Quit Yelling At Me!!!

This post could also be titled "Embracing Social Media" or "I'm Getting Old".

Over the years here at TOTP I've tried to not be a whining and complaining blogger, but rather to be an observer.  Sometimes probably usually it's pretty easy to figure out where I stand at the end of an observation, but I still try to do my best to observe without the groaning and moaning that I see in many forwarded emails and or facebook check-this-outs.

I remember throughout my growing up years occasionally coming across my dad's old 8-track tape case. It's probably still at my parent's place if you want to check it out.  It held Johnny Rodriguez, John Denver, Charlie Pride, and Fleetwood Mac among others.  His cassette tape collection included Hank Jr., George Strait, and the Maines Bros Band.  (Thank you, Dad, for introducing me to good music.  Thank you to Dad's dad for introducing me to Willie.)  When I continued to come across his collections through my high school and college years I began to wonder why and at what point in life a person stops caring about what's new and stops buying music (This is strictly a music discussion, nothing more) and wondered if and when it would happen to me?    Well, I'm there.  There was a time in my life when I'd buy 1 or 2 albums a week.  Now it's 1 or 2 a year.  My life is far from music free though.  Thanks to new stuff like youtube, Pandora, and the mp3 player that holds all of those hundereds of albums I bought back when, my life is filled with a limitless supply of the old good stuff.

WARNING

This remainder of this post may contain some trace amounts of whining and complaining and I may sound like a grumpy old man.

I confess I'm not a very good texter.  I've had a facebook account for almost 2 years now, but rarely post anything other than links to TOTP.  I don't twitter.  I don't hashtag, pinterest, or instagram.  Most of my texting is with my wife and thankfully she doesn't yell at me, but it seems like everyone else does. Why is it that folks are always exclaiming things?  I've heard English teachers say that a person should only be allotted three exclamation points for a lifetime, and that most people should finish life with one left over.  I find it easier to forgive grammatical idiocy on facebook, but when someone is sending me a text it's personal.  I feel like they're yelling at me.  I feel like I'm being bullied and the 87 posters at my kids' school say that is very bad and that I should tell someone so I'm telling you.  

I guess the thing that really has me baffled is that the same people who refuse to use any other form of punctuation in any of their texting feel the need to use four exclamation points in one text.  In one text they've used up their lifetime allotment plus one of someone else's.

In Other Justin Explores the World of Social Media News.....

The preacher down the road posted a question on facebook recently and I came up with a theory.  His question asked why he should check out the Duck Dynasty show and he received the expected responses for and against it.  After thinking about it I came up with a theory that goes like this.......If you like JenHatmaker's blog you will probably like Duck Dynasty.  If you like RachelHeldhyphenatedEvans blogs you probably won't, and you probably take yourself too seriously, voted for Obama twice, and need to be on some sort of laxative/antidepressant cocktail regimen. 

If you aren't familiar with those blogs they are kind of like Time of the Preacher except they post regularly, go viral via facebook, and produce income.  But the best chance at an education you've got is listening to me talk so stick with me here at TOTP.