Virtual laughs

I have stated before that I am slightly addicted to social networking, especially to Facebook. I realised today again that the world is so much smaller these days when you can reach your friends and have “group-conversations” with people in all different places. It feels like your friends are actually there. Considering that people move around a lot more these days, find work in different places, different countries, even different continents it makes it harder to stay in touch.

I am (unfortunately) old enough to remember the times before everyone had emails or internet and my friends and I used to write letter (snail mail) to each other. It was always a great feeling when a letter arrived in the post. I still treasure those letters. As I am no great writer of letters… it also meant that it was a lot easier to drift apart and all the sudden you didn’t have much in common with your friends and when you met up it sometimes was a bit of a struggle to continue where you left up.

I am still no great writer of emails etc but at least it is so much easier to stay in touch and have some laughs with friends that are away now. Nothing beats meeting up in reality but until we do again… there are always many virtual laughs to be had.

See you soon guys! 🙂

Blogging anonymously or not…

So… when I started thinking about blogging, one of the first thing that I thought about was that I would start blogging under a different name. Mainly because I was feeling really hesitant about writing all this stuff that spills out of my head and what people who know me would think and if I’m honest…I was also a scaredy cat about it. This was not exactly something that I had ever done before. There is a certain freedom to blog under a different name. People who read it have no preconceived opinions about you and you can say things that you previously have felt shy about or thinking that others might laugh about. At least this is how I felt.

Lately I have started to re-evaluate my thinking regarding this subject. In the end of the day, if someone thinks that what I write about is stupid, laughable (in the bad sense of the word) or just plain boring..well, then they are entitled to their opinion and they don’t have to read what I write. Life is too short to worry about what everyone else thinks and as much as I would like it to be different, there will always be people who do not like what I have to say, who think what I say is stupid or just don’t like me as a person. I obviously hope that what I write is not totally horrid and that there are people out there that enjoy my silly rants about this and that but I blog for my sake as much as anything else. It somehow feels right to write down my thoughts even if it doesn’t always makes sense.

So, I guess I will just have to update my “About me” page now. I will still call this blog “Ivy Blaise’s Blog”, let’s just say that this will be my “alter ego” and considering that I have one of the most complicated names ever that no-one ever can spell or pronounce half the time ( will cover that rant in a separate blog entry I think), I think I will stick to “Ivy Blaise”. I have always liked the first name “Ivy” somehow and I took the name “Blaise” from an old tale about Merlin where Blaise was Merlin’s master and the one who wrote down Merlin’s deeds. I also have to confess that I am very fond of the comic “Modesty Blaise” since an early age. Ah well, I have never claimed to make sense.

So now to step two…update profile and see what happens after that. Am still a bit of a scaredy cat though… 🙂

Social networking

I have to confess, I am addicted to Facebook. It has become an important part of my life. I need to check it at least once a day if not more often. Thank god for mobile devices. For me, Facebook has enabled a feat that all the letters, emails, mobiles in the world have been unable to – keeping in touch friends near and far. It has become a vital tool for me to staying in touch, keeping track and sharing fun. Some friends I have gotten to know anew after many years and I have made new friends out of acquaintances. It is weird that some people I know better via Facebook than real life.

I love the fact that it is easy to use when setting up a night out between friends or just share tales and pictures. I am aware that Facebook has its privacy issues but in the end of the day it is an internet based networking site which is supposed to be “open”, even if you can modify the privacy settings a bit, so it is something to take into account. Just keep that in mind when posting cringeworthy comments or pictures, it is just like with everything in life that you don’t want to all to know, use some common sense… or just do not post it in the first place.

Living abroad with several friends in many countries has made Facebook invaluable to me. It adds to my social life, brings many laughs and keeps friendships alive. It is not perfect but does what I need most times… except when I am extremely bored and no-one has any new status updates…come on people, say something! 🙂