Connecting

I'm totally overwhelmed by all the ways to connect to people nowadays. And I'm especially overwhelmed by which are the right ways. Which mean, of course, the cool ways. Because apparently, Four Square is totally over. I kid, I kid! My guess is most of you, except my early adopter cousin-in-law Greg, have no idea about Four Square. Maybe you read the article about it being the new Twitter. But are you even tweeting? I'm not. I know I should be on one level (it's great for businesses!) and I shouldn't be on another level (everyone's leaving Twitter!).

Here are the ways that I like to connect right now: I've finally embraced text. I'm only up to 500 messages sent/received a month still, damn you Verizon and your $20 unlimited plan. I still remember when I used it so little that I was on the pay as you go plan. Facebook is fun for sending out random links and not so deep thoughts and actually getting a response from people you may or may not talk to that often in real life. Voicemail is dead to me. Until I get a smartphone with Google Talk and visual voicemail. Then I might re-embrace it. But right now it's more of an annoyance. Except for business purposes. Email? Mostly stuff I've signed up to read and don't get a chance to read since I'm busy Facebooking. I do use it for longer thoughts that I've decided my sad little thumbs can't type out on my 2006 Flip phone.

Then we come to the last way: Blogging. Which is so 2001. I remember when a total dork at my work showed me his blog, which he used to share photos with his family. That's really lame, I thought. Damn I'm not good at all with the trend-watching. I tried my first blog in 2006, I heart TJs, an ode to my love of Trader Joe's. That faded after I stopped cooking TJs meals as much. My friend Jodi just let me know that a "I Heart Trader Joes" cookbook is being published, so maybe I am a little bit good at trendwatching. I tried my second blog in 2008, Deep Thoughts From Milt & Edie, an ode to my love of the inspirational quotes that my local dry cleaner put up. My fans (okay my mom and my friend Tia) encouraged me to write my thoughts about the signs. After a couple of attempts, I just gave up and started to post the pictures only. The best Milt & Edie compliment came from my friend Maren, who is an agent to photographers. She called the blog a cool art project. Which was cool because she is really cool. And she knows cool art projects (living in the photography world).

My current attempt you know about if you are reading this post. That's the interesting thing about blogging to me. Who reads this stuff? My mom, that's for sure. When she remembers to log onto "The Internet" and amble over to Facebook. I tried this thing called twitterfeed.com which is supposed to post my blog postings to my facebook account. That's the only way that I could imagine someone in Internetland finding this blog. Unless I start doing some serious blog promotion, like the way Ramit at I will teach you to be rich says I should.

So why am I writing a blog? Partly to share when I have more than 160 characters on my mind. Also to have a sample of my writing up so that if anyone ever contacts me about writing a book about my life, I'll be ready. I read an article by Diablo Cody about how she hasn't updated her blog in a year since she's too busy twittering. Like most trends, I think blogging has come and gone, and now only the people who are seriously interested in writing will continue it (sorry Diablo!). For example, my mom gave up on her blog because it was too hard. Honestly I get that. I might give up on this blog. But I like having a forum to write longer musings. I should be working on revising my book right now. Instead I'm blogging, which feels a little bit good because I'm at least writing. Yeah that's right, the real reason I'm using blogging is to procrastinate. That's the reason the internet exists, for me at least. That and to try to catch card fraud through my online banking website.

Oh and in case you are wondering there is one last way I like to connect: in-person. This is my favorite way. Coffee at Porto's. Hanging at a salon or spa. Taking a walk around Los Angeles. Chillin' on the L-shaped couch.