullshit, the pets he's lost and buried. Salute to him.

Weirdly I've been pondering whether to put up a Facebook post for an hour or so. What purpose would it serve? To do it for a bit of sympathy. Would it be seen like that and is that the reason? I decided in the end that I would do it but not for anyone else but as a marker in a digital diary. I might look back on the crap I've written at some point in the future and remember that I miss Jezzy, I loved him and he was a great little dog and thank him every day for The Gooch.

When I walked out the door this morning I said "See you later Jezzy. See you later." I never did.

Really sorry to hear that.

Sorry Saturnalian :-(

That's ok. Just wanted to vent for a minute.

*virtual hug*

That's really sad. I'm really sorry for your loss.

You're right about dads though. When I think about all the stuff that my dad has done for me and my brother. Immense.

Went to the funeral of my best mates mum yesterday.. It was great as funeral go, and seeing folks after was great too..

Today,not so good, delayed grief is odd..

Really sorry to hear that Sat.

*hugs* xxx

I'm really sorry to hear that mate. It's what makes owning pets so bittersweet.

After having both a section 21 and a section 8 ignored by my tenant, I've just had to fill in court forms. She has a week to respond.

What are those, Jazzy? How do they differ? What happens if she doesn't respond?

Fingers crossed you get it sorted out soon

Oh joy, problem tenants! Hopefully they'll take the hint and move on before court becomes necessary.

The first one is the standard "I'd like my house back, you need to move out" notice that a landlord has to issue to terminate a tenancy.
The second is "No really, Please get out or I'll take you to court" that follows it.

A section 21 notice told her that she had to get out at the end of the tenancy, she had nine weeks notice. A Section 8 gave her a further 2 weeks with a 'or I'll take you to court' I've now submitted the court documents (at a cost of £250 thank you) she now has a week to respond to them either by paying up (she owes just shy of 2.5k) or giving notice. If she has done neither of those things by Friday (I'm not expecting her to have) the court set a hearing date and I will probably have to take a day off work to head over there with an arm full of documents to prove my case (not too difficult, but still annoying). The court can give her two to six weeks to get out (she falls into the two weeks range, but we will see), if she still doesn't then I get to pay the court to issue bailiffs.

After all of that, Jazzy gets to feel good about making a single mum and her child homeless at Christmas time.

So, if she chooses to give her notice rather than paying up... well, she still has to pay up, right? She can't just give notice and not give you what she owes, can she?

No, but we won't have to go to court to get her evicted either (and hopefully I won't have to pay out any more money) but I'm not holding my breath or expecting to see any of the money either.

doesn't sound like that's your fault.