I know it would seem kind of silly to suggest that I would worry about my online persona, after all I write a blog revealing more about myself than any sane person would, but I just find Facebook kind of creepy and just “Too much information!”.  Initially I created an account on Facebook on the advice of another friend, as a way to promote my business online.  I’m a graphic artist and illustrator and I thought it would be a good way to get some free exposure.  But the exposure I got wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

Okay, I admit it.  I have an extremely fragile ego.  My skin is thinner than a bad comb over – not that there are good comb overs.  After creating my account, I’d look at that little box in the corner that said I had 0 (ZERO) friends.  I looked for a way to turn that little feature off on my profile but no such luck.  If I was going to advertise myself to the world, it was going to have to be done as a friendless dope.  I decided such a profile wasn’t exactly going to help my business and quickly deactivated my account and forgot about it.

Then, I was invited to join a Facebook group and I thought I’d resurrect my account.  A couple people signed up as friends and I thought, “Hey, this might be a fun thing to do after all.”  Then I hit “The Wall”.  The Wall is this place on Facebook where you can type in how your feeling and other notes.  I guess that’s okay, if you want to reveal to your friend when you’re constipated or experiencing PMS symptoms.  I wouldn’t divulge such information for the whole world to see, but if that’s some people’s cup of tea – great.  But then I realized my Wall was detailing my every move on Facebook.

“Kris has just searched for “Home remedies for hemorrhoids.”

“Kris has just searched for an old love interest that her husband doesn’t know about.”

“Kris has just picked her nose.”

Okay, I made those things up but you get the point.  Too much information!  And then I began seeing comments from other friends of friends of friends.  I had no idea who the heck these people were on my Wall but it didn’t really bother me.  What really got me was an invitation by two friends for me to take an IQ test.  Okay, so either they knew I was super smart and just needed a score to make it official, or they believed I was an idiot and wanted it confirmed.

Here’s some screenshots of my IQ Challenge:

The first one just simply stated that (2) friends had challenged me to an IQ test.

Facebook IQ Challenge Nice Screenshot

I refreshed the page and got quite a different message.  Not only do my (2) good ol’ buddy ol’ pal “friends” want to challenge my to an IQ test, they also think I’m dumb!  Those are some real nice friends!  It was bad enough to start out friendless, and when I finally had a couple friends they thought I was an idiot!  WTF!

Facebook IQ Challenge

Facebook IQ Challenge 2 Screenshot

I reloaded the page again and the scores of my 2 “friends” were now different.  Mind you I only had two friends to begin with, so how could they now have different scores?  Uhm…  I wonder how many ex-friends have been created by this stupid advertisement?

The Horrors of Facebook

So I started Googling and found some other horror stories from other Facebook users who were now either ready to jump off of the Golden Gate Bridge because their Facebook profile had turned into some hideous, embarrassing tell-all book, or they were spammed, scammed and phished to death by ridiculous aps like the IQ test above.

One poor guy found himself reading updates from a former girlfriend who was friends with one of his friends.  He now was tortured with messages from the woman he was still in love with who had now found the man of her dreams.  It was like a knife to his heart each time he logged on and read how great this new Mr. Wonderful was in her life.  He soon began to wonder if he’d receive notifications each time his ex-girlfriend and her knight in shining armor, minus his shell, had sex!  Too much information!

I think I’ll stick with my blog where I can control my persona.  I’m flawed.  I admit it.  I’m off my rocker once in a while.  I freely admit it but I’m not an open book.  If I search for hemorroidal remedies, it’s going to be done in private!

Tomorrow night the Decatur city council will be discussing an initiative to introduce alternative biofuel grasses to the Lake Decatur watershed area.  If I got it right, this pertains to grasses that could be used as a bio-energy source and a means to help prevent soil erosion, which is causing sediment buildup in Lake Decatur.  It’s purpose is to study how well such grasses would do in our area and encourage farmers to switch to such grasses for biofuel production.  Well, considering Central Illinois was once covered with 12 foot tall prairie grasses, I think our soil can grow grass pretty darn good!

Unlike corn, grass actually gives back considerable amounts of nutrients to the soil, thus requiring far less, if any fertilizer – which finds its way into our water supply.  After all, we can credit the prairie grasses that once covered our part of the state for our rich soil.

Personally, I’ve never been a proponent of corn-based ethanol.  Corn ethanol, in essence, takes about as much energy to produce as it yields.  It’s also highly subsidized by the federal government and takes massive amounts of water to produce.  It requires approximately 1,700 gallons of fresh water to produce one gallon of ethanol!  This is undoubtedly a huge strain on our lake and local water supply.  We’re not alone.  Other regions in the county have dealt with the strain corn-based ethanol production puts on their water supplies.  Switching to grasses, like Switchgrass for our biofuel needs, is certainly something to consider.

Here’s an interesting article on switchgrass:  http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html

City Council Agenda for January 20, 2009:  http://decaturil.gov/citygovernment/council/council_agenda.htm

It’s been over 60 years since Decatur has had the opportunity to ask for so much federal money to go towards infrastructure, school and public works projects. With the Obama administration about to take over, what should Decatur be asking for?  Here’s some of the ideas I’ve brainstormed.

Water Supply Issues

• Accelerating Lake Decatur dredging – Lake Decatur, like all lakes in this part of the country face the never ending battle of removing silt deposits.  Over time the silt settles to the bottom of the lake and without efforts to remove it, will eventually fill the lake back in with soil.  The city has had a dredging program for several years but hasn’t really achieved the success most would like to see.  A lot more money is needed if we are to significantly increase our dredging efforts.  Obviously, the deeper the lake is, the more water it can hold.
• A New Dam -  One suggestion, that has been stated before to increase Lake Decatur’s water capacity, is moving the dam further downstream.  The current dam is old and I don’t know how many more years of life it has in it, but it will need to be replaced one of these days.  The costs of building a new dam further downstream hasn’t been the only tripping point though – apparently there’s a lot of red tape to cut through to construct a dam on any river.  However, it’s worth considering because constructing a new dam further downstream would certainly increase water capacity; and the old dam is going to have to be replaced sooner or later anyway.
• Construction of Silt Dams – Unless we do something to prevent much of the silt from entering the lake in the first place, we will always be facing an uphill battle in our dredging efforts.  Silt, which is mainly topsoil from farmland, could be collected by these dams and sold.  Central Illinois has some of the best topsoil in the entire world; allowing it to wash away or collect at the bottoms of our lakes, is irresponsible to future generations.  Removing much of the silt would also greatly improve the water clarity which would be great for recreational purposes.
• New Lake -  A new lake could provide more water during droughts and could also encourage new development, new industries, and new residents.  It’s probably the single biggest project we could do that would have the biggest impact on the future of Decatur.  However, another lake would mean we would have two lakes to maintain and then there’s the property tax issues that would surface.  Most likely, any new lake we could construct wouldn’t be entirely in Decatur’s city or school district boundaries, and nearby communities could wind up benefiting more financially than Decatur.

New Police Station

Decatur is in need of a new police station and costs could easily exceed $20 million dollars.  It would make sense that the city try to seek as much funds as it can get to help pay for the construction.

New Schools

The Decatur Public School district floated the idea of creating a single high school in Decatur to replace Eisenhower and MacArthur.  While I personally don’t think a single high school, in the inner city, would be a good selling point to new (or current) residents, I think the school district should certainly seek funds to improve both high schools.

Basic Infrastructure (Sewers, drainage issues, water lines, sidewalks, roads, etc.)

Needless to say there’s always plenty of basic infrastructure needs that need lots of money!

Green Technologies

Wind and solar energy grants?  Green neighborhoods to replace our worst neighborhoods?  What can Decatur do to tap into the new wave of energy creation?

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I read  a few days ago that the county has a list ready to send to the Obama administration.  Apparently, if I read the article right, projects have to be able to begin within 100 days of receiving the money.  If that’s true that would eliminate many of my ideas above, so what can we ask for that could begin within 100 days of receiving the funds????

A new police station?  Basic infrastructure?  Dredging?  As long as most government bodies take to get started on any project, it’s hard to fatham we’d have anything ready within a hundred day period but we better get to moving!

For the past several days I’ve watched the History Channel’s Armageddon Week.  I’ve learned the prophecies of Nostradamus, the ancient Mayan Calendar – that is amazingly accurate, and the Book of Revelations. I’ve seen the world destroyed by asteroids, the human race wiped out by killer flu-strains, the entire Earth sucked into a black hole into deep space, the prospect of nuclear world war, and various other doomsday scenarios.  I’ve seen happy dinosaurs, minding their own business, suddenly barbecued by the after effects of a killer asteroid.  You know, it’s hard to be too excited about the future after watching all that!  But a new day is dawning.  A new president will take the oath soon, and even if we’re just as delusional and unaware as our dinosaur cousins, let’s get happy – if just for a little while!

If Judy Garland can’t make you feel better, no one can!

The classic Streisand/Garland duet.