With the Whole City, Looking for a Missing Child with Autism, a Treasure Map of Memories

Thanks to FB, and the members who uses FB, making the recovery of this autistic boy easier, translated…

The Following Morn When She Woke & Had Calmed Back Down, Wanted to Sit Down with Her Son, and that was When She’d Found Him Gone, as Was the Piggy Bank He’d Put His Allowances in Too………

Late one evening, the phone at the office rang, it was a single mother who lives in Taichung, she was hurried and anxious stricken, asked us to help find her son back.

She’d divorced because her husband was abusive, and ever since, she’d been, working hard to care for her young on her own.  The boy had autism and Tourette’s, and needed even more time and mind to care, but, no matter what, he was her own son, and no matter how hard, she’d, bitten down, and worked hard to give her own son the economic stability, as well as her physical companionship.

It’s just that, no matter how great the mother’s love, there’s only just, her alone, and she’s faced with the hardships of livelihood and caring for her own young, and, it’s only natural, that she too, has her emotions, after a day’s worth of hard work, arriving home, faced with her son who didn’t want to hear her teaching, became hard to communicate with, she’d, lost it, and gotten angry at her own son.

The following morn as she’d slept the night off, and calmed down, wanted to have a talk with her son, she’d found, that he was, gone, and the piggy bank that he’d put his allowances in was too…………she’d worried, that her adolescent son had, ran away from home!

She couldn’t find him close by to home, and immediately gone to the police to report him missing, and yet, for seven days, no news.  And, as she was on her way home, she saw the ad of our agency, and so, with that tiny hope, she’d, called us.

Hearing her voice on the other end of the line, I could feel this single mother’s anxiousness and her worries, but because it was already late, even if I started looking for her son, it wouldn’t be, fruitful.  So I can, only record down the information of this child, and promised his mother, that we will, get right on it, the next morn bright and early.

To tell the truth, although, finding the missing persons, catching someone cheating, and tailing someone, are the three biggest businesses of the private investigators’ agencies, but, finding the missing persons is the lowest in charges, with the highest level of, difficulty, with a very low, rate of, success, because there’s not enough leads to go on.  And, even if we can get into the special resources that we’re entitled to gain, it’s normally, quite, unsuccessful.  But this mother’s cries, resonated in my ears, and it’d, made me feel bad for her………

I’d thought hard for the entire night, and, analyzed the best way to approach this problem, and, sorted through my own feelings of worries, waited until the morn, I’d, called my coworkers, to discuss this particular case, swiftly got the information of this kid out, had all hands on deck, working this case, asked them to pay mind to this; the officemates knew the police office in Taichung, and their friends, and asked them to pay attention; those who are active on the internet, sent out the missing persons’ notice on FB, after they’d gotten the okay for the posts with the managers of the groups.

And I knew too well, that this, is all we’re, able to, do, the following was to, just, wait, wait, and wait, and wait, endlessly………

If we’re lucky, maybe, someone will, bump into, this kid.  If not, then, we can only tell this, single mother, that we’d done the best we could—and that, was the situation I hated the most.

Maybe, it was because I’d not lived with my mother growing up, I couldn’t defend myself against “a mother’s tears”.  In our past cases, whenever there’s a mother who’d come asking, I’d worked my best, to help them out, and it didn’t matter if the cases were next-to-impossible, I’d forced myself to do it until “there’s nothing more that I can do”.

Watching how my coworkers posted the FB fans page of our office the missing person’s ads, I’d stressed on which ways there are still, to help us recover the teen.  At this time, a pop-up came on FB, the missing persons’ notices get a lot of hits, we can place an ad, to get this post out to more people out there.

Normally, I’d felt, that this was FB’s spin of getting us to place the ads with them.  But at this time, I’d suddenly had a brand new thought: “isn’t FB ads regional?”

illustration from UDN.com

we finally found him!

I’d done a minor experiment first, found that my theories were, correct, then following, I’d immediately started discussing the matters with my officemates who are in charge of the ads.  Through the ads systems of FB, I’d posted the “Missing Person” ad of my company’s fan pages onto the clientele of Taichung areas, hoping to get more usable, helpful information.

Everything went well, not long thereafter, the fans group started receiving the help from the members of the online community: there were those who’d called us to ask for more details of the case, said that they would be happy to head out onto the streets to look for the child, from McDonalds, the train stations, the local parks, there were sightings of the boy it’d seemed.

Based off of the reports of those who are out looking, this kid, as soon as he’d realized that someone was zoomed in on him, he’d run off, and, it’d, made all of these helpful people from online feel, defeated.

“Don’t feel like that, your message is great help to us already”, every time I’d read the responses of the online community, we’d showed our gratitude for their assistance.  This isn’t courtesy, it’s, the truth, because although these individuals weren’t able to stop the kid from running off, but, through the entire mapping systems, we could already, see a pattern of where he’d run to and from.

I’d opened up the map for the metro of Taichung, and, started mapping out the routes based off of the reports from the online community, to guess at where this kid will show up to next, and, sent my coworkers out to the regions.

Early the following morn, someone from online told, that he’d sighted the child in front of the train station.  The coworkers who were right in the close vicinity went there immediately.  Not long thereafter, I received a call, “Bo, we’d, found him!”

The coworker told, that the child was cared for by the local homeless population.  Being on his own for days on end, he’d become, fatigued and too hungry, but, his physical health and mental states were both, fine.  As I’d heard this, I’d finally, felt, relieved.

And this was, the only time I wanted to thank Zuckerberg.  A platform online, had helped the people tapped into their own kindness, their passions, and it’d helped a single mother relieved of her worries for her son.

I’d never thought of using the ads as a missing person’s, and, trying it out, it’d, yielded the outcomes we wanted.  But, if Zuckerberg can change that god DAMN algorithm, and give us back our, normal number of hits, I shall be more grateful to him for it.

And so, this is how FB had, helped in the recovery of this autistic child who’d, run away from home, and this still showed, how the internet can be helpful sometimes, and, the boy was returned to his mother, safe and sound, without a scratch, thanks to the local communities, the online communities, that all chipped in to help recover him, and send him back to his mother.

The Mutated News of the DDP

The title out of be changed to “The Mutated News of the Authoritarian DemoCrazy Party” instead if you asked me (but hey, who asked, Y-O-U???  Exactly!), commentaries from the Front Page Sections, translated…

Taiwan’s defense against the outbreaks of MERS-CoV became, a total, JOKE!  Everybody knows, that to get rid of the outbreak completely, the vaccines are, absolutely, necessary; and yet, Tsai’s government is, at wit’s, end.  And now, the local and privately owned organizations are trying to get the vaccines from out of the country for Taiwan, the Tsai government is, giving the foundations, the organizations a difficult time about it.

With the problem of not enough vaccines to go around to everybody here, there are also, the influx of, fake news regarding the outbreaks, that spread quickly and widely.  As the first wave of false news like “China will be selling the defective vaccines to Taiwan”, or “the BNT vaccines were manufactured by China” were busted, the following series of false news such as “the vaccines produced here are provided by for by the techniques of the U.S.” or “all the world’s vaccines had only been done to the stage-two phases”, so confusing to the people.

While all of these false news are all provided by the followers of the DDP.  For instance, “the techniques provided by for by the U.S.”, started by the DDP’s famous YouTuber first, with the high up officials of the government, in the relays, giving the news to the media.  Or how the “vaccines from international manufacturers only passed the stage two trials”, was led by the social media center’s director, Fang of the DDP; as for the BioTech vaccines were manufactured by China, by the representative of the DDP, and the public office holders of the DDP, and even as Chuang made a statement correcting the matters, Chen still returned to his origin.  This Central Kitchen surely, corroborated all their, statements all right.

and, here’s, one of, the leaders!

“All HAIL 928 (what the net army of the DDP are known as)…photo from online

What’s interesting was, Taiwan has a ton of “experts” in busting the myths locally, and, an assortment of professionals immediately, busted all the fake news, and counterattacked the claims of the supporters of the DDP from online, as well as the officials of the DDP.  And just like that, the Command Center’s press conference to “fight off the fake news” can only, evade the discussions of the matters of the false news being spread on MERS-CoV.

The Tsai government’s blocking out and blackening the names of the internationally manufactured vaccines, and yet, she’d, signed the contracts for the locally manufactured vaccines that’s not yet past the stage two trials.  And, surely, we can all see, what’s, behind, this, outrageous game she’s playing.

Of course, it’s to, spread fears across the island, so people would be, stupid enough, to WORSHIP our current president as G-O-D, because she is to save us from the attacks of MERS-CoV, while, a ton of people are dying every single day, and the center of disease control here, led by Chen is still, doing its, RE-recount of how many dead, how there are no new cases, etc., etc., etc., it’s, simple BULLSHIT, and yet, the majority of the population are still, blind, because they’re still, blindly following Reverend Jones (remember Jonestown, Heavens’ Gate cult???) to COMMIT suicide, and there’s NOTHING we can do, because no amount of “fairy dust” (aka, CHILI powder’s what I need to use now!) that the REALITY FAIRY is pouring down this moron’s faces will wake them all back up!!!  Hello, hello, hello, did the battery in this “thing” (my mic) went DEAD again?  Thought I told someone to CHANGE it, well, looks like, I’m still doing EVERYTHING on my own here (sigh…………).

With 5,000 “Friends” on FB, but Outcast in the Class, the Façade of Social Network

So, this still showed???  Oh yeah, right: the MORE friends you have on social networks, the LESS of friends you have, that you can, physically, interact with!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

Finding the Escape into the Cyber Reality, You May Just Well, “graduate” Early Out of Life

Han-Chian (a false name) has close to five-thousand friends on FB, but returning BACK to his reality, he is a “outcast” who lives on the edge of his class.  The experts observed, that as teens bump into interpersonal relations problems, they are more than likely to escape into the online world, to “start over”, but, being overly dependent on the internet, with the façade of having tons of friends, it only makes these teens more easily victimized by cyberbullying and put them in dangers of online friends, and it may well turn the internet into that FINAL straw, that crushed these teenagers’, backs.

friends on FB

from online

Han-Chian is a case that the clinical psychologist, Finance had.  Finance pointed out, a lot of the teens who are troubled emotionally, or made suicidal attempts, is not the least bit popular or personable in their realities, but their friends on FB, is maxed out on the websites, while all of these, “Face friends” aren’t real friends at all, a lot were from the random “be-friending” of unknown persons from online, and they’d, mold up the façade of them being popular by the numbers.

Finance said, the online world satisfied the teens’ psychological needs, but it’d also made the kids even more fragile, they’d lacked the ability to face up to the troubling predicaments of their lives, and effectively deal with their negative emotions, but as the teens bumped into the defeats online, like in cyberbullying, the next step may be, “I quit playing”, gradating early, from this life.

Cyberbullying is not, the most prevalent problem in the adolescents.  Based off of the survey conducted by the Child Welfare League on the matter, there are more than half of teens and children who were involved in cyberbullying, 0.36-percent had been, victimized.  In the past, the physical bullying from the schools, the students can temporarily escape from by going home, but, they can’t get rid of the shadows of cyberbullying in whole now.

and here’s, what they’re, relying on…

to “solidify” our “statuses” online

The head counselor of Dajr High School, Wu used a case as an example, a student got into an argument with someone, of them, one went home, and posted the matter online with a lot of, embellishments, and posted the individual’s name, and the online community used the human search engine, and found out  all of that particular student’s social network accounts, and started leaving crazy, hurtful comments on the boards, to the point of threatening the student, the school’s homepage, as well as the fans page got maxed out with the comments as well.  She said, this caused partial of the student body to show signs of severe depression, that she’d had to counsel them over and over, then they started, feeling better, and through the school and lawyers mediating, the parents of the student who made the post made a statement, to clarify what’d happened, and that, was what made the storms blow over.

The power of the online world is still, at work here, because you can easily bully someone, by getting ALL of your “friends” to un-friend someone you’re targeting, thus, isolating that individual, making the person feel oh so very much alone, and when the person heads off to school, s/he still had to put up with the whispers, the pointing at her/him, and in our teens, our hormones are, overly active, and we easily misinterpret things, and that is what causes those “fragile” “strawberries” to go, SPLAT!

All thanks, to the online world here…

The Abuser Was, Ganged Up On, Sixteen Were Taken into Custody, Most Didn’t Know Each Other, the Gathering of the Crowds from Online, Taking Matters into Their Own Hands, Against the Bullies

Vigilante justice, is still???  Oh yeah, NO justices, but hey, that’s what we do, UNDER the INFLUENCE of the WWW here right now!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

After the footages of the technical high school female student, Lin getting bullied went viral, the online did a human search and found the abuser, and used violence on the abuser; the man, Huang, who’d led the group in slapping Lin came out, apologizing two nights ago, but, there were the members of the online community who’d, “leaked out” the message, and it’d become a matter of “vigilantes seeking justice”, there were about twenty individuals who’d taken the weapons, and ganged up on Huang, beaten his right elbow to and his ring finger to fracture.  The police were notified, and arrested a total of sixteen people, including seven teenagers, and the police found, that most of whom didn’t know each other, and they were all charged with physical assault, gang-related activities, threats, and other charges too, and two of the group were sent to the D.A.’s office, and the district attorneys after interrogations, sent them home, while the rest of the group were, taken and kept in police custody.

Lin, the technical high school student, and the woman, Hsiao had monetary disagreements, on the 22^nd of last month, Lin was ganged up on by Hsiao’s boyfriend, Huang (age nineteen), and the group, drinks were poured on her face, while the bystanders shot the footage of a total of fifty-six seconds, and streamed it online, and members of the online community found out Huang’s identity, and some of the online community threw eggs at Huang’s residence.

vigilantes, seeking “justice”…

here, we have, a “mob” of only TWO! Found online

Two nights ago, Huang’s friend, the man, Fang (age 19) asked him, “do you want to fix it”?, Huang wanted all of it to be over soon, and agreed, that he would meet out two nights ago at ten, outside a super convenience shop in Hsiaogang to discuss how to apologize, and the man, Lin got in touch with the girl who got slapped, Lin to come but because there was a gathering of, seven to eight individuals, the police were called and came, Fang rode his scooter out to the Rose Cemetery in Daliao District with Huang on the back and continued to “discuss” the matter.

Someone Instagrammed the goings on of Huang making the apology, and everything was tracked online, from the posts and reposts, and reposts of the online community, at around midnight last night, there were, more than twenty individuals who’d, rushed over to the cemetery, and Lin showed up with her father, and talked with her abuser for no more than five minutes, then left, but, within five minutes afterwards, Huang was, ganged up on, and, was taken to the Hsiaogang Hospital, and the hospital immediately, notified the police.

Huang stated, that he’d only known three, to four people who were there, that he’d not known most of them, and that someone had hit him with a bat; Fang tried to cover him up, but it’d not worked, that he planned to sue his abusers for threats, and assault.  Fang also testified, that back then, he did, try his best, to protect Huang, he took along six, to seven others, to film the process of his apologies to the girl, that he’d not known most of those who were there.

at the tips of our, fingers too! Photo from online

The police took in sixteen of the suspected abusers one by one, and found, that most of them didn’t know each other, and suspected that someone had, shared the passage of Huang’s apology to the adolescent girl at the super convenience shops, and someone started tracking his whereabouts, and, as the online community posted, reposted, and followed up, there were more and more of those who’d gathered around the cemetery, and as soon as Lin and her family members left, they’d, started, gaining up on Huang; the abusers included Fang’s friends, and there were those who were there, because of the posts online, the “vigilantes”, using violence to fight violence, the police took Fang and one another individual into protective custody, while the rest of the involved were taken to the police stations locally.

Based off of the viral video on IG, while Huang was getting cussed at and beaten on by the gathering crowd, Tseng tried to block him from being attacked, and kept moving backwards; there was another footage that showed Huang getting asked, “how do you want to apologize to the woman?”, with Huang stuttered, “I shouldn’t have, slapped her”, and the individual filming asked  him again, “How are you going to apologize?”, Huang kept bowing, and said, “I’m sorry, I should not have hit the girl!”

And so, thanks to social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, and, YouTube (for allowing the footages to go VIRAL???), that was HOW and WHY this beat-down happened, and this is happening, more and more often these days, because of all of those tiny matters that you and/or I feel to be, unjustified, and, there are those of you (which I’m nowhere NEAR a member of???), who felt that oh, she got beaten up, and that’s not right, and so, you’d, gathered up that huge crowd, and went to TAKE the guy who’d, beaten up that teenage girl up yourselves, and now, you are all gonna get charged, for ASSAULTING the original ABUSER, and in the process of seeking out what you deemed to be, justice, you’d, turned into, ABUSERS too, and wow, you still, don’t REALIZE this, because, you’d TOO BLIND by what you deemed to be “justice”.

And all of this is due to???  STREAM it LIVE!!!

The Chinese “Army” from Online Changed the Postings on FB, Passing Out the Falsified News

The validity of the news, from the WWW!  Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The investigative bureau’s cracking down on the falsified news stories on MERS-CoV, they’d found that on the fans pages of Facebook, because of lacking in maintenance of the webpages, causing there to be a link on the site to China, which was used as a way of manipulating the flow of the facts and spreading of the rumors that weren’t, valid.  There are, another twelve of the websites before the presidential election that were, bought out by the online forces of China, with the untrue claims, aiming at causing war.

The Investigative Bureau recently called in the manager of the FB group, and the person who’d registered the site, a total of six people in for questioning, they’d claimed, that because they’d failed to pay for the maintenance charges of their website, they weren’t aware that the postings are, altered, that they’d not received any money from China, after they were all questioned, they were, sent back home.

The Investigative Bureau believed, that this sort of highly-organized and tactile maliciously spreading the rumors online, there may well be Chinese military involvement behind it, that it’s aimed at causing the citizens here to fear, to feel even more uncertain of the government, during this period of MERS-CoV epidemic.

Based off of understanding, there were the FB fans pages, due to lacking in maintenance, causing these site’s “About” sections, to get linked to the contents related to China, and from the start of this year, there were, the debatable statements about revolting against the Taiwanese government.

After chasing the leads, other than having highly debatable contents, the Facebook page had also, connected to a ton of external sites, with the “Content Farms” by the Communist in China’s patterns, in a short period of time, producing and spreading out the unchecked facts, and, duplicated them to the FB groups here to mass-distribute.

And, there were, another twelve internal links to the FB page, which was said to have been, bought out by a third-party platform, which became the provider of these, falsified news for the Content Farms, and, the time when these sites were bought was six months before the votes at the start of the year, mid last year.

The Investigative Bureau stated, that take for example, “puddingco” that was bought out, the original name of the company’s website remained unchanged, but the contents of what’s been posted are filled with the Chinese authorized news stories, the policies, along with the untrue slanders toward our nation.

And so, this just, makes it, that much harder, to know if what we’re reading is true or false, especially in these, sensitive times, when the Chinese government wanted to, take over the Taiwanese government, to UNIFY us, and, this is still, using rumors, to shake up the hearts and faiths that people have for the governing bodies of their own countries, and, there’s, NO way we would know, if what we encounter online is true or if it isn’t, unless we all know how to differentiate between facts and fiction already!

Advising Us All, to Not Get Addicted to Facebook

The first of the Relativity of Literature for the month of June, translated…

Jia-Hsien Yang: I will never forget the day I got hooked on Facebook.  It was a period of my life when I felt most lost—yes, that, was during the time when I’d buckled down, and wrote out my doctoral dissertations, in the research center’s research rooms, the days grew dark.  During that entire year, I did not write a single poem at all, I’d checked out my progress on Word, to see if I’d written another extra five hundred characters and added three more notes.  At the same time, I’d started, writing on Facebook, back then, Facebook was not yet “populated”, I’d only gotten a handful of kudos, felt a bit cold.

At first, it was only, a place, to smooth over the wound left by my doctoral dissertation.  As a few years had come to pass, it’d become this demon that prevented me from moving forward in my research.

But, before anything becomes an addiction, it would get tangled up, I’d written and you’d reposted, love and Facebook, are both like so.  And yet, it’d become this method, this stage, and people are all, coming up on stage to perform now, to show themselves, to set up one’s own image, and forcibly, report our own whereabouts to the world.  We can classify our “friends”, decide how far, to spread the news of ourselves to the world, or to give a dissection of oneself in depth.  There were my friends who’d insisted on not adding their professors, or their students, as “Friends”, some had kept the bosses, the managers, or subordinates away, as your mom and dad learned to use Facebook, and wanted you to add them as your friends, this, was the commonly shared trouble for us all.  Mmmmmm, that’s right, I’m the kind, that added some of my relatives, and at the very end, I’d blocked all of them out.  This, was the weirdest part of this sort of interpersonal relations: we’re allowing strangers on Facebook to read up on the goings on of our lives, but, we wanted to keep the cousins out.

As my workload increased, I’d had a TON of idiotic postings.  As I’d gotten kudos for my idiotic postings from the scholars, it’d shocked me so (for instance, recently, Professor Cheng came to give me a kudos).

Juan Tang: Facebook wasn’t born from the stars, and, the nights flowed, never endingly, and, perhaps, this, is the end, of my career in writing creatively.  I’d spend all of my days in the research labs, silently took in, all the losses I’d suffered, in the online chess games.  Constantly, fighting it out, with unknown players, never knowing, who will end up, slaughtering me to pieces.

But, I HATED Facebook, I hate how it is like a whirlpool, sucking my entire world in.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh, could this be, the biggest BANG of my life from here on out?  The nature of Facebook, is not for someone, middle aged chubby men like me, it’s a place, for those adolescents to bullshit in.  And here, we would use “Kudos” as way of attack, and, the beauty in quantity is measured, the qualities step aside, with the experts, using their fingers, every single person who’s not that good gets a kudos, Facebook is the holy ground for online democracy that’s for sure.  People of all ages, living in all parts of the worlds, can state their opinions, and, those who’d followed the leaders get commended, those who don’t, get shunned.  The pages are refreshed so quickly, the applauses died too quickly too, it is, a world, without too much “friction” (who gives a SHIT about “your weird goings on”, your “innocent ways”, and “simplemindedness”).

Then, why are you here, Old dude?  Oh, I’m here, to tell them, to get out, to tell them to stop sliding on their cell phones, to not rant on bullshits, to read those useless articles, to give out kudos for no apparent reasons………for the sake of having a successful conversation, I’d taken up their brain dead way of communication, to laugh out of turn, like chasing the pointless trends, to pretend, that I’m an outdated, but still in the game, old geezer, standing on the side of the young, of the open, of the future (but what if, I’m not?), to deal that FATAL blow, to the ancient belief systems.  Can’t believe, that they’d loved it when I got angered, posing their innocence, and giving old geezers who tried to mess things up like me kudos; can’t believe it, getting kudos feels even better than that $300N.T. whole body massage I just got at Hsin-An Massage Palace.  (oh, I’m in love, beep-beep, beep-beep), forget it, I’m about to forget to head home now, I like you all, younger boys and girls, it’s so funny, Uncle will chit chat with you all a while, do you think my words are funny………

Jia-Hsien Yang: Well, uh?  You seemed to become possessed when you talked of Facebook, it’d showed, how normal I actually am, how I’d followed the rules to the “t”.

Facebook, in the same level’s mirage, how it’d mocked the goings on of the party in front of the temples, it’s truly, a high pressured world.  There is always something going on, there would always be two different points of views, duking it out, we can’t keep our silences, we must show where we stand; if we don’t, we are deemed as aloof, uncaring, chicken.  And, all of a sudden, Facebook had replaced all the actions of man, like how everything you see on Facebook IS the whole world.  No wonder as people marched onto the streets for protests, they needed to post the photos online (I’d done that too), otherwise, who will know that you were there?  Who would know, that you are, showing care and concerns for the society right now?  I’d often pondered: if I didn’t think clearly, if I couldn’t speak wiser words than those already spoken, using a different angle, I’m just, “checking in” at the right time and the right place, other than making my Facebook account into my bulletin, my views into stickers, making myself, into a drop of water, in this big and vast ocean, what’s the meaning of it all?  Of course, this, is probably, too much of an individualist belief.  Perhaps, someone would say: what’s so bad, being a part of a group?  I’d recalled, the difference in The Gilded Age’s Ling Ding and Hong Hsiao now, I don’t want to be Ling Ding, and I lacked what it takes to be Hong Hsiao, but, their differences gave me a revelation.

Like I’d destroyed the atmosphere that Juan Tang was creating by sarcasm of the partying scene in the temple celebrations now……but, Juan Tang said, that there’s not that much friction in this world, no wonder, I’d feel very relaxed and happy when I’d logged on Facebook; the designers are truly wonderful, allowing us to block each other from seeing us if we felt like, and, allowing us, to stop interacting with those who had offended us somehow.  I’d started ranting now, as I’d opened up on my views of Facebook, but, at the same time, I’m reminded, of the two years, nine days’ ago posting of mine, and I’d reposted something I’d posted some seven months ago back on my front pages, to be used, as a reminder to myself, as well as others.

And still, at this moment, I’m feeling, kinda anxious about, not posting anything of value on Facebook for so long now.

And so, this, is two people’s opinion on the usage of Facebook, and, undeniably, Facebook had become, the way we connect with one another, as it’d connected strangers, but, do remember, the saying of how the more you friends you have on Facebook, the less friends you have for real, because you’re spending all that time online, “following” the goings on of those Face friends, instead of getting face-to-face interactions with those who are next to you.

We’ve Never Met

On modern-day interactions, translated…

Some people whom I’d never met, and, don’t know if they have the chances of meeting one another in life, but had become, this light scent of nostalgia to me.

For instance, T, one of my friends on Facebook, a man with a warm smile, and deep eyes, the articles he’d posted are very well-written, and he’d lightly disclosed, how three years ago, he was diagnosed with a rare illness, that it’d turned his views of life upside down, and, since, his writings showed this brand new understanding, this new kind of clarity about life.

One day, I’d recalled how it’s been a very long time, since I saw anything from him, and I’d gone of Facebook, to check out his page, then, I’d gotten to know, through someone else’s posting, that he was currently engaged in a tug-of-war with death in the I.C.U.  Since then, I’d gone on his Facebook page to check on him, hoped to get the message, that he’d made a full recovery.  And I’d often prayed to God, to look out for T, he once had such passions for life!

Another friend, C, one day, he’d also vanished, and, he canceled his Facebook account too.  What happened?  Why did he close his account?  In reality, C and I had NO shared friends, and so, I couldn’t find out how he was, even if I wanted to.  C is one of those lowkey people, who used a piece of photography as his display picture, and, the name he used was his initials, I have NO idea what was going on with him in real life.  And still, in the psychological sense, he’s such an interesting person, would use his humorous, and unique way, to reply to all of my postings, and it’d become nostalgic to me.  Having lost a Face friend such as he, I felt very awful.

And, don’t remember how long ago afterwards it was, I’d picked up a book I’d ordered online from a bookstore, as I’d told the cashier my name, after I’d gotten the book, was about to walk out, a man called out to me.  He looked very handsome, with this clean aura about him, but, I was certain, we’d never met.  He said, he was, once my friend, on Facebook.

Once?  I’d inquired.  He said, yes, he’d not logged on Facebook anymore, because someone made an anonymous complain about his account, his account was canceled, and so, he’d stopped using Facebook altogether.  “Actually, it’s a good thing, it’d given me more time, to do other things, it’s just that I regretted saying goodbye to some of the friends I’d shared deep conversations with is all.”  And so, as he’d heard me say my name to the cashier, he was so happy, that he could tell all of this to me to my face.

And, all of a sudden, I’d said his initials which had been erased completely from my mind previously.  And, his smiles became more radiant, “You still remembered me?”

I smiled too, “Of course!  I’m really glad, that I ran into you.”  Thanks to this chance meeting, it’d resolved ALL the questions I have about his disappearing on Facebook.

Back then, we’d started chatting, carried on like we were old friends, recalled some of the interactions we’d shared on Facebook.  Then, without leaving ANY ways of getting into contact with one another, we’d parted ways again.  I still don’t know his real name, or anything else about him, but that was unimportant.  Being able to meet back up with him, was more than enough for me.

Facebook had gotten those who originally had nothing in common together, like how a cloud, bumped into another cloud, or how a duckweed, swam into another duckweed.  In the world online, we’re close, and we’re far apart, maybe we would get forgotten by the world, and, we may become one another’s questioning thoughts.  Turns out, that in our not being aware of it, some of the interactions already had feelings infiltrated into them, and when we don’t see one another, we’d start to care and concern, and also, miss, each other.

This, is how friendships continued AFTER you’d logged off, and that still just shows, how even though you are making a ton of friends online, you should still WORK on the interpersonal relationships you have offline, because you don’t want to have a ZILLION friends on your social networking sites, but, ZERO friends in reality, do you?  I wouldn’t think so.

I Will Go to Bed Earlier Tonight

Translated…

Maybe you’d already begun searching

For my name

Many years ago, you’d followed my movements

To track down my life

Registering at places is merely

The proof of we’re losing something

And, what are you thinking of?

Everything in the world is zooming in

But, nobody’s giving you kudos

To my boredom at all

So, this, is what life is like, and, you are still, staying UP into the wee hours of the night, because you wanted to know, that someone out there, from the WWW IS actually caring about you enough, to hit that “Kudos” button of whatever it is you’re putting down on your Facebook accounts, and you will keep on waiting, waiting, waiting………

A Birthday Party for a Group Ages Up to a Thousand Years Old

On the ins and outs of life here, translated…

We’d taken the advantage of the time that Mei-Yu who’d immigrated to Canada came back, we’d rounded everybody up, to head to Maokong on a weekday, to celebrate our sixtieth birthdays.

“Who celebrates their sixties?”, this, was a question, posed by not just those we are friends with her, but also, friends who had moved abroad too.

The leader of the group wrote a very long message, “the government had set up group weddings from time to time, we will also be hosting, a group birthday.  From being in the same classes as thirteen-year-olds, it’d already been forty-seven years since, and, most of the classmates are already sixty, whether or not you had met the ‘requirements’ or surpassed it, we’d hoped for all of us, with the combined age of at least a thousand, to head over to Maokong for a birthday celebration.”

And, immediately, a former classmate who’s retired wrote back, and, those who are still working tried to convince the group, that the gathering should be held on a weekend; and, those who’d become grandmothers had even asked, “Can I take along my two-year-old grandchild?”, and, the leader of our class said NO to all.  As for those classmates who are in the U.S. can only see how passionate those of us in Taiwan are discussing the matter.

That day, we’d found a group of ten members, although, we couldn’t add up to over a thousand years in age, but, this, was as perfect as it got.

We’d gone to the chicken shops to get fed, all the items were amazing in taste to us.  The Maokong Gondola looks out toward the 101 that shot straight into the clouds, Mei-Yu used her cell and took shots unstop, the beautiful scenes matched well with the savory foods.  And still, when the waiter brought in the specialty peaches for us, everybody exclaimed, turns out, this, was the set up, by the leader of our group, and everybody who was there appreciated her careful thought, and named her honorary leader.  We’d lifted our glasses, and wished everybody happy birthday, and gave hooray to our friendships, and made a date, to come up every year.

After the meal, the leader of the entertainments led us, walked from the hiking trails to the back mountains of the Politics University.  The trails was very easy, but, we can see, how those who failed to keep up with regular exercises had paled by comparisons to the rest.

At the moment, the group leader decided, that she will be gathering us all, for the activities regularly, and, Ding immediately said no, and, the rest of us also.  As we walked, we recalled the past, how fast the time flew, what we’d shared in the past had already become blurred out, and, everybody recalled differently, and so, we’d decided, that at least three members of the party must agree on an issue, for it to be valid, and, those of us who’d gotten into our first choice of schools are no longer bragging about our amazing memories.

We’d gone on this fun trip, holding hands, and, our friendships were just as it was from the day we met.  Everybody was celebrating our combined sixtieth birthday.

So, this, is how you can connect with your long-term lost-contact with friends, by hosting gatherings regularly, and, keeping up with everybody is truly very hard, but, this group still made the time, because they cherished one another’s friendships very much.

A Holiday for Old Friends, Holidays that Don’t Exist

Translated…

In order to follow up with the speed and swiftness of the Internet, we’d given ALL the time we possibly can, to meet brand new friends, but, we’d stopped, connecting with the friends we already have…

The Definition of an Old Friend since the internet entered into the social networking age, everybody became very good at making friends, and, the number of friends can go up as high as hundreds at a time, easily, hit the thousand “marker” too, and, we’d had to set up fans groups, and, we’d often sigh about how a photoshopped picture of us, can get ourselves, millions of Kudos at a time, everybody IS a superstar.

Even those old friends we hadn’t seen in a long while, old flames, former debtors, even those long-lost family members, are reunited via Facebook, and we can pick up our arguments, right where they left off too.

Interacting with others had become too convenient, and, the connection between people extended, to beyond our imaginations (try thinking about, those 5,000 virtual friends!  In reality, I’d be lucky, if I can recall the names of just five hundred).  And still, a lot of “friends” who gave one another Kudos online, they’d never even met face-to-face, and, the defining of friendships had become, even MORE complicated compared to the past times.

Unless, this world had become destroyed, otherwise, the Internet technologies are surely to move forward more and more, and now, if you want people to write letters as exchange, or hand one another one’s own business cards, it’s, impossible.

But, those real friends, how can the interactions be limited to “on screen”?  We must make physical contacts with one another, mustn’t we?

That was from kindergarten, when your teachers told you, to hold hands, the two of you, and never to let go of one another, seeing him crying, you’d cried too, you know, how the two of you had stressed your teachers out?

Must’ve met back in elementary school, you two loved the same kind of comics, and, you can share a popsicle with each other, and, help one another stand in life at the school snack shop, or, the friend you’d gone to the restrooms with.

And, they must be that group of pals that met up for a game of hoops, to meet up at someone’s house to study hard, to cover one another on exams when you cheated, the ones whom you’d gone out shopping with on the weekends, the buddies you’d hung out with at McDonald’s when all of you got bored out of your bones.

A Holiday Saved, Especially for Old Friends

Naturally, old friends can be rookies who entered into the workforce together too, had both been humiliated by the bosses or clients, and understood how it felt, when the proposals you’d made got tossed back, and the ones you’d gone out drinking on the day you received your wages, knew the secrets of each other’s partners, those kinds of friends.

Old friends, would also be those best men, maids of honor, and those to whom you asked for help when times got too tough and not feel ashamed or embarrassed by it, the one whom you’d called up, after you’d had a huge fight with your spouse after you married.  Of course, when the situations got worse, the old friends are those who knew, that you just needed their accompaniments and not their advices.

Old friends, would totally be the ones who would be willing to do more for you, the aged and best of friends.  Like this sort of friends, you must have a couple of years of interactions with one another, and, decades, even.

But, with the convenience of the internet, it’d tightened the flexibilities of our lives, in order to keep up, we’d given up ALL the time we possibly could, to meet up with more and more newer friends, but, we’d stopped, connecting with the older friends we had already.  And sometimes, even if we’d made a date, the couple of old friends just couldn’t find a way, to match the time.

And time, it had, gone accordingly, the years flew right by us, without any hesitations.

One year, an old friend had gone abroad.  One year, an old friend got married.  One year, s/he fell ill.  And, another year, s/he had passed away.  We may still get to know the news via Facebook, but, Facebook couldn’t possibly share our losses, or even, our sorrows, those emotions, can only be understood, by our old friends.

There are so many holidays in the world, but, for as far as I know, there’s NO holidays saved for friends, and so, I’d had this thought, a holiday, especially, for friends: Holiday for Old Friends.

So, with the internet connection speed getting faster, faster and faster by the day, the connections we’d made in the past, like from our childhood years, remember those good friends that used to cry and laugh with us?  They’re all gone, because we’re too busy, keeping up, with those so-called “friends” from our social networking sites, and, think about it: how many of those friends you’d shared a common interest from online can you actually share your thoughts and feelings with, not very many would be my guess, then again, what the HELL would I know, right???