Amarand
Social Media Break - Day Two

Well, it’s Day Two of my Social Media Break, and I realized that I didn’t need to deactivate my Facebook and Instagram accounts in order to just stay away and not sign in. Problem, though, is that when you deactivate your account, it makes all of your posts, pictures and videos disappear. So all of my Hamama posts and videos went away. Boo!

So I signed in to both Facebook and Instagram, just to reactivate the accounts, so that the media is still there. Then, I signed out of my accounts, and shifted the passwords in my password manager so they won’t auto-fill. Perfect!

Of course, that made me wonder, should I be posting my videos on YouTube as well? Just so there are alternate ways for folks to access my instructional videos? I also have ad-free video support here on the site, which sounds better than YouTube for most folks. So we’ll see how that works out.

Honda is Prettier than Ford

I noticed, while parked, that the Honda vehicles are much prettier than the average Ford. Lots of little details. Plus, Honda seems to last a lot longer, have fewer problems, and has a much higher resale value. Probably won’t buy another U.S. car again. Meh.

My “Pet” Spider

My indoor/outdoor spider came to visit me on my work computer’s monitor today. Super happy to see him, or her. And, of course, that got me to thinking about the potential for gender neutral spider pronouns. Someone over on Counter.Social mentioned it might be spe/sper/spers? If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment!

Oh, you want to have a closer look?

A Spider Close-Up

Doesn’t have a name yet, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out eventually! Now, I’ve worked from home for many years now, and I can say that the more time you spend at home, the more you learn about the critters that share your house with you. I have a lot of spider webs!

Driving down the road….

So today, I had to drop my car off at the shop, to get a much needed oil change, swap out headlights, that sort of thing. And while I was driving, I saw what I believed to be an optical illusion in the hood. So I grabbed the picture above (don’t worry, I kept my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road…used a self-timer) and it came out pretty good! Plus, I got to prove to myself that the “hump” in the hood was an optical illusion.

Last but not least, there’s an app for iOS called Silk that allows you to easily draw symmetrical patterns. It’s a lot of fun, and soothing when I need a little brainless drawing, and relaxing visuals. I made the following. Hope you enjoy it!

An image created in Silk on my iPhone. So much fun to just slowly drag your finger across the screen, select different symmetrical patterns and styles, choose colors…. It’s a very deep program, but super easy to use. I recommend everyone install this on their phone, especially if they need to de-stress sometimes.

So, overall, my social media break has been fantastic, and it’s only Day Two! I made more rolls today, and had chicken sandwiches with Nuggs. Super tasty!

One of the problems I’ve experienced post-social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, is that my brain absolutely misses those little hits of dopamine – a Like here, a Heart there, a comment reply. They really do design those systems to be extremely addictive. So on the one hand, while it’s not painful, it is a little depressing. I think that’ll go away over time. On the other hand, I can feel myself feeling better, having more creativity, focusing on building and growing, taking more pictures because I want to, not because it might generate more likes or hearts or traffic.

Plus, there’s more time for writing here in my blog.

I think that’s all for the day. See you tomorrow!