My Social Experiment: Day 0 (Nervous)

Before I begin what I set off to do, I feel like I should type down my thoughts as to how I feel. First off, I'm nervous. I have approximately 230 friends listed on Facebook: 50% that were added randomly these past few months, about 30% that I know by association, 15% that I don't even communicate with anymore, and the remaining 5% are people that I do communicate with. Only the 5% will be excluded (since there is no point in reconnecting with them when I already do communicate with them). SO...yeah, many will be complete and total strangers. Second, I'm pretty there are a several that are either married, or at least in a very serious relationship, so I can anticipate a lack of response (but hopefully a polite decline?) from these people. 

So yes, I can say that I'm nervous: who will respond? Who will actually want to participate? Can I maintain communication with approximately 150 people (that's the amount of people I'm hoping to interact with)? Can I even initiate some sort of dialogue to begin with (after I post the initial question)? 

I hope to seek some answers soon.

Connecting With Others

I've been glancing at my so-called "Facebook Friends List" and think to myself, What do I really know about these people? How can I begin to know them personally? The answers to these questions still elude me, but I'll come up with a solution of sorts. My gears of my mind are currently at work, devising a plan to effectively come up with an answer to sorts. If this all plays out, this might be the social experiment of my life!...thus far. I'm sure I'll be devising grander social experiments in the future of my life. 

Reading and Falling Behind

Once again, I've edited my Comprehensive Reading List, CRL for short (as always), for what seems like the 10th time this year. My book count, over this year, has jumped exponentially from 51 or 52 (pretty much somewhere in the low 50's) to a new total of 68. As of now, I'm at approximately 63.63% of accomplishing my goal of this year. It's been such a hard trek in trying to read as much as possible. The cool (and annoying part) of this is that I'm more likely to go down on my progress than go up. This is so mostly because I add books than cross them off, but I'm doing my best to read two books for every one that's added. So, that's a good thing. =D

However, that's not where I'm falling behind actually. For one of my classes that is studying social changes on a macro level (this meaning across a lengthy period of time - in this case, human history), we have to read this textbook called Social Transformations: A General Theory of Historical Development (Expanded Edition) by Stephen K. Sanderson. Our professor warned us that this book will be a challenging read, since the book was written for Sociology grad students, not undergrad students. And reading this book is, well, pretty damn hard. In one of my earlier sociology classes, my professor pointed out that many books academic books are written with a specific lingo or lexicon that seems to shut out any other curious minds outside of that particular field (in other words, she argues that academic books should serve to enlighten everybody, including the everyday man, instead of a select few). 

Anyhow, reading this book makes running in water an easier task to perform. I was supposed to read chapter 1 by Saturday (yesterday), chapter 2 by tomorrow (Monday, which I haven't) and chapter 3 by (Wednesday, which probably won't happen) if I'm going to fully comprehend the lectures and classwork that I'm expected to complete effectively. Hence, I've fallen behind already.