Almost five months ago, my husband joined FriendFeed and I heard of little else. I’m not a geek (a term I use with the utmost love and respect) so I don’t get excited about technogeek stuff. I thought that Josh’s new obsession would die out eventually. I was wrong. I kept a bite on my tongue and bided my time. (Except there was that one time he brought his phone to the dinner table to check up  on his “other family” and I straight out said, “That’s rude.”) So I waited.

I suppose I was naive the way some children are when they take their first drag of a cigarette or sip of beer and think they can avoid the horrors of addiction. One time, just to try it… what harm can that do? Besides, Josh was posting pictures of my baby and I wanted to see what he meant that people left comments. The idea of FF is to have almost real time interaction with other people who have joined. I learned what a feed was by checking up on what Josh’s feed (things he posted) looked like and what people were saying in response. Perhaps my pride was ignited when I saw that a dozen or so people thought Zoe was cute (and they didn’t seem like social deviants out to kidnap her). I didn’t check it everyday, but it began to seem less of a threat. Maybe this FF stuff isn’t so bad, but still I waited for Josh to get tired of sitting at the computer refreshing over and over again.

Imagine my consternation when Josh announced that he was going to do a weekly podcast with two guys he met on FF. All I knew of a podcast was Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht sitting together with their laptops and microbrews talking geek… like a radio show. I kept biting my tongue, but I felt a little jealous—fine, go play with your friends, I thought. Ffundercats, ho! I was still leery when I saw Josh go from speaking Pirate (who knew that geeks celebrated Pirate Day) to anguish at the emotional and personal attacks of some people getting into debates over the Presidential election. I still kept FF at a distance.

I was too busy to do more than check on Josh’s feed periodically. I even clicked on a few names of his friends, and from the comments that were left I began to recognize their names. And I sometimes asked Josh about them. John is in Australia? Yes, he takes good pictures and his daughter is adorable. And Mark is in Canada. Right. I like to read what he had for dinner. Which one is the one that’s crazy about Rahsheen again? Oh, yeah, Monique. She’s funny. Which one is Faboo Mama? Oh, she’s the one that got you to do the macarena. And Tina is the one that went by Stupid Blogger but added her name and shocked everybody by not only turning out to be a girl and uber geeky, but cute to boot. Oh, and of course, there’s Mona who gets the boys stirred up and Lindsey (with an e) who sometimes posts pictures of hot girls, but she’s straight. Rochelle and Akiva are expecting, Tad and Lindsay (with an a) are married, too, and Ladybug Heather is engaged to Scott from Canada. There’s a Trish R and she lives just over the bridge from us. Yolanda is also in Texas.

I got to know more names of people when I finally caved and joined last month. Josh’s brother Morgan also joined, and he is the only other person I know in real life that is on FF. I learned the names of more geeks who post things that are way over my head, but I still read them and maybe I’ll learn code by osmosis. I learned what a LOL cat was and how to speak it. I know what a meme is and how to pronounce it. We have since received advice on how to get out of our cell phone contract, why we should buy iPhones, and what laptops are good when you can’t afford a Mac (or would rather not switch religions). And now I sit at the computer and hit refresh over and over again. It’s just fun! Especially when you’re on prime time and there are a lot of people engaging in conversation from recipes to hard drives.

I am fairly liberal with the “like” button which you can click to show that you like what someone has posted. The more people you subscribe to the more things you will see on your main feed. You can catergorize them into Favorites or other customized label. I decided when I joined that I wouldn’t judge and I endeavor to use tact in my comments. There are a lot of people from different parts of the world and from different backgrounds on FF. Some post things that I would rather not see. Some say things in language that I would rather not use. So I don’t respond to the things that I don’t care to engage in conversation about. I have the option of hiding the things that I don’t want to look at, and I can even block someone so that I don’t ever see their feed or their comments. I have yet to use that feature, though.

The really cool thing about FF that I didn’t really consider since I’m not a geek is that you can hook up your other online services to FF. Like your Facebook or your blog. Why is this cool? I don’t know. I just live here. No really, if you want to find out you’ll have to check it out. There are tons of blogs and tons of geeks out there who will attest to the benefits of “aggregated social media”. You have been warned, however, and may have to wait longer than you think to get over the addiction. I’m surprised that I have lasted this long.

I joined Myspace because my husband really wanted me to. I was sucked in for a while, but the maintenance of something so frivolous in light of real life responsibilities made its novelty wear off pretty quickly. I keep my account to steal band pictures for work and every now and then check up on my cousins who are on there. Facebook is more interesting to me because of the ability to throw cows at people… that and the fact that it is a much cleaner Myspace. Kind of like the difference between dressing up goth as opposed to casual dressy. Facebook also has flair which I think is a fun way to express yourself, however, its novelty has also begun to wane. (Side note: I won’t add anymore applications on FB to avoid the viruses that crashed my desktop, so if you’re sending me karma or any other requests, don’t be sad that I don’t accept or send any back. It doesn’t mean I don’t love you.)

I’ve come to my own conclusion that Twitter is like the status bar on Facebook and that’s it. I don’t have a Twitter account, though. I’m content to leave my addiction with FF for the time being.

If you’re reading this, you’re either related to me or are a friend with a blog. And most of my family and friends are not geeks, so you probably don’t know about FriendFeed. This is my attempt to draw you in or help you understand this addiction. Maybe you will take the plunge with me. You’ll be completely confused at first, but if you are actively engaged, you will find that there are plenty of people who will help get you adjusted.

For my part, revenge is sweet. Josh now has to deal with the glassy-eyed lack of attention from me that he so often dealt to me while he was feeding off friends on FriendFeed.

I did the flowers that Angry Asian suggested a while ago. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with them. I followed the pattern (click through to AA’s blog and click “flower”) and it was fine, but when I wanted to make another one, I decided to see what would happen if I made one without following the pattern. It came out all jacked up, but I decided that it had more character. So I’ve had these two flowers, one nice and one jacked up for months… The nice flower got put on a bow with a button, but the picture didn’t turn out and I’m too lazy to take another one. I’m actually still not sure I want to keep it on the bow with the button. In the meantime, Lan is getting wrinkled waiting for me to post. So no picture. Deal.

Then I made a lil’ bag and it was like the jacked up flower wanted to be put on the bag. I started and stopped many times, so the tension is varied in the stitches and it’s obvious the bag has issues. The flower and bag were made for each other.

When we were in Port A, I was checking out the projects Granny Polly was working on. I always like to see what she and her friends are getting on with, and wouldn’t you know it… crocheting with plastic bags is in. There was a really nice hat made from plastic bags and I said, “Wow! Look at you!” And she laughed and said that it wasn’t her that made it, but her friend was letting her have a look at it. She was deciding if she could make it. I was thinking, “Granny Polly, you can make anything.” She crochets with her eyes closed. I also saw a coin purse made from plastic bags and it got my wheels turning, but I’m not quite ready to cut up plastic bags into strips like you would do with rags. Granny Polly is greener than me and saving the Earth… I used regular old 100% cotton yarn.

The first one I made looked more like a checkbook and it was not pretty. I didn’t bother taking a picture of it. The second one I made was more like the one below, but I finished the edge with double crochets every two stitches so there was room to thread a ribbon through. It was dang cute, but I gave it to Susie for her birthday and didn’t take a picture of it. This one I finished with a button loop and button.

These aren’t really that practical, but they’re fun and cute. I’ve thought about how I could put a zippered lining in the coin purse, but then again… form without function is art.

The word tickled is pretty close to how I feel right now. I am reading up on my blog peeps in my google reader and even stopping to click the music vids that Cynical Dad (who is not technically one of my peeps, but a good read nonetheless) adds to the ends of his posts. How luxurious is that? I’ve got time for music videos!! No one is bugging me for something to eat. No one needs me to condemn a sibling to his/her room. No one is asking to play the Wii before finishing his or her chores. No one is making noise to wake up the baby. Today is a good day. And it’s still morning!

I thought today was going to be a bad one when Zoe wouldn’t go to sleep at 1am. I was actually heading to bed around midnight which is quite a feat for me these days. If I went to sleep at 9 or 10 like normal people, I’d be up at 2 or 3 am. Midnight is a good time for me to hit the hay, but Zoe had other ideas. She is unable to just lie in the dark with her eyes closed until sleep overtakes her. No, she needs me to get up out of the bed and rock her. I have to hold her in such a way as to keep the binky in her mouth and keep her hands from coming up to grab it away. And then I swing from side to side, my arms and shoulders getting stiff as the minutes roll by. She eventually drifts to sleep, but the real test is putting her down. Sometimes she stays asleep, and sometimes (like early this morning) you have to get back up out of the bed and do it all over again.

Not knowing how long this was going to take and wanting to sleep, I contained my frustration by singing the words “I love you” more to remind myself (and stay calm) than to lull her to sleep because my singing voice would more likely jar someone awake. I think she liked it, though. Second attempt worked like a charm. I was able to sleep deeply until Josh woke me at the sound of my alarm at 7am.

It hurt to get up that early after summer days of waking at lunch, but I had a few things to remind the kids (play nice, keep the money/check in your pocket, don’t forget your lunch) and an endeavor to walk the boys to school. So I forced my eyes open and my body vertical. Everybody was up and ready to rock. Well, except Sarah, but she leaves later now that she’s a big, bad middle schooler. Zoe got to eat before I was out the door and she was vaguely impressed with the new routine wondering what we were doing outside before the sun reached our front lawn. The timing could not have been more perfect.

On the way to school the boys talked about what Zoe would look like if she were a Mario character (clearly the video game marathons of summer still fresh in their minds) and it was decided that she would be a koopa that crawls with a big binky in her mouth and super long eyelashes. I left the boys at the corner before the big intersection where the crossing guards are. They are not yet embarrassed by their mom and gave hugs and kisses freely in public. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera because seeing them walk away with matching backpacks, framed overhead by tree branches with the school in the distance was a definite kodak moment. I’ll take the picture tomorrow because walking them to school may well be a daily routine (and I can pretend like it was the first day of school and that I’m one of those on-top-of-it moms).

I made it back to the house before it was time for Sarah to be outside for the bus. I went in to find her undoing everything that she and I had done to pack up her school supplies. I know I was like this, too, insecure about what kind of bag I carried, etc., but I so hope to indoctrinate her with the “nobody cares” school of thought. No one cares if you walk onto campus with a bag full of school supplies with “CONTAIN YOURSELF” in bright pink letters, nobody cares!! They’re too busy worrying about what kind of bag their carrying to notice your discomfort. And if anyone did care, it’d be to say they LOoOOOve the Container Store, too. Anyhow, I grudgingly gave in and let her carry her things to school the way she wanted to. She shoved as much of it as she could into her backpack and then stacked the rest of the paper/folders/dividers/binders/Kleenex and carried it in her arms. She kept dropping the Kleenex boxes and didn’t have a free hand to eat on the way to the bus stop, but she must suffer the consequences or else admit that Mom in her wisdom, RULES. No such luck. When we were headed out the door she said, “Wait. Are you coming with me to the bus stop?” I said “Yes,” forceful enough for her to know not to persist in her line of questioning. It’s payback already… I think I was embarrassed by my mom’s big jacket with hood fringed with fluffy wool and the big moon boots on her feet back in fifth grade in snowy Idaho. Still, I want to yell that nobody cares!!

I softened and let her walk a full ten paces ahead of me, and then I offered to sit on the opposite side of the street, but she relented probably remembering that it is usually I who provide her meals. We sat on the curb with Zoe’s stroller between us and waited to see when the bus would show up. It was closer to the time I thought it would come and less from what Sarah thought it would be. Whew. Glad that I persisted in pushing us out the door early or she would not have made it on the bus.

It’s 4:15pm now and still no sign of her. The boys made it home together. It was nice to see them coming down the street actually walking together. Zoe was ready for her playmates to reappear.

Seth walked in and said, “It was super, super, super, super, duper fun.” Zack said that his teacher was nice. They told me about different things that happened, showed me their new folders, and lost no time saying they had no homework. Then they took over holding and playing with Zoe. She was very happy to sit on Zack’s neck while he walked in circles around the house, and she smiled at me every time they passed by.

Sarah is home! She had lost of exciting things to tell me about school and has inherited my skills of giving a play by play from the moment she walked through the front doors. Well, at least, she knows I expect it and didn’t let me down. Her description of middle school is “awesome.” She found out that there were people in her classes that she knew (and liked) and she made a totally new friend who is in practically every class with her. Sarah also reported that she has no homework. Her favorite teachers are the ones over PE and Science. I’m excited because she’s so jazzed about science that she wants to join the Science Club. A good teacher in this subject will ensure that her love for it will endure. She described the first day in band complete with keeping time saying, “Down, down, down…” when tapping her foot to the beat or saying, “Up, up, up…” when her foot comes off the floor. The teacher then made it more challenging by going faster and mixing it up. She also learned proper band posture and demonstrated it for me. She had such a great day and complained exceedingly over the short three minute break when she could only find one friend say hi and then run to class after the first bell. I know she must be feeling the roominess of middle school. There are so many new things opened up to her and not just one teacher to answer to. I can feel the doors opening up to her as she stretches out for more knowledge.

I guess I’m not the only one feeling free today.

I thought I would never join myspace. I thought I’d be forever content not to join the masses enslaved… but I’ll do pretty much anything my husband asks me to. Jump off a cliff? Apparently… yes.

Gotta admit, even though I’m fumbling around not knowing what’s what, this is pretty dang cool. This is fun, potentially time consuming, and probably damaging on some levels. But I’m out there now–profile and all. So I guess all I need now are friends…

and sleep.

Sweet dreams,
trish

Currently listening : Change By Stephanie Smith Release date: 26 May, 2006