This past Monday was ‘Family Day’ here in Alberta, so I took the opportunity to go see a movie. Since we were going to the cheap theatre, the choices were a little limited, but I had seen that There Will Be Blood was nominated for the best picture Oscar and Daniel Day-Lewis is a good bet.

The movie is about a guy named Daniel Plainview and his rise from a lowly miner to an oil tycoon during the early 1900s in California. By far the most interesting thing about this movie was watching the evolution of the oil industry as it went from guys down in a hole with buckets scooping up oil to more advanced drilling techniques and pipelines. The story is more of a human one, showing just what a bad thing too much greed can be.

This movie gets a solid 3.5 / 5 from me. It was a little long (2 1/2 hrs) and at times, a little dull (there is no dialog for at least the first 15 min). Daniel Day-Lewis is awesome in this movie. This guy is amazing. He only makes like 1 movie every 3 or 4 years, but when he does, he really puts all he has into it. I think he should win the Oscar for best actor.

The movie has a bit of a surprise ending, that I guess is getting some mixed reviews. Personally, I thought the ending was brilliant. I can’t give it away, but if you get a chance to see this movie, let me know what you thought of the ending.

Jeff: “Chocolate is made from nuts”

Roy: “From rats?!”

If you are like me, you have noticed that lately, Facebook isn’t doing it for you. Sure people are adding photos and playing tonnes of scrabble, but the excitement of Facebook is past. You probably haven’t added a new friend in a few weeks, and even the last 20 you did add, you wouldn’t consider them close friends.

Don’t worry, this isn’t a rant about stupid applications, as stupid as they may be. Facebook’s problem is much more intrinsic than Werewolves vs. Vampires.

Go log into facebook and have a look at your list of “friends”. How many of those people were at your wedding? Or will be at your funeral? Not all of them, for sure. In my case, about 20% of my “friends” are people I would consider friends. So who are these other 80%?

These are people I worked with a long time ago, people I went to school with and have not talked to since grade 3. These are friends of friends, friends of friends of family members. At first, it was exciting to add people you haven’t seen in years. Now you know where they work, you’ve seen pictures of their kids. You’ve “caught up”, and that was fun.

But there is a reason your high school reunion lasts only a few hours: You don’t actually care. That sounds kind of cold, but it’s true. If you cared, you wouldn’t have lost touch with these people in the first place. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like you are absolutely indifferent to these people, you have a sort of altruistic concern for them, the same way you care for people in your neighbourhood or city. It’s the same reason you cheer for Canada at the Olympics.

The problem with Facebook is that now, these people who were on the fringe of my life, and who I only knew a little about and who only knew a little about me, now know everything about me, and I know everything about them. I don’t want to be in the day to day, and in some cases minute to minute, loop of what my “friends” are doing.

XXXX is looking forward to Bryan cooking dinner tonight!
XXXX is going home in 24hrs!
XXXX just mastered the breast stroke.
XXXX is visiting with my mommy.
XXXX is auntie of 2 beautiful nieces!

And I don’t care. Who’s Bryan? Where’s your “home”? Have you also noticed that it’s the same few people in your group of friends who are updating their status 5 or 6 times a day?

I don’t get rid of my account, because one day, someone I do care about will post some pictures I want to see, and then I won’t be able to. But I definitely don’t visit Facebook like I used to.

So, Zuckerberg, you should have sold this past summer. Because Facebook isn’t just slowing down, it’s beginning to shrink. Everyone who will join Facebook, has joined Facebook. I am even friends with people who cannot talk yet. About once a week or so, I get a message that says “I am leaving facebook”. Those messages are starting to out-pace my friend requests. I think we have passed a critical mass of human relationships, and I am just going to sit back and watch the billion dollar website implode.

This is a great site for backgrounds.

“Social Wallpapering, a community effort to classify, rank, and distribute high resolution images for use as computer wallpaper.”

This is just fantastic. Need some wallpapers? Grab ‘em. Have some you want to share? Post them.