What in the hell happened to you, didn’t you used to be somebody?
Please pardon my French….do you think this is why the French are always ticked off at American’s because any time we cuss we call it French? Oui? Oh, I’m sure that is just the tip of the iceberg with Frenchie, but we try harder, right? Did you know without the French, there is a good chance the U.S. would not have won the American Revolutionary War and gained our independence. Put that in your pipe and smoke it for awhile…Of course, the debt the French incurred in this endeavor was instrumental in causing the French Revolution but that was their gig, not ours. Maybe that’s what started all this hate, huh?
Enough with the history lesson pal, I hope you are going somewhere with this.
I am, but probably not too far as I’m really not that deep.
You are a mere shell of the man you used to be
Ain’t that the truth, but I really was somebody for awhile; I was hob-nobbing with all the goober smoochers of social and could list quite a few of the peeps that really knew my name.
The good thing about social is you can have and maintain a certain level on notoriety for free*. Of course when I say free I am only talking real dollars and not soft-lost cost opportunity dollars from wasting your time. As we all know, time = money and social do take up a lot of time so obviously there is no free lunch. Or, is that ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too?’ One of those…
But we also know Billy is all about free because my wife CFO will not allow me to spend a dime in here unless I can quantify the return on investment.
So where does that leave you?
When I was in the Army there was a term commonly used called ‘short-timer.’ As your tour of duty was winding down, the shorter you became. Once you were down to 99 days or less, you would joke about being so short nobody could see you.
Billy is short right now.
Not that I’m going anywhere per se, but as long as I am content to keep operating under a free platform I know I can only carry this so far, and it appears I have already crested that hill. If I were to pin it down to a day, I believe December 6, 2012 is as good as any. It was a very similar post talking about how I had shot my wad…ok you pervs, what I meant was “I’m done, that’s all I have the energy/money,willingness/desire for, there is no more I have to say/add/do.”
Where does that leave you?
Where I always was.
I came, I saw, I conquered…in my own way. I ramped up as much as I could given the tools I chose to work with. Actually, for a knucklehead I was kind of impressed I made it as far as I did.
Maybe it’s because I grew up before gadgetry and could make do with a stick and a box, or I am more of a people person than a thing person, but I am not really all that curious about the latest and greatest toys. Never say never, but you will never see me camping out overnight for any new gadget that is being introduced. I will let all the gadget heads work it over and then if I see it’s gaining some traction I might jump in.
That’s why I could do the just show up part so well, but when it took a certain level of geekiness to move the needle I became exposed. Not in a full frontal nudity kind of way, but nobody was hitching up to my wagon for me to take them to the promised land either.
Well, if you set the bar low enough…
There was a time I would need a little cheese with my whine, but I am good to go these days…totally. Even trying to exist in this realm with little or no expectations, somehow someway it actually hasn’t been a bad ride.
And, I wouldn’t trade my last two years for anything and feel I have grown from this experience.
Here’s what my two-year social degree got me:
- I have a much better global perspective due to my diverse acquaintances.
- My expanded social knowledge has positioned me to be able to ask better questions.
- Social will turn your brain to mush if you try to chase every rabbit.
- Online friendships are just as real as face to face friendships.
- I know just enough about social to be dangerous now.
If I let anybody down because you see wasted potential, get in line. I did just good enough and for this, that was good enough for me.
At this point in my life, fun is a huge driver for me; fortunately I’m in a position I can make those choices. As long as I am having fun there will be no regrets.
Did I make the cut?
I made my cut I suppose, I’m somebody enough and I still have great hair, so that should be worth something, right?
Activity is down on both sides of the wall and I can tell the air is leaking out of the tire and the tank is running low; there is a good chance I’ll just park the car instead of filling it back up.
Such is life.
Swing away Merrill…
