So, I’m not on facebook anymore. Not since 2019, and even that took way longer than it should have. Social media doesn’t make sense to me anymore. I recently deleted my LinkedIn page as well. The original idea of that was an interesting one, but it’s become increasingly obvious it’s not really about networking, it’s just more data collection and probably a way to cross reference identity online. There is your entire career history and a photo of you right there.
I recently pulled my passwords from Google to put into my own database. I’ve long since made my own password generator with Python, which I was keeping in a password protected spreadsheet. Then I decided that should be a SQL database. So I rewrote things and it works a lot better now: taking in website, account, user_id, password, notes, and I added some flags to the table for my uses later. Then it tucks itself away, our of reach. But I’d had passwords for accounts I haven’t used in forever, so I pulled those out of Google, with the eventual goal of going through and deleting the vast majority of those saved passwords and accounts.
And that brings me to the fake facebook account I made in undegrad relating to our department’s way of referring to member of the department club. I turned it into a ‘person’ from history in that field with an antique photo of a painting of an 18th century gentleman. I used to post with it for a short time. Then in grad school I forgot the login info and didn’t realize it had been sitting in Google’s list of my passwords and accounts. And so, when I pulled everything out to put into my main database, I found it. And I said huh.
I was sad to see the number of folks I had made friends with for that account are still on facebook. I thought they would have moved on by now. I guess not. I posted a single thing: “Geo Wallace had returned
He found the arcane knowledge
He looked around and saw so many still here, and for that he was dismayed. He had how to have seen that most had moved on, given this place to.
Alas, that was to much to hope. I shall be going now. I likely won’t be coming back anytime soon, if ever.
If you want to find me, you’ll probably know how to.”
Nothing else. I don’t plan to go back. And yes, I know the above is a LinkedIn-ism of every line being spaced out like that. Whatever. Another interesting thing though, is that I had been idling, occasionally been trying to find two people I knew from middle school. They had a fair amount of influence on my music tastes moving forward through middle school, into high school, and later on. That might have had an effect on my outlook on the world, considering I still come back to some of that stuff. But, I hadn’t thought of them in years. And then one day, a few years ago I did. And it was like a memory I couldn’t corroborate. I had basically no evidence to prove it was/they were real. It was weird. And then, I happened to find my 8th grade year book. Why I still have that is kind of beyond me. So, I found them, they were real. At least at that time.
And that seemed to be where it stopped. I tried googling, I tried LinkedIn, I tried a number of way to find out if they were real, if they still existed, to no avail. I thought about what I would do if I ever found them. Eventually, I decided; nothing. Nothing is what I would do. Who knows if they’re still like they were then, or if they even remember me. And if they don’t, oh well. And if they did? What would we even talk about? That part I have no idea. Also, it just seems weird to go on the hunt for someone like that. So, I let it fizzle. And then: Geo Wallace. It gave me a chance to actually do a facebook search from within. And lo and behold. I found them. That was that. Existence confirmed. That was all I needed. One other remains elusive.
But that brings me back to the titled. Social media doesn’t make sense to me anymore. I don’t really get the point. It felt different obviously, when facebook and myspace were new. Now it seems old and stale. So much of it is just pretty pointless. And the idea that anyone can just check up is kind of weird, huh? Oh wait, that’s what I just did. I like not being a part of that anymore. So much of what I saw just seemed like the typical bullshit I see on r/stupidpeoplefacebook or r/terriblefacebookmemes. I mean, shit, I had Nextdoor for a short while and that was pretty dumb. Mostly just people posting ads for local business. But just before I decided it was not worth keeping, because it was garbage, some woman got into a flame war with some other people about something. Basically I think she was shit-posting (but didn’t think she was) stupid ass memes you’d see on r/terriblefacebookmemes. And she was complaining that she was getting grief for it. They were terrible, and maybe she was just naive. Or dumb. I dunno.
Anyway, I deleted nextdoor. It was pointless. And then seeing facebook again from the inside did not give me any reason to want to come back. And really, it’s just mostly folks posting a thing saying a thing: a picture with words on it. It’s like low hanging fruit virtue signaling. I don’t really get it. There rarely anything creative or original. It’s just reposting shit. Shitposting. And, let me say, I like the fediverse well enough, but even lemmy is part of this, just link aggregation. Basically, a lot of what I see on reddit, or lemmy, anymore, is just reposts of news or toktoks, or twitter posts (wooo), or whatever.
That’s not to say that there isn’t creative stuff posts on reddit. I used to build models, tanks. So many tanks. Hoo buddy. Anyway, I used to post photos of them to reddit. I was into models as early as elementary school, and man have things gotten so much better since then. Wow. That’s a whole different topic I’ll maybe dive into later. Anyway, I got back into it in high school, and looking back at those right before the pandemic was a wow moment again (those were bad… heh heh). But I got back into it when I moved after grad school, having an actual Hobby Town nearby was a huge impetus for it. And got pretty into it for a while. I entered a few competitions and actually won some awards. I’m not master, but I was pretty decent.
But then the later parts of the pandemic seems to have had a weird effect on hobbies. r/modelmakers seems to have gotten inundated with lots of posts, maybe seems disingenuous to me. “First tank” and it looks like they’ve been doing it for a decade. OP comments on people’s occasional skepticism (but never near enough in my opinion) that “oh, thanks, I just watched a couple of videos and just copied that”. Right, sure, you just mastered the air brush in a few tries. Sure. Either I am an idiot, they’re a savant, or they’re just lying for karma. Karma farming! There were also the not quite lies, but deceptive posts of “first <insert model type here: tank, plane, ship, whatever>” and then it turns out “oh yeah, I’ve been doing cars” or whatever for 15 years and this was my first time doing a tank. Oh, okay. And /minipainting. Hoo buddy, plenty of that. Maybe I am jaded and cynical. I dunno, but that sub, man. I paint minis. I’m no master, but I’d like to think I am pretty good. Some of my old ones live at my buddies house. Because they’re bad. I don’t want to look at them. But he appreciates them because I made them. But man, some of those posts, while incredible, are demoralizing. Especially for new folks. And not everyone is as jaded as myself. A lot of those folks are either unemployed and will never be, thus having entirely too much time; they’re on the spectrum and are legit good, but just at that; a professional, because those guys really do exist; have a lot more time on their hands than most people (because a lot of folks have kids).
Sadly, hobbies, especially stuff like the things I have been into, seem to be for grandpas and children. Because the people with money have kids or are retired. I have no kids, thankfully, but it still annoying when a hobby space is dominated by two ends of the spectrum but nothing in the middle. A reverse bell curve. But I’ve shifted my focus these days, so I’m not nearly as into it as I once was.
I did a lot of tanks. I kind of burned out on them. I’ve done a lot of minis, but just haven’t had the motivation or drive to do that lately. I won’t lie that reddit can and has killed my enjoyment of things.
I got pretty into Magic the Gathering shortly before Edge of Eternities dropped. I had tried for a year or two prior, having picked up a precon from Murders at Karlov Manor. That set didn’t make sense to me at the time. What a terrible format to try to learn Magic: Commander. I chose Deep Clue Sea, basically being a total dumbass noob not doing any of the research I should have at the time. I tried to learn with my buddies, but booze does not make for clear thinking and sure doesn’t make for a good way to learn a very complex game. So I forgot about it and then came back to it again in June of 2025. What a time to get back into Magic the Gathering. The worst time, really, except now. It’s only gone down hill. But anyway, I got into it, I learned how to play, I spent a lot of time thinking about it, making decks. Playing when I could. A lot of time making decks. 50+ commander decks. I cataloged my entire collection in Archidekt. Build my decks in there, they’re still out there to be seen, I suppose. Go to archidekt.com -> moendopi. Meh, don’t bother.
I went too hard in the paint on that one. I used the Google AI, Gemini, to hone ideas, build synergies, all the things. I got really into it. I went every week for a few months to the commander nights at my local shop. I spent way more money than I should have, buying new stuff, packs, lots and lots of old cards. The old stuff is way cooler. Judgment, and other sets from that era, the black cards especially, were really cool. I ended up making my own SQL database because Archidekt was too limiting in how it would allow queries. That was an interesting learning experience, since I already knew some SQL, so I learned more.
But I eventually burned out, really didn’t jive with a certain player or two, which were really the kind of last straw. I was making a lot of effort at these deck, thinking about strategies, but it never paid off. And I was looking at Magic stuff on reddit a lot, and there was just a lot of stuff I eventually was done seeing. The performative natures of some of the folks on there, whether it’s trans this or harry potter that. FFS. And all the weird bannings that went on. Then there was the r/freemagic subreddit, which was another weird outpost of the opposition to the performative outrage group. That place was a mess. I had to just pull away from that. Like when I was into drones, dove hard into that, spent a ton of time and money on fpv drones, building, flying, a lot lot lot of crashing, and then I just said enough. I basically pulled away, unsubbed from all of the various youtube channels about drones/fpv drones, and I did the same for Magic the Gathering. I do occasionally check in with the Professor to see what’s. And generally, that whole scene/game/topic/WoTC space is only getting worse. So, I said I’m out. I still wanna play, but with people I actually know, not randos at the store, and definitely not spending any time with it on reddit. It’s toxic there. Karma farming or performative outrage.