Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Tour of Tuesday

I rarely comment on blogs anymore (if you noticed). Heck! I rarely comment on my blog anymore! Therefore, I would like to issue some caveats:

1. If you comment on my blog as a newbie, Welcome! I did notice. I just didn't comment on it. My apologies. Please return, regardless of my rudeness!
2. If you wrote something thought provoking or asked me questions, I promise I thought about it! And I may have even attempted to answer the questions. Maybe. But I read it, I promise!
3. I've been blogging for a very long time. Maybe the newness of it has worn off.
---------------------------

I have a head cold. I'm praying it is gone before Thursday. Thursday, dear reader, is the day I drive all by myself with all of the children to San Francisco for Brandon's graduation!

*Cue the choir of angels

--------------------------
Once again I've been thinking about deleting my Facebook account. This goes along with another though I had: The Lost Art of Letter Writing.

Seriously. Who writes hand-written letters anymore? Anyone? Anyone? I remember when I was a teenager, I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote --by hand. I had several pen pals, and when my best friend went to college and then on a mission, I wrote him every week. Another friend, who was like a sister to me, she wrote me from college, too. I swear, I wrote to a dozen missionaries as well. Letter writing was fun! Who doesn't like to get mail?

My girls have some pen pals, but some of them just want to email. That's okay, but! What about writing by hand?

I don't know. What do you think?

Oh, yeah. The Facebook thing. So, I've been thinking about deleting my account for a number of reasons:
1. People I would never have seen or spoken to for the rest of my life now have access to all of my private thoughts, as well as info about me and pictures of my children.
2. The assumption that being friends on FB is the same as being friends in real life.
3. Another channel for debate.
4. Addicting.

Reasons for keeping it:
1. Quick access to people.
2. Quick communication with people.

Are you on FB? Do you hate it? Love it? Thought about deleting it?
----------------------

My buddy Becca is in a competition to have her garage made-over! Go here and vote for #57. Seriously, just go!
------------------------

I really liked what SilverRain said about the whole Osama death thing. Go here and read about it.

More thoughts on Osama's death:
1. Obama took too much credit, frankly. Signing a piece of paper isn't the same as spending 10 years looking for him or pulling the trigger.
2. The retaliation scares me a lot, dear reader. We might be rejoicing as a country now, but bragging about killing Osama is NOT going to help us.

Bythelbs said it best when she said she was feeling more relief than rejoicing. Seriously, when a country starts rejoicing over death of people, than we've started to become like the very people who are trying to kill us.
------------------------

Tonight is Makeover week on The Biggest Loser! I can't wait. I actually have had a make-over week myself, you know. Yesterday I got the hair done (highlighted and cut), the eyebrows done (good-bye forest!), and tomorrow I'm going to get my nails done --for the first time EVER! Well, I mean, the first time I ever get the acrylic ones done. I'm keeping them short and simple (piano playing and all), but I'm excited to try it. If I hate it? Won't do it again. But I figured I could live a little, what with Brandon graduating and all. Why not, eh?
--------------------------

But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
~Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

(Ceramic tile by Lucy Boyd Beck)

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Yay for graduation, I hope you feel better! I write real letters. Some of our dear friends from Texas are not internet users, so letters are the only thing that connect us. I gave up facebook, and it was a good move for me. Good luck in your decision!

Amanda D said...

I gave up FB but went back. When I went back I deleted a whole lot of people. I deleted people that I haven't seen since HS, that I didn't care to keep in contact with, etc. I came back because it is easy communication and: my dad is on FB. It's fun to see what he links to, what he posts and stuff. Good luck with your decision.

I still write letters. Not very often, but sometimes. We could probably get my daughter to write your daughters if they would be interested. That might be fun!

evitafjord said...

Congratulations to you - and to your husband!!

I love FB. But I only keep people I would want to have info about me or see pictures of my kids - or I block them from the stuff I don't want them to see. I don't accept requests from friends of friends I might know casually and I don't worry about offending someone if I don't. It's MY FB and I'll use it however I want to haha. My settings are private and I have some people permanently on my list of people who don't get my status updates and if I post a particularly private one, I edit the settings to send it only to certain people or to remove certain people from being able to see it. I really like posting status updates that only my husband can see ;-). I don't post my innermost thoughts on FB, but that's me - I don't tell my innermost thoughts to most people either. EVERY annoying game/poll/post/person/thing that can be hidden, gets hidden. It's a tool and for the most part, it's been a good one, especially living halfway across the country from family.

If there are things you don't like about the way you're using it, change them. If you find there's nothing left for you, then delete it.

Before FB, I hadn't seen or heard from cousins or other friends in years and years. There are too many people I love who are too far away.

I do get caught in the Games (word and puzzle games) sometimes, but when it gets out of hand, I block them all - until another one catches my eye ;-).

Anonymous said...

It took me a minute to realize that tile was two people kneeling. At first all I saw was a crazy old man with a mustache.

FB is no longer addicting to me. I keep the account for the occasional checking in of certain people, to send quick messages and to play scrabble with friends.

Several months ago my niece announced she was purging her FB friends list of all FB friends friends and only keeping close friends and family. It was kind of funny---I wondered if the people who didn't make the cut noticed.

FoxyJ said...

Facebook is great for someone like me; I have lived in a lot of different places all over and have a lot of people I'd like to keep in touch with on a more casual level. I attended two different high schools, and since then my parents have moved away from both those areas. I also know a lot of people from my mission, college, etc. Like an earlier commenter, I'm very careful about how I use Facebook and very picky about who I add and who I look at. It's been a great way to find people I haven't seen in years and that I really do want to keep in touch with.

Handsfullmom said...

Congrats on the graduation -- I know you put in at least as much effort as he did. =)

Amber Peck said...

Rather than ditching Facebook, delete some friends. My friend criteria: Would i be able to have an actual conversation with this person in real life? If not, delete.

Stephanie said...

My MIL writes real letters, especially thank you notes, and I know she would like it if I also wrote real letters and notes. So sometimes, just to stay in the running for favorite DIL, I write her a real note.

I have a facebook account so I can find people that I've lost over the years. Like the other day, I found one of my sister's best friends from high school that she had COMPLETELY lost track of. I check it every couple weeks, maybe. It's a good tool for me. And I know that if a reunion is planned with high school or college friends, they will be able to find me.