Is this the change all those politicians are babbling about?

It finally happened. I resisted for months, but there’s no more resisting. Facebook forced me to switch to the…*shudder*…new Facebook.

I joined Facebook in 2005 primarily for one reason: it was a simplistic alternative to MySpace.

MySpace pages were cluttered with annoying colors and fonts, stupid songs, and general Useless Information Overloads. But Facebook…Facebook was different. A picture of the person, some basic information, some groups so you could discern their interests, and a place you could leave messages. The layouts were all uniform, nice and organized, so there was no way to make your profile look hideous. Simple, elegant, to-the-point.

Of course, this idyllic internet world would not last forever. As I recall, photo albums were the first major addition during my Facebook tenure. I didn’t have a problem with those, though–in fact, I enjoyed them. For one thing, they were unobtrusive, just sitting their in the corner of your profile if you happen to want to see them.

All that changed, of course, with the dreaded mini-feed. Now, I didn’t have the same “invasion of privacy” complaints some people had. (“Those BASTARDS! How DARE they share with my friends the information I put on my profile for my friends to see!”) But I thought they were stupid, unnecessary, and took up too much space on what was once a nice and simple homepage and profile page. Of course, as I predicted, originally I got used to it. At least for a while those were collapsible in profile view.

Applications only made it worse. Goodbye, carefree days of simple information-and-communication; hello, overblown mass of unnecessary games, trinkets, and other shiny distractions.

This actually brings us to the one good thing about the new Facebook: putting applications in a separate tab. So, one point for the new design, but that’s the only one I notice.

Aside from that, the new design is loaded with aesthetic and practical problems, which I am going to attempt to break down for you now. Continue reading

The Family Reunion, Part Three: The Beach and the Lighthouse

A scant few days after hearing about LaFontaine’s death, I saw the news about Bill Melendez’s death. What made this hit home was that I happened to be wearing my Snoopy t-shirt at the time–one guy I encountered that day even asked if I had worn it purposefully as a tribute.

On the bright side, later the same week was Bob Newhart’s birthday. Happy (belated) 79th, you brilliant, brilliant man.

Anyway. Now that I’m more or less settled in to Philly and able to stop procrastinating on writing stupid comments to go with pictures I post on the internet, we now bring you to the final post in the Cape May Family Vacation Trilogy. Continue reading

In a world where everybody else already made the In-a-world reference, one man mourns Don LaFontaine

Part three of the Cape May Pictures Post Trilogy is coming soon…I moved into the Philly campus on Saturday, and have been spending all my time settling in and starting classes and stuff, so adding sardonic comments to pictures of the beach hasn’t been my top priority.

This post isn’t about Philly, however, it’s about one man: Don LaFontaine. Continue reading