• Would you say that you’re good at keeping in touch with people? – Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Depends on the person, depends on how close of a friend (s)he is, depends on the nature of our relationship. In other words, like most things in life “it depends.”
  
• Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? – Yes, no, no, yes, and especially yes. I’m not a “phone person,” and I couldn’t even tell you why. That’s just how it is. You might not suspect it of me, but I really prefer to meet face-to-face. Email and instant messaging and blog comments are merely little ways to keep in touch between real get-togethers.
  
• Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? – Once again, note that the Friday Five is actually the Friday Ten Or So. *sigh* I started with ICQ, got Yahoo! for the hell of it, and eventually gave up and went AIM. I’ve dabbled in Jabber, but it tends to universally suck dingos. ICQ has gotten flakier and more spam-prone over the years, and Yahoo! is just plain “nucking futs.” AIM is the IM system of choice. And yes, if I’m connected to the Internet at all I can be found running at least AIM if not all three.
  
• Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? – Um. Let’s see, Mari lives in the Portland metro area. Heather moved to Cali. Ben lives in town but he only gets in touch once every four-to-six months then vanishes again. That’s all of my close friends, folks. There are some other folks who I hope grow into being close friends, but…
  
• Are you an “out of sight, out of mind” person, or do you believe that “distance makes the heart grow fonder”? – Yes.
  

Friday Five