Thursday, June 4, 2009

Big City, Little City

So, despite a metro area population of somewhere around 1.5 million, Milwaukee is really a very little town.

VERY LITTLE.

Case in point.

Facebook.

Yesterday, there was a flurry of activity on Facebook. Since the number of my friends on said interface would not populate a football team, much less a third world country, this is a rare occurrence. But yesterday, there was a lot of activity. My BlackBerry was blowing up, as they say. Probably without that "g" on the end.

Blowin' up?

Still not right.

Moving on.

There was a lot of activity. Posting, commenting, planning, all that stuff that people who hate the phone (like me) really love this social networking shit for.

And then, I get this comment notification.

Now, if you've ever tried to use the full functionality of Facebook on a mobile device, you know that it doesn't always translate. Sometimes links don't take you to the right place, and you're left wondering what exactly someone else is commenting on, because it just doesn't quite make sense. This was one of those moments. I scratched my head for awhile before getting to a full-fledged computing device.

But that's not the point.

The point is that a friend of a friend saw a comment I had made on the wall of our mutual friend, and followed up with something to the effect of "We work together, I think, even though we only ever speak on the phone." (I'm paraphrasing like mad. The exact comment would reveal personal information I'm just not ready to share with you people yet.)

But that's still not the point! Everyone knows that coworkers will eventually find you on Facebook, and then you have to decide what to do- accept the requests and set their group permissions so that they can't actually see any part of your profile, or just ignore them.

The point is, that this chick is dating this kid I went to middle school with who subsequently became really good friends with one of my coworkers at the job before this one.

Yeah.

It's like six degrees of Kevin Bacon up in here.

And since Mark Metcalf lives in Milwaukee and I've met him, all of these people can actually be connected to Kevin Bacon in six degrees or less.

Not the point. But funny nonetheless.

It just floors me that there is so much interconnectedness in this city I live in. Every once in awhile when something ridiculously over-the-top like this happens, I have to just sit back and marvel at the human condition. We are such social beings, despite our violent tendencies and our power struggles and our egos. We're social, under it all.

Also, it makes me go ick when I think about the fact the bulk of the people I have slept with in my life are Milwaukeeans. I could probably do a six-degrees thing and get myself to having had intimate contact with about half the 1.5 million inhabitants of this town.

Ew. If the Manfriend and I don't work out, I think I may have to only date people who live 100 miles or more away.

3 comments:

  1. How did I not realize you live in the city with a pub on every freaking corner?! I love Milwaukee. Ya hey dere. I was there less than two years ago with about ten buddies. We ended up at the Milwaukee Roadhouse? A fun place with a live band in your artsy warehouse district I thinks. Anyway, what was this blog about?

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  2. Yeah, I think the best thing about Milwaukee is the housebars. They're really a unique institution.

    Also this blog was about Bacon. Kevin Bacon.

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  3. Kevin Bacon! Hey, I know someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows Kevin Bacon.

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