I'll be with you in a minute, I'm sending a text.

Hi,

Before I delve into an explanation of the comic strip above, make sure you click on the actual picture. That will bring the comic into a new window as a larger picture so that you can actually read it.

I don't know what it is with me and comic strips lately but they have been fueling quite a few of my posts. I read this one yesterday and smirked immediately because of how apt it is...people are on their cell phones all the stinkin' time. Before you accuse me of being a pot, yes, I am also on my cell phone quite a bit and will gladly take any well deserved criticism. I don't mind people using their phones to make phone calls, because hey, that is what they are for. It does make me sad however when I see people sitting in a restaurant across from each other and neither of them are saying a word because they are too engrossed in whatever they are looking at on their phone. Normally, you see the kids on the phone while the parents are trying to talk but a few weeks back I actually saw a girl sitting there staring at her mom for a good 15 min while her mom disregarded her and played with her phone. I watched this whole thing in awe as she, the mom, casually flicked her finger around the phone (obviously not sending an important work email,) while her daughter sat there sadly yearning for conversation. Well maybe not sadly yearning for conversation, but she was definitely sitting there! Bottom line, I kind of wanted to say something but it wasn't my place and I'm not an ass.

Let's move on to my own experiences. Usually at night after Noah goes to bed, Steph and I get a few hours to ourselves to just sit there and hang out. We have TV shows that we like to watch but recently, neither of us can even watch a half hour TV show without grabbing our phone to screw around on Facebook or see what's going on with Twitter. We get a few precious hours to ourselves at night and apparently we suffer from ADD so bad that we can't even relax and watch a show together. We knew we could do better than that, so we made a rule. Answering phones is fine (especially since I take work calls at all hours) and even responding to a few texts is okay, but we are no longer allowed to surf the internet or browse facebook/twitter while we have time together. Sounds pretty old and crotchety right? Well, the last thing that I want is Noah growing up seeing two parents not communicate with eachother because they are too busy on their smart phones. I don't want to be that parent in the restaurant on my smart phone while Noah sits there doing nothing, I want to be the dad who gives him a discreet high five for the silent fart he let out that disturbed all of the other patrons, just kidding...sort of.

*For the record, when Noah is awake, we aren't on our phones. I am sometimes, but not Steph, she is way better at sitting down indian style and playing with him and his toys. I can't sit indian style, it hurts.*

I could probably expand on this topic and point out the many different instances in when cell phone use annoys me but I have other things to do. The funny thing is that, as I complain about this stuff, I check tech websites daily to see if there are any new phones coming out because I am officially eligible for a new one. I feel like this whole blog is laced with hypocrisy but hey, what can I do? It's a blog: I have thoughts and I throw them onto the computer in a big jumbled mass and hope that my ramblings make sense.

Man, how aweomse does that iPhone 4S sound?? Right!??

Conor

So apparently Facebook did change its layout...

Hi,

So a few weeks back people were making a lot of noise about Facebook changing its layout. I was really confused because mine looked the exact same. Tonight I was behind my wife Steph while she was on FB and I saw something that BLEW my mind. The way her newsfeed looked was completely different and there was a ticker on the side that gave up to the second updates. Now all that chatter finally made sense.

See below, this is what I currently see on Facebook (I took this screenshot tonight)

Long story short, I have no idea why mine never changed. More importantly, are there other people out there who were just as confused as me and just didn't want to say anything? I thought I knew a lot about the social network but I guess I was wrong. Last, if someone who's in the know with Facebook (Yvonne, I am talking to you) please enlighten me as to why I am seeing something different than everyone else. I feel like this can be written in a "Parents just don't understand" column.

Conor

Advice

Hi,

Inspired by my friend Alan, who's got some insane moves, and thanks to a rockin' wedding for Shannon and Colin Fleming. I want to leave you with this piece of advice for the weekend.

When you are at a wedding, don't forget to dance.

Everyone is doing it anyway, so who cares if you look like a fool...might as well get some excercise.

Happy Thursday! (Friday for me because I am flying to Nebraska this weekend with my wife for another wedding...look for me on the dancefloor.)


Conor

Connections

Hi,

October is always one of my favorite months of the year. Don't get me wrong, I love summer and always will because of the hot weather and summer activities in general, but October has a lot of things going for it also. To start, my wife Stephanie's birthday is on the 25th and my Aunt Mary Ann (an avid reader of this blog) has a birthday on the 2nd. Also, the weather has cooled down a touch and going for a run in the afternoon is great. We can't forget Halloween, which is always awesome. The list goes on for a while but there is another one thing that I find important about October, it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

In recent years, this has become much more evident as you see signs in grocery stores (I donate at least a dollar every time!) as well as on TV and even now in the NFL, with the introduction of pink accessories like gloves and hats to wear on the sideline. This is important because it gives many people a chance to reflect on a family or friend who has had to deal with this awful disease. According to the American Cancer Society a woman's chances of getting breast cancer in her lifetime are a little less than 1 in 8 and the chances of a woman dying from breast cancer is 1 in 35. I am not going to inundate you with a ton of stats on this but I just wanted to be clear that you definitely know someone who has been affected by this disease. Sadly, my mother was 1 of the 35 who did not survive her bout with cancer. I miss her all of the time. The first year after her passing was insanely hard. Every holiday, birthday, or event was the first without her present. Now that's it has been almost 5 years, the scar is still very much there but I am able to go through these events and smile thinking about her rather than having a breakdown. While I still have those breakdowns on big occasions or just a random day, they are few and far between and I think my mom would prefer it that way. She wants me to smile when I think of her, and I do. That brings me to the comic above.

After college when I moved home for a bit I used get up in the morning and read the paper with my parents. My mom and I both loved the comic Get Fuzzy. It hasn't been as good in recent years but back then, it just cracked us both up every day. If we didn't see eachother in the morning before I headed to work I would come home later that day and say, "Man, did you read Get Fuzzy today!? It was so good." Then we would have a 2 min exchange. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal...but it was OUR deal. It was one small little thing that connected my mom and me. I loved it, and I still love it. Now, every time I read that comic, I wonder if she would like it, and it makes me think of her every single day. This one in particular she would've loved. She thought Bucky Katt was hysterical, and everytime he would get up to something (in this case, dressing up as a bat by putting a pot with wings on his head) she would point out the picture and say "Look how funny he looks!" Second to last panel, Bucky is standing there with the pot on his head, tongue out, just looking guilty. That's the shot.

I had other little things with my mom that we'd share but this was definitely one of the tops. Nowawdays, I am starting to find little connections with my son Noah such as watching music videos together in the morning or playing the Uke for him. I love these little moments and one day I will be able to tell him about these things that we did.

Happy October!

"While We Wait"

Conor