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I thought about taking a few moments to recap but, better yet, I'll share it straight up. Here's the link to Cous' recent adventure involving a mall, Wolfgang, Apple and Starbucks. Enjoy.

By default, many privacy settings on Facebook are turned on. Your profile shares you on ads to your Facebook friends, any application you haven't installed can access all of your profile information, etc. What to do? Go crank up your privacy settings! I've outlined the instructions to protect your account and information from third-party applications and ads as much as possible. Pictures are included for free.

First of all, hop over to the privacy screen by clicking in the upper-right corner of any page.

After you do that, you'll see the "Privacy Overview" Page. Select "Applications and Ads" near the middle of the page.

Once the new menu appears, choose "Other Applications" and then un-tick the many boxes that are marked under the "What Other Users Can See" portion of the screen. This is crucial, because this is the information that is available to third-party applications that you have NOT installed on your profile. (In the rare case that you are not using the Facebook Platform, you can turn everything off).

Finally, the ad platform. Facebook has recently started to use your profile as advertisements on your friend's Facebook pages. Annoying, right? Turn it off by clicking on the "Ads" tab and changing the drop-down to "No One" as seen below.

I know this will help a few people out there, and hopefully many. I don't pimp my own pages on Digg, etc (I did that once and learned the error of my ways) but if you wouldn't mind sharing this on the social sites, I think a lot of people would appreciate it. Most people didn't realize how much information was being shared, so I hope this helps you reclaim a sense of protection as you browse the web.

Happy Facebooking.

One of the benefits to working at a place like Starbucks is that you meet a very ecumenical group of people. Which is why I have added some good LCMSers to the personal liturgical discussion of late. Hopefully we'll be grabbing some more coffee and discussing some of the books I've been reading lately.

And Thomas, despite the fact that I appreciate Bonhoeffer, I wouldn't make the greatest Lutheran. You don't have the Book of Common Prayer and that is one of my favorite pieces of the Anglican tradition. But do drop me an email soon and we'll chat.

Finally, if anyone was upset by the commentary about those spam-mail "rugs," my apologies. Know that they are sacrilegious at worst and mere junk mail at best, hence the flippant comments about them. You'd have been disturbed to receive them as well.

Oh and yeah, on the links to the left, the "Shelfari" one is a link to my online library/wishlist, etc. And if you check out the "Reading" tab at the top of the page, that'll show you what I'm currently reading, courtesy of Shelfari. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Blessings.

After months of complaining about their poor service, I have finally taken the initiative to delete my Myspace account. I just got sick of all of the crap on there. This is a simulation of the friend requests on a given weekly check of my account:

"You have 4 new friend requests."

1. From HotSexyAnna121. "I've been thinking about you. Want to come watch me in my room?" Yeah right. Like anyone wants to use something as crappy as Myspace for porn. Geez. DELETE.

2. From CrappyGenericEmoBand. "We saw you liked Mae on your profile. You would totally dig us! Come check us out and put this huge banner on your site to tell all of your friends." Right. Like somehow you can determine what I'll like simply by a five-artist list on my profile. DELETE

3. From DJMcAverage. "I'm spinning a club in Pontiac this weekend. I can put you on the totally select VIP list if you just add me as your Myspace friend." What? How does being my Myspace friend translate as such? DELETE

4. From This Account Has Been Deleted because it is Spam. Thanks Myspace. Any reason your "delete spam" function doesn't delete the friend request from my inbox? DELETE

Great. You rock Myspace. You rock as hard as Chumbawumba. Yep. I went there.

For a few months, I tried the "monthly software review," but unfortunately, there wasn't enough software out there for that purpose. Sure, there is tons and tons of open source software, but not tons and tons for mass consumption. Things like graphical editing, content management systems, etc. are great and all, but not for the average user. So here begins a new attempt at a regular feature.

One of my music-loving friends has recently started this blog, a "you heard it hear first" for upcoming artists. That's how I found artists like Amy Winehouse. Susan Enan might show up there if she ever releases a full length. The list could go on and on.

He posts YouTube videos of performances (when available) and links to their websites and/or Wikipedia entries. You have to understand, he listens to music probably every waking moment possible, even putting my listening and mass consumption of tunes to shame. I guarantee that most, if not all, of the artists that wind up on the site will be new to you, and that you'll walk away from the site with a new appreciation for indie music. I encourage you to put this one in your RSS reader, especially since there are no guarantees on the frequency of his posting, but you REALLY need to make this site one of your favorites.

I love Zach's story-telling. Oh yeah, I mean Dagbert. Whatever. The point is, his posts make me laugh. His site's color scheme causes my eyes to bleed, causing me to have to read his site via RSS feeds (black font on a dark red background is not the best choice), but his journaling on life in Japan is at times uproariously funny. I dare you to read the latest here.

This weekend was productive. I "did" nothing. Yet I managed to catch up with an old friend from home, a buddy of mine who has traveled the country, lived the Beatnik life, and returned to school to study writing. All within two years. It's nice to have my old "this film is great because of [insert effect here] artistic value" or "this book was great. Did you see how it reflected something from The Wasteland?"  So maybe it's a little like college again. But it's nice for me.

I also managed to discover that another old friend is doing some video blogging from Japan. He's a student of Japan, you might say, and now he's doing some teaching over there as part of his studies at the University of Findlay. Check it out over at his blog.

...to a recent post by Mr. David Frank, esquire. He's funny and a great person to hang out with, or even be in class with (Dr. Wolfram and Tom Petty). I encourage you to go read his recent post on hurricanes.

Yesterday I had a conversation with an old friend from home and we reminisced and caught up with each others lives. It's interesting to see how our paths have been so very different but have had so much in common as well. She's in the military and heading to Iraq this summer, while I complete my third year of college and work in beautiful Hillsdale all summer. I guess I don't know which of the two is more full than the other. This friend goes back many years, to days when we were both so much younger and more immature. One of the first friends to ask me about my spiritual life in a really long time. It was interesting to hear how our walks have taken such different paths yet have led to the same point. And how we are both really happy with where God has taken us.

I encourage each one of you who reads this to go out and try to reconnect with a friend from your past. But really reconnect with them if you can. Don't leave it at a casual conversation; really find out how that person is doing, not how many kids they have or what career they have chosen. Find out about their personal life, their emotions, their faths, whatever you like. Really try to reconnect with them like you were connected so long ago. There are tons of mediums for staying connected these days, from e-mail to instant message, telephony and video chat, and even the archaic snail mail. You never know, maybe you will have an impact on their life. Better yet, maybe you will learn something from them. But whatever you do, go out and try to find them. You have the means to do it. It would be a shame not to go find them.