Twits Like Me

Being twenty six (almost 27), it struck me that I have literally five friends, excluding my sister and wife. In high school, I wouldn’t say I was a recluse, but I didn’t have many close friends. Many of the people I associated with where just acquaintances that I lost touch with after graduating. I’ve realized over the years that those types of friends are fine, they fill a void when you’re stuck someplace you don’t want to be. It could be just the way I look at friendship, but whatever, I’m getting off track.

In high school I met someone that’s pretty much a brother to me, and he’s remained my best friend since the first day I met him. I also met my wife in high school, so those two connections have worked out great for me. Knowing Josh for the last twelve years has been great, and being with Dorena for ten years has been amazing. I can’t complain about those two at all.

I was lucky enough to get a job working with Josh at Walmart back in 2002. During my orientation I met my other friend, Drewf (he signed my sister’s crutch with ‘Drew’ but it had this weird tail on it that looked like an f, hence Drewf). We hit it off and we’ve got so much in common that sometimes it feels as though we were separated at birth. It’s not just our interests, but quirky little things that we both do without knowing the other one does it too.

So let’s see, there’s Josh, Drewf and both of their significant others. That’s four people. Doing some elaborate math, I’m left with two friends to introduce. Billy and Will. I ‘met’ Billy back in the early months of 2006. I was recently signed up as a contractor for IPS, and Billy was employed as a tech support guy. We hit it off and he’s been one of my closest hombres since. :D We’ve only met in person once, when he came up for my wedding last May, but if we could arrange more swing by visits I would certainly not object.

Will, on the other hand, was nothing but a contentious asshole when I first met him. He’s my brother-in-law’s best friend, so as all little siblings do, they just tried their hardest to get under my skin every time they were around me. As we all grew older we started to get along, and Will and I hit it off. We can sit and gab on AIM or over the phone for hours about nothing at all. We got so close that he was my second best man at my wedding.

Don’t get me wrong, I love everyone I’ve outlined here. My life would fucking blow without any one of them in it. Throw in my amazing wifey and my Punk, what I call Kristen, my sister – I’m her bro-bro – and my life is full of amazing people. Still, there are times where there’s a desire to have connections with new people, but Dorena and I don’t drink so we’re not just going to go to some random bar and try to pick up friends. Besides, that’s just creepy. "Hey there. You here with any friends? Wanna make some?" Get. The. Fuck. Out.

That’s where Twitter comes in. I hear it all the time, you know, that stupid argument about people only using Facebook and Twitter because they’re shut-ins, and they don’t want to meet new people in person. It’s just not true. I’d love to meet new people, but how do you break the ice and make new friends randomly? It’s extremely difficult. You don’t want to invest time and learn that they’re fucking douche bags, and then wind up with some annoying shadow that won’t leave you the hell alone. Twitter is an excellent conduit to meeting new people that are in your area and share some common interests. Through this medium I’ve reconnected with old friends and met many anew.

I’ve known @john_jordan for a very long time. Probably goes back to sixth grade. We were friends through ninth grade, then I moved from Watervliet back to Troy, and pretty much lost touch with everyone I knew. Back in 1998 we didn’t have Twitter and Facebook to make it easy to stay in touch. You youngin’s and yer tek-nawl-ah-gee. We reconnected briefly in 2001 after we both graduated and wound up at Hudson Valley at the same time, but it wasn’t until this Twitter boom that we really hit it off again. It’s so easy to facilitate contact now; hell Twitter looks through your email contacts and adds people for you. So simple. He talked me into going to a Tweetup, where people from Twitter get together in person. Sounds nerdy as all fuck, and for the most part it can be, but I’ve made some amazing friends.

I could go into specifics on everyone, even in a little blurb like Mike did over at his blog, but I’m just going to keep it Twitter fashion and do a #FF style shout out to all my new homies. There’s others, but these are the usernames I know off the top of my head…

http://twitter.com/john_jordan

http://twitter.com/tcrpmg

http://twitter.com/Dozenroses13

http://twitter.com/derryX

http://twitter.com/vigi109

http://twitter.com/dompap

http://twitter.com/AlbanyKelly

http://twitter.com/remarceissac

Honorable Mentions, not Tweeps met through Tweetups.

http://twitter.com/MetalFrog <—That’s me

http://twitter.com/kshanahanx <—Punk

http://twitter.com/tehbilly <—Billy, durr.

So this quick little post that was going to showcase my Tweeps and new homies has evolved into a long ass post and taken up a lot of time. I’m posting and leaving my blog alone for a while. aha.

6 Comments
January 29, 2010 by Keith in General Rambling

So What’s on your desk?

Totally ripped that question off from @cuteellaisbold (specifically here), but I at least expanded it to be my office, not just desk. Haven’t taken pictures in a while, nor blogged, so it’s a good excuse to do a little bit of each.

Transformers on my desk save me so much aggravation it’s not even funny. Any time I get annoyed with something not working how it should, I transform one. Takes a ton of stress away. I would truly recommend everyone having at least one on their desk.

Office 001 Office 002 Office 003 Office 004 Office 005 Office 006 Office 007 Office 008 Office 009 Office 010 Office 011 Office 012 Office 013 Office 014 Office 015 Office 016 Office 017

5 Comments
January 13, 2010 by Keith in General Rambling

Where’s the NY I know and love?

We’re supposed to be the most progressive, accepting state in the country. We’re one of the major melting pots in the globe, and I don’t know about everyone else born and raised here, but I was always taught to respect everyone else around me. To not see color, gender, sexuality, but to see another human being.

Senator Diaz, if I may put it bluntly, is a moron. He says that when entering the Senate doors, anyone that suggests leaving the bible outside is suggesting he leave his morality behind. I propose that morality should not be a religious issue; it should be based upon that of a general consensus of your constituents and the people in the sate of New York as a whole.

Separation of Church and State is not there for you to disregard your upbringing. It’s not there to restrict your morality. It’s there in an attempt to bring out the fairness inside. If you’re solely basing your down vote on the fact that your silly book of fiction says it’s immoral, you need to reconsider your position as a representative in our legislature.

If I hear anyone that voted down this bill using the word ‘morality’ in their rationale, I want them to take a long walk off a short pier into the Hudson River. Why do you think it’s ‘moral’ to restrict the rights of people in this state? Casting a yes vote would not diminish your rights in any way, shape or form, but by casting a no you have hindered civil liberty. You should be ashamed.

Think of how ludicrous it would be for a bill to reach the senate for a vote that was trying to outlaw heterosexual marriage. You’d all vote it down because it’s an insane concept.

Take a look at it from the perspective of LGBT residents in this state. In voting down this fair marriage bill, you have imposed your beliefs upon them in an oppressive way. If you feel gay marriage would undermine a heterosexual union, you might as well stamp ‘bigot’ on your forehead and resign your seat in the senate.

As a fellow tweeter said:

nxt person that tells me how progressive NY is i’ll punch in the face. ths is a red state in blue drag #NYMarriageDebate #ILoveNYEquality

The following senators have supplanted themselves in the ‘uptight hypocrites’ file in my mind.

  • Joseph Addabbo (D) — NO
  • James Alesi (R) — NO
  • Darrel Aubertine (D) — NO
  • John Bonacic (R) — NO
  • John DeFrancisco (R) — NO
  • Ruben Diaz (D) — NO
  • Hugh Farley (R) — NO
  • John Flanagan (R) — NO
  • Charles Fuschillo, Jr.  (R) — NO
  • Martin Golden (R) — NO
  • Joseph Griffo (R) — NO
  • Kemp Hannon (R) — NO
  • Shirley Huntley (D) — NO
  • Owen Johnson (R) — NO
  • Carl Kruger (D) — NO
  • Andrew Lanza (R) — NO
  • Bill Larkin (R) — NO
  • Kenneth LaValle (R) — NO
  • Vincent Leibell (R) — NO
  • Tom Libous (R) — NO
  • Elizabeth Little (R) — NO
  • Carl Marcellino (R) — NO
  • George Maziarz (R) — NO
  • Roy McDonald (R) — NO
  • Hiram Monserrate (D) — NO
  • Thomas Morahan (R) — NO
  • Michael Nozzolio (R) — NO
  • George Onorato (D) — NO
  • Frank Padavan (R) — NO
  • Michael Ranzenhofer (R) — NO
  • Joseph Robach (R) — NO
  • Stephen Saland (R) — NO
  • James Seward (R) — NO
  • Dean Skelos (R) — NO
  • William Stachowski (D) — NO
  • Dale Volker (R) — NO
  • George Winner (R) — NO
  • Catherine Young (R) — NO

NYers, if you believe in civil liberty, it’s time to organize and bombard these bigots. If you don’t care about this issue, I don’t want to hear you whine the next time legislation adversely effects something you do care about.

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December 2, 2009 by Keith in Political Rants

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