Social networks and you

Social networks touched my life several times today, unrelatedly - A news article about teenagers forsaking Myspace for Lent; a series of responses to a request for advice on orkut; a new widget on this blog (see the sidebar) that lets readers add scraps on my orkut; and a daily horoscope that advised me to reflect on past relationships and what I've learned.
It suddenly hit me that the people I ask for advice, for example - or any time when I need to get in touch with people that I'm not interacting with daily - I turn to my online networks first of all. Which means people who are not on them - or are infrequently on them - are virtually non-existent in my life.
It's... insidious. Because there are so many people there anyway, immediate purposes get served... until one day you realize that there were once people who played a very important role in your life, years ago, that for no discernible reason you fell completely out of touch with.
It's a new caste system, the haves... and the have-nots.

the rush continues

Slightly scary. My game obsession is back. The last time I looked at the clock, it was 4 AM and I'd just shot down two entire squadrons of B-17s. Yup, they're the ones with tailgunners, waisgunners, and even a friggin' nacelle gunner. and I shot down twenty. And as of this morning I acquired NFS:Underground, Hitman, RA2:Yuri's Revenge and Caesar III to add onto the ever-growing pile of games to be tested sitting on my PC, where HL2: Ep1 is beginning to practically vibrate in anticipation. Damn I need to clear out a couple of dozen GB. Talking of which - I took stock and realized over the last 60 days I've aquired 149 divx movies. If I'd legitimately bought them, I'd have spent close to 50 grand.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me, an external HDD?

charging up

I guess this is why people get into fights... it's a rush.
Got into an argument with a autowalla last evening - he didn't want to go where I wanted - which, after phases of sitting there and refusing to move, to ordering him to the nearest police thana, to yelling in his face, and ending with him throwing back the fare at me in a display of le grande attitude, I went back home highly shaken & stirred but also extremely proud of myself. I hate confrontations like this normally but somehow went a little nuts last evening... after which I managed to shoot down not one, but two, A-20C Boston fighterbombers within fifteen minutes. My first kills, after nearly 3 days of playing IL2: Sturmovik.
Just as well. I was beginning to wonder why I ever bought that joystick.

I wonder what this would do to my FPS game performance?

And Lilah, I so completely know what you feel now...

social networks

greater than the sum of its parts

that's what I look like on the other side of the 17" window to the world, the monitor screen that's become so much a part of life it's beginning to feel like an extension of my own eyes now
but I still feel sometimes that never mind the sum, each of the parts is becoming greater than the source
Yahoo avatars, Gtalk and Gmail that knows who you are and who you talk to all the time, anywhere you go, and won't let you hide; MSN, meebo, Y!M will ding away incessantly in the background over your work, your games, your movie, and your music; outlook reminders pop up like with a sound like smug cherubs; gunshot-ricochets of Y!M's telling you you have new mail.
Then it's the apps you use - updates, expirations, registrations, ads, newsletters, feature disablement, cracks, hacks, patches, bugs and bug fixes, UGs... somewhere in the world are a bunch of servers that know you, what you do, who you are, what you like, and will not hesitate to use that info any way they can to complete their mission objectives; to make you spend.
And the human interfaces. Strangers trolling through orkut, friendster, ryze, linkedin. Your blog that suddenly starts collecting escort-service ads in comments. scraps that are text pictures of extraordinarily cheesy Archies cards sentiments.
Targeted ads in your mailbox
Spam SMSs
mailers
in-game ads custom made for you
bank alerts
payment reminders
calls, calls, calls
skype dings

My IP probably has a greater presence in the world than I do now

duh. Tell me something I don't know.

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTJ)

Your personality type is logical, uncompromising, independent, and nonconformist. Only about 3% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 4% of all men. You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging.

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