The new Facebook: Charmless, boring, banal

Why did Facebook change again after it changed not so long ago? That redesign was hard enough to endure, but everyone I know adjusted. Now, it's all different again and for what purpose? Even the chronic complainers seem particularly irritated.

What do we get and what did we lose? The box along the right hand of the homepage seems permanently programmed to show me things I completely do not want to see: groups I don't want to join, a ho-hum mobile upload of a friend at SxSW (I'm jealous), and a picture from a party I didn't go to (I checked "maybe" and should have had the courage to check "no"). I've seen these same items about 900 times this week - they are deadlocked.

Next, unless you sit and manually change all the "default" settings of every application you use or might use, everything you do, everything you touch on Facebook will be shared with your entire community. The Facebook designers must get paid by the post - sort of like Dickens was paid by the word. They tricked us into sharing more than we ever intended to share. I am addicted to Bejeweled Blitz, but I do not wish to share the frequency of my attempts to hit a new high score with everyone on my list. It makes me seem frivolous and I am not frivolous.

Some people claim Facebook is trying to keep up with Twitter, and the new home page does feel a little tweety. Others say the Facebook redesign is a conspiracy to distract us from what really matters in life, like the war in Iraq or the bonuses paid to AIG execs.

I worry that this redesign undermines the foundational principle of the Internet: anonymity. It's intimidating to think that everything I'm looking at, reading, "accepting," and writing is posted for all to see. I love to lurk and the new Facebook is like those motion sensor lights to keep out burglars. I'm just your neighbor - a friend stopping by when you're asleep. I wasn't actually going to ring the bell and wake you. It just makes me feel better to know you're home.

New picture of Manson prompts a question:

Will Madoff scratch a dollar sign on his forehead?

Sustainable Santa

The Hollywood Kids star in a holiday commercial from Brave New Foundation and Meet the Bloggers

Rev. Billy: Stop Shopping!

I've probably shopped more than my due...

Black Friday becomes Buy Nothing Day

True confession: There have been lots of years when I've gotten up early on the day after Thanksgiving or the day after Christmas and driven from mall to mall, store to store, searching for those really great half-off, marked down, must go deals. I have loved shopping the way some people must love tennis or a rare orchid. I haven't only pursued the great deals; I've also spent hours in used bookstores, in Goodwills and antique stores. I would say I have been if not a true shopaholic, then a periodic over-shopper.
But shopping and spending and using credit cards just seems ridiculous to me now - in the middle of an economic meltdown, at a time when our resources are severely strained, and after I've taken a big pay cut to pursue to new path in my career. I want money to be my servant, not my master, so I'm just not interested in shopping. Not like I used to be.
That makes it easy for me to follow Rev. Billy's advice and "stop shopping." I saw the documentary, "What Would Jesus Buy" last year, and I don't think I can ever really look at an outlet mall quite the same way. Rev. Billy and Savitra D talk about the upcoming Shopocalypse and how we have to stop using up this planet on Meet the Bloggers (MeetTheBloggers.org). Another person on the show is Latoya Peterson from Center for a New American Dream (newdream.org). She says that 90% of what we buy in this country ends up in a landfill in six months. That's horrific!
My reasons for "buying nothing" on Black Friday are personal as well as political, but no matter what the reason, it really is time to STOP SHOPPING!

Recount, a Cautionary Tale

A few weeks ago, a Hollywood mom who works for HBO gave me a screener of Recount, starring Kevin Spacey, Denis Leary, Tom Wilkinson, and Laura Dern, among others. At the time, I thought I couldn't wait to see it, but then it sat in the little Shabby Chic box with all the other unwatched DVDs from Netflix and Blockbuster (Season 3 of The Wire, Argentinian heist film Nine Queens). "Oh well," I reasoned, "at least I'm NOT paying to NOT watch this one."

Then, last week, after Governor Sarah Palin's address at the Republican National Convention, as I became more disturbed with the substitution of half-truths for facts and spin for substance, I found myself not only watching Recount, but hoping the Obamians are watching it, too. In this climate of single-issue voters, netizen bloggers, and swift-boating campaign strategists, this movie feels like a spooky harbinger of what's ahead on November 4th. What felt inevitable in 2000 now seems anything but. Gore could have fought harder, better, and sooner; he won. What no one seemed to know then is that the race wasn't over, but by the time they got back in the game, it had ended.

In a close contest - and that's what we're in - the first side to flinch, blink, or back down will lose. Every time Obama gives a little more, it feels like he's drafting his concession.

Both Recount and the real-time movie-for-television that is the Palin candidancy feature the Republican version of a femme fatale - someone who, in conservative political circles, passes as a babe and is so steadfastly Christian, that she routinely seeks guidance from the scriptures. In the film, Katherine Harris finds the strength to do what she believes she must by following the life of Queen Esther. According to the New York Times, Esther is also a role model for Palin. As Jon Weiner writes in the Huffington Post points out, this could be bad news for the modern day inhabitants of Persia, now known as Iran, since Esther sanctioned the vengeful slaughter of 75,000 of them.

Recount is playing throughout the coming weeks on HBO and has also been released on DVD. Someone ought to Netflix it for the Obama express.

Truthiness Hurts

from The Onion: