The Friday Five! On Saturday, of course.

1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people?

Nope. I'm getting a little better, but definitely not. It's too easy for me to forget and drop out of contact just because I have nothing to say. LiveJournal's a lot easier since I don't have to wonder if I've said X to someone - or if I'll bore them to tears, since it's not going just to them, it's not as bad.

2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? Depends! I really like using LiveJournal, comments, MUSH pages, and email. I think because they're quick and easy, and don't require a lot of effort/thought, and permit multitasking. I tend to prefer the phone over snail mail (I think in part because I hate to send my handwriting out where it might injure unsuspecting people).

3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? Yep. Two. Three if you count my MUSH client.... I use ICQ and Windows messenger. I came to like the latter because we use it at work also; I've used ICQ for quite a while and many of my college friends are on it. I may have to drop WM and go to AIM (everyone on my personal Windows messenger is also on my ICQ; it was recently brought home to me that my chat program tastes don't mix well with some people I want to talk to). I'm not sure I want to, though; I hate AOL as a company, and am reluctant to use anything that actually has their name in it, even if it's free.

4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? Most of my close friends live far away (other states). I went to college in the midwest, and formed a lot of my friendships online, so I suppose that's bound to happen.

5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"? A bit of both. It depends on how strong the interest/caring was initially. If it's too weak - yeah, out of sight, out of mind. It's too easy to just let things fall away and forget to communicate.

If you care enough about something/someone though, then it's rather the latter. It's whether the connection's strong enough to survive the distance, I guess.

Some days!

I meant to help with the deck - my parents came over, and my dad (pheon) sealed the deck while mom hung out inside with us. (Thanks, Dad! For the help, and the tips for next spring.)

Alas, I had two after-hours calls by the time they showed up - they both arrived together, and neither is resolved yet. I did eventually stop working on them when I hit a wall on each (very early in one, where the client resolved the immediate symptom, then told us - makes it a wee bit hard to investigate, since the evidence vanishes). R. just called me back with information on the one that had evidence, and I did the wrong thing (not harmful, just useless), so it may not be so hard to solve as I'd thought.

But boy am I embarrassed. I'm also off to connect in to both sites, to fix the one (I hope!) and see if there's anything interesting at the other (it's supposed to happen often enough to be worth tracking).

I had time for a very enjoable evening in between giving up on the last (around four) and now - I got to roleplay a character I dearly love. I got to hang out with friends, and chatter. I vegged around the web, and I finished reading The Perilous Gard (thanks for the recommendation, utsuri!).

So I can't say it was an awful day, but a lot less of it was mine than I'd hoped, and I wasn't as good a hostess as I'd wanted to be for my parents. Bah.