Nice to meet you Oct 9, 2006
To be honest, I'm usually lying when I say, "Nice to meet you."  There are the occasional instances when I finally meet someone I've been hearing a lot about or when I meet the significant other of a close friend or relative.  But most other times, I'm merely subscribing to a set of social standards.  I shake your hand, I say, "It was nice meeting you," and we go our separate ways.  It's usually not that it was bad to meet you.  I can only think of a few times when I wish I had never met a person.  It's mainly just that it's not "nice".  If anything, it's neutral.  I'd rather say, "We met today," and part ways.  But I obviously can't say this because it's not socially acceptable.  The thing is, we'll probably never see each other again.  We'll almost definitely never communicate.  And even if we happened to cross paths at some distance point in the future, neither of us would remember the other person's name, leaving us with the choice of awkwardly avoiding and ignoring each other or doing the whole "Haven't I met you before?  Weren't you at that thing?  Aren't you friends with my friend?"  So if you ever hear me say, "It's nice to meet you," please understand that it's not literally "nice" to meet you; I'm just fulfilling my social obligations by reading from a memorized cue card.  No offense.  You probably do it too. #psychology
Personal Oct 9, 2006
On a scale from 1 to 10, I would say my website is about a 7 in terms of how personal it is.  I write a good deal of personal opinions and thoughts, but I have to admit there are a few more "layers of the onion" I'm not willing to share with the internet.  Or at least I'm not willing to share them without anonymity.  It's kinda weird that I'm this candid and open with the internet, seeing that I'm a relatively shy and introverted person.  But for whatever reason, I've decided to make many of my views and ideas readable by countless people.  This becomes a slightly weird thing as more and more people find out that I have a website.  Several family members have found out about it, and I'm sure they're not only surprised that I have so much to say, but also shocked at some of the views I express.  It's always an awkward conversation when someone (a.k.a. Wendy) says, "Oh, Dave has a website.  You should check it out."  Meanwhile, I'm in the background denying that the website exists and trying to change the subject.  Different groups of friends and acquaintances have heard about it or stumbled upon it, and this makes me get the occasional desire to curb some posts around my perceived audience.  This is obviously not what I'm gonna do, but I still sometimes have the fear that my website will get me fired or lose me friends (meh).  I just sorta hope that the people who find my website either read it briefly then toss it aside because it's uninteresting and irrelevant, or become completely enthralled with everything I say and feel the need to leave copious comments that feed my enormous ego.  I hope they don't do what I do when I find somebody's website:  Read it privately and think about how much of a loser the person is for having a website. #technology