Talking to a Stranger

I work at Giant Foodstore and talking to strangers is not something I am unfamiliar with. No conversation makes it past a "hi" and "bye" but this weekend I tried to change that. I let someone into my life and as a result it was quite rewarding. I was talking to an employee and he asked me how school was going. In return I asked him the same thing and whether he was going to graduate on time. He replied by saying no and I told him I was going to graduate on time and the customer in my line said that was very ambitious of me. Then we began to talk about school and how important it was to get a degree. She stated that she was turning 70 and is still working but not in a job she enjoys and further began to say that getting a degree opens your job opportunities in so many ways. Then she was telling me how working and saving money is the best thing you can do because you never know what it is going to be like years from now. I began to tell her how I invested in apple stock and how well it has done for me. She started talking about her son and his love for apple products and then we quickly discussed the stock market and capitalism where I mentioned the new Michael Moore film. She was telling me how she is from Britain and her views on capitalism and socialism. All of this talk happened within 5 mins. She was a very polite older woman and its small talk like that that is so rewarding. Talking with a stranger is not nerve wracking but a great way to get perspectives from people you are unfamiliar with.

Second Life Experience

Second life is a program that is very unfamiliar to me. I had a lot of trouble navigating across the map but eventually I figured out what I had to do to get to the locations. I personally am not a big video game/computer game person but I do find this program very interesting. Its realistic and you can find yourself talking to other users on second life. I do think it is a bit childish but at the same time the interaction with other users is very mature and I do find the program very entertaining.

Profile Picture

The reason for picking this as my new profile picture is because I made it off of a cartoon yourself website. This website allows you to make an avatar of yourself. I made it from scratch and just took the attributes that I see in myself and applied it on the cartoon converter. It is quite funny what I was able to do with this program to make an avatar that looks exactly like me.

Facebook Privacy

Facebook is a social networking utility that allows millions of people to connect with one another via the internet. The one issue that remains is how much of the information put on one's facebook stays private. If you hadn't changed your settings prior to December the default is public which allows any Facebook user to view your profile. If privacy is such a big issue it is best not to put such personal information on this networking tool. There are many other ways to network that aren't as risky as Facebook. Do you think Facebook has gone from an intended social networking tool to a potential stalker savvy gateway?

http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/01/28/28readwriteweb-privacy-facebook-and-the-future-of-the-inter-5731.html