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Browsing tag: friends

  • August 24, 2010

    Keeping in touch

    A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenomenon in i...
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    Like most teenage girls, I spent the vast majority of my spare time on the phone. This was back in the day of dialup internet, no less; it was a battle of wills between whoever wanted the computer, and me, intent on continuing my conversation. I could quite literally spend hours talking to my friends, or in lots of cases, simply doing homework or watching TV together.

    Then I got older. And I eventually moved out. Texting became the norm. I still kept a landline, but mainly so I could have the internet, and in case of emergencies.

    Today, I honestly can’t be bothered tapping away at a tiny keypad to compose messages. My crappy touchscreen phone is a pain in the ass to use, and if I can conceivably get away with not replying to your message, I’m gonna take the lazy route.

    My workday consists of sitting at a computer doing stuff online; I spend so much time typing that my handwriting has become atrocious and the vast majority of my communication is done by email, Twitter or Facebook. And while that works for the people I know in a more professional sense, my personal circle isn’t online 24/7 like me.

    They have classes to go to. Extra-curriculars. (Heck, I am not even sure all of them have broadband at home. And smartphones? Forget about it.) They’re just not all that Web 2.0 in comparison. And I have to make concessions for that. Make the effort to drop them a line, to meet up in person, and touch base with a fellow human being.

    ** This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance is up! Thanks Paul for including my post, Does 60k constitute a high income? **

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  • October 5, 2009

    Lazy Sunday

    Last night I was at Honey bar celebrating one of my good friends’ birthdays. As we grow older and get busier, and I grow further apart from my girlfriends in terms of finishing uni, starting work, keeping up a LT relationship, and just generally being at a further along stage in life, the occasions on which we all get together are rare. I’m on a different campus from them; the first couple of years I often wandered over to visit and we had a weekly Friday lunch going for a while, but that just wasn’t feasible this year.  And I work more than, well, pretty much all of them combined, so always miss out on their get-togethers during semester breaks.  So I really appreciate nights like last night, getting to spend time with my old friends, making a special and memorable occasion for her, and showing her how much we all love her =)

    Despite only having one drink, I felt absolutely trashed this morning – like a truck had run me over. I think it was a combo of the hours spent dancing, and too many (spicy) samosas. I’ve rarely met a buffet I didn’t like; unfortunately my delicate stomach often makes its disapproval known…. later on, that is.

    I managed to drag my sorry ass out of bed at 10.30, start my ethics essay, hit the butcher and grocer, and tackle our bedroom. Because I still haven’t finished unpacking! We’ve only just finished moving over all our bits and pieces. Thankfully, we decided against rearranging the room as planned, so all I had to do was move my desk and mirror, and unpack the last few bags and boxes… files, folders, CDs, etc. Thank god for lazy Sundays!

  • July 11, 2009

    Suffering fools gladly

    I have very little patience for insincerity and bullshitters. The older I get, the more my tolerance wanes. I just can’t be bothered with that kind of crap.

    My social circle is kind of disparate. There are my girlfriends from school – one of whom I’ve known for ten years  – who I see every couple of months, but I’m really only close to a few of them and I probably wouldn’t hang out one-on-one with about half of them. We tend to organise mass catchups over lunch/dinner and see each other on birthdays etc, and although sometimes it’s frustrating trying to get everyone together in one place, I always have a good time with them. I have a few other random friends (uni, friends of friends), who aren’t necessarily connected to any of my other friends, and then my inner circle who I see more often. We’re a group from school who hang out sometimes as much as every weekend and are my first port of call. And they’re all guys, pretty much.  Then I suppose we have a secondary social circle (different people) which overlaps with my main circle, who I socialise with but am not close to.

    Sadly, within this extended group are one or two downers. And by downers, I mean shallow, selfish, insincere bitches. Charismatic, though, and fun, so most people either don’t notice, or downright embrace their antics. But that’s something I’ve had enough of, and I just ignore it entirely. I can’t escape it, but I don’t have to play along. There are enough good people in my life to surround myself with, so why bother with the bad seeds?

    Thoughts? Where did you meet most of your friends? How often do you see them? And do you have patience for fake, bitchy acquaintances?

  • March 12, 2009

    Random but nice – got a text from a girl who shares one or two of my classes. I’m assuming she got my number off the journo students database. She apologised for not giving me her number sooner (!!) and was like, let’s keep in touch!

    Fair enough. I sorta get the feeling it’s a solidarity thing, like, we were both born in the same country etc. One that I really don’t have ties to, and haven’t been back to in years, but still it’s the place of my birth, so does that count for something?

    It bugs me a little though – do I always have to befriend people just for reasons like that? Will I be pigeonholed as an ‘ethnic affairs’ reporter one day?

    I guess you tend to flock to others like you, though. And I often tend to gravitate towards older people – not sure why? Am I just too old for my age? And I don’t really have the right to complain (I am TOTALLY glad she reached out to me. I never would have done something like that and am super grateful). After all, it’s not like I really make the effort to go out of my way to befriend others. Sometimes it’s like I just can’t connect with people no matter how hard I try, so I give up and retreat. That’s kind of where I’m at now, and I just talk to the few friends I have made. So honestly, it’s great that someone’s doing the hard work for me – because if someone does that, I’ll respond in kind.