2 Thoughts, 1 Post...

...not to be confused with 2 Girls, 1 Cup. And no, I'm not linking to it. After a year or so, I've finally gotten the damn thing out of my head [fortunately, without therapy. By the bye, what sort of revulsion therapy would work in that situation? Teletubbies? If you haven't seen or heard of it, consider yourself blessed...]

Anyway, in reference to our last post, the protests, fortunately, turned out to be a non-event [here's a story, with video, from the Buffalo News] Sorry to get you worked up over nothing [that said, I truly believe anger over injustice, prejudice or stupidity is one of the greater gifts God gave to His Creation].

Elsewhere; I've always prided myself on the amount of reading I do. But recently, I've had cause to doubt my skillz. While on Facebook, I discovered a list of 99 books [not 100, as advertised in the set-up: still, it's a substantial list] ; you're then asked to indicate which of them you've read. I'm not going to run the entire listing by you: suffice it to say it runs the gamut from Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy [yes] to Les Miserables [no, but I saw the musical on PBS, if that counts], with stops at Winnie The Pooh and Lord Of The Flies [as well as Lord Of The Rings] to boot. Out of 100 [or 99, actually], I've read only 23 [I'm very embarrassed about this, but I've decided to be honest about it]. A few comments...

-Lord Of The Rings - About 1 1/2 books in, I just plain lost interest. Too many Hobbits, Halflings, and Dwarves to keep sorted out. That noted, I thought The Hobbit was well worth wasting time over;

-Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes - Why is Sherlock Holmes the only known cocaine-user in history to get introspective on the drug, instead of the manic action most users report? Could it be that Conan Doyle [a doctor, let's remember] just picked a drug at random, then gave Holmes the symptoms he wanted him to have? (Readers of early Holmes stories will remember how often Doyle used the term vegetable alkaloid when he wanted a quick, easy-not-to-explain plot device)

-A Confederacy Of Dunces - Probably my favorite book on the list. If you haven't read it yet, you really should.

While we're talking about books, and reading, I was startled by this item from Reuters. Strangely enough, the only book on the list I've read [1984] is the one most claimed as read by Britons. Just another difference between our former landlords and us...

-Mike Riley

In Which Mike Is Led, Kicking And Screaming, Into The Current Century

Ya know, when it comes to technology, I'm a regular Luddite. I don't find technology particularly sinful or immoral. I'm just very slow to adopt it. Take MP3 players. I've seen all the specs about how much music you can fit on one [and, to that extent, feel free to believe the hype]. The problem for me [and anyone else who went for the low-end models; stay away from RCA (just my advice, of course. But based on some experience)] is that the songs on the device get boring thru repetition. And it's not easy coming up with another 300 new "favorite" songs every time you want to change your tunes. Personally, I've gone back to the portable CD player, and if you're like me you will too.

Anyway, my boss here in Radioland has been after me to join a socialist [oh, sorry: social-networking. Although I wonder if there's really much difference] site. He recommended Facebook, based, I'd expect, on his positive experiences with it. Sign-up was easy enough, though the system seemed to keep you jumping around [or at least give the option to do so] from one area to another. You move, seemingly willy-nilly, from finding Friends, to writing your Profile, to who knows what else. It's fun, but nearly as time consuming as dropping ECs. Then again, you do meet people. I've gotten friendship requests from people I haven't seen since high school. Which brings up another potentially awkward question: if we had too little in common to connect after Grade 12, waddya gonna talk about after 20 or more years' separation? Let's face it: there's only So Much you can say about your kids [and Person B about his or hers', Before long, you're trying to figure out which choke hold to end the conversation with [my personal favorite is the choke slam, favored by The Undertaker, among others. The Woman I Love, on the other hand, favors the cross-neck arm bar, currently quite popular as a finishing move in mixed martial arts. You can just imagine the two of us at church socials].

So, about a decade after the beginning of the social network movement [and only four-and-two-thirds years after the founding of Facebook], Bubby has joined the s/n world [as opposed to the s/m world. Which I don't belong to. Not that there's anything wrong with it]. Look for me on Facebook, be my friend [if you're into that sort of thing], and maybe, just maybe, I'll give this MP3 thing another try...

-Mike Riley