Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

After a bit of consideration I've decided to convert the Facebook account into a page. This changes a lot of things but it maintains continuity. What happens in the conversion is this (taken from the Help Page):

 When you convert your personal account to a Page, some things will be automatically transferred for you:

• All your confirmed friends and subscribers will be converted to people who like your new Page

• Your current profile picture will become your Page's picture.

• Your username will become your Page's username

• You'll remain the admin of any Facebook Pages you managed

You won't remain the admin of any groups or apps you managed from your personal account. Be sure to add new admins before converting. Additionally, content on your timeline (ex. photo albums, profile information, etc.) will not be transferred. Download any important content before converting.

This means folk can still follow what I'm doing because it'll be a "like" instead of a user account. That being the case I will still post to the account, but about what's happening to the inhabitants of "Rainbow Haven" (the name of my home). But, there's no friends page, no stupid invites to play apps or other crap, so I won't be falling into that bottomless pit of time wasting that Facebook has become for me.

...I have to admit to have a Facebook Addiction. I've just posted this at my Laura.Ess account there:

I have decided that maintaining this account is too emotionally costly for me. It's clear that I have become addicted to certain elements of Facebook and this account is the most likely to indulge me in those activities. If I were just stuck at home with little else to do that may not be an issue, but I am in the middle of my Masters in Fine Art, attempting to produce two graphic novels, an exhibition and a research paper. This is important to me, and failing at this would be unthinkable. I do not think I can maintain the effort to make that happen if I continue on in Facebook with this account.

I now understand that this is indeed an addiction. My efforts to avoid just such a situation by using an alternate account, while helpful, have ultimately been a failure, as I creep back to this account. And no matter what my intentions, I always spend more time in Facebook than planned, get suckered into discussions, memes and tropes that I either can't cope with or limit. And like another addiction like alcohol, Facebook promises to be a everything socially but is seldom there for me in meaningful or timely ways - that's part of a hook of an addiction: you keep going back hoping that something will change.

Can't afford that. Last week I was emotionally down over not being able to say "NO", to have taken up a task of making an artwork which, considering more important and timely deadlines related to the Masters, was an ill made decision. But yesterday I popped on Facebook for "5 minutes" to check messages, but ended up the whole day on Facebook, when I should have been getting ready for my confirmation. That is a destructive addiction and I can't live with this any more.

I will continue to update my ARTIST'S PAGE (see the first comment below) but will be deleting this account in a few days time. I will be posting status updates linking to this note regularly until then, so that folk get the message. If you still wish to keep up to date with what I'm doing, SUBSCRIBE TO THAT PAGE. Otherwise I will still be making updates on LIVE JOURNAL (see the 2nd comment) and you can follow things there.

That is all.

And this time I WILL delete that account. My Artist's Page will still be kept going via a dummy account (with few friends and stuff so that the same thing doesn't happen). Live Journal (which I repost to from DreamWidth) is safe. I'm not going to get addicted to that, and certain groups which I want to stay in  on Facebook can be serviced via that Dummy Account.

It's been hard getting to this point, but the thing with an addiction is that I can't have a half measure. That's like saying "Just one drink". It don't work. And the dummy account? Well I will still be playing word games like Scrabble and Lexelous, but that doesn't take all day and doesn't lead into ever enveloping discussions and entanglements.

Actually, a few things.

• I'm on progress with stuff for the photo-shoot. I uploaded over 50 animations/poses to Second Life today, which will be used to pose the characters for the photo shoot. I corrected an air conditioning prop and dressed the Jenn character as well (next post);
• I have discovered that my confirmation will be on the week of the 14th-18th of May. This means I have time to get stuff done (If I can't get it done by then I ought to give up); and
• I have made progress in winding down my Facebook account. I was able to create an account for Elsie Broek (a fictional character after all) and She is now administrator on the pages I didn't want to lose - primarily the Laura Seabrook (Artist) page, and the Transgender Day of Remembrance Webcomic Project page. The last one makes sense because Elsie owns that group in Second Life anyway. The thing is, I don't have to have my current Facebook account active to keep either going. I may be continuing to play scrabble and variants as Elsie, but that's because it is the one app in Facebook that I do not want to lose.

You know, I really don't hate Facebook, but I hate that the people who run make changes all the time without asking me or telling me about them. However, I just discovered a browser plugin that sorts that out, called BETTER FACEBOOK. I installed the thing and here's some of teh stuff I can do now (and no, this isn't one of those stupid spam hackings I've seen recently):

• I got my text cursor back when making a comment, and ENTER now equals a linefeed, and the comments box expands properly now when I make a comment (and I get a POST button again);
• Finally I can set the font size for posts and comments. Really good because I was zooming in pages to read those!
• Themes (but there's a big CSS overhead);
• All sorts of filters and tabs (which I must explore when less than half asleep)
• I can get rid of that annoying THEATRE VIEW on photos (hurray, hurray!);
• other stuff that I might or might not use.

Stylish is "a Firefox and Thunderbird extension that lets you install and manage user styles". I found this really cool for Facebook. See the example below, which is the AERO style:

It also works with Youtube and Live Journal, though so far the LJ styles haven't impressed me much, a sthey tend towards altering things like buttons and the size of comments text..

I think it's time for me to ration my Facebook Access. Earlier this year I had a major problem with it because I kept on paying attention to FB in preference to my studies. I tend to be more creative in the mornings, but I got into a routine of checking Live Journal (5 minutes tops) and Facebook (anywhere between 5 minutes to 2-3 hours). My solution was to withdraw from FB and only check it on the w/e. This seemed to work and I was able to focus properly.

I relaxed this at the start of December, and perhaps not coincidentally got almost NO WEB COMICS done at all! I was upset with myself yesterday because I had intended to do at least a page for Tales of the Galli and it didn't happen. Yes, it's my own choice, but I have major problems focussing at times. I've had the same problem with mailing lists and used to go NOMAIL to recover my focus (and doing so works).

The last straw was seeing a repost by a couple of friends who lauded the use of Facebook as a tool of revenge. Some fuck-wit brother got dobbed in by his sister for hiding beer in his room, so he ransacked her room and posted a scan of her fantasy sex list. That's a "WIN" for the kid?? Don't think so, and really, it's not something I want to read about either (so I've de-friended the two people who reposted it.

It just reinforces the feeling I continue to get that Facebook is mostly full of CRAP. Bubbly attractive and easy to read crap, but crap nonetheless. I don't WANT to know that someone on my friends list has joined a group about being rude to people who ask you questions, or some impossible joke group - it's still crap crap crap (and there seems to be no may that I can turn such posts OFF)!

So, as off now I am only using facebook to answer messages (and maybe send some), play Scrabble and Lexelous, and fuck all else.