Tag: facebook

Facebook Unfriending Glitch

On By Michel McDonaldIn Facebook, TwitterLeave a comment

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Have you noticed that your friends list number has dropped on Facebook and you can’t figure out why, or who unfriended you?  That seems to have happened to me a few times already in the last few months.

It first happened a few months ago when I had gotten into a bit of an argument with a long time friend.  I noticed that my friends number had gone down by 3 exactly, and it just turned out that her, her son and their roommate had all unfriended me.  I went to each of their Facebook profiles and the “Add Friend” button was active, which meant we were no longer friends.  I was more pissed off about that than the actual argument that we had which seemed like nothing compared to ending a friendship.  I emailed her asking her if she unfriended me and she responded the next day telling me that they did not unfriend me, that it must be a glitch.  I didn’t friend any of them back, I gave them the opportunity to send me the friend request, and only my friend sent it and not her son and their roommate.

At first I thought “yeah right, glitch, uh huh.”  I didn’t believe it was a glitch for a second, but when the friend request finally came, bygones were bygones and it was all water under the bridge.

A couple of days ago I noticed that someone had unfriended and blocked me on Facebook and unfollowed and blocked me on Twitter and I found out that it wasn’t personal, she just didn’t want to be friends on social websites with people she doesn’t actually know in person.  I get that, it hurt my feelings, but I understood.  But my Facebook friend number had dropped, not just by 1 friend but by 5.  I thought I must have said something that was so offensive that I am just losing people in droves, but as I was going through my list of friends, I had noticed that some of them were still in there, but they had deactivated their accounts so that was why I didn’t see them anymore.

One friend in particular did unfriend me, or so I thought.  We have known each other for 8 or 9 years from playing EverQuest.  We have never actually met, but we have spoken on the phone and played EQ together for hours a day.  We haven’t really spoken in quite some time though because she rarely ever goes on Facebook.  That’s why it was shocking that she had unfriended me.  I asked her if I said or did something wrong and she responded to me telling me that she never unfriended me at all, that it must be a Facebook glitch.  She and I have never had an issue, so I believe her when she said that.  I have no reason to believe that she would be deceptive with me.

So, if you have lost friends on Facebook, don’t take it as personally as I did, perhaps it’s a glitch or perhaps they deactivated their account because of how dramatic Facebook can be.  Oy vey can it be dramatic *SMH*.  It never hurts to ask, and when you do ask, be kind because they probably thought you unfriended them.

Avon Sugar Cookie Dough

On By Michel McDonaldIn AVON, Diet, FoodLeave a comment

My cousin Tabitha Vavrick sells AVON on the internet and in September I bought these Halloween cookie cutters.  They were very inexpensive and I love cookies, so I bought them.  I posted on Facebook that I was going to make them with Sweet N Low instead of sugar because of my blood sugar issue, but people warned me against it and told me to use Splenda instead, but I can’t use Splenda because it gives me the worst stomach cramps.  They told me to use Stevia and that it turns out gives me something I won’t discuss here since we are talking about food lol.

I decided that I would just go ahead and use sugar despite my problem with being a diabetic, but those same people warned me against using the recipe that came with the cookie cutters.  I don’t know why I let people talk me into alternative things.  They told me to find the Paula Deen sugar cookie recipe, which I did and I made and the cookies were awful.  I mixed all of the ingredients right and they just didn’t taste very good.

That was a month ago and a few days ago I wanted to try it again, but this time using the recipe that came with the cookie cutters.  I did it, and it was wonderful.  I don’t mean to give any secrets away by posting this recipe card, but they sell other cookie cutters that don’t even come with a recipe (their 3D Christmas Tree cookie cutters) so I figured that if someone bought that, they would want a good recipe, and this one is the best.

I have had sugar cookies my entire life and they don’t taste like this recipe, probably because the recipe that the professionals use has sugar on top of the cookies and these don’t.  That makes the cookies sweeter, these don’t need that extra sweetness because they are awesome on their own.

You could decorate them if you wanted to, but that would just add more sugar to it and I’ve tried coloring cookies before, it’s not good lol.  The cookies taste awesome alone without any extra sugar on top.

If you wanted to buy some of these or other cookie cutters, buy them from my cousin Tabitha Vavrick.  They have some great prices on a lot of their products.

I can’t wait for December so I can make the 3D Christmas Tree Cookies with this recipe.

My New Website

On By Michel McDonaldIn Web DesignLeave a comment

new website home

My website has been under construction for quite some time now.  I’ve been trying to think of something interesting to do with it.  My problem was, I had so much crap in my old website that I felt overwhelmed.  It’s kind of like I had a hoarding problem, but I was hoarding old images and old information that is no longer relevant.  I decided the best thing I could do was to back everything up on my computer, then delete it all on the website and start from scratch, and this is the result.

The index page is just an image that says welcome to the page, I didn’t take a screenshot because it’s a temporary image.  I will have to work on that page some more.  The home page is like a Windows desktop with icons and wallpaper.  I wanted to make it so that no matter what screen resolution you are using, you could see the full image and it will resize when you resize the browser.  It’s also stationary so when you are scrolling through a page, the wallpaper is always there.  Although the icons on the home page don’t go down that far that you need to scroll if you are using Google Chrome with a resolution of 1280×768 if you have a widescreen monitor, and 1024×768 if you don’t.  Of course the wallpaper is 1280×768 so if you don’t have a widescreen monitor, the wallpaper is squished lol.

Right now (in October) there is a picture of 2 pumpkins for Halloween, but I will change it for each holiday.  I figured it would be easier to use a desktop image for the home page than to have to keep changing the theme for the whole site every holiday.  When I was using FrontPage themes, I would have to change the theme, and then go to each individual page and adjust things.  Sometimes it could take hours or days, so this is just one page I have to change the wallpaper on.

new website eqWhen you click one of the icons on the home page, you will get a page that looks like this.  I decided that I wanted to emulate the Facebook Timeline idea, but with a thinner banner and a 256×256 icon which is the same one you see on the “desktop.”  The game pages (EQ, EQ2, LOTRO and DCUO) all look the same where you see a 256×256 icon of all of my characters images with a bio.  I also thought it would make them more interesting if I gave them a story.  I haven’t finished them all, but I’m working on it.

I don’t really have to have all of this information out there, but it’s fun.  Even if nobody ever looks at it, it’s still something that makes me happy.

I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do with the crafts page, whether I want to add patterns or just images of the things I have made in the past, or both.  I am still waiting for inspiration.  My Holiday page is still empty, but I am working on that.  I made the icon with 4 holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, but I mean what information could I possibly have for anything but Halloween?  All I have are my pumpkin pictures, so perhaps I will change that to a Halloween only page.

Update, I made the change already.

I would love to get some feedback, so please tell me if you like it or hate it and why.

Homemade Dog Biscuits – Cleo’s Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

On By Michel McDonaldIn Pets, Recipes3 Comments

I just saw this on Facebook and had to share it.  This was posted on the Facebook page called The Barking Army.

My dog hates these biscuits from the store, she is a very picky dog, so I’m not even sure she will like these, but I will try it out and she what happens.  Of course I will have to find a smaller cookie cutter because she is a toy Chihuahua.  Also, she knows this shape to be the shape of the ones she hates, so it would have to be something else.

Stop giving your dogs crap from China that is killing our dogs!! Here is a Pumpkin Recipe that is healthy for them 🙂

Cleo’s Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 2 tablespoons dry milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 1/2 cups brown rice flour *
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs and pumpkin to smooth. Stir in dry milk, sea salt, and dried parsley (if using, optional). Add brown rice flour gradually, combining with spatula or hands to form a stiff, dry dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface (can use the brown rice flour) and if dough is still rough, briefly knead and press to combine.

Roll dough between 1/4 – 1/2″ – depending on your dog’s chew preferences, – and use biscuit or other shape cutter to punch shapes, gathering and re-rolling scraps as you go. Place shapes on cookie sheet, no greasing or paper necessary. If desired, press fork pattern on biscuits before baking, a quick up-and-down movement with fork, lightly pressing down halfway through dough. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully turn biscuits over, then bake additional 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on rack before feeding to dog.

* Brown rice flour gives the biscuits crunch and promotes better dog digestion. Many dogs have touchy stomachs or allergies, and do not, like many people I know, tolerate wheat.

Makes up to 75 small (1″) biscuits or 50 medium biscuits.

Facebook Timeline Fun

On By Michel McDonaldIn FacebookLeave a comment

I have been having way too much fun in Facebook lately with their timeline images.  I play a game called EverQuest and EverQuest 2, well actually to be honest I play a lot of games lol.  I’ve been taking screen shots from the game so that I can make a banner and an icon that blends together perfectly.  It gives the illusion that the picture of me in the icon is floating on the banner, or at least I think so.  Take a look at this one of my half-elf from EverQuest 2 on one of my Facebook profile.  Of course last night I changed it so it’s my image, but doesn’t that blend together nicely?

I actually got the idea to do this from the Sears Facebook page.  I’m sure other pages are doing the same thing, but I haven’t seen a lot of them.

It took some trial and error, but I figured it out.  I have a template that I use where I put in the background image under the frame, then I select the banner and hide the frame then copy and paste the banner into a new image.  Then I show the frame again so I can copy the icon and I paste that into a new image and then add my character (or my real picture which I cropped out the background) and viola, icon that blends with the banner.

I think this is so cool, I wish my Blog had this feature lol.

Best Songs To Play With The Windows Rolled Down

On By Michel McDonaldIn Ad1 Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kia Rio for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When you are driving, what songs do you like to listen to with the windows rolled down?  I personally don’t drive, but I do like to listen to music when I am in the car with Darrin.  I remember when I was a teenager in the 80’s and we used to drive with music blasting so the whole world could hear it, now of course I just have whatever is on the radio playing, but I’m too old to blast it now.  The only time we ever blast the music is when we’re showing off.  So which song do you think that I would blast if I were driving in a car?  The answer would probably surprise you.

Kia has a new Rio for 2012 which has amazing features that I think you will love, like for example the 40MPG which is probably the best reason to buy a car, but they also have heated leather seats, a button to start the engine, blue tooth wireless technology for your hands free and UVO voice-activated Infotainment system by Microsoft, I’ve never heard of that but I’m intrigued.  They don’t stop with the inside, they have LED lighting instead of light bulbs for your back lights. Check out this ad for more information.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lml0ufpxkzI&feature=colike

So getting back to what I was talking about at the beginning, you can enter your favorite song in the Kia Rio “Best Songs with your Windows Down” playlist” on Facebook and have it added to a playlist on Spotify.  What did you think I picked as my favorite?  If you guessed “Queer Nation” by Elephant you were correct.  I know it’s explicit but I think I would blast that mofo for shock value, I mean besides it being an awesome song of course.  I chose that song because I am newly addicted to Elephant, I mean they are gay twin rappers, who wouldn’t be intrigued by that?

You can add your favorite song as well by going to the “Best Songs with your Windows Down” playlist on Facebook and typing in your favorite artist and/or song and clicking the search button, choose a track and submit it using your name and email address.  If I had to choose another band with another song I’d have to go with Justin Utley’s song Room to Breathe, or really any of his songs for that matter.  I chose those 2 artists, Elephant and Justin Utley because they are out loud and proud gay artists and I support my community.

Hey I know, you should pick a song too, make sure you have Spotify installed so you can add a song and see if your song made it to the playlist, and if you do, tell me what song you chose and why.  Check the playlist every day to see what new songs are being added, you might find something new to listen to.  Oh and if you get a chance, go out and buy a new 2012 Kia Rio, it’s a sound investment… Get it?  Sound?  Cause… the music… it was funnier in my head.

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My Website is Back Up

On By Michel McDonaldIn BlogLeave a comment

I have been in bloggers hell for the last 2 days.  The night before last night I got an email from Blogsvertise saying that a post that I had written (the post before this one) was missing 5 days later.  Well, I clicked the link and sure enough it was missing, along with the rest of my blog and my dashboard too.   I immediately went to my websites control panel to find out what was wrong and that wouldn’t load.  When it did finally load the database page wouldn’t load.

All day yesterday I had been contacting the web host about it and last night the dashboard finally came back online, but the blog itself was still out.  This morning it was the same thing so I emailed them again.  I emailed one of the associates from Blogsvertise to let them know what was going on so they would be patient with me.

This happened to me last year where my database became so corrupt that I couldn’t load anything and I ended up having to start over with a new database which meant I had to start over from scratch.  I had lost all of my comments and I had to go to other websites where my blog posts were are automatically published to.  That was no fun at all, it took me several months and I got so bored with it that I gave up which left a huge hole in 2010 from posts that I never copied back over.

It doesn’t seem as though I have been blogging very much lately because I have been spending so much of my time on Facebook.  I keep saying that I will try to get back to blogging, but it just doesn’t seem to happen.  I will make that same promise again though, perhaps I will blog what I post on Facebook, we’ll see.

EverQuest on my HDTV

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest5 Comments

My monitor stopped working so I had to start using my HDTV instead.  I was so happy that I bought a new video card with an HDMI plug, but for some reason EverQuest won’t load at all when I have it plugged into the TV.  I have been searching my heart out on the internet trying to find out why but nobody seems to have the answer.

I remembered that my friend Ruth told me a few years ago that she got a HDTV and she had her computer plugged into it and was using that as her monitor.  I sent her a message on Facebook asking her how she did that but it took her awhile to respond.  Today she responded to me to tell me she can help.  I spoke with her a few hours ago and she revealed the answer.  Stop using the HDMI and plug the computer into the TV using the VGA cable instead.  OF COURSE!  Why didn’t I think of that?

After I got off the phone with her I decided that I couldn’t wait to try it.  My computer was off so I had to wait for it to come on and it immediately defaulted to loading on the HDMI since I had them plugged into both.  When windows was finished loading I switched it over to VGA with the video driver software.  It didn’t look good at all so I had to do some adjusting to it so it looked normal and then I loaded EverQuest and to my surprise it loaded.

So there you have it, if you are using a HDTV using your HDMI plug, you won’t be able to play EverQuest until you plug it in with your VGA cable.

My Cromebook WiFi Works Again

On By Michel McDonaldIn CR-48Leave a comment

I believe it was in mid January when I started having connection issues with my Cromebook (CR48) and couldn’t fix it.  I’m still not sure what happened but I was very frustrated that I couldn’t use it anymore.  It became a paper weight on my desk.  The 3G worked, but the WiFi kept disconnecting.

This is what happened.  I would be typing (as I am doing now) and suddenly lost my connection.  I noticed that my words weren’t coming out right, instead other words were being selected and deleted with every key I hit.  I would look over at the WiFi icon next to the clock and it showed that it was trying to connect, then I’d see an X.  The only way I was able to continue with my blog post, tweet, Facebook update or IM conversation was to turn 3G on.  I’d have to save my work or put the person I was talking to on hold and reboot.  At first rebooting helped, but it would disconnect again.  I got to the point that I just stopped turning it on.

What happened today was I went to play with my PSP and wondered if there was an update available.  I tried to log in to my network and it wouldn’t let me.  I noticed that it said my network was not compatible.  That didn’t make sense since Chips iPhone and my Nook haven’t had any issue logging into the network.  I loaded the Linksys EasyLink Advisor program and went into the security settings and it gave me an error.  I starting thinking that maybe that was the reason I was having issues, so I reinstalled the WPA security and viola, my Chromebook is online with no issues.

I have typed this entire post on my Chromebook without one disconnect.  Before that would have been impossible since as soon as I started typing the WiFi would disconnect.  The problem has been solved and I hope someone who is also having issues might see this and check their own network security settings.  Good luck!

My Book is Coming Soon…

On By Michel McDonaldIn Autobiography, BooksLeave a comment

I have finally published my book.  It will take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for it to be reviewed before it will be ready for sale so I would count on January 6th as my official publish date.  Keep your eyes crossed for that one.

I had a hard time getting an author picture because we just couldn’t find a good location to take it, so I recycled a picture from 2005 lol.  I know it’s cheating but it’s a really good picture.

Of course it will be in black and white in the paper book and on all e-ink e-book readers, it will be in color in the color e-book readers, tablets and phones.  I am just happy that I didn’t have to pose cause I really don’t like to fake a smile when someone can’t figure out how to push the button.

You have no idea how much anxiety I had to push the “publish” button.  I finally just clicked it and covered my mouth with both of my hands as if I accidentally clicked it.  I spent seven months working on it, it’s now or never.

So my new website for the book www.diaryofagaynerd.com is up and running with a picture of the book along with buttons to click to buy the book, to follow me on twitter, like me on Facebook, to get a GetGlue sticker and to come here, although only three buttons work because I have to get the links when the book has been published.  I will be offering a GetGlue sticker, but I have to wait for the book to be on the GetGlue site first.

You know how anxious you are on Christmas eve, or the day before your birthday, or the day before you go to Disneyland?  Yeah… that’s me right now.