Apr 26
MattNerdery
To whom it may concern:
99% of the time, if you have to ask me to be your fan, I’m probably not. Thanks to Facebook’s awesome fan mechanism, I can now be annoyed almost constantly by people who think I should become a fan of theirs.
I especially appreciate the following paraphrased Facebook interaction:
“Hey, I think you should become a fan of my sprocket company.”
“No.”
[next day]
“Hey, not sure if you accidentally answered last time but I think you should become a fan of my sprockets company.”
“Ignore.”
[next day]
“I can’t remember if I asked you to be a fan of my sprockets company, so you should, ok?”
[unfriend]
You: leave us alone. We all know you just invite all your “friends” so there is no way you forgot to ask me. If I show up again, that means I said no. No means no. You don’t want me to be your fan anyway. You just want my “friends” to see that I’m a fan so they might become a fan too. Leave us alone.
Facebook: learn. How about an option to ignore invitations from someone who is abusing the spirit of the site.
If I have something I think is important to share, it goes here, or in my status on Facebook, or on Twitter. You can consume it if you want and if not, well that’s your loss.
Apr 17
MattBranding
My wife and I took my older daughter (who just turned 2) to see Sesame Street Live this morning. This was her first live show and we weren’t sure how she would deal with all the glitz of the Great White Narrow Way.
Now, Noa watches Sesame Street so we had that going for us. She also dislikes loud and chaotic “situations” so we didn’t have that going for us. The show was at 10:30am and we knew there would be a large number of kids so we had that going for us. She also really dislikes loud and chaotic “situations” so…
We arrived at the arena and got to our seats with about 10 minutes to spare. So far, so good. I don’t know it the whole thing was just confusing or if she recognized the Sesame Street sign or if the amount of other kids around made her feel comfortable but she was calm, cool, and collected. We had been explaining to her for about a week what we would be doing but I don’t think that it really clicked. Then again, maybe it did.
Then…the voice of Big Bird started talking to us and told us the show would be beginning in 3 minutes. That caught her attention. It seemed like she wasn’t sure what was gonna happen. She is sitting in her very own chair, feet barely making it to the edge of the seat. Her weight barely enough to hold the seat down.
The house lights go down.
She looks a little on edge/confused.
Big Bird hits the stage.
She throws a finger (pointer, not middle) towards the stage and shouts, “BIG BIRD!” with an ear-to-ear grin. One at a time the other characters make their way out and she is announcing them all. She is having the time of her life. My wife and I are elated but neither of us can figure out why. I suspect it has something to do with us both realizing that we have a bonafied little girl.
The show was great. We all had a great time. We get in the car to come home and ask her what her favorite part was. She said matter-of-factly, “the chipmunks.”
I don’t know what show she was watching but I suppose it doesn’t really matter does it?
Apr 13
MattBranding
I am a 2nd child. It’s not always easy to grow up in that position. My sister is just about 3 years older than I am. When I was born she was old enough to have an established routine and a fair amount of independence.
My older daughter had just turned 1 when my younger daughter was born. She had not learned to walk yet, was barely talking yet, and really didn’t have much independence. I’m sure that it wasn’t always easy competing for mommy and daddy’s attention for either girl.
The good news is that neither girl will remember a time when they didn’t have each other. They won’t know a time when they didn’t have someone to accidentally cuddle with or learn to share with. The good news is that even though being the 2nd sister has initially been a lot of “stuff the 1st sister does,” their interests and personalities seem to be different and that’s been really cool to watch.
We’ve made it through our 2nd 1st year.
They have both made it through their 1st years.
Happy 1st Birthday Sasha.
Apr 05
MattBranding
So I was watching this show that had a really captivating plot. I am not going to go into too many details here because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I will say this: the plot was a little all over the place and included action, adventure, drama, celebrity cameos and more. It still kept my attention for what felt like an entire night.
It seemed we were nearing the conclusion of the story and then blammo!
I woke up. Well how does it end? I kept trying to fall asleep again to find out how but it seemed to be a futile effort. Then I realized I was the screenwriter, director, and producer. I should already know how it ends.
But I don’t.
And that sucks.
And then…
Apr 04
MattBranding Nerd Alert
Maybe the addition of the iPad to my geek arsenal will motivate me to blog more. Maybe.
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