If  there is one thing I’ve learned over the last few months, it’s that Southeastern Conference football and friends from rival schools don’t mix too well in my social media universe.  In fact, it’s causing my feelings about some people to change, specifically how I behave around them.

I’ve got a couple of really good friends that I don’t talk to, or a lot around anymore.  There have been so many things said on Facebook and Twitter that strike my heartstrings in such a way that I’ve lost the desire to communicate with them face-to-face.  I’m not talking about just from them.  I’ve done my fair share back to them, so it’s both of our faults.

I’ve blocked several people from my Twitter list, and I’ve closed off my Facebook status updates to countless people.  I’ve also trimmed my news feed back from seeing anything they have to say.  They’ve done the same to me, but I keep them as my “FB friends” instead of outright deleting to show them I’m not wanting to completely shut them out of my life.

I feel it’s a survival mode.  Not to save my life or theirs, but to try and salvage real life, real world friendships.  I couldn’t even look or talk to a couple of people in church today because it’s gotten so bad.

That is absolutely pathetic, and it’s bothering me that we’ve let status updates, tweets and football rivalries get in the way of being good friends.  There is so much more to life than this, but living in my state college football is practically a second religion.  It literally tears families and friends apart, and it has effectively started that trend in my own life.

What makes it so much worse for me is I graduated from one school and work for its chief rival.  I love both of these places dearly, and it absolutely tears me in half when I hear either side rip the other.

I know I’m making it all too personal for no good reason.  This rivalry was here long before me, and it will be here long after.  However, it’s making me miserable while I’m on this earth.  I love my alma mater, and I wouldn’t trade anything for my job and where I work.  I chose both these places, and they chose me.

I just wish I could sort out all these nasty feelings I’m getting toward people on either side.  It’s going to take a lot of prayer and time to heal these wounds.  This is not what I wanted my social media life to become.

I think I’ve been a little too open about my life on Facebook and Twitter.  I have alienated a lot of people with my political views, and a lot of people have alienated me with their venom and obscenities about my alma mater.

That’s the tough part of having friends who went to and/or cheer for the rival school.  I can’t stand seeing people on either side of the fence bash the other.  Unfortunately, I let it get to me because I do have a tremendous amount of love for both.

So, to fix this, I have shut down my tweets from the outside world (unless I approve you to see them), and I have shut out anyone who has anything bad to say about either school from my Facebook wall and status updates.  Even if you’re a close friend in real life, the moment you bash a school I went to/work for, you’re done.  I even block your updates from my news feed.  I feel that’s nicer than simply unfriending you (it lets you know I still like you in real life).

That’s not the only criteria.  I’m blocking a lot of Facebook access simply because too many people see too many things.  One of the reasons I got out of TV news is too many people knew who I was.  I honestly got tired of being recognized and wanted to slip back into obscurity.  Instead, I opened up for the world on those two platforms, and now it’s causing me to have ill feelings toward people I wouldn’t have in the first place.

If you want to see what’s going on (in a more controlled manner), then keep checking this blog.  I don’t update much, but I’ll be putting up only things I want everyone to see … which isn’t a lot.

Just like the title means, it’s late.  I am pretty tired, but finally got a little urge to jot a few things down.

These last few months have been hectic to say the least.  We’re finally in our new house, and we’re loving it.  Much more space and places to escape the kids’ constant volume issues.  Santa, can we have two muzzles for Christmas, please?    I’m teasing.  We love our kids, but as any parent can attest, these precious children are LOUD.

Speaking of the house, the garage is far from being cleaned out.  We got a lot of stuff into the house, but then we moved everything from our storage unit into the garage so we wouldn’t have to keep paying monthly rent.  The pile is shrinking except for one corner.  That’s the yard sale corner.  The pile is growing, and thanks to “Clean House” and Dave Ramsey, we’ll sell what we can out of it, then it’s off to Harvest Evangelism’s thrift store to donate the rest.  We didn’t have enough time to clean everything out we wanted before we moved.  We got rid of some stuff, but now I’m to the point of letting a lot of my past obsessions go.  It’s a shame no one is really spending a lot of money on fun things right now.  I’d make a killing.

My hobby is taking off very nicely.  I’m sure you’ve seen how much I love “Ghostbusters.”  I’ve been part of the Birmingham Ghostbusters group since earlier in the year.  Well, my friend Mike (who was the head of the group) has moved to North Carolina for the time being.  He resigned his role, and I’ve been named the new head.  That happened Thursday/Friday of last week, and we’ve since changed our name to Alabama Ghostbusters.

I really want different areas of the state to form groups under our umbrella, create different “chapters,” if you will.  That way we can represent ALGB without all of us having to travel so far for an event.  We can cover many more charity and community events that way, too.

I’m trying to come up with a lot of ways to promote the group more.  So far, I’ve stepped up our Facebook and Twitter activity.  I’ve also announced the change on GBFans.com.  So, if you’d like to join a fun group of guys that simply loves to help others and loves “Ghostbusters,” then we’d love to have you.  The site has all the info and serves as our central hub.

I guess that’s all my brain is letting me come up with right now.  It’s way past bedtime, and I haven’t felt well in a week. I need some sleep.  Maybe I’ll get the itch to do this again this week since I’m off for six days.  Nothing like being home and relaxing … unless you’re cleaning out your garage.

It’s Monday night, and that means my extended weekend is over.  I took last Friday off so we could head to Dragon*Con in Atlanta.  That’s two four-day work weeks with a four-day weekend thrown in for good measure.

We left Friday morning after David’s doctor appointment.  We had three celebrity photo-ops scheduled for the weekend, and the first was at 1:15 that afternoon.  We made our way to our hotel, dropped off the car and proceeded to speed walk for about four blocks to the Sheraton to pick up our convention badges.  With Amy’s heart condition, that probably wasn’t very smart.

We picked up our badges and walked two more blocks to the Marriott, where the photos were being taken.  After a couple of wrong turns, we finally made it in time for a photo/meet-and-greet with John Schneider and Catherine Bach from “The Dukes of Hazzard.”  They were both extremely nice, and it made Amy’s day to meet John.  She’s always liked him and Tom Wopat, but I think only John will show up for this type of event.

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated this thing.  Forgive the neglect.  I’ve had lots of things going on in my personal life that has kept me from this.

I have not given up on the “Life by the Numbers” series I was working on.  I’ve just been sidetracked.  I will try to get some more stuff going soon.

Keep watching this site, especially if you don’t have Twitter.  The feed on the left remains very active, so there is some content flowing on here.  Just not the main blog stuff you’ve been reading.

Back to work!