Million Dollar Psychic on Facebook!

Regular readers of this blog will know that I don't really 'get' Facebook. Well, I'm going to have to change that to the past tense. I'm starting to 'get' it. I can clearly see it has its uses. Which is why I have just set up a Facebook page for the Million Dollar Psychic project. In fact, it's something I should have probably set up a few months ago!

If you would like to follow how the project develops (and, of course, you are a Facebook user), please visit the page and click on 'like'. The idea is that this page will be a place to discuss psychic stuff in general and psychic development in particular whether you be a 'skeptic', a 'believer', or a 'I just don't know-er'!

You can also follow on twitter at twitter.com/skeptic2psychic.

A piece of cake

Wow, a full month since I last blogged! But it doesn't mean I've not being doing anything, just because I haven't got round to blogging about it. In fact, I've begun to wonder about our need to tell others about what we're up to through blogs, twitter and, my personal favourite, Facebook. Why do some of us have the need to update friends and strangers with our latest activities, even if it's just to say that we're feeling tired or that we're looking forward to eating a piece of cake?

Anyway, Christmas and New Year were both great (thank you for asking). The big decision we made on returning to the homestead (i.e., the flat) was that we were going to move south. As is often the case with decisions like this, we had probably made the decision some time back, but now was the time for action. We gave our month's notice on the flat (i.e., the homestead), so we'll be upping sticks at the beginning of February. We haven't got a house to move to yet, but Rachel's parents have very kindly said we can stay with them until we get somewhere. So if anyone knows of a house for rent in the Oxfordshire region, you know what to do...

Anyway, I'm tired. Where's that cake?

Everyone's a critic

As you know, I absolutely love Facebook. Can't get enough of it. So just as I posted about our horse-riding lesson last night, I was delighted to receive an email via Facebook informing me that Hannah Mowl had made a comment on a video of me on Facebook!

If you remember, the University's PR agency suggested we set up a group on Facebook (called 'Do you believe in destiny or chance?' in case you're interested) to help recruit people for a survey on meaningful coincidences that one of my students was conducting. Well they also suggested that a short video on the Facebook page might for some reason attract people. So they did an interview with me a couple of weeks ago, and posted the short video on the site at the beginning of this week.

And now Hannah Mowl had seen fit to post a comment about the video on the Facebook group page. How exciting! I immediately clicked the link that took me to the page to find out what insightful comments Hannah had made. Imagine, then, my surprise as I scrolled down the page to discover Hannah's one word review. The solitary word she had chosen to post to convey her innermost thoughts about the short film about our research project? "fanny".

Thanks Hannah! And I don't even know who Hannah Mowl is! That's what I love about Facebook. Now I can get the insults of complete strangers dropped straight into by email inbox. Cool, eh? I suppose I could be grateful that this is a fairly tame insult (and a step up from insults like "tosser" or "wanker" that I'm used to...) but who knows what future comments might bring?

If you're really keen to watch the offending video then you need to do no more than click here. I was going to say you could also read Hannah's scathing review but it seems as though it's been removed, but you can always leave your own insults!

I feel dirty

One of my dissertation students is conducting an online survey on 'meaningful coincidences'. Please feel free to go and complete the survey. Thing is, our University's Public Relations agency had the rather ingenious idea of using social networking to get people to complete the survey. Yes, folks... that's Facebook to you and me! Aaagh! This means I have had to join a specially constructed Facebook group and invite all my "friends" to join too...

I just wanted to say sorry.

Friday night telly

Just been watching Peter Kay's Britain's Got Some Extra Pop Factor... and Then Some (his parody of X Factor and the rest). He only went and did my Stephen Hawking on Hole in the Wall gag!

And they're having a pop at Facebook ("Friendface") on The IT Crowd. Good ol' Channel 4.

F******k it

I still don't get it. Or rather I get it, but I don't 'get' it. I'm talking about Facebook again. I just don’t know why people rave about it and feel the need to update their profile every 6 minutes. I can see that it can be useful for sharing photographs and the like, but other than that it seems to me to be a bit of a waste of time. Having said that, I guess some would argue much the same can be said for blogging…

The reason Facebook has resurfaced in my psyche is that yesterday I received another Facebook “friend request” by email. I get these every so often, sometimes from people I know and sometimes (more often) from complete strangers. I usually just delete them but this one was at least from someone I have met (but only once or twice so does that count as a “friend”?). I clicked on the link to go to the dreaded Facebook site. Turns out I have 51 friend requests that I haven’t yet confirmed. Oh dear… I hope no-one has taken offence. Although given that most of them are people I’ve never met then f**k ’em.

That seemed a little harsh didn’t it? But I was just taking a leaf out John Parkin’s book. It’s a great book. Or at least a book with a great title... it’s called F**k It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way (published by Hay House). Rachel has bought it for a friend for Christmas so I had a flick through it (I'm secretly hoping she might have got me a copy for Christmas too!).

The idea is that sometimes we just need to say “f**k it!”. We need to realise that much of the time (perhaps all of the time?) things just aren’t worth getting stressed about. According to Parkin, saying f**k it encapsulates much of the philosophy of Eastern wisdom (given a nice Western vernacular spin!). There is a Fuckitway.com website, where you can read more, buy a f**k it chocolate bar (or say f**k it and buy a whole box), and even book yourself a place on a f**k it holiday in Italy! They also have a page on, ahem, F******k.

Facebook: My arse

Now that I no longer smoke, I'm hardly ever asked this anymore, but when I did smoke, like most smokers, I would often be asked the question, "Got a match?". And every now and again, I would get great pleasure out of answering, "yeah, your face and my arse...". I would usually still have a broad grin on my face after my questioner removed his fist from it.

These days, whenever I now see or hear the mention of the social networking website Facebook it for some reason makes me think of that brilliantly childish response to a polite request for a match. And what's worse, I'm now hearing about Facebook more and more. Over the last month or so, I have been receiving requests from people inviting me to join them as a "friend" on Facebook. I deleted these email requests until I eventually relented when I received one from my brother.

Now that I am registered on Facebook I have, get ready for this... 10 "friends"! Count them. Ten. And one of them is my own brother! I know what you're thinking... these are just people I know who happen to be registered on Facebook and have a little too much time on their hands. But no, these are real "friends". I know that they are real "friends", because Facebook says so.

And, thanks to Facebook, I can find out when my "friends" are becoming "friends" with other people, what groups they are joining, when they are adding photos to their pages, and when they are adding or removing Facebook applications. I wonder if it can also tell me when any of my "friends" are wiping their arse? I have a feeling it probably can.

Social networking sites are all the rage these days... Facebook has something like 28 million registered users while it seems there are over 100 million registered on MySpace. Whatever. I can't see it catching on myself. Anyway, gotta go, one of my good "friends" is mid-wipe.