Sheep

I feel dated when I think of how the interwebs used to be and the social networking sites of the old days.  When AOL first came around everyone started to jump onboard that ship and keep their phone lines tied up that no phone calls could come into the house.  There was even the trick to block incoming calls to keep from being disconnected.  For those who didn't know that code it was easy for someone who knew you were online to disconnect you by calling your house phone.  There were even those who shared accounts and when one person was online the other couldn't, this was the category I fell in.  

I never had my own account and mooched off of friends.  Jumping around from friend to friend trying to find one that used it the least.  It was a gateway to the internet, you needed to be connected somehow and AOL was the way to go to get to the other websites of the world.  It was even great for chatting with friends, and of course meeting new people with the overly used age/sex/loc introduction.

There might be a few that I miss along the way as I wasn't that adepth with the social networking site culture and tried to avoid it as much as possible.  

The next memory I have was xanga, the blogging site where you could have friends.  I think I joined this but signed up and left it at that.  Although I remember seeing friends putting their entire life stories on their blogs, the best being when there was relationship problems and the breakups went on blast for the world to see.  

Moving on from that came the other blogging sites like blogger, wordpress and whatever others you can think of.  But the networking was still there as you can browse strangers blogs and your friends.

The wonderful world of Friendster came and touched our lives by finding out who are friends were!  But that went overboard when people started to friend us who weren't even our friends but simply friends of friends.  We were able to see who we were connected to and how that network started and ended.  We were also able to see who's been looking at our profiles ... cue in the stalkers.  

Myspace came like the plaque and had everyone join.  I refused for so long to join it with the argument that it was just a huge meat market for people to find people to hook up with and a place to cheat online.  I was right for the most part but then I joined.  The reason I joined was a good one too, it was to see my friends' pictures.  In other words to stalk them and see what they have been up to.  The layouts and themes started where people changed their pages to try to be original and be set apart from everyone else, some became way to much.  Myspace was a good place to get exposure though once they started the music part of it.  Upcoming musicians made a name for themselves and were able to get themselves out to the public.  Especially to the younger age groups who were online 24/7.

During those days I remember trying to join Facebook but it was limited to those who had email accounts from their respective schools, so I wasn't able to jump on that ... yet.  

Ahhh the day finally came when they opened Facebook up to the public and I created an account, reluctantly.  I wasn't going to be the person to update my status or comment, I wasn't planning to be a participating member of the community.  All I wanted to do was find my friends, people I actually knew and look at their pictures, again stalker status.  

That's how it all started, but when friends start to tell you about their day and what is on their mind or what they are planning to do or doing, you can't help but start to see what they are up to.  So it goes from looking at the pictures to finding out what they are doing.  I've had people who got into fights because they couldn't go out for one reason or another, but their status and pictures tell a different story.  Many fights came from this and I'm sure it's still going on today.  Even seeing pictures of your gf/bf with other people in compromising situations have caused fights.  

I stayed away from commenting, from updating my status for so long.  It would only be once in a while that I would check the site and see if anything interesting was going on, after all I hated these social networking sites.  They weren't for me, I was old school and if you wanted to get to me, find me on AIM.  I didn't feel the need to update my status [even on AIM], or message people.  

But as with most things, and with most people, I became one of the sheep.  The sheep following the herd and where I started to comment on people's status' and pictures.  Where I started to update mine, but keeping it limited to not tmi.  I see where people put way too much information out there on their pages and I didn't want to be that way, and I'm glad I'm still not.  There are limits for me when it comes to updating things, and posting status', pictures and even here in this blog.  So many thoughts come to mind, but I have to restrict it because I don't want the interwebs to have every single piece of information on me.  Afterall, I need to keep some things to myself.

It's true that it can effect your job or potential job with what you have out there on the net, especially the social networking sites.  Everytime there was a new employee, my coworkers and I would try to find them on Myspace or Facebook.  We'd usually find them and see their info, see what they did on the weekends, after work hours and what they were into.  

Here I am, updating my status, picture commenting, updating my profile pics, commenting on others' status messages.  I already knew I was falling into what everone else and their mama's (and dads) were doing.  But I had to somehow keep away from falling into deep, I even stayed away from Twitter thinking that I would put meaningless updates about my life ... or maybe again tmi about my life.  So I find myself installing the Facebook app on my Blackberry today ... not a good sign.  I need to do as the words on the back of the ambulance and fire trucks say ... stay back 200 feet.  

I don't want to be this close to the action and have it handy all the time.  There are other things to do in life besides checking up on other people to see what they are up to and how they are doing, there's more to just updating my status to tell the world that I want to have tea.  All the information is out there on everyone and me being the way I am have to find a way to keep me contained somehow.  Now I try to find a way to be that sheep that strays from the rest and not just follow blindly.  

Good luck to me ... I might be too far in to get out!

+ mon

Predator Caught

Ever since the camera has been up it's been quite boring since my suspect has not been into the office.  The only footage would be people walking around and getting up from their desk about fourty times during the night.  

Then came Friday night!  I was excited since it would be a few days and the better chance of something being caught on the camera.  Well it wasn't more than one minute after I leave my desk and start recording that I see the suspect come up to my desk and pick up my phone.  I don't know if she was making a call or if she picked up the phone since it was ringing, but in either case she shouldn't be on my phone!

She sits less than ten feet behind me with her own phone, if my phone rings she isn't my secretary and shouldn't be answering it.  Now I need to wipe down my desk, my phone, my keyboard everytime I come into the office knowing that there's someone using my shiz.  

This wasn't one time, this happened twice.  It's quite disturbing, even with this small incident happening.  The rest of the weekend was spent with people getting up and out of their seats, and early Monday morning, the camera caught another lady (one that I didn't know worked here or ever met) get up from her desk and make her way in between my desk and my coworkers.  I don't know if she took some change, some anti bacterial, or what she did.  All I know is that she was by my desk twice during that morning which again disturbs me.

From the pictures above you can see that the angle of the camera isn't that great.  It's supposed to catch someone who sits in my seat, which I thought was happening.  I needed to adjust things and make it so that I can get a better angle and actually see what was happening intead of seeing an arm or half of someone coming into the picture.

All those episodes of McGyver worked well.  My mirror that I use to see behind me came in very useful.  I couldn't move the camera farther away to get a wider shot, so I positioned the mirror so that it catches most of the area around my desk and my desk as well, then pointed the camera to the mirror to catch the images.

So that's the setup and here is what it actually looks like.  I'm hoping this catches more of what's happening.  The only thing I'm scared of is if they grab the mirror to look at themselves, then the camera will be pointing at a ruler and some pens!

 

I haven't said anything to my boss yet.  Instead of trying to catch the small time criminal acts and having a simple slap on the wrist ... I'm waiting for that big fish to come onboard and then we'll get a bigger feast!

+ mon

Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young

This is a song that I first heard this morning on Z100 and it is definitely something that should be shared. It's actually a famous essay that was writen and put to a song. As they said this morning on the show that those who hear this and don't like it, or want to change the station don't see the deeper meaning in the song.

The things that are actually discussed in this are quite smart and incredibly meaningful in ones life. Well I'll let the song/words speak for themselves ... enjoy and I hope this makes sense to you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_sunscreen(some more info on the essay and the origins of how it became the song)

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen."

+ mon

As Seen on TV

I usually do laundry with my dad and Dudoy, but since everyone is in PI I'm left to do it all by my lonesome.  The usual routine would be me driving to the laundromat and just throwing my clothing into the machine.  I would sometimes have to put the Tide directly onto my white shirts to get rid of the ring around the collar or ring around the cuff ... with little to no success.  

Sunday came around and it was about time that I did some sort of cleaning.  After moping the floor and doing an amazing job on it ... I decided to go and wash my clothes.  A few weeks earlier my dad had washed my white button down shirts with the colors leaving my whites a grayish color.  First thought was to bleach the shirts or just wear them as gray shirts, but I didn't have anymore white shirts.  It was actually all of my white shirts that turned gray ... about six or seven of them.  

First thing is first, I needed to get the soap and items related.  It's not as easy as going into the trunk of your car and pulling out the bottle of soap that's usually available, this time I had to filter through the ninety different kinds of Tide soaps that was in front of me.  I also wanted to get my shirts back to the white they once so proudly displayed, Clorox was my choice of getting that job done.  I called my sister to help me out and she advised me not to use Clorox because it's damaging to the clothes.  Oxiclean was the suggested way to go ... after reading the instructions it didn't make sense on what I had to do.  There were instructions for the "high efficiency" machines which I assumed were the ones at the laundromat and it was said to put the Oxiclean into the "tub" prior to adding the detergent.  I wasn't sure where this "tub" was but figured that I'm supposed to add it to were the clothes actually were.  This is what I considered the "tub."  

Time and time again I would take the Tide and rub it into the collar and cuffs to get our the dirt ... it would work but never make it perfectly clean.  Sometimes it would even leave the blue color of the soap in the white which was not good at all.  

We've all seen this on TV where the guy yells at you and tells you how amazing the product is, heck he'll even go to great lengths to prove it!  He'll stain that carpet with iodine, red wine, grape juice, and it all comes out with some Oxiclean and water, simple right?  

At first I thought it was going to act like a bleach and just take all the color out of my clothes, see instead of just putting it on the whites, I had decided to put it on everything now, colors included.  I watched as the machines went round and round, not sure of what the outcome was going to be, but checking the water color inside to see if it was stripping the color out.  So far so good, water is clear with bubbles from the soap, but not color washing out.

Once the cycle was done and I pulled out the whites, I was pleasantly surprised!  I couldn't believe that it actually took out the ring around the collar and cuff, completely!  It turned my whites white again too, the gray was all gone!  It seemed to turn my colors brighter too!  

Oxiclean definitely did the trick, so if you're looking to get the crap out of your clothes and haven't been able to, Oxiclean is a great additive!  

After researching Oxiclean today and how it actually cleans, the Oxiclean is a chemical that reacts with water where it will attack the stain by changing it's chemical makeup and removing the color out of the stain.  So it's not actually removing the stain but removing the color of the stain to bring back the original color of the clothing.

So that's my review of Oxiclean, use it, it's good stuff and makes your clothes look clean!

+ mon

Old School

In recent weeks I've gotten in touch with some old junior high school friends, and even some elementary school friends.  it always amazes me to think about this and actually remember things that went on back then.

Finding and chatting with some elementary school friends a rush of memories came back, from the time I pushed someone into the closet during a firedrill, to the time I got in trouble for kicking a tree on the sidwalk.  Memories like that and especially remembering friends and even grade school crushes are always fun.  

Aside from those "good" memories, we also have those other times in our school lives that we wish to forget but somehow can't!  Who knows, maybe they traumatize us too much?  

Being that junior high school isn't as far back as elementary school, it's easier to remember details.  A few days ago I reconnected with a friend from junior high and we talked about things that had happened back then, I guess me having the memory that I have, I remember things to great detail and keep them in my head for just such an occasion.  

I can go on and on about all these wonderful memories and also about the not so wonderful times too, but what this is going to be about those "crushes" that we have as kids, and yes we were kids at that age even though at the time we didn't see that.  

Having a crush at that age is awesome, but at the same time it's so scary!  You're at that age in junior high school, well at least I was, where you haven't "dated" or had a girlfriend/boyfriend yet, and if you did, it was something that didn't have much substance.  

So onto one of my junior high crushes ... there was a Filipina girl that I thought was pretty, but I don't think I told anyone since I didn't trust that it would stay secret.  This was a friend of my cousin that I had a crush on.  At this age, being the guy who I was, I didn't try to talk to her or anything, I was shyer than I am now!  You gotta give some credit to my cousin who did try to play cupid and tried to "hook us up."  

I remember the lunch room being segregated with the boys and girls not being able to sit together.  There I was with all my friends, trying to be "cool" and my cousin comes over and calls me over to their table.  This was definitely uncharted waters for me, talking a walk to the girls side of the lunch room and being out in the open like this without any of your friends around.  It's still plain as day for me where I stood there at the end of the lunch table as my cousin takes a seat leaving me standing all by myself.  It felt as if all eyes were on me and I knew that all the girls at her table were looking at me.  There would have been a difference if these girls at her table weren't in all of my classes and were just girls that I pass in the hall from time to time, but these were the girls that I had class with, so I see them for those seven to eight hours a day!  

This felt and seems like a Wonder Year episode as I'm typing this.  

My cousin introduced me to her friend, it was the girl who I had a crush on and apparently she had a crush on me too.  Yeah I was quite the hot stud back then in my prime, but that time has since passed.  As we were introduced, a sudden feeling of deer syndrome came over me.  I stood there, no words were said, I just remember her face as she looked at me and smiled as we were being introduced.  Unfamiliar territory with no protection ... I did the only reasonable thing when you're introduced to someone who likes you in the middle of the female section of the lunch room.  

I walked back to my table where my friends were.  

There I was seeking comfort in the "guy bonding" but apparently everyone was watching and knew what happened, or at least saw me walking away.  So that was the topic of discussion for the next thirty minutes.  I can't remember what I was saying, but I can only imagine me talking to my friends and painting a picture of me not being interested in the girl, instead of me acting like a deer in headlights.  

Ahhh the wonderful memories of grade school.  There are many more to come as with these chats about the old school brings a flood of things remembered back into my brain.  From the time I bit a girls arm for touching my pencil, to the poop in my pants, the list goes on and on and might be listed here for your enjoyment.

If anyone out there is reading this and is in grad school, do yourself a favor and learn from my mistakes.  Should something like this happen to you, don't just walk away and don't stand there as if the headlights of a car were coming right at you ... but maybe you can try and muster up the courage to say a simple "hi."

+ mon