so after years of blogging, the system worked. as you may or may not have read on the ‘about’ page, one of the cool things, i think, about having a publicly available personal website is that it’s so easy for old friends to get in touch, should they ever get the inclination. for those with the courage to use their full name in their web exploits (and the self-censorship to not let that get them in trouble), your site becomes the best possible of phonebook entries. as a matter of fact, i am pretty much the brian longtin on the internet right now, and i’m sort of weirdly proud of that, for some reason. or i just have a non-common name, luckily.

either way, an old high school friend randomly emailed me a few months ago out of the blue, or that is, in the wake of a five-year high school reunion i was unable to attend that prompted some curiousity on her part, and then we were in touch again, just like that. easy as pie and surprisingly not awkward.

then, there’s more! because that same ‘about’ page also offers a drink to those who stop by looking for me and go so far as to let me know they’ve done so. and look, this old friend was in LA on a business trip this week, and emailed me yesterday morning suggesting we get together that very night for a drink. and in a matter of hours, there we were, catching up and enjoying eachother’s conversation in a random bar/restaurant in the very happening LA peripheral known as monrovia, california. it was a great time, and i was so happy she wrote to me and it came together.

say what you will about stalkers, hackers, perverts, whatever you like that goes on thanks to the internet. as i told her over the drinks we were having last night, i am totally convinced that the positive social value of having some sort of presence on the internet most definitely outweighs the potential drawbacks.

so to rachel i say thanks for getting in touch and hanging out, and to this website i say, ‘it finally worked just like i said it could!’ how cool is that?