Out And About On The Web
I'd planned on doing this last of my tasks for the day, but as I'm riding out waves of headache pain (I think it's just tension/stress, but having identified that isn't make it go away) I'm finding it easier to knock out the smaller jobs. Anyway, a few times over the years people have expressed interest in getting to know me better, aside from what comes through from my writing. I'm not the easiest person to form a connection with... as I've said before, I've been a big fan of keeping my life compartmentalized... but I'm finding that the life of a hermit doesn't actually appeal to me as much as I thought it would.
So, here's a brief list of windows into my world. A lot of people know about this journal, especially now that its RSS feed is displayed on the side of the MU site, but whereas I consider this to be my personal space, there are other places I go to be halfway sociable. Note that I'm not actually terribly active in any of these places right now... high activity levels online tend to coincide with high productivity, because the same things can effect me in both areas.
My Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AlexandraErin.
I think most people who read my work know about this, since I've had my Twitter feeding into the sidebar of Tales of MU for as long as I've had it. I mainly use it to broadcast updates, but it does get used for side conversations and occasional feedback solicitations... I've tried keeping a separate Twitter for personal stuff and it was just horribly redundant. If you just want to know when stuff gets updated, watch ae_stories. There is an RSS feed for that, too.
My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alexandraerin.
I don't have anything private on my Facebook, so I tend to accept friend requests whether they're from actual friends, casual contacts, or readers. A lot of the time my Facebook status attracts a lot more personal declarations than my Twitter does, if only because I don't want to knock story updates off the top spot on my Twitter page too quickly. My Livejournal feeds there and my Twitter will again (I don't think it's doing it at the moment but I mean to fix that), so it's a good one-stop shop for people who want to keep up on my non-fiction activities.
My blip.fm station: http://blip.fm/AlexandraErin
My emotional buttons are large, clearly labeled, and about as well-protected from anybody stumbling right into them as the self-destruct switch in an archvillain's incredibly obvious secret lair, so music has a pretty profound ability to affect my mood. Accordingly, a lot of what I play is intended to give myself a shot in the arm one way or another. Some of it's just fun or pretty, though.
My Fetlife Profile: http://fetlife.com/users/276813.
I almost didn't include this one because it's not as much an "of general interest" site as the others, but I decided that the chance to do a bit of a service for everybody out there who's at least a little bit kinked and doesn't know about FetLife (or as Jack calls it, "the scary site") is not something I could pass up. I haven't been very active there at all yet, but I'm looking forward to exploring it more. As with Facebook, I'm open to friendings.
If you're not only not the kinky sort but are easily shocked, offended, or made uncomfortable then I really strongly suggest not registering just to take a peek around. You'll have no one to blame but yourself... it's not like anyone's hiding what the site's about.
My favorite blog: Shapely Prose and its discussion site.
Well, it's actually tied favorite with Fred Clarke's blog (slacktivist), but the "fifty comments per page/hundreds to thousands of comments per entry" style his site has is not very conducive to drop-in/drive-by commentary... so while I read his blog, I don't comment very often and thus it's not really a place to find me on the web.
But, anyway... Shapely Prose. I'm going to put an even stronger "don't go looking if..." warning on this than I did for FetLife. If you find yourself rolling your eyes or arguing when I blog about feminism (or just about any other -ism) or fat acceptance, your words of wisdom will probably not be any better received over there than they would be here. It was, in fact, Kate Harding's comment policy and her frequent assertions of modly dominion that inspired me to stop letting people use my comment space to champion that perennial underdog, the status quo.
On the other hand, I think a lot of people would benefit from perusing the archives there. Just read the comment policy and the FAQ before reacting to anything.
My favorite Livejournal community: http://statements.livejournal.com.
I was first lured into statements back when Tales of MU was brand new, because one of the more interesting commentators, popelizbet, hung out there. The appeal of the community... which is based around making posts consisting of one single declarative sentence at a time... might be elusive to some, but I like it because it scratches the same itch as a chatroom would, only it doesn't require constant attention and I can go back and look at things later, which is useful for figuring out who the hell other people are. Some of my favorite people on the internet are there... notably, it's the place where I saw Jack the most before we got together.
The rules are few and simple, but important. If you want to join the community, make sure you read the profile.
My formspring account: http://www.formspring.me/AlexandraErin.
I knew I'd forget something. For those who don't know, formspring.me is a Q&A site where you can ask people questions and see what answers they've given to other questions. No account creation/personal details are necessary. Feel free to ask personal questions, story-related questions, random questions... if I don't want to answer something, I just won't.
...
That's what I can think of off the top of my head. As I've said, feel free to friend/follow/whatever. Just bear in mind that I'm not that great at remembering people. I predict that I'll get at least one person going "OMG HOW DARE YOU DO ALL THIS STUFF ONLINE WHEN YOU COULD BE WRITING", but I'll let everybody in on a little secret: when you have--for instance--a Facebook profile, you don't actually have to hand-render the page yourself every time somebody loads it. They can do that with computers now.
So, here's a brief list of windows into my world. A lot of people know about this journal, especially now that its RSS feed is displayed on the side of the MU site, but whereas I consider this to be my personal space, there are other places I go to be halfway sociable. Note that I'm not actually terribly active in any of these places right now... high activity levels online tend to coincide with high productivity, because the same things can effect me in both areas.
My Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AlexandraErin.
I think most people who read my work know about this, since I've had my Twitter feeding into the sidebar of Tales of MU for as long as I've had it. I mainly use it to broadcast updates, but it does get used for side conversations and occasional feedback solicitations... I've tried keeping a separate Twitter for personal stuff and it was just horribly redundant. If you just want to know when stuff gets updated, watch ae_stories. There is an RSS feed for that, too.
My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alexandraerin.
I don't have anything private on my Facebook, so I tend to accept friend requests whether they're from actual friends, casual contacts, or readers. A lot of the time my Facebook status attracts a lot more personal declarations than my Twitter does, if only because I don't want to knock story updates off the top spot on my Twitter page too quickly. My Livejournal feeds there and my Twitter will again (I don't think it's doing it at the moment but I mean to fix that), so it's a good one-stop shop for people who want to keep up on my non-fiction activities.
My blip.fm station: http://blip.fm/AlexandraErin
My emotional buttons are large, clearly labeled, and about as well-protected from anybody stumbling right into them as the self-destruct switch in an archvillain's incredibly obvious secret lair, so music has a pretty profound ability to affect my mood. Accordingly, a lot of what I play is intended to give myself a shot in the arm one way or another. Some of it's just fun or pretty, though.
My Fetlife Profile: http://fetlife.com/users/276813.
I almost didn't include this one because it's not as much an "of general interest" site as the others, but I decided that the chance to do a bit of a service for everybody out there who's at least a little bit kinked and doesn't know about FetLife (or as Jack calls it, "the scary site") is not something I could pass up. I haven't been very active there at all yet, but I'm looking forward to exploring it more. As with Facebook, I'm open to friendings.
If you're not only not the kinky sort but are easily shocked, offended, or made uncomfortable then I really strongly suggest not registering just to take a peek around. You'll have no one to blame but yourself... it's not like anyone's hiding what the site's about.
My favorite blog: Shapely Prose and its discussion site.
Well, it's actually tied favorite with Fred Clarke's blog (slacktivist), but the "fifty comments per page/hundreds to thousands of comments per entry" style his site has is not very conducive to drop-in/drive-by commentary... so while I read his blog, I don't comment very often and thus it's not really a place to find me on the web.
But, anyway... Shapely Prose. I'm going to put an even stronger "don't go looking if..." warning on this than I did for FetLife. If you find yourself rolling your eyes or arguing when I blog about feminism (or just about any other -ism) or fat acceptance, your words of wisdom will probably not be any better received over there than they would be here. It was, in fact, Kate Harding's comment policy and her frequent assertions of modly dominion that inspired me to stop letting people use my comment space to champion that perennial underdog, the status quo.
On the other hand, I think a lot of people would benefit from perusing the archives there. Just read the comment policy and the FAQ before reacting to anything.
My favorite Livejournal community: http://statements.livejournal.com.
I was first lured into statements back when Tales of MU was brand new, because one of the more interesting commentators, popelizbet, hung out there. The appeal of the community... which is based around making posts consisting of one single declarative sentence at a time... might be elusive to some, but I like it because it scratches the same itch as a chatroom would, only it doesn't require constant attention and I can go back and look at things later, which is useful for figuring out who the hell other people are. Some of my favorite people on the internet are there... notably, it's the place where I saw Jack the most before we got together.
The rules are few and simple, but important. If you want to join the community, make sure you read the profile.
My formspring account: http://www.formspring.me/AlexandraErin.
I knew I'd forget something. For those who don't know, formspring.me is a Q&A site where you can ask people questions and see what answers they've given to other questions. No account creation/personal details are necessary. Feel free to ask personal questions, story-related questions, random questions... if I don't want to answer something, I just won't.
...
That's what I can think of off the top of my head. As I've said, feel free to friend/follow/whatever. Just bear in mind that I'm not that great at remembering people. I predict that I'll get at least one person going "OMG HOW DARE YOU DO ALL THIS STUFF ONLINE WHEN YOU COULD BE WRITING", but I'll let everybody in on a little secret: when you have--for instance--a Facebook profile, you don't actually have to hand-render the page yourself every time somebody loads it. They can do that with computers now.