Tag Archives: culture

FUFB


Congratulations. You were resourceful enough to come here to find answers.

I joined FaceBook in 2005 at the behest of my employer at the time to evaluate its marketing potential since it was “what all the kids were doing”.

My account would sit dormant until January 2009 when the site’s popularity exploded along with my email in-box pinging hourly …  “so and so wants to be friends on FaceBook.”

People from high school. People from college. People I’ve had sex with. People I’ve worked with… all of them crawling out of the virtual woodwork… plus scads of folks I didn’t even know.

The language “wants to be friends with you” – is deceiving. Just reading those words makes you feel a little rush because (at least if you’re over the age of say 30) they mean something entirely different. “Wants to be friends” is more special than “wants to look at your pictures / activities and participate in a public commentary about it all.”

The champions of Social Media tout this technology as pushing the culture ahead and bringing people closer together. I don’t know if I agree with that assertion.

I was once a prolific blogger… I may be once again.

Unlike blogging – which requires a degree of contemplation… of construction… of intent….  FaceBook makes throwing your thoughts into the public seductively fast and easy. Whether it’s about the bacon sandwich you just ate or the frightening fashion sense of the girl in front of you in line at the bank.

This mindless free-for-all creates a constant stream of what is by definition: “petty”… and by deduction: “pure narcissism fuel”.

Like america’s addiction to reality television. The human drama is the salty sweet for our monkey minds… It *is* irresistible. The full blooded as well as armchair narcissists out there know this likely on subconcious level.

I’ve wrestled with why this is… If I’m talking on the phone with a friend and I tell them about the bacon sandwich I had for lunch – it isn’t (or at least doesn’t feel) petty or narcissistic.

The only thing I could come up with is the concept of publicly airing trivial personal information *and* allowing for commentary. It just seems to bait the worst of human nature and creates a playground for vultures, stalkers, predators and psychic vampires. The vaudevillian term Peanut Gallery suddenly has a new, highly relevant meaning.

I met one of the greatest loves of my life via the social network giant… The fledgling relationship would eventually de-rez along with my heart – not “because” of Facebook – but it definitely played a roll.  The ongoing drama between myself and this would-be soulmate played out like a cheap soap opera of status updates for The Peanut Gallery to feast upon… adding static, distortion and confusion to an already challenging set of circumstances.

I never dated in high school… Now I know why. FaceBook is still very much still… “what the kids are doing” – and that’s why I’ve stepped back from it. I’ll likely re-activate my account in the future… but not until I gain a higher perspective on the whole lot.

I’ve got a bunch of grown-up stuff on my plate… as well as a bacon sandwich. If you’re in my life, pick up the phone and call me… or send me a text message! I’d love to talk with you. If you’ve come round to feast on my misery, try to get into my pants or take something precious from me – move along – this kitchen is closed.

really.. it was just going to be about the packaging.


Coming into the season when veggies are plentiful and varied,… I stopped by the store to stock up for what’s becoming our annual stir-fry rut. (‘Cause baked macaroni casseroles just don’t sound good when it’s pushing 100 outside. That and we don’t want to heat up the house with the stove).

I used to be a fan of Kraft Sweet’n Sour squeezy sauce for dipping stuff into…

…until we turned into idealistic blow-hard, (because we finally have the lung capacity to do so), – ex-tobacco-smokers.

Kraft is “Altria”… which sounds like a sensible sedan from Nissan… but it’s not,… It’s Philip Morris.

Our ban of Kraft and their connection to the tobacco industry is really just a smug side note… Without opening the evidence box labeled: “The crooked disingenuous dealings of the Tobacco Industry”.

It could be argued that they’re just a big company that’s diversifying into other markets.

And that’s where I point a paranoid finger: to the fear of Oligopolies – which at least to me seems counter-capitalistic.

(I’ve catch myself thinking about this stuff on the way home in rush hour).

Hmm… I’m not *totally* a socialist… and not *totally* a capitalist… Why isn’t there a model that marries the potential-tapping benefits of capitalism *and* social-responsibility?… “Social Capitalism”?

I’d later google around a bit and discover these mediations were hardly ground-breaking or new.

It just seems like a really good idea for these days of creepy corruption and greed mongering.

I have to do some more reading before I start proclaiming myself as a “Social Capitalist” though.

woooah.. wait – this was going to just be a short discussion about the fluke antique bottle of Kraft Squeezy-Sweet-n-Sour which had eluded purchase and lives on the shelf next to it’s younger siblings.

guess I kinda got off on a chicken.

dinner *and* a show


Saturday night devcubber and us piled into the car went down to the west end to catch a play.

This wasn’t just *any* play… mykinmissouri was the lead.

To make matters more incestuously coincidental,… I dated the director a decade ago…. (see “Saint Louis is really just a big small town” – figure 22b).

The theatre company is an independent one which shares a converted church gymnasium with two others where it has been putting on shows for the last ten years.

Yeah… We’re talking volunteer amateur theatre and all the ills that implies…. Regardless – I can’t help but acknowledge the cultural importance of this kind of story-telling… Shoe-string budget and pacing issues be damned – these folks have the guts, (and determination), to pull a show off and for that I applaud them.

This was Mike’s acting debut… and all four of us had trouble believing it… He did great, actually out-shining some of his theatrically heavy-handed, “I was a high-school drama club premadonna”, co-stars.

After the show we went back to chez-vandover for improvisational kitchen raiding, late-night socializing and oh look a chicken.

mall


Had to go to “the mall” to pick up some goth-girl shirts from Hot Topic to send down to the Caymans to serve as pirate shirts. (Goth and Pirate are surprisingly similar)…. “Arrrgh.. Ya scurvy lad – you’d be passin’ me my Marilyn Manson records… Now!”

short note about Hot Topic and today’s teeny-boppers:

KIDS… IF IT’S IN A MALL, IT’S NOT COUNTERCULTURE… IT’S COMMERCE…. PERIOD.

there.. I said it.

Anyway they were having this Chef competition right in the middle of the mall.

….and well.. you already know about that little chef-fetish thing I have…. so… Let’s just say I nearly forgot why I was in the mall in the first place.

What was I doing here? Blogging?

nawww.