I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.

If there is one thing I can’t stand, is how the news is presented sometimes. All I want, is for people to report. What happened, in its entirety, accurately and succinctly. I’m not even asking for opinion. I prefer mine.

But no, objective news is, apparently a dying art. So is reporting facts in their entirety.

Here’s my favourite example, a seemingly innocuous one, too. The report went, Facebook users are growing older.  Blah blah, everyone’s on Facebook now, and Twitter here and there.

I guess these are the two new buzzwords. Facebook and Twitter. If even celebrities are on it, it has to be dumbed down enough to be understandable.

Which makes a statement like Facebook users are growing older infuriating. It is one thing to report that. It is another to make it sound like it’s a serendipitous occurrence. It is not. It is a result of Facebook making sign-up finally available to ANY one, instead of US college/high school alumni.

If you start off with a bunch of students on your product, and then you let everyone else and their border collie into the network, naturally your demographic gets older, no? It isn’t hocus pocus. It isn’t a big fat successful marketing blitz. It was simply a natural progression. Just because it happened to Facebook doesn’t mean anything more.

There is always a bigger picture. You’d just figure people reporting the news would report the entire picture.

We all talk about it some time or another, but what is that special X-factor that makes or breaks a company?

We all buzz some words around. Creativity. Management. Passion. Marketing.

I used to always think it was leadership. It stems from the top – the company is what the leader is. And while that is kind of true, it’s not the make-or-break factor, I’ve come to realise. I’m not sure if I’ll change my mind tomorrow, but for today, I’m calling it vision. Most times it stems from the top. Where the owner or CEO sees the company, how they define the company.

After all, how can there be any focus, and therefore direction, if there is no vision?

Vision I suppose, can be a hit-or-miss kind of thing.

Hit – redefining yourself from a hardware company to an entertainment enabler.

Miss – redefining yourself from a technology company to a media company.

It’s probably a traditional view, but I stand by it.

Sambog.

Nice going Sammy Boy.

I need to stop snooping on Facebook like I did on Friendster.

It’s addictive, but it’s unravelling horrible connections I can’t imagine could exist. Family and friends should really be kept separate – mixed and it’s a recipe for disaster. Hypothetically, all those things you did because you knew you were in the confines of the family – could potentially be shared. Talk about a compromise of privacy.

Nothing’s been uncovered yet. Which is cool, I guess no one’s free-er than I am at the moment. But geez. The world is smaller than it needs to be, and Facebook is the great minimiser.

It’s hard to keep information off the internet. Names, faces, friendly connections, family relations, addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, where you work, where you live, what you ate – invariably pops up with a quick search because you innocently uploaded it somewhere for someone. And it’s creepy knowing it’s there for the world to see. It’s also hard to control what people write/upload of you.

Perhaps I need a permanent pseudonym. If you guys ever find the need to tag, title, label or name me, please refer to me only as “Supreme Commander” like I’m referred to at my places of work. Thanks.

In any case I’m denying everything.

In the last 24 hours, the US media has shifted it’s focus from it’s staples: Britney Spears, Barack vs Hilary, the War in Iraq, the recession to the very public Microsoft-Yahoo! courtship.

You know when it’s all over the news when:

• You get half a dozen concerned have you any more Yahoo! stock left? calls
• You turn on the radio on the drive to dinner, and while deciding where to go, you hear “acquisition”, “Microsoft”, “Yahoo!” drift over the AM waves
• Perez Hilton blogs about it
• It’s on Valleywag at the rate Britney Spears is on Perez Hilton
• There’s a mention of the deal on the front page of every major internet news source (I’m not even checking print)

Moo! forever!!

I’m not going to be one of those people who leave some place then bash it to death. I still love the Big Why, though I’m jaded with the mess it has created internally and internationally. But hey. There’s no better place to be on the internet. Really.

Tried mash today, and it’s all they said it would be. It’s a fun profile tool. You can personalise it. You can have your friends create it for you. You can put your videos and all on it. It’s what 360 should have been.

The nagging question though, is what value does it really add?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a little too old for it.

Incidentally, here’s a theme that should bring back memories -

suicide is painless, it brings on many changes, and I can take or leave it if I please.

Gee. What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I went there and it looked blah. Today I go there and it looks, umm, weird but still blah.

Good job though, IMDb! Nice CSS! Try harder, you’re getting there!

It’s the eve of the New Year. I don’t know if the whole atmosphere will change, but I figure it’s a good time to reassess things, and decide on a fresh start.

And there’s no doing it without spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is probably a metaphor for clearing the crap in your mind and sending your emotional luggage off with the rest of history, since the mind is so powerful, clearing it so good chi can flow there probably has the biggest payoff. But for that to happen, the physical clearing and cleaning has to happen to, and once a year is probably a good regime.

So despite feeling all but inadequate as lil’momma goes on about cleaning every nook and cranny of the house, I’ve taken a more practical approach and prioritised my clean-up operation. What I mean to say is, it’s the eve of the New Year, at about 1pm, and I’m not done cleaning.

This year, as with all years, my horoscopes advise very strongly on holding my tongue and my temper. I used to scoff at those predictions (Who says I’ve a bad temper? What do you mean I say the wrong things?) but I guess with more recent introspection, let’s just say I know exactly what they’re referring to.

So before the year begins, lemme just get it all out there -
1. To everyone that has an opinion about where Yahoo! should be: a big-supernova success or a hole in the ground – let’s hear from you when you actually run a business that has the largest internet audience in world, generate a billion dollars every quarter (3 months, not 25c) doing so, and is paymaster to more than 10,000 employees around the world. Let’s hear you out, when you run something like that, or maybe close. If you’re still writing for Wired, your blog, some news agency, some financial magazine – how do I put this in a Feeling way – I know you really have an opinion, and you feel you really have something to share, but you’re not adding any value with your harebrained, two-bit opinions, so shove off, have a cookie, buy GOOG and stop pretending you know better. You can yap again when I’ve no more stock or options underwater.

2. To the bus drivers over at TIBS – your luck is running out. An accident is 1 in a million chance, maybe less. But you guys drive on the edge of your seat everyday so it’s time to release the pedal from the metal.

3. To the people who have issues that keep them from admitting they’re wrong and I’m right, you may be an insolent little newt, some of you might be more important to me than others, but I’ll forgive you all the same. Because I’m a lotus on a lily pond, and you’re a guppy and you won’t faze me. That’s what I’m going to try. Success rates vary.

4. To my relatives whose kids are going to receive a red packet from me this year – don’t make a big deal, don’t make a fuss. Just because you didn’t get an invite to my wedding dinner means I don’t give two hoots shouldn’t be an issue since I probably don’t give two hoots and neither should you. In fact, your kids or grandkids are probably going to get four hoots in their red packet since I hear that’s the market minimum these days.

Ok done. All on the eve of CNY.

Please everyone, it’s supposed to be a chill out year of the Fire Boar, so take the time to smell the roses, and take good care of yourselves!

Have a Happy, Healthy, Joyous and Eventful Year of the Boar. May you find the energy to hope and dream, and may your hopes and dreams come true.

Finally. Things are moving at the Big Purple Why. Movements. Uncertainty. Change.

I wish it was the relief I was hoping to feel.