I've got a solid 4 or 5 updates floating around in my head, and given that yesterday was Holly's 1 month birthday, I am acutely aware that I haven't gotten around to publishing her birth story yet... In the meantime, this is one I've been mulling over for a few months now....

What is the etiquette for friending people on Facebook, seriously? I know that there isn't an established etiquette yet, but what to do? I'm friended mostly to friends from High school, college, various workplaces of the last decade, a handful of people I've met here on Livejournal, and relatives. That's all well and good, but what about the fringes of those groups?

Case in point- high school people. I've gotten friend suggestions for people that mocked and ridiculed me for 10 years, and even a few people who were actively hostile and physically aggressive against me. Not gonna happen. I've gotten friend requests from people that I knew of, but didn't know, and people that were most likely really cool people, but we just traveled in different circles. A handful of them i am now friended to, and I enjoy getting to know them as adults. And by now, I've gotten friend requests from a solid 5 or 6 people who I swear I never went to school with, and have never heard of in the slightest, but apparently are in my senior yearbook. Do I friend them or not?

There was a random guy a year ago who friended me with the same name as me. Pretty funny at first. He had over 100 friends all named permutations of 'Matt Dunn', but it got old fast, seeing all of his random updates, especially since he's 14, I'm 33, and we have NOTHING in common other than a name. So, I unfriended him.

Similarly, I'm friended to an undergrad who worked in a lab I was in a few years ago, and other than a few weeks over 2 summers spent in the same room, we have nothing in common. Do I remain friended to her, or delete her, essentially from my life?

What do you guys do in this type of situation?

No Worries,
Matt

So, Seems a lot of ppl on my flist lately have been doing friends cuts, and it made me realize, there are a good 4 or 5 ppl on my flist who's posts I no longer read most of the time. Tho I'm hesitating to do a friend cut for 2 reasons. first - bandwagon jumping. =) Usually, I do a meme when I see someone else do the same meme. Or, someone will post on a particular topic, and get me thinking about said topic myself. How would this friend cut be any different?

Second, while I don't read every one of those people's posts, I do read some of them, and it's always fun learnin' bout other ppl. if for no other reason than to get character ideas and story ideas for my writing (yes - I still think about writing! even though it's been forever and a day since I've worked on any of my stories.... I'm really missing Jimmy & Peter, my biotech PIs, and Tad & Willy & Winlon & Chas, my fantasy farm-boys-cum-warriors. One of the many reasons I am dying to graduate is to spend a few weeks with them all and see if I can't churn out a few short stories worthy of publication...., but I digress)

So, anyway, consider yourself safe from any cuts.

That said, if there's anyone on here who is getting bored of my posts and considering un-friending me - no hard feelings. Let me know, and we'll make it mutual.

No worries.
Matt

it always fascinates and siderails me when people from different parts of my life turn out to know each other. It's kind of like, hey - this is my life, you are my supporting players from different acts. How dare you live your own lives and be your own people! You're supposed to exist solely in stasis when I'm not interacting with you!

Not exactly a large-minded view of the world, but it's how I was brought up... So, for instance, on Facebook, a girl I went to high school with wound up going to the same grad school that someone I went to college with, and they apparently knew each other well enough to friend on Facebook.

Similarly, someone I met here in grad school apparently was particularly good friends with 2 people in college (Dartmouth) that I knew from elsewhere, 1 from high school, the other from a summer science camp (NYSC - Ive talked about it here before). It was a surreal moment when we figured out the connection. It was one of those, 'Oh, you went to X school? I know people who went there. Do you know so and so?" Knowing full well that the school in question could have had like 20,000 people, and the chances of them having met were miniscule at best.

But, I just found out a minute ago that a guy I went to high school with lurker_dave is on the flist of hellziggy, who I stumbled across I think as a by-product of coverville. No, wait, we made that connection after-the-fact. Did we meet on addme25_and_up? I can't remember.....

So, that begs the question, hellziggy, how do you know lurker_dave? Also, It randomly turns out that he and I work in the same building as each other, despite having taken vastly different paths since we graduated and went our separate ways.

Funny, life's little coincidences...

No worries,
Matt

So, phillyexpat asked me the 5 question meme.

( My answers are behind the cut. )