Under the Noctilcalitic Moon
"Friendster and the Deconstruction of Social Privacy"
After a couple of weeks of dodging friends and multiple annoying emails, I finally surrendered to the will of these acquaintances and activated my account at Friendster.
Apparently, I had signed up for an account and forgot about it - I wonder why? *innocent eyes* After a couple of minutes of exploring this strange yet intriguing "friendship network" I concluded it to be just another "lamer-trying-to-get-a-date" site, where unwitting inDUHviduals sign up and recruit their friends to join this so called "wonderful circle of friends" so that they can all "know each other".
On one hand it's a neat way to connect your friends from different social groups and figure out the complex web of "who-knows-who" of our tragic lives, On the other hand it seems some what like a hit list of how many people you can actually get to join this ridiculous insanity.
You can even leave testimonials about other people you know in your immediate group of friends. It all seems like an online popularity contest where you can display your trophies to me. Run "Friendster" under a spellchecker and you'll get "Fraudster" - sometimes meaning is hidden in the shallowest of things.
And so the social experiment began - I sent out a list of invites to people/friends whom I haven't spoken to in weeks/months/years. A strange note was that I discovered that some of them already had a Friendster account and I wasn't sure if I was glad or disappointed that they hadn't included me in their little "group" all this while. For sure, I "thought of them" enough to have sent it out to them. AH-HA!
I got Alex, my oh-to-gorgeous-i-wanna-shag-you-so-hard friend to join in the experience as well and his initial comment went along the lines of "We probably are the best looking people in this network." I would like to say that I didn't want to comment but I am always a sucker for flattery.
I also discovered that my bestiest best friend in the whole wide world neglected to send me photos of her. she was nice enough to put them up on Friendster for the rest of the world to see though. Bikinis and all even.
This whole Friendster episode reminds me of all the "upper-social-circle" encounters that I've been to unfortunate to experience. The conversation starts out by making you suss out who you know so that you until the other party involved recognizes one of them. once they do, you're in the crowd. fortunately or unfortunately, I was born into a circle of high achieving high rolling socialites and I've always had the right names and contacts - much to my depression as sometimes I never know if I was "accepted" for being me, or for just knowing the right people.
Personally I'd rather keep my social groups separated from each other, for my sake and their own. Some DNA types were never meant to mingle.
To experience the madhouse yourself go to www.friendster.com and check it out yourself. You have been warned.
"News Reporters, Murders and the Likes"
Just got off the phone with a news reporter from Singapore regarding the murders of two university students from my uni. think her name was Gladis or Gladdy or something to that effect. Anyway it gave me insight on how unskilled she was - I won't be judgmental to say that that's the standard of the newspaper she was representing. apparently she got my number from some guy with a funny Chinese name. I believe he called me yesterday and introduced himself as "Ben", but i had to brush hi off because I was very busy.
As it went, she asked me a couple of questions among many of which she kept asking me if I was Singaporean. I didn't really see the relevance in that due to the fact that she would not have gotten my number anyway if I wasn't. DUH! I answered every one of her questions, but refused to give out any numbers of Singaporeans I knew. I also requested not to be quoted. (She had conveniently forgot to formally ask for my permission - thankfully I know how the system works.)
Let me just say that there is a difference between being a snoop and a reporter. How she ever got my number I will never know, but I do stand that there is a give and take. I'm not going to be someone's stepping stone to get somewhere that easily.
I feel more stress over the attention that this case has received rather then the crime itself.
The media in Singapore has everything hyped up and I do not know where they got their over processed information from. Official statements from the police and the university have yet to be issued. For all we know they could have killed each other.
Australia is a peaceful place to live in and I feel sick when someone would suggest that this crime was racially provoked. there are other reasons why people are murdered everyday. Unfortunately people are always to ready to believe otherwise. IT SELLS PAPERS. It sounds juicer that way does it?
"Blog and Bogs"
Being a witch in this century's tough! I just downloaded all the forms I need to join the Australian Tarot Guild and I have yet to call the respected institutes for their free info course packs. Ike!
Just started blogging on my friend's web blog so I guess I'm wondering if I really do have that much to talk about in the first place. Anyway if anyone is interested, I'm there at Throughme.com.
Just transferred my magick notes into a newer folder. It's a little smaller then my original folder but I think it looks better anyway. *grin*. Added a new "Self Recreation" spell to it as well as a new play dough recipe to it. I suppose some people think it's inappropriate to turn a Book Of Shadows into a regular reference folder but magick is just another aspect of my witchy life as well as play dough, so both have their place in my witchy life folder.
Oooo - I tried out the play dough recipe as well.. it's pretty simple and it's a good cheap substitute for art clay if you don't have any lying around. This is the recipe :
1 cup salt
3 cups plain flour
1.25 cups water
Just mix everything around and presto you have sculpting play dough. My 'art works' are currently drying on the dinning table. I'll try to take some photos of them when everything's painting. maybe I'll do some before and after shots of them. I don't know. We'll see how it goes.
