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For The Record

With the opening of the new film The Social Network this weekend, all the news channels are jumping on the opinion bandwagon regarding the phenomena that is social networking. I've heard everything from "I don't get it" to "it's perpetuating our narcissistic society". It seems the news reporters (and some celebrities) have some pretty succinct reasoning as to why they are or are not participating in social networking. With all the sharing of opinions on the matter, I wanted to take a sec and chime in with my own.

For the record, my usage of "the twitter" (thanx Betty White), Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace is in NO WAY narcissistic. In EVERY case, these wonderful networks are simply sounding boards. It is probably true that no one wants to know "what I am doing now", but what I am doing now isn't what I'm communicating. I share what I think and what I feel, giving away little pieces of who I am to the world that may or may not include "what I'm doing now"..... it's called C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-I-O-N. The social networks are today's version of "quill and fiber". It is how the world IS communicating and we, as a society, will not be going in any other direction. Those who aren't communicating via social networks will be liken to the people who refused to jump on the fleeting fad of those new-fangled talking boxes... what we know today as telephones, or more accurately, phones. There are multiple applications (what we used to call programs) now that actually integrate ALL the social networks together to allow users to communicate on multiple platforms at once... which is BRILLIANT BTW. And in SOOOOO many cases now, if you aren't linked into a social network (because this is quickly becoming the preferred method of communication by many), you will miss some pertinent information. For example, you wake up, get ready for the day and head to a local furniture store to replace the chair that was on it's last leg and finally broke. You just walked out your front door not knowing that earlier that morning the furniture store you were heading to just sent out a tweet that said, "FREE chairs 2 the 1st 5000 customers 2MORROW". Not being part of our new-fangled "social networks" could potentially keep you from being connected to our ever changing society, and could cost you more for it.
Now I will add that I'm not thrilled that our current method of social networking appears to perpetuate literacy problems. Since social networking and text messaging are all set up with restricted communication and character limits, it seems that EVERYONE (myself included sometimes) has a reduced vocabulary. Every message is reduced and, with no better way to describe this, everyone on the networks seem to be "hooked on phonics" in that they only communicate phonetically.... ALL THE TIME! I'm wondering if there is not a better way to communicate at the speed we are currently communicating without "dumbing down" the communication itself. And while spell check was a blessing for this technological age, it's not even on the radar anymore since a majority of all communication is a jumble of misspelled words. Heck, it's so bad, we've discovered that evnmy wskd cin be moskehlld ayd ywu cyn seufl rend tje metshge. Are we just that used to having to understand the broken communication? hahahahhahaha!
Social networking might be a double edged sword, but it is how we are communicating and will be communicating into the future. You just might be missing a lot if you're still on the fence.

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Past 7 Days....

Gorgous Leaves Bundle Revisited

Yestday's Freebie Friday on a Monday projects were so fun and this set is SO BEAUTIFUL in it's simplicity!  It reminds me of a long-retired stamp set from Stampin Up!.  I was inspired to re-create the projects that I made with it once upon a time.  So here we go.... SIMPLE projects when you need a quick "hello" or an even quicker heartfelt sympathy card: I was DEFINITELY on a Bumblebee and Cajun Craze kick yesterday!  I can't stop/won't stop!  LOL!  To be fair... I had extra leaves die cut and didn't want anything to go to waste!  A quick speckle backdrop in Bumblebee then a quick "hello" greeting from the Biggest Wish in Cajun Craze with the Cajun Craze leaf popped up on a Basic White cardbase.  PERFECTION! Okay, as with yesterday's projects, the sentiment is from the recently retired SAB Delicate Dahlia's set, but you could use ANY sympathy sentiment you have in your stash.  Unlike in the past when I had to mask off the center rectangle

Amazon... What Is Wrong?

So, you live and you learn. I did a GREAT review for The Kindle the other day. In fact, I did the review touting how WONDERFUL The Kindle was compared to The Nook... well, I just so happened to have written that post the day after I ordered The Kindle from Amazon.com. Since then (going on 6 DAYS AGO) Amazon STILL hasn't shipped it. That's right. My order purchase came to a whopping total of $259 and for that amount included free super saver shipping. Is "super saver" code for "this person's gonna get HORRIBLE service and have to wait FOREVER to even get what they ordered"? Really, I'm just curious. Had I known that I wouldn't have an e-reader right now (in my hot little hands) to enjoy, I WOULD have opted for The Nook. The differences between the two readers are SLIGHT at best (although I stick with that hinge being oh so cool! Barnes and Noble, LISTEN TO ME!).... but if Barnes and Noble's customer service is only minimally better than what I

BACK To Halloween.... WHEW!

Okay... BACK to Halloween gifting this week!  We're makin more goody boxes using The Cutest Halloween Bundle again this week, we are also featuring the tags and labels dies from the July - December 2021 Mini Catalog (lovingly dubbed "the holiday mini").  I've got to admit, this bundle really is the cutest and I'm having SOOOO much fun playing with it simply because of how easy it is to work with.  The fact that the punch ALSO punches out the images from the DSP makes this one a super-huge winner for me.  I mean.... three goody projects in under an hour!?!  That's right!  This week's Freebie Friday On A Monday was actually recorded in under 40 minutes!  SO DOABLE to get ready for Halloween gifting!  As always, the link to the free PDF with supplies used and measurements is below the last pic and if you place a $35 or more from my online store (click "Shop With Me" in the banner at the top of this blog) using this week's Host/Hostess code  GHRG