dysfunctional family

My parents are in Phuket. I don't know when they are coming back. It's really my Dad's fault; usually he emails us kids things like the flight details but apparently this time he forgot.

Thomas Friedman's book is on my lap. "The world is flat," he says. People are being connected across wide expanses of space, all thanks to the power of networking and telecommunications. All thanks to the internet. All thanks to the internet, I don't need to talk to my family anymore. With e-mail, instant messengers and smses, it's even more convenient to stay in touch despite our busy schedules. Especially when we're too lazy to walk next door, or even use the phone intercom.

E-mail is also great for bringing up taboo topics. The other day, I wrote my family a nice personal email. I said:

"In case anyone is wondering, X* and I just got together this week."

To which my sister replied:

Oh. This is how you do it is it?
Well in that case -- you should know that Y* and I are no longer together then.
(yes we did use to be together)

It's lovely how open we can be with each other when we can hide behind a computer. Another time X told me that her parents shared an email account. I was stunned. "How do they e-mail each other?" I asked. She looked at me like I was an idiot. I thought it was a pretty valid question :( Obviously her family still lives in the stone age.

Hmm ... I think it would be really romantic to propose over email. In the movies, the girls always love it when the guy bares his soul and puts his pride on the line by asking her to marry him in a public place with a crowd of onlookers. I bet it would bring tears to any girl's eyes if her man could make that declaration of love, with 200 ppl in the CC field. Maybe even add on a photo collage of their favourite photos as an attachment.

Well, if anyone decides to use my brilliant idea, please leave a comment to tell me how it goes.

*Names have been changed (duh)