Networking.

I guess its true what they say. It never hurts to make new friends because you never know who you're gonna meet. Recently, I was online watching a friends' webcast and got to meet friends of friends. Well as it turns out, one friend of a friend in particular knew friends of other people I know locally. I bet that's what Disney meant by "its a small world." I hadn't had to process information like that since listening in on party lines in the 1980's and got paranoid of the phone. Only this time, processing information was a good thing. Back in the late 1980's, if you found out someone had a big clunky cell phone you didn't use it to order pizza. At least, you weren't supposed to. To a small child, a phone is a phone. To a phone company, a cell phone was money in the bank. In the six minutes it took to have a pepperoni and extra cheese delivered from across the street, my parents were charged the price of a new DVD today. When the phone bill arrived my dad came in and yelled at my brother "you spent 20 dollars on a phone call?!" Of course my brother then looked straight across the bedroom staring daggers at me. I was in bed so I hid under the blankets. Ever so slyly, my brother told my father to not worry, that yes he did spend that cash but he'd handle it. I knew what was coming next. I bolted across the room hiding behind my dad. My dad just stepped aside. Now I had two angry big dudes snarling at me. Before I had time to speak, one held me and the other pulled off his belt. I'm still sore just thinking about it.

"Whuppin' when he wanna."
The late Robin Harris in House Party (1990.)

Image courtesy of:
The Hudlin Brothers.
The Jackson/McHenry Company.
New Line Cinema.
All rights reserved.

Recently however life has been much more pleasant. The people I've met online have all been awesome thus far. For one, they're loving. They'd give you the shirt off their back in terms of how to stay hopeful even when things are rough right now like looking for a job. Second, they're hip. They know how to deflect horse crap at 1000 paces.
If you look over their shoulder long enough then over time that becomes second nature to you too. Like learning to play Street Fighter II.
All I ever get nowadays are compliments. I like that. People actually appreciate that I speak my mind. It's about time! When I was growing up, all people told me was to shut up because I wasn't making sense or to quit mumbling. Man, you'd mumble or be cryptic too if all being outspoken did was compound frustrated family's preexisting anger.
Now I get told that I'm loved and that I should never give up on my dreams. That actually makes me proud. I got something to believe in again. I know I'm good and that its not just me being cocky. Too much.
I love that people are there online to put me in my place. It doesn't feel like adult to young adult but more like big kids just bouncing ideas off each other. A bigger fishbowl of the same kinda network USA used to have regionally on the telephone or in a neighborhood. The real 1980's back by popular demand, larger and louder. Now I hold the kids that burn me and my brother or cousins whup 'em. The internet is the new arcade where kids of all ages can learn from each other how to naturally pull off moves in the fighting game of death.

Kickin' butt and taking names: Fei Long, one of the stars in Capcom's Street Fighter IV (2010.)

Image courtesy of Capcom Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved.