Author Archives: Michael

A Friend Request Denied

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Ummmmm……

So I got a facebook friend request today from someone whose name I didn’t recognize. I pulled up his profile and the only common connection I could find was that we live in the same city. So I sent him a message. Our (paraphrased) conversation went a little like this…

Me: Hello! Do I know you from somewhere?
Him: I’m a writer trying to build word of mouth. Now we know eachother!
Me (a little confused and weirded out): Well, I certainly wish you the best, but I use facebook to manage a network of friends I know from real life, so I’ll be denying your friend request.
Him (polite, but apparently annoyed): No problem. But social networking sites are about meeting new people. That’s what REAL life is all about. If I want to talk to friends I already know, I’ll call them.

And now, I so so so want to write him back to claim the last word, but the more mature and reasoned part of me (and also the part of me that listens to my wife) realizes that there’s nothing to accomplish here, nothing to gain and so I should do that which is often hardest for me to do….   just let it go, man.

But honestly. I get social networking sites, ok? I understand why they exist and what the point is and I realize that they can be a tremendously powerful tool for bringing people together that might otherwise never meet. You know what else is? Walking down the street and asking everyone you meet to be your best friend. I’d find that a little wierd too and probably treat someone who approcahed me like that with the same mix of politeness and “sorry-no-thanks”ness that I gave the facebook guy. I likes me some facebook, but I like to use it to keep in touch with people I already know and to reconnect with people I haven’t seen in a long time.

In short, I’m interested in the social, and could give a crap about the networking. Sorry random facebook not-my-friend if I’m not using a social network to its fullest advantage and sorry that you think I’m not living my REAL life to its fullest.

Guess what? I don’t need your opinion on what I’m doing wrong. So here’s a little wall-to-wall from me to you…

Get bent.

Next Door Dog Situation – UPDATE!!!

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…Just a quick update on yesterday’s dog situtaion.

After I posted I sat and fumed for a while while the dog continued to howl. Eventually I decided to use vent in my third most common way – video games. (The first two, of course, being a-the wife, and b-the blog.)

So, I’m playing Splinter Cell and getting tired and thinking about calling the cops before bed when I hear a racket outside. Loud voices, loud arguments, lots of really choice language, a car door slams, and the car with the dog inside leaves for parts unknown.

A little later, the car came back without the dog.

I hope the little bugger’s ok. I’d like to think it is. When the owner was bitching at me, even though she came across as a total idot, it was obvious that she was trying to do what she thought was best for the dog. (Even though, as we’ve previously covered, what she thought was best was in fact completely and totally bass-ackwardsly wrong.) So I don’t think she drove the dog to the country and left it for dead or anything.

My guess is she found a friend to take it in for the time being.

Anyway, no more dog locked in a car. No more loud howling.

With the problem solved, it was time to sleep.

So I did.