Facebook, how I wish I didn't meet you

How did I avoid this for so long: I know it seems like something I would have been doing for years already, but up until today I have been avoiding Facebook. I already unwillingly got on MySpace and I feel like that’s enough invasion of my time and privacy. I’m really not sure everyone wants to know what I’m doing every minute of the day. I certainly don’t.

However, while attempting to digitally stalk a friend’s new boyfriend, I found I had to sign up for Facebook in order to continue my investigation. And then whoosh, most of my afternoon was absorbed, which was very bad because I was on deadline. However, I did suddenly acquire 34 new/old friends and get back in touch with several people I hadn’t heard from in months. It’s also an excellent way to observe undetected what old boyfriends are doing, which is maybe not the best thing.

In any case, I assign Facebook a grade A for addictive. It’s fast, easy and simple — which, frankly, MySpace is not. My younger friends say they prefer MySpace because it’s more customizable, but I’m all about speed and simplicity of design. So, hello Facebook! I hope I get some work done again soon.

Of course ESPN wants them: Just back from Beijing and apparently fresh off of an 18-hour plane ride spent studying Olympic ratings, ESPN honchos are telling everyone that will listen that they want in. John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president of content, told the New York Times that Disney-owned ESPN will bid on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, in a city yet-to-be-named but I vote Rio (candidates are Rio, Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo – hmmm, running in Chicago in August – the athletes should organize now to avoid that one). ESPN chief George Bodenheimer echoed that at MNF’s media kickoff event. I’ve always wondered why ESPN didn’t work harder to get a piece of the lucrative Olympics action, although my wondering didn’t go that far because I know how much NBC paid for the games, but not having the Olympics does seem like a huge gap in ESPN’s otherwise strong sports arsenal. Still, as I keep saying here, NBC’s done a nearly flawless job with these games – and everyone I’ve talked to agrees – so it might be a shame to see them go.

Of course she got her own primetime program: MSNBC finally did the smart thing and ousted Dan Abrams and his show in which three or four other lawyers all get together and yell about something and gave uber-intelligent Rachel Maddow her own primetime program. Rachel’s hasn’t been shy about saying she wanted her own show, but since when did being shy get you anywhere? For fans of Keith Olbermann’s Countdown, Maddow is a familiar presence. And for my money, she’s the only guest host that even comes close to matching Olbermann’s intelligence, authority and tone. Although they both often speak in really long sentences about complicated subjects which causes me to lose track of what they are saying altogether.  Stick with short sentences, people! We are in the Internet age now and attention spans just ain’t what they used to be.