The camaraderie among men

If all you got is Facebook, to stay in touch with those ol friends, then that's what you got, man. Before we had all this tech and different ways to stay in touch, we did a good job sitting down, writing a handwritten letter, and corresponding by letter mail. We did REAL good with that. It's too easy now, but we find ways to make it hard.

 

On the contrary, I find it exceedingly hard to conjure up the motivation to sign into Facebook or any other of those sites to tell people what is going on with me. It just doesn't feel like communication to me. (But that's a whole other subject) Of course, that necessarily implies that what you and I are doing here is also pseudo-communication. And, it has its place in the scheme of things. But, I wouldn't venture to call it "friendship"

Yes, we did very well before, and honestly, that "before" is where I'd rather be.

To say that my only option is Facebook is to say that I have no option at all.

Agree to disagree ?

 

Ok, I'm not sure how to respond, other than ... I think you've been blessed in all departments - guy friends, gal friends, and girlfriends. And, that's the way it should be, I think.

Yes, female friends can offer something unique, and that goes both ways ... sometimes, it's unnecessary drama, and at other times, it's deep and meaningful conversations that broach subjects most guy friends would want nothing to do with. I get it, because I've had the motherload of female friends.

I think I'm just at a phase in my life right now where I have zero tolerance for drama from women, and I'd rather just stay away from them altogether.

To give you an analogy, let's say you went hiking/climbing in the Alps, and got stuck on a ledge at -25C for 4 days before being rescued. Now, you're probably going to have zero tolerance for cold weather and are going to do anything and everything to stay away from it. That's where I'm at right now, with women.

 

I won't agree/disagree on Facebook being your only option. I might have misunderstood and thought that was the only way you could reach out to your buddies you had to leave behind, simply because you mentioned it. If you have thier email address, even better. I don't do Facebook, I don't like it, and for the same reasons you mentioned. I don't like it because every time you turn around, it seems like everything you do online has to be connected to Facebook, and they want you to fuckin log in. They want everyone to be socially connected and I'm paranoid about the whole thing.

 

Yes, it is nothing short of madness ... disguised as "advanced technology" or "easy communication" or "ubiquitous communication". People use technology without stopping to think how it is impacting them (and most people don't understand its limitations ... then, when the ATM machine fucks up, they file a lawsuit or whatever).

Evils of the 21st century ? Farcebook is on the podium wearing a gold medal around its neck.

I'm a software engineer and I would be the first one to torch the FB data centers I've had a unique opportunity to understand, at depth, what technology can and cannot do ... and I've also examined what it does to people.

Of course ... if we go one step deeper (and deviate further from the subject of this thread), we can easily acknowledge that there is really nothing "evil" about technology; the real culprits are the pathological human minds that glorify it without really understanding it. But again, ... that's a whole other tangent

 

Im a non conformist. I'm old school on almost everything. I still carry one of these for crying out loud:

 

Is there anything you do that *isn't* admirable ?

You're my goddamn hero, man. I kept one of those flippies for years ... got a real stir out of my fellow geeks at work. Had to eventually get a "smart" phone coz some "modern humans" in my life only responded to text messages or on funky apps.

 

I talk and text on mine all the time, so no issues there. Oh, don't think I don't catch a bunch a hell when I pull that thing out. My wife and daughter even give me shit, because they have iPhones (that I bought of course, strange how that works),
And it doesn't stop there. Waitresses, airline stewardesses, fast food cashiers, barbers, etc. all have told me I need to get with the times. I laugh, and say "no way, I'm not giving this shit up for no one".

 

Yep......And So Do I.....LOL....



Cheers Glen.

 

Awesome! It's the best way to convey the message that I don't care what society thinks, I'm doing my own thing. If y'all go to the moon, I'll still be here on earth. See ya!

 

This is a fascinating subject in its own right. By non-conformist (and I am one too ... big time), I assume you mean that you don't let your choices in life be dictated to you by society ? I.e. you think for yourself ? I.e. you're in a very small minority ?

For instance, the whole world may tell you that the movie "Titanic" rocks, while you (and I) think for yourself and decide it was a golden opportunity that they flushed down the toilet with all that lovey dovey shit.

Another example - Most people capitalize only either the first word of a sentence or proper nouns, but you decide it looks cooler to capitalize each word as in the sentence. "Mah Name Eez GlenGlen, And I Love Capital Lettuhs, Mate."

 

LOL, yeah, somethin like that. That's the way I was raised. My pops taught me about all that. I wanted what everyone else had when I was a kid. I was humbled early in life, and now that I'm older, I see all the bullshit unfolding that my dad made me aware of.

 

Been Doing That Since 2006......Too Late To Change Now....



Cheers Glen.

 

You rock

 

I don't care about your sexuality or the lack of it.
You just seem to be as lost as those two camping buddies...lost in Brokeback Mountain. Only that you are alone. Besides they were gay only to each other, haven't you seen the movie you poor man?

 

... says the guy who has now made two posts about it

 

You know, I don't think that's necessarily gender specific, man. If you think guys are exempt from drama, then you are mistaken. As a matter of fact, in my experience it's GUYS whose life situations are drama-filled. Girls in my life tend not to bring unnecessary drama into my life. But then it also depends on my own interpretation of what unnecessary drama might involve, and also on how they handle such situations. And this isn't age specific either because I have female friends who are in their 20's and they don't necessarily have to deal with so much drama. But maybe you don't mind drama from guys, and in that case it's a bit of a double standard, now, isn't it?

But man, it does appear that some guys just have a tendency to attract bad ones, don't they? My buddy is full of drama and it's really more about how he perceives each situation and reacts to it, than anything else in his case. His drama can involve women, family members, his guy friends, whoever. That's okay though, because I don't mind listening to him vent. I just don't necessarily give advice that he "wants to" hear, because he usually wants me to agree with him even when he's the one being stupid, and I'm not made that way. I mean, I've been told to grow a pair in the past because I was being a whiny little shit, and sometimes that would come from women, not men.

The stranded in the cold type analogy is interesting. You must understand that, to climb a mountain in such a cold climate, you must first and foremost respect the very climate, the very mountain, the very nature. You don't talk about how "intolerant" you are to cold like you're above it all. You should have already known the risks involved in climbing a mountain like that prior to proceeding, therefore you respect the cold. Only then are you able to come to terms with the cold, because it's going to be cold up there anyway, whether you like it or not. So you use your knowledge, resources, experience, to you keep yourself warm. Only then are you able to appreciate the cold.

So from what I've gathered based on the way you've used this analogy, I'm speculating that you actually don't have much respect for women after all. Why else would you be so dismissive about all women all of the sudden, just because the ones who were in your life just happened to treat you badly? You said it yourself, you were chasing after women for a long time, and if you feel that this action had eventually consumed you to the point where you're now feeling like you've wasted your time doing that, then you must have been doing something seriously wrong. No wonder you couldn't find good women in your life. You were a horn dog and you let your dick lead you. The women who entered your life must have known they could grab you by the balls, while truly intelligent and sincere women most likely opted out of being in your company because they probably instinctively knew how you perceived women deep down.

What happened to your female friends now? If you still have female friends, then what are you going to do with them now that you're at the point where you'd rather stay away from them altogether? You might argue with me here and counter with something like "but they are different", or "it's just that I wish I had more guy friends, that's all", or something, but the truth is that you're ready to ditch your female friends(if you still have them) all based on your skewed generalization, and you know it. Can you still say that you respect women? And this is coming from a non-feminist.

For that matter, how about men? When you were chasing after women all those years in the past, what were guys to you? You had pushed them to the side for so many years just so you could chase after girls with all your might, and now you're turning around and say "oh, I regret using so much of my time pursuing girls..." just because you had negative experiences with women? Who's to say that the same won't happen to you with guys? If you ask me, your life right now is full of drama of how you're starting to get sick of all women, and you're going to bring that into the lives of other men now because you're an absolutist who has to have either all female, or all male companions but not adecent mix of the two. Do you even respect men? Or for that matter, do you respect yourself? Food for thought.

 

Dude, thanks again for your thoughts. Appreciate it ... seriously.

Again, I want to take some time to digest what you've said and write a proper response. Right now, I'm getting drunk as a skunk, so I will get back to you a bit later

 

I'll Raise My Glass To That......



Cheers Glen.

 

I got a song ! Listen to the words (great post by the way )