Respectance.com

When I heard of the number of deaths this week in Myanmar, that resulted from the cyclone I stopped in my tracks. I simply stopped in my kitchen. The newest reports estimate that 100,000 people may have died. I cannot imagine that number of people other than to put it in the context of it that being half the population of the city I am from.

Compounding this natural tragedy, is the ruling government which continues to deny acess by humanitarian groups to the areas that need it most. More people will die. In the end we will never hear of how many entire families that have been wiped off the face of th earth with no record of their lives.

It is a terrible and painful thing when someone we love dies suddenly. It is impossible to imagine how we will be affected until it happens. Some find comfort in leaving your thoughts here, or by creating your own online memorials. How will those left cope with this loss? It’s something we need to consider as we move forward in the 21st century.

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It is hard to think of any one person that impacts our lives more than our Mothers do.

There is the cliché that ‘no one else will ever love you like your mother’, and it holds true. Mothers support us, criticize us, approve and disapprove of what we do, but their love never wavers. We children represent the culmination of a life time of effort for them. It can’t be easy to watch someone grow up, needing you desperately as a babe, idolizing you as a young child, scorning you as an adolescent, then finally becoming an equal in adulthood.

As children, it’s sometimes hard to bite our tongues when we hear the same advice given AGAIN. It’s hard to wait patiently as a story unfolds, and to watch as our mothers grow old becoming shadows of their once young and vibrant selves.

All the while though it is our mothers who we seek out when unspeakable crisis occurs in our lives. Our love for them is second only to their love for us.

Take some time this weekend to show your mother you love her by sitting down with her, spending time doing what she wants. I suspect that most moms really just want some time with us, their kids. Listen and love. Take photos, and memories and create a living tribute to your mother at Picalily, or and online tribute with Respectance in her honour. Share it with her and family. It can become a treasured keepsake for everyone.

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Rapleaf is a site that allows you to track your online reputation. They looked at almost 31 million users with at least one online friend on networks including facebook, MySpace, and flickr.

They found that women involved in social networking tend to have deeper connections with those they are involved with. For women it is a social thing. For men it seems, social networking is heavy on the networking and light on the social.

What this may mean to all of us is even more targeted viral marketing to women online from advertisers and their peers.

I’ll have to have a look at our members and see if this bears out in our online memorials and tributes.

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Flying to San Francisco the other day I realized how much in my life is worth telling about, or worth writing down. I live a bi-continental life, with my family and friends literally scattered throughout the globe. Day to day my life goes by in a whirlwind. I know that I don’t see most of my friends and family often enough, and am completely disconnected from their routines. Now, I really don’t need to know where my Dad does his groceries, but some of the day to day news would make him feel closer than he is.

When they served the ‘meal’ on the plane I decided to focus on the memories of my childhood on the farm with my Aunt Daphne. My best memories are the day to day goings on with the family, cleaning out the barn, helping her paint the kitchen, and most of all - the meals she made for me with such care and love. Her peanut butter cookies were out of this world.

Take some time to think about your day, create a tribute, and share it with your friends on Picalily.

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Traditional television is struggling to keep its audience, and the social networking scene is maturing. The two are converging on the us: the consumer. Mashable featured an article about Big Brother Australia. It seems the producers of the show have begun how to realize the power of social networking in attracting audiences AND in engaging them.

Producers of BBAU (as they call it) are setting up a Facebook page. I’ll speculate that their intention is to make the members of that group to feel like they have ‘an edge’ over regular viewers of the show. Being a part of the FB group will allow members to watch ‘Big Brother’ news feeds. MySpace is going to be used for all of their video hosting needs. BBAU is also expanding their own website to include viewer generated content, and to expand the blogging about the show.

We all want to feel like we are part of the story, and we like it when someone wants to hear what we have to say. It’s the convergence of two forms of media meshing with our lives. We are all stars of our own reality show and we can all tell the world about it.

In fact, we sadly welcomed the Serbian edition of Big Brother last year, when some of their participants sadly died in a car accident. We still can still remember them at the online memorial friends created.

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