Facebook Friends

I pared down my Facebook friends list pretty dramatically today. I got tired of reading updates from people that just could not take a conversation past the first "hey its been N years since I've seen you". It was disappointing to find out that those people you marginallly liked back in the day are still just marginally likeable.

Its hard to avoid being a friend whore. I got close, throwing invites to my old college freshman roommate (a musician in Brunswick, ME), a girl who I shared 2 classes with in senior year (the founder of a prominent fasion news website), and a couple of old elementary school friends (one is a venture capitalist in LA and a huge Duke booster, another is the editor-in-chief for Family Circle, yet another is a popular opera singer in NYC). My ego got the better of me and not only did I want to associate myself with these people because of their so-called "fame", but also because I fell into the "me too, hey look I'm a VP look at me LOOK AT ME" trap. Once you got past that, there was just nothing there.

I got to thinking about my Xbox Live friends list. As opposed to Facebook, this is the "glue" that holds us together - we have, after all, at least ONE shared interest... But my list is nowhere near full. I don't play a lot of multiplayer these days, and I wish I could. I can see some people doing the same to me - the original forum intro, the rush of friend requests, then realizing I'm not on a whole lot deleting me and all - and I understand that. This is the overarching issue I have with my gold membership - I like multiplayer, but more importantly I like getting to know people while I hide behind my controller (I am shy). But I don't have as much time as I'd like to get to know people. It got good for a brief time with 2O2ForzaToo, but then my schedule got all complicated, with vacations and work and whatnot. Its a bummer. It doesn't help that my level of attrition when it comes to my game library is way lower than average; I don't trade in a lot of games, I enjoy retro gaming, and I'm not a competitive multiplayer (still haven't finished that damn GoW2 campaign!)

Anyway, I like a small circle of friends, ones who I've vetted enough to the point that I feel comfortable sharing everything about me to them. I guess that means I'll always have a small friends list... but I think I'm OK with that.

So since I can't do it online, I'll share some about me here, for those of you willing to read and pay attention to it, I guess. I'll take a stab at using the site for something different - getting to know people here, since XBL isn't working like I would like it to.

I found this earlier... Here's my picture. Man, this was almost a year ago. Christian was barely 10 pounds (he was a preemie - 6 lbs even when he popped out at 2:30 am on March 1st). It was his first trip to the zoo!

Here he is, a year plus a little more later:

Here's a few more facts about I Codemonkey I you may not know about:

- I'm 36 years old, and a Sagittarius
- I've been married to my trophy wife for 6 years, known her for 12 (can't believe she still married me)
- I am the VP of Operations for a software development company (and my job sometimes is really not very challenging anymore)
- I own one of BusinessWeeks 10 Ugliest Cars Ever Made
- I am originally from the boogie down Bronx, NY and I am a diehard Jets/Yankees fan
- At one point I was an aspiring actor and singer, but then I found out that I could neither act, nor sing
- I absolutely love LAN parties and all things nerdy
- I like single malt scotch, beer, and wine... especially while gaming
- I am an aspiring outdoorsman
- I love anime, horror movies (ZOMBIES!), and science fiction
- Next three songs on my iPod are: U2 - The Three Sunrises, Nirvana - Drain You, Wu-Tang Clan - Severe Punishment
 

If you want to send me a request on Facebook, send me a PM. I'll send you my username (I dont want to put it in teh intarwebs). Otherwise, tune in later to see more tidbits about me that you may, or may not, care about...