And another thing...

I'm still on Facebook and Instagram. I tried to make a Bluesky account, but messed it up so completely I can no longer access it. Maybe I'll straighten that out some day. We all seem to hang out on Facebook and Instagram. So what the heck.

Except of course, all those ads, across several platforms, just because I looked up something. Or bought something. I bought a new bra recently and everywhere I go now, an ad for that bra that I already bought.

Recently a gratuitous clip from Jon Stewart popped up, featuring John Oliver on data mining and an address for his site about social media regulation. The website is How to change your Meta settings.

I do not find programs "intuitive". I have wasted near an hour trying to figure out screen shots, but that obviously needs to be done on my own time. I can make links, so there you go. It tells you how to stop Meta from feeding ads based on data collection, how to stop Meta from using data to help advertisers target you on other apps and how to unlink your account from your data that other companies give to Meta.

So, that's my public service announcement for today. The YouTubers call them PSA's and a popular one going around now is called "I was today years old when I learned!" and goes on to tell us something we learned fifty or sixty years ago. However, my daughter sent me one recently and it was new.

She collects old prescription bottles and sends them to a charity that provides them to hospitals in Africa, where prescription bottles are hard to come by. However, the labels must come off first. That's a job I hate, so I pass mine along to her, label intact. Here's what she learned:

Put the bottle in the freezer. I forget how long; let's say overnight. Next day, roll your finger or thumb over one corner to lift the edge, then pull off the label, easy peazy, as they say.

Since I will be putting some time into learning screen shots, I think I'll tackle another housekeeping job. Sort of like getting the genealogy in order for the children (I've done that.). When searching for the pictures I used to take of my knitting projects I found most of them are only printed on the instructions I used to write up. The original pictures are on thumb drives stashed in a basket. My kids can go through them if they want, like I went through all those census records.

The problem with the instruction sheets I made, they are in long defunct programs like WordStar or Publisher. I'd like to convert them to something accessible now. There are patterns for sweaters (mostly children's), mittens, gloves, hats, ponchos. Imagine a pair of gloves in two afternoons. If I do this, anyone interested? I'll put them in a post.