Having communicaated by messages on Facebook with the last person who made a friend request I accepted, a lovely young lady from Rockford, Illinois who I had never met before, and since we haven't chatted since she last said "hello" (that was literally all she said in the last chat message I received on the 21st), I thought I'd write something about it here (using only her first name) and link it to my Facebook page, hoping Ellen sees it in one place or the other. So, here goes nothing (or perhaps something).
Ellen, I hope everything is well with you (and your loved ones) in Rockford, Illinios after Christmas with the new year 2013 arriving in a few days. I should come right out and confess I'm not good at writing letters to virtual strangers in life, so bear with me for a bit. The photograph above was taken of me on September 3 2011 at my high school class' 25 reunion gathering. It was generally fun (even though only about 50 of the more than 100 surviving class members showed up) and I had a good time more or less. Sorry for the digression. I normally accept any friend request received on Facebook and have only dropped one such person (from Goa, India who made contact just to solicit funds), and have lost a few who dropped me for various reasons or perhaps no reason at all. When we first chatted, I might've come off as a bit stiff and nervous, but was pleased to chat with you even if for only a few minutes.
My Facebook page contains considerable information about my interests, likes, etc. Maybe you've looked it over after making the friendship request and decided with that,, and from our brief exchange, I'm not the eligible man you were looking for with the intention of us getting to know each other better. I'm still confused about why none of my messages days later have even been acknowledged or given a response. I don't want to be a pest with endless messaging on Facebook and never getting any response. From what I saw on your profile, Ellen, you're a lovely woman. I was also intrigued about what you said about being a nursing student at present. Perhaps my lack of a current job and a career ambition that has not become professionally successful (after 13 years of effort and with my work published only in the last 37 months) made you decide I'm the wrong eligible bachelor for getting to know better.
Ellen, I'm also intrigued by the fact that you're a naturalized former Briton and would think we might have things to chat about regarding the UK's cultural heritage, especially in terms of film and television. I'm a long-time fan of certain British TV series (Dr. Who, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Blake's 7, The Benny Hill Show, Blackadder, etc.) - obviously the Science-Ficiton or Fantasy ones dovetailing in with my general love of speculative genres I write in. Unfortunately your Facebook page doesn't say much yet about personal interests and likes beyong a few posts (and those reveal nothing in terms of common interests). You might've just started recently on Facebook and have yet to reveal all that much to your Facebook Friends. I know it took me some time over a few months from 2010 to 2011 for getting my page completed in terms of what I posted or wrote there about myself. In life, I generally have a hard time making new friends, and your silence toward my messages only reinforces this difficulty. I also might have a medical condition called Asperger's Syndrome (haven't been diagnosed by any medical professional yet), similar to autism but without the language development difficulties. I hope that possible problem doesn't make you think I'm too weird for getting to know better, since you're planning to work in the medical field.
Ellen, I don't know if you'll ever read this (few people seem to ever read this blog, I've assumed or observed), but I'd like us to become better acquainted, assuming your remark on the chat about being single was for that possibility. I know we live 500 or so miles and two states apart between Ironton and Rockford, but the Internet means physical distances make less difference to communication than they once did. Please don't think of this as an impediment to our association.
As for my background, if you didn't read it on my Facebook page, I'm an only child whose parents passed away in 2006 (mother in January and father in August) with few close relatives and fewer close friends in life. I graduated from Marshall University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and finished 30 hours of coursework toward a Masters by 1992 (but did not complete the thesis for earning the degree). After giving up on graduate school due to burnout struggling with the thesis, I was adrift and aimless for a few years until after becoming a born-again Christian (I hope you don't hold that against me) in April 1997 when I was saved by accepting Jesus Christ as my savior. By August 1999, I had come to slowly realize fiction writing might be a better pursuit than non-fiction scholarly academic writing and began my first short stories and first novel around then, finishing the former in January 2000 and the novel in June (my first novel took ten months to write - each one since has taken anywhere from 26 days to 3 months). I want to become a professional fiction author, even after 13 years and 4 months of effort. Any ordinary job I see only as a means to support myself until the career ambition is finally realized professionally.
I need to confess one more thing at this point, Ellen, and hope this doesn't make a difference in how you view me. Although I am never entirely alone (believing in God within my life and considering Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit presences to my life and within), I am chronically lonely in some ways. I have lived alone for more than six years, recently losing my childhood home to unscrupulous neighbors I made a bad sales deal with and never meant to lose it permanently. I don't date much at all and for much of my adult life (to borrow the title of Justin Halpern's book) I suck at girls (probably due to the Asperger's).
I hope this open letter hasn't been too embarrassing for you to read (if you have), Ellen. I also hope you'll want to chat sometime on Facebook if you ever stop by for more than a brief visit in the future. I'd like us to get better acquainted. That much I can proclaim with absolute certainty. Please, think it over. But if you decide to ignore my contact, I'll have to just consider you another Facebook Friend like others I know to varying degrees. I thought you wanted our contact to be more than superficially casual. Have I misinterpreted your intentions? If I did, I apologize for leaping to conclusions about a stranger, and you have a great life.
God bless you, Ellen. I wish you all the best. Please excuse me if this all sounds too weird. I'm not very good at writing such letters about this sort of thing.
Sincerely,
Edwin R. Haney (John X. Grey).
Ellen, I hope everything is well with you (and your loved ones) in Rockford, Illinios after Christmas with the new year 2013 arriving in a few days. I should come right out and confess I'm not good at writing letters to virtual strangers in life, so bear with me for a bit. The photograph above was taken of me on September 3 2011 at my high school class' 25 reunion gathering. It was generally fun (even though only about 50 of the more than 100 surviving class members showed up) and I had a good time more or less. Sorry for the digression. I normally accept any friend request received on Facebook and have only dropped one such person (from Goa, India who made contact just to solicit funds), and have lost a few who dropped me for various reasons or perhaps no reason at all. When we first chatted, I might've come off as a bit stiff and nervous, but was pleased to chat with you even if for only a few minutes.
My Facebook page contains considerable information about my interests, likes, etc. Maybe you've looked it over after making the friendship request and decided with that,, and from our brief exchange, I'm not the eligible man you were looking for with the intention of us getting to know each other better. I'm still confused about why none of my messages days later have even been acknowledged or given a response. I don't want to be a pest with endless messaging on Facebook and never getting any response. From what I saw on your profile, Ellen, you're a lovely woman. I was also intrigued about what you said about being a nursing student at present. Perhaps my lack of a current job and a career ambition that has not become professionally successful (after 13 years of effort and with my work published only in the last 37 months) made you decide I'm the wrong eligible bachelor for getting to know better.
Ellen, I'm also intrigued by the fact that you're a naturalized former Briton and would think we might have things to chat about regarding the UK's cultural heritage, especially in terms of film and television. I'm a long-time fan of certain British TV series (Dr. Who, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Blake's 7, The Benny Hill Show, Blackadder, etc.) - obviously the Science-Ficiton or Fantasy ones dovetailing in with my general love of speculative genres I write in. Unfortunately your Facebook page doesn't say much yet about personal interests and likes beyong a few posts (and those reveal nothing in terms of common interests). You might've just started recently on Facebook and have yet to reveal all that much to your Facebook Friends. I know it took me some time over a few months from 2010 to 2011 for getting my page completed in terms of what I posted or wrote there about myself. In life, I generally have a hard time making new friends, and your silence toward my messages only reinforces this difficulty. I also might have a medical condition called Asperger's Syndrome (haven't been diagnosed by any medical professional yet), similar to autism but without the language development difficulties. I hope that possible problem doesn't make you think I'm too weird for getting to know better, since you're planning to work in the medical field.
Ellen, I don't know if you'll ever read this (few people seem to ever read this blog, I've assumed or observed), but I'd like us to become better acquainted, assuming your remark on the chat about being single was for that possibility. I know we live 500 or so miles and two states apart between Ironton and Rockford, but the Internet means physical distances make less difference to communication than they once did. Please don't think of this as an impediment to our association.
As for my background, if you didn't read it on my Facebook page, I'm an only child whose parents passed away in 2006 (mother in January and father in August) with few close relatives and fewer close friends in life. I graduated from Marshall University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and finished 30 hours of coursework toward a Masters by 1992 (but did not complete the thesis for earning the degree). After giving up on graduate school due to burnout struggling with the thesis, I was adrift and aimless for a few years until after becoming a born-again Christian (I hope you don't hold that against me) in April 1997 when I was saved by accepting Jesus Christ as my savior. By August 1999, I had come to slowly realize fiction writing might be a better pursuit than non-fiction scholarly academic writing and began my first short stories and first novel around then, finishing the former in January 2000 and the novel in June (my first novel took ten months to write - each one since has taken anywhere from 26 days to 3 months). I want to become a professional fiction author, even after 13 years and 4 months of effort. Any ordinary job I see only as a means to support myself until the career ambition is finally realized professionally.
I need to confess one more thing at this point, Ellen, and hope this doesn't make a difference in how you view me. Although I am never entirely alone (believing in God within my life and considering Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit presences to my life and within), I am chronically lonely in some ways. I have lived alone for more than six years, recently losing my childhood home to unscrupulous neighbors I made a bad sales deal with and never meant to lose it permanently. I don't date much at all and for much of my adult life (to borrow the title of Justin Halpern's book) I suck at girls (probably due to the Asperger's).
I hope this open letter hasn't been too embarrassing for you to read (if you have), Ellen. I also hope you'll want to chat sometime on Facebook if you ever stop by for more than a brief visit in the future. I'd like us to get better acquainted. That much I can proclaim with absolute certainty. Please, think it over. But if you decide to ignore my contact, I'll have to just consider you another Facebook Friend like others I know to varying degrees. I thought you wanted our contact to be more than superficially casual. Have I misinterpreted your intentions? If I did, I apologize for leaping to conclusions about a stranger, and you have a great life.
God bless you, Ellen. I wish you all the best. Please excuse me if this all sounds too weird. I'm not very good at writing such letters about this sort of thing.
Sincerely,
Edwin R. Haney (John X. Grey).