Enemy of Entropy
What was her name?
While I was reading friends’ updates at Facebook today, something reminded me of a girl I knew back in high school. She went to my high school, and as far as I know she was in my graduating class. I didn’t meet her at school, though, and I don’t think our paths crossed there. I knew her from church. She introduced me to the guy who became my first husband (who she had dated in the recent past).
Now I’m driving myself nuts, because I absolutely cannot remember her name! I can see her face, plain as day. I remember that she had a somewhat uncommon last name. I think she had an older brother who had been a big deal on the football team a year or three ahead of us. Why can’t I remember her name?
I’m really bad with names, honestly. A Facebook application was asking me to verify 130+ people as high school classmates, and truly, I didn’t recognize many of them at all. I didn’t remember most of the people I saw at our five year reunion. After 25 years? I’m hopeless.
Maybe I should get my old yearbooks out and look at Facebook and the yearbooks at the same time. I don’t know that I’d be any better that way, either. I need context for most people — not just a face and a name, but also something like “that guy from homeroom who was always drawing cars in his notebooks” or “that soprano who bathed in Emeraude” or “the cute geeky drummer who seldom made eye contact with anybody” (okay, him I’d recognize, and I do remember his name).
Our yearbooks aren’t the sort that listed people’s activities with their photos. You would have to search through all the activity listings to find out who did what, which is much more annoying.
curiousFriday Frippery
This post is almost as random as my reading has been today. I’m sparing you excerpts from the fiction and school reading, at least!
After reading this article, Dealing With the Jerk at Work, I find myself wanting to read Robert I. Sutton’s book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. We’ve had a “no asshole rule” here at home ever since Sam and I blended our families in 1998, and it makes for a very pleasant environment. I’m in total agreement with the author that “jerks should be treated as incompetent employees.” Getting along with your coworkers is an important part of every person’s job.
Huh? Chris Brogan reports that Facebook showed him boobies. I know they’re ad-supported, but hello, that’s the clue phone ringing! Maybe they didn’t realize that they’re supposed to be classier than MySpace? That really didn’t seem to be a hard thing to accomplish, considering the rampant trashiness on that other site.
A brilliant school in Pennsylvania has suspended two students for the horrific offense of making an anti-drug-use public service announcement. Be careful with those dangerous Smarties, guys!
I bet you didn’t learn this in school, either. According to John Stossel, the first Thanksgiving wouldn’t have occurred at all if the Puritans hadn’t given up on their initial Socialist practices in favor of a plan wherein each family farmed its own plot of corn. I’m not sure that referring to the “tragedy of the commons” is apt, but it is an interesting bit of information.
Also from ABC comes a story about the grandmothers who hold the Guinness records for the world’s longest nails and the world’s smallest waist. Turn off your images if you’re easily squicked before going to the article, though. That woman’s nails are truly disgusting (and apparently, the Guinness folks agree with me). The waist thing just looks photoshopped to me, as my brain chooses not to process it as reality.
Do blondes make men dumber? According to scientists studying the “bimbo delusion,” that is the case.
There it is. I take no responsibility for what you do with it.
