FANMAIL!!!
Hello my dear readers, young and old, new and again, old *smirks*. I was thinking it was time to answer the Al Jay "Fanmail" and finally give a few extended responses and explanations to those of you I've e-mailed saying, "I'll explain it sometime in the journal for you." Some of these might be repeat responses to my "Ask me any question" thing a while back or things which were already explained in previous entries. Without further ado, here we go in no particular order.
Who is the Elf and why do you call her/him the Elf?
The Elf would be my friend Miss Mia Lisa Randall from Merced. We've known each other ever since my family started going to the United Methodist Church of Merced when I was in the fourth grade; her family came over to our house to "greet" us and welcome us to the church family. Yes, the church, MY church *smiles*, is very big on family. I've known her for as long as I've known Good Kristen, who I also met at the church *pauses, "OOOO, bubbles!!!"*. She was the blonde girl I was walking around with at the CPSLO tourney last year and the brunette I was walking around with this year. As for how she came by the nickname "Elf" it goes back to Lord of the Rings and her infatuation with Orlando Bloom. She got it into her mind that she was an Elf, and I agreed that she did have the body-type to be an AD&D Elf, even though she was thinking Tolkien. In short, the conversation exploded into drawing all sorts of similarities from that point and I ended up branding her as "Elf." I'm also engaged to the Elf *grins widely*, and if neither of us find anyone by the tme she's 30, we're searching for each other. That's right, Al Jay's on a deadline now *gasps*; it's one of those engagements.
What's so important about the J-Man?
To put it in a nutshell, I have never met a more peculiar person than the J-Man. He was my suitemate in the dorms when I was a freshman, and I continue to talk with him every so often online. Just when I think I've gotten his morality all mapped out and can navigate through his various actions he surprises me with something new, and I have to redraw the map because his friggin' logical explanation for why he did what he did makes sense. That's right Mr. Williams, I'm studying you *smiles*, though it's not quite like the hypothetical stalker we talked of on several occassions.
". . . why don't you ever write about anything 'worldly' any more?"
I suppose I could; in my sociology class we're actually talking about world issues. It might do me some good to actually apply what I'm "learning" in college to something that interests me. As for now I seem to be focusing upon, well, myself. It is, after all a journal about me, and the description I left up was that it is a chronicle of my "college escapades." I figured that these are interesting times for a young adult like myself, and why not keep a record of them. If and when I finally publish my journal I'm sure that my kids could get a laugh, cry, or "deep insight" as to what Dad was like when he was young and stupid. To bring it back to the question at hand, I will try to keep an open ear out for something that sways me towards writing about something other than myself and the world I live in.
"I leave you alone for a couple of years, and you do THAT with your hair?"
*smiles* My dear, sweet Liz (this would be THE Liz, the one that always told me when to cut my nails in HS), it's all about laziness. You see, it all started a while back when I told myself, "I'm tired, I'll get it cut next month *fast forward a month* . . . eh, next month *repeat the previous action a few times*." Now that it's longer I find that the upkeep is actually a lot easier. I don't have to go to the barber and explain in detail using size numbers and words I constantly forget the meanings of to get a haircut. It's just, "Could you take like 2 inches off the overall length and clean up the back where the hair's just growing out of place, please?" Very simple, I repeat, VERY simple. On a slightly deeper note, I fear that the hair is something is growing into an aspect that defines who I am. Has my vanity increased because of it? Have I begun to over-associate myself with it instead of simply doing so in jest? Let it not come to pass that a day goes by where I stare in consternation at the sight of hair being misaligned; woe be to the future self that I may become. Someone lay the SMACK HAND OF REALITY on me if that should ever happen.
From multiple people: "You write too much. Why?"
*nods* I guess I do. I figured a while back that people probably skim through my entries when they look. It's why I started breaking up the entries into titles of different subjects. Then, TC suggested I simply break it up into paragraphs and write quasi-essay style . . . ok, so it's essay style. Ahh, but that doesn't explain why I write too much, yes? Well, the reason I write a lot is because I have a lot to say, and I like to add a bit of flavor to what I say so there's probably going to be a bit more description. Example: "The dog ate the bunny rabbit" . . . and when translated into journal entries it might go something like, "This weekend I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel about feral dogs and an experiment they did with the dogs using a bunny as bait. I always wondered about what happened when they didn't put on the disclaimer 'no animals were harmed in the making of this program.' I almost felt sorry for the rabbit when the dogs circled it and converged upon it just like my PUFFERFISH DID WITH THE SHRIMP!!! Damn, it was friggin' awesome . . ." so on and so forth. 'Nuff said, moving on . . .
"Dude, too much stuff happens to you, how much of it is made up?"
*smiles* As I was telling the Elf the other day/month/year, "Apparently my life has more excitement than I previously thought." I think that perhaps if everyone were to go about their daily lives and then describe some of the higher points of their week with a bit of flare I think the majority would be surprised. Sure enough, if you were to sit at home and do nothing, not a whole lot might happen. You have to be out and about, actually LIVING in the world around you and interacting with the people who live around you. Do that, and I'm sure you'll see what I see if not more. Occassionally I will write up a fictious story and get the masses to believe me, but I'll end it with something telling them that it was indeed a fictitious story. *grins at Albert, Teenchee and Regina* I bet you were thinking back to whether or not I had a cut on my face that night *laughs maniacally*.
"How do you view yourself? If you were to describe yourself to another person."
Now this one intrigued me, thank you Chastity *smiles, "You know who you are"*. I do have an honest-to-God description in my head that would answer your question, but I want to find out how YOU, my readers, would describe me if someone asked you, "Who's Al Jay? What's he like?" I'll post my desc. of myself sometime in the next few days, how's that? Until then, I want to get YOUR opinions on that same question. It's always tickled my curiosity to find out how other people saw me.
With all that said, I'll end the entry. I know I haven't gotten around to all the diferent explanations and answering all the questions thoroughly, but I promise I'll get to it eventually *smiles a Cheshire Cat smile*.
Who is the Elf and why do you call her/him the Elf?
The Elf would be my friend Miss Mia Lisa Randall from Merced. We've known each other ever since my family started going to the United Methodist Church of Merced when I was in the fourth grade; her family came over to our house to "greet" us and welcome us to the church family. Yes, the church, MY church *smiles*, is very big on family. I've known her for as long as I've known Good Kristen, who I also met at the church *pauses, "OOOO, bubbles!!!"*. She was the blonde girl I was walking around with at the CPSLO tourney last year and the brunette I was walking around with this year. As for how she came by the nickname "Elf" it goes back to Lord of the Rings and her infatuation with Orlando Bloom. She got it into her mind that she was an Elf, and I agreed that she did have the body-type to be an AD&D Elf, even though she was thinking Tolkien. In short, the conversation exploded into drawing all sorts of similarities from that point and I ended up branding her as "Elf." I'm also engaged to the Elf *grins widely*, and if neither of us find anyone by the tme she's 30, we're searching for each other. That's right, Al Jay's on a deadline now *gasps*; it's one of those engagements.
What's so important about the J-Man?
To put it in a nutshell, I have never met a more peculiar person than the J-Man. He was my suitemate in the dorms when I was a freshman, and I continue to talk with him every so often online. Just when I think I've gotten his morality all mapped out and can navigate through his various actions he surprises me with something new, and I have to redraw the map because his friggin' logical explanation for why he did what he did makes sense. That's right Mr. Williams, I'm studying you *smiles*, though it's not quite like the hypothetical stalker we talked of on several occassions.
". . . why don't you ever write about anything 'worldly' any more?"
I suppose I could; in my sociology class we're actually talking about world issues. It might do me some good to actually apply what I'm "learning" in college to something that interests me. As for now I seem to be focusing upon, well, myself. It is, after all a journal about me, and the description I left up was that it is a chronicle of my "college escapades." I figured that these are interesting times for a young adult like myself, and why not keep a record of them. If and when I finally publish my journal I'm sure that my kids could get a laugh, cry, or "deep insight" as to what Dad was like when he was young and stupid. To bring it back to the question at hand, I will try to keep an open ear out for something that sways me towards writing about something other than myself and the world I live in.
"I leave you alone for a couple of years, and you do THAT with your hair?"
*smiles* My dear, sweet Liz (this would be THE Liz, the one that always told me when to cut my nails in HS), it's all about laziness. You see, it all started a while back when I told myself, "I'm tired, I'll get it cut next month *fast forward a month* . . . eh, next month *repeat the previous action a few times*." Now that it's longer I find that the upkeep is actually a lot easier. I don't have to go to the barber and explain in detail using size numbers and words I constantly forget the meanings of to get a haircut. It's just, "Could you take like 2 inches off the overall length and clean up the back where the hair's just growing out of place, please?" Very simple, I repeat, VERY simple. On a slightly deeper note, I fear that the hair is something is growing into an aspect that defines who I am. Has my vanity increased because of it? Have I begun to over-associate myself with it instead of simply doing so in jest? Let it not come to pass that a day goes by where I stare in consternation at the sight of hair being misaligned; woe be to the future self that I may become. Someone lay the SMACK HAND OF REALITY on me if that should ever happen.
From multiple people: "You write too much. Why?"
*nods* I guess I do. I figured a while back that people probably skim through my entries when they look. It's why I started breaking up the entries into titles of different subjects. Then, TC suggested I simply break it up into paragraphs and write quasi-essay style . . . ok, so it's essay style. Ahh, but that doesn't explain why I write too much, yes? Well, the reason I write a lot is because I have a lot to say, and I like to add a bit of flavor to what I say so there's probably going to be a bit more description. Example: "The dog ate the bunny rabbit" . . . and when translated into journal entries it might go something like, "This weekend I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel about feral dogs and an experiment they did with the dogs using a bunny as bait. I always wondered about what happened when they didn't put on the disclaimer 'no animals were harmed in the making of this program.' I almost felt sorry for the rabbit when the dogs circled it and converged upon it just like my PUFFERFISH DID WITH THE SHRIMP!!! Damn, it was friggin' awesome . . ." so on and so forth. 'Nuff said, moving on . . .
"Dude, too much stuff happens to you, how much of it is made up?"
*smiles* As I was telling the Elf the other day/month/year, "Apparently my life has more excitement than I previously thought." I think that perhaps if everyone were to go about their daily lives and then describe some of the higher points of their week with a bit of flare I think the majority would be surprised. Sure enough, if you were to sit at home and do nothing, not a whole lot might happen. You have to be out and about, actually LIVING in the world around you and interacting with the people who live around you. Do that, and I'm sure you'll see what I see if not more. Occassionally I will write up a fictious story and get the masses to believe me, but I'll end it with something telling them that it was indeed a fictitious story. *grins at Albert, Teenchee and Regina* I bet you were thinking back to whether or not I had a cut on my face that night *laughs maniacally*.
"How do you view yourself? If you were to describe yourself to another person."
Now this one intrigued me, thank you Chastity *smiles, "You know who you are"*. I do have an honest-to-God description in my head that would answer your question, but I want to find out how YOU, my readers, would describe me if someone asked you, "Who's Al Jay? What's he like?" I'll post my desc. of myself sometime in the next few days, how's that? Until then, I want to get YOUR opinions on that same question. It's always tickled my curiosity to find out how other people saw me.
With all that said, I'll end the entry. I know I haven't gotten around to all the diferent explanations and answering all the questions thoroughly, but I promise I'll get to it eventually *smiles a Cheshire Cat smile*.