Hallelujah.

Have you heard of Facebook? I'm sure you have, even if you don't know what it's about. It could easily be summed up as an attractive (and infinitely more user friendly) My Space. I had assumed it would be a passing fancy -like Friendster before it- but it's stuck around and it's spreading like wildfire. It's not as large as My Space yet, but by the end of the year, I think we'll see a shift.

Anyway, I was chatting with a friend the other day and she brought up an interesting point. In 'the old days', you graduated high school, you went to college or university or work and you moved on. Close friends were kept in touch with, but the rest were lost to the mists of time. Now, with Facebook, there's no escape. You have people that you barely knew in high school, getting in contact with you. All you need to know is a name and you can find anyone. It's always been that way, but now it's as easy as doing a search. Of course that person has to allow you to add them to your list, but the whole idea of moving on seems to be disappearing.

All of a sudden, I have 'friends' that I've either never talked to, or talked to very little. A large part of me hates the idea of having brief acquaintances turn into life long acquaintances, but at the same time, I've been able to connect with people that I originally didn't have the opportunity to. Still, the signal to noise ratio is making me cringe, but as always, my problems only require some perspective for me to calm my mind.

I was talking with someone the other day and they happened to mention that among other items, the library loans out DVDs and that the selection was far better than any video store. Not believing that the humble Hamilton Public Library could be home to a wealth of books, let alone DVDs and music, I went to the website. It turns out the HPL isn't terribly humble and it also turns out that their DVD collection is quite impressive. As such, I've put a large chunk of the Criterion collection on request, as well as a goodly portion of Academy Award nominees/winners and other quality films. The best part is, that I can take out up to fifty at a time.

I think I'm in heaven.

It's going to be a busy weekend. I'm going to a birthday on Saturday and a small reunion of sorts, on Sunday.

Courtesy of Facebook, of course.