Land of Poke and Glory

I was surprised this evening by an offer made to me on Facebook. Normally, the sort of offers I get involve being part of someone's elven tribe, seeing some obscure Croatian orange juice advert that's the Next Big Internet Viral Thing, or being invited to throw a farmyard animal at someone I haven't seen since school.

And who says the Internet doesn't reflect real life?

But the invitation I had this evening was truly unexpected. Above the status update bit (which I've been using all month to shamelessly drive visitors to this blog) there was a drop-down box with language settings, and a big notice saying: "Now you can use Facebook in British English".

Which is very nice, I'm sure. For one thing, I can now join the 'Fans of Aluminium' group. But do the Facebook chaps realise the unworldly can of worms being opened here?

The language is one thing. But what if, by selecting this option, my entire profile gets all Britished up? The blue bits of the page will become grey. (That's 'gray' for you lot over there). All my photo galleries will have to have rain digitally added - my profile picture will show really poor examples of dentistry. And I'll end up finding it hard to express emotion in my status updates.

******* is moderately pleased, but not complacently so.
******* feels satisfied, but with an undercurrent of realism.
******* wishes his companions, colleagues and acquaintances a good day.

However, it does mean that if anyone is putting together a videofilm to put on their Facebook Funwall, they can cast my profile as the bad guy.