Bits of August – The Power of Friendship, Milkshakes, and Hypothetical Rifts In The Space-Time Continuum
We did it. We registered P for primary school.
Our final choice was made on Wednesday night, just after the Ministry of Education published the list of schools available for Phase Three on their website – or rather, what happened was the other foreign Mum from our kindy caught me at the school gate and said, “Have you seen? MOE just published the list!” and I said, “Great! Let’s go down together!” because out of the remaining schools the biggest differentiating factor I could see was that one would be attended by a friend of P’s from kindergarten, and the others would not be.
The good news is P’s currently happy with this choice of primary school, despite the fact that it is not an international school. This is either because a) the main thing that was getting to him was not the teacher’s accent but the atmosphere of tense uncertainty surrounding the registration process; or b) his foreign kindy friend spent most of registration day babbling enthusiastically about the fact that his mum and I were off registering together; or c) we ended up choosing a school within 200m of a place P once had an oreo milkshake at about two years ago and the boy doesn’t forget these things.
The bad news is they might not both get in. I tried to explain this to P, but somewhere between the in-depth analysis of my sampling methodology and my fourth line of probability calculations he piped up and told me not to worry – if the school is oversubscribed (as I suspect) and one or both of them end up being assigned elsewhere, he’ll just invent a gun that makes wormholes in the space-time continuum and send the extraneous students through to some more convenient location. So I guess that’s all sorted.
Me, Elsewhere
- As if it’s not enough that I’ve been registering for primary school, I’ve also been Freshly Pressed! Who knew you could gain such accolades for experimenting on minors without ethics-board approval.
- And thanks to Mel for featuring my money-saving post in her five hundred and ninth (!) roundup.
- I’ve also been clearing out my house and starting a course of study. There’s no link associated with this, but it does explain the lack of #randomlimerick. Feel free to make up for that in the comments.
You, And Other Awesome Things
- Bohemian On A Budget had a baby! And gave us a three–part series on how a life of travel prepared her for the wonder of childbirth.
- At the other end of life’s spectrum, Chandra showed us how to mummify a barbie.
- And on a sort of middle note, if you’re suffering (like me) from too much incessant singing of the theme song from Transformers, allow me to present this compromise solution:
Announcement: After a rather disproportionate amount of handwringing (thanks for listening, Vanilla Housewife) followed by this article about likes on facebook, I’ve removed the “like” button from beneath my posts.
Edit just to clarify: the Facebook article isn’t really related, as it’s a different platform (though it is interesting). I decided to remove the like button because with some extra time pressures I was having trouble getting around to reading your blog, and one of the things that was wasting time was clearing my inbox of wordpress notifications. So I decided to turn off notifications for likes and (now) follows because the proportion of spam in those categories was too high, and then I thought well in that case I might as well turn off likes altogether, so as not to give the false impression of listening with the expectation of a response.
But this does come at a cost to those who were using it for its proper purpose and hopefully having the like function in the comments will fill that gap – in fact some people had already switched over to liking comments instead of using the like button on the bottom of the post. I still get notifications for comment likes, so I am listening to that. I’ll review it when time opens up again.
I wouldn’t ordinarily bore you by detailing every little tweak to my blog, but I wanted to make sure you know I still completely understand that sometimes it’s difficult to comment. You’re busy, you’re reading on your phone – I don’t want to force you to become invisible or anything, but now I have the “like” function in the comments it just makes more sense to me this way. And I also wanted an excuse to show you a thought-provoking (if only marginally-relevant) article about likes on facebook.
Now it’s your turn! (Although as I said I totally understand if it’s just not going to happen for us today.) Tell us what you read in August and absolutely must share. Or if you prefer, blather at random as I often do.
☆FRESHLY PRESSED☆… WOW. Sorry, stopped reading after that because I felt the URGENT need to scroll down and congratulate you on the huge honour, of course well deserved and (repeating myself here) overdue.
Gah, PRIMARY SCHOOL. And well done you on the registration process. What a PITA. I love P’s very imaginative idea in the event of him being separated from his buddy. 🙂
Going to read the freshly pressed article now. ..
LikeLike
Thanks! (How did you do the stars?)
Yes, primary school. I’m trying to remember how old your eldest is? What’s it like there?
LikeLike
THe benefit of a Japanese keyboard. When I right “hoshi” in Japanese it gives me the options of the Japanese character 星 or this cute little character ☆ I am entertained easily!!
My oldest is 5. If we were in Ireland, he’d of started primary school this September, but in Japan they start after they’ve turned 6 and its from April. So he has a year and a half to go. His primary is determined by catchment area.
What time of the year will P start?
LikeLike
He’ll start in January. It’s similar for us with the age groups – they start “prep” when four going on five, then grade one at five going on six. But here they start primary one at six going on seven (by calendar year).
I like having it a little later. I don’t think P could have coped with a long day at school when he was 4/5. T is a different matter! She’s dying to be signed up for more school.
The catchment area is how it works in Australia, too, but here it just gets you higher priority for phase two of the registration process with no guarantees (and in any case foreigners can’t take advantage of it).
LikeLike
I am a bit behind so I don’t even remember August by now.The majority of what I read would be super boring to anyone else though. Want to know the intricate details of link building strategies?! I am also a fan of oreo milkshakes, so I can completely understand why P is happy with the choice of primary school. Fingers crossed he gets in!
LikeLike
Yes, we just found out our new neighbour is going there, too (different grade, but still) so it would be good if he could get in, oreo milkshakes or not!
LikeLike
Yay, so happy for you for being freshly squished!! You deserve it, B.
Xxx
me
LikeLike
Love “freshly squished”. (Don’t tell me I’m the last person on the internet to hear the term – I might use it from now on, though!)
LikeLike
‘S all yours. lol
LikeLike
Thanks 🙂
LikeLike
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! Very well deserved. 🙂
The start of the school year is chaotic, isn’t it? We can barely function in our house since were all involved in education in some way and all the extras that come with that. It’s just beginning…
LikeLike
Thanks!
We’re finishing up the school year here (on mid-term break now), so I guess we have a little while to prepare for the coming chaos. Unfortunately not much I can prepare for until we know which school we’re headed for!
I can’t imagine sending the whole family (including parents) off to separate schools. That would require some organisation.
LikeLike
We wish you the best of luck with the school registration process. Your description of all the waiting and paperwork sends chills down our (collective) spine, and we now will have a better perspective when the big drama of our school day is trying to get the boys to put a shirt on before starting their workbooks.
LikeLike
What you guys are doing sounds appealing in many ways. And who knows – I wouldn’t rule it out entirely! For now we’ll see how this goes – thanks for the good wishes!
LikeLike
Great Post Bronwyn. You can tell P that he doesn’t have to invent a space/time continuum weapon – they already exist. He just has to capture one. They come in a variety of settings, for instance there’s one in the back of the dryer that sends one sock of a pair into another continuum never to be seen again. There’s another in the back of the cupboard where you store your tupperware and it eats lids. There’s another intermittent one where you store your keys – that one is special and will transport within this continuum but has no fixed end. The keys could end up anywhere in the house.
Great Post Bronwyn. Thank You.
LikeLike
Haha. Oh true!
Don’t forget that one that holds onto things in some other dimension til you throw out the bit it’s supposed to be connected to, then it spits it back out again once it’s too late.
LikeLike
Oreo Milkshake? That sounds like a good reason to me to like a school. And may I borrow your son’s gun that enables him to transport people elsewhere? I could use that every once in a while. Congrats on being pressed! –Curt
LikeLike
Clearly it made an impression. (The oreo milkshake, that is. The wormhole gun has a long list of backorders already – I’ll add you to that list for sure! I’m sure everyone who’s asked so far is prepared to be more or less responsible with it.)
LikeLike
Absolutely, of course I will be responsible. (grin)
LikeLiked by 1 person
School is such a tough choice.personally I keep hoping that I’ve got it right. Sometimes the uniform makes me worry a bit!
LikeLike
The uniform! Yes, see, we are missing out on the famous hats of the (international) Australian school with this choice. That is definitely a blow.
My take is we just have to keep monitoring and if it really doesn’t work out, be prepared to go back to the drawing board. Most of the time I think kids have good years and bad years but in the end there’s still the next chance.
LikeLike
Makes perfect sense about the like button. Those notifications can bog you down, fa sho. I no longer get follow notifications since I’m self-hosted, so now I don’t have PRADA BAG AU CO following my blog, dangit.
Also, congrats on getting FP’d!
LikeLike
Thanks! I was pretty excited. Not as excited as you would have been to know that Prada (or at least a reseller of their fakes) was hanging off your every word. Now that would be exciting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your teaching kids to pack post is hilarious!
LikeLike
Thanks 🙂 It was actually also (believe it or not) a much more fun packing experience than usual.
LikeLike
Like
😉
LikeLike
Ha! Succinctly put 🙂
LikeLike
Congrats on being featured on Freshly Pressed! Love that post! I hope P gets into the same school with his friend. One load off your mind. Thanks for sharing the Facebook like post. Sounds interesting and I might also stop doing the like. Removing like button from the WP blog post is something I should do too. I enjoy the interaction and discussion hence comments would be more meaningful to me. But I do understand sometimes people just had no comments even though they are reading and agrees with you. So the like button is a way of telling me this person had read it and is showing support to me. Having said that I will consider removing like button, I will still do a like on other bloggers’ posts haha. This will not affect my feeds like in fb. Ok, btw, I enjoy reading your bits of month happenings. In fact, I looked at the calendar and suddenly remembered you must have a bits of August on the blog and hence I am here! 🙂
LikeLike
Glad to hear you like them! And of course if you’ve found any memorable reads this month then share away!
The like button will be an ongoing thought process, I think. Reading through the comments I’m tempted to turn it back on, but on the other hand I like not having so much churn through my inbox. I could look at who’d liked my posts through wordpress, it’s just that I wouldn’t tend to so much. Hm. Don’t be surprised if you see them back!
It is definitely different to Facebook. I’ve been cutting down there since reading the article.
LikeLiked by 2 people
If P and his friend crack the code to get into the same school, is it pushing luck too far to hope for the same class? Oreo milkshakes are a definite plus.
LikeLike
Yes, so then they have about a one in six chance of being in the same class… so not great… but at least they can see each other at lunch time. It’d be nice to get them started off, anyway. That and the oreo milkshakes. 🙂
LikeLike
Just don’t forget that we’re out here liking the bejesus out of your posts anyway. And if you do forget, we’ll use that space-time continuum gun to go back and click the button on any posts we missed back then.
LikeLike
Aww…. You would really upset the space-time continuum? For me?
You know I’m rethinking it after all the comments. But I’ll let it rest for a bit and review later.
LikeLike
P is genius – I want to pre order to send space traveling some negative peeps once in production; hell I ll even help the kick starter campaign. Fingers crossed for the school xo
LikeLike
I will let you know when it’s working. Or I won’t let you know because I’ll be too busy avoiding the web of government and terrorist organisations tracking us down.
LikeLike
P is definitely a genius. Tell him I may need to borrow his gun when I can no longer control my kids, I’ll send them spinning into space.
You know what, when I removed the likes and turned the notification off on wp, I absolutely felt more relaxed. Because when the notification was there,each time I get a ping, I HAD to know who liked it or who commented. Time consuming. Pfft.
Woot! Congrats on being freshly pressed!
p.s. I read the fb “like” post and I am pretty sure I will have withdrawal symptoms if I stop “liking” stuff on FB. Hahahaha!
LikeLike
Don’t push yourself over the edge 🙂
You know, I’ve been trying to reduce likes on facebook on the MAIN post (but still using them in the comments) and its not too bad. If I had to stop altogether I think I’d feel differently, though.
It’s definitely more relaxing to get less notifications. I adjusted my Facebook and google+ notifications as well – I realised how much duplication I have. Facebook was updating me in Facebook, by email, and by SMS – that’s three times – over some of the very same things. It was like alright already! She posted a picture of her child! That’s nice, but three times over??
LikeLike
Ahoy there! Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! Is this the same as being Freshly Squeezed? OK, I am jealous, I admit it. 🙂
Frankly speaking, I think it is good you got rid of the “like” button, but why don’t you put a “like it on Facebook” button instead?
Good luck with the enrollment. Our daughter started last week at the French school. Fortunately, her best friend is there too and so far everything has gone unbelievably smoothly.
The only problem is that neither me nor my wife speaks French. So when we take her to school in the morning, her teacher welcomes her with a big smile and then asks us something in French, to which we reply by nodding our heads affirmatively. Then we leave the building hoping that we didn’t give our consent to sell her on eBay….
LikeLike
Just keep checking ebay. Maybe set aside a bidding fund in case. Oh, and have a solid bidding strategy… I’ve been pipped at the post before.
Can you even do that with a Facebook like thing with a wordpress.com blog? Hm. I’ll look into it… unless you have super-speedy instructions to hand…
LikeLike
Oh dear! I am hopeless with strategies. Look for instance where I ended up living, when I should be living in Monaco in the first place. Wrong strategy.
You are right. Cannot have a Facebook like button on wordpress.com
Feel free to press mine though! 🙂
LikeLike
🙂 Will do!
But really, Monaco? I hadn’t seen you as a Monaco guy. I’m going to have to have a long, hard think about this…
LikeLike
True. I am more of a Luxembourg guy. With all the Riesling growing in the area, the air is already 11,5% alcohol proof. 🙂
LikeLike
Luxemburg. Yes – that is closer to the impression I was getting 🙂
LikeLike
That P of yours sounds like he’s about 25 and reminds me so much of my L. It’s good to see he’s happy about how things turned out and has a good solid plan in case he and his friend don’t end up together.
So what are you studying? It’s awfully brave of you with two little ones! I have trouble making a grocery list these days and then reading it! Hurts my brain.
I read a great post last week by Big Trouble in Little Nappies called “A Letter to my Inner Idiot”. LOVED IT!
http://bigtroubleinlittlenappies.com/2014/08/26/letter-to-my-inner-idiot/
LikeLike
That’s a good one! Had to share it. It sounds exactly like my inner idiot!
LikeLike
Oh, just realised I didn’t answer your question. I’m studying epidemiology. And about the child/study combo: two words: child care. I’m taking an extra half day a week to myself. It should get easier next year when P goes into P1 but if I don’t start now I’ll rule myself out of the 2015 exam session (I may have already left it too late – I have until October to see if I think I can make it – next opportunity is 2017).
LikeLike
That is absolutely fascinating! The best of luck to you!
LikeLike
Thanks – I’ll need it!
LikeLike
Congratulations on being freshly pressed. I love reading your blog and it seems a whole bunch of other people will do now too. (:
I remember people having dilemmas about where to send their children to school. It surprised me how anxious I became about it, to the point where I became distressed that I was ‘institutionalising’ my children and somehow thwarting them from reaching their full potential!
It’s difficult to resolve all the permutations of what your kids’ futures may hold. I try and remind myself to just focus on the kids, because the most important thing is to be paying proper attention and notice when they need help. I’m not always successful, anxious permutations are addictive.
On a different note, I like the like buttons on the comments. I’ve wished for one in the past and now you’ve made it come true. I read both the articles about Facebook. I have a nerdy fascination with the concept that our social interactions are being managed by algorithms. I think it’s a foolish secret hope that one day they will actually be advanced enough to help me out with awkward social situations. (:
-Summer
LikeLike
Ha – you know I have that nerdy hope as well 🙂
Actually I’ve come around to Facebook a bit. I used to hate it because there was all this churn and small talk and they kept changing their algorithms but now I appreciate that it is actually a lot like real life – all churn and small talk and people getting pulled off course/out of your circle due to various circumstances often beyond their control.
So I now think the real secret is to see facebook as part of the chaos of life from which you have to exert conscious effort to draw human meaning. Whereas being a computer program it’s tempting to see it as a tool that’s under your control and which will make your life easier and more pleasant.
Which is bad news from your nerdy hope/awkward situation point of view 🙂
LikeLike
Totally with you on the spam followers – never had this before but it is getting worse! Love the wormhole solution to the school problem, that to me shows all will be well in the end. We had similar issue at the beginning of our school journey, we were never those sussed out, prepared parents who had it all planned and sorted. A wing and a very last minute prayer was more our style and everything worked out better than we could have hoped. So sure it will all be fine in the end.
LikeLike
It’s not just me then. I was wondering if was all over wordpress or if I’d managed to get on to some undesirable list somewhere or something. Sounds like it’s all over wordpress, then. Maybe they tweaked their spam filters or something?
Anyway, that aside – thanks for your reassuring tale of success despite a lack of school-based obsessing. Sometimes you do just land on your feet in life. I also think with these things it’s hard to tell where exactly they’ll fit in until you’ve actually tried it – even then there’s difference from year to year as they change teachers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But I liked the like button! Looking forward to your future comments on the local school experience.
LikeLike
Ha, ok at this rate I might have to bring it back by popular demand! Give me a chance to catch up a bit first, though.
LikeLike
Many congratulations on being freshly pressed! It is very much deserved. Your posts are always so original and fresh. Best of luck to you on the kids and school. I imagine that is a very complicated process as an expat! I had enough trouble just going to the post office when I was living abroad haha. I have been slacking on the blog again, but I definitely need to make a point to comment more often when I am on here. The Like button makes us all very lazy, it’s true. And finally, thanks for the mention on your blog. I feel very special right now 🙂 Keep up the fantastic work!
LikeLike
I loved that series! And your postcards are always worth looking at.
Do you know what I have realised the last twenty-four hours since having the likes off, though – the one I really need to turn off is the follows. Is it just me, or is everyone getting a lot of spam followers lately? It never used to happen (to this extent).
Either way, when I keep running out of time to read other people’s blogs because I’m too busy clearing notifications from users like SEOMagic out of my inbox I’ve got to do something! But I do feel for those who were just normal people just trying to use the like button in a normal way. Hopefully the like function in the comments will fill that gap for anyone who doesn’t have a comment of their own to add for whatever reason.
LikeLike
Bronwyn firstly huge congrats on being Freshly Pressed! I love that post and have just shared it on Twitter. I tell you this because I have absolutely no clue what I am doing on Twitter and so I may have shared your last will and testament for all I know. Hopefully not.
As far as what I have read I would add that both James and Terri at Gallivance were FP as well as Jeff at Planet Bell for his amazing Alaskan photos and encounter with a shotgun trying to get the photos. The things we do for a good blog.
Lastly I am exhausted at the thought of school registration . My friend has Q starting this week and she was for to be tied yesterday about a change of classes. I’m so glad to be old. 🙂
LikeLike
The thing is I was trying to sit back and say well there’s not much I can do til registration week, but it’s been the talk of the whole class for the last couple of months and it’s like everyone’s whipping each other up anxiously!
I saw Gallivance Freshly Pressed. I’ll have to check out Planet Bell – the shotgun is certainly an interesting angle…
LikeLike
Basically it has to do with wandering down a road that said no trespassing….
I can totally understand the frenzy of classroom chatter. Hope the first weeks go smoothly.
LikeLike
I’m finding out about the next stages, now. I was under the foolish impression that we found out our school “by November” and packed him off for day one in January.
But apparently there are orientations, and some schools test all the students prior to entry for benchmarking…
LikeLike
Oh good grief it’s elementary school not going for a Masters Degree! Thank heavens 25 years ago they just marched off to the neighbourhood school. I know I sound like a dinosaur.
LikeLike
That was pretty much us, too (I think “dinosaur age” has been reset to about 25).
It is supposed to be just for benchmarking so the teacher knows where to start (most kids at least go to kindy but focus varies from academic to play, and many also go to enrichment classes) – so not for assessment or grades, but it still blows my mind!
LikeLike
Well good luck with all of it Bronwyn. Most of all I hope P is happy wherever he lands. I loved his drawing by the way. He is just brilliant. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks. I’m sure it’ll all sort out in the end, one way or another. And if it doesn’t there’s always wormholes.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
Omg I love your son’s solution to your potential school problem 🙂 I’m sure that will come in handy in other areas as well ! Congrats on being freshly pressed by the way!
LikeLike
Thanks!
I’d be a bit more worried about his solution if I thought there was a chance he might actually invent it. I’ve let it slide for now – we’ll cross that bridge if and when. If and when he doesn’t get in, that is, not if and when he invents it.
LikeLike
Did I understand that you’re also starting a course of study? Do tell! (And if P gets into that school, you know you’ll be having Oreo milkshakes every week (sounds pretty good).
LikeLike
I’m pretty sure that’s P’s plan.
Yes, I’m following a course of home study for work. It’s vet stuff.
LikeLike
Congrats on the Freshly Pressed, that is awesome!
I would like to congratulate on registering to the school as well without a third world war but maybe I should save that till you hear if both kids actually did get in? But if I ever have a problem/ choice with convincing the kids, I’ll remember to first offer them ice cream next to the school of my choice and only after that suggest the school… 😉
Not too sure I like the absence of the like button though. I get the point, the fb read was interesting. But I guess there is just the thing were often I like what I read but have nothing to say. On the other hand, comments sure are more sincere, I am sure there are a lot of likes circulating just out of politeness too! I guess the conclusion is: you better keep on writing thought provoking blog posts, and there will be no dilemma! 😀
LikeLike
The ice cream thing very much works. Well, for kids like P, anyway…
The like button thing on this blog (I had the conversation with Vanilla Housewife before I read that article) was more about the time I was spending clearing out my inbox/the amount of opportunity I was getting to return visits to other blogs. Plus some people had started liking comments instead of liking at the bottom of the posts and I thought well maybe that works better/more naturally anyway for those who don’t have anything to add of their own.
But I wanted to share the FB article as well.
Anyway, the moment I start getting more time to read I can always turn them back on. I can just see a busy few months coming in to the end of the year.
LikeLike
Fair enough 🙂
But this leads me to a bigger philosophical thought process: is there actually an obligation to always read what everyone posts that have read ours? Am I rude to even question this?!
The thing is, from my point of view, that we all have lives as well (lucky!), and sometimes it gets busy. If somebody doesn’t have time to read mine, or chooses not to because the person has a LIFE, well, that’s all right. Actually, I am happy for the person 🙂 I don’t take it personally.
But of course, if somebody pops in to my blog and likes it, then I can assume that the person has similar interests and I’d enjoy their blog too. So I do get curious, and if possible visit theirs too 🙂
But there are a few bloggers who I hugely enjoy but who just are so productive that I can’t keep up with them. But when I have more time (e.g. a longer bus ride…;)) I like going back to those blogs and scroll back and enjoy them. But I am sure there are posts I also miss. I certainly hope they don’t get offended because I am not always there. But then I think, who wants somebody to read just out of obligation?
LikeLike
That’s true – we don’t want people to read just out of obligation.
The way I think of it is mirroring face to face social interactions. So normally if someone talks to us it’s polite not to ignore them. But of course that can also take the form of replying to their comment on our blog or following them on some other social media platform or even (and especially for huge bloggers who can’t possibly give individual attention) by trying to write about the things their readers want to read about (although you can cross the line there into just saying what people want to hear – I think you still have to maintain truth and integrity but you get my point).
So it’s not strictly a-like-for-a-like 🙂 . That said, same as seeing someone frequently can add to the relationship in a way that’s separate to having similar interests, I know I tend to feel more familiar/visit the blogs of people who interact more here (who usually also have similar interests) and I’m sure it happens in the other direction as well with bloggers I really enjoy reading who might not visit here otherwise (or at least not so often).
And I definitely agree that prolific bloggers can be hard to keep up with! It’s like someone who goes out to party every weekend. They just have to expect that not all their friends can come every time!
So no, I don’t think there’s an obligation to always read and return the favour – as in real life, you can only put your attention in so many places.
I think what was getting me was the idea that I would turn the notifications off and then I probably would even really see the “like”. With a comment it’s a bit different because the comment is there, but although you can mouse over the likes it’s a lot more difficult to see who’s there. So then it’s not just that I don’t return the favour (which often happens now) but I’m basically not really listening at all. So maybe just turn them off for honesty’s sake.
I seem to have been getting more spam in my inbox from likes and follows lately and I got to thinking, “I could have read about four blog posts in the time it’s taken me to clear this out of my email…”
But so many people are complaining I might be persuaded back to the old way after all!
LikeLike
Good points, ones again. You are right, it is also about social interaction, about being considerate, about showing that you listen when you do. And when the time is pressed, I do, as well, often choose to check the blogs of people “I know”, the ones, that I have had more interaction with.
After this, I suggest you keep the likes off, continue to write in a thought provoking way and let us know the effects of it. Now I am curious!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting story about the “likes” thing – I had never thought about it really but what you have done here makes sense. And congrats on the fresh press and other accolades. Yours is one of the “always read, rarely comment” blogs on my list. I try not to comment unless I have something to add to the dialog (this comment excluded 🙂 but I love living vicariously through your international life!
LikeLike
Yes, the effect on the Facebook algorithm is definitely food for thought and I’m going to be trying it out there for sure. Of course it’s not exactly applicable to wordpress – that’s more about my ability to clear out my email properly. 🙂
I’ve been enjoying the like function in the comments, though, for in case someone’s already said what you were going to say.
LikeLike
You are a very busy woman my dear. Generally I will like and comment on the blogs I am fond of but sometimes I want the poster to know I stopped by so the like button is quicker . When you have 2000 emails alerts its a bit overwhelming sometimes. I will miss your bottom but I do understand the concept.
LikeLike
Yes, I do that, too sometimes, which is why I was reluctant to let it go. But some people had started using the like function in the comments instead so I’m hoping that might fill the gap – people can give the nod to whomever left a comment closest to what they’d have said.
LikeLike
I refuse to use the new LIKE comment ★ I started and then realized it was lazy and I do enjoy the interactions here!
LikeLike
Well it leaves a quick option open, anyway. You can always get more out of a comment than a like, it’s true! 🙂
LikeLike
Good luck with the school…I have been stressed enough about the toddler starting pre-school,(I guess what you guys call kindy) next week. Still not got a lunch box.. Great article and good idea about the like button. I recently realised I have unwittingly gone from an anti-liker to an likaholic! I discovered i simply cannot NOT like baby pictures, or sometimes I even like people’s pictures just because they liked mine?! What has become of me?
LikeLike
Still no lunch box, eh? Too many choices, not enough difference between them, that’s the trouble.
The Facebook like article was really interesting (there was the not-liking and a linked like-everything – not sure if you clicked all the way through but I think you get the gist anyway). It’s different on Facebook of course because it feeds into this whole algorithm which controls what you see. I’m going to try using less of the Facebook like button – we’ll see what happens.
LikeLike
I haven’t read the other one yet, the children only slow me one article per day!! I will read later. All interesting stuff though.
LikeLike
I think if you read the linked one you got the gist of both. There are some extra details in the other of course.
LikeLike
Will do! Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Okay, there are times that I don’t have a genuine comment to share – without the like button I can’t let you know I stopped by and read what you wrote! So, just now that I’m lurking, even if I don’t comment! 🙂
LikeLike
Yeah, I do get that – it happens to me sometimes, too. It’s like how you don’t always have a reply in the conversation but you just want to nod to acknowledge you’re listening.
But then I thought well if I’m going to turn off notifications for likes there’s not much point. And some people were using the like function in the comments instead of (or as well as) hitting like on the bottom of the post (separate notifications so I can keep that turned on) and I thought well that still works, perhaps. Hopefully 🙂 Anyway, I will keep in mind you’re around lurking! 🙂
LikeLike
So you finally did it! Keep us posted about the outcome! Sending all my luck that P manages to get through and grab a spot for himself. And then, he’ll officially be part of the system…dundundun..:) but really, there’s lots of learning to enjoy…:)
LikeLike
Dun dun dun…. 🙂
They said they’ll tell us “by November” but I can’t quite imagine what will take that long. Kind of hoping we might get notified sooner…
LikeLike
Haha…well, it has been my personal experience that anything to do with the government can never be done fast…so…it can very well take up till november if that is what you have been told…but definitely a bonus if you get the notification earlier…fingers crossed
LikeLike
I guess I’m asking how they can get through phases one and two so much more quickly! Oh well they’ll tell us when they tell us.
LikeLike
I am not looking forward to when z is school aged, although I think the process is much easier in the us (and here in Thailand). I am not sure though, because I was homeschooled since 2nd grade. Yep, I was that kid. Haha 🙂
LikeLike
Do you know, I think you can make it very simple in Singapore, too, if you’re prepared to sit back. But there’s so many ways you can complicate it.
LikeLike
Seems like a very stressful process to get your child into Primary school – I know someone who teaches at the American International school in Singapore… not very well though – had a few new years ‘s eve BBQ via mutual friends but you never know!! On a completely different topic – had not thought of removing the ‘like’ button on blog to ensure people actually comment instead… food for thought – keep us posted re schools!
LikeLike
I’m not convinced it’ll increase the comments, but I’d gone from a point where I was able to return people’s likes by visiting their blog to a point where I’m feeling a bit pushed for the time just lately, and I’m a bit dubious people such as MakeMoneyOnline were actually showing a genuine engagement in the article. I didn’t want to inadvertently promise anything I couldn’t deliver. And I was at least going to have to turn off notifications for them so why not just turn them off all together?
But I know a lot of likers were using it honestly and I didn’t want to cut them off, either. Hopefully they’re the kind that will take advantage of the comment likes to give that simple “me too” or “uhuh, I hear you”. I’d noticed people starting to do that already which is why I decided it was worth the switch.
But more comments… I’m not convinced that’ll happen.
The American School is a fair way from us – I haven’t really looked into it. But if you have that BBQ again hopefully you can make a bit more small talk about the Singapore school system 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person