OK, I am getting seriously – SERIOUSLY – over fu*king FB’s “suggested posts”.
They are just a continual irritation which makes using the social media site frustrating beyond belief, especially on a mobile phone.
I am sure they’re delightful people. What the hell have they got to do with me? Seriously?
Not content with regularly asking me to support other Premier League clubs – it’s Southampton, bitches, shut the fu*k up! – now Facebook suggests I join a group called Latvians Living In Australia.
Why?
I have never been to Latvia.
I do not know any Lats.
I do not speak Latvian.
I have never eaten Latvian food.
I have never heard any Latvian music, read a Latvian book, or dated a Latvian girl.
I don’t want to lick a Latvian girl’s feet. I am Lat-toes Intolerant.
(Sorry, it just occurred to me while I was writing, so I thought I’d throw it in there. I apologise.)
OK, I am vaguely pleased they are no longer part of Russia. For now, at least.
So why, FB, why?
I think the people should be told.
#whyFBwhy ?
Well, This Is What I Think 
Well, now ~ there is one really beautiful Latvian song that has traveled around much of the world because Joanna Macy uses it for the music when she teaches the Elm Dance. When we recorded “Widening Embrace”, Carolyn McDade’s latest CD, three years ago, we sought and were granted permission to include it. The poet Maris Melgalvs is deceased, but the composer of the music, Juris Kulakovs, is still alive, and was very gracious in working with us.
Here’s a link to the original recording of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Lv9CqaJy4&feature=kp
And here’s a link to the story of the Elm Dance on Joanna Macy’s website: http://www.joannamacy.net/theelmdance.html
So now you can’t say that you have never heard any Latvian music.
As for getting rid of all the annoying (infuriating!) ads and “suggested posts” on FB, I highly recommend adblockplus.org. It is a free download and installation, and it screens out at least 80% of the junk. What it can’t do is block the requests to like pages that friends send to you. So then you can sing along with “Ka Man Klajas?” while scrolling through a cleaner FB. 🙂
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Great advice as always – and thanks so much for the links. Or perhaps I should say “Paldies”!
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Just reading the title here, I expected the post to be about the unethical experiments Facebook has been performing on its members, seeing if they could alter members’ moods. Well, they certainly altered yours, but I don’t think that was part of it.
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Nah, I haven’t bothered commenting on that as the blogosphere has already gone bonkers about it!
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