SOME FACEBOOK FRIENDS ARE A NUISANCE

    I have a small face book account of a little over 100 friends.  When I opened my face book account I thought it was an excellent place to keep up with relatives.

    When you're on face book other people find you. So now I not only have family but former students, colleagues and other people I know.

    I found that the family contact more or less dried up. Many other people are lurkers. I don't know if they follow me at all.

   I do use face book to publicize my blog. I do click on things I like. For example a former student was our city archivist and he posts all kinds of photos. I have another friend who is a photographer. David takes many good photos and I tell him I like them.  I wish people happy birthday, but I rarely post anything.

    All of this is very harmless.

    However, there are a couple of friends who find themselves deep into right wing politics so there are times I get many despicable messages. They get these messages from some site and then pass them on over their face book page. They haven't checked these messages for any validity at all. I don't like getting racist messages. I don't like messages that criticize politicians in a personal way. Debate the issues but leave the mudslinging out of it. It's difficult enough for a politician to serve as well as get abuse. I get messages on the economy that have no basis whatsoever. Whoever wrote the message did not do any research whatsoever. They listened to somebody spout off. They will not look at government statistics as they have the mistaken idea that these statistics come directly from the political party. These statistics are generated by the people who do the actual work of running the country.

   For two of my friends , I think I'm going to have to find out how to unfriend somebody.

    What do you do when you get unwanted face book messages?

   

Face Book: I'm Not a Big Fan

      I've had a face book page for about 4 or 5 years. I haven't found anything on face book that really excites me and a lot that aggravates me.

     I started a face book page to keep up with family as I am far away from them. At first there was information from nieces and nephews. I guess they grew tired of the thing and gradually one by one did not post on face book.

    The aggravating part is when people like and recommend a bazillion different things that I have no interest in.  People find all kinds of things from God knows where to put on thinking that I or somebody else may be interested. For example: religious pieces, food, recipes, restaurants...

    Now the other day I did find something interesting to follow on face book. This is a long and convoluted story. Get ready! I like Vinyl Cafe on CBC radio. I don't miss it. Once  a year they have a segment called the Arthur Awards. Arthur is the name of the dog in the story. The Arthur Awards are for somebody who does something good which is not rewarded in any other way. It's something that is a common everyday act of kindness or help that is completely volunteer.

     I was not listening terribly well at the beginning of the presentation but grew very interested as the interview moved along. The guy being interviewed had walked across Canada and now was walking from the U.S. border to the Arctic Ocean. It was a fascinating interview. At the end the guy gave his face book page "The Great Hike." He had described how the previous night he had camped along the road and in the morning a buffalo was outside his tent. He looked out the tent and the buffalo was right there. To take a picture he had to back into the tent in order to get the whole buffalo in his photo.

   This page really interested me. So I searched for the page. The page comes up with his photo of the buffalo. Of course, there were many more photos. Also one of the people liking the page was my friend Cheryl! What a surprise!

    So this is a site I really like and if I made more effort I might find other pages I like. Oh yes, this week I began following a birds of Alberta page. It has awesome bird photos.

    What do you find interesting on face book?

Bird Trail for Red Deer

       Bird trail some joker may say? Yeah birds run through the bush. Well, I'm telling bout a differnt bird trail.


      Bird trails have recently been designed  and become very popular. A bird trail is nothing more than a series of excellent bird siting areas that have been publicized and organized. Birders can then travel to these areas and see a larger number of birds without wasting time. Some of these trails have become very popular .


     The Red Deer River Naturalists (RDRN) are producing a map which will detail sites to visit within the city of Red Deer. Locals know where these spots are ,but the poor tourist comes to town and misses excellent birding opportunities.  Our brochures should be ready in April 2010 and be distributed to tourist bureaus. We also hope to have this information on our website http://www.rdrn.fanweb.ca/


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      We host a series of early morning bird walks in the spring. Check our Face Book Site and Http://wearenaturalwise.blogspot.com/ and get dates and times. We'd love to have you join us.


     In the coming year we will produce a birding trail guide which will feature the Central Alberta area. Again the locals know all of the good sites . This new material will make it easier for visitors to see the birds we have in this rich area.


     So join us or just come to the area on your own and enjoy the birds in this area.

514% Increase "Ain't" Bad!

     I recently read a news item dealing with the increase in Face Book accounts for 2009. The part that caught my attention was that there was a 514% increase in accounts started by ages 50 and over! And I was one of the 514%!

     I was certainly aware of Face Book . But I listened to CBC interviews and the scoop was that Face Book was for younger people ...possibly college or university age. I had no interest in Face Book . The rumor was that security was a problem.

    However, a friend or two kept talking about Face Book. In fact, we were discussing using Face Book as a vehicle to increase membership in an organization we belonged to.
  
    So one day I ended up looking at Face Book . Before very long I found people I knew and looked at their list of friends and saw more people I knew. Then I accidentally checked on relatives! I found most of my nieces and nephews on Face Book. That did it! I started a Face Book account and found out how to navigate through aspects of Face Book. I very cautiously invited 2 or 3 friends and then sat back. People invited me to be their friend and things just grew.

     I happily reported to my brother that I had started a Face Book page. He very flatly said, "We won't be on Face Book!" Less than 6 months later his wife was on Face Book because my brother thought it would be a good idea! So there's two of us with the same idea who changed their minds quickly. We could see the advantages to be gained from Face Book.

     From then on I followed what people were doing and reported my activities. Now I eagerly anticipate Face Book activities each day. So, since I joined Face Book in 2009 and am much over 50 , I fit into the 514% and am proud to be part of  that crowd.