The Evolution of Facebook

I've been a member of the Facebook community since around 2006, so I've been around a decent enough length of time to notice changes in the hottest, most "socially acceptable" way to use it.

1. In the beginning, Facebook was, understandably, super simple. 
Make sure to add anyone you even vaguely recognize. Spam each other's WALL (not Timeline--I miss the wall!) with conversation bits. 

2. Play all the Facebook games and spam invite your friends (e.g. Candy Crush, Farmville, Restaurant City, Mafia Wars, etc.).

3. Compose a bunch of notes for people to lurk (optional: and comment on). Make quizzes to see how good your friends are at being friends.

4. Post huge albums of your trips and every artifact/historical site/interesting looking structure you encounter. Bonus points for artistic profile pic selfies with a meaningful song lyric

5. Join all the groups. Like all the things. 

6. Do all the quizzes to find out the colour/animal/Disney princess/food/article of clothing you are; this will greatly enhance your self-awareness.

7. Delete a few people from your friends list (most of whose profile pics have gone dark because they're inactive anyway) then post a deliberate status about how you're cleaning out the toxicity from your life and "if you're reading this, you have the honour of remaining my friend". Congratulations!

8. Post videos/links and tag all your close friends in it in order to guarantee a response so it doesn't look like you're talking to yourself. 

9. Join none of the groups. Like/comment on nothing. After all, "I don't do groups".

10. Profile picture filters/alterations to show that you're aware of global issues and this is the extent to which you can be bothered to get involved.

11. Tag friends in memes and "stupid but relatable" inside jokes because you don't want that garbage on your wall but you still want people on Facebook to see that you're cool enough to use Facebook just not with them.

12. Post meaningful articles and links to demonstrate your responsible citizenship--while inadvertently provoking an uncomfortable public disagreement in the comment thread between two of your friends that don't know each other and come from distinct parts of your life that you had previously hoped to keep separate. 

We've sure come a long way.

Glean all the things

So I realized I love the word GLEAN for several reasons. 1. It's simple. 2. I like how it sounds. 3. It's very applicable to me. 

Google defines glean as: 

verb 

extract (information) from various sources 
"the information is gleaned from press clippings"
synonyms: obtain, get, take, draw, derive, extract, cull, garner, gather; More 

collect gradually and bit by bit 
"objects gleaned from local markets" 

historical
gather (leftover grain or other produce) after a harvest. 
"the conditions of farm workers in the 1890s made gleaning essential"

With #3 being the main reason that I like this word, I feel this is the way I learn/pick up info. Not necessarily a good thing, but it is how I is. Rarely do I have the attention span to learn things by researching or being lectured on something in a "learning environment". Just as the definition says, I like to collect information on things "gradually and bit by bit" by overhearing it or seeing it in action.

A prime example of this phenomenon in my life is memes. I've never really gone out of my way to look up memes myself, presumably hosted by sites like reddit, imgur, funnyjunk (dating myself now I know...) but I still manage to pick them up because memes are, by nature, "viral". 

Upside: little effort, I literally only pick up things that interest me in the slightest 
Downside: may not be accurate

"Narziss and Goldmund" by Hermann Hesse

Just finished a book for leisure--shocking considering it's a "school night". I enjoyed it, though I probably don't grasp its complexities to the extent that I'd like to. Wanted to throw these passages up here before I call it a night: 


"Thought is an eternal simplification - a seeing out, beyond the things of the eye; the attempt to construct a world of pure intelligence. But you craftsmen take the most perishable of all things to your hearts, and, in their very transcience and corruption, you herald the meaning of the world. You never look beyond or above it, you give yourselves up to it, and yet, by your very devotion, you change it into the highest of all, till it seems the epitome of eternity. We thinkers strive to reach our God by drawing the world away from before His face. You come to Him, loving His creation, and fashioning it all over again. Both these are imperfect, human works; yet, of the two, art is the more innocent."

“But seen from above – as God might see it – were this patterned order and morality, this giving up of the world, and the joys of sense, this aloof withdrawal from blood and mire into prayer and philosophy, any better? Were men really made to live an ordered life, its virtues and duties set to the ringing of a bell? Was man created to study Aristotle and the Summa,  to know Greek, extinguish his sense, fly the world? Had not God made man with lusts and pride in him, with blood and darkness in his heart, with the freedom to sin, love and despair?

...Yes, and perhaps it was not merely simpler and more human to live a Goldmund-life in the world. Perhaps in the end it was more valiant, and greater in God’s sight, to breast the currents of reality, sin, and accept sin’s bitter consequence, instead of standing apart, with well-washed hands, living in sober, quiet security, planting a pretty garden of well-trained thoughts, and walking then, in stainless ignorance, among them – the sheltered beds of a little paradise. It was harder perhaps, and need a stouter heart to walk with broken shoes through forest-glades, to trudge the roads, suffer rain and snow, want and drought, playing all the games of the senses, and paying one’s losses with much grief.” 

I'll quote you on that

As always, it's been a while since my last post. Today just wanted to share some thoughts on quotes/quotations. Talking about this reminds me of one of my high school English teachers who was fairly particular about the distinct uses of "quote" and "quotation". I can still hear her voice in my head, "A quotation is a noun; to quote something is a verb. Don't call a quotation a quote." As one is wont to do for someone one's not particularly fond of, her QUOTATION reverberates in my head in a nasally tone, of course. Anyway, this post is about me quoting quotations. :) 

When I read random things or even encounter provocative song lyrics, sometimes the words really strike a chord with me (unsure whether there's an unintended pun in there to forgive or not). So I've made it a bit of a habit to note down these quotations when I can, wherever I can. Today I came across one of these many notebooks lying around. Wanted to share some on here.

LOVE

"There's the intelligent sort of love that makes an intelligent choice. That's the kind you're supposed to get married on. Then there's the kind that's anything but intelligent, that's like a possession. And that's the one, that's the one, everybody really values. That's the one nobody wants to have missed out on."

"Love always comes back to self-love. The idiocy. You don't want them, you want what you can get from them. Obsession and self-delusion." 

AMBITION 

"There are your true philosophers...they survive in this particular world better than other people. In a time when people tear themselves to pieces with ambition and nervousness and covetousness, they are relaxed. All of our so-called successful men are sick men, with bad stomachs, and bad souls, but Mack and the boys are healthy and curiously clean. They can do what they want. They can satisfy their appetites without calling them something else." 

"The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second." 

"The sale of souls to gain the whole world is completely voluntary and almost unanimous--but not quite."

MORALITY

"I don't suppose God laughs at the people who think He doesn't exist. He's above jokes. But the Devil isn't. That's one of his most endearing qualities." 

"Is the Devil, then, sin? No, though sin is very useful to him; anything we may reasonably call sin involves some personal choice. It is flattering to be asked to make important choices. The Devil loves the time of indecision." 

"Both God and the Devil wish to intervene in the world, and the Devil chooses his moments shrewdly." 

"Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in." 

Don't get me wrong; I don't consider myself a deep thinker. I just really do love words, and have a profound respect for those with a talent for their deft manipulation.