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Netnet Camomot

“I’LL have you know that according to Barbara it’s a serious literary novel set to take the publishing world by storm, and it’s called ‘The Fire and the Fury.’”

No, that’s not former First Lady Barbara Bush, and “The Fire and the Fury” is not “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” the 2018 book about US President Donald Trump written by Michael Wolff.

The quotation is from Patricia Scanlan’s “Finishing Touches” which was published in 1992.

Spring cleaning includes dusting old books before deciding if they’re worth keeping. To keep or not to keep, that’s the question.

Haven’t you noticed this: Life is lighter when you have less sh*t to deal with. When you can finally focus on important things and not spreading yourself too thin.

Welcoming the Chinese New Year also requires spring cleaning, to give more room for the new. After all, we say, Happy New Year, and not, Happy Old Year. If the past that you’d rather forget still tends to linger, it’s time to look around you and find out why.

I’m keeping some books not because I want to read them again but because they remind me of a particular time.

With Homescapes and Gardenscapes, how can I even find the time to read?

As for reading a book about Trump, that can be a waste of time if you don’t want to be reminded of his flaws. Facebook and Google already have more than enough info on that.

But Facebook has indeed regulated its News Feed again. Last Jan. 12, Mark Zuckerberg posted that “you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.” Hmmm. Promise, ha?

“One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent,” he wrote. “We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness.”

You mean, he needs research to prove that? Oh, my. Isn’t that common knowledge? Or common sense. For example, if a so-called friend starts to gossip about you, that obviously doesn’t strengthen your friendship and will destroy your well-being and happiness.

Zuckerberg added: “But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content—posts from businesses, brands and media—is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”

My News Feed still has “post from businesses” and etc., so, I wonder…

He ended that message by stressing that “Facebook has always been about personal connections. By focusing on bringing people closer together—whether it’s with family and friends, or around important moments in the world—we can help make sure that Facebook is time well spent.”

Uh, please define “important moments in the world.” Because what’s important to you may not be important to me. No wonder the News Feed is hopelessly confused.

Since we, the madlang pehpohl, have to rely on Zuckerberg and his minions in controlling Facebook posts, we’re better off with something we can control such as our diet, the clutter in the room, our body weight—yup, dream on.

If only we can also control the weather, and that’s probably the thought bubble hovering over some Cagayanons last Tuesday upon learning that Basyang skipped Cagayan de Oro, making them feel blessed for the omission. Tsk tsk. I gotta feeling the flood and landslide victims in Surigao del Sur were not feeling blessed at all.

Juice colored. It’s not proper to rub it in! Be mindful of other people’s feelings, please!

Well, for Valentine’s Day, “rubbing it in” may mean something else, complete with colored and flavored condoms. Yum!

But for other life situations, there was a time pre-Facebook when we had to wait for our photos to be developed, and the only way we could share good news with friends was through face-to-face interaction, the landline, and handwritten letters. That was definitely a challenge for those who loved to rub it in to the whole wide world ASAP.

Technology has changed the way we communicate, and that’s the reason Facebook is trying to regulate its News Feed after being blamed for Trump’s victory. Apparently and allegedly, Russian hackers and fake accounts used Facebook in influencing the 2016 US presidential election.

Here in Pinas, the Pinoy is also being influenced by pro- and anti-Du30 Facebook users, misusers, and abusers. But at least we can still laugh while watching videos of Elcias Bugsad, the Davao-based taxi driver who sounds much like President Rody Duterte. Ing ini ni!

Facebook Messenger was again the most reliable app for last Wednesday’s Valentine greetings, the most popular of which was Ian Veneracion holding a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses. Yes, ing ini na gyud ni.

Surely, today’s greetings for Chinese New Year will be sent through Messenger, too. Oh, well.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!