Shimstagram

This past week I attended Harvest Racing Team's meeting. It was a good. We covered typical stuff like team roles, race calendar, race tactics, budget, and Shim's favorite topic: having a social media presence.

For those who don't know, my buddy Shim does not have a Facebook account. The same goes for Instagram and Twitter, too. However, there is a "fakeshim" account on Twitter that is remarkably good at capturing the essence of Shim. So much so that even he buys into it.

But rest assured, Rafal will confirm for you that fakeshim is not Shim.

Some at the team meeting were actively encouraging Shim to open a Facebook or Instagram account. If you know my friend Shim, that's laughable. It's just not his style to be sharing pictures of his dog or cat. He doesn't have a dog or cat, so there's that, too.

Shim countered that in addition to fakeshim on Twitter, he is already saturated in social media by this blog. He may have a point. He gets more attention here than just about anyone else.

My personal opinion is that Shim should skip Facebook, but open an Instagram account. He'd be a laugh-a-minute. That is, if you understand his random sense of humor. Like, you'll be talking about one thing when he'll suddenly blurt out one of his random "funny" off-topic thoughts that bears almost no connection to the context of discussion.

Take the team meeting the other night. While Jordan was talking about the race calendar, Shim suddenly interjects, "Paul (Webb) looks like Opie."

The first thought that popped in my brain was: what the hell does that have to do with Snake Alley, or Tulsa Tough?

The next thought that popped into my brain was this:

The third thought was that Paul looks nothing like an '80s comic strip penguin wearing a fruit hat.

While I was thinking of that, Matt Tillinghast takes the bait and replies, "Opie was bludgeoned to death in prison."

Sidebar: I read Berkely Breathed's Bloom County comic strip every day when I was a kid, but like so many others, I failed on Outland. I think Outland was too political for me to latch on to. As a result, I couldn't tell you what Opus' fate was in Outland. Being bludgeoned in prison just didn't seem to make sense. Bill The Cat? Phtttt Aaacck!!! I could see that, Just not Opus.

Fortunately, Shim stuck his phone in my face to show me the Opie he was referring to:

Oh, Sons of Anarchy Opie. I don't watch that show, but I was able to make an educated guess since Shim has mentioned binging on Sons of Anarchy during every ride over the past two weeks.

I have to admit: Shim's spot-on. Opie/Paul do bear a resemblance to one another. Here's the side-by-side. You be the judge:

All I can say is, stay away from prison, Paul!

Anyway, I think Shim would do just fine on Instagram. He already sends me pictures and stuffs like animated .gif files on our internal instant messenger at work. Mostly, his photos are a go-to set of poor quality photo-shopped (MsPaint edited) images of me riding a some sort of trick bicycle. Like the one where Jens was riding a junior yellow bike:

...or this one of me on a unicorn bicycle with the phrase, "Haters gonna hate":

One of his favorites is an animated .gif file of Will Ferrell playing a cowbell. I get that one a lot.

I call those treasured instant messengers at work "Shimstagrams". They make me smile every time I receive one.

Unfortunately, the handle Shimstagram is already taken on Instagram. Rats. Perhaps he could be Shimstagran -- that's available. If he doesn't open an account, FakeShimstagram is there to be taken.

Well get on with it, Shim. The world awaits.

Happy Friday and thanks for reading.