LiveJournal is 25: interesting facts about me and my blog
1. LJ appeared in April 1999, the year when I... got my first office job. I was a temp whose first contract was for a government department where i folded letters, sealed envelopes and licked stamps. Somehow i was able to parlay that into a junior position in the IT department (while still employed and paid as a temp).
2. As a child, I wanted to become a... game programmer. I liked playing computer games and that seemed like an easier profession to me than sci-fi author, which i also wanted to be. I think what discouraged me from the latter was discovering my best friend had far more creative ideas than i did when it came to fleshing out characters.
3. My favorite school subject was... chemistry. It was fun mixing stuff together and having it do weird and wonderful things. Also the formulas in chemistry all made sense, like if you mix this molecule and that one and introduce a catalyst you get a reaction which results in different molecules. It felt very practical. Plus all the cool stuff coming down the pipeline like lithium-ion batteries and carbon nanotubes made it feel like the only subject in school where you could really be in touch with a sci-fi future.
4. The tune of my carefree youth is... a hard one to answer. By the time i actually started listening to music that really touched my heart, i tended to enjoy slightly more melancholic tunes. I could pick some simple, happy house music that always made me feel free when i danced to it, but by that time i was older (like, into my 20s).
I suppose i could pick a song that i secretly liked but would never admit because it wasn't "cool" in my circles like MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This. I remember dancing in front of the TV to that song and my parents walked in and i was mortified and didn't dance again for 5+ years. Or maybe Yazz and the Plastic Population - The Only Way Is Up. I remember everyone "cool" hating that song and so i had to "hate" it too but it made me happy inside and i might have had a crush on the singer. That song still has a lot in common with the kind of music i listen to today, so i will pick that one.
Click to viewYazz - The Only Way Is Up
5. A book (or an author) that influenced me was Paul Theroux. I used to almost exclusively read sci-fi but for some reason i saw his Pillars of Hercules in a bookstore one day and bought it on a whim. I fell in love with his grumbling style of travel writing and was inspired by his tendency to take long and circuitous routes from place to place.
But i can't just stop there because Frank Herbert's Dune trilogy and John Varley's Steel Beach also had lasting impacts on me, to the point i still think about aspects of them today. Or Kim Stanley Robinson, another writer whose stuff has really stuck with me over the years. I read Pacific Edge as a kid and all i remember of it was how right it felt to imagine a utopia where there were no cars. I can close my eyes and recall the wonder and excitement it evoked in me, the optimism i had back in the era when it seemed like our generation was going to be the one to save the planet. And then we didn't.
6. A city (or cities) I truly love is Berlin. Actually, i don't much love Berlin, it has terrible food, mediocre weather, zero scenery and way too many tourists and hipsters. But it does have the best club scene in the world, and i miss it every day. Shenzhen was also a really great city, specifically in the context of transportation. Almost all the cars, all the buses and all the motorcycles were electric. Bus routes and subway lines going everywhere, with dockless share bikes to take you even further. Excellent food and good weather too. Shame about the government. Every other city i lived besides those two doesn't have much that stands out. Most cities are perfectly fine.
7. I started an LJ blog in 2001 because I wanted... to keep in touch with my girlfriend at the time. It seemed like a neat place to meet new people too.
8. The catch phrase that nearest and dearest recognize me by... doesn't exist. Or if it did exist, you'd have to ask them, not me.
9. A movie I'm never tired to watch again is Hackers. Great music. Great fashion. Fast pacing. It was way ahead of its time. The storyline is silly, but the themes still stand up. A hyperreal snapshot of a 90s youth subculture close to my heart.
10. When I was 25, I liked to... go out to gay clubs and hang out with candy ravers.
11. I can't live a day without... coffee.
12. An LJ post I'd like to recommend to everyone... is not something i can answer. I consume LJ like i consume TV shows. I read/watch every day and i enjoy it at the time but then it's gone and mostly forgotten.
13. I'm proud of... conquering bipolar disorder and drug addiction, changing my sex, immigrating to multiple countries, being single and not giving a fuck.
14. If I could give advice to myself from 1999, I'd... probably avoid doing that. If i went back to give myself advice, it'd change who i am today, and then i would miss out on the experiences that ultimately would lead me to having good advice to begin with, so it would either create a paradox or erase me from existence, and seeing as i conquered suicidal depression on the way to get here, i don't want to waste that effort by killing myself with the butterfly effect.
15. My favorite LJ blog(s) are all of my friends who still post. I rarely comment, but i read every day. It's part of my routine, and i feel i have a closer connection to you guys than i have to anyone outside of LJ.
16. My favorite LJ community (-ies) are all dead. I eventually started reading ohnotheydidnt because it was the only active one left, and it helps me to feel vaguely in touch with youth culture, even though the demographic there probably skews more Millenial than Gen Z.
17. A dish (or a food product) I learned to like only as an adult is onions. I hated onions as a kid. I still don't like them all that much, but i don't find them actively offensive any more. Bell peppers too. I never buy either of them for home cooking today, but i won't pick them out of a dish any more.
18. Within these 25 years I've visited... a lot of places. Going to Colombia was significant because it's the first time i have been in South America. And Namibia too, perhaps, because it's the first time i have been in Africa and old enough to remember it. (There are photos of me as a child playing football with some kids in a village in Kenya i think, but i have no memory of that.) I guess China was important too, because it's the first time i lived in an authoritarian country, and that strengthened my political convictions while also making me more sympathetic to and understanding of people who don't have the privilege to escape those regimes.
19. My favorite cure for sadness is... not getting sad in the first place. It's just a bad idea to let yourself get on the spiral. But if i have to get sad, i like to eat popcorn. Something about popcorn is fundamentally un-sad. Climbing a mountain is good too, somewhere with no people around and a nice view and a cool breeze.
20. If I didn't have to work, I'd do... ALL OF THE THINGS. Mostly i would travel and go dancing. I like to think i would start writing music again, but i'm probably too old to get back into that. Cook nice food. Hike and bike around the place. Contribute to open source software. Maybe get involved in politics or some other community service.
21. My superpower is... nothing. I am a pretty ordinary person.
22. A useful skill I'd like to teach younger generations is... how to cook. Most young people i meet are fucking hopeless at cooking, they just order in or eat ramen or something.
23. If I could spend a day as an animal, that would be... a bird. Probably a seabird so i don't need to flap my wings, i can just float around in the air and occasionally dive into the ocean to get a sploosh.
24. The way I'd like to grow old is... retired. I am so very over work already and the thought of having to do it for another 25 years till i hit official retirement age is just fucked.
25. I'm grateful to LJ for... still being here, despite the collapse of pretty much all the other social media websites of its era, despite having passed through all kinds of shady owners, despite now being owned by a government that is in open conflict with governments of most countries i lived... It's nice to have this constant in my life. I have really gained a lot from having somewhere i can just let my thoughts out, unfiltered, and a place where i can gain perspective on the world through windows into other people's lives very different to my own.
#LJ25