vivianaball.ro

I’m officially Twitter user No 5 in #Romania http://uris.us/cy1RL Check out Your Number @ http://uris.us/iOYq.

It is harder to say NO! to a REAL person

Some time ago, a friend (singer) told me that he never accepts facebook friend requests from people who don’t send him a message (who don’t introduce themselves first). I gave it a thought and I agreed. At that time I was spending a lot of time trying to find out who the people who were asking me for friendship were. I was using Google searches, websites, links, comments, any source that could give me an idea about who those people were. Basically, I was doing someone their job. Most of the time I would decide to decline when no info was available.

My friend is a public figure, so he gets tens of requests every day. In order to identify the reason why another person would like to befriend him on facebook, for him it is a must they at least introduce themselves and the opportunity/relation/thing in common/reason in general why they should be in future contact. Should we apply the same principle, or is it just a public figure privilege?

I think we should all apply it. I, for one am getting really tired of checking facebook profiles that contain no information. Just a name! A simple name, usually a nickname something like Dj Cool or Catonstrings or Kallissa or something similar for crying out loud! Sometimes the request is sent by a person who does not share any info whatsoever unless we are friends. Why would I accept then? Why would I want to become a Dj Cool’s friend if I know nothing about him? Don’t get me wrong, I love to have more facebook friends. It is by far the easiest way to stay in touch, have fun, share info, etc. But, in order to decide whether I am willing to share anything at all about me (or my friends for the matter) I need to know who will have access to that info. That little box that says: “Add a personal message” when we send friend requests is vital. If we write a short personalized message in that box, it’s a win-win.

My personal message when I send friend requests (as I usually want to be in contact with bands, promoters, music reviewers, journalists, basically people who have something to do with music) is very simple and straightforward: “Hello from Bucharest, Romania! I own Viva Music, local dark.electro.industrial.gothic music promoter. Thank you. Viviana Ball”. It may not be the best in the world, but it serves its purpose: it is short, and allows people to find out quickly where I am from, who I am, and implicitly let them know why I am trying to be in contact with them. I encourage all of you to write a short text about ourselves and use it! It is not offending and no one can blame you for not introducing yourselves! Cheers from lovely Romania!

sad period of our life.

After trying so hard to be present everywhere in the virtual space (and I am sure that I haven’t learned about one millionth of it), discovering like a child every new toy that is, anyway, linked to the previous toy, which apparently was created to show the world what its creators had done wrong when they created it, I was sitting in bed, laptop in my lap, and the fear crawled in. For a minute I thought it was just one of those postpartum depressions that I get sometimes. In this case, I thought that the pseudo-panic attack was triggered by my (still) (in)decision to drop Facebook. I don’t hate things in general, I love my Internet goodies, but Facebook is too much. I am going to get out of there soon.

So, the panic was not related to Facebook. It was related to something greater, I think, called the fear of “the uselessness of it all”. I realized that I have put so much energy and effort into signing up and in and out, uploading and downloading and connecting and blocking that I ended up a little blocked myself!

I stopped for a minute to stare (as One Republic say in a pretty song), obviously, at my computer screen. Every action in my life is motivated and serious. I plan, brace up, convince, purchase and complete to put is simply. So, my question for myself was: what about all this trouble I have been through? What about all the dry and lifeless activities related to my numberless (I am serious now) sites and accounts on the Internet?

Well, the answer I gave myself was satisfactory. As I am in two businesses and I love my country very much, I have two strong reasons to do everything in my power to let the entire world know that Viva Music is a dark.electro.gothic music promoter from Romania and Wordland is the 5th language school in Romania! As long as my time on the Internet is invested in creating connections with the right people in my businesses, thus bringing more revenue and learning about how to do better business, I am happy.

Some other (more private) reasons why I like to interact with people with the same interests are: I may meet them in the future and I may be lucky enough to know enough about them so I won’t feel funny in front of them. I also like to share my passions for Depeche Mode, vampires, music, photography and may other things and the best source of info and contacts, again, is the Internet.

Now I can rest and join some more groups on Facebook until I quit it altogether! I told you my reasons for being here. What are yours? Cheers and take care, from lovely Romania, Vivi

After reading Liz’s post on getting old(er), I felt enlightened again!

Grammar: a year ago I started GMS-ing. I decided to ignore Romanians who don’t know how to write in Romanian.

Forgiving: in the same manner, I don’t forgive so easily anymore. I erase people from my life as easily as I zap through TV channels. I have learned in 37 years that once people make 2 mistakes, people always make mistakes.

Diet: 3 years ago I realized no diet works for me! I will weigh 65-70 kg for the rest of my days.

The Internet: it makes me happy. It used to annoy me 5 years ago.

Age: When I tell people I am 37 (I started being 37 2 years ago) they compliment me on the way I look! (oh, you look so much younger!). This happened for the first time when I turned 35. For so many years no one complimented me… I wonder why does this happen? Pity?

Girl: I feel funny when someone calls me: hey, girl! I feel like turning my head to see if my daughter is behind me.

Friendships: ….and still, I suddenly feel very close to people of the same age and sex as me! Although I sometimes realize the only thing that connects us is age…and I enjoy calling them: girl!

Going out: I realize that these are the last years I have the chance to go out, so I hysterically drag my child to all kinds of concerts I like, so maybe one day she will take me with her, too! (if I behave, probably!).

Talking to 20 year old’s: I started calling people “kids”. It works in Romanian! When they politely say: “but you are not that old to call me kid…” I answer: “I am 37”. There is a weird silence before they all explode into: “ohhh, I couldn’t tell, you look much younger” compliments…

Hannah Montana: I don’t understand how a 9 year old can like Hannah Montana and Aesthetic Perfection at the same time cause I only like AP…

Traveling: I book as many low cost flights as I can, even though I end up not using them.

Movies: I watch too many vampire movies for my age, but I don’t find that weird! (Well, I always liked vampires and similar legends full of heroes and lovely fairies).

Music: I know Depeche Mode is a legend already (:(), so I try to reprioritize for live acts! Thank God for German electro bands!

Patience: I am getting more and more patient with children, friends, students and clients every day. Still, the patience to listen to things I am not interested in or watching movies I don’t like is proportionally decreasing.

Importance: things in my life are increasingly being categorized as: important and the rest.

Happiness 1: I am happy when I see my child, my family, my friends, my colleagues, when I listen to music, when I accomplish something, or when I visit a new place. I can’t think of anything else right now.

Happiness 2: I am happy when I see 20 year old girls look like walking disasters.

Clothes: I wear anything I feel like wearing! It’s the last 2 years (or it was a long time ago…lol) I can do that.

Passion: I sometimes feel my passion for the things I love and my work doesn’t go with my age anymore. But my passion prevails, like Depeche Mode’s Strangelove!

This is me now. Not for long!