I’ve kept a blog this blog for quite some time. However, I really haven’t been very active in terms of approving comments, learning new things or writing new entries. Just now I looked at the comments and found a lot! I also checked out the visitor statistics which are pretty good for a blog that really doesn’t have any set theme. In fact, there was a comment from one of my previous students in Tokyo that was actually here in San Francsico for vacation. (Mari, sorry I missed you, find me on Facebook!)
Note to any that read this blog: If I know you then find me on Facebook! www.facebook.com I’m not hard to find, just search my name and lets connect!
I’ll try to write more entries from now on and keep it interesting. The reason I really haven’t written much recently is that I got used to my life in San Francisco and I start to feel that things aren’t interesting enough to write about. I felt the same way living in Tokyo and Saigon after a while, thought that my writings wouldn’t be that interesting since life seemed normal to me. Now I wish I would have written more during those times as I enjoy looking back and realize that even though it wasn’t so interesting to me at the time, it might be interesting for others and I would also enjoy reading it now.
So, even though my SF life seems pretty normal to me now I have to make myself realize that it could be possibly interesting for those that do not live here and especially for my friends in foreign countries.
Another reason for the lack of writing has been Facebook. Facebook made things just so easy and I found myself concentrating my time on Facebook which supplanted this blog as my main source of online activity. However, Facebook is really only good for keeping in touch with friends and has a set audience which would be those on the friends list. The internet, being a complete universe within itself does not contain those boundaries and is open to all.
I did set up an RSS feed for this blog to be automatically published to my Facebook and I had to give that a lot of thought. The reason is my entire social network would be able to see what my thoughts are on a variety of topics and these are people with varied opinions. I thought about the exposure to my personal network which seemed a bit more intimate since I actually know those people and might receive some very personal feedback rather than from someone out in the internet who I really do not know.
I thought I might have to temper my fiery political posts since I have such a wide spectrum of friends but after much thought, I decided to do it anyway. One of the reasons is because I’m still pretty much of a hermit having lived away from my hometown for so long and it is most probable that I will not meet most of those people in real life ever again. It is not that I do not desire to meet people but rather, on Facebook these relationships are much farther removed as we are communicating through a computer. In fact, these friends are really just a collection of words, thoughts and pictures and do not have the impact of face to face conversation.
Our friends on Facebook are just memories combined with recent pictures, and electronic communication until one day they might appear in your life again and then they turn “real” again. These meetings are quite fun as one can refer to the events in their lives from posts on Facebook and the conversation and “catching up” seems almost as though it is much more effective and efficient. I’ve found myself referring to Facebook so many times in conversation with those I’ve “friended” online but perhaps had not actually seen in person in a very long time. In fact, at a recent family gathering a few cousins of mine decided to play a drinking game where they had to drink every time I said the word “Facebook.”
That got me thinking about how communication has changed due to Facebook and for some it can seem silly and as just a diversion with no bearing in real life. However, it is in fact, a real tool and will most likely be referred to quite often for the younger generation when they meet in person and already have a wealth of information about their recent events.
Anyway, I’m trying to write this entry with a movie being played on the T.V. right behind me and it is quite difficult to get my thoughts together. So, I’ll make an end to it now but will work on posting more entries in a timely manner.
