1 December 2011 07:25am UTC
★ ★
Sorry, I'm a few days late!
I'm feeling happy (but not content!) with my life for the most part these days. I don't think there have been many extended periods in my life where I would say, I'm Happy, generally speaking in a timeless, state of being sort of way (as opposed to situationally happy, like I just had a really good time doing X or Y)*. So, really that statement is quite incredible.
And that I am definitely grateful for.
What follows is a list of other things that never would have occurred to me (and that historically speaking I would find quite painful and groan about internally if other people listed them) that I am grateful for:
My health.
The fact that I can go out and run most any day of the week with my wife is incredible. The fact that I can plan and day dream backpacking trips for the future, and then actually do them is incredible. For most of my life I was invincible, and then in a fluke badminton accident I broke my toe and my nerves shrunk, and then everything thing I wanted to do was accompanied by varying degrees of pain and doubt. Will this make my leg ache more? Will this make my leg hurt more? Will this make my leg spasm, being some of the most painful things I have felt in life?
At this point, the doubt isn't completely gone, and neither is the pain, but it does appear that I have learned how to (if I am diligent about doing my exercises) do anything I want, and that I am still making forward progess.
Don't take for granted your health, and remember, it is easier to stay in shape than get into shape!
A steady source of income.
Last fall, when I didn't have work and was trying to get my tutoring business off the ground, I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint it, but my life was full of unease. Unease with the knowledge that things couldn't continue as they were, unease with not know how to change them, unease with frustration that things couldn't be easier.
Not having to worry about being able to pay the rent and the bills at the end of the month is one of the best things in the world. Both my jobs right now are quite unspecific, and for all I know I could be unemployed next month (frankly it is a mystery to me while they are still paying me!), so this is definitely something I don't want to take for granted. Let's just hope the wifey can get herself gradamacated and employed as soon as possible, so we can pass this particular responsibility on to her!
Now, I realize I'm being a bit "mushy", which makes me groan inside, but don't worry, I'm not going to get carried away and starting saying I'm grateful for family and friends and what not. I'm not feeling that mushy. Besides, you know who you are and you know I love you! That being said, I will say this. I think thanksgiving as a holiday has sort of religious overtones; who exactly are we thanking? But personally, it is the aforementioned family and friends that I an thanking. For without them, I would be nothing.
Anyway, let's all let out a groan about my behavior here, and I'll try and not let it happen again anytime soon.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
9 November 2011 07:37am UTC
★ ★ ★
I'm sure more than one person in the world (obviously none of you!) thinks that an almost 28 year old posting a Christmas/birthday list is pretty ridiculous. I mean, shouldn't I be growing up sometime soon?
I state the above hypothetically, but one of you yourselves told me so much last year (listen, I'm as surprised as you, but really this friend wasn't being mean, their honesty and cynicism is amusing!) . And then I went and posted another list this year. And if everything goes according to plan, I'll post another one next year, and the year after that and so on until I die at the ripe old age of 116 and 1 month.
Let's ignore the fact that I've been making either mental or real lists of what I want for my birthday/Christmas every year for practically my entire life, and let's ignore the fact that I like traditions like these that are both fun and also demonstrate how I or we change over time.
Let's also ignore the fact that there are real people in my life who would like to get me a birthday or Christmas present (yes, the number may be small) and who appreciate having a list of things that I want to choose from.
Let's ignore those facts, because those are obvious, sentimental and practical reasons for posting a Christmas list every year.
I think making a Christmas list every year is important because it helps preserve a childlike wonder about about the world. And I really do believe that. Posting a Christmas list keeps you young. And what could be more important?
Every one of you should* make a wish list list. Even if you don't put real things on your list. Even if the things you do put on there aren't practical. Do you think I expect the people in my life to buy me a Kindle, a new Camera, a Drobo, another camera (GoPro Hero), and a few thousand dollars worth of clothes? No, I don't expect that to happen.
The thing you have to understand about that list is that each and every single one of the things on that list is an opportunity. And seeing the world as full of opportunities is a good thing. Never being satisfied with the status quo is a good thing. There are no dead ends in life, there is always more, always something else to be striving for.
Making a wish list is also a humbling thing. Am I going to get everything I want? No. Should I get everything I want? No. There are limits to what we can experience in life, and in this way, not getting things on our list is just as important. It helps crystalize what's important in life. If you don't get something, and it is important to you, then how hard are you willing to work for that something?
So, to summarize, I hope I keep wanting more till the day I die. I hope I never keep striving to be better, to do better, to have better, to know better, to think better. To see more, heck, see everything, to do more, heck, do everything.
And having a Christmas list is just one small part of that. I'm not done with life, it isn't all figured out, there is so much more to come!
[As a real quick aside, while I love making my list and getting presents (who doesn't?), Christmas is equally fun because you get to give presents. I love remembering that thing that the person themselves forgot they wanted and getting to give that to them. Or I love getting someone that thing that they never would have gotten themselves, it wasn't practical or cheap or some other excuse. Christmas is the time to spoil the people we love. It really is one of the happ–happiest days of the year. Christmas day just has this mood. When is it ever quite so apparent how much you love and are grateful for your family? The only other time might be at the Three Houses Mountain trip, but then only the Three Houses have that tradition. Everyone can have Christmas!]
3 November 2011 08:30am UTC
★
Yup, that's right folks, it's that time of year again. Time for that time
honored tradition of making a birthday/Christmas list! Hard to believe that a
whole year has gone by since last time...
I get the feeling that most of you find these posts pretty boring, so to make
it more fun for you, make sure to include your own lists in the comments!
As usual the holidays are fast approaching: we have 31 days to my birthday and
a little under two months to Christmas, so here's my fall wishlist:
Clothes:
- Patagonia Reversible Flannel Jacket. I've been lusting after one of
these for three years now. And seeing Ben's similar shirt every so often
doesn't help. Maybe this is the year? Either color looks great,
I honestly can't decide... surprise me! Or ask Keri, she's the one that has to
look at it!
- Levi 501 Jeans. I ripped my crotch out earlier this month, time for a
new pair! (and by the way, who knew there would be so many options
for 501s?)
- GitHub T-Shirt. Gotta have a programming related shirt on the list. And
considering I pretty much owe my career to Github, this one seems appropriate!
And it looks ridiculously soft.
- A wool shirt from Pendleton. For the longest time I was an L.L. Bean guy (it
really is ridiculous how wrinkle resistant their Classic Oxfords are),
but then I got tired of them (often their shirts are just a tad too big, but
not those Oxfords!) and decided I needed a company that matched me better.
This last winter I stopped relying on the old fogey stuff Pendleton sells in
the PDX airport store and noticed in their catalog that they have a lot of
really good looking shirts! Couple that with the fact that the shirts are
wool and that one of my best friends works there, and I'd say we have a
winning combination for my new go to store for shirts! It was hard to narrow
the options down (I had at least 20 tabs open) but these all sound good:
Airloom Shirt (Red/Navy Tattersal), Sir Pendleton (Blue/Beige),
Snap-Front Western Shirt (Charcoal Ombre), Vintage Fit Epic Shirt
(Blue/Black Shadow Plaid).
- Snow boots. I've been using some Bean Boots for the last
4 years or so, and they are great, except that they are a tad too big.
Unless I double up on thick socks, if I wear them for any length of time at
all I get some blisters. So, some snow boots that are a perfect fit would be
nice. Another pair of Bean Boots would be great, they seem too work pretty
darn well, but my dad has a pair of what I think are these hardcore warm
boots and they seem awesome. Super tall and (faux) fur lined. Mmm mm mmm
mm mmm, toasty!
- I've mostly been kind of a two trick pony when it comes to pants: either I
wear jeans or
I wear Khakis. But then a year or two ago Kate and Satchel said they really
liked the look of chorduroys, and I figured I should give them a shot. Now
I've had a few pairs of chorduroys over the years (including a dark grey pair
my mother gave me that I liked a lot), but it wasn't until I got some
Cordarounds last year that I fell in love. So, I figured another color
is in order. I'm thinking Graphite!
Electronics:
- Kindle Touch 3G: I don't know if I should put this in the backpacking
section or in electronics. I would almost surely use it at home, but this
baby would really excel on the trail. According to the website this baby
lasts 2 months on a single charge and weighs in at 7.8 ounces. According to
my lists, I haven't brought a book on a backpack with Keri that weighed in at
less than 10 ounces. And with the Kindle you could bring 3,000 books in case
the first 2,999 are boring! In particular, Greg and I are planning a 3 week
trip this summer and I'm thinking of bringing a real whale of a book
along, so this would really bring down my weight! There are two options, an
ad-supported one and an ad-free one (Without Special Offers) and if I had my
choice I'd go ad-free but that isn't a deal breaker for me.
- A battery tester. We've got a lot of old batteries lying around and I don't
know how good any of them are. I don't know anything about these, but
Amazon has loads of them (that page is sorted by average customer
rating) for sale (and the second one is only 7 bucks)!
- GoPro HD Hero2 Outdoor edition. Imagine having a first person view
timelapse of running the Bolder Boulder or hiking through the Sierras or of
surfing on a slackline! Imagine having a camera that could automatically
upload cat pictures from any vantage point in the house to the internet.
Imagine having first person video of how rusty you are at telemark skiing.
Imagine so many other things! Yes, I realize I'm not really all that hardcore
(like these people), but I think I would have quite a bit of fun
with this!
When it comes to buying electronics, and specifically buying backup stuff, I
don't like to buy just anything I come across on the interwebs. I like to
buy things that people I trust have recommended. And that is how a few years
ago I ended up getting a Drobo. To summarize what a Drobo is, you put
four smaller hard drives in it and it acts like one big drive. But in addition
to that, if any of the drives die, you haven't lost any data. Magic!
In the time that I have had the Drobo, I have had one hard drive die, and
without the Drobo, everything that I had on it would have been lost
completely. That would have been a very, very sad day. So, needless to say,
I care about having my stuff backed up properly. I don't want to lose my
pictures or videos.
But unfortunately the version of the Drobo that I have does not support Linux
(an operating system like Windows or Mac OS X but free and open
source) very well. And now that I have
a Linux server in my bedroom, Linux support is important. So, I've been on
the lookout for a replacement for my dear Drobo. I looked into comparable devices
for Linux, but then I lose Mac OS X support. So, the ideal solution lets me
back things up from my Mac, my Linux server, or from Keri's computer easily.
And that's when I learned about a different version of the Drobo called the
Drobo FS. It has all the advantages of a Drobo except that it works
over your home network with any operating system you're using. Perfect! I
get easier data access, a device I am comfortable with and trust and it works
with all our computers.
New Camera:
After A) thinking about it and wanting one for a few years, B) reading about all
sorts of different options this year, and C) trying
out a traditional DSLR this year, I've finally decided on a camera system
for myself! Not to get too technical, but I've decided on the Micro Four Thirds
format. Which is basically a system of cameras and lenses that use a
smaller sensor than DSLRs, allowing the cameras to be smaller. Which is
important for backpacking. But it has quite a bit larger sensor than most point
and shoot cameras, giving it higher image quality. And because the cameras can
take interchangeable lenses, you get a lot of the advantages and versatility of
DSLRs. Win win win! So, to get started, I need a camera body and a lens to
go with it!
- Panasonic Black GF3 (yes, it comes in pink, but I'm sorry honey, pink
just isn't as sexy as black!). Panasonic has a few different cameras in this
category, but this one has the advantage of being one of the cheaper ones, one
of the lighter ones, and one of the most recently updated (when it comes to
things like these, I find it best for the psyche to always buy after they've
been updated, not right before!).
- Panasonic X 14-42mm Lens. This is a new lens that Panasonic just came out
with. They used to sell another 14-42mm lens that weighed twice as much and
was twice as big, so this recent update looks like a perfect little lens for
backpacking.
Books, maps and posters:
- The Best of Foxtrot. A different author, Bill Watterson, did
something similar for the 10th Anniversary of Calvin and Hobbes and I loved
it. It is always interesting to see the comics the author chose to include and
read the bit about why they made that choice. Now, Foxtrot is no Calvin and
Hobbes (nothing is!) but it is still pretty great!
- Guidebooks. I'm interested in backpacking all over the west. Recently I've
found that planning a trip from guidebooks makes the trips go more smoothly
and that you get to see some really spectacular stuff. So, I need guidebooks
for just about everywhere: Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Mexico,
Arizona, Utah, and so on. You name it, and I'll probably find it interesting!
- Last year I got my parents Ken Burns' National Parks documentary for
Christmas, and we only had time to watch one and half episodes. But in one of
those episodes, they talked about an ad campaign that the railroads started
to encourage the country's elite to not vacation in Europe but vacation at
home in the national parks (and the only option for getting there would be by
train). The campaign was called "See America First" (as in first, before
Europe). Ever since then I've thought how cool it would be to have some of
those original national parks posters. Not only are they interesting
historically, but they are about something I'm into, you know, the national
parks. Unfortunately, though, they are apparently not very easy to find. The
best place I've come up with that sells them is this absolutely terrible
website. They sell a lot of national parks posters, some of them
are photos or paintings, some of them are in the style of the old
posters (which while very cool, don't have that historical significance
I'm looking for), and a very few of them are reproductions of the old posters
themselves: search 1 and search 2.
- While we are on the subject of national parks and posters, when the wifey and I were in
Yosemite this last August, we saw an Ansel Adams picture that we thought was
just gorgeous. Unfortunately, the Ansel Adams family is weird about which
photos they let be printed as cheap posters, and the only way to get a big
version of the photo we wanted was to spend hundreds of dollars. Which is
out of the question until I make my millions. But I still haven't given up
on the idea of an Ansel Adams Yosemite photo. I found a website that sells
a bunch of his photos and thought this one was particularly
striking.
- The more I travel around the west, the more
I learn about the awful, awful history of what happened to the native
americans, and also about what little I know of their history. 1491: New
Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus talks about what it
might have been like before we arrived. Sounds interesting! (maybe
you could get me the Kindle Edition to go with my new Kindle!)
- When I was a freshman in College I went on a backpacking trip in Escalante
Canyon. While hiking naked (yup) in a small slot canyon, my party and I came
across a small party of boaters on Lake Powell from the Siera Club.
It was an especially low water year that year, and they were exploring
sections of the canyon that had been underwater for 40 years (as were we).
Everyone in my party was shy, and I had a hat, so they hid around the corner
and I hid you my know whats with my hat and off I went to greet our fellow canyoneers.
We had a delightful conversation and they gave me an old tatered, falling
apart copy of an out of print, absolutely gorgeous book called The Place No
One Knew. Over the years I lost the pages, and I've always wished I
had an intact hardcover version for myself.
- How Buildings Learn is a book about how the use of buildings
changes over time, and how their design affects how easily they adapt to us
and we adapt to them. I've started working on designing our dream house in
my free time, so something like this would probably be quite useful in
addition to interesting!
Running, backpacking, outdoor, exercise clothes:
As usual, probably my favorite thing in the world is warm layers (I really
need to move to a colder apartment!). So, there are a couple items
in that category on this list:
Columbia Sportwear (they are from Portland!) sells a half-zip fleece (black or metal)
that was super comfy in the store, and has bright red zippers that I
really dig. It also has their new Omni-Heat
technology that looks interesting.
Now that I'm into running, I need more running gear (though, really
running gear works great for other sports, too!), and in particular my
wifey and her brother have gotten me into Nike running gear. They sell a
wool (wool!) Livestrong, Dry-Fit half-zip (White) that looks awesome.
If wool (wool!) isn't your style, they have their Element Thermal
half-zip (sport red and drenched blue) in some pretty awesome colors
with some awesome names.
I'm drinking the Arc'teryx kool-aid big time. There stuff is durable,
comfortable and functional (and pricy, but let's forget that, shall we?). I've
also finally decided I'd like to get into the Softshell category of outdoor
gear. Billed as highly breathable and weather resistant, they are perfect for
the Colorado winters where it rarely rains and when it does snow, it is
usually pretty dry snow. Arc'teryx has a few options in this camp, and the
two I'm curious about are the Firee Hoody (Carbon Copy) and the Gamma
MX Hoody (Blue Ray or Cardinal).
- While we are on the topic of running, my only athletic pants that are good for
running in are 7 year old cotton sweat pants with holes in the pockets. And
cotton really isn't good for being active in when it is snowy or wet out. So,
I need some new running pants! These Nike Element Thermal training pants
look like they'd fit the bill nicely! Though since I haven't tried them on,
I'd buy them from an actual store if I were you, so I could exchange them if
I needed to! I'm not sure what color, what do you think?
- Ski pants. The ski pants I have are probably about 11 years old, and as I
found out last winter, not really waterproof anymore. And considering the
wifey and I are planning at least one and maybe two multi-day ski trips for
this winter, it might be a good idea to get some pants that will keep my dry.
Now, I've always used bibs (like overalls) and have been extremely happy with
them, so I see no need to change. I don't know a lot about the offerings in
this category, but REI sells a three different bibs (don't pay any
attention to the pants on that page). I'm sure any of them would fit the ticket.
- Gore-Tex Rain pants. My current pair of waterproof rain pants for backpacking
weigh 3oz, are thinner than paper and are 'water resistant'. I'm looking to
get something that would actually keep me dry and warm if I were ever caught
in some nasty weather while hiking. Now, my dad has some Arc'teryx rain
pants, and if they are good enough for him, than they are definitely good
enough for me! I think these are the pair he has.
- Cross Country Ski boots. I have a pair of skis and now I just need a pair of
boots to go with them. Though, I think the boots have to match the bindings
and I'm not sure what kind of bindings I have. Maybe I need to research this
cross country skiing thing some more?
Running, backpacking, outdoor, exercise equipment:
- Headlamp. I'm not happy with my headlamp, it isn't very bright and goes
through batteries like nobody's business. This BlackDiamond Spot seems
like a good compromise between weight and brightness.
- Binoculars. While hanging out in Yosemite with my parents after our
backpacking trip, I got to play with my moms binoculars and it was really fun.
Plus, now that I am trying to get into birding while hiking, these would
really come in handy. Now, I have to admit, I don't know a whole lot about
binoculars, so I'm just going to link to the most expensives ones REI sells.
You'll want to talk to my mom or dad about a good compromise between quality
and price!
- Cross Country Ski poles. I like the style that Mark had, which I think are
these. I don't know what my length would be, maybe I need to research
the cross country skiing thing some more?
Cooking:
- Pan Handle Sleeve. We have a cast iron skillet for making tortillas on, and
the handle gets too hot to touch.
- Sifter. For making biscuits and pie crusts and other things!
- Cutter. I don't know what the actual name for these things is, but they are
basically some wires on a handle for cutting fat into flour.
- Tongs for moving charcoal briquettes around on a dutch oven. Our
currents ones are short and my fingers get too hot!
Whew! Even I'm tired of this list! If you made it this far, you deserve a medal! Leave a note in the comments if you read the whole thing, I'm curious if anyone will...
23 October 2011 09:38am UTC
★ ★
So, one of the most common things I hear from people who use Facebook is that
they have tried to change their privacy settings but find it waaayyy to
complicated to make any sense of it. Which is understandable, especially
considering it seems like they change the forms for editing your privacy
settings about every other week.
In an effort to help the people in my life with this important activity I'm
going to explain how I have my privacy settings set up (this is also partially motivated by this awesome and creepy video that I linked to earlier this week). I make no guarantees that this will be A) coherent or B) helpful; it is apparently a pain to write about filling out forms!
My personal preference for privacy is as follows:
- Only people I have specifically said are my friends can see stuff I post or see stuff about me on Facebook.
- In addition to that, I can mark specific "friends" as not being able
to see as much as normal friends, because In Real Life I don't actually know
them very well.
- Finally, not just anyone can tag me in something (like say a photo) and it will show
up on my wall for all my friends to see. This means someone can't take a photo
featuring me doing something that I don't really want to share, and say my mom
or potential employees will be able to see it.
I'll let you decide if you want to be more protective or less protective than
this.
So, as of October 23rd, 2011, here is how I go about that. Basically, my system
is to periodically go through Facebook's settings and double check that I am
happy with the current state of things. This way if Facebook makes a policy
change that affects my privacy, I'll catch it.
So, let's get started. My intention is that you'll following along on the Facebook page as you read this. Otherwise it might not make much sense. We're going to go through all of the options.
In the
upper right hand corner of Facebook, there is a down arrow, let's click it and
choose 'Account Settings':
The first page this takes us to is the details of our account. No privacy
preferences there. However, on the left, we have more options. Let's go to the
'Security' page:
I know these aren't strictly privacy settings, but they help to make sure only
the right people get to have access to your Facebook info. Once there,
- I turn "Secure Browsing" on. This will make it harder for people to monitor the
network data and steal your password.
- I turn "Login Notifications" on. This will make Facebook send you an email when
you log into Facebook from a new device (like a computer of smartphone). This
way, if a device you don't recognize shows up, you know your account has
been compromised.
I turn "Login Approvals" on. This will make Facebook double check with you (by
sending an email or text message) any time you try to access Facebook from a new
device. This is just one more step to make sure when logging in to your account that
you are who you say you are.
So far though, this has succeeded in making it
so I can't access Facebook from the Android App. You have to create an "App
Password" (the next section after "Login Approvals"), which is a little
confusing. So if you are obsessed with checking Facebook from your smartphone,
you might have to hold off on "Login Approvals" until they have all the kinks
worked out (like removed the glaring spelling error in one of the explanations).
Okay, next let's click "Apps" in the left-hand menu:
This shows us a list of all apps that you've allowed access to your account info. What
is an App? Well, it is a website that can add functionallity to Facebook (like
games) or use your Facebook info (like the aforementioned creepy website). If
you no longer use an app, or more importantly, don't recognize an app, remove
it from this list. Don't worry, if you remove an app, you
can always re-add it down the line. Most likely, nothing permanent has been
lost.
Okay, next let's click, "Mobile" in the left-hand menu:
I have my mobile number added to Facebook so I can poke people via text message
or approve new logins (from the aforementioned "Login Notifications"). However,
by default Facebook likes to check the "Share my phone number with my friends"
checkbox on the right. I don't want anyone on Facebook to be able to see my
actual phone number, so I uncheck this.
Finally, in the left hand menu, let's click on "Facebook Ads":
The settings here dictate how ads shown to your friends can use your Facebook
info. I click both "Edit third party ad settings" and "Edit social ads
setting" and change the subsequent drop downs to "No one". I think it is creepy
that Facebook may let my info be used in ads shown to friends.
Okay! First of three sections down, two more to go. Let's click the down arrow
in the top right and choose "Privacy Settings":
The first thing you are going to notice is three options for your default
privacy:
I choose "Custom". Then in the pop up box,
- I change the drop down list to just "Friends" and uncheck any networks that I'm in. This will make it so only
people I've actually approved as a friend can see my posts.
- in the "Hide this from" section, I add the "Acquaintances" group. I put people I don't know very well in this acquaintances group. This way I can still friend people but not give them access to all my info.
Here's how it looks after I'm done:
Next let's edit the settings for "How you connect":
I choose "Everyone" for the first three options. This will allow most anyone
to find me, and contact me. I'm okay with this, I want my real life friends to be able
to find me on Facebook. The options I choose to limit are about limiting who can actually
see what I'm doing on Facebook.
For the fourth option, I choose just "Friends". I don't want just anyone to be
able to post stuff to my wall.
For the fifth option here, I choose "Custom" and then choose the same settings
that I chose for the "Default Privacy" above. Basically, just friends, no
networks and I hide from my acquaintances. This fifth option is for what people
can see of the things that my friends add to my wall. I feel like the stuff that
my friends add to my wall is just as important to keep private as the stuff I myself add.
The next section, "How Tags Work" has to do with having your name tagged in
photos, notes, posts, status updates, and so on:
I enable the first option, which means that you have to approve anything that
will show up on your profile page. I don't want anyone to be able to add things
to my profile page, even my friends, without me approving it first. This will
prevent people from posting those drunken photos from last weekend and my mom
being able to see it. Or something. :)
I have the second option disabled. My understanding for this is that it is
related to other people adding tags to your posts. For example, if I post a
photo, and then Keri tags herself in that photo. As this isn't directly related
to my privacy, I'm not going to be anal about it. This doesn't prevent me from
removing or editing those tags myself at a later time.
For the "Maximum Profile Visibility", I choose the same options as I chose for
the "Default Privacy" above. Basically, just friends, no networks and I hide
from my acquaintances.
I enable the fourth option, because I have already made it so I have to approve
of my taggings. So, again, nothing is going to show up on my profile without
my approval.
I disable the fifth option. I basically don't want to ever, ever share my
location on Facebook, and if I do, I will never do it at my house or a house
that belongs to a family member or friend. So, I don't want my friends to be
able to do that for me. I think your location is especially private.
Next let's edit the settings for "Apps and Websites".
We've already covered the "Apps you use" options above, Facebook just gives you two places to edit it.
For the "How people bring your info to apps they use" settings, I uncheck
everything except my bio:
This relates to the information an app can access about me if say Keri uses an
app. I don't want apps I haven't approved to be able to access anything about
me except my name.
I disable "Instant personalization". I don't want any sites to be able to have
access to any of my Facebook info, even just my list of friends, without me
explicitly saying so.
I leave "Public Search" enabled. Again, I want my friends to be able to find me
and be sure that they are finding the right me. We'll get to the public options
in our profile next.
Okay! Two of the three secionds down, one to go. Let's click on our name in
the top right. This will take us to our profile. Next let's click the "Edit
Profile" button. This will take us to the page where we can edit all the info
we've added to Facebook. Each info item has a little gear or people icon that
we can click on that shows us a drop down allowing us to say who can see that
item.
I go through each item on each page (i.e. "Basic Information", "Friends and
Family", etc) and select "Custom" and make settings the same as my
"Default Privacy" above. Basically, just friends, no networks and I hide from
my acquaintances. On a few of them, I deviate from this default. For example,
I allow all my friends to see who I am married to, because well, I really like
who I am married to. But basically, my goal is to allow certain people to see
all my info, and certain people to see barely any of my info. This is a pain, but
I feel like it is important.
Most importantly, any information that I feel might be able to help people
identify me in real life, I only allow my friends to see.
The final step to setting up my privacy on Facebook is specify which of my
friends are acquaintances or not. Basically, anytime you add a friend or confirm
a friend, a drop down shows up allowing you to to specify if they are an
acquaintance:
So, all you have to think is, is this person someone I want to
allow access to all my info? You can of course create more groups then just
acquaintances and other, but I find that the more complicated I make it, the less
likely I am to stick to it. Whatever system you come up with, you have to stick
with it, to make sure that just the people you want can see your info.
You can go back and edit your old friends and put them in the acquaintances
group if you want. At the top of all your friends' profile pages are buttons
that look like this:
Click on "Friends" to change the groups that they are in.
Phew! That was a lot of work! Finally, if you are really thorough you can see
how how all your hard work has paid off. If you navigate to your profile. In
the top left you see a "View As..." button. Click that and then type in a
Friends name to see what they can see. Also, to see what it looks like to
someone that isn't a friend, if you are on your profile page you can copy the
URL from the address bar, and then log out of Facebook. If you then paste that
URL back in and go to that page, you'll see what your public profile looks like.
I'd love to hear if other people make different choices than I have, and why, because I want to make sure I'm not missing something.
I hope this is helpful!
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