The New Haircut of David Beckham

Facebook. I am sure most of you know what it is. For those who don't, it is a website where you can create your own personal webpage with information about yourself, your interests, photos, music, etc. As well, you can view the spaces of others, your "friends", and write messages back and forth. It is a phenomenon quickly spreading the globe as there seems to be an increasingly smaller number of people who have never heard of Facebook. It is an internet revolution of MSN messenger "MSN" proportions. As an aside, apparently some kids in the states prefer AOL instant messenger "AOL IM", and my German friends seem partial to ICQ, which I had thought died a slow and painful death about 8 or so years ago. In any event I have been under mounting pressure recently to "get on Facebook".

I don't have a Facebook account. I used to tell people that I really just didn't have time for Facebook. While this is entirely true, I still have another, less practical, reason for my active resistance. It's the same beef I had, and still have partially, with MSN. Once you join these internet communities you're vulnerable to all sorts of blatant and unsolicited harassment. Eventually your best friend's brother's girlfriend's housekeeper's step-sister will meet some guy at a bar and introduce you to him once. He will then invariably find you on Facebook (or for that matter *insert random internet community here*) and begin to message you all the time about the most irrelevant crap. The feeling is like, "OK buddy I met you once for like five minutes. I don't need to hear about your sexuality issues and view endless photographs of you and your 'homies' 'chillin' out' in a perpetual state of drunken stupidity". Now don't misunderstand me. The drunken stupidity of some people is exciting! It's the harassment by the randoms that I can't stand.

To close my bit on Facebook let me tell you of an interesting experience I had the other night. I was at the club, attempting to dance cool, and I see this guy go up to this girl. They talk a bit and dance for maybe ten minutes. I could see this guy was looking for some action. Clearly the girl caught the same drift because when the guy tried to move things along she said, with an ever so sweet smile, "No, thanks, but I'll look you up on Facebook!" I just discovered a new way to get shut down. Welcome to the 21st century. We're screwed.

I was at this bar monday night (why do all my stories start off this way???) watching game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The place was mostly full of Ottawa fans except for this one table of Anaheim groupies beside us. Those guys have some serious "marbles" if you ask me. Being an Anaheim fan in southern Ontario is dangerous. I almost think you'd be safer driving through downtown Jerusalem screaming "dirty jew!" Once the game was over and Anaheim had won some drunk (he had to have been drunk!) Ottawa fan yells,
"Anaheim is like taking it in the bum".
"How do you know that??" was the response from the other side.
Sucks to be Ottawa fans. Not only did their team lose the game, they got burned as well. As for me, well, I was preoccupied with the all-you-can-eat chicken wings.

Wednesday I played soccer after work with some people from my lab. I played soccer on a team until I was about twelve and I don't ever recall being that tired. It's a sad realization that you've reached the pinnacle of your athletic career at age twelve. I didn't need a shower afterward, the sweat had done that for me.

Work goes up and down. Some days all my reactions work out really well, some days they don't. Like I said, I think when I am done I will have discovered 6431 ways to not polymerize aryl-phosphines. But at least I am having fun doing it. I've discovered that the life of a chemist consists of about 10% chemistry, 80% drinking and 10% completely irrelevant conversations. Today my office had a discussion on David Beckham's new haircut and, thus, possible sexual orientation. The Germans are coming over to play poker again tonight. Somehow I bet Andreas will be all in.