dianaschnuth

I’ve been in an exceptionally good humour today, and have been trying to pin down why. I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but it kind of does.

Physically, I feel well-rested, despite getting no more than my usual seven-ish hours of sleep. Maybe it had something to do with last night’s workout? This morning’s Skinny Double Mocha helped, too, in more ways than one. I got sufficiently caffeinated, for sure, but I also enjoyed feeling like a part of the group. (Six of us walked over to Biggby’s together and shared buy-one-get-one coupons.)

I’ve also been particularly productive at work lately, and the work I’ve been doing has been helpful to other members of my team. That makes me feel useful and needed, and like I belong. The last time I felt like that was a good two years ago, when I was developing the Loan Corrections database at Sky.

Hopefully, this good mood is sustainable over a few days, and isn’t just a one-shot thing for today. I’ll do what I can to keep it rolling.

Time to head back in to work, though I’d love to stay outside with my favorite tunes and my portable internets and the warm sun and the fresh breeze. Ah, Spring.

Yes, it’s the middle of the day, and I’m blogging. I’m on my lunchbreak, sitting in the abandoned foodcourt of Portside, tapping away on my iPhone. I point this out so I won’t get busted later for blogging during work hours.

See, my direct supervisor is also one of my friends on Facebook. There have been times when I wondered if that was a smart move, since my Facebook is basically a Tumblr account, aggregating all my blog entries, shared items from Google Reader, favorites from YouTube, Flickr photos, etc. I think, though, that having her in the loop keeps me from blogging anything I might regret later, like publicly admitting when my sick day is actually a “mental health day,” or Tweeting something unsavory about work, or talking smack about just about anybody (at work or otherwise). My Mom reads my blog and Facebook, too, but I’d be more concerned about losing future favorable references or getting myself into professional trouble than pissing off my Mom.

Besides my boss, many of my friends read my blog, so I try to keep some things under wraps. I don’t use this as my “diary” like I did back in 2002, just because it’s more widely read. I can’t just say, “Something So-and-so said today made me really uncomfortable,” or “I really wish So-and-so would stop calling,” although I’m not afraid to say that I wish our friends (read: Aaron’s friends) would call and want to get together more often.

Something else to consider is the fact that I use the same username on every forum and site I’m on, so I always have to be on guard. Well, not so much “on guard” as just aware of the image I’m putting out there. This is the Internet, after all, and even locked posts have a way of becoming more public via email or IM, if someone sees the need.

Am I worried? No, not really. If I were, I’d use something more elusive as my alias, and I certainly wouldn’t use my full name as my domain. I mean, I already got my debit card number stolen once, and I survived that. I don’t publish my SSN online or anything, and I’m not popular enough on the internet that people will look up my address and stalk me, or try to break in while I’m gone, or follow me to work.

I’m comfortable with my level of transparency. In fact, I kind of like it. It’s refreshingly honest. This is me; take it or leave it.

As a general rule, I like to post “real” blog posts daily, or at least every weekday, so that the front page of my website doesn’t end up consisting only of my tweets. Usually, even if I don’t have the time or brainpower to tackle one of my many backlogged topics (I do have a list), I can come up with something decent: a photo, or a link, or a YouTube video.

Alas, tonight I have been busy productive on other fronts instead. I edited and posted the Drinking Gourd Podcast (wherein Jay Rinsen Weik discusses the Zen ancestor Shih-T’ou), I made another man-candle for Rob, I backed up my photos from 2008 onto two DVD-Rs, and I finally washed my dirty dishes. Plus, I did some yoga to help stretch out my muscles, which are sore from being too macho while moving furniture yesterday.

It’s going to feel good to check off a few high-priority items from the To Do app on my iPhone (which is how I prioritize these days). Heck, yeah.

Social Networking is a great tool for staying in touch with friends, and for making new ones. It can also be satisfyingly voyeuristic, seeing what your old acquaintances are up to these days without having to make the commitment to actually socialize with them.

On Twitter, there have been a few people I follow who have stated that they’re conducting a Facebook purge — removing “friends” who haven’t contacted them outside of Facebook within the last year.

That made me think about the demographics of my own friend pool. Being the anal-retentive list-maker that I am (is it any wonder I got into Business Intelligence and reporting as a career?), I tallied and graphed my relationships with all my Facebook friends:

Category A = People I see face-to-face or e-mail on a regular basis
Category B = People I wish I saw or spoke with regularly, but don’t
Category C = People with whom I’d lost touch, and am still curious about
Category D = People I knew once upon a time, but no longer have contact with
Category E = People I’ve never met in real life

Interestingly enough, I’m less likely to remove people from my E list than my D list, since I had to specifically evaluate the people I’d never met in order to decide whether or not to just ignore their friend request. With people I once knew, it’s harder to say no — for me, anyway.

I think that I’ll be going through my D list tonight and pruning out some folks. So, if you’re a regular reader of my blog and you find yourself missing me on your friends list, just re-add me. I’m guessing that most of my D list won’t even notice I’m gone…