Upside down happiness

Happiness

You know you're Chinese if you have an upside down red paper sign with the Chinese character for happiness on it.

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On a separate note, sfgate had an interesting article on loneliness. Basically, the article conjectures that people are lonelier now than ever before. Duh... I was thinking. What old news! I've blogged about this topic many times before. Things like Facebook are no substitute for actually meeting up with your friends, however you define that term. Many people are so caught up in their careers that they have no life outside of work. That's sad and one of the reasons I try to develop a network outside of work.

However, developing a network of trusted confidantes is tougher than making money on the stock market these days. One reader of the sfgate article commented that social groups like Meetup.com, etc bring people together, but then everyone goes their separate ways. There is no way to build friendships that way. So true! When I was naive many moons ago, I used to think you could make some acquaintances this way, but now I know it's futile. I am now very jaded, but I still see some value in Meetups. I've been to 3 photography meetup events and I learned something new almost each time, although I haven't kept in contact with anyone I met. I'm planning to attend a meeting this week if all goes well.

Some people hang out with their coworkers, but I don't think that's a good idea. Personally I prefer to keep it separate. As they say in German, "Dienst ist Dienst und Schnaps ist Schnaps" meaning you shouldn't mix business with pleasure.

Speaking of German, I don't know if this is true and correct me if I'm making a false generalization, but I get the impression that friendships last longer in Germany than in the US. This may be because Americans are superficially very friendly with everyone, but very hard to truly know and befriend. Germans on the other hand tend to be very hard to get to know, but once you do, they're generally pretty loyal buddies. What are your thoughts? Is this just an outdated stereotype?