social networking - the good, bad, ugly and the downright weird.

Unless you have been living on Mars or on that deserted island with Robinson Cruscoe if you are in any way computer literate chances are you are part of the "social networking" thing. Me - I've had a Facebook account for just over 3 yrs and been on Twitter just over a year. And I must admit Im pretty addicted to it all.
Recently a few things have happened which have been downright odd so thought I would blog about it. But first the good:

The main reason why I "love" FB, Twitter is due to the fact that it has made our planet so much more accessible. Originally when I opened my FB account it was pretty much to keep in contact with friends I had made all over the world. As someone who loves travelling and has been fortunate enough to have plenty of worldwide adventures it has been a fab way of touching base with friends as for away as New Zealand or as close as Athlone.
Coupled with this is the "new people" I have chatted to through the various apps I added when I first started FB.
Human Pets was once such one where I chatted to a variety of people who in reality I would never have met. It can be pretty liberating telling strangers things going on in your life, asking for advise without the fear of anyone "judging your actions".

The bad:
Recently a few things have saddened me and shows me that there are some crazies and downright mean people in the world. You only have to look at that group set up after the death of Raoul Moat. Within hours of his death someone had posted a group "RIP Moat, you legend" which gained over 30,000 members (i think) before it was removed. Also living in NI it sickens me seeing groups set up glorifying our wee islands tragic past.

The ugly:
Again this is something which became apparent in last few weeks is the on line bullying and the mob mentality which happens. How easy for it is to someone to be nasty, vicious to people and then others join in and egg the first person on.
I'll hold my hands up and say I have got involved at the "banter" you sometimes get on twitter or groups (all the comments during tv programmes like X factor) can be extremely funny to read. However, I would never post something negative about a person ( appearance, weight or any other personal issue). I was saddened to hear that someone whose tweets and blogs I had always enjoyed reading had de ctivated their account because of a campaign of hatred against them. To me thats when it stops being funny. To be weepy, unable to sleep, snappy in your real life because people are sending you nasty messages to ur in box and then post horrid horrid comments goes beyond having a laugh. And maybe Im a wee bit guilty too as although I wasn't involved in it and didnt know all that was going on, I was aware that something was up but didnt want to stick my nose into a battle which wasn't mine.

And the downright weird:
First weird is a Good weird in that I was actually headhunted through my FB again. When i joined FB the old NI discussion board was pretty inactive and there were only really about 10 regular posters. At the time I built up a good banter with 5/6 of the other ones and tried to get the board going with many different discussion topics.
Coupled with this was the fact that my profile pic for about first 2 yrs was the one which is currently on the blog (red hat and glasses). This was for the reason that I didnt want ex pupils seeing me but a marketing executiv from one of NI main advertising companies thought it was a marketing ploy and contacted me about doing some freelance work! (true story) Unfortunatekly was too busy in own work so never went to meet up with him!

2nd weird is the fact that there is a feature on twitter which notifies you if someone "unfollows you". This I found v strange as although I probably banter more now on twitter than on FB the majoritity of people I follow/follow me are in fact strangers. Yes some I would now count as friends and hope to meet up with several soon but strangers none the less.
Few weeks back I decided to unfollow someone - firstly they were tweeting far too much but secondly the fact that they seemed to see themselves as a Kate Adie character and were posting large amounts on the riots (which i DIDNT want to read about) so unfollowed. I couldnt believe it the nxt day when I got a tweet asking had I (and 2 others) meant to unfollow. When I looked at her page she had tweeted that a email notification had come throught at 1 am telling who had unfollowed her.
I found that absolutely crazy that someone whom I had never met seemed to take offence that I no longer wanted to read mundane facts about her life. Furthermore when one of the other 2 people tried to explain their actions , one of them was made to feel so bad that he went on to de activate his account later that day - MAD!!!!!

anyway thats about it. Saying all that I do still think that the good still outweights the bad so for now at least Im here to stay!

So is Stephanie Meyer the new Shakespere then?

So possible any guys reading or ladies over a certain age (ie 21 yrs) might be scratching their head saying WHO at this point. So let me explain S Meyer is the author behind the Twilight Saga.
Ok for those who havent stopped reading at the mention of Twilight let me explain what I mean. Twilight is the 1st of 4 books centrating on the story of vampires, werewolves but predominately this is a modern day love story.
Strip away the oddities of the two main guy characters - (one is "the living dead/cold man " the other is a furry, snarling canine ) and what do you get? Both guys fighting over the heart of the human - Bella.
So who is still confused as to why on earth i think this book shares any similarities to Shakesperes most famous book - Romeo and Juliet? Let me explain.
This is a love story of the highest degree- the kind that you only really find in books or films. The deep burning connection between the 2 characters whats superceeds life or death. Like R &J, Edward and Bella are willing to die rather than existing without each other.
Point 2 - even though this series is written in modern day America the morals of the 2 heroes are a theme throughout the 4 books. Edward is determined not to "do the do" with Bella until they are married. Also (and please feel fress to correct me if Im wrong but) there is no swear words,cursing in the books or film. So another postive theme which could be used as an example in schools or for life. Now this could be more to do with the fact that S Meyer was brought up with a Mormon background where this behaviour was unaccectable but still is a postive message to have.
Soooo am i convincing anyone yet? Who is with me in my campaign to replace good ole Will Shakespere with Miss Meyer?
Not yet? Ok third reason then lets discuss the relationship between the 2 main groups in the story - the vampires and the werewolves. And yes we had the rivalary in West Side Story but think of the postive message of twilight. The WW and V werent just rivals based on a gang culture. Their reason for hating each other went centuries deep and fundamentally the whole reason for the WW existance was to protect against the V. Yet in book 3 (eclipse) the 2 groups have to put aside differences to work towards a common goal of protecting Bella.
Also think about it- the fact that there is no distinct "good" or "evil" in the stories. The reader is left to make up their own mind as to who they feel more empathy with and are Routing for to win Bella's heart. Go to a group of 20 or so Twihard fans, and for every 1 who is one "Team Edward" there will be at least 1 who is "team Jacob". What better way of demonstrating to teenagers how complicated the troubles of the world are!

I rest my case.... so if i have convinced you lets go.... Stephanie Meyer's IS the new Will Shakespere ... END OFF!!!!!

The game of the juggling balls

just read this in the book Im reading at the mo and it struck a real cord.





"Imagine that life is a game in which you are juggling 5 balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends and integrity. You concentrate on keeping them all in the air. Sometimes this is easy to do and other times it is harder and you fear that you will be unable to keep juggling.


But what some people dont understand that the "work ball" is rubber. In that if it is dropped it will bounce back again. However the other 4 balls (family, friends, health and intergrity) are made of glass. If you drop one of these then it will be irrevocably scuffed, damaged or perhaps even shattered.


So once you finally truely understand the lessons of the 5 balls then you will have the beginnings of balance in your life."





This is sooo true. We go through life never really appreciating how precious things are until they are questioned. How many times do we fail to realize times we spend with our family or friends will be the things we remember when we are old and grey and long since outta the loop of work?


The rubber ball is exactly that. If anyone of us died tomorrow the harsh reality is even though our immediate work collegues would mourn us, miss us etc life goes on and there would be someone new sitting in our chair in 3 months time. However for the family, friends, loved one and people we left behind then their life will never be the same again.


Or the importance of our health.. Again Im lucky to be born with everything working properly and I take it for granted without a thought. That was until an irregular smear a few years back. At the time this was pretty scary as it was also around the time of the Jade Goody Cancer story just coming to light. Luckily everything was fine but now when I get the letter from the Smear Clinic telling my its time for my regular check out then its no longer a cringy thing that i try to put off.



So what have I learnt?

Yes work hard, give ur all, be committed BUT put more of your effort into ensuring that you keep your glass balls aloft!