Friday Nite Check In

 

The Spuds are hilled up to the max now.

They are even about ready to flower.

Speaking of flowers..., these Fire Weed's are coming on strong.

Well…, The Potato Garden better take advantage of the longest day today.  I always thought that the 21st was the date of the Summer Solstice…, but Google says:

The 2025 summer solstice arrives at 10:42 p.m. EDT on June 20 (0242 GMT June 21). On this day, skywatchers across the northern hemisphere will enjoy the longest stretch of daylight all year. In New York, for example, the sun will spend more than 15 hours beating a path through the sky.

No, the summer solstice is not always on June 21st. While it is commonly associated with June 21st, it can also occur on June 20th or June 22nd. This variation is due to the difference between the Earth's orbit around the Sun and our calendar year, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich. 

Back in the 70’s and 80’s when I lived in Idaho we used to celebrate The Solstice on the Saturday closest to the 21st…, and it was always a delight when the 21st fell on a Saturday and I was thinking that it was happening this year…, until I checked Google the other day.  And now that I am retired I guess it really doesn't matter what day it falls on for me to celebrate it. 

So I guess this song from Bryan Martin “We Ride” will do for your Friday Nite Music Video to help celebrate…,  :)

Friday Nite Check In

                                            Facebook Fiasco

This is the message I now get if I try to log in to Facebook

I wrote and sent this letter below to Meta..., I also emailed it to three of the email addresses listed on Google.  I doubt if I will get any response from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) program that appears to be running Facebook.  I hope that enough of my FB friends realize that I did not "unfriend" them and did not just willingly drop out of sight with no explanation.  If anyone noticed and egregious violation of "Community Standards" or "account integrity" on my account before it was disabled I would appreciate it if you would inform me as to what it was..., because FB refuses to provide me with any details.

Meta Support:

It started on 4/15/25 at 07:56 with an email from Facebook saying:

Scott R., you have 180 days to take action.

Hi Scott R., Your Facebook account has been suspended. This is because your account, or activity on it, doesn't follow our Community Standards on account integrity. If you think we suspended your account by mistake, you have 180 days to appeal our decision. If you miss this deadline your account will be permanently disabled.

Two minutes later at 07:58 I got an email from Meta for Business saying:

Hi Scott R., We've noticed some unusual activity on your Facebook account and have restricted its access to advertising. Any ads connected to your account are currently disabled. To learn more, please review our Advertising policies affecting business assets. If you believe your account was incorrectly restricted, click the Fix issue button below to verify your account. You have until October 12, 2025 to fix the issue before the account is permanently disabled. We used technology to detect this violation and carry out this decision. Further violations of our Advertising Standards may result in your account being disabled or restricted.

Well…, I have never done any advertising on my Facebook page so I kind of ignored the second email but did check out the link to “account integrity” and tried to “appeal” the information on the first email.  The website for account integrity provided this information:

https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/account-integrity/

Policy Rationale

In order to maintain a safe environment and empower free expression, we restrict or remove accounts that are harmful to the community. We have built a combination of automated and manual systems to restrict and remove accounts that are used to egregiously or persistently violate our policies across any of our products.

Because account removal is a serious action, whenever possible, we aim to give our community opportunities to learn our rules and follow our Community Standards. For example, a notification is issued each time we remove content, and in most cases we also provide people with information about the nature of the violation and any restrictions that are applied. Our enforcement actions are designed to be proportional to the severity of the violation, the history of violations on the account, and the risk or harm posed to the community. Continued violations, despite repeated warnings and restrictions, or violations that pose severe safety risks will lead to an account being disabled.

I was pretty sure that I had posted nothing that was a safety or security risk, but there was no “notification issued to provide me with information about the nature of the violation” other than the very broadly based “Community Standards” or “account integrity”.  The usual procedure is to take down the content of particular post and issue a warning and a “strike”…., and after five strikes you entire account can be suspended.  I received no warning what so ever…, my account was suspended.  I tried to appeal the decision but that link took me to a page that indicated that my account was suspended and I would have to do a “Video Selfie” to confirm my identity to go any further with the appeal.  I didn’t think my lap dog computer had a camera to enable that…, but managed to get on a “chat” with a person/BOT and tried to explain the situation and the reason that I couldn’t do the video selfie and noted that my bank, or retirement account, or investment account or Social Security account was able to confirm my identity without a video selfie and questioned why Facebook need one?  After going round and round with the person/BOT he/it said that he/it did not see any “suspicious activity” on my account and closed the chat and I have not been able to do any more chats.  I assumed that the problem had been corrected…, but that was not the case…, when I tried to log in to Facebook…, I still got the page saying I would have to submit to the video selfie if I wanted to continue.  

On Google I found an email address to “appeals@fb.com" and tried that…, twice with no response either time…, I also replied to the Facebook email with no response.  

On 4/26/25 I got this from Facebook:

Scott R., you only have 168 days left to take action

Hi Scott R., We noticed that you didn't finish the steps to appeal our recent decision to suspend your account. We want to help you get back on Facebook, so we give everyone 180 days to appeal. You only have 168 days left to complete this, before your account is permanently disabled.

I replied to that email…, 

“I have sent two emails to "appeals@fb.com" and have received no response.

I also did a chat explaining that I cannot do the selfie video and was told that my account had been reviewed and no suspicious activity was found..., but my account has not been restored.

I have no clue what the heck is going on over there ????

Scott R.”

Needless to say…, there was no response. So after waiting patiently for over a month I tried the video selfie thing.  My computer actually has a FaceTime application that will enable me to do video calls with someone else who has a FaceTime account…, but I had never activated the app so I had my doubts that it would work for Facebook…, but it did work…, and after just a couple of hours I got this email from Meta Support:

Your review was unsuccessful

Hi Scott R., Your Facebook account has been permanently disabled. You requested a review of this decision, but we still found that your account, or activity on it, didn't follow our Community Standards. You can't request another review. Learn more about why we disable accounts by visiting the Community Standards.

I replied:

“I have never been informed of the specific activity that resulted in my suspension.

The "failure to follow Community Standards" covers a very wide range of possible violations.

I do not believe that I have violated any of those "Standards".

It is possible that a hacker has entered some such violations unbeknownst to me, but I have not seen any such activity on my page.

I have reviewed the Oversite Board Review process and would appreciate the opportunity to request such a review but I was not offered a "reference number" to do so.

I never received any "warning" or "five strikes" that are supposed to be utilized prior to disabling an account.

Please let me know how to resolve these issues.

Thanks,

     SRS”

At this point I am not sure what to do?  I seems obvious to me that Artificial Intelligence (AI)has been used to initiate all the actions taken so far by Facebook.  The posted operational policies have not been followed by informing me of the specific content that has been such an egregious act of “posing severe safety risks”.  If a responsible and logically able human had reviewed my account over the years it would be obvious that I am not the type of person who would issue such content and would see right off that I have not engaged in any “advertising” content.

It would also be obvious to a logical person that I must have been hacked by some sort of pervert who posted some kind of perverted content on my page.  

I would like to believe that Facebook would be as conscientious about protecting me from such abuse as they appear to be about protecting their “community standards”…, but sadly that does not appear to be the case here.

Disabling my account for something that I did not do and not explaining what you think I did does not seem like a proper business model to follow.  Please take a look at the issues…, and at the very least issue me a “reference number for an Oversite Board review.

I am a 73 year old man and lived for the first nearly 40 years of my life in a small northern Idaho town and graduated from high school there.  The remaining 30 plus years of my life have been in western Washington.  Facebook has been a wonderful way for me to reconnect with old friends and family who I had lost touch with for many years…, some of whom I had not seen or heard from since high school.  Many thanks indeed for that Facebook.  It nearly moves me to tears to think that I have forever lost touch with those old friends…, and the tears did roll when I recently read in the on line version of the old Idaho local paper that one of those old friends, classmate and teammate lost his middle aged son to suicide.  I have no way to contact the old friend and offer my condolences now that my account has been permanently disabled for something that I have no clue about…, and reverently believe was none of my doing.

Please help me resolve this issues detailed in this letter…,  as I have had no luck getting appropriate action by other means documented on your support pages.

I am mailing you this letter in addition to emailing support@fb.com, appeals@fb.com, and disabled@fb.com  due to that fact that other emails have been unsuccessful so far.

Respectfully,

Scott R. Spence

scottr@olypen.com

(360) 374-9721

 

Friday Nite Check In

While the weather has been great for The Garden and the grass and weeds in the pastures..., I don't like seeing it growing in the gravel driveway.  Here is a picture from a few years ago..., I should have taken a picture of the more recent attempt of a green grass takeover.  It seems that I have had other priorities these last couple of years.

I finally got after it the last couple of days..., and here is the result after about three miles of weedeater line..., yeah..., that gravel eats up that line at a pretty rapid pace.

 I don't know..., sometimes I feel like I am just thinning out the weeds in the pastures so they can grow all the more..., and sometimes I feel like I am just blowing smoke rings in the dark..., so here's your Friday Nite Music Video...,

Friday Nite Check In

Charlie Horse out by The Pond

Well..., still no Facebook for this cowboy..., and no clue why I have been suspended or if I will ever be unsuspended..., but things are looking good around The Ranch..., the grass is greening up (along with the weeds) and The Garden is putting on a good show.  Speaking of good shows...,  as I gazed out the window the other day watching Charlie Horse graze out by The Pond I see a big Osprey swoop past real low..., I took quick note that my little pups weren't out and about and saw the big bird swoop by the other direction like he was trying to dive bomb Charlie !!!  I ran outside as he made another pass and managed to scare him off..., and then I heard the duck quacking up a fuss from over in The Pond..., and realized that the Osprey wasn't after Charlie..., but Charlie was evidently in his flight path I guess.  I wish I could have gotten a movie of the action.

Anyway..., here is your Friday Nite Music Video...,

 

I really like this video of this song too...,

Memorial Day Weekend

 Well..., the weather has been great for The Garden..., at least so far...,

Looking Good !!!

but I will be thinking about My Mom, My Dad and My Brother..., and here are links to their stories on the blog...,

https://scottrthequillayutecowboy.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-mom.html#more

https://scottrthequillayutecowboy.blogspot.com/2010/05/that-good-lookin-al-spence.html

https://scottrthequillayutecowboy.blogspot.com/2021/10/my-brother-larry-spence-born-february-7.html

       Me                                          Brother Larry
Mom                                                Dad

..., and of course..., My Wife..., and for your Friday Nite Music Video I will leave you with the music video I put together for her a few years ago.

https://scottrthequillayutecowboy.blogspot.com/2025/03/julie-spence.html

Scattering the Ashes

All but one of these pups is buried here on The Ranch

 We had decided a while back to scatter Julie’s ashes around The Ranch on May 17th, 2025.  Her birthday was a little too close to Mother’s Day and the last weekend in May was Memorial Day…, so we settled on this weekend.  Hoping that the weather will smile down on us and we don’t suffer a rain out.  

So…, for your Friday Nite Music Video I have chosen James Taylor’s “You Can Close Your Eyes”.  As I held her hand in the hospital on that day her breathing was getting ever more labored and as she looked at me…, her eyes were not blinking for what seemed like forever.  I knew that if the automatic functions were failing that it wouldn’t be long…, and it wasn’t.

We will try to hit all the spots that were special to her…, especially around the graves of all he beloved pets…,  and hope that she can Rest in Peace now.

Around The Ranch on Julie's Birthday

Born on May 8,  1957
Passed on Dec 31,  2024

Hey Babe..., I think about you every day that I am out doing chores and realize all the work we put in together here on The Ranch.  From cutting, piling and burning the Scotch Broom to stretching wire for fencing in the four pasture areas, to building The Saddle Bar, The Barn, The Gar-Port and The Well House.  It has been many years now since you were physically able to participate in any of the heavy lifting..., or even able to walk around the property to see how thing were progressing..., so I took some pictures today so you could get a closer look than you are getting from high up above us.  We hope that you have found a place as beautiful as The Ranch with a lot less work to make it and keep it up..., and we hope that you have finally found someone who can solve your physical disabilities and make you as healthy and as happy as you were in your younger years.  And I hope you will save me a spot beside you when I come looking to join you.

I was a little worried that I had gone a little too far in pruning this apple tree..., but it seems to be pulling out of it.

This old apple tree is overdue for a good pruning itself.

 

These little volunteer trees seem to be thriving in this high CO2 environment, judging from the length of the new green shoots.

Some of those green shoots are over a foot tall and ready to fall over from their own weight.

A little different type of green shoots on these little trees, but still impressive.

The Rhody in the Pet Cemetery is almost in full bloom.

You have to look close..., but even the Potatoes are showing green shoots.

Here's the other row getting going.

Charlie Horse won't slow down on munching that green grass long enough to pose for a picture.

Yeah Babe..., the only thing missing here on The Ranch..., is you...,  :(