New culture (3)

On the value of social networking, consider this, sent to me via Facebook, from a new friend there, Charles Brooks. He's a cellist from New Zealand who's now in Taiwan:

As a musician who travels (auditions) a lot Facebook has been a life saver. I have reconnected with hundreds of old friends from New Zealand and Australia, mostly musicians from the various universities that I studied at. I have found old acquaintances scattered throughout Prague, Malta, Shanghai, Taipei, Malaysia, Seoul, Shenzhen, Moscow, Hyogo, Tokyo, Oslo etc that I had no idea were there. Needless to say this has saved me a LOT in accommodation! It also offers new (or formerly-old-and-lost) opportunities to perform in parts of the world I'd never considered. Facebook really can be a musician's best friend.

Thanks, Charles, for giving me permission to post this here.

(Many readers understand this already. This post is for those who are even newer to social networking than I am.)