| on parties |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|02:07 am] |
This is a letter to my brother, because he came into my room to get cookies and failed to mention the new years party he was planning on having the next day... and when I went to talk to him about it and make sure he was preparing for it, we got into a fight, just a lil bit ago.
On Halloween, when you txted me "I fucked up, I'm sorry", and passed out drunk in your room - that didn't make anything better. That txt said to me "I need you to help me because I'm inexperienced at hosting parties". Now maybe you think a lot more of yourself than me, for whatever reason, you think you have more experience because of doing all kinds of drugs, you think you know your friends and what to expect of them a lot more than me... while that is true, you don't realize I do have a lot of experience seeing what drugs do to people. You realize I went to UCSB right?
I've been to a party where someone has died, have you?
I want to trust you and I know you want me to, but that has to be earned. You know I've lead progression guilds where we kick people just for fucking up once, so you have to understand why I don't trust you about this new years party. One fuckup is enough for me to assume the future will fuckup as well.
What I'm trying to say is - you haven't told me any plans for this party so I'm assuming you've made none. I asked you to make an rsvp list and let your friends know they can't just invite whoever to come, bringing random firecrackers to set off inside the house because they're so high and they don't realize what they're doing. Has Rolo told you how he cut open his friends hand with a knife really bad while joking around and they had to go to an ER? And that was just weed. On Halloween I wasn't really afraid of the people that were there earlier. There was Keri's boyfriend who you failed to take care of when he really needed it because you were too drunk to know what was going on. He could have easily injured himself in a number of ways, drowned in his vomit, anything simple like that. There was the creepy guy who squeezed Hailey's ass that could just as easily spiked her drink first instead... its not like you were controlling the drinks or supervising the party whatsoever.
I know I sound like "mom" right now in trying to be safe or take precaution. But when you host a party it really is important to do that. I'm glad you took people's keys last time, but the keyholder needs to remain sober, which you failed at.
The people that showed up later had no respect for the party or the people living here. They arrived at 2am to do drugs in our backyard. And they're probably the same people you're inviting over for new years. Maybe you feel good being their 'friend' but those people are using you, just like the 'friends' I have in wow. Otherwise they would have been there for the actual party and contributed in some way other than just getting fucked up in the backyard.
I want you to have a great new years. I'm sad you didn't include me in the plans at all. Basically its telling me you don't want me there - I have other parties to go to anyway, but still going behind my back with plans for a party in my house is annoying. You seemed to like the gift I got you that matched the theme, but then whenever I talk to you about the party you say we'll talk about it tomorrow. well, tomorrow is new years. I have work then a party of my own. I really am serious about you keeping your phone on you and answering. And I expect to come home and have a bed for me to sleep in without anyone who smokes weed or cigarettes in it or having made my room smell.
I love you. Happy new years. |
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| Restaurateur Maintains Ties with Homeland |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|02:23 pm] |
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http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=226782787130 The following is part of our series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. You can read previous posts in this series here. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here.
Newly married Pellegrino Polo was in his mid-20s when his father decided to move their family from Italy to Netcong, N.J., in search of new opportunities. Eventually, his family saved enough money to start their own Italian restaurant, named after Pellegrino's father, Stefano. Pellegrino later decided to close the original restaurant in order to open a new one in a better location, and for the past 19 years he's been successfully running Rose's Place, named after his mother.
Pellegrino gets up at 4:30 every morning to open up the restaurant, where he works 7 days a week, 363 days a year. "Only on Christmas and Easter does he close the restaurant," said his son, Stefano. Despite his busy schedule, Pellegrino, now 56, has not forgotten the people he left behind in Italy.
During his limited free time every evening, Pellegrino loves using Facebook to stay in touch with relatives, many of whom he has reconnected with after several decades apart. Every night he habitually checks the profiles of his Italian family and friends to see if they've updated their statuses, posted new notes, or shared links to interesting articles they've found on the Internet. He also loves looking at family pictures, some of which he prints out to display or show his mother, who misses life in Italy.
Pellegrino's active Facebook presence has even allowed his children to connect with family members and distant relatives they've never met in person, some of whom are fairly distantly related.
In addition to staying in touch with friends and family in Italy, Pellegrino uses a Facebook Page to connect with the patrons of Rose's Place. His customers regularly contribute ideas for menu additions, share memories from their times at the restaurant or write notes to the Polo family on the Facebook Page for Rose's Place. The results of Pellegrino's dedication to his restaurant can be seen in the comments.
"I am a woman in a rush, and every morning the infamous Pellegrino has my breakfast waiting," wrote one customer. "His great service is just a little hint to all of you out there to go to Rose's Place…it's like eating with your family!"
After starting from humble beginnings, Pellegrino Polo has built a successful life for himself and his family in New Jersey. With Facebook as a valuable link between his past and his future, he's able to stay connected to his roots in Italy while also building on the relationships that have made Rose's Place such a success.
Sara, an intern on Facebook's communications team, wants her father to create a Facebook account. |
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| A New Help Center for 2010 |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|02:10 pm] |
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http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=225000527130 When you need help using Facebook, we want it to be as easy as a click for you to get it. Our Help Center offers a central resource for you to find answers to common questions and learn more about using Facebook.
Recently, we introduced a more streamlined design and a series of other changes for the Help Center to make it faster for you to find the answers you need. The improvements include:
- A new search interface that displays related help pages and matches help content for other languages if there are no results in your language, in addition to the regular FAQ results and user-to-user help topics.
- Filters on the left-hand side to navigate the available content types: FAQs, user-to-user support, and the new privacy and safety pages.
- Separate user-to-user support navigation, for both those who simply want answers from other users, as well as those who want to answer other people's questions.
- Unique Web addresses, or URLs, for each FAQ so you can share them with friends and family who are looking for help.
We have a ton of information about every part of the site, and you can find answers by searching or just browsing around. Here are a few common ways to navigate the Help Center:
- If you have a specific question, try searching the Help Center first. For example, you can search for "profile picture" if you want to learn how to change your profile picture.
- If you want to browse by topic, click on the most relevant subject on the Help Center's main page and then select the relevant subtopic. For example, if you'd like to learn more about privacy settings, first click "Privacy" and then select the "Privacy settings and fundamentals" link. If you want to report a bug or check if the issue you're experiencing is a bug, click "Troubleshooting" from the main page.
- If you'd like to see answers from other users in the Help Center's user-to-user support feature or if you want to contribute answers, select the "Help Discussions" filter on the left-hand side and browse by topic there.
Remember, you can access the Help Center by hovering over your Settings menu in the top navigation on Facebook or by clicking the "Help" link located at the bottom of every page. The Help Center is currently available in Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and we're working to expand the number of available languages as quickly as possible.
Jason manages the Help Center and thinks contributing in the Help Center's user-to-user feature is a great New Year's resolution. |
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| Teaching Holiday Traditions with the Help of Friends |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|02:15 pm] |
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http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=216558092130 The following is part of our series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. This week, we are featuring stories about how people are connecting for the holidays. You can read previous posts in this series here. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here.
In December, when signs of Christmas become apparent everywhere in the U.S., it can be easy to forget about the numerous winter holidays that take place around the world. Amy Bridges, a teacher at an inner-city school in Indianapolis, wanted to change that for her 7th and 8th grade students. Most had never left the city, let alone the state or country.
Amy wanted to share global traditions with a more personal lesson than could be taught from the generic information in a teaching manual. She hoped to illustrate their importance using real-life stories from a variety of people who had direct experience with winter holidays.
Amy reached out last year to friends and family through Facebook with a simple request. Explaining that she was trying to broaden her students' international horizons, she asked her friends to contribute stories about their experiences with winter celebrations and holidays from other cultures and countries. Their descriptions, she explained, would "provide wonderful, authentic discussion points for 12-to-15-year-old students." In no time, Amy had received several responses, giving her enough material to shape a lesson around their firsthand accounts.
Thanks to her Facebook friends, Amy's class talked about various Jewish Hanukkah traditions, the Muslim celebration of Eid, and the evolution of the Yule holiday. They also learned about celebrations connected to the winter solstice, such as the tradition of Yalda that occurs in Iran, and numerous Japanese winter practices.
Finally, Amy's students were curious to hear about the different ways Christmas was celebrated around the world, with one Facebook friend contributing stories of a snowless "summer Christmas" from New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere.
According to Amy, it's hard to tell whether she or her students enjoyed the lesson more. Although the kids were intrigued by the celebrations they discussed, Amy was inspired by the support she had received from her friends on Facebook.
"As 'authenticity' becomes an education buzzword," she said, "Facebook is one place to easily gather information, anecdotes, and documented facts from 'experts'—if you're lucky enough to know them."
Sara, an intern on Facebook's communications team, has finished decorating her tree and is learning how to play dreidel. |
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