The Bounds of “Friending”

I love Facebook, and to an extent, Myspace.  They’re great ways to keep in touch with friends and family.  I’m friends with people I went to high school with, college, church, old teachers, relatives, and even people I’ve never met but know and have known for years now through other online communities.  I think that social networking sites are great tools for keeping in touch with people and such.  However, I personally don’t like it when people use them more as a marketing or better yet, a campaigning tool.

Just in the past two days, I’ve had friend requests from the people who sold us our house in April of last year.  In the past year and a half, we have had no contact with these people, but now they want to “friend” us.  Bart, of course accepted them as friends.  He’s a bit of a friend whore.  I, on the other hand, have no desire to be used as a marketing tool, which is what will happen when these people gain access to my list of friends.  I know, I’m being used all the time for marketing, but this is pretty blatant.  It’s like when Dan Coody tried to friend me on Facebook when he was running for Fayetteville reelection.  To me, that’s a form of endorsement, and I don’t like the man at all, not to mention I don’t live in Fayetteville.

Anyway, it seems that my safe haven of actual friendship is being bombarded by salesmen, and I don’t like it.  The ads to the right and left of me are more than enough.  Please don’t friend me just to gain my vote or sell me something, and really don’t friend me just to gain access to all of my friends so that you can harass them.

The Bounds of "Friending"

I love Facebook, and to an extent, Myspace.  They’re great ways to keep in touch with friends and family.  I’m friends with people I went to high school with, college, church, old teachers, relatives, and even people I’ve never met but know and have known for years now through other online communities.  I think that social networking sites are great tools for keeping in touch with people and such.  However, I personally don’t like it when people use them more as a marketing or better yet, a campaigning tool.

Just in the past two days, I’ve had friend requests from the people who sold us our house in April of last year.  In the past year and a half, we have had no contact with these people, but now they want to “friend” us.  Bart, of course accepted them as friends.  He’s a bit of a friend whore.  I, on the other hand, have no desire to be used as a marketing tool, which is what will happen when these people gain access to my list of friends.  I know, I’m being used all the time for marketing, but this is pretty blatant.  It’s like when Dan Coody tried to friend me on Facebook when he was running for Fayetteville reelection.  To me, that’s a form of endorsement, and I don’t like the man at all, not to mention I don’t live in Fayetteville.

Anyway, it seems that my safe haven of actual friendship is being bombarded by salesmen, and I don’t like it.  The ads to the right and left of me are more than enough.  Please don’t friend me just to gain my vote or sell me something, and really don’t friend me just to gain access to all of my friends so that you can harass them.

Disappointing Adaptations

Let me start this post by stating that I’m neither a fan nor a critic of the “Twilight” series of books. I’ve never read any of them, and don’t really intend to because I tend to enjoy historical fiction and older Classics rather than contemporary works, especially those about vampires. That’s a subject of literature that hasn’t interested me in well over a decade. I have nothing against the throngs of teenage girls and other women who’ve become such devoted fans of the “Twilight” books, though. I’m thrilled every time I hear of young people reading books of almost any sort, it’s such a rare occurrence these days. I feel for the many who are going to be filling theaters this weekend and in the coming weeks to watch the “Twilight” movie though. According to the MySpace status one of my fifteen-year-old cousin Charity, who loves the series of books so much that she, her sister, and some friends made sure to see the movie right at Midnight this morning when it opened,

“Don’t waste your money to go see Twilight! It SUCKED!!!! I am seriously going to cry, I’m just that disappointed!”

How many times have we read a book that we loved and just couldn’t wait for the movie to be made, but when it premiered it didn’t live up to our expectations? For me, it has occurred countless times. Sometimes the movie is still good enough that we’re able to overlook the differences between book and movie, like “To Kill a Mockingbird.” There are some obvious differences between the two, because of missing characters and scenes in the movie. However, the heart of the story remains throughout the movie.

Another example is “Gone With the Wind.” I personally love the movie “Gone With the Wind.” It is and always will be a cinematic masterpiece. However, it wasn’t until I was eighteen years old that I decided to read the book. I realized that Scarlett had a child with each of her husbands, Wade Hampton Hamilton and Ella Lorena Kennedy. While Ella’s part in GWTW is quite small, I’ve always found it amazing that the character of Wade was cut from the movie. Wade is Scarlett’s excuse for going to Atlanta to stay at Aunt Pitty’s. Though she didn’t know how to love or mother him, Wade’s existence and her need to provide for him throughout the war is part of her drive and motivation. One of the best scenes in the book is when the Yankees are at Tara (they were there twice after Scarlett returned in the book) and they try to take Charles’s sword that was given to Wade, and they almost kill him. It was a shame to not have that scene.

Sometimes a movie or television adaptation of a book is little more than a complete bastardization of beloved Literature, I’m talking about “Back to Green Gables,” the Kevin Sullivan trash that was released this year, supposedly in honor of the one hundredth anniversary of the publishing of “Anne of Green Gables” that, along with the 2000 tv-movie, “Anne of Green Gables, the Continuing Story” completely rewrites the entire story of “Anne of Green Gables.” I’m sickened by all of it. That’s my favorite series of books, and though I loved the original Sullivan mini-series of “Anne of Green Gables” and could tolerate “Anne of Green Gables the Sequel,” I couldn’t finish watching the continuing story and I refuse to even consider watching “Back to Green Gables.” They’ve tried to destroy the character of Anne Shirley-Blythe, and it’s abominable!

I don’t know what was wrong with the “Twilight” movie, but all I can say to anyone who was disappointed with it after reading the books, don’t stop reading the books. The cinema of our own minds and imaginations is always a far better theater than that on celluloid or in the form of digitized bits. Keep reading the books, and continue to watch the movies if for no other reason than to compare and contrast the two. Hollywood isn’t the perfect place it wants us to think that it is, and it’s obvious by their imperfect adaptations.

Random Thoughts and Observations: September 9, 2008 Edition

• I think that I’m getting to the point where I don’t actually need as much sleep as I would like to get. Hardly a night goes by when something or many things don’t wake me up throughout the night. Take two recent nights as an example:Over Labor Day weekend, my nieces, Emma and Kelsey spent Sunday Night with us. I was up off an on with them most of the night, including when Emma woke up at 4AM, and needed to know where I was. I probably woke her up, letting Lucy out to play like she sometimes enjoys doing in the very early morning hours. Somehow, I made it through that night, none the worse for wear, apparently. Last night, Bart woke me up, gnashing his teeth in my ear. Then I had to go to the bathroom and wrap my wrist because it was bugging me. When I went back to bed, Lucy was then awake and needed to potty. She then couldn’t go back to sleep, so I put her in the back yard. Just as I was finally getting to sleep I heard angry barking. Lucy must’ve found her possum friend again, so I had to let her back in the house to keep from angering the neighbors. I then got the hiccups. I never have hiccups in the middle of the night, but then my body has been all sorts of odd lately. Anyway, Lucy came back to bed with us and tried to get comfortable on me, but couldn’t due to my hiccups. So, I put her in the living room and closed the bedroom door. Finally I sort of fell asleep for a few hours. When next I awoke I checked on Lucy (because the last time I locked her out of the bedroom she ate a pen that leaked all over our carpet). She awoke again and joined us in our room, but in the floor. Somehow, I’m more awake than the dog, who stayed inside for her morning nap today, in our bed according to Bart. I don’t entirely understand it, but I’m managing, even though I feel like a nap usually in the afternoon.
• I am such a gadget whore that I’ve spent the past hour hitting the “refresh” button on endgadget.com so I can keep up with the latest Apple Event. New iPod nanos. I want one. I don’t need one, but I want one. I just hope to be able to update the firmware on my iPod Touch again. Genius looks intriguing.
• I don’t like that Facebook is going to force us to use “The New Facebook.” It’s all buggy and doesn’t work correctly. It’s too Myspaceish.
• I’ve decided to boycott all channels owned by Viacom due to the appalling way Russell Brand hosted the VMA;s on MTV this weekend. This includes the channels :Comedy Central, Logo, BET, Spike, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Noggin, The N, Nick Jr., TEENick, MTV, VH1, MTV2, CMT, and Palladia.
• I think that Arkansas is going to have their rear ends handed to them this weekend by Texas unless they play well all game and not just the fourth quarter.  I think that Oklahoma will prevail over Washington, unless the PAC 10 officials give the Huskies the game.

Random Thoughts and Observations – August 1, 2008 Edition

• First of all, let me say that I’m very thankful for the husband that I have, that we share the same moral, religious, and political beliefs.  I was perusing the friends of friends on MySpace, and saw that a guy I briefly dated is running as a Democrat for the State House in Oklahoma.  There is no way on God’s green earth that I, well could ever have married him because I can’t stand him as a person, have supported him for office!  Of course, we see things totally differently politically.  I’m all for small government, freedom of religion, freedom in itself, low taxes – or no taxes, drilling for oil domestically, building new refineries and nuclear plants, and just plain common sense.  Like I said, I’m eternally grateful for my husband because he does have common sense, no matter how much I tease him otherwise.
• Secondly, never doubt the power of the personal blog.  Sunday or Monday I posted the tale of our troubles in finding a church home before finding the one we recently joined, naming one church in particular, and actually got a response back from said offending church!  I just deleted the post because I had reservations about naming the church to an extent.  I was asked to get in contact with them to help with this issue.  Maybe I should, but I really want nothing to do with the whole lot of them, still yet.  I disagree with so much of what they represent that I would do little more than criticize.  Oh, and I believe in having a pastor, not a “spiritual life coach.”  That’s the sort of thing Oprah has, and I do not belong to the Church of Oprah.
• I made a special point to try and listen to all of The Rush Limbaugh Show today via the Internet because today was the special 20′th Anniversary Episode.  I usually just get to listen as I drive around in my Camry at lunch, but today I listened at my desk.  I love listening to El Rushbo because I AM an educated, informed woman in her late twenties who thinks for myself, rather than following the drivel that most of the Drive-By Media spews forth for us to ingest.  Anyway, I heard Rush give the funniest name to the likes of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Barack Obama – “celebutards.”  Honestly, the name in itself says it all, I think; for all three of them.  Also,  yesterday I had the joy of listening to an archived clip of the infamous “Rita X,” and her off-the-wall, liberal malapropisms.  I laughed more than I have in ages after listening to that.  I have got to talk Bart into letting me join Rush 24/7.
• Lastly, I want to say that it’s beyond time that animal cruelty become a felony in the State of Arkansas.  Now, I don’t think we should have a bill written by the likes of PETA or HSUS fanatics, but it should warrant more than a misdemeanor when people bash in the heads of innocent dogs, and use cattle prods on them in ways no one should use one on anyone.

QotD: My Daily Dose

What websites do you visit every day?
Submitted by Chez Michelle.

Every day I visit certain website to gain my dose of news, information, and entertainment

1.) My Personalized Google, or iGoogle as it is now known:  Here I have a plethora of rss and atoms feeds divided by News, Sports, Entertainment, Tech,  and just Fun.

2.)  MySpace:  What can I say?  I like to see what new bulletins, comments, and messages my "friends" have made.

3.)  A Tangled Web Forum: This is a forum that I created for my friends that are fans of the works of LM Montgomery and fanfiction based on her works.

4.)  Vox:  The answer should be obvious. I'm still relatively new, so this will most likely move up the list as time goes by.

5.)  NWAhomepage.com:  This is the website for where I work.  I actually like working on this.