The day after one’s birthday is always feels a bit weird.  I still feel like I should be in a bit of a celebratory mood, but there’s nothing to really celebrate.  It’s just one of the 364 other days of the year when I wasn’t born.  If anything, there’s the tingling anticipation of Valentine’s Day, when I get to walk around and mock single people for their failures.

In attempting to “get serious” about blogging daily, I’ve done what any reasonable blogger would do.  I wasted some time online, by looking into what tools I could use to make my blogging experience easier.  I’m typing this up on Windows Live Writer, a free Microsoft tool that lets me blog without having to log in to the annals of my WordPress administration area.

That’s not completely true.  I didn’t really look it up.  It was conveniently sitting there in a Microsoft update utility when I was trying to install MSN Messenger.  I was trying to update my MSN Messenger because that’s the IM program that my parents choose to use, and I have slight guilt that I don’t keep in touch with my parents enough.

I don’t really keep in touch with anyone if they’re not using the Internet.  The most I ever talk to high school and college friends (other than in person because we work or hang out together) is on IM or on Facebook or on Twitter.  I don’t think this is a bad thing; it’s just a very different way of staying in touch.

But it does make me feel guilty, because even with all the ways I can keep in touch with people, I tend not to proactively do it.  I talk to maybe one of my high school friends with any regularity and a handful of college friends.  I put the onus on everyone else to keep up.  “I have a blog and a Twitter feed!  How can you not know that I bought a house?  I posted it everywhere!  Don’t you check??”

That’s not fair.  I have to work to bridge that gap between people who’ve created accounts on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce and have syncronized posts that they check on their FriendFeed and those people that don’t quite understand how IMs work.

In a world that is so connected, it’s a tragedy if all I do with that power is let people know when I’m eating a burger or to watch Peanut Butter Jelly Time again.

Speaking of which, it’s been way too long since I watched Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

P.S. Random Flash Game I’m Playing This Morning: Sentences