some stuff I wrote about Facebook at the Other Place

I tend to write a lot about Facebook over at ChicagoNow.  Perhaps it's because our metrics are tied to social media and having a Facebook Page has revealed a lot about who your friends really are...or maybe I just overthink Facebook. 


Resources:

• Facebook Take a Break Feature puts friendships on Life Support
• http://www.chicagonow.com/mysteries-of-life/2017/09/facebook-friendships-on-life-support/ 
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• Facebook makes it easy to not Like it
• http://www.chicagonow.com/mysteries-of-life/2015/03/facebook-makes-easy-to-not-like/ 
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• 11 things you are doing on Facebook that are secretly pissing off your friends
• http://www.chicagonow.com/mysteries-of-life/2015/06/things-secretly-pissing-off-your-friends-on-facebook/#image/1
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• Giving up Facebook friends for Lent
• http://www.chicagonow.com/mysteries-of-life/2016/02/giving-up-facebook-friends-for-lent/
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• The Stages of Facebook Unfriending
• http://www.chicagonow.com/mysteries-of-life/2016/06/the-stages-of-facebook-unfriending/
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• You can show Empathy, Outrage and Restraint all at the same time
• http://www.chicagonow.com/mysteries-of-life/2017/04/empathy-outrage-and-restraint/

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School decisions

We just learned that the local public elementary school isn't...bad.  It's not a top-tier school and people in the hood with the means send their kids elsewhere, which causes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy in terms of enrollment funding, but it is a decent enough school.

When someone says Good School they usually mean top test scores and student resources, etc.  But they sometimes also mean less work for the parent.  If our kids go to Portage Park Elementary, we will have to put in more work than if they went to Beaubien or Walt Disney for instance.

 "Level 1" status means It’s a combination of graduation rate, attendance, closing of achievement gaps year over year, test scores, and student growth year over year. The levels also take into consideration parent involvement and other things like healthy schools status (athletics, wellness programs, activities in the school) and art programs (art, drama, dance, etc. )
 Portage park elementary is a level one school with pretty high student attainment levels and NWEA growth scores. Check out the CPS website for more information and definitely take a tour. I second what Tanya said above, there are some pretty cool things going on over there.   Source

Public education is immensely important and needs to be funded so that every student gets a good and useful education, not just the ones in the “right” zip codes.

Public education needs to robust and useful to students Throwing money at public schools will not solve every problem, but adequately funding public schools removes a lot of problems and lets people focus on the other, different problems. Bottom line: Every public school in America should be a school you’d be fine with having your own child at.

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Finally a break in the heat

Like anyone looks here

Holy Mole, this heat. Mid-90s since Thursday and that is no fun.  IF I could have got the kids to school early enough, I would have been able to sneak in a run but the little 3 year old terrorists put up such a fight getting up, out of bed and dressed that by the time I get back, it's just about time to start work.

Most mornings I only have a 10 am call but lately I've had little things here and there which prevent me from going out until lunch time when it is too hot.  Ironically in the winter I wait until lunch time so it is ever so slightly warmer.

One day I had enough time to trim the lawn which I felt was good use of my time and needed.  I have a lot of PTO to use up and I may start taking a random Tuesday or Thursday off here and there to work on house projects but also to be able to go for a run or bike ride without worrying about getting back in time.

I am 90% done with the porch painting.  I just need to finish the stringers, which should take less than an hour.  Update: it took less than 30 minutes although I think I might give the risers a second coat at some point.

I need to do the threshold as well.  I'm going to get a heat gun to remove the paint, since I also need to remove the paint I put on the pedestals and I can get one for $8 at Harbor Freight. Then I just have to decide if I paint it green or stain it to match the door.

I probably will attempt the wood lattices at some point too, since I have way too much paint.  Then it's touch and clean up time.

Since Father's Day, my mom has not been here.  We got into one of our Pushed the Other Too Far spats and she went home.  While we can definitely use the help she provides around here, we can also live without it.  Especially since it is much less stressful with her gone.

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Project Paint the Porch: Stage 4 almost done

I am so close to being done with the front porch, yet I have so much more to go.  I have not been able to get myself out there before the sun hits the front steps so I work a little too quickly and call it a day before I complete every stage planned for the day.  But it's still progress.  I finished all but two of the risers earlier this week.  The lowest two were smaller than my paint edger so I had to do those using a regular paint brush like a cave man.

All that is left now are the stringers., but that is mostly for using up the paint.

After I get the last sections done, this week or next.  It's time for touch-ups and clean up.  I suppose I could have done a better job of being more precise but given that this is really just a stop-gag solution, I need to remember not to be so hard on myself.


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First Day of Summer

I finished the spindles yesterday.  I almost didn't, thinking today would be better because of cooler weather but given the rainfall on this First Day of Summer, I'm glad I did.  Now I just have to tackle the risers which shouldn't be hard at all and then do some touch up.  Followed by some cleanup.  I still need to get some quarter rounds but that shouldn't be a big deal.

We had our annual Neighborhood garage/yard sale last Saturday.  It was, as the kiddies say, hot AF.

As long as I can remember, it either rains or is unbearably hot or both.  The first time we went to this sale, we didn't even live here, but knew we wanted to.  The next year it we lived here and it was awesome.  But in the following years I noticed that the number of houses participating was dwidling.

This year the person who normally runs it didn't, allegedly being out of town.  someone stepped up nearly last minute so it wasn't well promoted.  We didn't get a lot of foot traffic so they people who did show up got great deals because we were in purge mode and priced things to sell.  We made about $150 but might have done better if the weather was cooler and the event better advertised.  The important this is...we got rid of some stuff.

Sometimes I take the kids to daycare in their stroller, which means I return home with an empty stroller.  Inevitably someone sees me and makes a funny like "hey you forgot the kids".  It's always a chuckle but somehow after the 782nd time, that chuckle sort of loses its edge.

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Two steps forward, one back, one sideways

Not sure how much progress I'll be able to make on the porch this week.  It rained over the weekend
and of course with my kids around, I didn't bother even trying to paint.  Monday and Today have been wet and humid.  I'm hoping that things dry up and I can do a little bit Wed/Thurs/Friday but it is expected to be hot, and maybe humid as well.

I do have a crew working on the deck rails.  This has been a bigger project than it really should be because of two reasons.  First, it's too small for deck building companies but too large for your run of the mill handynman.  I had a few people come over in late march to give me quotes and most either low balled the project, which showed they really didn't understand what was involved or ghosted me because they realized what a clusterfuck it really is, because.....

Second, I don't really want to talk about all the issues but let's just say the deck was built wrong.  I cannot be certain, but I think they put in the swimming pool (that we had removed) and then built the deck, which made for non standard length railings.  There is one railing that is shorter than the rest because of a window.  They really should have just made the deck shorter but they wanted the extra footage.

Anyway, I had one or two people give low estimates but my gut told me that either scope creep would occur and the price would go up anyway or they would take shortcuts to keep costs down and that would come back to bite me in the end.

The other thing about this, or any project really, is I don't want to learn a trade in order to get what I want.  Tradesmen aren't gonna tell you that you have option A, B and C unless you ask because Option B and C is more work for them and might cut into their bottom line.

Like when I did the electrical panel.  I really wanted to move the location but that is more work so every time I got a quote, the price got increased.  Oh it will cost X.  X is fine.  Did I say X, I meant X + Y.  That's okay.  Plus Z.

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Not much more done this week

It was supposed to rain Tuesday and didn't.  It wasn't supposed to rain Wednesday and did, albeit not too much and not very long.  I painted one of the six sections of spindles.

I didn't work on it Thursday because it was a bit warm and I had other things on my plate.  Today it rained and even though my porch roof does a great job of protecting most of the porch including the spindles, I didn't want to take a chance with the moisture in the air.




I probably won't get much more done this weekend because the kids will be in the way and it is also supposed to rain.

In my perfect world, I will get up in the morning and get everything prepped while my mom takes moose and squirrel to daycare.  Then between calls and issues, I take a break and work on one of the spindle sets.  The challenge is that the Deckover doesn't spread as easily as traditional paint so it is slow work.

It is forecast to rain a lot next week.  Figures since the people from Home Comfort are supposed to come and work on my deck railing.

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