social media Archives - My Two Lives

I’m back on social media

January 13, 2025

I was given the boot by a social media platform (which I won’t name) a couple of years ago for my support of the civilians in Palestine. Since then, I’ve been off social media other than YouTube, which I honestly don’t consider to be social media like the other platforms. I’m on Discord, but that’s for my doings on Second Life.

I left Facebook and Instagram several years ago when I got sick of all the hate. That was before Cambridge Analytica attempted to influence the 2012 and 2014 U.S. federal elections. Facebook should have been penalized severely for permitting it to occur on their platforms. I had been on Twitter until the day the board agreed to sell to someone who seems to want to run governments but has zaro interest in ever putting his name on a ballot.

Hello, Bluesky

I had heard of Bluesky, but it was co-founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who has a reputation for being a jerk. I’ve seen a lot of folks on Second Life had moved to Bluesky, and I decided it was time to consider joining myself. It turns out Jack left Bluesky last year, saying people should stay on X, which to me proves what an arsehole he is.

Since Jack left, I joined Bluesky and have already found several people I knew from the bird site before it turned into a right-wing nightmare. There are also a lot of Second Life folks over there. LGBTQ+ individuals are warmly welcomed on Bluesky, which is one of the best aspects of the platform. If you truly care about the people affected by the wildfires in the LA area, you’ll discover that there are others who share that concern. This includes those who oppose the idea that federal aid, if it is provided, should be contingent on the state agreeing to the GOP’s harmful policies.

If you’re searching for a good social media platform, consider giving Bluesky a try. There is no algorithm determining what you see, and while haters may not be removed immediately, they quickly understand they are unwelcome in the realm of the blue butterfly.

If you join Bluesky, or are already there, look me up. I’m @jmhardin.bsky.social.

I have pretty being busy lately

May 15, 2023

Some links below are affiliate links. If you buy anything from these links I may receive a commission on your purchase.

I haven’t posted anything here in quite a while, but that hasn’t meant I haven’t been doing anything. After getting new web hosting from Namecheap, I moved My Two Lives to a different product within the Namecheap family. The new product allows hosting for not only My Two Lives but also my Second Life store, Nanci’s Naughties, and due to having way too much on my plate, I just got Nanci’s Naughties back up this week.

Sports!

Some people know of my love for tenpin bowling, but I haven’t visited a bowling center since I was in Guam with the Air Force in 1987. Being on a fixed income makes visiting a bowling center in Boston difficult financially, so in March I decided to see what options are available for virtual bowling in Second Life. I found the Bergson Bowling System, which does more than let me bowl inworld. It also lets people lay out lanes for their own use.

Rather than just setting up a lane for myself, I created a bowling center anyone could use. It’s the Pride Lanes Bowling Center, and you can find out more about it at PrideLanesSL.online. Pride Lanes has a tent at this year’s Second Pride, and I’m working on some merch that will connect Nanci’s Naughties, Pride Lanes, Second Pride, and global LGBTQ+ life. Once it’s available I’ll announce it over on the Nanci’s Naughties website.

I’m making music again

When I bought my Squire Stratocaster back in 2020, I knew I wanted to work on an original song I got the idea for in a practice room at the Longy School of Music back in 1996. It started as a cool riff with a soul gospel feel, and it became a whole bluesy song in late 1999, but it’s more of a guitar song than a keyboard song, so it just got tucked away in my proverbial drawer. When I got my Strat, I knew I wanted to develop the song, and last year I started working on a demo for the song. The demo still isn’t finished because I never get enough time for playing my guitar, but now that I’m getting things off my plate I hope to get back to working on that soon.

Early this year I was thinking of a Christian rock song I wrote in the early naughts. As an ex-vangelical I won’t use the lyrics anymore, but I love the music I came up with for it, so I’m going to put together a demo on BandLab. I’ll publish the song on BandLab for someone to write new lyrics for and use. Of course, there’s not enough time in the day to do everything, and my brain can play the guitar a hell of a lot better than my fingers can, so it’s another song that’s going to be a work in progress for a while.

Et cetera

There are many things going on in my life that I won’t talk about here, and with warmer weather arriving in Boston I hope to spend more time outside this summer, even if it’s just out on my porch. Yes, I’m a big old homebody, so I tend to stick around Château Hardin unless I have to make groceries, run an errand or five, or go the medico folks. But that works pretty well for me since I’m also a huge night owl, and I’m usually going to bed when the morning news folks are getting up. There are also days when I’ve kicked myself because the sun is going down as I’m going to bed, but the only problem there is that by the time I get up I’ve missed most of the daytime.

I’m going to leave you with a meme posted by someone last year on a social media platform I used to use. It’s something I need to remind myself of every now and then, and I’m not the only one who needs it.