Where I Take Visiting Friends

I like Thalia Street Beach in Laguna Beach because there’s not much of it. Twisting stairs lead down from the street. The walk to the high water line can’t be more than thirty feet. I wade in to my calfs. Well, that’s my intent.

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Jon and Mary Lyn Wolfert slipped in for a few days. They’re passing through from Alaska.

Tonight they’re Dallas bound. They were on-the-ground making a fuel stop at Cavern City Air Terminal in Carlsbad, NM a few minutes ago.

Their Mooney has been dodging storms, but should be good the rest of the way. The sky will be getting brighter when they land after 5:00 AM local time.

SoCal is a pretty area. Out-of-town guests get taken to see the sights.

I like Thalia Street Beach in Laguna Beach because there’s not much of it. Twisting stairs lead down from the street. The walk to the high water line can’t be more than thirty feet. I wade in to my calfs. Well, that’s my intent.

Perfect weather. Beach jammed. Lifeguard stands, not evident a few months ago, out of storage and in the sand.

Everything about this beach says Southern California!

We left and drove past homes somehow fastened to hillsides. We were heading up. Prices were going up. Views too. Up high you see a lot.

Civilization ended at the top of the hill. We walked into the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park. One side faces the Pacific, the other the basin that holds much of Orange County and the mountains that define its border.

More people stop by now that we’re in California. People like coming here. I understand why.

Twitter and Facebook

I am often followed and have no idea why! Is it OK to ask what they see in me… in 140 characters?

I am active on both Twitter and Facebook. Yesterday my friend Jon Wolfert added this note below a photo I’d posted:

Re: relentless Facebook and Twitter posters… I don’t understand how you’re supposed to live your own life if you spend all the time you have reading about what someone else is doing with theirs. Does anyone actually have time to read all this stuff every day? Do they do anything else?”

I think this is why I’ve tried to limit my Facebook friends to real friends. When you are Facebook friendly with 3,000 or 4,000 people (Yes–I work with someone who has 4,000 friends on Facebook!) how do you see anything but noise. My 300 is more than optimum. Facebook allows you to secretly silence some… and I have, though not yet enough.

I’ve about had it with the “Top-5” and other lists on Facebook. I’m with Jon on that.

The discourse on Twitter, though limited to 140 characters at a time, is much smarter than what I read on Facebook. Maybe it’s because the people I read on Twitter don’t have to approve of me! Seriously–I mean that.

Recently both services have seen the amount of spam or other miscreant content rise rapidly. This morning a Facebook friend ‘s account was hacked and everyone on her list got an email sending them to a site which asks you to download a Flash plug-in which is really a trojan!

With Twitter its emails from people following you who turn out to have nothing but a URL for a spammy product on their profile page.

Speakng of Twitter, I am often followed and have no idea why! Is it OK to ask what they see in me… in 140 characters?

The Friend Quandary

The bigger question is, who has the time to constantly monitor all of these darn sites?

Are you on Facebook? How about Linkedin? Me too. My friend Jon Wolfert responded via email a few days ago after I tried to connect via Linkedin.

OK, we’re “LinkedIn” now, but I really have no idea what to do with this site. A few months ago I played around with Facebook, mainly because I wanted to see some photos Melissa [his daughter] had posted on her page, and I find that is easier to deal with than this place. But even there I have a seemingly incompatible mix of family, friends and business types.

The bigger question is, who has the time to constantly monitor all of these darn sites? -j

He’s right. It’s a fulltime job.

I forgot to mention Twitter. I’m on Twitter too, but when I tweet it’s automatically relayed to Facebook. Two birds with one stone.

Who should be my friend? Lots of strangers ask. I’ve tried to limit my friendliness to people I actually know–but I don’t want to offend.

If you’re not on Facebook I should explain. Facebook has added one thing life has always needed–an ignore button!

I actually find Facebook reasonably useful. I am watching a community of people I know. Facebook cleverly gives me the opportunity to squelch or amplify certain people without their knowledge.

Now I can look friendly without having to actually be friendly!

I guess there’s also the stalker aspect of this. I know who your friends are. I know where you’ve been. I see pictures from your fun times… and your drunk times. I’ve seen pictures of your friends too.

But I am still in a quandary about who to accept as my friend. I want to be friendly, just not too friendly. Maybe I should take the advice of soon-to-be-former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:

“I’ve got this thing and it’s f***ing golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for f***in’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there,”

Maybe not.

Two Friends in the Times – And They Didn’t Shoot Anyone!

The New York Times did a wonderful profile of a friend of mine, Jon Wolfert. Jon is to radio jingles as Janet Jackson is to wardrobe malfunction. What makes it even cooler is the gratuitous mention of our mutual friend, Peter Mokover.

Jon is responsible for some of my favorite jingles – including a few he did for me. I am responsible for sneaking him into the Kennedy Space Center to watch John Glenn’s launch.

I’ve attached the article to the link below.

Continue reading “Two Friends in the Times – And They Didn’t Shoot Anyone!”