Twitter

I’m just as big a fan as most with social networking. I’ve been able to reconnect with tons of people from high school and college on Facebook and I think that’s pretty useful. Granted, like most good things, we can abuse it like alcohol or food because we are a gluttonous society. But, it has it’s merits.
I got an email from my old roomie Rob inviting me to Twitter. I had said before that I had no interest in Twitter because I didn’t want to know what my friends were doing every minute of every day. You’d never have anything to talk about because you already know anything they could throw at you. But, it’s not really like that because people generally only update is as much as their status update on Facebook. They’re about tit for tat. I’ve heard people say that it’s an avenue for quick information, for instance NPR will break a story on Twitter half an hour earlier than it will on the radio. Let’s be honest though. Is having a story 30 minutes sooner really going to make my life better? There’s a good chance it won’t. For some people, knowing things before everyone else gives them some sense of pride or self-worth. I don’t know.
That doesn’t compare at all to the main premise of Twitter. You follow people and they follow you. Just like on Myspace and Facebook you get 14 year olds trying to see who has the most friends, but it seems that this might be the whole point of Twitter. Who all is paying attention to me? Who all knows everything that I do? It’s narcissistic. Which I guess you could say blogging is as well. But, we’ve gotten to a point where we can’t be alone. Where we feel that anything that we do that gets no recognition isn’t worthwhile. Solitude is for losers and the people that mean something are the ones with the biggest numbers. We constantly have to be connected. Maybe we could even say that our information channels have become our vine and we are it’s branches.
Scary.

Triumph at Star Wars Premiere

I saw this when Conan aired it the first time when Star Wars came out with the first of the second trilogy…..Triumph is awesome in this one.

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Triumph

I’m Psyched!!

Jo got tickets for us and Steph last Friday to see Coldplay in Charlotte in August.  I’m shaking at the thought of seeing those guys live.  I can’t express it.  Here’s them this past summer playing in Paris to people using cellphones instead of lighters during “Viva la Vida”.

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You Can Keep Your Snow

My brother-in-law and I were talking the other night about how we were both salivating for warm weather and being at the beach house.  Our family has a beach house in Cherry Grove, SC and we spend a lot of time there in the summer.  If I’m not there with my family, this is where I’d rather be.

Learning

I recently wrote a note on Facebook about 25 random things on myself.  One thing I wrote was wanting to learn 3 languages.  I want to learn French, Italian and Spanish, but my desire to learn random things doesn’t end there.

In reality, I have more things that I want to learn than are probably possible.  But, I find myself not really knowing where to start.  One at a time I guess, but I’d love to know them now.  The instant gratification plague of our culture also plagues me.  But, true learning doesn’t happen overnight.  It takes years.  Some would say that even relative mastery of any given skill takes a minimum of 10 years.  And that includes any skill.

“Life is short, [the] craft long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult.”  Just like my walk with the Lord, it is a long road of learning that is hard and may attract unwanted criticism.

Maybe I just have to make out a list of my “things to learn” and just start doing it.  Realistically you can’t make a checklist for these things.  When can you check off “Learned French”?  Probably never considering I don’t have a proper handle on English and I’ve been using it for 33 years.  But, to be too intimidated to ever try would be more damaging to me than trying and failing.  If we get to the point that we stop learning, a long slow death is imminent.  Our minds turn to mush, just like on the Hulu commercial with Alec Baldwin.

Here’s to exercising our minds.

What is it you guys would like to learn?

Kids

Jo and I kept my niece and nephew for a good majority of the weekend.  It’s always fun to have them around, but when it’s over we’re tired and nearly broke.  Granted we do spoil them by buying them things and letting them stay up a little later than their parents would, but they would still be a bit of a drain even if we didn’t.

We go through life being pushed along by the people around us from one phase of life to the next.  For example, when you’re single, what is the one question everyone is asking?  “Are you dating anyone?”  Then, if you are dating anyone…”have you guys talked about marriage?”  If you have talked about it the question everyone asks the guy is, “have you started looking at rings?”  Then, for those who have popped the question, “have you set a date?”  That jumps forward to the people who have gotten married and are in the position of Jo and I.  Married, but no kids.  So, you know the obvious question.  You get used to those questions no matter what phase you are in, but it becomes a little tiresome no matter where you are.  When you are single you feel like being barraged with the same question over and over is just a part of being single.  Well, it’s not.  It never ends.  I figure we will go through this our whole lives until people stop asking us the questions and begin asking our kids on our behalf.  “Have you guys looked at a nursing home?”

That being said and whether people realize it or not, you do tend to ask yourself those same questions.  And that’s where Jo and I currently are.  I’ve always wanted kids.  Always.  But, talking to people who have them and especially those with young ones will often deter you from ever wanting them.  They tell you about how tiring they can be and how much they cost.  So, on weekends like this one we actually get a taste of that.  I do want kids.  But, they are tiring.  I really want kids.  But, they are expensive.

So, I ask myself the questions.  Is where I am in life and how unhappy I am with what I’m doing really the wisest point to start thinking about procreating.  Not so sure.  But, once you’ve had them does that mean that you are stuck where are regardless?  Life is sticky and ugly at times.  Life is meant to be fluid and not stagnant.  So, I ask myself again?  When is the right time?  I know people will say, “it’s different for everyone” or “only you know the answer to that”, but surely there are those out there who made it work no matter where they were in life.

There are many more questions to be answered.

A Little Prejudice

Something I’ve realized about myself for quite a while, but that has popped back up in the past couple of weeks a few times is my prejudice of guys with mustaches.  Maybe it’s because they’ve held on to a trend 25 years past it’s prime.  Or maybe it’s the pride attached to it being a part of their identity, like a guy who had a head full of hair when he was 28 but is obviously thin and trying to make people believe otherwise.  Or the guy who uses haircolor at 75.  What’s up with that?  Not only are you lying and vain, but you’re seemingly the only one fooled by it.

Now I’m not talking about a guy with a mustache as a part of a goatee or anything else.  I’m talking full-on Magnum P.I. or even the weasly little Higgins ’stache.  Most of the guys, be it cops, truck drivers or David Axelrod, senior advisor to Obama, are seemingly either jerks, weasels or just flat out liars.  Or maybe it’s just me….

Cutting Back

I was thinking today about how times are tight for most of us and how people are probably starting to cut back on their expenditures.  When we start cutting back on things we generally get a little grumpier.  I don’t mean cutting out things that are physically or emotionally unhealthy.  It’s freeing when we do those things, but to cut out expensive deli meats or ice cream.  You know what I mean.

My question is:  what is it that you are unwilling to part with during this recession?  what do you refuse to give up even though it may seem frivilous?

Mine is Starbucks.  I’m not gonna be giving that up any time soon.  I only get coffee and it’s decompressing to sit in a Starbucks with some coffee, read and people watch.

What’s yours?

Coming Soon…

I’ve been really busy this week, so I haven’t had any time for writing. Maybe I’ll be able to get some writing done this afternoon. Fortunately, since I’ve been driving I’ve had a lot of stuff milling around in my mind. I tend to get a little weird when I drive a truck because I have way too much time for talking to myself.