Taking My Facebook Aggravation To Windy Lake Wichita Park

The view you see here is looking southeast at a backwoods vantage point in Lake Wichita Park. My destination this morning, after spending a few minutes being aggravated by Facebook malfunctioning.

That water you see is not Lake Wichita. It is a large pond which currently is mostly dried up.

The temperature has cooled from yesterday's balmy 80s.

In the 60s today with a strong wind blowing.

Fast walking got me sufficient endorphins to end the bad mood Facebook had put me in.

And now Facebook is back behaving properly...

When In Fort Worth Do Not Cast Your Pearls Before The Swine

The last day or two, a time or two, whilst finding myself making a comment or two, to a person or two or three, on Facebook, that Biblical admonition about being careful about where one throws ones pearls came to mind.

I do not know why a Biblical admonition would come to mind, what with it being a long long time since I looked at a Bible of any denomination or religion.

Exchanges of opinions are a wonderful thing when one is exchanging opinions with ones in possession of these things called facts and who have open minds and a basic understanding of things like history, civics, science and politics.

Indulging the opinions of those with no basic understanding of things like history, civics, science and politics is like getting recipes from someone who does not know how to boil water or directions from a blind person.

Apparently I am in a bad mood at a low ebb of my usual high tolerance level of swine.

I actually like pigs. If I lived out in the country I would like to have a pet pig. And a couple fainting goats.

Tomorrow I am venturing to one of America's Hearts of Darkness. I hope to make it back out of there without too much aggravation. I will avoid Fort Worth except for a brief stop at two locations in far east Fort Worth...

Fort Worth's Connie D Is Not A Fan Of Facebooked Self-Reflection, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh Or Fox News

Both the Tacoma Connie D and the Fort Worth Connie D fairly regularly manage to amuse me to varying degrees on Facebook. Today it was the Fort Worth Connie D who amused me.

It was not the link Connie D shared to a story about Brad Pitt throwing beer at Matthew McConaughey in New Orleans which amused me. It was the comment Connie D made, followed by the comment Connie D's friend, Matt H., made.

Connie D commented "I thought it was one of the coolest things I read today. I can only tolerate so much self-reflection and philosophy on FB."

To which Matt H. commented "I can tolerate none of it, so you're better than me."

Now having no tolerance for self-reflection and philosophy, as experienced on Facebook, well that one really resonates with me. My intolerance for this eventually led me to discover how to stop Facebook from showing me the self-reflecting and philosophizing of those prone to such.

It is really annoying when the constant self-reflection is coming from someone over the half century mark, age-wise. I mean, really, if you've not figured it out by now, maybe you should just give up trying to figure out how to have yourself a mighty fine time with this life you are living.

And why share this self-reflecting and philosophizing on Facebook? To what end? To what purpose? To help others? To share these great truths that you think you have discovered so as to help others?

I could get more detailed about one particular perpetrator of this type behavior, pointing out the incredible hypocrisy and irony that this particular perpetrator perpetuates, cluelessly unaware of the absurdity of someone such as this giving anyone advice about anything, but I'll keep it to myself....

I almost forgot to include the below gem from Fort Worth's Connie D, with no additional commentary needed....

Facebook & AT & T Need To Be Regulated Better & Stopped From Sending Unrequested Text Messages

Yesterday I got the text message you see on the left. I did not open it til today.

Why did I open it today?

Well, I was having a pleasant conversation with a pleasant person when my phone made its annoying new text message noise.

I looked at the phone and saw it was a text message which said...

"Sheila (friends with Chris) also commented on Chris's status."

The rest of the text message was Sheila's comment on Chris's Facebook status.

What fresh hell is this I sat and wondered? The pleasant person I was conversing with then told me that yesterday she got the text message I also got yesterday, but did not open til today.

That is the text message you see above, informing me that Facebook SMS is now on. And that I'll be getting updates about friends on Facebook. And that I can make it stop by replying stop.

And so I stopped this annoying thing by replying stop.

Now, why did this start happening without me asking for this? A couple days ago I got a text message from AT & T telling me that my account from bankrupt Hawk Electronics had been transferred to AT & T.

The only way Facebook has my phone number is through AT & T.

How is this legal to start sending unrequested text messages? I don't do much texting. I am still on a phone plan where I pay for each incoming and outgoing text message. Needless to say, I will not be paying for these Facebook text messages.

And does this mean that comments I have been making on Facebook have been being sent to people who have AT & T accounts?

This is an abominable outrage and something really should be done to fix it.

And Facebook really needs to go the way of MySpace....

Facebook Shows How Much Pure Ignorance There Is In The World

I saw this graphic this morning on Facebook, from Pete Charlton. Pete Charlton regularly puts good stuff on Facebook. I have several people on Facebook who regularly share what seems to me to be good stuff.

And then there is the stuff that is not so good.

Or just plain embarrassing. Or annoying. Or annoyingly embarrassing.

Or just plain ignorant.

The graphic came from something called The Other 98%.

Pete Charlton's text accompanying the graphic said, "One good thing about Facebook: It shows how much pure ignorance there is in the world. And it also spotlights those who exploit ignorance for their own evil purposes."

Last week I got sort of tired of the tiresome postings of one of my Facebook "Friends". So, I looked to see if there was a way I could stop them from showing up. I clicked on, I think it was 'block', agreed that this was okay and next thing I know Facebook is telling me this removes the person from my "Friends" list.

My not knowing that 'blocking' de-friended someone is an example of my pure ignorance, but there was no actual evil intent in my doing so.

I will admit it has made Facebook a less annoying experience to have a little less self-serving smarminess served to me daily.

I Am In A State Of Shock From Being Facebook De-Friended

On the left you are looking at part of my Facebook timeline thing. I think in the picture I was going for looking like I was in a bullfight with a Texas Longhorn.

Today I came back from having myself a very pleasant mountain bike ride on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails to find a shocking message telling me that one of my relatives had de-friended me on Facebook.

Why would anyone in their right mind de-friend me on Facebook? The person who informed me that I'd been de-friended told me it was suspected I was de-friended because I'd been being too nice to that particular person, who, apparently, is an arch enemy of the relative who de-friended me.

This is all very perplexing to me.

I don't think I have ever friended anyone on Facebook. Or de-friended anyone. I will get an email telling me someone wants to friend me and if I know who it is, I usually click 'confirm.'

This Facebook de-friending thing is going to make it seem really really awkward if I ever see this particular relative again.

Today In Walmart I Learned The Family Rules & What A Friend Is

It has been raining at my location for hours, since before the sun started trying to shine some light through the cloud cover.

I did not know rain was in the forecast, so waking up to so much dampness was a bit of a surprise.

It is currently chilly.

Only 69 degrees.

I had my windows open, but somehow was not feeling the benefit of that outside chilliness. So, I closed the windows and am now being chilled by the built-in automatic chilling device that runs on electricity.

Due to the rain, Walmart was my go to location for my salubrious noon time endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

It is a little difficult to push a grocery cart to a level that achieves aerobic stimulation.

This morning Facebook shocked me with the shocking news that I was going to be forced on August 25 to use the Facebook timeline. I don't get the point of the Facebook timeline. It seems messed up to me. The messed up Facebook timeline may be one of the reasons the value of Facebook stock continues to plummet.

When I was in Walmart, pushing a grocery cart at high speed, I sped by some signs in the home decor area with smarmy messages, of the sort that I get a little tired of seeing on the aforementioned Facebook.

I don't know why so many people feel compelled to share these type messages on Facebook. That someone would buy such a sign and hang it on a wall in their home is real perplexing to me.

I think I may be becoming a curmudgeon in my old age.

Being Smarmy On Facebook Can Cause The Gag Me With A Spoon Reflex

On Facebook this morning I learned that Wee Cheng loves Durian. Wee Cheng lives in Singapore. I think Durian may be a fruit. Or maybe Wee Cheng's new boyfriend.

Wee Cheng sharing her latest love on Facebook put me in mind of an amusing article in this week's DFW.com Ink Edition. DFW.com has a weekly column titled Y Me? Y Me? is sort of a lovelorn column written by a guy.

This week's Y Me? column is titled Annoyingly in love online.

Below is an excerpt from this week's Y Me? column....

I do appreciate the voyeurism of social networking, but I'm finding out fast that I have a lot of annoying Facebook friends. There's nothing more annoying than two people in love, posting sweet nothings on the other's wall. Why is posting such things a sure sign of insecurity? Because if Guy A wanted to tell Lady B how great she is, then theoretically all he'd have to do is tell her in person, over the phone or via text message. The fact that he's doing it on her Facebook wall means he's declaring it publicly -- which is the Facebook version of marking his territory.

The main motivation behind it is to make other people jealous. The reason it rings false to me is because it always feels like the lovers are trying to convince themselves that they believe all of the things they are posting, like they're more method actors than lovebirds. If they really did care for one another as much as they say in Facebook posts, they wouldn't need to reinforce those feelings with constant public declarations.

They'd do that in private, secure in the idea that the one knows how the other feels.

I was going through my feed, and I found a few gems that I thought I'd reinterpret. Names have been omitted to protect the obnoxious.

What they said : "If I was any more in love with you I'd explode! I still can't believe how lucky I am to have found you."

What they meant: "I can't be happy if you're all not looking at me."

What they said: "I have the best husband in the world! I can't believe how lucky I am to get to wake up next to you every day!"

What they meant: "I'm stuck with you, but if I can convince all of my friends that we are a model couple, at least I'll get to feed off their jealousy."

What they said: "A night in with the handsomest man on the planet! I can't wait to get that grill going, and watch a movie with my sweetie."

What they meant: "We never go out, and I'm tired of tasting the bitter charring of my man's unwashed grill."

____________________________________________

There has been a time or two when I've asked someone if it was realized that everyone was reading their exchange with a significant other on Facebook that seemed rather personal. I've had a person say they did not realize the conversation was out in the open amongst all their Facebook friends. I've also had a person acknowledge they were fully aware their conversation was read by all.

I agree with Y Me? regarding it seeming like the person's posting these smarmy messages are doing so for sad reasons.

A few weeks ago, on Facebook, someone shared their current status saying something like "They say it gets easier with time. They lie. It has been 25 years since grandpa died and it gets no easier. I miss him as much today as the day he died. I love you grandpa."

Now, I read this and thought to myself, wait a minute, I thought you always described this particular grandpa as an over-controlling, domineering aggravation. So why write this smarmy stuff about grandpa? Who is it directed at? Your own conscience?

Facebook is not the only source of this type thing.

There is this blog written by a borderline illiterate woman with mental health issues. She will write the most convoluted, embarrassing, contradictory spew of nonsense, with her long suffering husband then feeling compelled to make a comment along the line of "Great post, bebe, so brave, but I expect no less from someone as wonderful and beautiful as you are, inside and out."

I always liked that Valley Girl slang, "Gag me with a spoon."

High Pressure Chemicals & A Missing Queen Of Wink Worrying Me The 7th Day Of June

Looking out at the pool early this 7th morning of June the water appears to be crystal clear. One would think this would mean my swimming pool is back swimmable.

One would be wrong to think that.

The pump is still not working right, that water has been extremely shocked. Shocking a pool is pool-speak meaning the water has been dosed with chemicals. The chemicals flash off over time.

I think the chemicals somehow prevent algae from growing, but I'm not sure. The fact that til those chemicals flash off the water is dangerous seems worrisome to me. But, I've had 12 years to get used to it, so it doesn't worry me all that much anymore. It's just one more thing I wonder about and then accept.

I had my bedroom window open all night. I don't know if that was a good idea. This morning I shut the windows and am running the A/C. This morning I learned we have been being heated 6 to 10 degrees above normal for the past 10 days. A humongous high pressure ridge sits over Texas creating summer type furnace conditions.

On a totally non-weather related subject. Overnight the Queen of Wink has disappeared from Facebook. Princess Annie of Wink is still on Facebook. Shelby the Dog of Wink is still on Facebook. But the Queen of Wink is gone.

I will call the Queen of Wink later today and try to solve this troubling mystery.

Facebook Is Ruining My High School Class Reunion In June

I have a high school class reunion coming up next month.

I have not been all that enamored of the idea of going to the bother of going north for this event.

I did not know why I was not all that enamored of going north for this event until this morning, courtesy of an article in the Seattle P-I.

Facebook is destroying reunions around the world.

In the past couple years, thanks to Facebook, I have had more contact with people I went to high school with, than I have since I graduated from high school. A long, long time ago.

People used to go to reunions to catch up on old friends, find out how they'd been, what they'd done, where they lived, how many reproductions they'd reproduced.

Now, thanks to Facebook, a lot of people get a lot of "status" updates, daily, from a lot of people they knew long ago.

In other words, Facebook is like an ongoing, perpetual reunion.

Thanks to Facebook, regarding people in my high school class, I know where people live, who they are currently married to or not married to, details of ongoing divorce sagas, who currently has cancer, or has had cancer or has died from cancer, who is in re-hab, who is out of re-hab, who needs to get into re-hab.

Thanks to Facebook, I know what people I went to high school with barbecued for dinner yesterday, what they watched on TV last night, where they went on vacation, where they are going on vacation, who they are going on vacation with.

Thanks to Facebook, I know how well some people have held up over the years. And how hard the years have been on others, this information due to seeing photos of Facebook faces.

Thanks to Facebook I've already had a reunion, in person, with someone from my high school class, meeting up with me for lunch, when she was passing through Texas on the way back to Washington, last September.

That actually was a very pleasant reunion. Mexican food was involved. And no one was consuming adult beverages.

I remember at the last high school reunion I attended in person there seemed to be way too much consumption of adult beverages. I remember at one point someone who had consumed too much, physically lifting me off the ground when my name was mentioned during one of my classmate's comedy routine. I do not like my physical self being randomly assaulted.

The last reunion I attended in person was July 27, 2002. In Lynden, Washington. The biggest family reunion in my family's history. I'd helped bring it about. To my ever lasting regret. I was only up there for a week. It was a long week.

If I go to the bother of going to this, upcoming in June, high school class reunion, I have a fear that after I go to all that bother, I get to the reunion to find only about 40 people, seeing many of the people I'd already seen on Facebook. Then, sometime in hour two I start feeling regrets that I'd gone to this bother. And that by hour 3 I start looking to escape.

Or, maybe I'd have myself a real fine time. I am not good at predicting these type things and tend towards making pessimistic assumptions.

Millions Worldwide Annoyed Because Facebook Scrabble Is Not Working

Facebook's Scrabble is causing an International Upset as Scrabble Addicts World-wide are unable to get their fix for the past couple days due to a Facebook Scrabble malfunction.

Getting beat regularly by the Scrabble Queens of Washington and California is just about the only mental stimulation I get on a daily basis.

So, with Facebook Scrabble not working I am current not mentally stimulated.

On the Facebook Scrabble page there is a link to a Scrabble Forum. That is where I learned people all over the world are not happy right now, due to their Scrabble withdrawal pains.

One person came up with the bizarre conspiracy theory that Mark Zuckerberg, he being Facebook's inventor, shut down Scrabble after being miffed that Social Network, the movie based on Facebook, did not when the Best Picture Oscar at Sunday's Academy Awards.

To me this seems a rather far fetched conspiracy theory. Though there are those who have made note of the supposed fact that Scrabble went down very quickly after Social Network did.

If Facebook Scrabble does not resume working today I am going to need to find something else to stimulate me mentally.

On Christmas Eve I Finally Won Another Game Of Facebook Scrabble

It has been a long while since the Scrabble Queen of Washington let me win a game of Facebook Scrabble.

I think the Scrabble Queen knows how much my Scrabble ineptness depresses me and diminishes my easily diminished self esteem.

So, tonight, on Christmas Eve, the Scrabble Queen of Washington gave me my best Christmas present to yet be revealed this year.

She let me win again.

It is like a pre-Christmas miracle.

Monday Morning In Texas After A Night Of Trying To Get The Lights Turned On In Washington

Stepping outside to take a picture through the bars of my patio prison cell was a bit chilly this first Monday of the last month of 2010.

It is 27 degrees out there this morning. Brrrrr.

This morning I got an email informing me that Annie Trujillo wants to be friends on Facebook. I always find that verbiage odd. I don't know why, I just do.

I spent a lot of time back in my old house in Mount Vernon, Washington, last night. I do not recollect having vivid dreams about that house before. The house previous to that one, yes, but not the one I was in last night.

That house had a lot of lights, inside and out. In several locations there were 4 light switches in a row. In last night's nightmare I was obsessed with those switches. No matter how hard I flicked the one that turned on the track lighting nothing would happen. The one that was supposed to turn on the fan high up on the third floor instead turned on the furnace in the basement.

I'd wake up frustrated. Then fall back asleep and it'd start up again.

I'm sure there is some deep Freudian explanation. I choose to think it means my sub-conscious has an urge to get the right lights turned on to facilitate a move back to Washington.

September 23 Facebook System Crash Upsetting Users World-Wide

UPDATE: As of 4:12pm, United States Central Time, Facebook is back working from this location.

I needed a break from too much time spent making webpages, so I went to see if anyone of my Scrabblers had Scrabbled on Facebook.

When I clicked on Facebook's login I got the hourglass wait icon and went off to do something else. When I got back I saw the "This webpage is not available" message you see here.

So, I then Googled "Facebook Down" to learn that Facebook has suffered a system-wide crash, this Thursday, September 23. I suspect a cyber attack from someone who finds Facebook annoying and symptomatic of the dumbing down of the entire world.

Apparently Facebook being in malfunction mode has Facebook's users in a panic all over the world, being deprived of using Facebook's highly evolved methods of communicating, users are having to resort to using Facebook's mutant cousin, Twitter.

I think what I will resort to, rather than Twitter, is going on a bike ride.

I Filed A Report With The FBI & Other Nonsense

Well, I've had me a sort of sickening morning. The sort of sickening that would be funny if it weren't so sad and sickening.

I got an email this morning from my Anonymous Tacoma emailer with a link to Facebook.

Imagine my joy when I clicked on the link to see myself being discussed by the entities I call Fubbo, Mister Sister and Mega Nag. Discussed on Facebook.

Apparently I am stalking (or stocking) Fubbo on the Internet. And it's very creepy. And sloppy.

The FBI has been contacted by Fubbo and she has her people working on the case, including Mister Sister, who Fubbo suggests might do some IP digging.

Now, where this turns funny, and sad, is a couple months ago Fubbo showed up on Gar the Texan's blog, anonymously, at first. The Queen of Wink sent me the Anonymous comment, along with the IP address. I could tell it was Fubbo. I then said so on Gar's blog. To which Fubbo, almost immediately, commented, denying ever being Anonymous.

And yet Fubbo somehow knew she'd been exposed on some random blog, denying it was she making the Anonymous comment. Fubbo's damage control comment was pretty lame, the Queen of Wink pretty much amusingly countered Fubbo. Fubbo then deleted her comments and went away. Or so I thought.

The Queen of Wink was able to use some IP tracking thing to see where Fubbo was going, blog-wise.

I then commented that it was pretty ironic that Fubbo has said she forces herself not to read my blog and now to find out she's not only stalking mine, but also stalking the blogs of people I know in Texas. If you look at my FeedJit stats you can see Tacoma is constantly showing up on my blog.

Fubbo must have stewed about this embarrassment for a couple months and then decided to project her behavior on to me.

What profoundly disturbs me is that Mister Sister and Mega Nag are feeding into these delusions. I'd told Mister Sister that she needed to be wary of Fubbo due to the girl being a pathological liar.

It's all very perplexing to me. And sad. And just slightly funny.

The Scrabble Queen Of Washington Takes Mercy On A Good Ol' Texas Boy

Scrabble is pretty much the only thing I've found that I like about Facebook. The rest of Facebook seems to manage to only be slightly less annoying than that has-been, MySpace.

I think I've said before that playing Scrabble has exercised part of my brain that usually lies dormant and has somehow amped up my already fairly well-amped ability to quickly spew words.

If I don't find some Scrabble games to play in the morning, whilst I eat breakfast, it really starts the day off on a bad note for me.

Fortunately, the Scrabble Queen of Washington is quite good at reliably providing me my Scrabble stimulation. To a lesser degree, the Scrabble Princess of Eastern Washington, Tootsie Tonasket, does a bit less stimulating, Scrabble-wise.

I think, lately, the Scrabble Queen of Washington has been taking mercy on me and is not using so many big point words, thus letting me win a game or two. I appreciate that.

Rush Limbaugh & My Ditto Head Facebook Friends

I used to find Rush Limbaugh sort of amusing, back before he morphed into what, way too often, comes across to me, nowadays, as the rantings of the disloyal opposition.

I, like many, have grown a bit disappointed in President Obama. I would have preferred Hillary.

A couple times, during the pre-election period, Obama amazed me with nonsense. Like the day he repeated, several times, that over 10,000 had died in a tornado, in, I think, if I remember right, Kansas.

It appalled me that Obama did not intuitively know that 10,000 number had to be wrong, because, if it were correct, this would make that tornado the worst natural disaster in American history.

And then, just recently, speaking to a group of workers, Obama told them that the Health Care Reform would lower the Health Care Cost of a business by around 3,000 percent. Thus, possibly causing the business owner to give the workers a raise. The sheep roundly applauded.

How could Obama utter that ridiculous 3,000 percent figure and not intuitively know it was ridiculous? I mean, I suck at math, but even I can figure out that if you reduce a cost by just 100%, it now costs zero. But 3,000%?

I don't think things like this are impeachable offenses. But, maybe they should be.

And then we have Rush Limbaugh's Ditto-heads, mindlessly repeating twisted iterations of the stuff they hear him spout.

Just looking at my Facebook page and the comments made by some of my "Friends" is sort of scary.

I'll copy and paste some of them, leaving out the names so as to avoid embarrassing anyone anymore than they should already be embarrassed...

"My flag is upside down in distress. Last nite, our constitution was subverted and perverted by domestic enemies. From a 25 year AF vet."

"All Liberty loving patriots should be flying their flags upside down today and until we can take our country back!"

"We have been putting our flag stamps upside down ever since these dimwits took over our gov't!!! And good to see a lot of people still love the U.S.OF A.!!!!!"

"Well goodbye former United States of America hello United Socialist States of America !! Never will be the same !!!"

"I don't know if I am more sad or angry I can't believe they sold us out . I don't know if I want to cry or scream. All our fore fathers fought for sold out over a stinking lie from a stinking liar. How could anyone fall for his garbage !! Got to vent or I will blow up !!"

"It is a very sad night....but Jesus is coming soon!"

"I don't know if I'm more sad or angry either. I sat on the couch and cried the night Obama was elected because I knew it was going to be the beginning of the end of this great country."

"I did to, it was spiritual we were weeping for our nation. I still am, even knowing Jesus will come soon, but it so hard to see this great country go down to the likes of these thugs it breaks my heart. Honestly it makes me sick to my stomach. We are in for a rocky ride. May God have mercy on us!!"

"WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!! GOOD BYE TO BEING A WORLD SUPER POWER!!! HELLO 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT AND CHINA OWNING US!!!!!!!"

Also on Facebook one of my more reasonable "Friends" linked to and commented about a Facebook Fan Page called "Help Rush Limbaugh Remember To Leave The Country."

"On March 9th, 2010, Rush Limbaugh made a promise on his radio show to leave the country if the new healthcare bill passes. Unfortunately, Rush is a very busy guy. That's where we come in. To help Rush with his bucket list, I suggest members of this group send him friendly reminders whenever they have a chance to help remind and encourage him to stick to his guns and help him keep the courage of his convictions."

Steve Doeung & The Carter Avenue Rescue Operation On Facebook

The Queen of Wink has started a Facebook Cause Page as part of ongoing efforts to save Carter Avenue and Steve Doeung from the corrupt City Government of Fort Worth and the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Companies who are running roughshod over the Victims of the Shale, abusing eminent domain, endangering citizens, polluting the air, and the water.

The cause is called CARO. CARTER AVENUE RESCUE OPERATION.

Steve Doeung is back in court in downtown Fort Worth on Thursday, March 4 at the Old Courthouse at 100 West Weatherford and Main Street, across the street from the Heritage Park eyesore.

If you can think of any way to help Steve Doeung in his battle to save his home from Chesapeake Energy and its lapdog, the City of Fort Worth, you can email him.

Facebook Is All Messed Up This Morning While I Visited Washington's Scrabble Queen

The Temporary Scrabble Queen of Hawaii is back on the mainland, resuming her Scrabble Queen of Washington duties.

I think she beat me 3 times in the past week. Just when I start doing better at coming up with words, the Scrabble Queen amps it up and starts inventing words I've never heard of, worth a lot of points.

I virtually visited the Scrabble Queen when she was on Kauai, via Google Earth. If you've not installed Google Earth on your computer, you really should. It's free. Just Google it.

With the barest of hints I've tried to use Google Earth to visit the Scrabble Queen in her home port in the Skagit Valley. I only found one candidate the seemed to meet the criteria. Except I could see no obvious horse pasture.

I was going to send this photo via a Facebook message, to the Scrabble Queen. But Facebook is all messed up this morning.

It appears Facebook got the message that its users were not pleased with the changes that showed up recently, and is reverting to its previous format. I don't use Facebook all that much, but enough that I found the changes pointless and confusing.

Another Queen has gone missing this morning, that being the Queen of Wink. Yesterday she told me, when she got home from school, at around 4:30, she was going to send me some important information and instructions as to how I could help with a project of hers.

I have received no Royal Decrees. I am very perplexed.

Riding Horses In Texas With The Scrabble Queen Of Washington

That is Miss KPF being a cowgirl. I had myself a great time riding horses with Miss KPF, when she visited Texas.

Wait, that may have happened only in a dream. I confuse dreams with reality with alarming frequency.

Miss KPF would make an excellent Texan, as you can tell from the picture, what with her properly wearing a cowboy hat while straddling a horse with authority.

Miss KPF is like a Texan in other ways. Like she's married to this high powered business tycoon who is called J.R.

Okay, I've run out of what Miss KPF has in common with Texans. The reason I'm talking about Miss KPF is I realized something yesterday, that being the she has caused me to be able to spew verbiage at a faster rate. And she has caused an increase in typos.

How can this be, you ask? Well, about a year ago I was curious to see what the fuss about Facebook was all about. To do so I had to create an account. As part of the account set up I was shown names. I thought I was supposed to click on names I recognized. One of them was Miss KPF. I did not realize that clicking on a name sent out a "Friend Request."

Miss KPF sent a message back to me saying "I don't think I know you, we weren't at B-E at the same time." See, I'd not entered accurate info, for the most part. I entered my high school correctly, but not the years I went there. What remains a mystery to me, to this day, is how did Facebook come up with all these names I recognized when I had myself going to that school 10 years later? It's perplexing.

After Miss KPF went through pretty much every name in our class she finally figured out who Durango Jones was. Soon after that Miss KPF started me in on playing Scrabble. At that time I did not realize she was the Scrabble Queen of Washington. Taking pity on me, she has let me win a couple times.

Now, at first I didn't like Scrabble all that much. I had trouble coming up with words. Then one day it sort of clicked. You have to see patterns where you can spell multiple words, that's where the big points come from.

And I'm constantly trying out weird letter combos in the hope that it's a word.

And that is where the increase in typos comes from, I think. I'll type oar when I mean oaf. I'll type boob when I mean boon. I'll type done when I mean down.

Sometimes the typo will still have the sentence sort of making sense. But usually not. I catch most of them before I hit the 'publish' button. But quite a few don't get found til later.

The other thing that I think has happened due to Scrabbling, is I think it exercises the part of my brain that fires the synapses that puts word strings together. I've always been able to pretty easily spew stream of consciousness verbiage. In the past year I've noticed this has changed, as in sometimes I have no clue where a sentence or paragraph is going to go when I start in typing. I just let my fingers fly on the keyboard and check if it makes sense after the fingers quit flying.

That also may be contributing to the typos, as in typing too fast.

Usually I Scrabble while I eat breakfast. This gets my synapses all fired up, with an additional firing up due to coffee. A morning like this morning makes evident to me that I've developed some sort of dependence addiction to Scrabble and it firing up my brain, because this morning there was no Scrabble, because Miss KPF and J.R. are down in Portland.

I won't return to full function til I get Scrabbled. Miss KPF may Scrabble from Portland. She's managed to Scrabble from all sorts of locations, Hawaii, Canada, Seattle, Ocean Shores, Tri-Cities, Leavenworth, Pullman, American Falls, Idaho, I forget where else. Miss KPF is constantly on the move.

So, there's a good chance I'll get a note telling me it's my turn to Scrabble. Maybe I should look for a backup stimulator for when I have Scrabble withdrawal.