cellio | Friday Five

1. Explain why you started to journal/blog.

ralphmelton was starting a D&D game and suggested that we use LJ for the game log. This was the first I'd heard of LJ, and curiosity led me to create a journal of my own.

It didn't take me long to realize that journals of this sort are rather different from the other net-based forms of communication. A journal is pull (you read it when, or if, you feel like it), which makes it different from email; email has an implicit "read me" request, and maybe an implicit "reply to me" request. Email is push. It's also different from Usenet (and other bboard-like systems), because a journal focuses on a person, not a topic. In fact, back when I still followed Usenet, I found that I was setting up a few filters that allowed me to read anything posted by certain people, even if they were on topics I wouldn't normally read, because the people involved were interesting in various ways. This was all within a given set of newsgroups, though; there was no easy way to follow "everything $PERSON posts anywhere", and Usenet is too big for that anyway. I'm an interested reader, not a stalker.

In a lot of ways, a journal is sort of like alt.fan.$PERSON. I post whatever I find interesting or want to comment on, and while some people undoubtedly follow my journal only for particular topics, at least some follow it because they know me, or like my writing style, or like the friends I attract, or whatever. That's kind of neat, and a different sociological phenomenon than email or newsgroups or chat rooms. I'm curious about its effects, and I want a good seat. :-)

2. Do people you interact with day to day or family members know about your journal/blog? Why or why not?

I don't think so. Mostly, the people who know about my journal are the people who have journals of their own. I don't go out of my way to promote LJ, and my journal isn't indexed by the major search engines. On the other hand, I don't go out of my way to hide; I use my real name, and I don't post things (publicly) that I'd be upset to find my parents, my rabbi, my coworkers, or my husband reading.

I do find that I'm uncomfortable when a conversation at a social gathering becomes LJ-centric and there are non-LJ people present. I usually try to turn the conversation in a different direction when that happens. Some of it is the feeling that it's rude to talk about any shared context that isn't really shared (I see this problem with other subjects too, not just LJ), and part of it is a mild awkwardness about the implicit "arrogance" of a public journal. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but it still feels a little weird sometimes.

3. Do you have a theme for your journal/blog?

No. I write about things that interest me. I write a fair bit about religion, because that's something that interests me, but it's not a religion journal. I also try to mention the high points of day-to-day life, though somewhat erratically. I'm not much of a creative writer, and all the creative writing I do is over in the D&D journal.

4. What direction would you like to have your journal/blog go in over the next year?

I'm pretty happy with it the way it is, actually. It's a tool, not art.

5. Pimp five of your favorite journals/blogs.

This is hard.

Because "pimp" implies "entice others to go look", I'm not going to consider here journals that are largely or entirely friends-only. Hey, I've got to thin the list somehow. :-)

And remember, as someone on my friends' list pointed out, it's favorite journals, not favorite people.

tangerinpenguin writes entertaining, thoughtful posts on all sorts of topics, and is always polite about lj-cut when he does quizzes (which he doesn't do often).

goljerp posts fascinating entries about Judaism, including occasional notes from interesting classes he's taking. The writing is clear and articulate.

khaosworks, posting from Singapore, has an interesting perspective on history, current events, US politics, and more. He also occasionally posts new filk songs.

steven has a smile-inducing way with words, even when he's writing about being sick or cleaning up after plumbing gone awry. I've never met him, but he strikes me as one of those poeple who can remain calm when all about him is in chaos and it's not because he doesn't understand the situation. :-)

ralphmelton is a gamer, a programmar, and a writer of interesting slice-of-life entries. It probably helps that I know him, but I think he's enjoyable reading for others too. (And let me slip in a side reference to ralph_dnd, which is one of my favorite journals even though it's unlikely to be of much interest to most people, hence isn't really "pimpable".)