LiveJournal is 25: interesting facts about me and my blog
1. LJ appeared in April 1999, the year when I… had just started my first serious long term relationship, with Kevin, and was approaching the end of my time in Montréal. That year, I completed my BA in History and English Lit at Concordia University and started an intensive french course in McGill. Little did I know that just round the corner was a friend I'd make who'd introduce me to LJ.
2. As a child, I wanted to become a… private detective. I fell in love with Agatha Christie when I was 8 and devoured all her books, plus any adjacent authors. If there was a crime and a mystery, I was hooked. I even started investigating "crimes" in the building I lived in São Paulo, roping in friends as my assistants. Then I started writing crime fiction; my detective's name was Mr Clark and there was usually a very high body count behind him by the time he figured out who was the murderer.
3. My favorite school subject was… Portuguese. I loved books, lived in the school's library, and couldn't be happier whenever the teacher gave us a creative writing exercise.
4. The tune of my carefree youth is... any pop song from the 80s. I grew up around a lot of Brazilian MPB (popular music) plus whatever was popular in the U.S. and Europe. Because so few people in Brazil at the time spoke English, they played songs on the radio and TV because it "sounded nice and melodic" rather than because they understood its lyrics. This meant that songs by The Cure and The Smiths got radio play alongside samba, Brazilian rock and other genres, in a big melting pot of whatever sounded "catchy". I only became more obsessive with music in my late teens, when I developed a huge crush on Morrissey - my gateway drug into Siouxsie and the Banshees, Suede, and a whole lot of Britpop from the 90s and earlier.
5. A book (or an author) that influenced me... my life has been a series of discoveries, where I'll fall in love with an author or genre, read everything from them/it, then move on to the next one. Agatha Christie was the first big one, followed by Stephen King, then Sword and Sorcery types of books, plus a few other horror writers, then the classics in university, and so forth. Eventually I got into more spiritually-minded books, whether Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha or New Age works by Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle. I also have a love for books on creative writing; Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones had a big impact on me. Now that I'm approaching 50, I'm enjoying re-reading books I loved, taking my time with them, even writing reviews, or exploring works from beloved authors that I'd never read (e.g. Virginia Woolf's short stories).
6. A city (or cities) I truly love... Montréal! I lived there between 1995 and 2000 - five blissful years. Every time I go back, I feel so nostalgic for it. Little things trigger happy memories - whether its the smell of the metro, or turning a corner and seeing a building I knew well. It has the perfect size - 3 million people. Its winters didn't bother me; its fall season was gorgeous; and its spring and summers magical. Its one of those cities where people work to live rather than live to work.
7. I started an LJ blog in … 2001, when I moved to London with my boyfriend at the time Kevin because I wanted... to stay in touch with friends back in Brazil. My LJ was called commonpeople and had many people updating it at first (which was confusing for my first LJ friends). Eventually I took over when the others stopped posting and started spending more time online, making new friends. Most of my closest and oldest UK and US friends were all made via LJ!
8. The catch phrase that nearest and dearest recognize me by… is... gosh, I have no clue. Probably none?
9. A movie I’m never tired to watch again... is Groundhog Day. It's my all time favourite film, closely followed by A Room with a View. As for TV shows, the all time best is still the Pride and Prejudice version with Colin Firth. It actually has healing properties; if you sit through its 6 hours while sick, you'll be healed. Guaranteed! And if you like the Pride and Prejudice version with Kiera Knightly, you need to get your head checked.
10. When I was 25, I liked to… go to the gym and swim. I'd left Montréal by that stage and was spending a year in Londrina, Brazil (where I met my friend Meire, who introduced me to LJ.) Exercise was what helped me cope with depression and isolation; it kept me going until summer of 2001 (just before I turned 26), when Kevin and I moved to London.
11. I can’t live a day without… petting cats and talking to them. They are my social life these days.
12. An LJ post I’d like to recommend to everyone… is hard to pick these days. There have been many great posts over the years, mostly by people who have now left LJ. I saved many of them as "memories" and one day I'll read through them again.
13. I’m proud of… the life I lead right now and how I've managed to support my family but also find time to dedicate to my own writing and love of reading (and love of petting cats.)
14. If I could give advice to myself from 1999, I’d… tell myself to convice our dad to lend us money to buy a little flat in East London. I don't think it would change that much my experience in the UK but it would mean a little safety net now, and a place to go back to if I ever decided to leave Brazil and return.
15. My favorite LJ blog(s) are all five of you who are currently reading this.
16. My favorite LJ community (-ies) don't exist anymore. Once upon a time I had a community dedicated to baths and bathtubs, which is odd now that I think of it, and belonged to another one dedicated to gossiping about the goth community in the UK, which was naughty and probably gave me karma that I'll need to pay off in future lives.
17. A dish (or a food product) I learned to like only as an adult... are olives. One day, in 2016, my taste buds suddenly changed and what was repulsive and would make me gag became a supreme delicacy that I now love and use often in the kitchen.
18. Within these 25 years I’ve visited… many countries, cities, couches and beds.
19. My favorite cure for sadness is… the entry above favourite films and TV shows. And cats. Also, running, which I hardly do these days. Whenever I go for a nice run, I feel so great afterwards.
20. If I didn’t have to work, I’d do… a lot of studying. I'd fill up my time with courses and a bit of community work. Would also spend a good deal of time traveling and seeing friends across the globe.
21. My superpower is… my sense of direction, though some people say it's my patience.
22. A useful skill I’d like to teach younger generations is… the importance to listen - really listen. Actively listen. So few people do it. When I learned this, a lot changed in my life for the better, and I also realised how much I missed out in the past by not engaging this skill.
23. If I could spend a day as an animal, that would be… one of the animals on my totem pole: spiders, seahorses, cats or parrots
24. The way I’d like to grow old is… healthy and with my memory intact, unlike my parents. There is nothing more important than our health. If I can be an elderly man who can still do things independently, can read and watch films (and remember them), then I'll be very happy indeed.
25. I’m grateful to LJ for… all the friends I made along the year, and all those times in the early years where I needed to learn HTML! It actually came in handy with temp jobs further down the line.