Monday, January 25, 2010

Freaks and Geeks

There are two things running througn my head this morning:

1. I can't remember #1, right now (we'll get back to it)(maybe), and
2. My love/ hate relationship with technology is swinging to the hate.

Let me explain.

In younger days, when I was in the thick of the scientific community, I was just like every other lab nerd - I oohed and ahhed over every new gizmo and doodad that cropped up. (and if it came with a free lunch and demo from the sales rep - so much the better. We'll take two).

But even then I knew.

I understood that with every amazing feature in the 'plus' column on the spec sheet, there would be a down side. A side not really talked about, a side that could potentially be used for dire purposes rather than the beneficial.

Because, technology - by and large - is a double-edged sword.

I think that, lately, the thing that is messing everyone up (OK, messing ME up, specifically) is the Internet.

True, it can be a glorious thing. It can make connections possible where they could never have possibly existed before. Case in point - the extraordinary group of women I met through our interconnected sites, and ultimately met up with in real life at last summer's Virginia BlogFest.
And all the other readers I've blended (blog +friend = blend) with since I started. Like Babs. And Cormac. Vegetable Assassin. And the 'Initials': BA, FF, NATUI. Even newer ones, like Ti . It has been nothing but pleasure getting to know them.

If luck is the intersection when timing and opportunity meet, then I would have to say that all these blogospheric collisions were very opportunistic, indeed.

But then there's the downside.

My case in point here? MySpace. Ack.

I joined this group for one purpose - to send a note of appreciation directly to someone's e-mail. That's it. (Of course, it would have been lovely if it was acknowledged, but really - who am I kidding? It should be enough that it was jettisoned out into the ether for its original intention)(Note the 'should be' here; I am completely irked by bad manners)(And you, bad-mannered one? You know who you are).

Needless to say, I should have got in, got it done, and got out.

But I didn't. I stayed. Lazy? Probably. Delusional? Absolutely.

What I ended up with is a slew of creepy oddballs, sending me declarations of love and passion and claiming that I was their soul mate, charting our future together like some possessed tarot card reader.

It didn't really matter that I had said, in as many ways possible, that I was married. I was HAPPILY married. I had been HAPPILY MARRIED for a LONG TIME. At one point, I was thinking of changing my name to I AM F*CKING MARRIED. After a short reflection on that, I realized that the only thing that would be noticed and flagged was the F*CKING, and I would end up with more men looking for a woman who bold enough to claim herself an adultress. Gah.

People are idiots.

I spent more time than I should have being polite. The first few 'friends' were the lucky ones. I answered back that I was in no way interested in pursuing ANYTHING, and wished them well on their pursuit of happiness.

The next batch got a message that crapped all over them for not reading anything, but merely looking at a picture and believing that destiny had waved its magic wand.

I even went so far as to change my profile picture to this:

Things did start to slow down - but not by much. I guess there are a lot of lonely men out there, looking for love with horse-faced dowagers. Maybe it' the challenge of getting through all those layers. I don't know.

They were ridiculous.

The whole exercise was ridiculous.

And oh, yeah - now I remember my Item 1 from the top of the post:

I'm ridiculous.

*******************************

Tune in next Monday for the beginning of a Baroness mini-series: My City Mondays. It will be a little glimpse into the who, what, where and possible why (but more likely why not?) of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

That happen to be - oh yeah - in my city.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel so..so..new! So fresh...

And I absolutely hate MySpace. I have limited patience with Facebook (I check it twice a year) and twitter can kiss my knuckles.

I feel your pain. Somewhere between my thoracic and my knees, as a matter of fact.

Anonymous said...

Seriously Baroness, I don't do that whole social networking thing because I got sick of getting friend requests from people I'd never heard of and getting poked by just about everyone. It's very peaceful being blog and email only. :) Screw MyFacebooktter.

formerly fun said...

Love, absolutely love, the new template.

Shelley Jaffe said...

Countess Ti: Wha? What have you done to feel so fresh? Are you up at a high elevation again, getting a head rush??

Countess VA: Yeah, well, I only learn by my mistakes. I'll still do facebook, which by comparison,seems positively milk-fed and Osmond-ish.
But I do like e-mails best of all.

Countess FF: Thank you for noticing! Still working out a few bugs, but it is at least functional, and coming together.

Not Afraid to Use It said...

OMG!! How have I missed this gorgeous new template! That's what I get for reading in my reader, I suppose! LOVE IT!!!!

And groovy people like us seem to be creepy-weirdo magnets. It's just one of the burdens of being fabulous.

Shelley Jaffe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shelley Jaffe said...

Countess NATUI: I'm relieved that you're not upset that I didn't consult with the Royal Blog Designer on this one. It's an idea I'd been playing with for a while, and it came together almost serendipitously.

As for the magnet thing, yeah. What's up with that? Is it possible to get de-polarized somehow?

Not Afraid to Use It said...

The ego would have been slightly dinged if the new template had been a fugly mess, but I totally understand the need to recreate and feel fresh. I'm just honored you left my design up as long as it was!

Cormac Brown said...

"What I ended up with is a slew of creepy oddballs, sending me declarations of love and passion and claiming that I was their soul mate, charting our future together like some possessed tarot card reader."

And this makes them different from me, how?
; )

Shelley Jaffe said...

Count Cormac: Oh, dear.

 
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