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I helped one of my sisters the other day by editing one of her papers for school in which the word "nonsensical" was used quite frequently. And I've recently watched the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice a couple of times and she uses the word "nonsensical" in reference to her Elizabeth Bennet character. Because I like the word, I'm going to write a nonsensical post for the fun of it.
In addition to my blog, colinandbethany.com, and various other web pages and social networking things I have to keep up with, I've now been sucked into facebook. Facebook is a social networking site, mostly frequented by people about two years or more younger than me. I'm the oldest child in my family, which means that some of my sisters are on facebook. This means that facebook is a good alternate way of keeping in touch when they're too busy to answer their phones because they're typing those Art History or Epidemiology papers their professors were so impolite as to assign them when the professors surely knew I'd be trying to call them as they wrote. This is a fictional example–I haven't actually tried to call one of my sisters and then written her on facebook once thwarted, but it seems like a good idea theoretically.
Although I like the idea of keeping in touch with people I'm friends and family with, facebook is a little weird for me. Each person has what is called a "Wall" where other facebook people can write them notes (it emails you to tell you that you have a new note on your wall). You can set your current facebook "status"–today I saw one that said something to the effect of "I have a terrible headache right now." You have facebook "Friends" who you are connected to and you can tell the system how you know each other (including an option for not having any idea who this "Friend" is). I noticed that there is no option for saying that I'm married to my facebook "Friend." I guess that means I'm too old for it or something, which I suppose is also indicated by my confusion about facebook in general. So far in my life there haven't been many experiences, especially technology-related, that have made me feel put off because I'm too old for them, but I expect this won't be the last. I actually went and posted notes on a bunch of my "Friends" walls tonight to see if I could figure out why facebook is apparently so charming (and to say hi–the notes were sincere). Obviously my efforts didn't quite do the trick or I wouldn't be writing this commentary here.
As far as networking sites go, it's fairly simple to sign up for and use. I did find a couple of old high school friends on facebook, which was fun (especially since my first hs reunion is coming up and I wouldn't want to go and not have anyone recognize or remember me). Although I'm still trying to understand why people use it regularly, it's a relatively elegant design and has reasonably customizable personal pages while maintaining a refreshingly organized and usable framework for finding and posting information.
And as for the feeling of being too old for something, I think tomorrow I'll go make mudpies or color in coloring books with Degen to remind myself that I'm simply myself. Or maybe I'll do something especially old-sounding like learning to play one of those board games I don't know the name of or driving really slow in traffic or finishing crocheting my afghan.
