There was universal condemnation of the haircut I gave myself or so my kids tried to say,
“You can’t leave the house looking like that. You look like an old man but your hair is black. It should be white and you ought to 90 something” said my son.
I laughed and said I thought he believed that caring about looks and clothes is stupid.
“It is stupid, but there are lines. I don’t want you to be bald, but in this case you ought to be bald.”
I laughed again and asked him if he cared about the beard too.
“No, that doesn’t bother me, but you look ridiculous.”
I laughed again and asked if he wanted to help shave the rest of my head.
He surprised me and agreed to do it and then acknowledged that I have a ton of hair everywhere but the front of my head.
“Too bad you can’t fix it.”
“Yeah, too bad. Would be nice to have hair again, but it is also nice not to have to care. Bald men are more virile and sexier too. You ought to try shaving your head, the girls will love you.”
“My father is crazy.”
“Yes he is.”
“Remember something.”
“What?”
“People of substance don’t care if you have any hair or not. Looks might get a woman’s attention initially but if you want to keep her around you want to make her laugh, feel comfortable speaking with you and let her know you have substance.
The right ones will like talking with you.”
“Dad, you know I have no plans to get married or have kids.”
“Yeah, I know that. I didn’t have plans to do that at 20 either.”
“I don’t want to know more details.”
“I don’t want to share more details.”
“Why are you telling me this then?”
“Because your old man has a job in life that involves looking out for you and helping to provide an education.”
“I don’t want your help with girls.”
“I am not giving it to you.”
“You just tried to.
“Nah, I gave you advice for making friends with a girl. That might be useful”
“That didn’t sound like advice for making friends.”
“There are some benefits to having a female friend or two. They might see the world differently than you do. Might be a benefit. Even if it seems a little screwy at times.”
“That doesn’t sound like something that is going to make women happy to hear. They say the same thing about us. There are differences in perspective and there is a difference in screwy and crazy.”
“You have known some crazy women or women who made you crazy.”
I just smiled.
“Dad, I don’t like that smile. Makes you look like you are up to something.”
“Yeah, smiling.”
Spent a chunk of time going through the blogs so that I could fix some coding issues and make some other updates.
Mulled over shutting things down and or consolidating that which isn’t read much any more. Don’t know if any one besides me would miss some but haven’t decided.
There is history tied up there so I have to decide if there is more than nostalgia keeping it up. The updates bring a few people and some pitches.
Some are of interest and provide some income but quite a few are requests for links and or guest posts.
The guest post and linkage stuff often look like junk to me so I ignore most inquiries. If the email is pleasant and it appears they have spent some time reading I will respond.
However I have received a couple of obnoxious remarks from people who are offended I haven’t responded in a time frame they consider to be appropriate.
I haven’t seen any egregious attempts yet but I have a feeling one is coming and they may become the subject of a post.
Unsolicited communication that includes a note about it being impolite not to respond isn’t a wise tactic. It is unlikely to get the kind of attention you might want.
It is not true to say all press is good press. People leave digital footprints all over and sometimes you’re better off not encouraging others to pay attention or so I have learned the hard way.
Anyhoo, we are approaching another moment in life in which big changes are on the horizon and what once was won’t be any longer.
Ought to be interesting to see how it all plays out. Life could look pretty damn different in the next 3-5 years, time will tell.
Maybe I’ll have a better haircut and beard then, or maybe not. 😉
