Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…

Yes, it’s true.  And I’ve been a cyber-witness to it these past three days.

Remember my post a few days ago about a certain someone posting her philandering ex-fiance’s name and his criminal betrayal, all over Facebook?  Well, she’s been reposting it steadily.  Yes, a daily “In case you missed it, this guy is a total douche!”  I wonder how long the campaign will last?

She’s received several supportive posts along the lines of “Whoa!  What an asshole” and I’m glad that there is a virtual support network getting woven via satellite and cable-modem for her, but wow!  Here be warned, all ye’ potential wrong-doers – the internet is not YOUR friend!

Whoa! Facebook…

This morning I woke up early, convinced that the solution to my recent nearly debilitating (okay, I’m exaggerating there) iPhone envy was to go ahead and get one, keeping my Verizon phone as the talky device and the iPhone-ery as the gadget/talker to At&t-ers device.

Yeah.  We’ve already established that my wake-up brain ain’t always the quickest to light.

But I was so taken with the idea that I hopped out of bed at 6:30 a.m. and price checked the masterfulness via internet.  And do you know what?  It’s actually, price-wise pretty close to what I’m already paying to pretend my little LG is a smartphone.  But then, HELLO, I’d be carting around two devices everywhere I went.

Still, I went back to bed convinced that this was the only way to soothe the screaming muse (The muse is also the one that demands impromptu boot purchases and occasional splurges at Cheesecake Factory.  The fact that she’s been privy to neither of these treats for quite sometime due to our present economic meltdown status, has got her all kinds of twitchy.)  Anyway, what was I saying?  Oh, yes, I went back to bed, 15 minutes later still thinking this was brilliant.

Then I got up, went about tackling the MONUMENTAL pile of laundry residing in my hamper/bathroom floor/doorway/you get the picture, and hopped on FB to see what people were up to.  (If I had an iPhone I could do so from the comfort of my laundry plagued bathroom… like it’s so hard to walk the 15 feet to my laptop. Drama queen in action here, folks) And there is was, one of the most mind-blowing facets of being plugged in to your friends ever-blessed-updates…

“My recent ex fiance, NAME OMITTED, had my therapist be the messenger that he was f*cking some married woman.”

(In case you were wondering, she’s got his name up for all to see and shame)

WOW.

Isn’t it just amazing that we can spread the news of our impending graduation, stolen or broken hearts, and what we had for breakfast, with a few taps of the keys?  We press “Post” and all these little tendrils float out into the cyber world, landing on our friends pages – for them to applaud, commiserate, or just take note of.

I don’t know what to say about my friend’s post.  From the seeming silence, neither does anyone else.

But my sympathies go out to her.

And my lusting mind is temporarily distracted from the iWants.

Time Suckers Get Lost

Sooooo, with the world wide web at my beck and call almost all day, I tend to spend a little too much time hopping on and off my facebook, email, news pages, etc.  One of the stupid things I got caught up in on Facebook was a little game called Mafia Wars- a game which really has no end, nor serves any purpose, other than to feed that human curiosity of “What happens next?”

It’s that curiosity that keeps you checking in now and then to “Rob an electronics store” or “Bribe a politician” to no real-world effect other than wasting 5 or 10 minutes of your time with this nonsense.  And today I deleted it.

Because today (perhaps it’s all that warm spring-like air) I want to purge.

I did a little light closet-cleaning, took a walk around the neighborhood, came inside and decided the last thing I need to be doing is focusing on games… and then I did the dishes, and now I’m going to walk the garbage and recycling downstairs.

And perhaps they’re all just little things, but I think that with my life so seemingly beyond my own control, these little things add up to at least a little bit of relief.

Face-Break

I’m not very good at telling myself “No.”  I never have been.  As long as I can remember I’ve found myself willing to fight the good fight for things I thought worth having.  Perhaps it’s something to do with my youthful revelation that life is precious, so precious in fact that I thought it a crime to squander in passivity or “Settling” and founded in myself a resolute determinism NOT to wind up defeated upon my death bed ruing all the things I did not do, but instead to be able to say that I fought for the life I wanted and lived it bravely with an honest heart.

And so I’ve always been willing to work for things.  I’ve always been willing to run further than necessary in the race to reach my goals (unless the weight of the battle surpasses the value of the prize… I’m learning to throw in the towel when there’s naught left to win)

But all of this to say that as a result of my… willfulness… I’m not very good at telling myself I can’t have something once wanted.

And lately, what with the heartbreaking end to a relationship I held very dear and the accumulated anxiety over my lack of employment taking its toll, all I’ve wanted to do is eat potato chips and sleep, and fold in the occasional movie time and dear old Internet.

So that’s what I’ve been doing.  And the apartment is (accordingly) quite the mess, my hair needs brushing, and I’ve got major some re-writes haunting my every non-move.  So I’m rolling up my sleeves and giving myself a challenge:  To take a break.  From the internet.  And the snacks.  And all the other little crutches that have been eating up my time and focus.  To stop feeding the self-indulgent side of myself and toe the hard line… To take a break from… the Facebook.

I know, I know, I’m so bold.

But it’s a time-suck, and I shudder to think how many hours get wasted trolling around its pages and playing Mafia Wars (non Facebookers won’t know what this is, don’t worry, you’re not missing anything!)  So I’m cutting myself off.  Today I start my internet-diet… and I just hope that I have enough willpower to follow through.  I will limit on-line-time to email checking and blogging in an effort to focus on tasks at hand, and I will NOT check my Facebook until my rewrite is complete.

It is an exercise in self-control and setting goals and common sense.  Though I’ve got a lot of experience with goals, the other two areas sometimes get away from me.  But I think I can do it.  I want to do it.  I WILL myself to do it.

… and I’ll be sure to let you know of my progress in the new “No” department.

Only in Kenya…

This is why I sometimes think that Facebook isn’t JUST a major time suck…

Today I’m feeling a little under the happy.  That is to say, I’m down in the pooh-blah region, and it’s a hard place to spend a Friday.  But, considering how tiring this past week has been, it makes sense.  I mean, my dad has been in and out of hospitals for the last 15 years or so… And while (over time) it’s become more familiar, a little more routine, it is always exhausting.  

So I have kind of been hiding out in my writing (not here obviously-  Bad girl, bad!  Must write more blog posts!) and kind of just hunkering down.  Well, I updated my facebook status today with a plea for some “Happy” and my friend Emma sent me this link.  And it is hilarious, and weird, and nothing I’d ever find on my own, and it totally brightened my day. 

And now I’m sharing it with you.  Isn’t the internet fantastic?