I’ve realized that keeping a blog-style journal is a very healthy thing. When you write only those things you’d allow other people to see, it turns out (in my case, anyway), it really only eliminate the self-indulgent whining. Everything else becomes an open book. Well, mostly… ; )
Speaking of books, I did go to the library Tues evening and made myself a new find. The writer’s name is Neal Schusterman. He seems to write teenaged-reader books in the fantasy genre. I checked out two books by him. The one I am reading now is called “The Dark Side of Nowhere”. It starts out with a teen-aged boy in a small town living a life that Lorne on AtS would call, metaphorically, of course, the life of “the last feisty wife in Stepford”. Everyone else is so niiiice. Complacent. Boring. He hates it there.
Teen-aged boy and his newly acquired girlfriend, not uncoincidentally the new girl in town and hence not Stepfordy, suspect something is very wrong in their town. The book takes on an X-Files demeanor as they try to figure it out. But it has a very unexpected twist that then twists again twenty pages later.
Hopefully, it’ll keep on doing the twist until the end. So far, so good.
Quotage: “Your head’s a mess and you don’t know why.”
Update: turns the classic teen-aged boredom-angst story on its ear. Everyone else is so niiiice. Complacent. Boring. He hates it there. Be careful what you wish for.
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
I’ve realized that keeping a journal on LJ is a very healthy thing. When you write only those things you’d allow other people to see, it turns out (in my case, anyway), it really only eliminate the self-indulgent whining. Everything else becomes an open book. Well, mostly… ; )
Huh, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing. Has a form of communication like blogging existed before? I know that I’m at risk of having chuck something at me… but I really think that the key to LJ being such an accessible form of communication is that it allows us to go back and forth between “it’s a bunch of pixels” to “it’s people”. Not sure if that came out right… but I find it much easier to write something down if I feel that it’s not really being read (the whole “pixels” thing)… and I feel that it’s easier to continue writing when all of a sudden all those “pixels” turn out to be wonderful caring people who turn out to really have been listening.
I’ve never known Rah to chuck things…
I enjoy the medium of the internet precisely because it gives you this healthy sense of false security. It’s as if you’re writing things on a blank page at home in your favorite chair, no one around to peek over your shoulder and read it.
Which is, of course, an illusion. You’re keeping a personal journal, but it’s in the public domain.
But like most things, the actual percentage of the “public” that will see it falls into a very small range. In LJ, you can control who will see it and who won’t. But even if you make your post “public”, the actual number of people that will see it is small. Either way, the people most likely to see it are people you consider friends. And if people get rude, you un-friend them. Or you filter them out of your reader’s list.
For someone like me, who is shy in person, the internet is a place to let loose. I don’t have to look people in the eye when I say certain things. I don’t have to see their reaction immediately, or at all if I want. I could ignore their replies to my post if I really don’t want to know what they thought of it. I don’t do that too often. I like and trust the people on my friends list. But knowing I have that option–the “chickening out” option–makes me feel better. Bolder.
And the fact that my friends haven’t raced to their computers to unfriend “weird Masquerade person”, but have instead talked to me about my interests, is a cool thing.
Re: I’ve never known Rah to chuck things…
Oh, even if Rah did chuck things it’d be rather inaffective, considering that she’d have to chuck over to a completely different continent… I just know that the whole “bunch of pixels” argument is something she doesn’t much agree with–understandable, cause we don’t want to forget that people do exist and have feelings even when we’re pretending that they don’t exist when we’re writing something… or something like that.
I always find it so weird how I go instantly shy around my internet friends when I meet them in RL… cause as soon as I get back on the computer, I can talk to them about anything and everything. (I don’t think I did much more then wave when I met you at the San Jose meet… and why? It’s not like we’ve never “talked” before!)
Re: I’ve never known Rah to chuck things…
Well, there’s one reason to be shy, and that’s “oh god, these people read what I said about XYZ, and now I have to look them in the eye!”
And of course, if you’re shy in person, like you and I are, it doesn’t help when you meet in person. I have this experience every time I go on a blind date with someone I met over the internet. It’s like revealing a whole other layer of yourself.
And meeting people at ATPo board meets is weird. If you didn’t quite believe they were anything but pixels before, meeting them in person is very odd. Wow, they actually have faces and bodies and appearances! And they don’t look like Lilah, or whoever their icon is, which is how I always imagine my LJ friends look.
Lucky for you I’ve met you in person!
The one thing I have going for me at board meets that I don’t have in other similar situations is that I am the board moderator, so I don’t have that sneaking paranoid worry in the back of my mind that I don’t really have a right to be there, or that I don’t belong there. Although sometimes I have it anyway. ; )
By the way, I know you live in the LA area now, but did you have any plans to come to our next Bay area board meet? It’s still under discussion, but we left off thinking it would be the weekend of Sept 6/7 somewhere in the peninsula. You are most welcome!
But wouldn’t it be awesome if they did look like Lilah?
Although I’d imagine you’d then have the added problem of “Dang! My new girlfriend is hot! Go me!” turning into “Dang… my new girlfriend is hot. Uh-oh, am I getting a zit???”
I’ve always found myself more comfortable with people who have a few “flaws”. Couple extra pounds here, frizzy hair over there. I think it puts you on a more level ground in regards to relationships… cause I personally wouldn’t want to find myself making comparisons between me and my (non-existant Lilah-look alike) girlfriend. Besides, I think Lilah would eat me for breakfast 🙂
Re: But wouldn’t it be awesome if they did look like Lilah?
I’m right with you there. I tend to see very attractive people and automatically, pretty unconsciously, knock them off my list of potential dates. It’s the whole “I am not in their league, so let’s prevent rejection before it happens” thing.
And I just feel more comfortable with apperance-flawed people, ’cause it has its own charms.
Re: I’ve never known Rah to chuck things…
What do you mean I don’t look like my icon???????
Oh yeah…in that book, are you trying to tell me that kid lives in Canada?….;)
Rufus
Do you even have an icon?
Re: I’ve never known Rah to chuck things…
hey ruf…belated welcome. Here’s one of the larger icon communities if you’d like to look through the general postings. There also a buffyicon group if you’d prefer something BTVS specific.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/iconaddicts/
Dub also makes great icons.
Re: Do you even have an icon?
I was referring to my Meet the posters icon….;)
Rufus
Miss Kitty Fantastico!
Is a brunette. You’re a blonde. I saw you….
Re: Miss Kitty Fantastico!
Oh you haven’t seen the new icon Bit made for me…..the mountain lion is a blonde…just like me..;)..Miss Kitty reflects my inner child…:):)
Rufus