There are days when I think about why I should bother to use Facebook (other than as a diversion). MySpace has been a joke for me for some time. *My biu dai hasn't responded to my last comment to him--who knows what is going on with him and his brother. Oh wait--going through his recent comments I find that he didn't authorize it to be posted. So what am I supposed to think of that? (Yeah, maybe it got lost in cyberspace. ) His bro has a MySpace account as well. Is he using it to meet people, now that he is 'single'? I sent an add friend request--we'll see what comes of that. *

I don't think anyone else I know has been updating their MySpace. Actually, one has, since I saw some photos had been uploaded. Other than that person... It's been a while since I've taken a look at my Friendster account. Xanga--no one reads that, except various companies that are going through entries for advertising purposes or who knows what. The only good thing about Xanga is its protected posting option, which I can't do here. I think sooner or later I will have to close most of these accounts. But perhaps it's too late to prevent people from collecting information. At the moment I am thinking that I may shut this blog down sooner than I expected, even though I do find some zeal to write on it, which can't be said for many other projects.

JP has been online since she got 'married.' But she doesn't really talk much about how things are now. Her esposo's brother recently got out of jail. (For drug possession. I guess using drugs runs in the family. What is wrong with the rich who do not know how to raise their children? Do they think that their children will raise themselves? Those who are self-made millionaries know how much work is needed to make money--apparently they don't understand that the same is even more true for child-raising.) We will answer for our failings... Kyrie eleison. So I have no idea if her life is better now--in the past when they were just seeing each other, the abuse she received at home was replaced by other forms of abuse. And she's still obssessed with her weight. Is it really true that extreme 'thinness' is popular in South Korea now? And guys are deliberately looking for thin girls to be gfs? How can this not be a reflection of the culture of death?

Looking through various pages on any of the social networking sites can give rise to various temptations. Did the Desert Fathers say something about envying worldly people and their success in various areas of life? It seems that the Desert Fathers were concerned with teaching others who had fled the world, and were not going back to it. But my acquaintance with them is limited.

Raising children so that they can have some virtue in order to cope with the world (and innoculating them against the indoctrination that goes on in public schools)--that has always been an imperative. But how can one leave one's children to be raised by others especially now, when the culture is been reshaped by anti-Christian forces? (I say anti-Christian even if it is not Christianity that is being explicitly rejected, just traditional morality, because there is a link. One is either for Christ or against Him.)

Has Dr. Laura's audience grown in the past 5 years?

Anyway, online social utilities are overrated. They are ok for leaving short messages to people, but friendships need more than that to be sustained. Does Aristotle really say "Out of sight, out of mind," in the Nicomachean Ethics? Or was that English idiom used to replace a Greek expression with a similar meaning? I'd be better off spending my time writing letters to actual friends. I actually got an email from CB earlier this week, but I have not yet written back to him. I've been avoiding writing to him since I really don't have much to report and then there are those pesky emotions like shame. Maybe I can respond at the end of the week. I was thinking that I hadn't heard from him in a while, so I was surprised by the e-mail. A coincidence? It was nice of him to write.

I was thinking of quitting this week. I need to file a petition for an extension, so I plan on flying back to Boston this month. It would be convenient if I had passed a deadline of which I am unaware, but I tend to think the grad school is somewhat lenient about these things.

I was re-watching part of ST: Insurrection tonight, and was reminded of how the Baku are like the Amish. (But with no religion of course, just their own version of atheistic spirituality. And that is a key difference.)

I need to kick the soda habit.

Niece #1 to niece #2: "Chit nei go si fat!" Apparently she also said "chi nut" twice in the past two days.