So, sparknotes of my life in the last 8 weeks:
1) Went home twice: spring break and Easter2) Applied to the Area Program in Poetry Writing concentration
3) Got in! (Praise Jesus!!!! <3)
4) Went to class a lot
5) Read a lot of things... from A Christmas Carol to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to Arabian Nights (which I hate).
6) Went through a a brief midlife crisis when I realized I'm half-way through college.
7) Quickly got over aforementioned crisis
8) Posted almost 150 funny pictures on The Facebook.
Which reminds me....
In quazi-penance for my lack of blogging, I am simply going to recopy a Note I wrote on Facebook 2 years ago. I'm amazed by how true this still is for me...
"Facebook. You either love it or hate it. You see, there really is a
thin line between love and hate--I know this because in the years that I've used this social networking tool, I have danced all
over that line at one point or another. Of course, Facebook has many
wonderful features that still manage to make me check it several times
a day. Yes, I admit, I'm somewhat of an addict. (Whoa... somehow,
seeing that last statement in print frightens me... I've really got to
do something about this...) But no matter how fun and entertaining it is,
there are a number of things about Facebook--and some of its
users--that...well. Inspire blogs with titles like this. Let's
explore some of these pet peeves of mine, shall we?
#1.
THE PROFILE NAME: Facebook users' names are one of the first things you
notice about them. So to everyone from the MySpace generation, please,
use your real name... for my sake. I mean, how confusing is it when
you're searching for one of your buddies on your friends list and after
looking for him for about 10 minutes you finally see that he is no
longer "James Walker"; he's changed his name to something ridiculous
like "JJ Bustacap the oRiGiNaL gAnGsTa." This is not MySpace. So please
use your real name.
#2. THE PROFILE PICTURE: The profile
pic is so important. It's purpose? To allow people to see the gorgeous
faces God has given each of us. So really... you don't need to be
putting up pictures of cars and sunsets and flowers all willy nilly and
whatnot. Just a picture of you will do nicely. Seriously, if someone's
trying to add me as a friend, I want to at least see what they look like.
#3.
THE INTERRUPTERS: We've all experienced this at one point or another.
You're having a wonderful comment-conversation on a friend's wall, and
everything is great until that one guy interrupts the beautiful flow of things with just a trifling, ignorant comment that has nothing to do with
what you and your friend were talking about. Here, I'll illustrate:
You: Hi Friend! Had an awesome time with you at the beach yesterday!
Your Friend: Hey! Me too, it was great! I'm a little burned though, but you know. It was worth it!
You: Yeah, watch out for that sun! LOL Wasn't that awesome when we saw that turtle?!
Your Friend: Oh gosh yeah! I was like dude for real?!
"That guy": Hey bro can you text me that peanut butter and jelly recipe?
#4.
THE RELATIONSHIP POSERS: "Cindy Sue is in a relationship with Billy
John." Ok, I can handle that and the comment chain of 87 comments that
always manages to follow little updates like that. But what I cannot
stand is the when Cindy Sue and Billy John feel the need to prove they
really are "in a relationship" by putting up profile pictures of them making out. Yeah, we've all seen that picture. Unnecessary.
#5.
THE SINGER-SONGWRITERS: This is dedicated to the ones who express their
moods by quoting songs and lyrics... lyrics which most of us have never
even heard anyway. Now, I'm not going to say I've never done this
before--I have, and it's fun sometimes. But everyday, several times a
day? A little bit much, don't you think? But what's worse is when you ask these
Singer-songwriters, "Hey, I saw the song you put up the other night. I
mean... it was kinda intense...are you okay?" Then they get all
defensive and say things like, "No! It's no big deal I just felt like
putting up a song! I mean is that okay with you or what?!" Sheesh. Sorry
I asked. But you can bet that when you put up lyrics like the first
line of "Bohemian Rhapsody," (Mama... i just killed a man...")-- I AM GOING TO ASK YOU QUESTIONS.
#6. THE RANDOM GUY WHO ADDS YOU FOR NO REASON: "Who the heck is Heimlech Inglethorpe...? Mutual friends: Zero." BLOCK.
#7. THE RANDOM GUY WHO KEEPS ADDING YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU'VE IGNORED HIM FOUR TIMES: Block.
#8.
ATTACK OF THE NOTIFICATIONS: This often happens when you do something
innocent such as "Like" a friend's profile picture. And for the next 146
weeks you keep getting notifications from total strangers all saying
basically the same thing: "Cute pic!" After a few
months of that, it's enough to make you regret ever becoming friends
with that person in the first place...
#9. REPLY-ALL EMAILS: I really, really,
can't stand these. Your friend sends out an email to 103 of her friends
saying simply, "Hey! Anyone want to hang out sometime?" And every 30
minutes for the next month you get random emails from total strangers
who have all gone and hit the "Reply all" button. But you see, this is
not like #8, the "Attack of the Notifications." No. It's much, much
worse. Because even if you delete the original email, you will STILL
continue to get emails from Bobby Joe and Ahmed Abdul and Cindy Chang
and Britney Sanchez... none of which you know. Not.
Cool.
#10. THE LATE NIGHT CHATTERS: It's 12:30 AM, you're
exhausted, and you've just finished harvesting an unhealthy amount of
crops from your Farmville account so that they don't die by tomorrow.
You're ready to turn off the computer and get some sleep. And right as
you're about to click the Logout button, you hear that little popping
sound Facebook chat makes and you're faced with a decision that demands a
split-second response. Option 1: Quickly log out and hope the other
person thinks that you were offline all along. Option 2: Be rude and
message the person saying, "Hey, I'm going to bed and you should, too.
Good night." Option 3: Make small talk and restrict your responses to
one and two-word answers such as "yeah," "lol," and "that's cool," and
hope the person will get the hint. Option 4: Just roll with it and have
the conversation.
(Although I really can't bring myself to hate on the Late
Night Chatters, though. Some of the funniest conversations I've had
have happened after midnight.)
There are a lot more things I could talk about, but I would need to write a book to list all of them. Hmm... there's an idea. Natasha's Facebook-Book of Pet Peeves. I like the sound of that... "
