It's always something with Facebook at this point, to the extent that it seems worthless even to complain about it. Facebook added something, or took away something, leading to your vexation? You don't say?
I appreciate the spirit of innovation being led at Facebook by the fearless Mr. Zuckerberg, but it would also be nice for things to just stay the same for a month or two.
Recently, there have been examples of both the good (I guess) and the bad (although there are people with real problems in the world, right?) with new Facebook features. The widget offering up status updates from years past is sort of fun, although it generally takes me a minute to figure out what the hell I was talking about. (Oh, I guess I was really into Primal Scream two years ago.) Nostalgia wins!
Then on Sunday, I noticed a new news feed on top of the right-side chat window (which I'm not all that crazy about to begin with). Apparently, "the ticker" is supposed to replace the "recent posts" function of the news feed; after all, why would you want your default view of Facebook to include the actual information that your friends are posting? Instead, Facebook will now jam those updates into a tiny, rapidly scrolling window in the corner of your screen!
No thanks, Facebook. I don't need your algorithms to tell me what I care about. I'd rather just sort through all of it and ignore the real world around me.
The week on The Range
We wondered why Sen. John McCain was trying to sell arms to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi if he really thought Gadhafi had American blood on his hands; welcomed a new baby tamandua to the Reid Park Zoo; urged East Coast weather reporters to stay inside during Hurricane Irene coverage; noted that Mark Stegeman was ousted as president of the Tucson Unified School District governing board; and accepted that Gawker named Arizona the worst state in the country (although we were disappointed in Gawker's grammar).
We shared sweet talk with the new executive pastry chef at Loews Ventana Canyon; looked over the new menu at Fourth Avenue's Medusa Kabob House; campaigned to get Planet of the Crepes named as America's Favorite Food Truck; and checked out Shaka Shave Ice.
We worried about senior citizens gone wild; gave away the chance to throw the first pitch at a Tucson Padres game; appreciated a new Wilco track; shared the latest comic-book news; kept an eye out for a rampaging rogue panda in Flagstaff; brought you the latest in Tucson cycling news; watched a trailer for Dr. Thompson's The Rum Diary; appreciated CNN's advice regarding penis surgery; urged you to check out the awesome bounce of drag-queen Big Freedia at Club Congress; watched cute leopard cubs; fought with Fook on the KFMA morning show; brought you new music recommendations; and urged drivers to calm the heck down.
Comment of the week
"The very first three-letter word of Dan Gibson's post shows just how ignorant he is: 'Duh.'"
—TucsonWeekly.com commenter "dustyduds" needs to work a bit harder on the insult material; Don Rickles would be embarrassed ("Told You So: Gawker Names Arizona Worst State," The Range, Aug. 26).
Best of WWW
You like football, right? What real American doesn't? Even if you don't enjoy watching football, the facts that nearly all of the games are played on the same day, and that it's relatively easy to follow, make it an excellent sport to use as a basis for arbitrary competitions. In that spirit, we have our own Pro Football Pick'em game. Predict winners of the week's matchups in a more accurate manner than other people around the country, and you can win a prize, including a trip to Hawaii. Get your friends to sign up, and show off your superior prognostication skills.
It should be more fun than watching the Cardinals on most weeks, at the very least.
