Originally published for 2008:

Happy New Year! 2008!

While my original publication is from 2008, here is a photograph I like that I want to share with you as a gift for the upcoming 2018 New Year. It's a picture from my Seattle vacation in August 2017. This is at Chihuly:

Here is a Red Picture from Chihuly for Good Luck, if you believe in that. I'm not quite sure what to believe, but I enjoy my trip to Chihuly Museum and believe it is a good place to visit:

I queried a message board I go to for New Year's superstitions. The one I knew before posting the question was told to me by an American Vietnamese friend. It is to not sweep the floors the day before New Year's. The sweeping would be sweeping out good luck for the New Year. From the Southern, black-eyed peas for (in) the New Year's Day morning breakfast. One of the responses I got from my posted question was to wear Red underwear for love, and Yellow underwear for money in the New Year. What if you wear both?

Other superstitions were to not spend any money on New Year's day. Chinese New Year has the custom of not washing one's hair on that day. If you don't spend money on January 1st, you're good, really good. If the superstition is correct, it'll mean you'll have a lot of money throughout the year. Yeah, that's good.

Not sure if this is going to be a stay at home New Year's Eve or a go out type. Fireworks sound attractive. Sleep also sounds really attractive. TV's getting boring so far, I'd have to say.

Newsflash: I cancelled my Facebook account in Fall of 2017.

Original post from March 27th, 2009:

Facebook

What is it about Facebook that gets people annoyed, ticked off and deleting friends? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? This year alone, one of my friends has deleted friends from her Facebook and even I have deleted one of my friends from my account. This is coming from someone who had a Friendster and MySpace account for years and never deleted anyone from either. Oh, and I also "ignored" a Facebook invitation from a past classmate. She was never my friend and I questioned why she would want to invite me.

It's a mysterious social network. Other social networking sites are more accessible and straight forward. My Yelp account has all of the friends I've accepted and I've accepted almost 100% of people who try to friend me. Due to people cautioning me not to friend certain types of inviters, I didn't accept a couple invitations when I started Yelping.

I always say I think I'm quitting Facebook but I never do. Friendster and MySpace I've kept up with little checking on the progress of those accounts. I'll probably keep them up for as long as they let me. Yelp I may make changes with but I may also keep my account with them.

So why do I stay on Facebook? I can't even think of a good reason, can you? Well it has been rewarding when friends from the past found me and invited me. I guess. Hmm...the woman I am most interested in connecting with hasn't invited me and I can't find her on there. And yet, at the same time, I have her phone number. It just never feels like the right time to call.

To clarify, she didn't give me the phone number, someone else gave it to me. Maybe that's why it never seems the right time to call? Awkward. And no, I am not stalking her.

I find what is occurring with all the usage of internet is that the rate that I read books has decreased. The last book I read was "The Thirteenth Tale". I think that was last month and I've had "Integrated Korean" on my To-Read list for a long time. By the way, "The Thirteenth Tale" moved very slowly and I do not recommend it. And "Integrated Korean" is not as exciting as it sounds. It's a Korean language textbook used in colleges (oh those poor students). Disappointing, I'd sure like to be an Integrated Korean. Or no - maybe not.

One day soon I will finish a book. No more checking Facebook for tonight. I think my Facebook friends will breathe a sigh of relief. It's really better to barely post.