All in one day

Good Tuesday morning, friends.  I am at home today and off work, and will explain below.

Before I get into what's happening here, let's talk about a few things happening elsewhere.

I'm not a Facebook user, as my stock excuse is that "I graduated high school."  That used to be a much more accurate statement than it is today.  I don't use Instagram too much, although I post a picture there once in a while and have a handful of friends I follow there.  Another very good friend decided to try living in Panama for a few months and so I'm communicating with her via WhatsApp.

All owned and operated by Facebook.

Yesterday's outage was rather amusing to me, given that so many people spend SO MUCH TIME on the main Facebook app.  There were numerous funny items I saw on Twitter about what people were doing with their time without Facebook or Instagram to weigh them down.

But I find the outage to be just a little suspicious, as a former Facebook manager appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes Sunday night to talk about how the company values profits well above doing the right thing when it comes to curbing hate-speech and misinformation about COVID and vaccines and a host of other subjects.  That same manager is due to appear before a Congressional committee today.

What a coincidence.  Perhaps Facebook did this deliberately, to make people remember how vital the service is to some, or to elicit a certain amount of sympathy after and before being accused of reckless and reprehensible behavior as it relates to governing what appears on their service.

The whistleblower was clear in saying that divisive content motivates Facebook users to spend more time on the portal, therefore being exposed to and potentially clicking more ads, and so on.  In other words, cleaning up its act would cost Facebook too much profit.

Researchers have also found that teen and tween girls are often affected adversely by spending too much time on Instagram.  As the grandfather of teen and tween girls, this really concerns me.

Like it or not, social media platforms have some responsibility to self-regulate in a positive way.  It would be nice if members of Congress knew enough about how it all works to ensure that they conduct themselves in a responsible manner.

So today is an at-home off-work day, as I mentioned.  We ordered replacement windows in June and waited quite some time for them to be delivered to the company for installation.  And today's the day.  A gentleman arrived about 90 minutes ago to install eight windows (we used the same company to replace the upstairs windows over the last two years.  This installer is here alone but he didn't seem concerned, since all eight are at ground level (our house is on a slab, so that's really true).  Not sure how long this will take but that was the point.

Around the same time we committed to these windows, we also signed contracts to have new gutters and downspouts installed (that was completed about a month ago, and we're very happy with the results) and to have our old, cracked driveway removed and replaced with new concrete.  We have yet to hear back from the concrete contractor, but have not paid for anything up front.

And we had to buy a new washer in late May and the replacement was doing fine until it began making a couple of mysterious noises.  The manufacturer sent a technician last week and he thought he might have it fixed, but found he didn't.  We sent him video of the machine in use and he told us it needed a motor assembly, whatever that is.  I'm looking right at three large boxes here in my office from the manufacturer and that technician is due sometime today as well.

And just for giggles I also scheduled our twice-a-year checkup by our HVAC company.  They'll be here sometime this morning also.

I work from home a good part of the time, but with all of the commotion here, decided it best not to try to work given the banging that's going on right now.

So that's what's new here.  Crossing my fingers that I won't have any sad tales of woe to share after today!