An aside: Sometimes I wonder that the grammar in my head is so poor. Still, I'm pushing 50, and will probably never think in internet acronyms. I would never think "STFU! IDK no 500 peepz!"I am not a Facebook Friend Keep-Tracker-Of-er, so I was shocked to notice, in the last few weeks, that I was at 502. Or something. Who are all of those people?
A second aside: Is the 2nd paragraph of a blog post too early for an aside?
I by-God decided to find out. I exported my friends list, and imported them into Excel. I created a series of categories and ticked them off. Here are my findings, because I know you want to know:
104—Friends
74—Family
65—Blog friends
62—High School Friends
57—Business contacts
44—Soldiers and Toys for Troops
33/24/18—People I Know Through Clint/My Dad/Brian, respectively
19—Who the Hell is That?
1—Reno Wilson
1—Dog
This is all very scientific, and categorizing was challenging and thought-provoking at times.
- I've met many of my friends through work. Hmmmm! Friends or Business?
- Some bloggers have become my best friends also. I had to put them under the Blog column.
- Clint's family: Do I put them in the Clint column or the family column?!! I wouldn't even know them without him. Hmmmm again.
- My sister's in-laws and nieces and nephews: If they were hers they are mine. Family.
- Reno Wilson didn't fit anywhere. He plays Carl on (The Number #1 CBS Comedy), Mike & Molly, and he's my Facebook friend because I asked him to be, because my other (real) friend Mark Roberts created that show. Mark didn't even get his own category, he was added to the "friends" column.
Aside #3: If word gets out and other celebrities would like to friend me, I'd accept. Of course, then I'd have to create a "Celebrity" column, and Reno would no longer Lord over his own column. It's a dilemma.
- "Soldiers": Over 1000 deployed contacts over the last 5 years, and "only" 44 have friended me on Facebook. Good! I welcome every single one of them, but I'd rather they focus on staying alive, and keeping in touch with wives, children, and their own mamas, over finding us on Facebook.
- "Who the Hell Is That?" category: I'm actually too embarrassed to admit I don't know who the hell they are. I just keep Liking their updates.
- I think a dog unfriended me, because I'm pretty sure I used to be friends with 2 dogs.
NUMBER TWO: It is not terrible to have time and energy for the inane.
500 friends.
Who'da thunk it?
I'd really like to take each of you to lunch.
