The memory-lane side of reconnecting on FaceBook

I recently reconnected with a childhood friend, Kim Smith, on FaceBook.  It thought it was pretty cool to get back in touch with someone I hadn't seen in who knows how long.  What I didn't know is that she seems to have a never-ending collection of photos that were taken at various times during our lives.  For example, I am the skinny kid on the left in the photo below:

If memory serves, that picture was taken between her grandparents' house and my grandparents' house.  You may be able to see the date: July 1979.  I was ten.  We played nearly every summer together whenever her folks would come over and my parents would take us to grandma and grandpas, which was pretty often.  There are two memories that really stand out about us being kids and hanging out together back then.

The first is when we lived in my grandparents' basement.  They had converted the basement into an apartment - living room, dining area, two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom.  Brian (on the right above) and I shared one room as our bedroom.  I remember listening to the "Grease" album with Kim in our room.  It was a lot of fun, and was one of those things that always stuck with me.

The other one is of us hanging out with her sister in her grandparents' basement listening to, don't shoot me (though I expect some laughter) "The Village People."  I think we even had roller skates on, skating around their basement to the music.

Of course, she doesn't have just one picture from our younger days...

This one is from my older teen-aged days.  This would be around 1986 or so, during my "messy hair" days.  Others prefer to call it my "mullet" days.  I don't even think I knew that word back then.  I liked to wear my hair short in the front with a lot of gel to make it messy.  The long hair was being grown out to eventually have a 'tail' made out of it.  I had also planned to have the longest earring I could find.  I am thankful THAT never materialized.  

Some people have bashed FaceBook for being some kind of place that only desperate "would-have/should-have" dreamers and wishful thinkers hang out.  I even know of one tech that blocks FaceBook at school based on the sole reason that his/her teachers don't need to be trying to rekindle old flames on school time.  I agree with the last part, but FaceBook (or any truly 'social' network) is much, much more than that.  For me, the images you see above are just two of the million reasons why I think the ideas behind sites like FaceBook make them incredible tools in today's world.

If you have pictures from your childhood and you've reconnected with folks on social networks, post the picture(s) out there and tag the folks.  Trust me, they'll laugh, cry, and most importantly THANK YOU for doing it.  But, mostly, they'll laugh at themselves.  And, that is a wonderful gift.

Thought you should know...

Right place, right time

I drove down to Fouke, AR, to work along side fellow techs in helping to set up a new Mac XServe server.  While we were there, the National Guard had the Dale Jr NASCAR vehicle there.  Naturally, we took a break from working on computers to have pictures made by the servicemen there.

Life after Michael and novel writing

To paraphrase Kermit the Frog, "It ain't easy being Michael."

Today was the first day back to work after "David Being Michael" came about.  In the aftermath, I left many "fans" sorely disappointed.  It turns out that many folks at the Elementary School had anticipated "Michael's" arrival.  I had not known this, so when Emily's classroom party was over, we went home.  MANY people told Shan and emailed/ texted/ facebooked/ etc their disappointment that I did not visit each of the grades at the school.

Another set of "fans," those with whom I work either directly or indirectly, missed seeing me dressed up and thus were not happy that I did not come visit.  I actually had a school visit scheduled for Friday, but other things work-related came up and I could not get there.  I have since been told to re-dress as Michael and come to the school this week.  As tempting as that is, I cannot bring myself to dress as the King of Pop at a school without a true, semi-valid reason.  Perhaps next year's getup will warrant such demand and admiration - or humiliation - whichever.

So, today, I heard MANY shouts of "Hey, There's Michael!" and "Hey, Where's Michael?"  It was flattering and strange all at the same time.  I never understood the "problems" of celebrity, and for a few days, I have had a chance to experience it.  It's great and scary all in one.  The scary part is the folks running up to you.  I'm talking grown adults running up shouting, "I need a picture! Can I have a picture with you?"

In a way, I suppose, it was a chance for some folks to connect with someone that many of us grew up knowing, admiring, scratching our heads over.  Would I do anything differently?  Actually, yeah, I would.  I would visit each of the grades at the Elementary building.  I would have also at least tried to get back a few of the "Michael Moves" just to give folks something to see.  Oh, I did a little side-stepping and moonwalking, but I used to have many of his moves down pretty well (or at least *I* thought so).  I suppose what I am trying to say is that I would have "showed out" a bit more, much like the King of Pop would have done himself.

As weird as it sounds, I did not dress like Michael to make fun of him. Not in the least.  Well, okay, maybe a little.  I mean, it *IS* Michael, after all.  But, aside from his wackiness, he was one of the greatest entertainers of all time. This was my little way of making him, "A Part of Me."

---

I am working on my novel, and am on day two of the National Novel Writing Month contest.  I have 8010 words written out of 50000 so far.  I am not sure if my program and their program counts words the same way, so I am hoping to have at least 51000 or so by the time it is said and done.

The "secret," so I have read, is that you can't go back and edit anything. You basically start writing and let the muses sing.  Edit later.  Make inline notes if you have to, but keep writing.  It's harder than it sounds.  In some places, the story takes a weird tangent or you see where a paragraph would work if it were in a different place, but you keep pushing through it.  In just two days, I have asked myself things like, "Am I being too wordy here? Am I not giving enough detail there?"  I have decided that I am going to go way overboard with details.  The story will have more information and description than anyone in their right mind would want to endure.  This serves two purposes: 1) It gives me a better chance of hitting the goal by being so wordy, and 2) You can always cut things out of a story but trying to add stuff in afterward is tough.

I'll keep you posted on and off about my progress, but you can always click the "NaNoWriMo" icon over there on the right side at the top of this blog if curiosity gets the best of you. :-)

Happy Halloween!

I know it has been a long time since I've posted anything, but the week has been filled with getting ready for Halloween and other all-important such stuff. My offering to you is below: