What up, Thundercats and Thundercat Ho’s? Welcome to this edition of Throwback Thursday. With everyone going green, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and start recycling… old posts. That’s right. I have nothing else to serve up right now except for leftovers, but hey… I’m old school like that. Keepin’ it real, son.
So from back in the day, Xanga 2002, the year http://www.xanga.com/jaems was born…
What you know ’bout canoes on dubs, son? That’s how we roll.
Would you go to the movies alone?
“Hi. One for the 7 pm showing please.”
“How many??”
“…one…”
Feels somewhat pathetic, no? I would totally go to the movies alone. Would I feel like a loser doing it… probably.
There are certain things that are seen as social activities. Are there valid reasons for one to avoid doing these types of activities alone? No. However, you might be perceived as eccentric for going it alone.
“Will someone be joining you for dinner? Shall I wait to take your order?”
“No… now bring me one of everything on the menu. It’s gonna be a long night. I hope you wore comfortable shoes, buddy.”
It takes a good deal of character and self-assurance to indulge in an activity normally reserved for two or more by yourself. Would you go on vacation by yourself?
Can you imagine walking around Disneyworld all by yourself with your Mickey Mouse ears on? You walk around the Magic Kingdom wide-eyed and amazed and turn to tell someone how exciting it is to be there, and there’s no one there. You pose with Mickey and Goofy and Pluto for a picture and there’s no one to take it. Years later as you recall the vacation, you ask aloud, “Hey remember that great trip to Disneyworld?” and someone responds, “No, you went alone.”
Pathetic. And I would totally do it.
There are benefits to taking the independent route. Your schedule is your own. You can see all the things you want to see without having to balance out the itinerary with things someone else wants to see. You can ride that ride as many times as you want. You can wake up and get started whenever you want.
Many times we opt not to do something simply because we don’t have someone to do it with. The truth is many activities traditionally done in groups are so much better when done alone.
Totally doesn’t suck alone:
Vacation – do all the things you want to do
Dining – no one to eat your fries and pick at your meal
Long drives – less weight for the car to carry. Gas is expensive.
Concert – concert tix and t’s are way expensive.
Karaoke – if you’re going to look stupid, look stupid alone.
Going to the bathroom (typically girls) – Trust me. Taking a dump alone is better. Feel free to get your grunt and push-face on.
Being independent is great but it’s only part of the equation. We grow
from completely dependent babies to independent individuals to
interdependent achievers. Our greatest successes come as a spouse or a
team player. Sometimes it’s just better to have someone
with you.
Sucks alone
Chess, checkers, Twister, spin the bottle, baseball, poker, tennis,
thumb wrestling, arm wrestling, frisbee, double-dutch and pretty much
any kind of game or sport
Getting in a fight – This could go either way. Fighting yourself looks
stupid but you may inadvertently end up starting a Fight Club.
Fighting monsters – always good to have backup when fighting monsters.
If you have to flee, hopefully the other person is slower and the
monster will catch them first.
Dirty Dancing – dancing alone, ok. Dirty dancing alone. Not ok.
Unfortunately there are things in life that just plain suck no matter what.
Sucks either way
Watching a chick flick
Crying
Going to prison
Getting punched in the face
Getting mauled by a bear or basically any event that results in you getting killed
They say before you can have a truly successful relationship, you first
have to figure yourself out. You have to be independent before you can
be interdependent. So I’m going to work on me. And I’m going to start
by going to the movies alone… confident, self-assured, and alone.
Its going to be great, a brand new beginning, an evolution, if you will. Wanna come?
Hey, all you hardware and software. I think I’ve been spending waaaaaay too much time on Xanga. It’s like watching a good movie. You don’t want to get up to go to the bathroom or get more popcorn because you’re afraid you’ll miss something good. And with the abundance of well-written and excruciatingly funny blogs I’ve discovered, I feel like I’ve gotten lost in the Xanga forest and stumbled upon the secret, magical, enchanted village of blog hobbits… or something like that.
It’s also got me thinking about the whole issue of online social interaction. It’s a unique thing. I have trouble navigating the real world but I think the online world is more forgiving. So for me, it’s a good place to practice being a real person.
Be easy.
I look at Xanga and other online communties as a high school lunchroom.
In high school every clique sat at a different table. There was a
well-defined social hierarchy and like the Indian caste system it was damn
near impossible to change classes. You’ve got a table for your popular
kids, artsy kids, class clowns, emo kids, punks, etc. Online there are definitely distinct circles of bloggers… photographers, ranters, poets, food bloggers, what-i-did-at-school-today bloggers, anime fans, etc.
The online world, however isn’t as rigid as real the world. What made
me realize this is the fact that I have online friends whom I know I
wouldn’t be friends with if I had met them in the real world first.
Online, you have the opportunity to really make a good first impression.
You can circumvent the initial evaluation based on your physical
appearance. Even if you have a real profile pic of yourself, you probably suffer from the Myspace Profile Pic Disorder (MPPD) i.e. it’s you but looks a lot better than you do in real life. You can let your personality and mind speak for you
through your writing. You can carefully craft what you say and minimize the occurrence of the wish-i-had-thought-to-say-that-before syndrome.
A number of questions arise out of the differences
surrounding online and real life friendships. For instance do you
value one over the other? You may have shared very deep and personal
exchanges with your online friends, but when you think of your close
friends do you consider any of your online friends among them? Do you
ever let your two worlds collide? Do you think who a person is online
is who they are in real life?
Friendships confined to the online universe are a unique thing. Perhaps we need to create a new word
to describe these relationships. VFF? Virtual friends forever? Can you consider someone you’ve never seen or spoken to
in the real world a real friend? Is someone whom you exchange comments with on your blogs a real friend? This is some message in a bottle type stuff. Along these lines, a certain peculiarity has emerged in my life. There are people whom I interact with online, but when we encounter each other in the real world, we act as if we don’t know each other. Strange, no?
Now maybe the real world isn’t as rigid as it used to be either. We definitely can see the breaking down of barriers and blurring of dividing lines. Maybe that means I just need to log off my computer and get out more.
Just some food for thought. Good day to you.
jae1775 