My brother is on MySpace, and he’s mentioned a couple of times that I ought to make my own page there. So I jumped in. It’s not what I expected.

I tried to make my page over there look similar to this site, and I put up some blog posts (copied from here). My brother asked his friends to hit me up over there, and I got a few hits — one of which came here (Hi Michelle!) — but most of the people contacting me are porn-site girls. I had three or four of brogrit’s friends contact me, but then I got ten hits from girls with just a first name: Jackie, Amanda, Sally, Irene, Synthia, Luisa, Alice, Celia, Kathleen, and Nathalia.

When Jackie contacted me, asking to be a friend, she left no message with her request. I figured she was one of brogrit’s friends, but I went to check out her page first. Her page was private — only friends could view it. So I accepted her as a friend and then went back to her page:

I’m a slim and attractive college girl, but I’m also a little shy and reserved. I started this page to meet new people, and my friends said I should take pictures of myself to break out of my shell. Here’s a link to my pictures. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Well, I was half gullible and half curious and half dirty old man, so I clicked the link to see the pictures. pr0n. Yep. And unfortunately for my fortuitous click to porn (with an excuse for the accident), the site requires registration and payment to see anything.

After that first girl’s friend hit, each day I got another hit from another girl with no messages. A couple of days have passed now with no more hits, so maybe the chicks are giving up on me. Sorry, ladies, but this bull is settled and happy with his cow.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Regardless how my brother tries to pick on me, I never dressed or looked the part of the stereotypical geek or nerd. At least not when I was younger.

In my teenage years, my clothes were fashionable (for the times — 1980s), and I was slim and not too socially awkward (no more so than normal for a teenager). I was a little on the shy side, but I talked to girls and had the occasional date. I wasn’t a Casanova by any means, but I wasn’t the socially retarded D&D geek that most people picture and comedies like to play up.

I fooled around with computers, I read comic books, and I played Dungeons & Dragons. But I also regularly hung out at the mall, went to the local teen-club, and had a date for four (that’s 1-2-3-4!) high school proms. And some of my geek-friends were similarly “hip” in our teenage world.

Now, some of my comrades in geekdom did fit the physical and social image of high school nerd. But they were my friends and their nerdiness didn’t even register with me. Even though some of us (myself included) were never part of the “in” crowd at school, I never heard anyone call them or me or us geeks, nerds, or dorks.

As for my brother’s ribbing about wearing cloaks and pocket protectors, none of my geek friends ever wore any fantasy/sci-fi costumery outside of Halloween. Although I can remember at least one who did have a pocket protector, but he’s probably making more money now than me and my brother added together.

Nowadays, my look is a result of being a family man with no time to shop for new clothes. My current style is more “dad” than “dork.” Unfortunately, to the untrained eye, there isn’t much difference.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The First Thing to Go, Accepting Eyeglasses

I finally decided to go ahead and get real, prescription eyeglasses. I’ve been using the cheapo, off-the-rack, reading glasses for several weeks now, and it is very annoying to put them on, take them off, remember to carry them with me, and so on. So I need glasses that I can wear all the time.

I went to the optometrist, got a prescription (for both near and far vision), and ordered my real glasses — bifocal, progressive lenses (no line between the near and far part of the lens). They’ll be ready in a week. I actually like the frames I chose, and I think I’m mentally ready to start wearing them all the time. I’m not sure if I’ll remember to put them on all the time (like first thing in the morning), but I’m ready to try.

The whole concept has sort of become an experiment for me now. I’m interested to see how this new tool works — I mean, I can see and read now, but things are noticeably blurry. (Sometimes, honestly, I can’t read something at all because the blur is too much). I’m keen to learn if seeing and reading properly all the time becomes a real, appreciable improvement to my life.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com