… you’re one of the “syndicated” readers I have who are (know it or not) experiencing the wonder of RSS during my yearlong sabbatical from social networking. Despite the fact that you are on Facebook (or wherever else, but that’s the one that leaps to mind), I am not. I left an automatic setting to seed my random rantings there from my actual blog, where I broadcast unabated. I’m in your living room/phone/cubicle without ever leaving wherever I am. Cool.

That said, I am also aware of conversations happening around these writings, conversations that I am not taking a part in. Why? Well, as you could find out easily if Ping.fm’s shortcut URLs lasted longer than Lindsay Lohan’s sobriety, I’m still in my year-long self-imposed exile from social networking and, to be honest, I’ve learned some things.

• I miss Twitter. A lot. I’ve come to get a gang of news from the 126 subscriptions in my Google Reader feed (which feeds my linkroll on the web and on my mobile site) but the immediacy of Twitter, the pithy interactions with my people like Ja Bir or my wife or Craig or Ritch or Encyclopedia Black or Chinedum even Tax Hitler (also known as “Senor Sidekick”) … I won’t lie, I miss it.
• I don’t miss Facebook. At all. Facebook’s mobile site went through more alterations than Heidi Montag (yes, I’m keeping up with even celebrity gossip … kind of ), taking away the most useful functionality points (remember press “4″ for new notifications?) while becoming more of a beyotch about privacy and generally annoying me even without my presence. Moreover, I’ve seen and participated in some of the dumbest conversations (Roman Polanski leaps to mind) on Facebook, stuff that I’d have been embarrassed to be seen in were it Usenet or some more civilized locale. I won’t abandon the site when I come back, but it won’t be my “home” online.
• Laugh if you want … I kind of miss MySpace. The same people were closer, had less fleeting interactions, had less privacy worries while having more of a public platform. I’m just saying.
• I don’t need to have a conversation on LinkedIn unless it’s about money. I love that.
• No, I don’t miss Friendster or wish I’d have enhanced myself on Bebo, Hi5 or anywhere else “ghetto” like that.

More lessons learned when I get back, I’d wager. I just wanted to apologize if you’re trying to interact with me and it seems like I’m ignoring you. I’m not really there, you see. I’m just a pigment of your emancipation. Or a fragment of your intoxication. Something like that. Work it out for yourself, I’ll be back in four more months to discuss it.

Playing (Music): “Dynamite” remix by Taio Cruz feat. Jennifer Lopez

My problem, you see, is one of communication.

I live in the future. It’s too far a commute for me to work “today,” where most of you are stuck. I live in the day after tomorrow, so most days I try to compromise and meet you in the middle (although the temptation to telecommute from home is huge).

Except we’ve developed new ways to coordinate and new modus operandi in the day after tomorrow. Crafting narratives and reading novels on smartphones and transferring them to laptops via cards the size of coins that carry more data than every computer in the world had in 1970, or better yet, bring these incendiary packets of words directly to the web. Denizens of the future coordinate business in different cities, on different continents and sometimes on entirely different worlds. So, apologies to Jasmine Guy, but “try me.”

I’m trying to tell you something.

Stepping into tomorrow, I sought out like minds. Talents that I thought could see all the way to where I live, and beyond. The problem is that “today” holds a lot of things that draw that vision and that attention away from looking ahead. Taxes, shootin’ the sh** with your friends, moving vans, paychecks, sleep, romance. All admirable in their own right, but all happening today. “Be mindful of the living force, Obi-Wan.” Yes, yes, but the man with the plan kept his eye on the ball that’s bouncing now while engineering the score he’ll make tomorrow, and the extra point that comes next door to where I live.

I overestimated my reach, and I failed in my desire to share some of what I’ve learned, so high up above the field like an offensive coordinator, with three men who still could easily surpass me. I owe them a great debt and a sincere apology for that, which I will only in part honor by never taking down the work we did together. Everything else I’ll have to repay in time.

In the mean time, I went home — to the future — and regrouped. I have never been very good at instruction. The patience required, the grasping the learning styles of others … its no easy feat for me. But many have asked and may seek knowledge, so I will instead reformat this space — The Hundred and Four, named after the ambitious but ultimately failed work of my namesake — into a place where I can leave breadcrumbs that could lead you through tomorrow. This website will be a place where I can illustrate the blueprints for what I believe — what I pray — is a finer world, seen through web links and analysis (“blog fu”), micro fiction (a passion of mine now I’ve rediscovered the science of the vignette), writing assignments (which I will showcase and then do, and anyone who wants to play along is welcome to do so) and what have you.

“Isn’t that what Micro$oft does? Change the definition of success?” Not at all — what happened before failed. This is something new, without Sanaa Lathan. It uses words that I considered anathema before — hope, for instance — in the seamless web of a paradigm shift that is essential to choosing joy.

Hopefully this time, there’s a message you can hear. I’ll be right here, ready to tell you, if you’ll only — as Erule so emphatically wished — listen.