More here.

Call me Mr. Early Adopter.  When people started having web pages, I figured out how to make my own web page.   That was fun, and I learned some stuff.  Then people started making blogs, so you’ve got what you see here.  Then there was instant messaging (you can reach me on AIM at “fastandbad”).  And text messaging on my phone (probably the most I have kept in touch with my daughter since she was borned).  Then someone sent me a Facebook link and that seemed interesting, so you can find me there.  And now there’s a lot of media attention on Twitter (have an account, don’t use it).

And all this stuff is cool and great and the wave of the future blah blah, but (and here’s the part that hopefully goes without saying) one has to ask–going from pages of text, to Blog posts, to a pithy 140 characters on Twitter–what are we really gaining here?  I’ve been doing this stuff for years and years, and I enjoy writing about what interests me and attempting to share what’s interesting about those interests (hopefully) to the world.  And I make no great claims for producing profound insights into the human condition as we know it, and I agree with people who would say there is a (varying) level of narcissism in all these kinds of activities (look at me!  Look at my insightful comments on contempirary culture!).

But (and here’s the cranky old people stuff), the constant move towards more and more active (and more and more limited) “communication” – what are people really communicating?  ”Gonna pick up the kids–What a weekend!”, “Love those Tigers!”, etc.  I mean, I’m as capable as anyone of making some short, pithy, funny statement that can give a friend or acquaitance a laugh or a glimmer of what’s going on with me (not that they should even care what’s going on with me–they’ve got their own lives, and their own short, pithy statements to make).  But where is this going, exactly?

If you asked me what’s wrong the world (and many, many people do), I would say one of our biggest problems is the shallowness of our thought and our arguments, our unwillingness to dig a little deeper and confront and deal with the bigger picture of what’s really going on.  And these supposed new “tools” for communication, be they cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, text messages blah blah–they are actually hurting more than they help.  I don’t want to hear what my Congressman tweets when watching President Obama’s State of the Union address–I want him to make the country a better place for me, my family and my friends.  I don’t need 500 Facebook friends-I need a couple of good friends I can depend on to watch my back.

Sorry to go on for 467 words.  Next I’ll talk about the latest book I’m reading, OLIVER TWIST.  It’s by a guy named Dickens.  Look for him on Facebook.

Now that I finished the greatest book ever (aka “David Copperfield), I thought I’d add 5 more things that were great about this book and might encourage you to read it, if you were so inclined:

1. IT’S MODERN: You wouldn’t think that a book written over 150 years ago (or at least, I didn’t think) would be so “modern” and deal with what I had considered contemporary sociological and literary issues.  These include things like suicidal thoughts, “meta” narratives (the text commenting on itself), and man’s place in an industrialized society.  But DC does, and very movingly (of course, nothing in the book is addressed as boringly and college-textbook-papery as I’ve just layed this out, but hopefully you get the drift…)
2. SENSE OF HISTORY:  DC really gives you a sense of what life was life 150 years ago.  People are always warming themselves by the fire (because there was no central heat), getting dirty from carriage rides or walking, getting special clothes and shirt collars.  They are always unfailingly polite, even when they are very, very angry, and with good reason.  It’s a miniature history lesson in living life back then, and really interesting.
3. MORALITY:  This book really has a sense of what is right, and what is wrong, and the gray areas in between, and makes no bones about it.  There are “heroes” and “villains” and everyone makes mistakes, but there is no doubt a right way to life your life and a wrong way, and Dickens makes no secret which side he is on.  This is actually pretty refreshing (it also helps that I agree with him about 2000%).
4. WISDOM:  DC is plotted as an older man looking back on the events of his younger life, with all the wisdom he has gained in the meantime.  It is just amazing how he is able to capture his youthful feelings in all their vainglory, both good and bad, wise and capricious, and give them all their due.  It will also make you look back on your own life and the decisions you have made and the life events that have happened to you and give you a chance to do the same, for better or worse.
5. LOVE: This is a book about love, about falling in love, about staying in love, about love of family and obligation, about keeping your commitment and responsibilities in love whether it makes sense or not.  It is filled to the brim with romance and it can easily bring you to tears.  And as to the real Dicken’s feelings for his true love as they are unumerated again and again this book –  all I  can say is, after she read this book, he must have gotten so laid …

So what are you waiting for? Go read the book!

1. I get my hair cut every three weeks, and look forward to getting it cut.
2. Whiel I’m at the barbershop waiting, it’s me and a teenage kid.  The teenage kid immediately makes a bee-line for the DETAILS magazine featuring a pictorial of the ultra-attractive Megan Fox.  I immediately make a bee-line for the TIME magazine with the Alec Baldwin interview.
3. When I read about the latest next-big-thing in music/movies/books/video game technology, I no longer think ‘How cool!”, but sigh knowingly at the latest iteration of removing a consumer from their hard earned dollar.
4. I become visibly excited when my Sprinkler guy describes an automatic rain sensor for my sprinkler system–and it’s wireless!
5. I surf the web to check my e-mail, run across my ten hundred millionth naked coed spam, and think to myself “Hey–where’s my wife?”

BONUS OLDNESS INDICATOR

I tell my kids to “Turn down that darn TV!–Daddy’s trying to read the New York Times book review of the new Alec Baldwin book.”