Personal Rant, Feel Free to Ignore, Not Quality Writing

29 Jan 2010 at 10:47

tastyrerun

I called my mom yesterday. It was the end of a long game of chicken. The last time we had spoken I had gotten sick of the fact that she never called me, she just waited around for me to call her and then when I finally did call her she acted as if she didn’t want to talk to me anyhow or yelled at me for not calling more often or tried to pump me for information about what was going on in Reed and Robbie’s lives, or just wanted to complain about the Witnesses or whatever. It was always a fight or a pointless call. So, I decided to see how long it would take before she would call me if I didn’t call her first. It turned out to be a looong time, and I am pretty certain if would have gone on forever. For all the complaining my mom does about how her kids are lost to her, she does absolutely nothing to reach out to them either. Pot, meet kettle.

Anyhow, I broke the stalemate and called and almost immediately regretted it because I was (predictably) yelled at for not calling. Plus I wound up stuck on the phone with my mom’s husband for 99% of the call instead of my mom. Had I called to talk to him, I would have asked for him. I asked for my mom and he wouldn’t put her on the phone for over an hour. Who does that?

As usual, he attempted to get me to agree that it would be a great idea to go jet-skiing with him in the summer. The jet-ski. The worst thing ever.

This is what happened the one time I agreed to go out on Chris’s jet-ski. It was summer. Chris, my mom, and Jasmine were supposed to arrive in the mid-afternoon. They didn’t arrive until about 45 minutes before sun-down, several hours late. We went to the closest lake, Crystal, and got in line at the launch. By the time we were putting the jet-ski in the water we had about 10 minutes of daylight left. Chris, Syd and myself got on the jet-ski. Chris was driving. He fired it up, pointed it directly at a massive floating bed of weeds, and killed it by driving into them, which caused weeds to be sucked into the intakes on the bottom of the infernal machine. I got into the water, swam underneath, removed the weeds, but the damage was done and it would not start again. I pushed it, swimming behind, back to the shore. Our jet-ski adventure was over. I will never, under any circumstances, ever partake in a water sport with Chris ever again.

He doesn’t understand how much I hate jet-skis in the first place. On the ocean, a jet-ski is a fine thing. I have no problem with it there. But on a lake, with fishermen, a jet-ski is a nuisance that ought to be illegal. I fish. I have a boat. I hate jet-skis and jet-skiers and water-skiers too. They’re pests. Worse than mosquitoes. I judge the quality of a lake by how few of them there are to contend with.

Soooo… no jet-skis then.

The best thing that came out of yesterday (besides re-establishing some sort of tenuous relationship with my mom) was that I found out that Jasmine is on Facebook, and from her Facebook profile I learned that Reed and Robbie’s band Akai has a new album out and video, which I would have never heard about otherwise because they’re cultists who shun people who they disagree with. Last time I saw them play in a public venue, I received a follow-up email from my baby brother asking me to please not come to any more of their shows. There’s love for ya.

I was glad to learn these things via Facebook, but truthfully I despise Facebook. It seems like everybody communicates via Facebook these days. My friends are expecting another baby. I was supposed to learn of this via Facebook, apparently. When my other friends were living with me, they communicated that they had found a new apartment via Facebook. The fact that I hate Facebook, never visit Facebook, and wish Facebook was never invented doesn’t seem to matter. It’s how you learn about people now. Brother and sister made an album? Facebook! Friends have a baby? Facebook!

Facebook is probably the most annoying development in the history of human communication.

More From Ryan Sutter

Jennifer

"My friends are expecting another baby. I was supposed to learn of this via Facebook, apparently. "

Actually, you were supposed to learn of this in person. This is why multiple attempts were made to contact you in the last month or so. It is not our fault if you did not return messages left for you, or follow through with setting up a time for us to meet. I used to be the type of person who sat around getting offended when friends didn't respond to my emails, or answer my phone calls, or show up to my house when I invited them, or would fill out facebook memes excluding me from their list of "close" friends. But then I realized that I obviously thought more of them then they did of me, and it was time for me to implement a new policy to protect my own feelings. From then on, I only contacted people once. If they don't respond, I assume that is because they do not wish to talk to me/come over/see that movie/go on that vacation/etc. This doesn't mean that I wont try again next time, it just means that I am not sitting at home wondering why my friends don't care enough for me to fire back an email, or pick up a phone. My husband still gives people the benefit of the doubt, and that is why you will find multiple phone and email messages from him from the last few months, including a voicemail from tonight, because even though you chose to air your grievances about us in a public forum for all to see, he wanted to speak to you about it privately. But once again, you didn't answer the call. Eventually, after everyone that we see on a regular basis is told, we are going to start posting our news on facebook. I would have highly preferred to tell you and your wife in person, but I got the distinct impression that you did not wish to communicate with us or set up a time to meet with us after we attempted to set something up multiple times. I am sorry if you don't like hearing about things on facebook, but perhaps you should start using your telephone or your email then, because here in the twenty first century, these are the tools we use to communicate with each other. I am unsure what the best method for contacting you would be that would ensure a response, but so far we have not been able to find it.

By the way, if you do not want to use facebook then why don't you delete your account? You add friends, join groups, promote your blog posts, and come in on the tail end of heated discussions. By all appearances, it seems as if you use facebook, so you shouldn't be upset that people try to communicate with you there. How do you think your friends feel when you are pretty much admitting that you want them to support your endeavors through facebook, but you never read their posts so that you can support their endeavors? Why don't you just delete your account so there is no confusion?

david

AMEN. I was expressing this exact sentiment regarding Facebook to a co-worker yesterday. His response was, "There can't be a controversy -- it's just a tool." I don't know what he was talking about, but it did make me want to sign up to the site just so I could defriend him.

I also find it potentially ironic that it has popularized "friend" in the verb form when it seems to be ushering in the end of the era of the friend to be replaced by the era of the acquaintance.

Maybe I'm taking the point too far. I really enjoyed reading someone else having the same reaction to Facebook though. Thank you.

Crystal

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with you on the Facebook thing. I think the worst part is when old 'friends' add me, and then they barely even say hi, and we have zero interaction after that even ON Facebook, but I see them on there doing other shit... I mean, why would I keep them around? Then I remove them from my friend list and they always message to ask why or try to re-add me. Why do you want me on your list if you NEVER interact with me?? :) lol. It's just weird.

Also, I have tried the not calling to see how long it takes for my family to reach out to me. Doing it with my grandparents right now and haven't talked to them for more than a year. They are also people who bitch that no one ever calls them, but they never call any of us. My mom said that what they like to do is call and ask people to call them back so they don't have to pay for the call. I told her I was cool with that, but still nothing...

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Personal Rant, Feel Free to Ignore, Not Quality Writing

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