This is the post that no one will see and no one will read, because it won’t show up in anyone’s Facebook feed. The wheezing, creaking old plugin which transposed posts from my blog to Facebook has finally given out, and all of Facebook’s recent and well-publicised disasters have made it harder and harder to integrate with their API. I may have a solution coming, or I may just cut ties. Still, in the course of salvaging all of my historical Facebook ‘likes’ from previous posts, I did discover that 190 separate people have engaged with this blog (at least, enough to press ‘like’ at least once) since I started cross-posting. Thanks guys.
It is worth noting, actually, what a strange position Facebook is in now. I first encountered it when I visited Cambridge on a shadowing scheme in 2006. It was only available to students with a student email address, and it was cleaner and more grown-up than MySpace. I switched over. Then everyone switched over, aside from Joshua. Then everyone’s families switched over, there was that weird FarmVille phase, and gradually the young people (not me, I mean the actual young people) moved elsewhere. But this year we entered a new era, when suddenly every bus stop in Chicago is plastered in a full-length Facebook advert pointing out how miserable it can be and pledging to do better. It’s an odd turn we’ve taken.
In the sun!
Anyway, I’m writing this from the airport en route to Palo Alto after a few weeks of intermittent Chicago sun. The photo above is from Lincoln Park, courtesy of Randi’s fancy new camera. The weekend before – Memorial Day weekend – I got sunburnt sitting on Catherine and AJ’s deck as we grilled burgers. I know you’re really not supposed to say this, but it was totally worth it. I mean, sure, the sun without the burning would have been preferable. But it was a glorious afternoon.
Randi and I were also honoured to be the first visitors to Francisco and Carolina’s new apartment in Chicago, where they welcomed us with Chilean hot dogs and lots of great suggestions about the many, many places we should visit in the world. We also saw The Terminator at Todd and Carolyn’s on Friday night, ticking off yet another film which everyone is incredulous that I haven’t seen. To be honest, it was not exactly what I expected. Sure, the theme tune is good, and the being-chased-by-a-cyborg-slash-future-Governor-of-California is fun, but it felt like a short story rather than a fleshed-out film. And don’t even get me started on the weirdness of your best friend handing you a photo of their long-dead mother in the middle of a war and “falling in love” with her. That’s a red flag.
Side-note: in the generous spirit of a good host, Todd promised to make “whatever drink I wanted”. Being obnoxious, I asked for a Lilt. And, somehow, I ended up with an alcoholic Lilt. Incredible.
I much prefer climbing with the ropes
Finally, today we went rock climbing with Catherine and AJ. Unlike last time there were ropes involved, which I greatly prefer, and even though I certainly don’t rock climb ‘properly’ (why limit yourself to one colour when there are so many to choose from?) I did feel a great sense of vicarious achievement by watching the others.
‘Like’ (still 190, have probably ‘liked’ before)