Facebook Requests

All of a sudden, I received numerous Facebook requests to be Friends over the last week. Most are names unfamiliar to me. Who are they?! As a habit, I am very careful who I confirm as friends as I don't want my Facebook to be filled with people I dont even know! To me, having a HUGE number of "Friends" on Facebook is not meaningful to me if I don't even know them. 
I finally found out that they are mostly relatives and family from both my paternal and maternal side of the family who have connected with my mother on Facebook. Oh gosh. What am I supposed to do? Confirm?

My Mother is on Facebook II

It feels really strange to have my mother on Facebook. I am someone who prefer to have my own space when needed and I treat Facebook as such a space that I can retreat to at times. As such, even though my daughters are also on Facebook, I have never requested for them to add me as their friends. I want to respect their space. However, when they requested to be my friend, I did not add them either haha. I needed my space from them! :P 

My Mother is on Facebook!

My mother is finally on Facebook! All thanks to my younger daughter who helped my mother to set up a Facebook account on her new handphone. 
I have no choice but to accept my mother's request to be Friends on Facebook. I feel as if my mother is monitoring me. Lol. 

Featured on People of OER :)

I am being featured on People of OER, Office of Education Research Facebook page. :) 

To read about what I do, click on the link: People of OER: Dr Wong Hwei Ming 

People of OER is a series of posts about people working in OER who help education research gain traction in Singapore. 

Profile Photo

The profile photos on my blog and Facebook are quite dated. I finally changed them to more current photos. :)

I have deleted my Facebook account

No, not me but Marieann. She told me that she has deleted her Facebook account because she realised that she is under age and thus, violating the Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. I am so proud of her for doing the right thing on her own accord. :) 
Marieann went behind my back to set up a Facebook account when I have told the girls not to do that (she gave in to peer pressure as her friends are also on Facebook). As a parent, I know I could have deleted the account on her behalf but it would be by brute force. If she could not understand the reason why I wanted to delete the account, it would be very easy for her to set up another account under a different name and it would be much worse as I would have no way of ensuring her cyber-safety and wellness. It would also damage our mother-daughter relationship. So I did the next best thing - talk to her about cyber-safety and wellness as well as checking in with her about her Facebook movement. At last, the message has sunk in. :) She made her own decision and deleted her Facebook account. :)

Message

I saw this message when I checked my Facebook. :P 

"Hi mama WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO REPLY YOU SAID THAT YOU ARE GOING TO REPLY IN APRIL !!!!!!!!!OMG"

Oops! It was from Juliane lol. And it was her second message to me. I have yet to add her and Marieann to my list of friends in Facebook because I have yet to sort out my friends into appropriate groups, e.g. students, schoolmates, colleagues, etc. Soon, soon, Girls, I promise. :)

My Girls Are on Facebook!

OMG! My girls have Facebook accounts!! Despite me telling them that they were too young to have Facebook account (for security issues), they went ahead. They are so going to get it from me.
How did I find out? It was most silly. I was checking my Facebook and one of my girls blurted out excitedly that her sister has Facebook too. The sister seeing that she was betrayed, quickly retorted that the "traitor" also has Facebook.
I posted this on my Facebook and I had various reactions from friends, ranging from sympathy to "Oh goody, give me their names, I will friend them!". I think most of my friends thought it is quite funny. Guess I will need to talk to them again about cyber-safety.

Blog or Facebook?

Some of us have both a blog and a Facebook account. If you have both, do you have a preference for one over the other?
Seeing how often I have to send out a whole bunch of Belated Happy Birthday wishes through Facebook because I don't check in often enough, is evident enough which one is my preference lol. :P

My New Friend, Abby

I have a new friend, Abby and she lives in America. :)

I "met" her through my blog lol. :) Abby happened to read my blog about my (then coming) trip to America and left me nice comments and wished me safe travels. That was so sweet of her. After my conference presentation, she again left me comments and congratulated me . It was really nice of her, especially when I was alone in a foreign country. I enjoyed reading her comments. Unfortunately I hadn't realised that Abby left comments for me and I couldn't reply her in time before she flew to Singapore for a vacation.

Abby is back in America from her vacation and she wrote on my blog. Now we are friends on Facebook. :)

"Hi Abby. I hope you don't mind that I am writing about you on my blog. :P I am really happy to have made a new friend. Let's hope we can meet up one day. :) Meanwhile, keep in touch and you take care."

Facebook Games

I really enjoy playing games. It is really good for the mind, either relaxes it, stimulates it or frustrates it, lol.

I have a number of games going on Facebook - Slayers, Vampires, Werewolves, Counterstrike: Red Team Go, Jedi vs Sith, Pirates, Attack, Boggle and Scrabble. I am still trying to figure out how to play Pirates and Attack and so have been rather passive on them, lol. But I have been most active with Slayers, Vampires, Werewolves, Jedi vs Sith, Scrabble and Boggle. My favourites are Jedi vs Sith and Scrabble because strategy is needed to play the games well.

Boggle is also fast becoming my favourite. But I am still learning the game, lol. Mind still not configured yet to see the different combination of words not in the usual straight line, hahaha. But I am not giving up on Boggle yet, even though I lost all my games. I think my friends must be tired of playing it with me, lol. Sorry, but I want to play until I win one game at least, hahaha. Yar, I know "Wait long long", lol. :P

"Addiction"

I came home today just before noon after giving a talk in school to discover there was something wrong with the wireless Internet connection! I was most distraught!!! How could this have happened?! At 6:30am, I could still access the Internet but why not now??

I tried rebooting the system, I tried re-starting my laptop, I tried switching on and off the Internet console - SEVERAL times! Nothing worked, short of me taking the Internet console apart! SIGH! No choice, I took my laptop and went somewhere with Internet connection.

Yes, I can hear some friends saying, "Why the urgent need of the Internet?". No Internet, then how to log on to Facebook? No, I mean needed to do some work so I need the Internet connection? Err... really. :P I am addicted to Facebook? No lah, no more than the usual persons. No, I am not swimming "In the Nile". Serious.

Ok, FINE! I admit!


Yes.



I am just VERY, VERY interested in Facebook. That's all! That doesn't count as addiction, right? I am NOT addicted to Facebook.

PS. The Internet is working again! Happiness. Yes, I am still NOT addicted to Facebook. :P

People Connector

Ok, bear with me, I am still on about Facebook, lol.

I think ONE reason why I am so hooked on Facebook is that I am able to stay connected with my friends - old friends, new friends, best friends, close friends, ... all at the same time! You can have a conversation with any number of friends at the same time and play a variety of games with one or all of them. It brings people closer together, connects people like never before. :)

Being connected to my friends is very important to me. Friendship means a lot to me! Here are some friendship quotes which I personally find very meaningful.

Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget. - Unknown Author

Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest! - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this? - Henry David Thoreau

There is an energy field between humans. And, when we reach out in passion, it is met with an answering passion and changes the relationship forever. - Rollo May

I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me. I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way. - Edgar A. Guest

Thus nature has no love for solitude, and always leans, as it were, on some support; and the sweetest support is found in the most intimate friendship. - Cicero

So to all my friends, thank you for your friendship. It means much more to me than you may have realised. Thank you.

Pandemic

It is confirmed. It is a pandemic! I have never seen anything as highly contagious and widespread as this! It is worse than the SARS virus, than the virus in 28 Days Later & 28 Weeks Later; than the umbrella virus in Resident Evil; than the zombie virus in Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead; than the virus in Outbreak; ... No, I am NOT exaggerating. Am most serious. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a little. Lol.

Huh? What disease? Err... did I say it was a disease? Oh no, I am not talking about an actual disease. I am talking about the Facebook pandemic. Hahaha.


Within a week, a whole office of 10 people, 9 are now on Facebook. And there is even a notice on the wall saying "This Office is on Facebook. Are you???". This is ONLY one office. I have yet to verify the status of the other offices. I am sure the situation is not too far off. Tell me if Facebook isn't super contagious, I don't know what is, hahaha.

As you can tell, I have been highly infected too. Still on Facebook. If there is a cure out there, let me know. Wait, do I want to be cured? NAY! Hahaha. :P

Facebook II & My Blog

Still very hooked on Facebook. Hahaha. Have found quite a number of people through it, especially my former students from 4 Prudence, SCGS. Really glad to have established contact with them again. It is really wonderful to know that they are all doing well academically. I am sure I will hear from more of them soon. Remember I only just got started on Facebook on 15 October, 4 days ago, so give me some time to look them up and vice verse, lol.

I was trying out with the various applications on Facebook. Really fun. Have added iDescribe and Star Wars Quotes. iDescribe is an application where you can invite your friends to describe you in 5 words from a list of words. I think it would be quite fun as well as being the moment of truth, lol. I will finally know what my friends think of me, lol. I will take it as a chance to learn more about myself and to change for the better. :)

I have always like Star Wars so I was pretty thrilled when I saw Star Wars Quotes. Added it and I looked for my favourite quote by Yoda from Star Wars: The Empire Srikes Back. Yoda said to Luke Skywalker when he had tried to lift his X-Wing Fighter from the swamp with the Force and failed. Yoda said, "No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try". I think this is so simple but yet so powerful in its truth and it applies to all aspect of our lives, on Earth, and not just in a galaxy far, far away. =)

***
I have also updated my blog with some new gadgets, added web widgets to be exact. I now have a Birthday Countdown counter, counting down to my birthday, lol. Why not? I have always like birthdays, be it mine or others. It is a time for celebration and fun. Well, some will say it means you are one year older and one year closer to death. Well, after my close brush with death last year, I say, "Hell with it! Life is too short, just celebrate life and living with every opportunity you have! Birthdays is just as good an opportunity as any others!". So there, lol.

I have also added a Daily Affirmation web widget. I hope Daily Affirmations will offer my blog visitors (and myself, lol) a lift in their mood with these positive little pick-me-ups which included quotes such as proverbs from various countries, very old quotes and some current day ones. What I like is that these quotes are non-denominational (no religious inclinations) so I wouldn't offend anyone. :)

***
So if you do visit my Facebook world or my blog, do check out the new add-ons. :)

PS. Hmm, I'm thinking if I should add games onto my blog, lol.

Hooked on Facebook!!

(Updated 16 October 2007, 12:39am)

LOL. Yes, I am really hooked on Facebook. I got started on it today when I was added as a friend on Facebook by a good friend.

I have been at it for hours now, lol. I was trying to look up lost friends from JC and from uni. The problem is either I can't remember their names but remember their faces or I can remember their names but not how they looked! Ok, I admit I'm getting old lah. Hahaha. Managed to find a few old friends, now waiting for them to confirm.

Have been playing with the various applications too on Facebook. Very fun to try them out. Lol. Oh dear, I can't stop myself, lol. Someone take my laptop away from me, hahaha.

I shall call it a night with Facebook. Bye. See you all tomorrow.

Updated 16 October 2007, 12:39am
Ok, I lied. I am still at it with Facebook, lol. It is so addictive! I really, really have to stop or else, I won't be able to get up early for work tomorrow. Lol.