James again.

This experiment this week is going nicely! Thanks for the emails of support.

I have to share something with you. It is not a surprise to most of you, but I am a bit of a geek. Yes, full-on geek. At Great Neck Road Elementary School in Copiague (Long Island), NY, I was on the AV Squad. In Junior High School I ran the Photography Club. At Penn State, I was involved with the Undergraduate Student Government. Yeah, I was in band, chorus and theater too. Now, I run a whole lot of websites with folks like David. I have about 200 of them going. It can be insane, and I love it.

But you know what? It was so cool because I met so many people and saw different things. I've always been facinated with everyone else's stories. You may think you lead a boring life, but let me tell you, I am sure it is not boring. You just don't see the quarter in the sand. (That is a playground thing from grade school.)

So lets exchange stories. I will start. When I was a little boy growing up, I found out about area codes and I wondered who had my family's phone number, except in a different area code. Whenever I found out a new area code, I would call to see. Most of the time, there was no phone number there (ie: we were 516-842-5561 and I would call 201-842-5561 and it would not be a valid phone number) but sometimes it would be a person. And I would talk to them and explain what I was doing. Nobody ever hung up on me. Would you hang up on an 8 year old?

I can't imagine doing that now. I would be so embarassed. I wonder when that changed for me. And why did it change? David talks about this time in our lives when we change in his song "This Hill is Filled with Children". What do you think? Join us over in the Forum and give us your thoughts.

And don't tell my mom that those calls were made by me. She used to blame the phone company!

Best,
James