Le vent ballet in slow motion

This is pretty amazing.  Watch these dancers preform and gasp at the control, strength, preciseness and beauty.  The dancers are Marina Kanno and Giacomo Bevilaqua from Staatsballett Berlin.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern

Well first I discovered the website for this book.  Have a look here (you’ll have to sign in with a Facebook or Twiter account) and tell me you aren’t a little intrigued.  A friend of mine had read this book and just loved and adored it so I thought “best I give it a whirl”  The Night Circus is the result of a challenge, a long standing competition between two magicians.  In this case a young girl, Celia and Marco a young boy in the early days, rescued from the streets and trained to high levels of magicianship.  The two have studied, trained and honed their skills, which are then shown off in the Night circus.  The mysterious circus all in black and white which arrives in a town in the middle of the night and then after a few days, just as mysteriously disappears only to turn up in another location.

This is however a love story, Celia and Marco despite themselves, fall in love.  This is not in the plan!  They have a dilemma.  They compete for superiority of magic within the confines of the circus, the performers and the public love the circus and don’t want it threatened, and yet there must be a winner in the competition of skill which will probably lead to the destruction of the circus.

It is a lyrical book, magic and imagination run wild in it.  I found myself liking it instantly but then getting a bit bogged down in the details in the middle, I put it down, wandered off reading something else for a bit, then came back to it and polished it off in an afternoon.  It is a gorgeous story, full of the mystical and mysterious and if you are looking for that in a book then this is bound to be a treat.  My favourite characters were the twins and Bailey.  Read it to find out who they are.  Book trailer below.

My Facebook Mini-Break

Wondering where I’ve been?  Probably not, but regular visitors will notice that there has been a long posting holiday.  I didn’t really mean for it to be that way, but when you give up Facebook and Twitter it seems you get out of the habit of blogging too!  Well at least I did.  For 6 weeks I stopped looking at, posting in and paying any attention to Facebook.  It all started at morning meeting one morning when I sat beside one of our staff who told me he was giving up online gaming for Lent.  I decided I would join in and give up Facebook.  Not for Lent exactly but because it was starting to really annoy me, and I wanted to know what would happen to my levels of annoyance if I took a break from it for a while.

What is it about Facebook that annoys me?

 

• Turns out it isn’t Facebook it is the users.  It is the people who post constant updates of their life, be it miserable, be it chirpy, chipper, boring, adventurous or whatever.  Constant updaters need to leave the rest of us alone. It isn’t necessary for us to know where you ate breakfast, that you have a new handbag, that you want a new handbag, that your child is the most beautiful ever.  Constant updaters appear insecure and seem to need the constant feedback that Facebook can provide.
• It is the people who share: the games they are playing, the quizzes they endlessly do, the highscores they just got, the online life they have.  Don’t do that people.
• It is the constant urge to share which news articles people are reading, which pictures you’ve looked at, what you liked on Pinterist.  Risist the urge to share on Facebook please.  I’m following you on Pintrest if I care about the things you like.
• It is the annoying, will not go away updates from games you used to play.  I blocked you once Bejewelled Blitz, how did you get back here again.
• The friend requests from people I barely know.  Seriously, I have 144 ‘friends’ if you are not amongst them, and you consider yourself my friend, then either you don’t have the internet, you haven’t seen me in a bazillion years, or we have fallen out and please, send me a message not a friend request, I love a message, it is like getting an old fashioned letter in the mailbox.  Facebook is great for catching up with people you haven’t seen in years, but sometimes you haven’t seen those people in years because you aren’t the same person you were when you knew them!  There is certainly space for new FB friends in my life but only if they conform to my ‘rules’ (see above) and below – click the image!

But there is the stuff I missed.

I missed getting the fantastic links from Radio New Zealand and Booksellers New Zealand.  I love finding out about new books from several publishers I follow.  I love the Matinee Idle group I belong to, I enjoy some of my friends who are witty, clever and dry, their posts always make me laugh.  I missed seeing the photos my partner posted.  I missed the collegiality of posting in a group I belong to for work.  I missed the laughs and sniggers.

I enjoy finding out about my friends holidays, good fun times, new babies, witty and clever comments.

So, I’m back on Facebook.  Not obsessively looking at people’s profiles (I know people who do this), not really looking at anyone other than my family and close friends photos and status updates.  My Facebook has been pared back, invisibility spray has been applied to most of my annoying friends, as I would expect it to be applied to me if I am really annoying.

Anybody else taken a break from FB?  What did you think of your experience?  Has it changed your FB behaviour?  Will you go back to FB? Has it changed mine?  Hell yes!   I will think much more before posting an inane comment.  Will only share links I really care about.  Will try to cut out the drivel, because actually drivel seems to be the largest percentile on Facebook.