This thread made me go to Facebook and pop in a few names from the past. Ha! I found a girl who I dated in the 70's. I thought we went to a Styx concert. She messaged right back and remembered me, but she said it was a Hall and Oates concert! Of course it was! I took all my dates to Hall and Oates concerts! She was one of my only regrets in life. Tall, beautiful with a fun personality. Too young and stupid to not realize it at the time. But it was neat seeing her picture. Hasn't hardly aged a bit! Made me sad to think so many years have past though. She has a son now who was our age when we last went out! Duane

Wow, thanks everyone. Man you all are amazing! I didn't mean to make people cry! It was a little weird for me to realize that my best friend is the same age as my mom was when she died! I talked to granny yesterday, she wants me to read a poem at my mom's 'memorial' on Saturday. I guess I will, I've never been able to say no to her! I'll post back and let you know how Saturday goes. I hope I remember to get a picture of me with granny to post here. Dcarch, who knows if I will lose weight now or not. I have a sense of humor about it and I'm happy with myself... I'm not out to impress anyone. If I do, great, and if not, I'll be happy anyway. I think I love food too much to be very skinny. And yes, Annie is right... I LOVE vacuums. Here's a Youtube video of my collection :o) I made this to show other vacuum and appliance collectors (yes, there's a club for that too).... You'll have to excuse the messy place! I've gotten two more since I made the video!

Birthing photos are now a big thing on Facebook. I'm talking babies covered in yuck. Some even show crowning shots, with the mother's anatomy up close and personal. These aren't a few extreme cases either; it's a trend. And the photos are widely shared, not private. They get lots of Likes. What's especially disturbing--besides the obvious--is the way these posters don't recognize any right to react to their photos with anything except admiration. No one ever dares to object, because they know what would happen. "Don't be a hater. What's wrong with you? No one is offended by this!" So the poster thinks everybody approves. And the trend spreads. This is a classic characteristic of narcissists: the inability to recognize that other people and their viewpoints even exist as part of objective, independent reality. But we do exist. And we judge. Good luck getting a job from me in the future after I've seen your business in all its glory.

Right now I just skim past -- consider the source and move on to the next post. Although it got a bit hairy on there after the Paris bombings. But I'd rather know that someone thinks a certain way -- they can bundle their thoughts and opinions up into some stupid meme, cherry picking their points. I do end up thinking a lot less of them as people. I avoid posting about politics or religion, myself -- but of course there are those observations that I don't consider political, but others might. I do value FB -- while I've learned some of my friends and relatives are shallow, I've learned that others have nuanced viewpoints and can express themselves very well, and I'd simply can't wait to travel the physical miles to just hang out and chat with them, over tea or wine. (And no, our viewpoints don't always match.) I also value seeing my cousin's renovations of the small church across the road from her original house -- she and her husband have done marvelous things with it, and have just finished adding a kitchen -- I think they're truly ready to move in and sell their original house. She also has my dream job -- she works for the Smithsonian, travelling around the world, bringing back artifacts, and setting up displays in DC. Without FB, I'd not be able to follow her like I am, now. I value getting back in touch with another cousin, two weeks younger than myself, whom I hadn't seen in person since we were fifteen -- her life diverged markedly when she vanished around age 16 to a troubled couple of decades apart from any of her relatives. FB helped re-unite her with myself and a few others of her relatives. I also re-connected with a good college roomie from back in the day. I valued getting updates from the daughter of a friend in a state over, who'd fallen, had a concussion, went into a coma. The daughter had access to her mother's account and shared information on my friend's recovery process to everyone. So, for all the ucky memes out there, and the vast overabundance of sharing of things that the writer did not create or write him or her self, there's gold at least among most of my FB friends. And I'll NEVER re-post/share something someone tells me I HAVE to share on my wall. No matter how well-meaning. Because I'm not the sort of person to "demand" it of others. PS: I have called people out on offensive posts. I really have it in for the cherry pickers who only pick the examples that buttress their "case", by pointing out other examples of such and such. I don't do it all the time, because sometimes I just can't be bothered.