Tag: twitter

William Shatner Blocked My Ass

On By Michel McDonaldIn CelebritiesLeave a comment

Priceline Negtiator

So here’s the story of how I found out that William Shatner blocked my ass on Twitter. I was scrolling through Twitter, as I do, and I came across a tweet from Mark Hamill retweeting something from William Shatner and this is what I see.

Screenshot_2018-06-24-20-39-03

My first thought is that perhaps William Shatner deleted his tweet and that’s why it’s unavailable, so just to be sure I tap it and this is the next thing I see.

Screenshot_2018-06-24-19-45-42

WHAT? Why in the world did William Shatner block ME? I’ve never said anything negative to him. I’ve admired him my entire life. I loved him in “Star Trek”, heck, I played with his action figure when I was a child. I loved him in ALL of the “Star Trek” movies. I loved him in “T.J. Hooker” and “Haven” and “Weird or What?” I absolutely loved him in the Priceline commercials, and I think that’s why he blocked me.

So when I found out he blocked me, I went to Twitter and searched my Twitter name which is @Xanapus and his Twitter name, which is also his actual name, and I found this tweet that someone had RT’d of my tweet. I couldn’t find my actual tweet.

 

So my tweet was referring to this article here from E Online saying Priceline Kills Off William Shatner’s Negotiator—Watch His Grisly End. So what is wrong with me saying rest in peace to “William Shatner’s character in the Priceline commercials.”???? What did I do that was so wrong? I was sad, I was upset, and I was in mourning for his character. Was what I said a blockable offense? No, it’s absolutely not. There was not one negative thing in my tweet to him.

Priceline did kill him off, he went over a bridge in a bus and his character did in fact die, but they brought him back with a daughter. Kaley Cuoco Is Now Priceline Negotiator William Shatner’s Secret Daughter. I was so happy they brought him back from the dead and I love Kaley Cuoco as his daughter.

You know what? I’m really hurt that he decided to block me over such a harmless tweet, but if he has such thin skin that me saying RIP to his character is going to make him block me, then fine, I honestly don’t care. I won’t love him any less than I have my entire life. He will always be a hero to me, so you do you William Shatner.

Update: Ok so here’s some new information. Apparently he is blocking a LOT of people. Check it out. Go to Twitter and search Blocked by William Shatner. Someone said that William Shatner is a huge Trump fan, so perhaps he is going through the list of his followers and finding out who has tweeted anything negative about Trump and blocking them. Someone else told me it is a badge of honor to be blocked by William Shatner, so I added that badge to my Twitter profile.

Xanapus on WordPress

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

wordpress

It’s official! If you type my domain http://www.xanapus.com, my WordPress.com blog will load. I had my website hosted with the same company, although they went through many name changes, for 13 years. I have been blogging with WordPress for 8 years on my hosted website. Thanks to the help from the awesome people at WordPress, all of my blog posts over the last 8 years are on my WordPress.com blog and you can now come here using my domain name.

My blog will have more of an audience since people who blog using WordPress.com can see other blogs as they are published. My blog on my self hosted website barely had any visitors unless they came from Google or Bing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also not a good thing.

My worst fear was that if my self hosted blog disappeared, all those search engine results, Facebook and Twitter links and links on other blogs would result in a dead link, but, I am so happy to say that is not the case. If you click any old link, it will automatically load those articles here. So that sure is a relief.

The best thing about this move is that I can blog directly from my cell phone when I’m not home. If I have to get something off my chest and 140 characters just won’t do, I can get on the WordPress Android app and just vent to my hearts content. I can even take a picture and add it to the blog post.

I’ve been working on the design of my blog and I’m not quite sure I have it, but I will look at some other themes and maybe something will catch my eye. Let me know what you think in the comments and perhaps if you have some advice, I’m open to anything.

Anyway, I don’t want to talk your ear (or eye?) off. I’m just excited that I am finally saving some money lol.

Warming up to Windows 10

On By Michel McDonaldIn App, ComputerLeave a comment

Windows 10 logoI wasn’t happy with Windows 10 when I installed it because it took hours to install, then everything took forever to load. I couldn’t get the Start window to come up, and when it finally did come up, it would go away because I was clicking the Start button too many times in frustration. I also hated the new Start window because when I would try to move things around, the icons would disappear, and then there would be huge gaps with no icons, so I took out ALL icons and just added them again in the order I wanted to see them, like this…

win10startThe first couple of days using Windows 10 was a learning experience, and things have gotten a lot faster since I started. The Start window comes up immediately now and when I click All apps, the list of apps comes up right away, although, there are times when it takes a few seconds longer, but I’m patient.

Now the only thing that still concerns me is Microsoft Money. Someone tweeted me a link to a blog that tells me that all I have to do is go into my Registry and change something, which isn’t always the best idea, especially coming from a stranger. Oh sure stranger, I’ll screw things up even more, thank you. And the sad thing is I went into my registry and looked for that string, but it wasn’t there. I’m actually glad I didn’t find it because it would’ve been a disaster if I screwed things up and had to start over again. I hope Microsoft comes up with an update to fix this issue so I can use MS Money again.

This is the error message I am getting when I load MS Money.

money needs ie6When I started using Windows 8.1, I wasn’t using the browser to use Facebook, Facebook Pages Manager or Twitter, I was using the Windows apps instead. Gradually those apps stopped loading quickly until they just stopped loading at all. Eventually I had to go back to using the browser.

When I installed Windows 10, those apps load quickly, and in a small window. In fact, all of the apps, including Windows Edge, their new browser, all open in a small square window. I have a widescreen monitor, not a square one, not that Windows really cares. But still, when I use Edge, I have to stretch it on both sides to see everything on the website. When I close the website and Edge reloads when I click a link, it opens in that square box again. Not that that is a real issue for me, I don’t really care about that. I’m not bitching about anything, I’m just saying this is what’s happening when I open Edge.

I had mixed feelings before installing, and I was outraged after I installed, but I’m warming up to the new version of Windows and believe it or not, I’m happy I installed it.

For anyone who just installed Windows 10 without burning it on a DVD, you should probably think about downloading the ISO file for both 32bit and 64bit and burning them to a DVD or putting it on a USB drive. They give you both options. You’ll regret not doing so if/when the day comes when you have to reformat or even if you buy a new hard drive and you have to reinstall Windows 8.1 and then upgrade back to Windows 10. After a year, you won’t have the option to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. It’s just a suggestion, and trust me, you will thank me later.

Facebook is too graphic for me

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

What is the reason anyone uses Facebook or any social websites? Well, in my opinion it is to keep in contact with friends and family. Some people use it for dating or to get laid while others use it to spy on people they hate lol. I’m guessing.

In 1997 when I got my first Windows based computer, I was using America Online. I had some friends and family in my buddy list and we would chat in the instant messages and we would email each other. I would go into the AOL chatrooms and meet new people and I am still friends with 2 of the people I met way back then.

I joined MySpace when that first came out, then people switched to Facebook and Twitter and I joined both websites. I follow so many people on Twitter that it’s very difficult to keep up with all the millions of tweets per second. I usually follow certain people in lists, but even that can be difficult to keep up with so I just browse when I have a chance. I read the Facebook feed every day, in fact it’s an addiction for me. There are some good points for Facebook and then there are some bad points.

Good points for Facebook are that I get to see what my friends and family are doing. They post pictures of their children and they post about what they are up to. I never actually get to see anyone, so it’s nice to know what is going on in their lives. Before the internet, you didn’t know anything unless you called them.

Bad points for Facebook is the over sharing. Like, I see some nice posts that other people are posting with funny memes or some inspirational messages and I click the share button. I like to make people smile and laugh and I like to make people feel inspired. Unfortunately, some people like to post negative stuff, like GMO and Monsanto and pictures of dead dogs and cats, or pictures of people abusing dogs and cats. Today someone posted a very graphic picture of a woman who had been baked in an oven with the caption “What’s for dinner? This bitch you been texting.” or something to that effect. Another person shared an image that Ted Nugent shared of a man sitting with 5 decapitated heads in front of him while he is holding an assault rifle. No one wants to see this! I particularly do not want to see this.

Facebook is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be a place for friends and family to keep in touch and to share what’s going on with them, not to push people away. I am being pushed away. I’m not the type of person to give up, but I’m seriously thinking that I don’t want to be on Facebook anymore out of disgust.

Look, I’m not going to tell anyone what they can and cannot post, because when my partners sister-in-law signed up for Facebook, she immediately told me that I’m not supposed to use a picture of my dog as my profile picture, that I’m supposed to use a picture of my face. I was insulted because I don’t want to be told what I can and cannot use as my profile picture. Then she asked me to unfriend her because she didn’t like the things I was clicking LIKE on and she didn’t like the things I was sharing because it was all pro-gay stuff. Don’t tell me what I can and cannot post and like.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t post what they want to post, but if it is all negative, I don’t want to see it. It may seem hypocritical of me, but I think pro-gay things and dead people and animals are totally different. I can deal with all the Monsanto and GMO stuff, in fact, I would look at that all day long if I had to if it meant that I never had to look at another decapitated head, or another stock pot filled with decapitated pit bull heads and bodies, or male chicks being thrown into a grinder.

I have 3 pages that I have to maintain on Facebook and I usually post stuff that I share from friends and family if they are all positive. I think the only way I’m going to be able to continue doing that is to just sign into Facebook under those pages and scroll through other pages posts to find positive stuff to share. I’m going to have to stop using my regular profile to see what people are saying and doing if it means I don’t have to see corpses anymore.

Is this too much for a person to ask? I mean seriously, is it too much to ask people not to post corpses? Am I being unreasonable here? I’m feeling like an alien in my own world. Maybe I’m not a human being, maybe I am an alien from another world and this is normal for people to do on planet Earth and I’m the crazy one here. If that is the case then I would love it if my alien family would come get me so I can log on to the Alien Facebook to see what they are posting instead. Perhaps I just need a long vacation away from the internet altogether and just read books. I think that is probably what I need to do.

Please feel free to comment and tell me what you think.

Why do some people only respond to negative social posts?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

be-nice

I am somewhat addicted to social websites like Facebook and Twitter. I started using social websites back in the day when MySpace was popular because friends and family were on there and it was the only way that I could see or talk to them. I am not a phone person and I don’t travel, so I very rarely see friends and family, so social media is basically the only way I’m ever going to be able to communicate with anyone.

The one thing that bothers me about Facebook and Twitter is that you can say 1000 positive things and get little to no response, but the minute you post something political, everyone comes out of the wood work to criticize you for having an opinion. Why is it that other people’s opinions are more important than mine and they have to belittle me? I see people posting political posts and if I don’t like their opinion I just ignore it and keep scrolling. The reason is because EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinion and I respect that. So why is it that I’m not entitled to mine?

My mother told me that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. It seems like I am the only person who remembered that.

Now let’s see how many people respond to this or belittle me for having an opinion, that is if anyone even reads it. I blog and blog and blog and it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention. Nobody ever responds. Why am I paying for this website if nobody is even looking at it? I pay $10 a month for hosting and another $12 a year for the domain and it doesn’t seem like anyone even cares about my website or my blog. So why the hell do I even bother?

Reformat Fun Time

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I just love to reformat my hard drive and start over from scratch.  Okay so that’s a lie, but it is nice to start fresh every now and then when my computer becomes so slow and even using crap cleaner and defragmenting doesn’t help.

The first thing you want to do before reformatting your hard drive is to back up all of your files either onto DVD’s, any cloud service or a back up hard drive.  I chose to use a back up hard drive because I don’t really feel like having to copy all of the files from DVDs or having to download all of my files again.  I won’t have to do anything with a back up hard drive, I’d just leave all the files there because they are easily accessible if I need them.  I’ve already done that, although I had a little issue when moving files around that resulted in panic and using Recuva.  See my last post.

The second step is to reformat my hard drive, but making sure I pick the correct hard drive, you know, the one that has my current operating system, not the back up hard drive, because talk about a nightmare.  UGH!

The UPS tracking says it will arrive tomorrow between 10:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. which means I can start reformatting either tonight before I go to bed, or when I wake up early in the morning.  I like to be prepared so I can just pop the DVD in the drive and get the show on the road, because the sooner I install the new operating system, the sooner I can get back to doing the thing I love to do, which is check Facebook and Twitter, despite the fact that I can do that on my Chromebook, Nook HD+ and my phone.  Could someone remind me why I even still use a computer? :p

I’m just kidding, of course I have a computer so I can play EverQuest, blog, money management, print packing slips and labels for my Etsy shop among many other things.  It’s not just about Facebook, although that’s mostly what I use it for.

I was hesitant to get Windows 8.1, but now I’m kind of excited to start over with a new operating system.  This should be fun.

Post to Google+ from Facebook Mobile

On By Michel McDonaldIn How toLeave a comment

google plus

Google+ has been available for quite some time now and I finally figured out how to share to it from Facebook. I have searched high and low for apps or websites that allow you to post to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ all in one app or website. I finally found it from within the Facebook mobile app itself. Although, it’s not an automatic sharing option, but it will allow you to share pictures easily.

This is a picture of my dog Flower. I wanted to share it on Google+ so all I did was click the 3 little dots and click Share, then a little window pops up and I click Google+ and viola, it allows me to share it. You can also email it, tweet it, share it on Facebook, put the image in your Google Drive… however you want to share it.

Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-02-12Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-02-24 Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-03-15

The same works for websites, all you do is click the 3 dots at the top right of the Google Chrome browser, assuming that is the browser you have installed, then click Share and choose Google+.

Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-43-01 Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-37-56

These screenshots were taken on my Nook HD+, but this option is also available on my Android phone as well. If you are using a computer, this isn’t going to help you very much, but if you are using an Android based tablet or phone, this works for you. I don’t know if this works with the iPhone because I don’t have an iPhone, so if it does work for you then let me know in the comments.

I can’t see how this will work with plain old status updates. The share button for status updates will only allow you to share it in your Facebook timeline or page. For that you will just have to select your text (tap and hold until the text is selected, then drag the bars to select all the text you want), copy it and then go to Google+ to create a post and paste the text.

Perhaps the day will come when your Facebook status updates will automatically get posted to Google+ just as they get tweeted automatically, but until then, this is your best option that I can think of that won’t cost you any money.

I hope this helps.

Nook HD+ from Barnes & Noble

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Books, Christmas, eBook, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, Google Chrome, Kindle, Nook, Pictures, Products I Like, Reading, Social Network, TVLeave a comment

Nook HD+ from Barnes & Noble

I love my Nook HD+.  I have been having so much fun with it since I got it for Christmas, actually the week before Christmas.  Yeah we don’t conform to the traditions of opening your presents on Christmas day, or even on birthdays.  We open presents the day we get them.  Screw tradition lol.

My Nook HD+ has a 9” screen, so it’s bigger than the Nook HD in the sense that it has 2 more inches, but I’m telling you that because there are certain apps that work with 7 inches, but don’t work with 9 inches.  Like The Sims FreePlay and Viggle for example.  The Sims FreePlay is downloadable, you just can’t play it because you get this warning when you try.

The Sims FreePlay

I am not sure if The Sims FreePlay will even work with a Nook HD 7” tablet.  I know it works with the Kindle Fire because I’ve seen people taking pictures and video of it on that device.  I’m pretty sure it was the 7”, so if it runs on the Kindle Fire 7”, then it probably runs on the Nook HD 7”.  If so or not, please let me know.

Viggle on the other hand doesn’t even show up in the Google Play Store, so they don’t even give you the option.  I know it works on 7” tablets because I installed it on my partner’s tablet to see if I could do trivia when trivia wasn’t giving me any points with my phone.  It installed and looked great too, but the trivia was not working on his tablet any better than it was on my phone.  Although, just because it installed on his tablet doesn’t mean I know if it will install on a Nook HD 7” tablet.

Facebook isn’t great on the Nook HD+ when you use the app.  Using the browser is so much better because you get the full website that you get on the computer, but the only problem I have is when I use another tab to visit another website, or even if I use an app, like if I go check my email, when I come back to the Facebook tab, it goes straight to the mobile version.  If I wanted to use Facebook mobile, I would just use the Facebook app.

The Twitter app that comes with the Nook HD+ from the Nook store isn’t updated, so it’s better to let Google Play update it.  It’s easy to use and if you have multiple twitter accounts, you can switch back and forth very easily.  It’s actually better on the Nook HD+ than it is on my phone.  When I am using @xanapus on my phone, then try to switch over to another twitter name, for some odd reason it switches me back to @xanapus.  It doesn’t do that on my Nook HD+.

I didn’t like the Google+ app on my phone and I rarely ever use it on my computer, but it is great on the Nook HD+.  That’s one of the social media websites that I wanted to start using more often.  It has a much better look than Facebook does in my opinion.  Google+ doesn’t force you to look at ads or suggested posts.

One annoying thing that I noticed is that when I am in my library, I scroll down to My Files and see there are 564 files.  How the heck am I supposed to weed through all of those files to get to the ebooks I have downloaded?  Well, I discovered that if you click the words My Files, it brings up a new window which shows folders.  They are in the Download folder.  I have 6 ebooks that I downloaded from the EverQuest Next website that are fiction based books based on EverQuest the game, but they are all in PDF format.  Ebooks that I’ve downloaded in ePub format will show up with my Nook books, but the PDF files don’t.  I did download an app called File Manager HD which allowed me to create a new folder in my download folder so I could keep the EQN ebooks in there to keep that folder more organized.

PicsArt Photo Studio is a good app that I use on my phone to add stickers and frames and text to my pictures, but it’s such a small screen that sometimes it’s difficult to see what I’m doing.  My Nook HD+ doesn’t have a camera, but I can use Google Drive to retrieve my files.  What I really like most is that I can write on the screen with this.  I can do that on my phone, but it’s too small.

Happy New Year 2014

Okay, so my handwriting isn’t the best, it’s even worse on paper lol.

ChromecastSome useful apps that come with the Nook HD+ include Netflix and Hulu+ and if you have a Google Chromecast, you can watch them on your TV.  You don’t even need to have the Google Chromecast app installed to use it.  I know this because I bought it for my partner and I couldn’t get it to connect to his tablet.  I connected it with my CR-48 aka Chromebook, then was able to connect it to his tablet.  I don’t have the app installed on my Nook HD+ or my phone, but the icon is visible on YouTube, Netflix and Hulu+.  I guess any Android or Apple device that is connected to my network will have that ability.

Of course, other good uses for the Nook HD+ is actually reading a book lol.  You aren’t limited to Nook books either, you can read your Kindle books plus your Google Play books.  In fact, if there is a service that sells ebooks, you can read the books you bought from them, including pdf files and ebooks.  Some writers only publish their ebook with Amazon KDP Select because they get more advertising, and if they chose KDP Select, they can only publish with Amazon for 3 months.  That’s why it’s good to use the Kindle on my Nook, because some ebooks aren’t available on the Nook.

One of the features that I do like is the Nook app “Your Highlights and Notes.”  If you do a lot of highlighting and like to add notes, this is a good thing.  It had all the highlights from the Nook for PC when I got it, but it didn’t show any text.  When I add new highlights, it shows the page number and the first couple of sentences that I highlighted, and if I left a note, it shows my note.  That makes it so much easier to find every highlight and every note on every ebook you own whether it’s downloaded or in the cloud.  Highlighting and leaving notes on my Nook WiFi was so difficult and as soon as I started reading another ebook, all of the highlights and notes disappeared, which was very frustrating.

There is also a Nook app called “Your Lookups” that shows you every word you ever had to find the definition for.  That does come in handy if you ever want to find that specific word again.  The list of words you looked up are on the left, and the word, the book you found it in, the page and the date and time you looked it up are on the right along with the definition of the word.  WOW!  Now you have a record of the date and time you learned a new word.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on the Nook HD+.  I like it a lot and I will get a ton of use out of it.  I still have my Nook WiFi and I don’t think I will use it as often for reading ebooks, but if the occasion ever arises when I go outside to read, I will be able to use it.

What more is there to say?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

What more is there to say?

Before I discovered Twitter and Facebook, I used to blog up to 6 times per day.  With Twitter I can sum up my thoughts in 140 characters and with Facebook even more.  That took the fun out of blogging which is why I don’t blog as often as I used to.

I’ve come to the point where I honestly can’t think of anything to say, even in a 140 character tweet.  Yesterday I was bored and said this:

“They say if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, but something is better than nothing.”

I think this was directed at myself because I don’t say much anymore.

Lately all I do is sit here looking at all the wonderful and sometimes snotty things other people say in their tweets and/or Facebook updates and think to myself, why didn’t I think of that?  Why can’t I think of anything to say anymore?

Today I was bored and said this:

“When you don’t get any mail you think “No news is good news.” But sometimes it’s nice to get SOMETHING, even if it’s just coupons.”

What’s the point of even having social networks anymore?  I become friends with people and never say a word until their birthday and then all I say is Happy Birthday.  I’d love to read more books or play one of my MMORPG games, but I can’t even get into those because I’ve become bored with them.  Is the problem that I’ve just become bored with everything?

I’ve been playing The Sims Freeplay on my phone a lot more than I used to play it, but only because I have something to accomplish and I’m guessing when I accomplish all of my tasks I will get bored with it again.  What I need is something to be excited about.  I remember playing EverQuest for sometimes 16 hours a day every day for 8 years until I became bored with it because everyone in my guild left to either go into another guild or to play the newest game.  I also started playing other games, like Lord of the Rings Online, but I had nobody to play with so I eventually got bored with that and the same thing happened with EverQuest 2 and DC Universe Online.  MMORPG games are more fun when you have people to play with.

Well it seems that I had more to say than I thought, but that seems to be all I can think of for now.

IZEA Valentine’s Day Swag Bag

On By Michel McDonaldIn GiftLeave a comment

izea swag bagI got a very cool surprise in the mail today.  @IZEA the company that pays me to tweet and blog sent me this very cool swag bag.  The Unicorn is very cool, I will probably keep it as is on display.  The swag bag had all this candy that I shouldn’t be eating anyway, but I enjoyed a few pieces anyway.  Pixie sticks, Wonka’s Fun Dip and Sweet Tarts Hearts, Hershey’s Kisses, chocolate hearts, Tootsie Rolls and I don’t even know what else.  There was also a neat heart-shaped eraser with a smiley face and a heart-shaped stress ball with the @IZEA logo on it.

This swag bag was such a cool surprise.  Thank you IZEA for sending it out to me.  That is so awesome!

izea ball and eraser