I Thank The Lord For This Article

Once in a while I'd come across articles on facebook, and this is the BEST ARTICLE I have considered reading from start to finish:

How to Hide from Friends You Don't Like

On Friday August 13, 2010, 10:48 am EDT
With more than 500 million people now on Facebook, it's inevitable that you'll be friended by someone you know, but with whom you don't want to share your online life. Once you've accepted them as a friend, how do you avoid them without the awkwardness of unfriending them?

Facebook has made it easy to hide other members' status updates. Place your mouse over an update from, say, Charlie, and a light blue X appears to the upper right corner of the update. Click the X, and Facebook will present you with three buttons from which to choose: Hide Charlie, Mark as Spam and Cancel. If you click Hide Charlie, you'll never see Charlie's updates again. (Click Spam and the message disappears and a notice gets sent to Facebook's servers and analyzed by spam filtering software.)

But how do you keep Charlie from reading your updates? Skirting your way around someone you've accepted as a Facebook friend is trickier. When you write a status update of your own, look for the lock-shaped icon below and to the right of the text input box. Click on the lock, and Facebook will pop up a menu. Click the bottom option, Customize. That will pop up a dialog box labeled Custom Privacy that lets you filter who will see your update.

There are two ways to exclude people. The quick and easy way is to type their names into the box labeled "Hide this from these people" at the bottom of the dialog box. To hide all future updates from these folks, click the checkbox at the very bottom that says "Make this my default setting." Then click the big blue Save Setting button. From now on, evil Charlie won't get your updates.The more sophisticated solution is to replace this blacklist with a list of people you do like. That way you can accept any number of new friends without having to accidentally share your updates with them.

To do this, click on Friends in the left margin of Facebook's interface. You'll see a button at the top of the Friends page labeled "+ Create a List". Click that and use the dialog box that pops up to make a list of the friends you want to share with. Call it, say, True Friends.

Next time you post an update, follow the instructions above to bring up the Customize dialog box. But instead of typing into the "Hide this" field, click the menu at the top labeled "Make this visible to these people." Select the option Specific People. A text input box will appear. Type the name of your new list, True Friends, into this field. Click "Make this my default setting" and then Save Setting. From now on, only your True Friends list will see your updates. Complicated and annoying, yes, but probably much less so than it was going to high school with Charlie.

Got a how-to question about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace or another social network? Hit me up on Facebook [http://paulboutin.socialtoo.com], Twitter [http://twitter.com/paulboutin], or email [mailto:boutin@gmail.com]. All correspondence will be kept confidential.

source

Recently

Have been reading a LOT.


Of all the books I've read recently, the Twilight Saga was toughest to read! You see, if I were a student on vacation I would've read a whole book in a day, but there's such a thing as "work" now and so it was quite an ordeal having to start reading every night at 10.


Loved watching all the behind-the-scenes footages. I'm somewhere between Team Carlisle and Team Jasper.


The typos were killing me argh...


I haven't watched New Moon yet but had a blast watching the behind-the-scenes. I'm a sucker for these.


And because I caught the vampire bug, I'm also watching bits of The Vampire Diaries. It's always all about Ian Somerhalder since Young Americans. Yay.


AND I even watched Vampires Suck! Hilarious, especially Jacob.

The Scarf

Growing up, I never had any of those security blankets that were literally blankets or some other stuff that served the same purpose.

But lately, I notice that I have been attaching myself to scarves.

Other than my camera + passport, I travel with my scarves. On a recent 4-nite trip, I had with me 3 of my favorite scarves. I came home with 5.


from ans Japan, perfect for spring!

Life, Recently

There's something I like about birthdays- these make good excuses for anything. A gift for myself. I can pretty much assume this is the only expensive scarf I will ever own. And never did I ever imagine I'd end up getting a Sprouse, coz I was never a graffiti/ anything loud print type of girl.


I got carried away with candies recently. When I spotted Okashiland selling these at HK$8, I quickly cleared these off the racks.


These ones are from Citysuper.


These remind me of Royce & Lotte chocolate minis.


My current favorite. I love these to death.


Got these from everywhere else, like in supermarkets.


Yes, Ikea has chocolates + food.


Maxim changed their spaghetti bolognese recipe! Que horror! Their current recipe tastes horrible. I miss the old one where they include a cherry tomato + broccoli.


Spotting a familiar guy at the new K11 mall.


Even the K11 bathrooms are like art.


On the way to the bathroom where the huge LCD aquarium is.


The one that everyone wanted to see for themselves- the waterfall but I was quite disappointed about it.


K11 is an art+mall so there were LOTS of art works all around + at the entrances.


If this is cool, looking at it from the second floor is waaay even cooler.


The current mall theme is African.


MTR stations also have art at some of the stations. This picture was taken at Lai King.


It took a while for all the train passengers to leave, haha. Then it got spooky I was practically the only creature left.


South African World Cup fever spread all over HK recently.


It's really everywhere, yes, even at tops of buildings.


One of the most beautiful things I have seen.


Freeeeee.


Tsim Sha Tsui


Causeway Bay


I thought this was amazing enough, but lo and behold the inside was even more amazing.


The shoes were amazing.


And yes they have free games!

But Too Much Ecobags Isn't Healthy Either...

I remember the day China banned plastic grocery bags many years ago. It seemed impossible, keeping in mind the demand and volume of people in the major cities alone. I foresaw a protest, but surprisingly the Chinese just followed the LAW.

If there's one thing I truly admire, it's their "pay for plastic bags" policy. I see the people around the city carry ecobags, just like many Europeans have been doing for decades.

Finland was memorable for me partly because of this. I remember my dad and I shopping for grocery and in the end had to pay for the plastic bag, as both of us simply could not carry our purchase by hand. Lesson learned.

These days I carry with me at least one ecobag wherever I go, especially when I know I'm gonna need it during an errand.


One of my first ecobags was from Starbucks. I was on a trip with my relatives and spotted a store merchandise display with a few interesting things that included an umbrella. If I was not hopping on a plane I would've bought the umbrella as well, but I'm anal about baggage so I just grabbed the bag. I have been asked about it a few times.


I got this on a recent trip. It's still a a virgin, meaning, I haven't taken it out yet.

There's another bag I got, along with the virgin one, but I have given it to my sis. It's pretty adorable, reversible, and with two lengthwise pockets deep enough to keep valuables safe. I haven't taken a picture of that one.


This is my newest acquisition, surprisingly cheap for a sturdy body + embroidered design. I love the black + green combination. LOVET.

My End Of April Vacation Went That-A-Way

About a couple of years ago I started seeing the blue Shanghai Expo mascot everywhere in HK & Shanghai. The 2010 Expo's been really hyped and all, and me and my Dad got lucky he had a huge group of friends who were going on an Expo-cruise trip.


There were even special expo flag poles.


Four Points by Sheraton rocks. i loved the evening crowd, the lovely blocks of stores right outside the hotel. for remembrance i bought a two-sided square scarf. for RMB99 it was a bit steep, but the print was lovely.


the only problem with expo was that the spread was realy HUGE, indeed, to be riding the big shuttle bus around the area wouldn't be a good idea coz you'd be missing out a lot, and riding the RMB10 elevated path shuttle would not exactly give you a really good view, except if you're into roofs and walls of the pavilions. i love walking so it wasn't a prob for me. i just felt really sad for those who were not able to enjoy the pavilions very much coz the lines were incredibly long. this ice cream was the best RMB15 softee ice cream i've ever had recently.


A few of the best pavilions included Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, S. Korea, Peru, and above is Denmark. I loved Norway's stylish pavilion- from the outside, that is. Coz I never got around to seeing all due to time constraint. This time though there wasn't much givaways like key chains or postcards. Just a lot of video presentations + visual effects i heard.


who ever thought of a mini ride around & atop the China pavilion? genius, pure genius!


envirocars atop the China pavilion, really cool!


i never bothered stamping the fake expo passport but for the China pavilion i did. too excited and made upside-down stamp tho.


Singapore's, still having that resemblance to a jackfruit. what is it about Singapore and round pointy things?? Shudder.


European pavilions failed to open on the first day due to the volcanic ash fall of that volcano whose name i could not even pronounce. Sad, ain't it?


I was hoping to spot any Expo mascot but bumped into Singapore's little representative instead. Quite frightful this little creature, yellow hair and all. This mascot surprisingly was "blind", and had to be assisted by two persons on the left and right. A few seconds after i spotted him/her, a crowd formed and it was quite catastrophic to squeeze myself out of it. There's simply nothing like speed, i tell you.


this is when i saw an army truck. i instantly took my camera out because there's nothing like handsome men in uniforms. plus an army truck to boot.


first day aboard Costa Classica. second day was spent at sea.


taking LOTS of pics is fun on Costa. but you know, the china mainlanders are like hell on board, all the pushing and shoving... i think i will never again board at any Asian port of call, including Shanghai. coz same thing happened when HKG was port of call. what is it about mainlanders that they don't seem to be able to act with good manners and right conduct? does it kill them? they smoke in elevators, in rest rooms, in cabins, and they fricking overload the elevators.


you don't need to spend a lot of money just to enjoy your time on board. there are free activities all the time. look at them dance! the staff will even pose for pics. even the grandma ROCKS!


remember my first costa love? yes. this time it came in many different toppings. i could still remember my first bite during this trip. it was heavenly.


the ship went past under a bridge and i was able to be at the right place at the right time twice.


the Filipino staff is always the best. we got special crispy pata for two nights at the formal restaurant. we got Filipino + Chinese dishes as well.


there's always rows of coffee + water + milk + ice + ice cream machines at the buffet resto. heaven. ice cream though is available only during lunch, tea time, and dinner.


tea time is always my favorite because i get to enjoy all sorts of small sandwiches, ice cream, fruits, breads, and coffee. plus, the crowd's more sedated. lunch and dinner could be rowdy, this is why our group opted to dine at the formal resto for full meals.


the crowd atthe formal resto gets crowdy tho for one single night in every cruise trip. this is when the staff dances (yes, like macho dancers but with clothes on) and asks women to dance with them (no, not like macho dancers but still with clothes on). then everyone assembles and makes a train.


always with a smile. i love Filipino costa staff, they are the friendliest ever.


because we were a big group, the staff held a special conference for us + raffle draw. the disembarking process is pretty simple, just place your luggage outside your cabin before 1AM and recheck the statement sent to your cabin during the night. two guys got to win costa classica miniature models. i was not one of them. boo.


these are fake foods, would you believe? Fukuoka rocks!


"rinse left hand, rinse right hand, wash mouth, spit, rinse handle" before entering a shrine. i should've showered, coz i am always kinda always filled with impure thoughts and stuff. hey i was in Japan what could i do...


lunch was a buffet, i honestly loved the buffet altho the lunch crowd was a bit rowdy. the coffee jelly was the BEST!


the soup guy was obsessed with wiping all the spills. i love Japanese obsession.


there is nothing like rows and rows and rows of Japanese vendo machines. ahlavet.


fukuoka tower is romantic.


even the erebe-ta girl looks romantic. she was so nice to pose for this pic. arigato.


i will always love Starbucks. the barista and i barely understood each other. but he was so smart to pack my stuff in a "gift-o box-uhh".


a few seconds after i bought this, i ran into a pretty girl carrying this exact same bag. all the while i was disappointed only the ugly pattern (of the three available ones) of le sportsac catalogue was available. i strongly need bag rehab.


this whole thing would've been stolen in Manila. Same with this.


exactly my kind of a walking crowd. lovet.


of course i thought they were cool.


Jeju was really boring, i wonder why we were brought to the boring places while there were other many interesting places. museum and volcanic rocks, plus duty free. whatta waste.


the bus ride was the ONLY most exciting thing ever. or should i mention... our guide sang the familiar lines of Nobody Nobody. Jesus Christ.


could a swinging bridge be made romantic? if this whole thing was dipped in lacquer it may never have rusted. imagine going back to your padlock and seeing it all rusty and smelly, ewww. but then again, i'm thinking too much, as always.


i'm sad she has indeed bigger boobs than i do.


i heard Prince sing "if you wanna ride, don't ride a white horse." the white horse without a NEIGHme was right next to these two little cute guys.


Hangzhou, i have always been told, is China's cleanest, neatest, and most romantic destination. i find the drooping trees quite frightful especially at night, but i will always love Hangzhou because it is always refreshing to walk around the city + along the river.


The Bund (pronounced "boond") will always be also romantic. except it comes with a pungent pee smell. ewwww. aheytit! Imagine JOGGING at the booooond. ewwwwww.


Yi Yuan is getting old, here's a pretentious European-sounding brand of an ice cream but is actually all-American, pretending to be Chinese-inspired in Shanghai. Whateverrrr.


the Chinese are known to make things frighteningly massive, so here's a miniature model of the ENTIRE city of Shanghai at the urban development something something building in the city. yes, boys and girls, even the 2010 expo site is proudly included.


airport food is definitely improving at the Pudong Int'l Airport. this stuff + miso soup was for around RMB60.


i'd like to work as spelling-error corrector around the city. i'd take the T for a K please.


this was definitey better than PAL brunch.