Facebook and more

I've been on Facebook for about a year; I joined as part of a Web 2.0 course from the State Library, designed to teach lots of the new technologies out there. So it's been fun, mostly because many of my library friends are there. But sometimes long-lost people show up - that's what makes it interesting. An old high school friend found me, along with my brother, of all people! Not like we had to find each other, but we seldom visit. On Facebook we can keep in contact a lot more. His wife is also on, so I get to hear more about what she's doing than I would otherwise. We've even gotten Mom interested, although she's still trying to figure it all out. Now we need to get our other brother (the younger one - you'd think he'd be the one trying to get us on!). 

It's easy to get carried away, of course. I'm also on Twitter (what are you doing in 140 characters or less). A cousin is also on there, although most of his posts are work-related. You can  follow anyone, unlike Facebook where you need to "confirm" the friendship connection. In this way, Twitter has a higher creepiness factor - I'm following people I've never met but only know from their professional work. You can block people, though, so it's not quite the stalking network you might think. The professional folk usually want a high number of followers, and tend to invite everyone. I'm even following the Library of Congress! Pres. Obama used it very effectively during his campaign to keep people informed of events.

Not all the younger generation is as excited: Jon-Erik is mortified that I'm using some of these social networking sites (he only made a Facebook page to humor me) and James-Philip didn't know what Facebook was until Sunday. So I guess I still know a little more than my kids.

February already

I finally put away the Christmas CDs although it was snowing nicely this morning. Is it too early for Backburner's Might As Well Be Spring? I still have a yard that is mostly white, but enough areas around the house have melted off that I'm afraid the peony bushes we planted last fall might start sprouting. That could be bad.

I've finally gotten a Ravelry invite and have joined. Now I have to get going on posting photos of completed projects and my yarn stash (which is a scary thought - that means I have to admit I have one!). There is a Bozeman group on there, which was nice to discover. A high school friend was the one who suggested I join, and she has a nice collection of completed projects - impressive since she hasn't been knitting that long.

Tom is having lots of work done on the Mexico house - he promises pictures when he returns to Texas. We had a great chat on Skype today. Technology is wonderful! We often talk about the years when he was stationed somewhere remotely, and all we had was mail that seemed to go by slow boat. When he and the boys went to Alaska (1998) we thought it was great to have email! And now we can IM, and chat on Skype with video.

Movies: I had to buy Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa yesterday. Those are some clever movies. I also watched Transsiberian - slow to start but very tense by the end. Married Life was interesting, with some twists. I'm not sure the setting of the late 40's was critical, but the costumes and props were fun. The story could probably be set in any time and still work. I'm still working through the first season of Lost - the treadmill broke this week, so I'm stuck with the exercise bike, and not sure Lost is compelling enough to make me want to pedal that long! I may switch to Dexter for my TV episode exercise workouts.