my daughter rowan. my wife stacy. my dogs. time spent with family and friends. a terrifically exciting presidential election. some good days of weather. a couple pleasant nights of sleep and several dreams. a number of well timed cocktails.
really, that's about it for what i liked in 2008.
the rest kind of sucked.
bye 2008.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
yes, i am a geek.
ok, i admit it, facebook is pretty cool. i'm a facegeek for sure.
as much as i rail against the dominance of electronic media as the basis of interaction, i also sing its praises as a fount of information. i am most definitely one of those disturbed souls hopelessly addicted to my iphone's ability to answer almost any question at any time.
but facebook isn't just information. it's faces. it's people the way they want the world to see them (except for the dreaded tag in someone else's photo). it's a way to keep up with folks in close to real time. it saves some of the painful small talk when 'real' interaction happens because we can go right to the specifics.
but facebook isn't really all that compelling for me with my close current friends. where it grabs me is that it's blasts from the past. in the past couple of weeks, i've found people i thought i lost forever over 20 years ago. julie carpenter was one of my dearest friends growing up. though i thought of her often, we hadn't communicated in decades. so terrific to know she's well.
jenny boyce was one of the select few i started school with at age 4, and was always one of my favorite classmates. now we've actually communicated 3 or 4 times in the last couple of weeks.
now that i'm older, i realize that i have a tendency to define myself by interactions and occurrences in the relatively recent past. the law of recency certainly applies to personal identity. facebook is cool not only because i get instant tidbits about my friends' lives ("blair is enraptured by rowan"), but even more so because it helps me regain the context for my identity.
i am the oldest williams boy. i am kickball in front of the carpenter's house. i am falling on the giant snow balls and breaking my front tooth. i am acorn fights. i am block parties. i am riding my bike to cumberland. i am going to the candy lady. i am miss jashaway's student. i am leaf forts at the braun's. i am fighting with ginny like she was my sister. i am a late bloomer. i am uncomfortable in high school. i am exeter. i am bucky badger. i am stacy's husband. i am rowan's dad.
but before i actively reflected on all those things as i reconnect with faces and friends from my past, i was many of those things only vaguely. like those memories were ghosts in my past. now, i find myself reminiscing actively. i find it's helping me stay grounded. it's firming my sense of self. it may be revisionist history, but it's mine. and it's who i am.
as much as i rail against the dominance of electronic media as the basis of interaction, i also sing its praises as a fount of information. i am most definitely one of those disturbed souls hopelessly addicted to my iphone's ability to answer almost any question at any time.
but facebook isn't just information. it's faces. it's people the way they want the world to see them (except for the dreaded tag in someone else's photo). it's a way to keep up with folks in close to real time. it saves some of the painful small talk when 'real' interaction happens because we can go right to the specifics.
but facebook isn't really all that compelling for me with my close current friends. where it grabs me is that it's blasts from the past. in the past couple of weeks, i've found people i thought i lost forever over 20 years ago. julie carpenter was one of my dearest friends growing up. though i thought of her often, we hadn't communicated in decades. so terrific to know she's well.
jenny boyce was one of the select few i started school with at age 4, and was always one of my favorite classmates. now we've actually communicated 3 or 4 times in the last couple of weeks.
now that i'm older, i realize that i have a tendency to define myself by interactions and occurrences in the relatively recent past. the law of recency certainly applies to personal identity. facebook is cool not only because i get instant tidbits about my friends' lives ("blair is enraptured by rowan"), but even more so because it helps me regain the context for my identity.
i am the oldest williams boy. i am kickball in front of the carpenter's house. i am falling on the giant snow balls and breaking my front tooth. i am acorn fights. i am block parties. i am riding my bike to cumberland. i am going to the candy lady. i am miss jashaway's student. i am leaf forts at the braun's. i am fighting with ginny like she was my sister. i am a late bloomer. i am uncomfortable in high school. i am exeter. i am bucky badger. i am stacy's husband. i am rowan's dad.
but before i actively reflected on all those things as i reconnect with faces and friends from my past, i was many of those things only vaguely. like those memories were ghosts in my past. now, i find myself reminiscing actively. i find it's helping me stay grounded. it's firming my sense of self. it may be revisionist history, but it's mine. and it's who i am.
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