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I have just discoverd Facebook.  Facebook used to be only for college students but now it’s a social network where I’m connecting with people I haven’t seen in 20 years.  Cool, huh?  It’s neat to find high school acquaintances to see where everyone has ended up and it’s neat to be able to spread a message to every day friends in an instant.  But, the political agenda of Facebook may be what the candidate’s need to get their “face” and issues out to an audience that they never could reach outside of Facebook.  In just a few short weeks, we’ll find out how and IF the Internet shaped this election.

Here’s an interesting article in the NYTimes that looks at John McCain’s Facebook page and determines if this is what politicians should do.

Facebook Politics

Where my own page on Facebook, the social-networking site, lists my “friends,” the pages of McCain and other politicians and celebrities show “supporters” or “fans.” McCain had fully 269,709 when I last looked. He seems to have picked up about 45,000 between the Democratic National Convention and the start of the Republican one. The day that McCain named Palin as his V.P. candidate, I notice idly from McCain’s Facebook résumé, was also the candidate’s 72nd birthday: Aug. 29. His political views are listed right after his birthday: conservative.

Facebook appears to have supplied a job-seeking template for aspiring free-world leaders, and blanks have been informatively filled in.

Text messaging, Twitter, are under fire for bad grammar.  Some may wonder, do students know how to write correctly?  Are using such things as text and twitter teaching kids how to communicate a message effectively?  I believe, there’s a time and place for Twitter and Text, but when it comes to the real world, a smiley face won’t take you that far without knowing how to use technology to your advantage.  Here’s an interesting article about grammar, signs and how some teachers are frustrated.

Grammatical errors on signs becoming a ‘regualar’ occurrence

Educators say these bungled words are a symptom of a deeper problem: Students aren’t learning grammar.

The State Board of Education in May adopted new curriculum standards, including greater emphasis on grammar instruction in Texas schools.

Some also say that students’ text messaging and Twittering – which encourage short notes and abbreviations and spelling-be-damned – are seeping into formal writing.

Students are writing informally now more than ever, said Diana Grumbles, director of the First-Year Writing Program at Southern Methodist University.

Some of her students don’t capitalize or use punctuation when they send her a quick e-mail. Some will submit in-class writing assignments with symbols – using @ instead of “at,” for example.

Interesting article in the NYTimes that talks about social interaction and how intimate it is becoming.
Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Facebook is no longer alone in offering this sort of interaction online. In the last year, there has been a boom in tools for “microblogging”: posting frequent tiny updates on what you’re doing. The phenomenon is quite different from what we normally think of as blogging, because a blog post is usually a written piece, sometimes quite long: a statement of opinion, a story, an analysis. But these new updates are something different. They’re far shorter, far more frequent and less carefully considered.

Don’t walk to the theaters, run!  This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time that is fun and energetic and ENTERTAINING.  The audience was clapping, dancing and cheering.  It will be a movie that I will see over and over again.  I was not surprised to see Rita Wilson’s and Tom Hanks’s names as Executive Producer.  Meryl Streep MADE this movie as well as Amanda Seyfried who plays Sophie, Meryl’s daughter.  I have to say, I walked into the theater thinking I would see an ok movie, but  I walked out knowing I saw a GREAT movie.

After studying Obama’s blog in March, my conclusion is that Obama concentrates more on Credibility through Similarity, Goodwill and Idealism. It’s not about Power at all. Obama’s ethos is about his ability to connect to voters.

John McCain and Hillary analysis is up next. Stay tuned.

From the AP:

 Rising cost of Cancer Care

WASHINGTON - You’ve just been diagnosed with cancer, and the doctor is discussing treatment options. Should the cost be a deciding factor?

Chemotherapy costs are rising so dramatically that later this year, oncologists will get their first guidelines on how to have a straight talk with patients about the affordability of treatment choices, a topic too often sidestepped.

“These are awkward discussions,” says Dr. Allen Lichter of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which is writing the guidelines. “At least we can bring this out in the open.”

Happy Easter! Yesterday, I saw the Easter bunny in Edinburgh, Texas and I have proof!

See the Easter Bunny

JOHNSON, PATRICIA JEAN, 67, passed away peacefully Thursday, August 2, 2007, surrounded by her husband and three children at Baylor Medical Center Dallas. She was born in Wooster, Ohio and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. After her husband’s job transfer, Pat and her husband Ted moved to New Jersey and then back to Texas. Pat has lived in the DFW area for 17 years. Even through her courageous battle with cancer, Pat kept her wonderful sense of humor. She spent her lifetime as a devoted wife and mother to three children. She was energetic, yet never failed to watch General Hospital, while having a hot cup of tea. Pat is survived by her husband Ted Johnson; children Robert Johnson (Marisa), Brenda MacCormack (John) and Janet Johnson; her six grandchildren Adam, Tiffany, and Matthew Johnson and Jessica, Greg, and Caitlyn MacCormack; sisters and brothers Mary Balthrop (Tom), Janet Oelschlegel (Gilbert), Shirley Hutchinson (Wimp), Willard Fike (Ann) and George Fike (Juanita); and numerous nieces and nephews. Family will accept visitors at Williams Funeral Directors in Garland on Sunday, August 5, 2007, from 6 p.m.- 8 p.m. Funeral service will be held on Monday, August 6, 2007 at 1 p.m. in Williams Chapel. Graveside service to follow at Restland. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

Yesterday, my mom, Patricia Jean Fike Johnson, died of ovarian cancer.  She was 67 years old.  She passed away peacefully surrounded by love.  She was an inspiration to me and one of the strongest women I knew. My mom will always be remembered. 

I hope to spread the word about ovarian cancer to where ovarian cancer is not a silent cancer, but a loud cancer due to preventative tests that have yet to be established for this cancer that is the fourth leading cause of death in women.  Yes, my mom is a statistic, but I can only hope and dream no other mothers are.