Category: Facebook

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welcome home kristin

my daughter Kristin serving in Iraq
my daughter Kristin serving in Iraq

Life is supposed to be interesting and my daughters certainly love to do curious things. Sometimes they  are a bit too ‘interesting’ for their mother… but I do see much of their mother in them. Laura is a professor who loves what she does and, by her example, our daughters have had the academic experience of both sitting in the seats and at the lectern. They both have masters degrees and have the genuine thirst that comes with life long learners.

Kristin is competent and professional, but her appearance has generated a few comments from friends and family with the moniker “Combat Engineer Barbie.” She just tactfully smiles when she hears it.

Kristin has finished her second tour of Iraq, the first coming at the original invasion in 2003. We have had some glimpses into her life as we all are ‘friends’ on facebook and Kristin has been nice enough to share some of her everyday life with us. Her Army future seems to be planned out for the next few years… and I hear, that teaching for a while at her alma mater West Point may be in the works. With Kristin soon to be on the east coast near Karen, I suspect that they will continue their travel adventures together as Kristin has leave.

In the meantime, welcome home Kristin!

Love,

Dad

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alter egos on facebook

MyAlterEgo

Our family is fascinated with technology of all kinds. We have interacted through a variety of technology that is amazing in its evolution!

Personally, I have never used an alias either for email or for internet games… it never struck me as very ‘honest’… it doesn’t pass — as Karen says — the transparency test. However, I have learned there are plenty of ‘innocent’ alter egos on the game sites and on one of our favorite hangouts… FACEBOOK.

I was playing an on-line game on FACEBOOK called Mafia Wars and had my head handed to me by one of the more experienced players. He must have taken pity on me as he gave me a couple of ‘hot’ weapons and some ‘advice.’ First thing I need to do was to open a second Facebook identity and let this ‘alias’ do many fund raising tasks for me. So I thought I’d give it a try and … sure enough it is working wonderfully….

So, I chose an alias. As a young child growing up, I enjoyed the various heroic stories of the magnificent Spartans. King Leonidas met the Persians at about my age… no spring chicken … and I thought I would tip my hat to him by adopting his famous name. I noticed an interesting phenomenon in this game among young male gamers who adopt the picture of what they might call a ‘babe.’ WHY? Well, part of the strategy is to build a powerful mafia family and honey attracts bees.

Anyway, there is no real deception as to who I am on the game as I am ‘fully disclosed’… but it is an interesting study in how people act in on-line games.

Roger

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social media addiction?

Do you need Twitter-Craig?
Do you need Twitter-Craig?

A little known subject for study is the threat of social media on the very fabric of western civilization…. or so they tell us. This goes along with the supposed threat of video games turning our children into ninja assassins and the supposed wonders of bike helmets saving our lives when we run into a semi tractor trailer hitting us at 45 mph. There have always been folks who like to ruin what most of us call ‘fun’  … including making us wear stupid bike helmets which may help you if you run into something no larger than a bee.

Social media has been a wonderful way to communicate with others as well as following the activities of those who wish to share what they do. As a fan of sports and communication, it has been fun to follow the ‘tweets’ of SC football coach Pete Carroll or Twitter’s “Ev”… although these two energized folks make coffee nervous. The truth is that you better like what folks say if you follow them… because they might send you 13 tweets in one day! Besides, like all things …you learn to manage your world.

On a personal note, it is really nice to communicate with family and view their lives ( as they communicate with others and post photos) discretely.

So my advice to fellow Boomers, get on Facebook and slowly — in a phenomenological way — expand your universe to include that which otherwise you might miss in your busy lives. It’s worth the effort.

Let the kid in you never grow up.

Roger Freberg

PS. remember on this diet, you can have all the ‘tweets’ you want!

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if it’s 7pm it must be Greece!

traveling with the fam!
traveling with the fam!

UPDATE: First set of pictures from the trio!

Were they happy to see me or were they gloating, or both?  I screen captured the picture above from our most recent  ‘Skyping’ session ( video conference call … 9 am my time and 7 pm their time). By the way, Laura is brilliant … but troubled in trying to keep time zones straight in her mind… even with a helpful chart I made for all possible locations, a phone that does world time and a computer… she still gets lost. I am glad I have something I can help her with!

From what I have learned, Laura walked our two daughters around Athens everywhere! Laura also shared some of my homemade Baklava with Karen and Kristin. In fact, I think both Karen and Laura had two pieces… Jenny Craig will just have to understand! By the way, it’s over 90 degrees there right now… 36 degrees centigrade or 96.8 F. I’d say that was a bit ‘warmish.’

Tomorrow, they have to do what they came to do in the first place… they present at the 3rd International Conference in Psychology. My ladies have always embraced technology, the internet, web design, social media sites and ‘twitter.’ They know html and where their ‘executive bat file’ happens to be located, how cool is that? I do the best I can to keep up. Eventually, Laura and Karen’s interests found common ground resulting in a research project and a presentation!

Fortunately, they keep everyone updated by uploading their pictures on Facebook and blogging. Technology keeps us all in touch!  Just one piece of advice, ladies:

“Take every opportunity of enjoying yourself!”–Mrs. Bennett in “Pride and Prejudice.”

accommodations in Athens: St. George

Athens.Com

3rd International Conference in Psychology

Love — Dad


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it’s fiber muffin time!

the Best whole wheat muffins!
the Best whole wheat muffins!

Okay, I am not big on many high fiber foods. It reminds me too much of chewing on a cereal box! Also, as a child, it also reminds me of those really old people ( over 30) who talked about their operations and how great an effect they had that morning from eating some Brillo pad tasting thing the night before.

Well, good things for you don’t have to taste bad.

I am not going to give a sales pitch on high fiber, just to say that it is helpful to folks who have diabetes, want to lose weight and help remove the various and sundry toxins from their bodies. Let’s just say, it is a good thing. However, if it is such a good thing, why is it that so many high fiber products taste so bad? Well, the reason is rather simple: instead of just adding high fiber ingredients to various recipes, “they” try to make it a ‘health food’… and we know how that tastes! yuck

So, I dabbled with my own muffin. Start off with a basic recipe and begin to tweak it a bit. Add Bulghur Wheat to whole wheat flour ( provides a nice crunch), apple and blueberries and a nice collection of spices. The right spices make all the difference. Remember, it does take a few eggs to make a quality muffin…  but be careful with using nuts as they are a bit caloric and make the muffin a little brittle. These little muffins are just over 100 calories a piece… but you’d never know by tasting them!

So my little muffin makers, bake some up today!

Roger Freberg