Head Shots or a Shot to the Head?

After quite a bit of poking from assorted friends and acquaintances, I finally got some more picture of myself. I'm a little shocked they turned out as well as they did, because I do not take good pictures.

I've been meaning to do this for some time, but I really hate having pictures taken of me, much less having to do them myself. It means making sure my hair isn't standing up in twelve different directions, and putting on make-up so I don't look like a vampire drank the last ounce of my blood. I'm pale as it is, but in camera shots I look like a sheet of frightened paper.

I do not normally bother with make-up, and I brush my hair exactly once. As soon as I get out of the shower I brush it, part it and leave it. If it does anything weird after that, it's on its own. My hair can explain itself to the frightened children I pass by.

My previous picture made me look more than a little psychotic, or at least really angry. I was told by more than one person that it looked like a mug shot. They were being kind. I'd look better in a mug shot, ink smeared on my face from the finger-printing, as at least it would add some colour.

Now my only problem (okay not my only problem), is that I'm trying to get my profile pictures updated, and some of them are even more stubborn than I am. I mean, they are just dug in and do not want to update the picture.  Maybe it's their way of say, "We thought you looked okay," but I think it's more likely the little bits and bytes are just too lazy to bother. Sort of like me.

This blog is not showing my new picture, but my Google+ profile does, and I'm not finding any links for updating photos. Of course, I've fallen way behind the times when it comes to social media. I used to be so in tune with tech stuff. Hell, I used to sell cell phones for Nextel, and even though Nextel sold the same line as Telus in Canada, they were way ahead on releasing the new models. I knew about the new phones long before they were available here. Of course, the fact that they haven't been Nextel for quite some time should tell you how long ago that was. Now they're Sprint.

When it comes to the hardware, such as laptops, I always get caught up whenever I start to look around for a new one. My ex will ask for advice on that, and I shop for my daughter, too. That gives me three people I usually end up shopping for, so I'm kept in the loop pretty well due to the frequency with which I do more research.

No, it's things like Twitter and blogging I'm behind on. Obviously I have a blog, as you can see because you're reading it. I also have a Twitter account, but I'm completely lost on that. It took me about 3 months to realize that someone had sent me an article about a topic we were discussing. Actually, it was the article on using a single space after a period. I sent her a thank you as soon as I saw the thing, along with an apology for being an idiot. She favourited it. Now I feel like an even bigger dork.

I didn't know you could carry on a chat-like thing through direct messages until I started chatting with another writer a few days ago. I've had my Twitter account since July. Apparently I'm brain-dead these days. I'd never bothered to click on the @connect or #discover sections. I didn't know what they did, and I was more than a little leery of the whole thing.

I have a Facebook profile, and mostly know how to use that, except that I hate the new format like most people I talk to. I just use my Twitter account to push feed to it, and don't go on it very often. I think everyone is getting like that with FB. Its popularity is waning. Granted, not too many people are happy with Google either.

I still don't really understand the attraction to Twitter, and the direct messaging thing is really slow, but at least it's simple. It's kind of like the instructions on a shampoo bottle. You don't really need them, they're easy to follow, and there's an unnecessary step. Rinse, lather, repeat.