I have a confession. A real one. Are you ready for this? Brace yourself, because my confession is going to shock the pants right off you:

I’m completely manic about FACEBOOK this week. As if Twitter and Pownce weren’t enough, right?

Did you ask ‘So?’ just then? If you did, then you need to get up to speed with the other 30 million active members who “…use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.” That’s a big crowd of people right there.

If you did not say the word SO but instead said ‘Hey, that’s great!’ and you have a facebook account, give me a nudge so we can swap Widgets and links. We can even have a virtual food fight online, sans the cleanup of course. It’s all good clean fun.

My next questions are: when will facebook synch up with LinkedIN? And is facebook the internet equivalent of a ‘Black Hole’? Apparently so, according to Robert Scoble. Perhaps that’s why I’m feeling the sensation of being sucked into something bigger than the planet as I delve further into facebook. But I’m enjoying the ride, nontheless.

Oh yes, I’m taking heed to Secretary Chertoff’s statement about remaining “vigilant to the events happening in your environment and report any suspicious activities to authorities” over the summer vacation months. In fact, I’m keeping my eye out for strange activities on a daily basis now thanks to that public reminder. I mean who wouldn’t after all of the scary stuff going on in our world, right? Seriously now.

On that note, I think I have an incident that bears reporting to Homeland Security. Well, maybe. I’m sitting in my car at a stoplight on my way to work today and notice a decent looking gentleman in business attire crossing the street. As he walked toward the median beside my vehicle, he stopped and started poking around at the ground as if he was picking up litter. Then, what does he do? He picks up a cigarette butt and STARTS SMOKING IT.

Right there. In the median. Dude was smoking a dirty old cigarette butt from off the ground while standing in the downtown, busy road median.

What the…? And why was I the only one looking at that guy like he was completely out of his gourd? I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking something smells highly suspect here. Either that or I missed the memo discussing how picking-up-and-smoking-used-cigarettes-from-the-ground is acceptable behavior.

Hold on while I check my spam folder. Nope not there. Hmmmm…

Sometimes it’s just plain hard to admit… but yes, I’m still Catholic after this:

Judge OKs $660M Clergy Abuse Settlement

LOS ANGELES - Sobs and a moment of silence for those who died during years of negotiations punctuated a Monday hearing at which a judge accepted a $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and alleged victims of clergy sex abuse. [more]

To not acknowledge the latest events would be wrong lying to myself and others. So there it is. Read the wire and pray for those who suffered unnecessarily. Meanwhile, I’m still finding it difficult to comment on the church scandal, especially as a baptized-Lutheran-turned-Catholic-out-of-personal-choice, but someday I do hope to find a way to make sense of it.

Somehow I doubt that day will arrive.

Occasionally I poke around on Classmates.com, updating my profile, checking for new members and searching out reunion announcements. Usually my visits are prompted by email messages that I receive from Classmates asking things like: Do these 6 new members ring a bell? or Are memories just around the corner?, one of which I received today.
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