Decline of friendship

The number and quality of friendships for the average American has been declining since at least 1985, according to a 2006 study.^[1] The study states that 25% of Americans have no close confidants, and that the average total number of confidants per person has dropped to 2.

In recent times, some thinkers have postulated that modern friendships have lost the force and importance that they had in antiquity. C. S. Lewis for example, in his The Four Loves, writes:

"To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it. We admit of course that besides a wife and family a man needs a few 'friends'. But the very tone of the admission, and the sort of acquaintanceships which those who make it would describe as 'friendships', show clearly that what they are talking about has very little to do with that Philia which Aristotle classified among the virtues or that Amicitia on which Cicero wrote a book."

it's already everywhere... but what the hey...

This may not mean a lot to other people out there but I am exhilirated to announce that for the first time in over 5 years I am staring at a real live working INTERNET page at my workstation, YES... MY WORKSTATION at MY OFFICE!  INTERNET!

For those of you who don't know, every Monday through Friday as soon as I step through the front door of my office building, I am magically transported back to 1976 or any period before the internet was created for that matter...  the stone ages, renaissance period, you choose.  Yes, believe it or not, I have no internet at work.  Most people stare at me like the scientist and his family did when they first laid eyes on the dinosaurs brought back from the depths of extinction at Jurassic Park.  But a couple "no I'm not kidding yous" and a few smacks in the face usually brings them back to the conversation at hand.

After 5 years of moaning, complaining, whining, threatening to quit because of lack of internet, through the miracle of the CRACKBERRY, I have found a way to cheat the system, I have joined the 21st century, yes, I now have internet.  The Blackberry 8100 aka the Pearl and many other PDA style phones have the capability to connect any computer to the internet by acting as a modem!  Which is exactly what I did!  This moment is reminiscent of the victorious moment when Tom Hanks' character in the movie Castaway triumphantly shouts "YES, LOOK AT WHAT I HAVE CREATED!  FIRE!!! as he dances around the fire that he worked so hard to create.

The drawback.... I'm running at around 65.2Kbps and I have to disconnect from my work network while I'm online.  So this is something that I won't get to use very often.

Ho Hum.... so much for my victory.  Hey, the fire Tom Hanks created wasn't enough to keep him on the island, right?

This is so foreign to me I don't even know what to write here.  I've been a member for a while but have never posted that much.  So here goes...attempt number 2 at xanga'ing. 

And in honor of the newly released Transformers movie... I present the coolest frigging costumes EVER.  PERIOD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akNJ6S2UqsE

Where were these things when I was a kid?????