I have been writing this blog for a year now and have been absolutely floored by the responses to many of the essays, thoughts and opinion pieces i’ve written. Part diary, part open letter, I make no apologies for the way my eyes see the world around me. We are all entitled to our opinions and thoughts, but to those who have to write as a catharsis to exercise the demons or simply make the point, we remove the ideas from our heads and hearts and open them up to scrutiny by going on the record. I heard a person say that we all have a right to our own opinions, but we don’t have a right to our own facts. Because of this, I make sure to measure my words carefully and mean what I say. I know from my time in music that there are those out there that exists to refute and challenge every move you make and every word you say. This post is for you and not for the amazing people who have supported this blog over the past year. Now, I realize that this isn’t a baking blog about cupcakes so the subject matter can be weighty at times, but I see myself as a Realist. From my vantage point, or lofty perch if you are not a fan of my writing, the things I write about may chaff your senses so I wanted to come up with a list of what you need to know in order to grow your obsession with my life and thoughts in hopes that you convert over to reality at some point.

#1 If you read this blog in anger, you have an unhealthy obsession with my life, and besides, your skewing visitor stats and inflating my ego, so stop.

#2 If you think i’m writing about you, i’m probably not.

#3 If you consider my blog trash, and think i’m crazy, the fact is that you’re obsessed with a crazy mans trashy blog, and thats just crazy.

#4 If you hate my views on Faith, you have a right to be close minded.

#5 If you hate my views on Politics, more than likely you don’t have your own views and I make you feel inept. Not my fault.

#6 If you creep my blog, that makes you creepy and thats unhealthy, and creepy.

#7 If you are angry about something I said on this blog and you can’t articulate it in written words, opening it up to the scrutiny of others, then you don’t have an opinion and what you think absolutely, positively doesn’t matter.

#8 More than likely I do know more about whatever i’m writing about than you do.

#9 If you hate the bands i’ve been in, nobody cares but you.

#10 If you want to stick it to me, you can block me off of your computer, simply restart it, and hit escape at the windows startup screen and type in “Format” next to Drive A/: and ill be gone. Until then, Happy Creeping!

More could relate to this one than the last post I made. Most of us have a Facebook or social networking site of the like, for any of several reasons. From killing time to chatting with friends and family, posting endless updates to lurking on someone else’s wall, there’s so many uses for it.

But now, some businesses (and apparently colleges) are checking to see if you have one, and what you do with it before they take you on. My question is, should checking the existence of one’s Facebook play any role in the decision of getting hired, in the first place? I’ll be attempting to compare and contrast how this might work.

I’ll give them this, if you’re trying to deface a company through malicious or vicious posts, then -maaybe- it’s a good idea to request a take-down or simply not hire the person. But honestly, there’s absolutely no way to enforce that, last names are faked all the time. Generic locations, last name changes, new email. It’s not that hard, and certainly would make any efforts a company makes to enforce that rule nullified.

With that said, it’s an invasion of your privacy. (Well, of course, nothing you put on the internet is really private, but that’s not my point.) What you do at home, on the internet, isn’t really any of their business.

“I understand that when [employers look] at someone’s Facebook page, they’re just trying to paint a bigger picture of the people they’re hiring — so they’re not just a name on a résumé,” he said. “But that doesn’t demonstrate whether they can do the job. It shouldn’t matter what someone does when they’re not in the office.” – Justin Gawel

This is exactly what I’m talking about. (nearly) Everyone acts differently in the workplace. And when you’re out with friends, are you expected to be all professional? I don’t think so, you try to have a good time, or else you’d lose your spot going out with your friends for drinks or something, because you’re definitely boring.

“Many of Borchers’ friends are playing the Facebook name game, too — dropping their last names or using a nickname to hide from potential employers and grad-school admissions officers.” – CNN Tech

You shouldn’t have to do this. It’s like in my COPPA rant, only this time, not lying about your age, this time it’s lying about your name. That throws your friends through hurdles trying to contact you, since you have to tell them all again that you have a new name. This could be bad for situations where you live quite long-distanced from your family. Like me, for instance. Parts of my family live in Virginia and Kentucky (laugh away, why don’t you), and I live in the middle of Florida. That’s one of the only simple, quick ways to contact them. Employers seem to disregard the consequences for throwing away a large communicative tool. It’s like saying, “Throw away your cell phones, or else you’re not hired.”

“Last week, Miller had ordered about 50 married church officials to delete their Facebook accounts or resign from their leadership positions. He also suggested that married members of the congregation do likewise, and said he was deleting his own account.” – It’s Facebook or your Church Job

I’d love to learn that he was one of those hypocritical people who just changes their last names just like everyone else he told to remove their account’s should have.

…You’re free to go now.