Facebook, MySpace, and Feeling Old

I received a Facebook invitation by email the other day from a friend who is 12 years my junior. He just turned 28 - not Gen X.

So - although I'm sure my daughter will be appalled - I set up a profile and checked it out - and I turns out that I have more friends on Facebook than I realized - at least 8. Of course only one of them was my age, but no surprise there. (I think it's interesting that the 20-yr-olds are using this is a HUGE way, and the 30/40-yr-olds are just about totally ignoring it....)

What really cracked me up was that a search for people from my high school graduating class of almost 300 people revealed... just me. The class just before ours had 2 people and just after ours had 5. That's it. We're all turning 40 this year and none of us are using Facebook. We are officially OLD.

I also have a MySpace profile, and most of my "friends" there are local artists or former students. All much younger than I am. I started it as a professional tool to keep in touch with the local arts community while I was the arts coordinator at PHHS, but now it's just entertaining.

So I'm reflecting on how my generation doesn't seem to be in on the fun, and then I get an update email from LinkedIn - a professional networking site that I think is a kick, but in this context, just looks like Facebook for Old Folks.

Sigh.

Yeah, Thanks

It is so unlike me to be cynical or ironic about something like Thanksgiving! But here I am, having an attitude, the day after a perfectly lovely holiday. Go figure.

Yes, I have much for which to be thankful, but I guess I don't find overeating to be all that inspirational! So today I am eyeing the leftovers and thinking more about the school & house projects I have to get done this weekend than about blessings... yet feel the need to note some of the blessings of my life:

My daughter turns 19 today - other than being a pretty bad driver, I think she turned out GREAT.

I love my job - it's interesting and fun.

My kitchen ceiling and one upstairs bathroom are being replaced because of some water damage - but it'll all be fixed within a week.

Much love.

Yes, I am thankful! :)

More Doctoral Craziness

I have a 20-page paper to write this week - an analysis - after which I have to take that info & turn it into a research proposal. I was amused to see in the directions for the second part:

Alternative ways to structure a presentation of a research project:
Thematically
Analytically
Exemplificatively
Exegetically
Existentially

I think I'll stick with number one...!

Diamonds or Pearls?

Apparently the last question asked at Thursday’s debate was to Hillary Clinton: does she prefer diamonds or pearls? Flashback to the MTV Forum at which Bill Clinton was asked “boxers or briefs” in 92, and the answer is still – who cares?

What’s even worse is that the UNLV student who asked the question says that CNN didn’t allow her to ask any one of her five previously submitted questions about issues that were important to her, and instead made her ask that one.

So they not only allowed it – they CHOSE it! Pathetic.

Question of the Day

"What if Prince Charming had never shown up? Would Snow White have slept in that glass coffin forever? Or would she have eventually woken up, spit out the apple, gotten a job, a health-care package and a baby from her local neighborhood sperm bank?"

- Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City

Post from Philly (Not)

U Penn's Parent Weekend: actually took a day off work & went out to see my kid. Had such a good time I didn't even think to post!

Nothing earth-shattering, nothing even that interesting... uneventful flights both ways, no big agenda other than SHOPPING - we didn't go to any of the Penn events. I thought it was cool that my kid actually got us tickets to a spoken word poetry performance Sat night - very cool thing to do together!

This was my third trip to Philly this year - we visited in the spring when she was choosing, I took her out this summer to move in, and now I went back just to visit. I'm learning my way around the area so well that I didn't bother to check the directions from the campus to the airport - I just went the way that seemed familiar and it worked perfectly.

So I guess that means I'm getting comfortable with her being out there...?

Yes - I'm still not a huge fan of living alone, but my daughter loves college and she loves U Penn, so I'm comfortable with her being out there. She's doing well - what more can I ask?