Before It Was Cool

The mark of cool has always been "I did that before it was in style". One great thing about living in the information age: the geeks among us often the ones ahead of the curve. That doesn't stop us from being jerks sometimes, though.

Coworker: I'm thinking about starting a blog; do you blog?
Me: Do I blog? Please, I've been blogging since 2004.

And after I saw The Social Network, I also had to make a point of saying that I'm pretty sure I was among those first one million people on facebook that they celebrate . Yeah, that's right, the other 499 million of you are followers. (Let's not mention the sheer luck of being of college age when it came out and the sheer luck of having friends in the east where facebook initially took off).

Also...after a little research today, the blog thing is not true and the facebook thing is questionable.

Turns out the first post I have on my first blog was dated Jan 27th, 2005. It is really odd to read the old diaryland blog. I haven't looked at it in years. Such a horrible format. Also, I was far too concerned with: a) food, b) trying to sound smart, c) dating. (Readers of this blog know that I've since moved to far more reputable concerns: food, trying to sound smart, and cats.) Though there are little bits of cleverness here and there that make me not entirely hate myself at age 18-19.

I don't remember when I joined facebook (or thefacebook as it was at the time) and don't have access to my old BYU email anymore so I have to look for clues to figure it out. The earliest indication I can find is also from the diaryland blog. I know that on March 4, 2005, I had 92 facebook friends. So I joined sometime before that. Facebook reached 1 million users in late December 2004. So maybe I was one of those. Hard to say. Also, I don't remember if Emilee or I ended up winning the first person to 100 facebook friends contest back then. I do know I initially joined facebook before she did AND that currently I have 474 friends and she has 420. So we all know who the real winner is.

When I first joined facebook, there was that "find people in your network button", which some of you may remember. I recall that there were only around 30 people in the BYU network. And I was like "I don't know how useful this site is going to be for me."

I'm totally cooler than you because of this.

Cat Notes

You know I needed another cat post:

• Tiberius likes fruit more than any cat I've ever known. Whenever I have applesauce, for example, he goes crazy trying to get at it like it were catnip. He leaves me pretty well alone if I'm eating like, chicken, though. So weird.
• Nearly every morning, Fidel gives us kitty escorts to the car. Fidel is not as cuddly as Julius or Tiberius, but he shows he loves us by being our protector. It's really adorable. He even provides kitty escorts to the laundromat (a few buildings over from ours). And even though he does not like it there and meows trying to show me how to get home, he will stick with me. Because he knows I need him to help.
  
• Thing I will miss most about the old office: kitten friends in the backyard across the parking lot. I've got an excellent view of them from my desk and they just run and pounce at things all day long. So dang cute.
• The cats favorite spots in the house are as follows: Julius - the lower right-hand corner of the bed; Fidel - The brown chair in Trevor's computer room; Tiberius - wherever he can be most in the way.
• I had a dream a couple nights ago that we got a little grey girl kitten that we named Cleopatra. I had a dream about a month ago that we got a little black girl kitten that we named Olivia. Little girl kitten hungry: not a good thing when you've already got three cats. Though I think this will be significantly quelled when Trapper's home loan finally goes through which means he gets the little girl kitten he has always wanted. I have, of course, had a spot reserved as Trapper's kitten shopping buddy since before ground was even broken on the house.
• Trevor doesn't allow dressing up of cats for Halloween as it's not dignified. Julius and Fidel heartily agree. Probably Tiberius wouldn't mind it too much. If it were to happen, however: Julius would be a Darth Vader, Tiberius would be a John Lennon, Fidel would be George Washington. (Tiberius would actually be a bumblebee, but apparently that's what I said last year, so we can't have him in the same costume).
• Because Julius is the smartest of our cats and likes to put his claws into people to show them he loves them, he has learned that he won't get pushed away for lovey kneading if the person he is loving has a blanket on their lap. He'll look at me and wait until I've put something on my lap while I'm at my computer and then hop on and claw away at my covered thighs. The other day, Trevor was putting on a sweater and Julius thought the sweater on Trevor's legs meant that he could hop onto his lap. Because he's always looking for the cue. Because he's a good boy.
• Tiberius has a new sparkle collar. You can't really see it because he's so fluffy, but it's got rhinestones. And it looks very handsome on him.
• When speaking to Fidel, I often make the mistake of calling Tiberius "your little brother" ("stop picking on your little brother" is a too common phrase in our house...Fidel just has so much energy and Tiberius is such a wuss; Fidel, of course, knows better than to pick on Julius). Tiberius is about three months older than Fidel and is larger in stature, but I think I will always think of him as the baby of the family. He's the least intelligent but the most cuddly...and he's got those big blue eyes. Even though Tiberius is actually quite a large cat at this point, I look at him and still just see the little fluffball with ears too big for his body that we first took home with us.
• I've decided than when I have a home of my own, I definitely want to volunteer as a foster home for animal shelter overflow. It would be providing a service to the community (at least in this part of the state, there's apparently a big need for it) and hopefully satiate my desire for more and more cats in my house. Maybe dogs, too. If I always have animals rotating through, it would be like always getting new pets.

Victory!

Thirty-three minutes after I wrote this post, my darling husband wrote this post. And the only prompt he really needed was our awesome cat, Fidel (though keep the votes coming...Trevor has stated intent to consider your input).

Let this be a warning to any of you on my blogroll who it's been a few months+ since your last post. I wield power. You may be next.

I don't think mimes sing...

You may recall it. A little blog where we once read tales of great journeys, eternal struggles, and Johnny Cash hitting cripples with fish. A little blog by a brilliant but troubled man (I don't know why we still use the "but" when in much of modern expression brilliant = troubled). A little blog that has lain dormant for some time.

But that time has come to an end. Or will come to an end, rather. Or else.

Drunk on the success of my last attempt to change the blogosphere, I thought I would turn up the heat a little.

The usual response to the heat: "I have nothing to write about!". Well, here's a chance we all have to make a difference.

Pick your favorite prompt for a Trevor blog post.

Note: He may or may not actually follow the winning prompt. There's no controlling the man

Together

The family was in town this weekend. It's the first time that all ten siblings, plus the one brother-in-law (so far Trevor is the only spouse brought into the fold, but Jared is engaged so soon it will be two), plus both parents have all been in the same room together. Ever. We've had at least one boy off on a mission since Whitney was born until quite recently, and then we've had four of us living in Utah and the rest in California, so it's taken a bit for the stars to align. Documented evidence of the whole family together:

Yes, Nate is on Jared's shoulders. Yes, I picked this photo over the formal portraits. Yes, I will play the mad pirate in your upcoming feature film.

Oh and Kayla is taller than me. Weirdest thing ever.

And Whitney called my cat Tiberius, "Tiberipuppy". She's adorable.