Social networking

I've been trying out some social networks lately, mostly very unsuccessfully. In spite of things dragging along I did manage to meet someone I haven't seen in 20mumble-mumble years and think we may be getting together in a few days. Quite a ray of light through my many years accumulation of dark clouds. Among other things she's bright, pretty, humorous, and hasn't decided I'm an asshole yet and even if things get awkward we can always talk about the old days in band camp. It's nice to think that there may be days in the future that aren't spent alone that would have been if I hadn't given the online hunt a go. Even old friends can become new ones.

On an intersecting line of thought-
I've been cleaning my apartment for awhile now and going through many papers. On one was this quote which I had written down to encourage me to send a letter to someone I had but only recently met. I never did send that letter though and now can only wonder what would have happened if I had. I really have to stop being so shy and socially inept. At any rate, here are those well chosen words by a great American writer:

Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me,
why should you not speak to me?
And why should I not speak to you?

-Walt Whitman,
Leaves of Grass 1860

So, join me in an attempt to break out of an isolating shell and give the social networking online a whirl. Here are my pages on various networks: MySpace , Tribe.net , Friendster , Multiply , Orkut (Orkut is an invitation only community. Drop me your email if you want an invitation. I will note that Orkut is slow to the point of being worthless, however.) I haven't done much on any of them yet and plan to investigate them when I have time so I can select the one(s) that work best for me. So far, MySpace seems to be the most active. Tribe looks like it may be good for me to make business contacts. The others I have barely touched and of them Orkut is the worst simply because it's overloaded far too often. I'm surprised Google is still affiliated with it. I'm certainly open to suggestions if anyone has found the ultimate online social network.

I'll close with a really silly poem I had forgotten I had written that turned up in my cleaning / paper shuffling:

Monarch, monarch, tickle my toes
Monarch, monarch, fly up my nose
Monarch, monarch, beautiful orange
Monarch, monarch, what rhymes with orange?

So, in case there was any doubt; yes, I'm a bit batty. :-P