Facebook

I have spent a little time on Facebook these holidays and have added some old friends as well as a couple of new ones. It's great to find people I know and after the discussion I had earlier in the week, think I might use these tools to stay in touch with friends as the younger lot are.

When you are in your 40s though, many of your friends are not on Facebook, or any other social networks that I can find. Yesterday I called an old friend who I haven't seen for around 4 years. I have a small pile of his stuff that I have uncovered in this cleaning frenzy I've been in. I am dropping it off to him today whilst I am in Melbourne. I have attempted to find him on Facebook. Somehow I had lost his details. Possibly a dysfunctional mobile phone that I'd been using at the time. Fortunately I found a piece of paper with his details on it. The whole experience made me realise how easy it is to lose track of friends. We all have busy lives.

Facebook has had some negative press, as have many other social networking sites. It all comes back to the individual user though really. If you are in it to get the largest number of friends or making all your details open to the public, you could encounter an invasion of privacy. I would argue it is one that you have invited.

Staying In Touch

I was chatting to my son's friend Brigitte on the way to the deb the other night. She is completing her VCE in a town that is over 3 hours away from here. She moved when she was in year 8. They (son and friend) caught up online. They weren't close friends when she lived here. She is a year older than he. They reconnected on My Space and are very close friends now. Brig stays here for weekends and he has been to her new place for weekends as well. Her extended family lives here still.
I chatting with Brig about staying in contact with people when she finishes school. I remembered when I finished HSC (as it was known, back in the day) that I lost touch with mobs of people that I had seen every day at school for around 12 years. It was weird. They weren't close friends, but I liked many of the kids and never really saw most of them again. I told her to appreciate all those acquaintance-type people.
Living in a country town, many people move away when they finish school. When I caught up with lots of them at our 20 year school reunion, they were mostly the same as they were at school. It was fun.
Anyway Brig and I were wondering if kids today will stay in touch better with MSN and the Internet. She is going to be an experiment for me and let me know if it happens.

MSN & Joanna Newsom

Years ago (probably 10) I had MSN and I used it occasionally. I found it a little invasive to be honest. The way it would pop up whenever I logged on to the Internet was kind of annoying. My kids used it a lot, so I stopped altogether and when I got my own laptop, I didn't put it on. It was kind of part of the freedom of having my own computer.
I have re-installed it this week. It's changed. It's great!
Finally now I have friends and people I know on MSN that I can chat to with it. I like that. I am not that much into chatting to random people.

I am loving Joanna Newsom this week. Especially this song:

Mister Wong Winner

I won an iPod! I am astounded. It has been quite a while since I've won any kind of random thing, like a raffle or such. I want to play with the toy I've won.

Mister Wong is a new social bookmarking site that originated in Germany. I received my invite to beta test, I was curious to see how something that started in a different part of the world, worked. It's also available in Russian and Chinese.

I have found it easy to use and thought it would be useful as an online backup for my ever-expanding and cluttered bookmarks. After uploading them, I deleted a pile that I rarely use, yet couldn't bear to lose track of since I knew I would need them once I did.

There has been some controversy about the name and stereotype evoked by the use of the name, yet it seems to have been addressed. Mashable wrote a review of the site last month: Mister Wong Launches Social Networking Tools in US, so if you want to learn more about Mister Wong, read it.

In the meantime I'm feeling quite grateful.

I've found Gnod

Gnod is amazing. I love it. If you click on this image and have a look at the authors on the list, they consist of many that I have read. You can also explore maps of music and films. When you click on another name in the map, it takes you to another map. I would have adored this when I was a kid and ran out of books by my favourite author. The closer the names to one another, the more closely linked they are. This is a great recommendation for when you are looking for something like.....

Stalker by Hazel Edwards

I was amazed to read on the blurb of this book that Hazel Edwards has written 131 books. That is a lot of books. I am sure I have probably read some of them, I just don't remember them. Hazel's Wikipedia entry says she has written 161. That is very productive. She also attended Traralgon High School for a part of her education according to Wikipedia.

Stalker was a light read. It gives an insight into the way radio works. It's about a young volunteer radio announcer who receives a lot of unwelcome attention that ends in a conviction for the stalker. It's an interesting topic in view of the information many put on the Internet now. How easy would it be for someone to collect enough information about a person to intimidate them?

I recently showed an Internet safety video to my students. The year 7's took it more to heart than the year 9's, who seemed to think they knew all there was to know about this sort of thing.

I saw 'Everyone Knows Your Name' on YouTube today. Whilst I don't want people to live in fear of the Internet, I guess it's important for all of us to think before we post, for lots of reasons. A good reminder.

Internet Matchmaker

I am enjoying watching one of my closest friends have her first experience of using online dating websites. It is an exciting time and full of promise. I recommended this to her because I have found it to be the best and most enjoyable way to find a partner. It has a bit of cringe factor for some people still. I guess if you have not wanted to meet a partner in the last 10+ years, you would have no need, therefore see fit to criticise it or find it 'wierd'. The other people who are not into it are people who will never read this blog because they haven't yet learnt to use a computer. Needless to say, they are never gonna do it.
I found it a great way to meet my partner. I loved the time when we were getting to know each other via email. It was sweet and gentle and romantic. The first telephone conversation, our first meeting and so on, was all gradual and made the process delightful and lasting.
Perhaps I was very lucky. I only met one other person I communicated with online, and at that first meeting, knew instantly there was no real attraction. It was challenging to have to say that, but no worse than saying no to someone you have met anywhere.
This leads me to a point I want to make, meeting and relating to someone online is the same as any other way. If you find it difficult to trust, it will be the same in real life as it is online. If you are desperate, gullible, if you fantasize, if you are afraid of commitment, intimacy, success, whatever, the internet will not magically transform or hide that. If you are going to have problems in relationships, they will still be there. It is just a convenient way to meet, minus the scene you don't want to be in(insert club,pub,mother's/friends blind date whatever applies) but for wanting to find a partner.
This weekend another friend I recommended online dating to, is getting married. She is 60ish and hadn't had someone special in her life for the 5+ years I had known her. She is very happy. This is why I recommend it and enjoy sharing my positive experience with others. It's great to see people happy and in love.

ThoughtAudio.com - an audio book publisher providing free audio book downloads and podcasts of philosophy and classic literature titles.

If you enjoy listenting to books read to you, download these to your MP3 player. I love audio books. You can listent to them before you go to sleep, in bed and don't get cold hands from having them poking out from under the covers.
ThoughtAudio.com - an audio book publisher providing free audio book downloads and podcasts of philosophy and classic literature titles.

Media changes 'alarmingly protectionist'. 14/07/2006. ABC News Online

Media changes 'alarmingly protectionist'. 14/07/2006. ABC News Online

In answer to the first question about the media changes. This story in The Age: Meet the always-on generation, could explain why the media changes mentioned above are probably irrelevant.

Discovering Podcasts

I have been aware of them for a while, but until I went away and actually listened to the dozen or so I had collected, I really had no appreciation for podcasting. It is a very cool thing though and tonight I have tried to find them but found it a bit difficult. It seems I have to stumble upon them as I did with the two I mentioned in my last post.

But I did find this Yahoo! Podcasts and whilst I haven't fully explored it yet, it looks like a very good starting point, so I thought I would put the link here. If I find anything really good specifically I will mention it here.

The ABC website have lots too and I listened to a couple of Triple J ones as well as listening to New Dimensions (can't download though) and The Book Show. I love the ABC website.

Fresh Start

I have started afresh with my blogging. I deleted the other three sites I have been playing with. This one wins. I don't need to scatter my energies into four directions. I have a separate blog for work. That is enough! I have been playing with different templates and things though so you can expect to see something new and creative and wonderful template-wise shortly.
Technology is cool and fun. I'm enjoying playing with it. I want to keep it all together now though and not scatter my energies. I have also had some learning experiences recently about reading the fine print online. I have made some mistakes. Correction time!

Webquest Progressing well...

Today I went into school, yes, on a public holiday and completed the webquest. I feel very happy about that. It is ready for the students to begin tomorrow. There are still a couple of finishing touches we need to make but I am rapt.

I really wanted to do that webquest, but I just didn't really want to do it in my own time. The thing is with most of these projects, the only time there is to do them is your own time, so I had to just make the sacrifice. It wasn't so bad and I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment now. I am really glad I agreed to do it.

I am also really glad I finished the tiling. Perhaps in some way it helped me to finish the webquest. The completion energy rose from finishing things I wanted to do or some such thing.

maybe...