Don't think I've ever had this many new friends at once
So I guess I'll make a special introduction post thing!
Let's see, just stuff to get you caught up enough to not feel totally lost...
I can be TERRIBLE about using tags, sadly. I used to use them in every post, but quickly realized I'd just make shit up for each post and it wasn't effectively organizing things, so had the idea to sit down and write some legit headings and use them all the time, kept forgetting, got out of the habit of using tags, and now can never find a damnthing when I want to look something old up. XD Since I've been posting from Dreamwidth I made up a new tagging system, which puts things under much broader headings, and that's explained below.
I do have a few regulars from the old LJ, so if you ever go back you'll notice:
People in my Head - used for posts about my inner characters/Otherworld related stuff, now that's all under Otherworld
Daily Thought - a project in which I attempt to scribble down a happy thought or nice thing that happened or existed that day, which ends up not being very daily, not because everything sucked that day but for reasons ranging from I got busy, or distracted, or was just unable to come up with something on the spot that doesn't sound trite or like I made it up for a Hallmark card, which I won't bother with. XD Also little things often please me but I don't want to have like 8939485 entries that read "CUP OF COFFEE SQUEE." I mean coffee makes it in a lot, I love my brew, but the journal is Sugar for Sugar, not Sugar Fucking Loves Coffee (though I'd so take on a project that was about that). I call that Happy Thoughts now.
Um let's see, general stuff to know now that you're on the friends filter!
If you are new to my friends list, and you want to know more about me and what kinds of stuff I talk about here, you've come to the right post.
If you are passing through and curious, here's the place to find out what's up in this corner of internetland.
Some Basics:
~34 years old
~Female identified but not too het up about it, pretty genderqueer-ish, mostly straight as far as I know
~Short and a flabulous phatass
~Orig from Michigan in the States, moved to Scotland for my Masters, then tried to settle in England with my fella and then things went pear shaped and I stayed with friends in Ireland for a while and then back to the states... eh I'm from all over.
~Have a BA in Creative Writing and MLitt in Scottish Folklore and a phlebotomy cert and have done all manner of strange and interesting things
~Artist, writer, generalized creative type, definitely eccentric
Some background on some of the personal stuff:
~Mental illness colors my entire life, but it is not the sum of who and what I am. I do suffer sometimes but I'm not a horrible example of how society is burdened by my kind nor am I some inspirational porn superhero here to make you feel better/worse. I'm just a person with stuff, just like how you have stuff and everybody does.
~I lost a sister (my younger sister, the family member I was closest to) and a very close friend within a couple months of each other, both to car accidents, and I talk about them quite a bit.
~I also had to leave my dog behind when I came over here and wasn't able to import her, she died while I was away and I never saw her again. I will talk about her a lot, you get used to it.
Warnings:
~I try to remember to organize things nicely with tags, but don't always succeed.
~I also try to remember to keep things properly cut and with warnings for upsetting content, but this does run the gamut of emotions and topics! Sometimes I slip up on cuts, just give me a gentle word if it's really bugging you and in most cases I will oblige.
~I fucking swear a hell of a lot, shit! But not like all the fucking time! A damn sight more than many, though. And I ain't fuckin' sorry!
~I am WORDY. I really see no reason not to use a paragraph when a sentence would probably suffice, because I mean, I can convey a lot more subtle nuances of thought and emotion with a paragraph's worth of words, you know? A sentence just, frequently isn't sufficient.
A general idea of the kinds of stuff I post:
~I use this blog to muse and process my mental health journey, often in excruciating detail. This blog is absolutely at least 85% a place for me to vent negative feelings in sometimes very hyperbolic and not at all sincere ways, which is not a reflection of my self or worldview when I'm not in the throes of a depressive episode or anxiety attack. If you can't handle that you really don't want to be here, unfollow now, no hard feelings.
~ To expand on that, I vent and ruminate and write walls of angsty text and spew my mental illness symptoms all over sometimes. Other times it's more an exploration or trying to help myself figure something out. It's useful for me to do this, both because it helps me explore the feelings and because it also gives me a dated record of my state of mind and things my thoughts and feels are doing. Journaling like this helps me find patterns that are useful for my continued work on managing my symptoms.
~I also sometimes post creative content, like stories, poems, sometimes stuff about sewing/crafts, and my inane little drawings and comics.
~I talk about something I call Otherworld. Basic intro post here, though it's sort of hard to explain in a way that feels satisfactory to me. Short answer is it's a paracosm that helps me understand myself and the world, but it's more than that to me.
~I have a project to post happy thoughts, which used to be a happy thought a day project but kind of had to get re-envisioned because it was too difficult to commit to daily without getting repetitive in ways that started to annoy me, which kind of missed the point haha.
~I was a fosterer for rats and sometimes dogs for rescue and posted about it here and when I could remember, also at my woefully neglected Wordpress fostering blog, Barding Kennel.
~Things I'm interested in, things I'm thinking about, things that made me angry, sometimes even actual essay/article or bloglike content.
A Guide to the Tags I Use
animals and pets- anything about animals or pets
anth and soc- stuff about my research, anything about sociological, anthropological, or related interests. Social justice stuff falls under this too.
arts and crafts- If I draw something, craft something, or made pretty much anything, or am talking about topics related to that, it's here. Lots of images attached to this tag.
body and health stuff I talk about health and body image and things like that now and then.
career/home/big life changes significant stuff like moving, jobs, thoughts about what I want to "do with my life"... impactful things.
existential brooding subset of mental illness stuff tag to keep things organized for my general information... these are my long rants that come less from me and more from the pit of despair.
family stuff explains itself pretty well.
folklore and lit- anything about stories, myths, lit, or lore goes here, including the occasional literary review or crit.
fostering- I thought of putting this under "pets" (as you can tell my tags are VERY general headings), but decided fostering deserved its own tag.
happy thoughts- fluff and just, happy things that went down.
home/garden/domestic- Recipes, glee about cooking, stuff about the garden, "yay I cleaned ALL THE THINGS" etc. goes here.
mental illness stuff- Probably my most used tag right now. When I'm exploring mental illness stuff or experiencing symptoms or want to talk about it in general, this tag is the one I use... also use it for just, "problems in my life," even if they aren't related specifically to mental illness they tend to trigger or futz with it so this way I don't need a separate tag for "bad news."
otherworld- I uh, don't process the world like most people? Otherworld is... complicated. Browse the tag I guess, for a better explanation.
poetry- Poems go here.
social life stuff about how I relate to other human beans.
stories- Stories go here.
TMI Theater Presents I use this tag as a tongue-in-cheek courtesy for things that are generally considered personal in a delicate or gross way that tend not to be shared in polite company-- like sex, or indepth medical details, or some extraordinary pet poo incident, etc.
Please Note:
~This is my little space, and is mostly used to actually journal rather than anything you could call "blogging" for public entertainment or similar, but I also use it to keep connected (I have made amazing friends here who I hold dear), and make some things available in case it's useful for anyone going through similar to see how other people go about the process of figuring shit out- which is a paying it forward on my part because the biggest help to me has been knowing that other people have gone through the same stuff and aren't perfect and struggle.
Feedback is welcomed. One need not always like or agree with everything I say, and if I need to be called out on something, call me out. But personal attacks aren't tolerated- this isn't a job or public service or a comic book or something, and it's nothing I do for anyone other than me nor is it in any way connected to my professional life/works. If you got in it's because I thought I could trust you not to be a jerk. So don't. I'd try to talk things out first, but I have no problem unfriending people who aren't treating me with respect. On my part I will do my best to treat you with respect, because we deserve that.
On that same vein, if you want to follow me, that's fine. But know this: very, very little of what I post is public access. And I do not do random friending. If you friend me and do not send a pm, I absolutely will not friend you back.
If there's anything else you want to know, just ask!
SO WELCOME! Enjoy the puppies and the crazy.
Let's see, just stuff to get you caught up enough to not feel totally lost...
I can be TERRIBLE about using tags, sadly. I used to use them in every post, but quickly realized I'd just make shit up for each post and it wasn't effectively organizing things, so had the idea to sit down and write some legit headings and use them all the time, kept forgetting, got out of the habit of using tags, and now can never find a damnthing when I want to look something old up. XD Since I've been posting from Dreamwidth I made up a new tagging system, which puts things under much broader headings, and that's explained below.
I do have a few regulars from the old LJ, so if you ever go back you'll notice:
People in my Head - used for posts about my inner characters/Otherworld related stuff, now that's all under Otherworld
Daily Thought - a project in which I attempt to scribble down a happy thought or nice thing that happened or existed that day, which ends up not being very daily, not because everything sucked that day but for reasons ranging from I got busy, or distracted, or was just unable to come up with something on the spot that doesn't sound trite or like I made it up for a Hallmark card, which I won't bother with. XD Also little things often please me but I don't want to have like 8939485 entries that read "CUP OF COFFEE SQUEE." I mean coffee makes it in a lot, I love my brew, but the journal is Sugar for Sugar, not Sugar Fucking Loves Coffee (though I'd so take on a project that was about that). I call that Happy Thoughts now.
Um let's see, general stuff to know now that you're on the friends filter!
If you are new to my friends list, and you want to know more about me and what kinds of stuff I talk about here, you've come to the right post.
If you are passing through and curious, here's the place to find out what's up in this corner of internetland.
Some Basics:
~34 years old
~Female identified but not too het up about it, pretty genderqueer-ish, mostly straight as far as I know
~Short and a flabulous phatass
~Orig from Michigan in the States, moved to Scotland for my Masters, then tried to settle in England with my fella and then things went pear shaped and I stayed with friends in Ireland for a while and then back to the states... eh I'm from all over.
~Have a BA in Creative Writing and MLitt in Scottish Folklore and a phlebotomy cert and have done all manner of strange and interesting things
~Artist, writer, generalized creative type, definitely eccentric
Some background on some of the personal stuff:
~Mental illness colors my entire life, but it is not the sum of who and what I am. I do suffer sometimes but I'm not a horrible example of how society is burdened by my kind nor am I some inspirational porn superhero here to make you feel better/worse. I'm just a person with stuff, just like how you have stuff and everybody does.
~I lost a sister (my younger sister, the family member I was closest to) and a very close friend within a couple months of each other, both to car accidents, and I talk about them quite a bit.
~I also had to leave my dog behind when I came over here and wasn't able to import her, she died while I was away and I never saw her again. I will talk about her a lot, you get used to it.
Warnings:
~I try to remember to organize things nicely with tags, but don't always succeed.
~I also try to remember to keep things properly cut and with warnings for upsetting content, but this does run the gamut of emotions and topics! Sometimes I slip up on cuts, just give me a gentle word if it's really bugging you and in most cases I will oblige.
~I fucking swear a hell of a lot, shit! But not like all the fucking time! A damn sight more than many, though. And I ain't fuckin' sorry!
~I am WORDY. I really see no reason not to use a paragraph when a sentence would probably suffice, because I mean, I can convey a lot more subtle nuances of thought and emotion with a paragraph's worth of words, you know? A sentence just, frequently isn't sufficient.
A general idea of the kinds of stuff I post:
~I use this blog to muse and process my mental health journey, often in excruciating detail. This blog is absolutely at least 85% a place for me to vent negative feelings in sometimes very hyperbolic and not at all sincere ways, which is not a reflection of my self or worldview when I'm not in the throes of a depressive episode or anxiety attack. If you can't handle that you really don't want to be here, unfollow now, no hard feelings.
~ To expand on that, I vent and ruminate and write walls of angsty text and spew my mental illness symptoms all over sometimes. Other times it's more an exploration or trying to help myself figure something out. It's useful for me to do this, both because it helps me explore the feelings and because it also gives me a dated record of my state of mind and things my thoughts and feels are doing. Journaling like this helps me find patterns that are useful for my continued work on managing my symptoms.
~I also sometimes post creative content, like stories, poems, sometimes stuff about sewing/crafts, and my inane little drawings and comics.
~I talk about something I call Otherworld. Basic intro post here, though it's sort of hard to explain in a way that feels satisfactory to me. Short answer is it's a paracosm that helps me understand myself and the world, but it's more than that to me.
~I have a project to post happy thoughts, which used to be a happy thought a day project but kind of had to get re-envisioned because it was too difficult to commit to daily without getting repetitive in ways that started to annoy me, which kind of missed the point haha.
~I was a fosterer for rats and sometimes dogs for rescue and posted about it here and when I could remember, also at my woefully neglected Wordpress fostering blog, Barding Kennel.
~Things I'm interested in, things I'm thinking about, things that made me angry, sometimes even actual essay/article or bloglike content.
A Guide to the Tags I Use
animals and pets- anything about animals or pets
anth and soc- stuff about my research, anything about sociological, anthropological, or related interests. Social justice stuff falls under this too.
arts and crafts- If I draw something, craft something, or made pretty much anything, or am talking about topics related to that, it's here. Lots of images attached to this tag.
body and health stuff I talk about health and body image and things like that now and then.
career/home/big life changes significant stuff like moving, jobs, thoughts about what I want to "do with my life"... impactful things.
existential brooding subset of mental illness stuff tag to keep things organized for my general information... these are my long rants that come less from me and more from the pit of despair.
family stuff explains itself pretty well.
folklore and lit- anything about stories, myths, lit, or lore goes here, including the occasional literary review or crit.
fostering- I thought of putting this under "pets" (as you can tell my tags are VERY general headings), but decided fostering deserved its own tag.
happy thoughts- fluff and just, happy things that went down.
home/garden/domestic- Recipes, glee about cooking, stuff about the garden, "yay I cleaned ALL THE THINGS" etc. goes here.
mental illness stuff- Probably my most used tag right now. When I'm exploring mental illness stuff or experiencing symptoms or want to talk about it in general, this tag is the one I use... also use it for just, "problems in my life," even if they aren't related specifically to mental illness they tend to trigger or futz with it so this way I don't need a separate tag for "bad news."
otherworld- I uh, don't process the world like most people? Otherworld is... complicated. Browse the tag I guess, for a better explanation.
poetry- Poems go here.
social life stuff about how I relate to other human beans.
stories- Stories go here.
TMI Theater Presents I use this tag as a tongue-in-cheek courtesy for things that are generally considered personal in a delicate or gross way that tend not to be shared in polite company-- like sex, or indepth medical details, or some extraordinary pet poo incident, etc.
Please Note:
~This is my little space, and is mostly used to actually journal rather than anything you could call "blogging" for public entertainment or similar, but I also use it to keep connected (I have made amazing friends here who I hold dear), and make some things available in case it's useful for anyone going through similar to see how other people go about the process of figuring shit out- which is a paying it forward on my part because the biggest help to me has been knowing that other people have gone through the same stuff and aren't perfect and struggle.
Feedback is welcomed. One need not always like or agree with everything I say, and if I need to be called out on something, call me out. But personal attacks aren't tolerated- this isn't a job or public service or a comic book or something, and it's nothing I do for anyone other than me nor is it in any way connected to my professional life/works. If you got in it's because I thought I could trust you not to be a jerk. So don't. I'd try to talk things out first, but I have no problem unfriending people who aren't treating me with respect. On my part I will do my best to treat you with respect, because we deserve that.
On that same vein, if you want to follow me, that's fine. But know this: very, very little of what I post is public access. And I do not do random friending. If you friend me and do not send a pm, I absolutely will not friend you back.
If there's anything else you want to know, just ask!
SO WELCOME! Enjoy the puppies and the crazy.