Facebook Lies

You know what’s sort of interesting about active Facebook users? It makes it a lot harder for them to lie.

i.e., Facebook message: “Sorry, I can’t come to your birthday party tomorrow because I have a cold :-(”

Status update the next day: “Jane Doe is going clubbing tonight! Woohoo!”

Lie or miraculous recovery?

That was just an example, but I have 2 people in lies revealed like that over the past month or two!

OH Facebook drama!

Barney Frank

Matt and I just sat a few tables away from him while having dinner at The Local in West Newton! I’m a big fan of his and I got a little starstruck, but I didn’t want to bother him.

Iced Tea

I’ve written about my diet cola addiction. I’ve been working hard not to keep diet cola in the house. If I’m out somewhere, I’ll order it (especially if I am eating pizza) but if I need a cold caffeinated beverage while at home, I will have to drink unsweetened iced tea.

Usually I’ll just make a pitcher of plain iced English Breakfast tea. If I have fresh lemons, I’ll slice them up and put them in there, too. But lately, I’ve been trying to get more creative. Usually I do this using the fruit teas from Trader Joe’s. I’ll blend fruit tea with English Breakfast tea, and make a delightfully fruity iced tea, without it being too overpowering. An iced tea made with only fruit tea might be too much for me, but if I make a pitcher using 4 teabags of English Breakfast and 2 teabags of a fruit tea, it’s the perfect combination.

Here are some that I’ve tried and enjoying:

1) Trader Joe’s Blackberry Fruit Infusion Tea. This is very good.

2) White pomegranate tea from Trader Joe’s. This actually stands pretty well on its own as an iced tea, without the black tea. However, white tea is lower in caffeine than black tea, so it’s not as much of a pick me up as it would be if it was blended with the English Breakfast…

3) Trader Joe’s Raspberry Fruit Infusion Tea. Also very tasty. I think I might try mixing this with the blackberry.

So far these iced teas have kept me from buying Diet Coke. BUT, I enjoy them so much that if I’m home I can drink almost an entire pitcher a day! I suppose it’s better than drinking an entire bottle of Diet Coke, though.

Let’s see what else I come up with in terms of iced tea! I’m going to see what other kinds of fruit teas Trader Joe’s has and do some more experimenting.

The Disney Vault

I think that “The Disney Vault” is a such a despicable marketing ploy.

Commercials for Disney DVD releases warn views that certain movies will be placed on moratorium soon, and telling us to buy these films before they “go back into the ‘Disney Vault.’” So, if I don’t buy Dumbo on DVD immediately, I might have to wait SEVEN years to buy it again, once it’s (again) temporarily released by THE DISNEY VAULT. I think this stupid practice probably makes people end up buying used versions of these movies, or even pirated versions.

The Disney Vault…HA. What a concept. I keep imagining a large bank safe with Snow White partying with Cinderella, Dumbo getting drunk and seeing pink elephants, and Thumper doing shots with Bambi.

Social Networking Trends

Almost 3 years ago, I wrote a blog post entitled “Will anyone Friendsterize MySpace?”

It was basically talking about how Friendster was “it” and then everyone moved to MySpace. I was wondering what the next site would be that everyone would move to. Over the past year, that became Facebook. I MUCH prefer Facebook to MySpace. I was never too keen on MySpace, but I used it because it was THE way to keep in touch with my friends. Facebook is far superior and I’m happy that most of my friends have made the transition from MySpace to Facebook.

Now I’m wondering…will anyone Friendsterize Facebook? What will the next “big thing” be?

I think Facebook might be here to stay for a while. Right now you can connect it with other social networking tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs…so it’s sort of a one stop shop. It has a lot more to offer than MySpace ever did. But I do think that ultimately the teenage set will want to move elsewhere. Now that parents are jumping on the Facebook bandwagon, it makes it far less cool. At my age, I’m pleased to see my parents on Facebook, but ten years ago? I could only imagine how disgusted I would have been.

Diet Cola

There’s something about an ice cold diet cola that is just very refreshing to me. Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, a generic version…I’ll drink any of it. I’m not brand faithful. I know that aspartame is bad bad bad…and the environmental impact of buying these sodas ain’t great either, but I can’t resist. I’ve tried to move over to unsweetened iced tea to give me a cold sugar-free caffeinated beverage fix (I don’t drink coffee) but it’s just not the same. I don’t get addicted to other diet sodas like this. And before I started liking diet soda I never craved regular Coke or Pepsi like this.

I think there must be some addictive property in diet cola…and it’s not just the caffeine. I’m not sure what it is, but I just can’t get enough. I could probably drink over 2 liters a day without a problem.

I write this as I sip on a Diet Pepsi.

Website Addictions

I was just thinking about how I get addicted to websites very easily. I’m pretty much always addicted to one website or another…

1997-1999: Zone.com — I played Spades, Hearts, Reversi, and Checkers there. I’d log in right after school and play games and “socialize” with my “Zone Pals.”

2000: Bolt.com — Forums and social networking for teens/college-aged kids. It no longer exists. I used to hang out on the classic rock forums and the piercing forums. I used to be really snotty on the piercing forums when newbies would come in and ask dumb question. (i.e., “I want to get my eyebrow pierced…should I?)

2001: Ecircles.com — You could make groups for your friends (a.k.a. “Circles”)…I was in several with my friends, and I’d be on there checking for updates every day!

2000-2002: OpenDiary.com — It’s where I originally blogged, but I called it an online diary. I’d write about how I felt like an outcast living in Walnut Creek, California, how my mom drove me crazy, and how I couldn’t sleep at night. I wrote several times a day.

2003-2006: LiveJournal.com — I later moved to LJ after OpenDiary started going downhill. I used LJ for a few years but ultimately lost interest. I still use it for some of the communities but I no longer keep a personal journal there.

2003: Evite — I’m a social butterfly, and around 2003, I went through a super duper social butterfly phase and all of my friends were using Evite. So, I got addicted to Evite, crazily enough. I’d be creating events, viewing photos associated with events, checking to see if there were new events, checking to see who RSVPed to what…

2003: Friendster — Sort of a precursor to MySpace and Facebook. In fact, it was a catalyst in meeting Matt. We had friends in common, we met at a karaoke night organized by those friends in common, and we connected on Friendster.

2004-2008: MySpace — Once Friendster started having constant technical difficulties, my friends all moved over to MySpace. I did as well, albeit begrudgingly. I thought the website was hideous and I really just didn’t like it. But what I DID like was having a place to keep in touch with all of my friends in one place. Sometime in 2008, I pretty much stopped using MySpace completely.

2007-present: Facebook — I liked Facebook more than MySpace immediately. I’m glad that it’s becoming the social networking tool of choice nowadays.

I wonder what’s next for me and my crazy website addictions!

Eyes

I got glasses when I was 13. I only needed them to see the blackboard in school. By the time I was 18, I really only needed them for driving or going to the movies. By the time I was 20, I needed them ’round the clock.

When I was 21, I finally decided to try out contact lenses. It was traumatic at first, and I almost gave up. It took forever for me to take them in and out…sometimes up to 20 minutes! But I was determined, because I was so tired of my glasses. I finally did that, and had no problems with my contacts until about a year ago.

Sometimes my contacts will feel fine all day, sometimes I have to remove them as soon as I put them in. Sometimes they’ll feel fine until the afternoon. I’ve tried 5 different types of lenses. Some I couldn’t wear at all. I moved from Acuvue 2 to Acuvue Oasys and the Oasys are really thin, so they’re hard to remove and they rip fairly easily.

I bought some prescription sunglasses a few months ago, so that I at least have sunglasses for the days that my eyes can’t handle lenses.

Today was a first, though. I had to go home during working hours to take my contacts out because I couldn’t stand the feeling of them anymore. :-( I’m debating over whether I want to make an eye doctor’s appointment to try another brand of contacts AGAIN or if I just have to give up on lenses. :-(

Stupid eyes.

Project 365: 01/23/09

And now for something completely different!

To put a face with the name…this is Danny Gibbs, who winds up taking many of our Project 365 pictures! (such as the karaoke picture, the snowy bbq picture, the one during Matt’s gig, and more!) So the Project 365 picture for January 23 is dedicated to Danny…our photographer!

We had a relaxing Friday evening that included sundaes at Cabot’s.

AOL Keyword

I was at the gym today, and I decided I wanted to thumb through a magazine while doing a quick stint on the exercise bike. The only magazine on the magazine rack was ELLE. I usually don’t care for the magazine, but I figured it was something to distract me.

I was leafing through the magazine, and something seemed odd. At one point, Britney Spears was referred to as a “bubblegum pop princess” catering to the 14 year old set, which surprised me, because she hasn’t been “bubblegum” for quite some time. The picture that accompanied it looked pre-head shaving crazy mental institute Britney, too.

Then I saw something in the magazine that next to a URL it said “AOL Keyword.” Whaaat? AOL Keyword? Who still uses AOL Keywords? Who still uses AOL?!

And then I flipped to the cover of the magazine. It was from DECEMBER 2000. How did an 8 year old magazine, still in tact, begin circulating a BSC?