Most Unique!
This has been a great week for LJ. Seriously.
If you don't believe me, just check these stats:
good = 505 (as collected by michaelnolan)
bad = 2267 (as collected by rollick)
I don't know the stats for how many LJ-users are deemed to be in need of a shot of Vitamin B12 (baxil) or a stiff drink (postvixen).
For Good LJ, I nominated owlrigh, galeogirl, catling, beetiger, and eetmewithtoast. I gave compelling reasons for all my choices, but michaelnolan only selected my first one, owlrigh, for his project. Oh, well: his loss.
For Bad LJ, I joined the chorus and selected shadesong. Here is most of my explanation why:
Oh yes, it's been said, it's been said, it's been said again, but I nominate shadesong. Not because I hate her. Not because she's skewered me. Not because I was on her Friends List and loved her for months and months until I figured out how crazy she was.
I don't know her at all. I lurked on her journal for two days, and I found her totally boring. Now, why should I spend time slagging someone whose journal I merely find very uninteresting?
First of all, I'm an American, and here in America, it's a longstanding tradition to drag our celebrities through the mud, especially the biggest ones. Second of all, I don't like some of the reasons that those hundreds and hundreds of LJers who've Friended her seem to think so highly of her.
It's a good thing, to go through abuse and be able to talk about it. To repair what parts of your psyche you can and dedicate yourself to becoming a professional creative person and mother. But overidentifying with the victim role is dangerous. I say that as a Feminist and a Fierce Womyn* in my own right.
Do you exist for yourself, shadesong? Or are you continuing your scheherazade of many years ago on your very own journal? Do you live in this moment, or in your own bad memories?
I'm not saying it's easy to escape bad memories. But it's too easy to milk pity (and money) from kindly, giving people, especially when you're clever and creative. Please stop panhandling on Livejournal.
That goes for everyone else, too. Of course you should use your LJ to promote your business and creative endeavors. Of course you should ask your friends for emotional support. But begging for money, by Paypal or whatever, is the trademark of bums. I'm disgusted that there are bums on the internet, much less my beloved Livejournal.
While I'm here, I'll do some more griping.
I wish the people who post news items, like baronbrian and postvixen would do so a little less often. It's not that they never point out interesting articles . . . but if I wanted to read essays and news, I'm quite capable of finding my own.
I'd also like to personally bitchslap the 8th grade English teachers of many people on LJ, including about a third of my Friends List, for allowing them to pass 8th grade English without understanding the basics of capitalization, grammar, and spelling. That some of these people have graduated high school- and college- with such poor writing skills I find difficult to grasp. Perhaps it's not important to them to appear intelligent and well-spoken online. I wish I could give them all a dictionary and book on basic grammar.
That's all. I'm not much of a mudslinger, unless I'm in the right mood.
(end of comment)
Now that we're on my LJ and I'm still feeling snarky, let's get more specific.
People On My Friends List To Whom I'd Like To Give Dictionaries & Grammar Guides:
aeshnor
The recently ex-LJ CabaretGirl
freeko
gooph
joker4gotham
kanine (Even though I suspect she may be honoring e.e. cummings . . . my Quirky Capitalizations are courtesy of A.A. Milne.)
kikthegreek
livingdeath
rubeslipprs
zantiphia
I'm hoping that a bit of public embarassment might encourage you to mend your extremely corrigible ways. There are plenty of free programs that will check your spelling and grammar for you: just plunk your post in one of them, and you'll end up posting something that I can more clearly understand.
I suppose there are some who would prefer to come across as nearly illiterate, ignorant dimwits, but I can't imagine why. Does proper written English make you feel conformist? Or part of us snobby elitists? Or do you just like the meaning of your posts to stay mysterious and enigmatic? Just to clarify, I don't think you're stupid or ignorant. I know that you are smart people with poor writing skills. But those poor skills make me more inclined to skim over your posts, rather than read them.
I find this problematic because, for me, the point of being in a blog community like Livejournal is interaction. Saying something and seeing the immediate reactions of friends and strangers. If you're writing something badly, you're not participating to the extent that your more well-polished fellows are. And that's too bad.
I agree with beetiger, though. Not being nominated for any of those categories does make me feel a little left out. Not the Best or the Worst? Don't need alcohol or vitamins? Where does that leave me?
It reminds me of Senior Year of high school. Like most high schools, Classical had a bunch of categories, and they sent a sheet around so everyone could pick a male and a female for each. Most of them were stupid: "Most Popular", "Best Eyes", "Class Clown". But at the bottom of the list was one that fit me to a T. "Most Unique".
Give us a break. Fight Club wasn't going to come out for years and years. What they meant was, "Weirdo, Eccentric, Oddball". I was all of that, and after asking most of my class, the fact that I had nominated myself on my ballot was irrelevant. I would get that by a landslide.
Maybe they didn't want to take a picture of me. Or maybe there wasn't a clear winner on the guy's side. For whatever reason, "Most Unique" was the only category that didn't get published in the yearbook. Oh well, several good pictures of me were in there. Even at a self-conscious seventeen, I was still damn photogenic. I think I'll go remind myself how cute I was, even then.
For a good time, click here.
If you don't believe me, just check these stats:
good = 505 (as collected by michaelnolan)
bad = 2267 (as collected by rollick)
I don't know the stats for how many LJ-users are deemed to be in need of a shot of Vitamin B12 (baxil) or a stiff drink (postvixen).
For Good LJ, I nominated owlrigh, galeogirl, catling, beetiger, and eetmewithtoast. I gave compelling reasons for all my choices, but michaelnolan only selected my first one, owlrigh, for his project. Oh, well: his loss.
For Bad LJ, I joined the chorus and selected shadesong. Here is most of my explanation why:
Oh yes, it's been said, it's been said, it's been said again, but I nominate shadesong. Not because I hate her. Not because she's skewered me. Not because I was on her Friends List and loved her for months and months until I figured out how crazy she was.
I don't know her at all. I lurked on her journal for two days, and I found her totally boring. Now, why should I spend time slagging someone whose journal I merely find very uninteresting?
First of all, I'm an American, and here in America, it's a longstanding tradition to drag our celebrities through the mud, especially the biggest ones. Second of all, I don't like some of the reasons that those hundreds and hundreds of LJers who've Friended her seem to think so highly of her.
It's a good thing, to go through abuse and be able to talk about it. To repair what parts of your psyche you can and dedicate yourself to becoming a professional creative person and mother. But overidentifying with the victim role is dangerous. I say that as a Feminist and a Fierce Womyn* in my own right.
Do you exist for yourself, shadesong? Or are you continuing your scheherazade of many years ago on your very own journal? Do you live in this moment, or in your own bad memories?
I'm not saying it's easy to escape bad memories. But it's too easy to milk pity (and money) from kindly, giving people, especially when you're clever and creative. Please stop panhandling on Livejournal.
That goes for everyone else, too. Of course you should use your LJ to promote your business and creative endeavors. Of course you should ask your friends for emotional support. But begging for money, by Paypal or whatever, is the trademark of bums. I'm disgusted that there are bums on the internet, much less my beloved Livejournal.
While I'm here, I'll do some more griping.
I wish the people who post news items, like baronbrian and postvixen would do so a little less often. It's not that they never point out interesting articles . . . but if I wanted to read essays and news, I'm quite capable of finding my own.
I'd also like to personally bitchslap the 8th grade English teachers of many people on LJ, including about a third of my Friends List, for allowing them to pass 8th grade English without understanding the basics of capitalization, grammar, and spelling. That some of these people have graduated high school- and college- with such poor writing skills I find difficult to grasp. Perhaps it's not important to them to appear intelligent and well-spoken online. I wish I could give them all a dictionary and book on basic grammar.
That's all. I'm not much of a mudslinger, unless I'm in the right mood.
(end of comment)
Now that we're on my LJ and I'm still feeling snarky, let's get more specific.
People On My Friends List To Whom I'd Like To Give Dictionaries & Grammar Guides:
aeshnor
The recently ex-LJ CabaretGirl
freeko
gooph
joker4gotham
kanine (Even though I suspect she may be honoring e.e. cummings . . . my Quirky Capitalizations are courtesy of A.A. Milne.)
kikthegreek
livingdeath
rubeslipprs
zantiphia
I'm hoping that a bit of public embarassment might encourage you to mend your extremely corrigible ways. There are plenty of free programs that will check your spelling and grammar for you: just plunk your post in one of them, and you'll end up posting something that I can more clearly understand.
I suppose there are some who would prefer to come across as nearly illiterate, ignorant dimwits, but I can't imagine why. Does proper written English make you feel conformist? Or part of us snobby elitists? Or do you just like the meaning of your posts to stay mysterious and enigmatic? Just to clarify, I don't think you're stupid or ignorant. I know that you are smart people with poor writing skills. But those poor skills make me more inclined to skim over your posts, rather than read them.
I find this problematic because, for me, the point of being in a blog community like Livejournal is interaction. Saying something and seeing the immediate reactions of friends and strangers. If you're writing something badly, you're not participating to the extent that your more well-polished fellows are. And that's too bad.
I agree with beetiger, though. Not being nominated for any of those categories does make me feel a little left out. Not the Best or the Worst? Don't need alcohol or vitamins? Where does that leave me?
It reminds me of Senior Year of high school. Like most high schools, Classical had a bunch of categories, and they sent a sheet around so everyone could pick a male and a female for each. Most of them were stupid: "Most Popular", "Best Eyes", "Class Clown". But at the bottom of the list was one that fit me to a T. "Most Unique".
Give us a break. Fight Club wasn't going to come out for years and years. What they meant was, "Weirdo, Eccentric, Oddball". I was all of that, and after asking most of my class, the fact that I had nominated myself on my ballot was irrelevant. I would get that by a landslide.
Maybe they didn't want to take a picture of me. Or maybe there wasn't a clear winner on the guy's side. For whatever reason, "Most Unique" was the only category that didn't get published in the yearbook. Oh well, several good pictures of me were in there. Even at a self-conscious seventeen, I was still damn photogenic. I think I'll go remind myself how cute I was, even then.
For a good time, click here.