Video: Redmond Snow 2012

Video: Evil Dark Demon Knight Rises

How to Mass Delete / Hide posts from Facebook Timeline

EDIT: It turns out the date January 12th is not a "go-live" date for Timeline...but instead was merely the go-live for MY timeline. That's what I get for clicking the link to 'try timeline'.

I don't consider myself to be someone who likes to keep secrets. Nor am I the type of person who shuns social networking, instead choosing to live in a dark hole wearing a tin foil hat; in fact, much the opposite. So it may come to a surprise to some of you that I was a little upset to hear that Facebook was rolling out their new "Timeline" feature permanently to everyone, whether they liked it or not. And so I began my search for ways of removing past posts I have no desire for anyone to ever read again.

I searched the web and found a few different possibilities but no completely concrete solutions. Mind you, there is a solution for Android as well as one for users who have not yet converted over to Timeline but neither were going to work very well for me. So with Facebook's Timeline rollout date of January 12th, 2012 looming close, I decided to take it into my own hands to write a script that worked for me. What I managed to come up with was not only a script that would mass delete and/or hide my posts from Timeline but as I tweaked it over and over again, I was able to get it to work fairly well and then build it out such that it was more easily distributable.

The script is written in JavaScript with a hint of iMacros for Firefox. To install it, you will need:

1. One of the later versions of Firefox (works fine in 3.6.x as well as the newer ones).
2. iMacros Firefox Addon
3. A Facebook account (of course) that has already been converted over to Timeline (but doesn't have to be already published).

Note: If you don't know what a Firefox Addon is or maybe even what Firefox is, you may have trouble making use of this script.

Once you have seen to the above prerequisites, launch Firefox, click the Tools menu, and go down to Addons. In the window that pops up, find the iMacros for Firefox Addon and click on its preferences button. In the window that pops up, note the Macros folder and find that folder on your hard drive (Note it will look different on other operating systems). That folder is where you want to drop the script I'm providing.

However, before you run the script, you should open it in a text editor and change and/or make note of some variables to suit your needs.

 Once you have done that, relaunch Firefox and click on the little blue icon that should appear near the location bar somewhere. 

This should open a side window in the browser like shown and in that side window, you should now see the script (assuming you put it into the correct Macros folder according to the preferences). If you do not see the script, relaunch the browser or Click on the Edit tab and click the "Refresh Macro List" button.

Now, make sure you are already signed into facebook, click the script, then click the Play tab and then the Play button and the script will begin.

During the script execution, you should see the iMacros status bar update with the status like shown. The number of successes is merely counting the successful posts deleted/hidden/unliked. The number of failures can mean a number of things, one being that through some quirky problem, it failed to attempt to either remove something or even find something to remove and so it continued on. After 3 or more failures, the script assumes the month it's working on is completely done and moves to the next month for that year or the next year, as applicable. If you read the comments in the code itself, you may be able to make sense of what is actually happening.

The script is quirky and is by no means a robust product. It may need to be run more than a few times to really get full coverage of removing every single facebook post. Some of that I can blame on the fact that Facebook uses more AJAX than any other site I know but the other part is merely because I was in a rush to get it working before the impending Timeline changeover date.

It should also be noted that since Facebook tends to change their code fairly often, this script will only work for a limited time. Get it while it's hot. ;) I hope it works for you get what you need deleted. =)

Looking for the script? If you missed it in the hinted script links, it can be downloaded here:

January 11, 2012 Update 1: 

I noticed today that Facebook has changed slightly such that the icons/images I was tagging have slightly different names. Between that and the couple comments about not properly tagging the month, it looks like I need to produce an updated script. I had already updated the existing script somewhat and still found it to be lacking. At some point, depending on how many facebook posts you have in a given day, the script can get to a point where it can no longer use the day of the month to scroll any farther and has the possibility of leaving a lot of posts in the dust, untouched. 

With this in mind, I had to rewrite the script, ignoring years and months and instead of starting from the bottom, start from the top. The new script tags both the "hidden" and "allowed" icons themselves to keep scrolling the page and I think it will work out better in the long run. I also figured out how to keep the positions of things in check such that the page doesn't need to be reloaded everytime. I hope to fine tune this new script tonight and I'll try to get it posted afterward. 

January 12, 2012 Update 1 :

Ok so I scrapped the rewrite of the script because I ended up not being able to get it working correctly. That's the bad news. The good news is I was able to modify the old script to both fix the Month problem people are experiencing as well as do a more thorough job of removing posts by clicking the "More Activity" link when appropriate. So, I've uploaded a new version of the script. Click below to download version 1.1:

Video: 2012 Goals

Video: Leavenworth Christmas Lights 2011

Video: Christmas Carousel 2011

Results of Truly Living

It's been over a month now since I quit dating. People look at me odd when I say that and I have to amend it with: "actively dating". This means, I disabled my online dating profile and I am no longer spending a lot of time and energy "looking" for a relationship. This of course does not mean that I am opposed to one, not in the least! But it does mean I've spent my time doing things that I love, as well as exploring new possibilities.

The first of these things was to begin volunteering. This led me to finding some video editing gigs which allowed me to express my continuing creativity by piecing together pictures, video clips, and music into works of art that tug at the corners of your eyes for moisture. The results from that alone have already been quite rewarding.

I also began exploring modeling, not as a career, but just for fun. I've enjoyed taking pictures of myself for a while now and I'd taken more of an interest in feminine posing. To some surprise, a lot goes into such posing. A woman's body is often portrayed as curvy and asymmetrical and yet while you try to remember all of that as you twist yourself into a certain position, you have to let go, making it seem and feel natural to the viewer.

Some homework one photographer gave me was to go through the stacks of magazines and catalogs I had accumulated and rip out the pages where a model was posing in a way that I thought was visually pleasing. I began doing this and was surprised to find at how easy it was to fall into that mode. Catalogs I had paged through before to admire the clothing and shoes they were modeling were now being viewed under a completely different filter. I found it easy to ignore the clothes, the makeup, the perfume; my vision only sought out the poses the models were striking. After organizing the pages I liked, I started practicing those poses.

I had my first photo shoot a couple weeks ago, a pinup shoot. Not only did this align well with getting into modeling but it also allowed me to accomplish one of the goals I had set for myself for 2011. The pictures came out quite lovely and very classy. I've posted one of my favorites here. This week, I have a second photo shoot, a fashion shoot. I've also spoken with some other photographers who have taken an interest. It's exciting and fun and I look forward to seeing where it takes me, even if the road it's leading me down is merely another hobby.

Outside of modeling and video editing, I attended my usual social events and as luck would have it, I met a couple guys that are interested in me. I also started dating a guy friend I've known for months. I'm not sure how that will all turn out
just yet but I'm enjoying the moment. You know, they say when you stop looking, that's when things happen. At this point, I kind of have to agree.

Finally, a couple weeks ago, I began looking for another job. I had been at the company I currently work for almost six years and it was time to move on for a lot of reasons. I posted my resume on one job site and waited. The recruiters soon poured in and within two weeks, after a couple interviews with a couple companies, I had an awesome offer on the table. And I took it. So I will be starting work as an iOS developer at a new company in December and I'm thoroughly excited about that.

Merely a month after my depressing post about turning 30, so much has changed already: for the better. It's time to celebrate the upcoming new year in style. =)