So this is the week of stories that haunt, and what better day for stories that haunt then Halloween. A misappropriated misunderstood pagan holiday, turned Christian fright fest, then morphed into a reason to dress up like a Transformer great extremely drunk and if your lucky make out with somebody dressed up as a pirate. (Please note if your Bill O’Riley then this is just another Wednesday night).

It’s also the day Houdini died; magic and ghosts do go together like rum and coke. What is weird about Houdini if you ask most Americans to name a magician that is likely to be the one they name, yet he’s been dead most of the average Americans lives, his only film work is silent so its mostly people who have heard about rather then seen.

Halloween is all about ghosts, not to get all Wikki on you but it’s worth noting that the first incarnation of it “Samhain” was according to Eliade’s Encyclopedia of Religion: “The Eve and day of Samhain were characterized as a time when the barriers between the human and supernatural worlds were broken.” In other words: ghosts will walk; druids will dance about Stonehenge and be all druidy.

Halloween itself comes from this same idea: ghosts will walk. However in Christianity that’s not a good thing unless it’s the Holy Ghost in which case it’s cool. Here the idea is if we dress up like ghosts and zombies them maybe they won’t notice us. How this evolved into dressing up as Sponge Bob Squarepants – I haven’t the foggiest. Basically the day is supposed to be a precursor to All-Saints day or in Mexico Día de los Muertos that in turn gave an aesthetic for Oingo Boingo to borrow for all their artwork.

So the basic premise: if we dress as ghost we won’t be messed with by actual ghosts. The thing is, we tend to do that as an every day tactic, we just have different definitions of what ghosts are. Anyone anywhere who has ever worked at fitting in can back this up. Even while hanging out with reprehensible people we can still disguise our nature, even if its just to avoid being hassled; I spent part of my youth trying to lay the tough guy, unsuccessfully I may add. 6’0, 130 pounds and all of it skeleton ensconced in nerd finery, still I would meet any dare given to me by people I didn’t like simply in the hope of being accepted. Of course it never worked that sort of acceptance always has way too high a price tag, and you’re not buying it, your renting.

For me this is a day of memories: Seventh grade when I was in a production of Macbeth, a 12 week run at a theater in Downtown St. Paul. Macbeth is already a cursed show and Halloween is the double whammy hex, I might not believe in curses but I did get Bronchitis that night, a chronic version I have had ever since. The Halloween Blizzard of ’90, all costumes were hidden under snowsuits. The Halloween of three years ago where I saw literally thousands of crows in a tree, cawing, and flying in a figure eight pattern to another tree half a block away where a smaller number stood perched and cawing as well. (Which is doubly eerie if you have read the previous spook story) That served as an omen to a very bad chapter of my life, oh dear and gentle reader.

One that got repaired and made infinitely better, think bionic, only without the whole mechanized implant thing. Then of course was last year, if the crow day broke the heart of my personal life, then that broke the heart of my professional one. A year later and from a different vantage point I can see that this too has made me stronger, faster and still willing to call foul, even if it costs. It didn’t break me after all, a little scuffed certainly.

William Blake said, “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”, and I have had my share of excess but not of the hedonistic variety. Instead to quote the great American thinker Willie Nelson “It’s been rough and rocky travelin’, but I’m finally standin’ upright on the ground. After takin’ several readings, I’m surprised to find my mind`s still fairly sound. I guess Nashville was the roughest, But I know I said the same about them all.”

Or to put it in a slightly less abstract way: it’s by facing our ghosts, our demons, and meeting them head on, we make them powerless. Every children’s story about magic has the villain comes undone when the clever child says the witch’s name (Rumplestiltzken, Baba Yaga, etc). Its never the easy way, but if we don’t face up to our demons we wind up dressing like them… or you know like Optimus Prime.

It’s Halloween time and I started thinking about ghost stories, but not the kind that involve disgruntled specters of crazed killers, or evil leprechauns, that take over crack neighborhoods and eventually wind up in space. Rather the stories that truly haunt us. The bits of our past that serve to help define our future.Everyone has a story like that; the key stories retold at gatherings wide and small, all but guaranteed to be part of the amusing anecdote roundup that follows us through all the major middle class life events: birthdays, weddings, the big promotion, the retirement party and of course the funeral. Not to mention all the requisite family events in-between; the time that my mother mistook a packet of tea for exotic seasonings and used it to make “spicy scrambled eggs”. Ah, the hilarity of the stomach cramps that followed for the next several hours. There is they day aunt Jo finally made it as a contestant on the Price is Right only to be eliminated in the first round for not knowing the price of a box of Malt-O-Meal.

The ones we don’t tell, these are our real spook stories and no one, save the very observant and the occasional reporter from E! tell about us. The private defeats and bitter victories, childhood seems to haunts us in this like no other time. In part because it’s our secret origin where we build our first stories and develop our sense of self. These are also the stories we live the longest with, and consequently spend the longest living down.

Thirty years after leaving the playground and inside your still the fat kid who sucks at Four Square. Before you get the wrong idea, I didn’t suck at four square, I was however the fat kid, fat spazzy kid if I wish to be precise. Fat spazzy weird kid, if I wish to be truly accurate. To my family though, I am the kid that sat in the birthday cake. No matter what accomplishments I achieve in my life, to the eyes of my family I will never not be the kid who sat on a birthday cake. The details of the story have long since been lost to the sands of time, the only part of the story that matters is that at some point I ruined a birthday party. A birthday party that I believe was in fact mine, by sitting on the cake box. It doesn’t take much to amuse my family.

But birthday cake sitting doesn’t haunt me. Oh sure it’s vague retellings at family gatherings is an annoyance, but haunting, no Haunting is really for ghost stories, and polite society doesn’t believe in ghosts except around a campfire, or in church. The real stories that haunt are those that we don’t tell aloud, Except perhaps in the company of a licensed psychologist or a non-licensed bartender. Stories that haunt us are never about the day we got a free box of cupcakes after finding a pony. They are the stories that are the darkest of our soul. They are the ones that we can’t even necessarily define because their emotional content is too soul crushing.

But if I was to try and define one, it would be the noose day. I was 12, and too call myself not very happy would be like calling Idi Amin mildly inconsiderate. Sure 12 is a young age to pursue such a grave endeavor, and yes there are plenty of reasons to lead to such thoughts, but this is a story about a battle, not the war. Suffice it to say that on a relatively sunny Thursday afternoon I decided to end my life. Conveniently, Time magazine had made Suicide a cover story, the pros and cons of each along with a handy how to guide.

Razor blades seemed far to messy, and well painful, and while I wanted to die, it seemed like that would really hurt. Plus if I changed my mind, the scarring would make short sleeve shirts impossible. Poison seemed too complicated, plus I wanted to be lucid, Not to mention the fact that locating enough of any particular substance outside of Sudafed would be difficult, and quite frankly who wants to decongest to death. It seemed hanging was easiest and relatively pain free, especially when compared to jumping off a cliff.

Killing yourself is not easy. I am not even speaking about the moral/ethical side of it. Merely the mechanics are troublesome; especially if you try to kill yourself has a preteen. You don’t have access to many of the materials that come in handy when doing ones self in. For example: our family home was a 50’s era rambler a fine house, but it did lead to a problem, low ceilings, and nothing really to hang by. They make it seem so easy in the movies, easily accessible light fixtures sturdy enough to hold a swinging corpse to be. But all of our lights were round, and seemed likely to come out of the ceiling. Not very useful for doing ones self in, especially since if I failed since Time magazine had told me that the likelihood was high, I just didn’t want to take the chance. Death was ok, getting in trouble for pulling the ceiling down was definitely was not.

After an exhaustive search of the house I came to the conclusion that a doorknob would work. After all it didn’t kneed to support all my weight ( I did mention that I was a fat kid) it just needed to hold the rope that would slowly choke me to death. The Height at which this happened was irrelevant. Another problem where would I get a rope? A kid buying a rope would surely be seen has a sign of a kid up to no good, was there a buying age for rope? The easiest option seemed to be something in hand, so I tied the sash to my Montgomery Wards blue velour bath robe that my grandmother had given me the year previous into a noose, the other end to the doorknob and slowly I choked, inches above the matted beige berber carpeting.

This isn’t a cliff hanger, obviously something happened, since I am still here, the question is what? Was it “knowing all the wonderful things I would miss if….” Could it be “knowing that I would surely tick off one of the Gods and thusly spend an eternity has a shishkabobed soul in the Bar-B-Que pits of the inferno?” Was it “a profound desire to live once I saw death l staring me in the eye” I wish… it was the far less deep realization that this was a stupid ass way to die. Inches above life, with a low end department store bathrobe belt around my neck, and the last image I see being dated beige Berber. So I loosened the noose, and let it go back to it’s former life has a sash, and the doorknob back to being…well a doorknob

It seems as if you can’t talk about suicide without talking about God. Which given the circumstance seems a rather odd time for it, after all if you had faith at that particular moment you probably wouldn’t be wanting to kill yourself. If you have faith, that means you have to believe it is going to get better, suicide is strictly a vote of no confidence. The thing about an attempted suicide, is that if you don’t tell anyone, it doesn’t really exist, and I had no intention of ever telling anyone, granted your reading this but don’t telling anyone, ok…cool.

If death wasn’t the answer what was. I walked outside to an all but abandoned park near the abandoned school; It was a neighborhood with abandonment issues. The playground had been left rotting after the first generation of suburban settlers kids had grown, the neighborhood had made recent attempts to refurbish it by adding some more “modern” jungle gym technology. Of course the real reason for its lack of use was that there were only a handful of kids living in the neighborhood. But still they tried;the lure of modern fancy plastic and wood construction, that sat unused, next to the well worn, well rusted amusements of old. The highlight of which was a large merry go round that was rusted into one place. …What can I say I was a twelve year old with a sense of irony. Some kids had forts, or hiding places in their houses, me I had this rusted merry go round. Has a clubhouse it was lacking, but it was mine and I was fine with that.

Walking up the hill towards it, I felt something. A warmth that I had never truly felt before, a rather unearned, but welcomed sense of well-being. Upon my arrival I was greeted by a stuffed animal version of everyone’s favorite wookie, Chewbacca hanging by his neck off of a lug nut on the new playground. That was an irony I didn’t enjoy, so I removed him to the more respectable position of sitting in a toddler swing. I laid back on the immobile rusty merry go round, it then did something that I can not explain. It moved.

Clockwise 3 times, then counter clock wise 3 times. All with a shadow cast on one side of it like some sort of schoolyard yin-yang. Going back and forth between the dark and the light. As if this wasn’t weird enough, then came the crows. Circling overhead 3 times then flying away. I may have been 12 but I recognized this has a moment. A moment that scared the crap out of me.

It is impossible to put into words the moment of this sort of symbolism, had I just pissed off God? I knew my priest would have thought so. Was this just happenstance and a set of coincidence? It was a little hard to think has I was running from the site. It seemed to me this was a miracle, or at least has much of one has I was going to get. Maybe they happen all the time, and we just don’t notice. Some would have used a day like this to start a religion, others has an excuse to use a tremendous amount of drugs, me I went watched Gilligan’s Island and hid under a blanket

So that’s my story that haunts, it’s the story that can give hope in moments of quiet desperation. It’s a story that gives courage in the dark. It is a story that occasional makes me feel like a whack job, thinking this all must have been some sort of figment of my imagination. But I know the truth I don’t know what happened, all I know is that it did, and sometimes that’s really the best you can do.

The problem with being an essayist is that you need a constant supply of topics, then of course you need a fresh perspective on them. Then of course there are the days that you have zero inspiration or good ideas. Well in fairness I have had plenty of good ideas just not for the blog. I figured out a great marketing app for a company, wrote a couple of good little schemes, plotted a couple of plots. Then for the pithy blogasy (blog/ essay…like I said not great in metaphor today). I did come up with several horrible topics, so those I would like to share:

1. Anderson Cooper is a horseman of the apocalypse
2. Condoleezza Rice is just misunderstood
3. Mitt Romney on Barack Obama
4. Why Betamax was the superior format
5. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: the secret love
6. Ruby on Rails: who cares
7. Brian Eno: Genius or Wanker
8. Mac, Pc or Stone tablet
9. Is Larry King actually dead?
10. Why do women and Mickey Rourke like small unattractive dogs?
11. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck would?
12. Rosie O’Donnell VS Trump, Godzilla Vs Mothra only not as cool
13. Why did they make Spider-Man dance, and be emo?
14. Fish tacos natures perfect food.

Hmm I might have something that Larry King thing though….

How much are we supposed to take, at what point do we stand up as a society and say enough is enough, I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stands no more. Of course I am talking about social networking. Whether its profiles on Myspace, photos on Flickr, zombies on Facebook, job inquires on linked in, or phone calls from angry Dutchmen on Skype. The 21st century netizen is wallowing in choices to be social without being seen. according to Wikipedia (itself a sort of social site, while not necessarily networking based,it has become a clubhouse for grammarians and nitpickers the world over) the following are the notable social networking sites.

List of social networking websites

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Name	Description/Focus	User count	Registration
43 Things	Goal and Dreams; Tagging	&&&&&&&&01007433.&&&&&01,007,433[1]	Open
Advogato	Free software and open source developers	&&&&&&&&&&011000.&&&&&011,000[2]	Open
Amina – Chechen Republic Online	Chechens	&&&&&&&&&&&03500.&&&&&03,500+[3]	Open
aSmallWorld	European jet set and social elite	&&&&&&&&&0150000.&&&&&0150,000[4]	Invite-only
Badoo	European young adults	&&&&&&&&&01.2E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”12,000,000[5]	Open
Bebo	Schools and colleges	&&&&&&&&&03.4E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”34,000,000[6]	Open
BlackPlanet	African-Americans	&&&&&&&&&01.6E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”16,000,000[7]	Open
Blue Dot	Link sharing	&&&&&&&&&&080000.&&&&&080,000[8]	Open
Broadcaster.com	Video sharing and webcam chat	&&&&&&&&&02.6E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”26,000,000[9]	Open
Buzznet	Music and pop-culture	&&&&&&&&&05.0E+5.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”500,000+[10]	Open
CarDomain	Car enthusiasts	&&&&&&&&&01.6E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”1,600,000[11]	Open
Care2	Green living and social activism	&&&&&&&&07744297.&&&&&07,744,297[12]	Open
Classmates.com	School, college, work and the military	&&&&&&&&&04.0E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”40,000,000[13]	Open
Consumating	“Consumeetings”	&&&&&&&&&&021000.&&&&&021,000[14]	Open
CouchSurfing	Hospitality	&&&&&&&&&0281000.&&&&&0281,000[15]	Open
Cyworld	Young South Koreans	&&&&&&&&02.12E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”21,200,000[16]	Open
Dandelife	Collective narratives or “shared biographies”	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Dodgeball	Mobile location-based service, owned by Google	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[17]	Open
DontStayIn	Clubbing (primarily UK)	&&&&&&&&&0235000.&&&&&0235,000+[18]	Open
Doostang	Careers	&&&&&&&&&0173000.&&&&&0173,000[19]	Invite-only
eCRUSH	Teens	&&&&&&&&&04.4E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”4,400,000[20]	Open
Experience Project	Life experiences	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Facebook	Started for colleges, then high schools, and now everyone.	&&&&&&&&&04.8E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”48,000,000[21]	Open
Faceparty	British teens and young adults	&&&&&&&&&05.9E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”5,900,000[22]	Open to people 16 and older.
Flickr	Photo sharing	&&&&&&&&&04.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”4,000,000[23]	Open (Yahoo! login)
Flirtomatic	Flirting/Dating	&&&&&&&&&0265000.&&&&&0265,000[24]	Open to people 18 and older.
Fotki	Photo sharing	&&&&&&&&&01.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”1,000,000[25]	Open
Fotolog	Photoblogging	&&&&&&&&&09.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”9,000,000[26]	Open
Friends Reunited	School, college, work, sport and streets	&&&&&&&&&01.9E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”19,000,000[27]	Open
Friendster	General	&&&&&&&&&05.0E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”50,000,000[28]	Open
Frühstückstreff	General	&&&&&&&&&&011600.&&&&&011,600[29]	Open
Gaia Online	Anime and games	&&&&&&&&&09.3E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”9,300,000[30]	Open
Gather	Article, picture, and video sharing, as well as group discussions	&&&&&&&&&0360000.&&&&&0360,000[31]	Open
Geni.com	Families, genealogy	&&&&&&&&&01.0E+5.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”100,000[32]	Open
Graduates.com	School, college, and work	&&&&&&&&&0650000.&&&&&0650,000[33]	Open
Grono.net	Poland	&&&&&&&&01350000.&&&&&01,350,000[34]	Invite-only
GuildCafe	Online games	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
hi5	General	&&&&&&&&&05.0E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”50,000,000[35]	Open
Hospitality Club	Hospitality	&&&&&&&&&0328629.&&&&&0328,629[36]	Open
Hyves	General Dutch social networking website	&&&&&&&&03266581.&&&&&03,266,581[37]	Open
imeem	Music, Video, Photos, Blogs	&&&&&&&&&01.6E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”16,000,000[38]	Open
IRC-Galleria	Finland	&&&&&&&&&04.0E+5.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”400,000[39]	Open
iWiW	Hungary	&&&&&&&&&02.6E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”2,600,000[40]	Invite-only
Jaiku	General	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[41]	Open
Joga Bonito	Football (soccer)	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Last.fm	Music	&&&&&&&&&01.5E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”15,000,000[42]	Open
LibraryThing	Book lovers	&&&&&&&&&0214425.&&&&&0214,425[43]	Open
LinkedIn	Business	&&&&&&&&&01.5E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”15,000,000[44]	Open
LiveJournal	Blogging. Popular in Russia.	&&&&&&&&01.29E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”12,900,000[45]	Open (OpenID)
LunarStorm	Sweden	&&&&&&&&&01.2E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”1,200,000[46]	Open
MEETin	General	&&&&&&&&&&072000.&&&&&072,000[47]	Open
Meetup.com	General	&&&&&&&&&02.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”2,000,000[48]	Open
MiGente.com	Latinos	&&&&&&&&&03.6E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”3,600,000[49]	Open
Mixi	Japan	&&&&&&&&09830000.&&&&&09,830,000[50]	Invite-only
MOG	Music	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Multiply	“Real world” relationships	&&&&&&&&&05.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”5,000,000[51]	Open
MyChurch	Christian Churches	&&&&&&&&&&070306.&&&&&070,306[52]	Open
My Opera Community	General (blogs, photo albums, forums, groups, etc.)	&&&&&&&&01001798.&&&&&01,001,798[53]	Open
MySpace	General	&&&&&&0206304468.&&&&&0206,304,468[54]	Open
myYearbook	General	&&&&&&&&&0950000.&&&&&0950,000[55]	Open
Netlog	Formerly known as Facebox.	&&&&&&&&&02.4E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”24,000,000[56]	Open
Nexopia	Canada	&&&&&&&&01158531.&&&&&01,158,531[57]	Open
Ning	Social network creation	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
OkCupid	Dating	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
orkut	Owned by Google. Popular in Brazil and India.	&&&&&&&067962551.&&&&&067,962,551[58]	Open (Google login)
OUTeverywhere	Gay	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Passado	General	&&&&&&&&&04.7E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”4,700,000[59]	Open
Piczo	Teenagers, Canadians, photo sharing	&&&&&&&&&01.0E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”10,000,000[60]	Open
Playahead	Swedish teenagers	&&&&&&&&&0530000.&&&&&0530,000[61]	Open
Playtxt	Mobile social network, location, worldwide	&&&&&&&&&&070000.&&&&&070,000	Open
ProfileHeaven	British teens	&&&&&&&&&01.0E+5.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”100,000[62]	Open
Pownce	Moblog for websites, files, and short updates	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Invite-only
RateItAll	General (consumer ratings)	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[63]	Open
Reunion.com	Locating friends and family, keeping in touch	&&&&&&&&&02.8E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”28,000,000[64]	Open
Ryze	Business	&&&&&&&&&0250000.&&&&&0250,000[65]	Open
Searchles	Social search and networking	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[66]	Open
Sconex	American high schools	&&&&&&&&&05.0E+5.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”500,000[67]	Open
Sermo	Physicians	&&&&&&&&&&020000.&&&&&020,000[68]	Open only to registered D.O.s and M.D.s in the U.S.A.
sexi	Japan (sexual networking site)	&&&&&&&&&&060000.&&&&&060,000[69]	Invite-only
Shelfari	Books	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Skyrock Blog	France, Belgium, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Martinique, New Caledonia, Senegal	&&&&&&&&&03.8E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”3,800,000[70]	Open
Snooth	Wine	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
Soundpedia	Music	&&&&&&&&&03.5E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”3,500,000[71]	Open
Sportsvite	Recreational sports	&&&&&&&&&&018000.&&&&&018,000[72]	Open
Studivz	University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries	&&&&&&&&&02.4E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”2,400,000[73]	Open
StumbleUpon	Websurfing	&&&&&&&&&03.2E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”3,200,000[74]	Open
Tagged.com	General	&&&&&&&&&03.0E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”30,000,000[75]	Open
TagWorld	General (tagging)	&&&&&&&&01850692.&&&&&01,850,692[76]	Open
TakingITGlobal	Social action	&&&&&&&&&0145000.&&&&&0145,000[77]	Open
The Student Center	Teens and colleges	&&&&&&&&&08.0E+5.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”800,000[78]	Open
Threadless	Custom T-shirts	&&&&&&&&&0364474.&&&&&0364,474	Open
TravBuddy.com	Travel	&&&&&&&&&0760000.&&&&&0760,000[79]	Open
Travellerspoint	Travel	&&&&&&&&&0105000.&&&&&0105,000[80]	Open
tribe.net	General	&&&&&&&&&0602876.&&&&&0602,876 [81]	Open
Twitter	General	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[82]	Open
Vox	Blogging	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown	Open
WAYN	Travel and lifestyle	&&&&&&&&&08.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”8,000,000[83]	Open to people 18 and older
WebBiographies	Genealogy and biography	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[84]
WeeWorld	General (cartoons)	&&&&&&&&&01.7E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”1,700,000[85]	open
Windows Live Spaces	Blogging (formerly MSN Spaces)	&&&&&&&&&01.2E+8.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”120,000,000[86]	Open
Woophy	travel & photography, photo sharing website	&&&&&&&&&&020000.&&&&&020,000[87]	Open
Xanga	Blogs and “metro” areas	&&&&&&&&&04.0E+7.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”40,000,000[88]	Open
XING	Business	&&&&&&&&&04.0E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”4,000,000[89]	Open
Yahoo! 360°	Linked to Yahoo! IDs	&&&&&&&&&04.7E+6.Expression error: Unrecognised word “e”4,700,000[90]	Open to people 18 and older, (Yahoo! login)
Yahoo! Mash	Yahoo’s new SNS – Still in beta	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[91]	invite only while in beta
Zooomr	Universal photo sharing	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-1.1.0E+6Unknown[92]	Open (OpenID)

Realize that this lis doesn’t even include other things that function like social networks, like De.licio.us,Technocrati, or Digg. If you are a hep cyber citizen your on all those , God forbid you leave your desk, oh wait I can twitter from my phone. I can face book while waiting for a red light, yeah I know I am not supposed to do it, but you do it too so pbbbtttt.

This at first didn’t seem like a problem until colleges and universities stared having classes teaching freshmen how to meet and interact with people real-time, in fact we live in a world interaction is a major. Not talking about computer interactions or anything digital, just interaction as a whole, something that the very old fashioned me takes for granted. Your in a situation you are going to interact, not unlike your in an ocean, you are going to get wet.

I sometimes getr so busy with online life that i don’t have time for the real one, you knoe the one I do all the online stuff to pay for. It becomes like the 80’s cokehead mantra, “I do blow to be better at work,to make more money, so I can afford more blow” In this case instead of Bolvian Marching Powder, its the tiny dance of 1’s and 0’s.

I had a similar thought while being lost in New York, “how many cities should a man know by heart?” To which my friend Scott answered as many as possible. A nice thought but at some point it gets ridiculous, me I have my home town:Minneapolis, St. Paul its necessary suburbs, small towns nearby like Duluth and Rochester, Siux Falls, Fargo, Madison, Milwaukee. The Chicago, New York, Los Angeles , San Diego, Seattle, London, then the million small towns that I seem to contiually have to be off to (Bismark anyone?).

I say enough with the social networking. how about anti social networks like hatebook? or heres a thought how about an old fashioned party? Have the whole world over…let say at your house though, mines too small.