Fall. Construction musings of a bloggy nature

Fall hasn't totally vanished. This is another gully into Fish Creek park, a smaller one than a few weeks ago. On this ramble I didn't actually go down into the park. There was some heavy duty wind blowing in and I didn't want to be out in whatever might come along with it. I drove down this way yesterday and those leaves aren't there anymore.

Yes, since you ask, the construction is still happening. This used to be a view of an open field, some bush, and then the mountains.

I was trying to do up a map to explain to some buddies just how much construction is happening in our part of town. That got frustrating. Just like driving anywhere is these days. We cannot get out of the neighbourhood without going through construction. Almost every major major intersection between the reservoir and Fish Creek is under construction.

Between the sad skies and the construction, this last week I was feeling very blah about going out. Just blah, period. Having a really, really crappy run didn't help.

I'm feeling much better now that the sun is out. I'm thinking about some photo rambles in the earlier parts of the day next week, but no idea where yet.

During the recent walk I got talking to the guy that lives right beside some of the storm water construction. And by right beside, I mean if he stands just about anywhere on his front lawn, he could spit into a very deep pit. This deep.

He's a hobby photographer too, and I'll have to make some time to get to know him better. His problem is what do do with the photos once taken. For his kids and g-kids, he does up books with the photos of them. But it's all the others that have him baffled. I've mused about this off and on.

Many of them end up on this blog. The best of them end up on my photoblog. The problem is that unless my readers pay attention, they don't know a new post has been published. They are unaware what excitement they are missing until they see the "Blogged" on my Facebook page.

Except I'm pissed at Facebook. Yes the recent hacking is part of it. But even with Social Fixer, my reading experience is peppered with more and more spam. For a while I was on a roll, marking them offensive, but I don't think that really makes any difference. What I've been taking to doing lately is going to my friends lists and seeing which have posted recently, and going through their feed individually. However I'm not sure I trust if Facebook really is showing all their posts.

JB is probably the most prolific poster on my wall via sharing and her own posts. I frequently comment. I have her marked as See First, and I still don't see everything she posts unless I visit her wall. (Is it even still called a wall? I don't know these things.) Who knows what I'm missing from people that don't post often?

And by Facebook, I mean Instagram too. I no longer see the point of the platform for me. It mangles the photos I upload, the commenting interface sucks, looking at nice photos on the phone is a waste of time, and their computer interface sucks slough water, and as near as I can tell, not one single person has clicked through from Instagram to my blog. So I'm going to mull it over for a bit, and probably shut down the Instagram account. It can join Twitter to languish in the dark. I don't miss Twitter even slightly. If there's something I'm missing from the Instagram experience feel free to enlighten me. Don't even think about saying Pinterest to me.

But lots of my readers come via Facebook, and because the platform is so big it's convenient. Yet I know people take Facebook sabbaticals. I have, short ones. Are there alternatives to Facebook?

One of my thoughts was to get some prints of the very nicest photos, except there are lots I like and there is a limited amount of wall space in the house. We've thought about installing a TV to put a random selection of photos on display, but we haven't totally worked that out yet.