Reducing the Need for Human Interaction

You know, blogs are curious things. I can wander on out to Blogger.com whenever I feel the need and babble for a while about whatever I want and anyone out there can read it...whenever they want. Granted, I doubt many people bother to read this, particular blog, but I know some folks do. But, as a subtitle for Nick Lucht's blog, it reads "Reducing the need for actual human contact since 2004."

Funny line, really.

So, is that what a blog does? Does it reduce the need for human contact? Is that a good thing? I'll tell you what my experience is. It does...and it doesn't. Certainly, I now know more about what's going on in Nick's and Nate's lives than I have for years. The fact that I live in Rochester, Nick is in Madison/Chicago, and Nate is back home in Bear Creek certainly makes it difficult to "drop by" for a beer. So, in large part, I had lost contact with those guys ever since we left school. Now, however, thanks to these "blog thingys," I can keep up on what's been going on in their lives. I know that Nick is moving to Chicago and had a rough car accident and I know that Nate is getting checked out by some chick at the clinic (sure, it wasn't Andrea, but it's a start).

I seldom speak with Nick (although it's nice when we run into each other back at Nate's place once in a while), but I've just about always kept in touch with Nate. I've found that, now that we read each other's blogs, there's much less of the "what you been up to?" talk that would normally start each conversation. There's no need for it now because we simply know. I might open a conversation with "Any word on a start date for your new job?" because I read in his blog that he had the interview (twice) and was offered the position. Likewise, when I call home (especially to my sister, who seems to check my blog way too often), everyone knows what's going on in my life. So, with that in mind, I can catch up more easily on what's going on with my nephew and Dean's new job and whatever else is going on back home.

Funny things, blogs. They may reduce the need for human interaction to keep in touch, but they seem to facilitate keeping in touch at the same time. Funny.

Anyway, enough of my introspective garbage. It's been a while since I've updated my blog so I suppose I owe all of you an update on current news.

Last Friday, I picked up Lizzy at the airport. Her flights were all messed up due to rain and delays and what have you, but she eventually made it home - and she had her luggage this time. :)

The weekend was nice - we ran a few errands on Saturday (including getting a handful of our Ireland picture developed) and, otherwise, hung around the house. We watched the Badgers win another game and were rather disappointed to see Michigan beat Purdue. I guess you can only ask for so much. :)

Sunday, Lizzy was off to Wisconsin to visit her friend, Angie. That made me a bachelor again (for the day, anyway). It was a good thing it was Sunday. I spent my time watching the Packers and fretting over my fantasy football team.

This week, I've been settling into my job a bit more. It's been slow going, but I suppose that's only to be expected. It wasn't until yesterday that I actually got the correct rights to access the files I need for the project I'm supposed to be working on. Besides that, I've been working on teaching a couple of the girls on my team about Java and web applications. That's been going pretty well - I've actually learned alot, myself, in the process.

This weekend, Liz and I are planning on making the journey back home to Clintonville. It's been months since we've been home (I believe the last time was in July, for Gavin's birthday party) and Liz and I have been anxious to see everyone again. We've still got everyone's birthday presents from August that we need to get home. So, if you're going to be around this weekend, we'd love to get together with all of you.

So, I suppose that's about all for me. I'll ty to keep my blog updates a bit more frequent (and shorter). Take care, everyone.

Peace,
Corey