2004-10-08 - 12:02 a.m.

Do people still use Friendster? I signed up a long, long time ago because I kinda felt socially obligated to, and made little use of it. I just checked it for kicks five minutes ago--for the first time in months.

And it's weird--all these defunct friendster users, like myself, who haven't updated in ages, and conversely, all these people who seem to update six times a day. That�s different from before, when it was new to everyone.

I dunno--it's kind of odd--how some people are forever frozen in time.

I read an article a while ago about kids who died but who were still "alive" online, and how their friends or family addressed the issue.

Actually, one of my friendster friends passed away some time ago--I didn't know him very well (he was a good kid). And he's still there, my official friend, still in love with LEGO, 29 only because Friendster knows his birth date.

And I'm still there, too. Everything I liked a year ago, with a ridiculously pretentious black and white taken at the Abbey there to greet you.

I dunno. It's odd.

But the thing I most enjoyed about going back for a visit was the testimonials. It's ass kissing, maybe, but it was really nice to read something nice about myself that someone else had to say. That doesn't happen every day (although it could if I checked it all the time).

The thing I most regret was not taking advantage of it--I really wished I wrote a bunch of testimonials for my friends. I had some sort of weird policy (possibly related to my position at work and needing to be fair and consistent, possibly related to how creepy and self-promoty Friendster seemed to me and still does) where I didn't write any for anyone, and I feel bad about that stupid and arbitrary (and probably lazy) decision now. It's too late, of course, to do anything about it, and for stupid, arbitrary, and possibly lazy reasons.