Goodbye Facebook

Well, I gave it 6 months and it's been an interesting visit but I think it's time to pull out.
I deleted my FB account last month.
Let me start with the things I liked about FB:

1. The Community.
It's almost like a big block party of all your family and friends.
The social aspect of FB is probably the thing I will miss the most.
You're communicating with people you otherwise wouldn't talk to on a regular basis.
With images and video, you're watching little ones grow up, new ones being born and old ones getting older.
You're celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, good news and reaching out when bad news shows it's ugly face.
Those are a lot of good things but it's really the only thing I liked about it.

The things I didn't care for:

1. Content
One of the things I don't like about social gatherings is small talk.
If you ever see me at a party, I'll be the guy standing (probably alone) in the corner with a fruu-fruu drink (i'm all about the sweet (Rum). Especially if it has an umbrella in it) watching everyone.
I cannot do small talk. I find it tortue to engage in polite, Seinfeld-ish conversations about nothing.
Unfortunately, that's mostly what I found there.
Micro-blogging is what I call it. Short, random, insignificant pieces of thought.
Boy, does that sound snobby. I don't mean it to sound that way but posting that you're brushing your teeth or that you're tired or that your feet hurt or whatever. I think what finally pushed me over the edge was when women started posting the color brassiere they were wearing that day.
Dude.
After that I thought "I'm outta here."

Yeah, I know it was for a good cause but really? REALLY?
Anyway, that sort of leads me to point 2.

2. Women and Children
It seems like those are the only people on FB. When I would ask my guy friends if they were on on FB they would look at me like I was wearing a dress or something. One of them said to me, "No. I got a life." So I must admit part of it was peer pressure.
At 53 I succumbed to peer pressure. Go figure.
But back to my earlier point, I guess that's what women and children talk about. Nothing. Is it?
No, no, no. That can't be true because I've had some interesting, in-depth conversations with the fairer sex.
It must be the format then. Not conducive to in-depth conversations.
Having said that, I did engage in some very interesting conversations regarding matters of faith and living in this world with a group of OCS alumni (guys) that graduated with my daughter. So it is possible. Maybe that's just not what FB is for.

3. Format
This could be the reason content is what it is.
You're limited in the number of characters you can post. No room for lengthly, thoughtful prose.
I came to FB from the Blogosphere where you could write what you wanted. No limits on how much you could write.
You also could easily add links, video, pictures and music. I know FB allowed you to do that but not in the same way the Blog could.
And maybe that was part of my problem: I wanted FB to be like Blogspot.

Maybe I'll rejoin the FB community one day but for right now I'm returning from whence I came. Back to the Blogosphere.

I've got a number of fellow bloggers I like to keep up with and I'm glad they're still out there sharing their thoughts and parts of their lives.
Just don't tell me the color of your underwear. Please.

Let It Snow

Makes me glad I don't live in Baltimore.
Actually, it makes me glad I don't know this guy. Yikes.

Clothing Drive

Awkward Family Pictures

Oh my.



The one on the left wrote:

“This is a photo of my mom, my brother, myself, and my soon to be born younger brother. I’m awkwardly in the hockey equipment on the bottom left. A family friend talked mom into having us all pose for this photo....It also hung in our house while I was growing up, which made for some awkward moments when friends came over.”




Sisters with nothing to hide.



Chains of Love

More here.

Shoes

Ladies, please tell me this is not true.
I know that for me, up until last month, I've been wearing the same dress shoes since my kids were in diapers.
My daughter just turned 30.
Dude.



Click on the image for a larger view

That Old Familiar Pain

Blue Eyes and I went to see a movie (finally) over the weekend that came highly recommended. The movie was called Bright Star.

The movie was about the unrequited love of a young couple.
He was the famous poet John Keats and her name was Fanny Brawne.
Blue Eyes loved it. I typically enjoy English period pieces but this one was more than I could handle. It was much too slow and it had too many dead scenes where nothing happened. I almost fell asleep at one point. Naturally it had a lot of old English poetry. I came away thinking that I really don't have an appreciation for poetry. I just don't get it. That was Friday night.

I was thinking about this all weekend and I came to question my dislike of poetry. If lyrics to a song is considered poetry (is it?), then I really do have an appreciation for this art. A well constructed set of lyrics can be just as powerful as a poem. I would argue even more powerful. Maybe I'm just getting old but they just don't write 'em like they use to. My favorite songwriters are old school: Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, Don Henley, James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen's early work (I don't care much for his new stuff).

Dan Folgelberg wrote a visual masterpiece back in 1981 called
Same Old Lang Syne.
Lyrically, in my opinion, it's his best song.
The song is about a serendipitous meeting of old lovers in a grocery store on Christmas Eve.
It's written in such a way that you feel like you're right there.
The song contains four verses and a chorus.

The first two verses describe their initial meeting inside the store and their joy at seeing each other again. The third verse touches on their current situations: she's married and he's on the road as a successful musician. The last verse is their goodbye but it's the final few lines of the song that have always stuck with me:

Just for a moment i was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as i turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain --

I've always wondered what that old familiar pain was.
Was it their breakup?
The emotional roller coaster in their relationship?
Was it the cancerous jealously and uncertainty?
Was it their never ending and ongoing arguments?

They say that our minds tend to remember the goods things that have happened in our lifetime. I know that's the case with me. Whether it be childhood memories, past relationships or events, I tend to recall them with rose-coloured glasses. I wonder why that is.
Having said that, every once in a while an "old familiar pain" rears it's ugly head.
Last week I had a dream where one of my old pains replayed itself in slow motion (like dreams usually do). I woke up emotionally drained and depressed. It was a pain I thought I had buried long ago. Why is it that physical wounds heal so much quicker and cleaner than the other kind?

Towards the end of the movie there's a scene where Fanny is dealt a terrible pain.
It's a very powerful scene where the pain is so intense it drives her to her knees as she emotionally breaks down.
And maybe there's the answer to my question.

Bird Bird and Mrs. Obama

Too funny.