Facebook
Monday, October 29, 2007
First of all, let me give my compliments to this yet-again-nifty little programme (oh pardon me, "program," as the Americans spell it) called "Facebook," which allows one to connect to various friends and acquaintances in this little network of sorts.
No, I am not being obtrusively rude here, I have just paid homage to the centre of americanisation. Of course, MacDonald's is another successful venture, possibly the most successful one spearheading America's colonisation of the world these days. What I'm trying to get at is this: the food at Macdonald's is not the attractive point; the point is that people think it is appealing, and that's all that matters,
really.
Facebook is essentially no different from Friendster, which is nothing short of the former's predecessor, albeit a less courteous and less user-friendly programme. The difference is people's idealised image of Facebook. I'm sure the fact that it hailed from America had nothing whatsoever to do with its popularity.
Of course, this has got to be the main difference. How can you invent a programme and hope it to "catch on" when nobody wants to use it? If everybody wants to use it, it will definitely become part of mass consumption.
Surely I'm not looking down on Facebook and its networking pyrotechnics. In fact, I'm rather impressed at the influence it has been wielding on everyone, including those who don't use it - even they have heard about it.
To date, I have found enough long-lost friends on Facebook who have gotten married and even have kids to be able to count them so I can keep track. And that really is a feat. No, I'm not talking about my friends who are around my age now and who have certainly tied the knot in the last three years or so, although I do think that is quite a feat. I'm talking about how even these people are not too busy with their married lives to keep up with a supposedly juvenile programme like Facebook.
Let me defend myself, before I get shot at by people as young as my "kiddies" in school. I meant that Facebook must have gotten that tag here because people have grown up using Friendster in their younger days and think that Facebook is just another Friendster, only improved and is the "in-thing" right now. So because of this label, some people are naturally adamant about joining and I don't blame them. I joined Facebook because my American-Chinese cousin wants to keep in touch and she doesn't have MSN, neither do I have AIM.
Anyway my point is that everybody's on Facebook, possibly even that uncle you see sitting at the coffeeshop or that little toddler in his mother's arms, even people's pets are on Facebook. So the question is why is Facebook so accessible? It is not MacDonald's, which reason can be that food is the minimum requirement to survive, so everybody knows about it, even if they may not eat it.
Yes, it may not be a typical part of your diet but in this place and age, actually if you think about it, it is fodder for us in the internet world. Of course, you could argue that it is not a need in this world.
Perhaps not. But it is definitely a want in our society to stay "cool" and connected to it, as lame as it sounds.
6:00 pm
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Waraku photo moments
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Strangely, I have been visiting Waraku rather often this past few weeks so what else to group the photos in than Waraku. So enjoy the photos! Was a pain in the neck trying to load all these one by one. Grr..
Here we are celebrating Daniel's birthday! :)
Happy Birthday Daniel! We ordered him a chocolate ice cream cake flown in from Japan. He looks delighted.
Here's Daniel with his very cute and very pink zhu card! He so bravely held it up for all to see.
The beautiful girls: Me, Kim and Gracie. P.S. Gracie is the
sotong lar! This is our birthday gift to Daniel HAHA
Here is me being made to impersonate Gracie because she couldn't get a picture by herself.
"What the *&#%!" Obviously Daniel said a lot more but let's not go there. Little boys and girls who aren't suppose to be here or see this, please do not tell mommy and daddy. No, do not ask them either. Just close your ears and mouth and go to bed. NOW. And no scrolling down either.
And here is Daniel impersonating Gracie.... Or was it the other way round?
Here's to you, reader. As the Japanese say, "Kan-pai!"
Ok, we never should have let him get hold of one and a half full bottles of Sake all by himself, except for the few cups I sneaked past him.
"Daniel, we are going home now. You can stop groping Gracie now. Psst! She's upside down!!"
Because I am such a lazy sot, I have decided to combine the two posts and make it into a photo post kind of thing, kinda like BBConline's photo articles hehe. You know, sometimes I think they should employ me.
Anyway here's the bit about our 'family'. You haven't forgotten the bimbos, have you?
I know we look like we're at some classy restaurant at the top of some CBD plaza but actually it's the same place as where the drunken Daniel had his sake. It's still a nice and pretty decent shot, isn't it?
Of course we do not forget Maggi's classic pose in every family outing of every photo album at any place and any time. No further comment.
I was snapping secret photos of Boo eating when she caught me and did this. Oh man, I am so gonna be dead now. On another note, poor Mags! Her so carefully measured smile got chopped off by Boo's errrr whatshallwecallit?
I know Boo will kill me for the previous photo so I very shrewdly strategised a L-O-V-E-L-Y and very P-R-E-T-T-Y photo of her here, hair down and all. Ha! Of course, this does not mean I can't be in the same picture as well :p
Mags is ostracised here because she refused to do the kneel-squat thingy I'm doing behind Boo and Mandy so we could take this lovely photo. Her reason: "I'm wearing a skirt!! Cannot crouch!!"
Boo has the very contented look - from the ice cream of course! Certainly not from Mr Chicken-tablet, Mr Shallow nor Mr bu-nan-kan LOL. Let's just say they are desperate creeps, shall we?
I'm holding Mandy's ice cream while she takes this shot haha, and she was like screaming for me not to drop it at any cost. Oh Mandy, the woe of being separated from your ice cream for a grand total of 3 seconds, oh!
And if you didn't know her personally (meaning she gets hungry every two hours and drags us for canteen breaks for half the day), you should know why now, judging from the photo. Mandy's trying to do the "ooh look! It's sooooo yummy!" look. Think she made it?
The three beauties getting high on Hokkaido Asabu Sabo ice cream - Look! Boo's even started on a dance!
Here we are, finally sleepy enough to go back home. This photo was taken much to the annoyance of the security guard in brown uniform, who was actively chasing people out of the mall when we stopped him.
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