Month: February 2009

Should I Quit Facebook?

First, read the following excerpt of the “Licenses” clause of Facebook’s new terms of use:

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

If that’s not bad enough, read the “Termination” section:

The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: … Licenses …

Since I’ve been alerted to Facebook’s new terms of service, I will not longer be importing the posts from this blog to Facebook’s Notes application. Further, I will no longer be importing photos via the “my flickr” application or directly into Facebook’s default photo application.

Facebook is now just an elaborate address book to me.

Update: Consumerist has a nice summary and highlights that if you restrict your privacy settings then you may not be as exposed to the drastic licensing provision quoted above.

More Time Needed

I wish I had more time for everything because there are so many things that interest me. It’s inevitable that I discover and archive, drive by, dream up, and am assigned much more than I’ll ever be able to take in thoughtfully. And that is just one day. The next day it starts all over again. It’s not a feeling of being overwhelmed as much as it is disappointment that I can’t effectively absorb more.

I wonder if I would feel the same way if I stopped reading so many blogs, twitter posts, and facebook notifications. Consuming all of that “pop-life” is like trying to get my brain to record the lives and events of a thousand different people each day.

It is my hunch that if I were able to better focus on “local-me” that I would find each day more fulfilling and, in turn, less stuffed. And who I am trying to prove something to – that I care about all of the useless gadgetry, latest fashions, and most obscure routines of people I’ll never know? It can’t be anyone except myself.

So many people.
So many stories.
So many facts.
So little time.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Have a great Valentine’s Day. Keep it simple. That’s what I’m doing. And getting some work done on my paper. How romantic.

Without much to say, I’ll leave you with the following Robert Frost poem that asks you to set aside your love and experience the heartbreak of two lovers unfit for one another – a warm mature woman and a dashing, but fleeting man. What more is to be expected from winter wind?

Wind and Window Flower

Lovers, forget your love,
And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil
Was melted down at noon,
And the caged yellow bird
Hung over her in tune,

He marked her through the pane,
He could not help but mark,
And only passed her by,
To come again at dark.

He was a winter wind,
Concerned with ice and snow,
Dead weeds and unmated birds,
And little of love could know.

But he sighed upon the sill,
He gave the sash a shake,
As witness all within
Who lay that night awake.

Perchance he half prevailed
To win her for the flight
From the firelit looking-glass
And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside
And thought of naught to say,
And morning found the breeze
A hundred miles away.

Daily Response: Feb 12, 2009

The Daily Response isn’t exactly daily, is it? Well, I do my best. Here’s my response to today.

1. The fourth book of the Twilight series – New Moon – is like a powerful vacuum. I’ve been sucked into this horrible teen drama.

2. I read yesterday that Chicago is one of the 10 worst cities in which to live and that winning the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics would improve the city. Since I’m moving there this summer, I’m going to start supporting the bid.

3. New favorite twitterer to follow: @NickCarraway

4. If you didn’t see Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman last night, find it on YouTube and watch it. He’s gone off the deep end or he’s fronting a major ruse to regain some Hollywood advantage. Maybe he lost a bet. Who knows. Here’s an article about it, too.

5. I want to try this beer: Hitachino.

Romanettes

No, “romanettes” is not the name of a female punk band. It’s the little-known and scarcely used terminology for referring to little roman numerals. This comes up a lot in my tax class. We find ourselves saying, “four little eye,” to verbalize (iv). When you think about it, “four little eye” could be quite confusing. It could be interpreted as (4)(i). Saying “romanette four” is clearer.

Here’s a humorous exchange from the Supreme Court regarding romanettes:

MS. SAHARSKY [of the Solicitor General’s office]: What I’m suggesting, Your Honor, is that the “that” refers to everything that is in Romanette (i) and (ii) up to the break with “committed by.” So that it is an offense that is a misdemeanor and has as an element “committed by.” You know, these — these two different clauses both modify “offense,” just as a grammatical matter, not looking at this Romanette (i) and (ii), but just looking at that sentence.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Romanette?

MS. SAHARSKY: Oh, little Roman numeral.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I’ve never heard that before. That’s — Romanette.

(via The Volokh Conspiracy)

Movie: He’s Just Not That Into You

He’s Just Not That Into You made me smile. It wasn’t hilarious. It wasn’t overly cheesy. It wasn’t a great or classic story. It definitely wasn’t made for men. But it made me smile, and I appreciate that.

I just wonder: How does it feel for those couples watching the movie that realize they’re living examples of the couples in the movie?

Ruckus RIP

Ruckus, the company at which I first worked after graduating from college, shut down today around 5:30pm EST. I left the company in February of 2006, nineteen months after I was hired as the approximately thirtieth employee. While I’ve been far removed from the company for a long time, I look back on my time there in a positive light. I met some outstanding people, learned about balance in my own life, and had a great deal of fun. I will always have a great affection for “start-up culture,” and hope to experience it once again someday.

Here is a TechCrunch article that explains what will happen with the Ruckus music libraries.

Rest In Peace.