Chat Room - Part Deux

I said I would give it another try, and I actually gave it four or five.

So one evening I sit quietly observing the chat room, not participating, but just trying to keep up with all the different conversations. The room is moving incredible quickly with conversations all over the place and about several topics.

Then the unthinkable happens.

An IM window pops up on my screen saying a simple, yet so complex, "hello"!

Pure, unadulterated panic! What do I do? Have I been busted as a voyeur? Is that wrong? Is this person gonna scold me? Or worse... is this some cyber bot thingee that will take over my PC and infect it with some horrible virus? Is someone gonna start to cyber stalk me? What to do... what to do? Heart pounding, sweaty palms, I do the only thing I can think of. I type back the truly thought provoking response, "hello."

And then I wait for an eternity. What will happen next? Twiddle my thumbs, wipe the sweat dripping from my forehead, say a prayer or two. Hours go by... okay, I guess it was a few seconds. Another window!!! Oh no!!! Dare I open it?

"What is your favorite team?"

Whew! My PC unscathed, I start up what turns out to be a good friendship with (I cringe as I admit this) a White Sox fan.

But what has this friendship taught me? I realized that while I had started looking into the game of baseball more, there was one avenue that I did not go down. I have always thought of our team in a vacuum. We were the team in second place, but I never really cared who we were behind or thought beyond the upcoming game. Now as we went into the White Sox series I was paying attention to the other team, their strengths, weaknesses, players and what all of those factors meant to our team. We talked baseball for hours. I have to tell you the series took on a whole new character. I learned a ton about the other team and I started to think more about the long term. Who do they face next vs. who do we. Of course the best part was that I could poke fun at the new friend when his team lost 3 of the 4. We hoped for each other successful games (although I am guessing we both held some of our good wishes in reserve.) We congratulated each other for good games and lamented bad plays. It was so much fun to talk about! I was at the game on Thursday (the hat kicking day) and will blog about that later (I can't post a picture from the PC I am on.) No drug could have made me higher than being at that game. And part of the thrill was getting to really rub it in! Yes, I do have an evil side!

I have done the same research now for the Indian series and it has the same effect - minus the hours of chats. How fun would it be to have a friend from every team? (But I guess I would have even less of a life due to always chatting with someone!) Yes, it takes more time to look into the other team, but knowing how batters do against the expected pitcher, and visa versa, and what to look for makes the game so much more enjoyable.

Well, even if the friend it brought me was from the enemy, my chat room experiment was actually a success and I will go back.

Go Twins!
(Watch out Sox!)