Return.
Hello my much smaller group of readers!
It has been a long, long time. I know that many of you have probably fled from LJ, fleeing to other networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, or even :*shudder*: Twitter. Livejournal does seem to be a relic of internet networking that has been replaced by shinier technology. My friends list is ragged and I do not remember anymore who most of the people on it are, I do not know how many of you are even reading this, so maybe it will be more for me than for others, but I've been feeling a longing to return lately.
Don't get me wrong. I, like everyone else, feel the compulsory need to check my Facebook every few minutes to see who thinks my latest status update is witty. I just was never able to adjust my introspective thoughts and feelings into the Facebook format. Others appeared to make the transition just fine, and began writing "notes" for people to read in the same manner they used to write LJ entries. I could never make the change. After the user-friendliness and customization of Livejournal, "notes" just seemed so impersonal and not at all a representation of me. I missed my user icons, and the decoration on the page, and the ability to make my comments link say anything I wanted it too. I missed being Michael Valentine.
Much of my lack of writing and attention to other networking sites had to do with not feeling like I had much creativity in me anymore, that I was somehow no longer able to put my feelings into words on the electronic page. It's so much easier to be creative and witty in a one-line Facebook status update, there's less planning and phrasing that goes on. Even though I felt like I couldn't write interesting and engaging pieces anymore, I still found myself "living in journal mode" quite often. What I mean by that is that I often narrated my life in my head as though it were an LJ entry, and several times I felt almost an uncontrollable urge to sit down and write those narrations out, but I could never do it. By the time I sat down in front of the computer, I was too tired, or too distracted by something else, or the well-worded thoughts had escaped me. Sometimes, the narrations came in tid-bits that would look odd and fragmented in the Livejournal medium, pieces much better suited to Facebook or to be kept in my mind.
But with my partner's recent surge of renewed creativity, I seem to have been re-energized as well. Now, Livejournal, though it still appears as a desolate and rarely-used wasteland, has the capability of posting your entries to Facebook (if you use the LJ website to update, which I don't normally do, but still, it's a good option to have). Hopefully this will be the jump-start I need to start writing again!
It's good to be back.
♥ Michael Valentine
It has been a long, long time. I know that many of you have probably fled from LJ, fleeing to other networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, or even :*shudder*: Twitter. Livejournal does seem to be a relic of internet networking that has been replaced by shinier technology. My friends list is ragged and I do not remember anymore who most of the people on it are, I do not know how many of you are even reading this, so maybe it will be more for me than for others, but I've been feeling a longing to return lately.
Don't get me wrong. I, like everyone else, feel the compulsory need to check my Facebook every few minutes to see who thinks my latest status update is witty. I just was never able to adjust my introspective thoughts and feelings into the Facebook format. Others appeared to make the transition just fine, and began writing "notes" for people to read in the same manner they used to write LJ entries. I could never make the change. After the user-friendliness and customization of Livejournal, "notes" just seemed so impersonal and not at all a representation of me. I missed my user icons, and the decoration on the page, and the ability to make my comments link say anything I wanted it too. I missed being Michael Valentine.
Much of my lack of writing and attention to other networking sites had to do with not feeling like I had much creativity in me anymore, that I was somehow no longer able to put my feelings into words on the electronic page. It's so much easier to be creative and witty in a one-line Facebook status update, there's less planning and phrasing that goes on. Even though I felt like I couldn't write interesting and engaging pieces anymore, I still found myself "living in journal mode" quite often. What I mean by that is that I often narrated my life in my head as though it were an LJ entry, and several times I felt almost an uncontrollable urge to sit down and write those narrations out, but I could never do it. By the time I sat down in front of the computer, I was too tired, or too distracted by something else, or the well-worded thoughts had escaped me. Sometimes, the narrations came in tid-bits that would look odd and fragmented in the Livejournal medium, pieces much better suited to Facebook or to be kept in my mind.
But with my partner's recent surge of renewed creativity, I seem to have been re-energized as well. Now, Livejournal, though it still appears as a desolate and rarely-used wasteland, has the capability of posting your entries to Facebook (if you use the LJ website to update, which I don't normally do, but still, it's a good option to have). Hopefully this will be the jump-start I need to start writing again!
It's good to be back.
♥ Michael Valentine