Less Chat = Less Drama?

I haven't chatted online with ANYONE for the past several weeks. It's not so much that I've been avoiding it, although I have been a lot busier lately than I used to be. But even when I'm available for chat, usually nobody's around. I'm not sure why that is. Nor do I particularly care.

At the same time, the incidence of drama in my online life has virtually disappeared.

I am not complaining.

I'll admit that I approach certain journals on my flist with trepidation. Let's face it: some of you people lead pretty damned chaotic lives. There are times when I feel like a Victorian time-traveller trying to make sense of the interplay between the Alphas and the Betas.

So I read your journals, but tend to find myself without anything meaningful to say in the way of comments. Mind you, I actually DO want to comment - it's just that I can't find anything worth saying or listening to.

Less Chat = Less Drama?

I haven't chatted online with ANYONE for the past several weeks. It's not so much that I've been avoiding it, although I have been a lot busier lately than I used to be. But even when I'm available for chat, usually nobody's around. I'm not sure why that is. Nor do I particularly care.

At the same time, the incidence of drama in my online life has virtually disappeared.

I am not complaining.

I'll admit that I approach certain journals on my flist with trepidation. Let's face it: some of you people lead pretty damned chaotic lives. There are times when I feel like a Victorian time-traveller trying to make sense of the interplay between the Alphas and the Betas.

So I read your journals, but tend to find myself without anything meaningful to say in the way of comments. Mind you, I actually DO want to comment - it's just that I can't find anything worth saying or listening to.

Reeling and Writhing

Here's something that's sort of funny: for all that I complained that writing here was a waste of my life, the recent period of relatively low activity taught me something that I should have already known.

I like to write.

Even thought it's not as good as I would like it to be, even though I'm not "accomplishing" anything, writing scratches in itch in my psyche. I'd love to create stories and essays that I could be really proud of. You have no idea how badly I need to be creative, but the inspiration just hasn't been there lately. But even the usual crap that I produce makes me feel better than writing nothing.

And I haven't forgotten what I said in a voice-post a while back, about thinking of writing as a toy. I've been teetering on the edge of an insight, I think; somehow there should be a relationship between writing fiction and gamemastering a roleplaying game. I was a good GM; there must be a way to take the story-creating elements of GMing, the things that made GMing fun, and translate them into writing fiction.

Reeling and Writhing

Here's something that's sort of funny: for all that I complained that writing here was a waste of my life, the recent period of relatively low activity taught me something that I should have already known.

I like to write.

Even thought it's not as good as I would like it to be, even though I'm not "accomplishing" anything, writing scratches in itch in my psyche. I'd love to create stories and essays that I could be really proud of. You have no idea how badly I need to be creative, but the inspiration just hasn't been there lately. But even the usual crap that I produce makes me feel better than writing nothing.

And I haven't forgotten what I said in a voice-post a while back, about thinking of writing as a toy. I've been teetering on the edge of an insight, I think; somehow there should be a relationship between writing fiction and gamemastering a roleplaying game. I was a good GM; there must be a way to take the story-creating elements of GMing, the things that made GMing fun, and translate them into writing fiction.

Thanks, Dr. Dobson

"Dr." James Dobson just did an editorial for CNN about the gay marriage threat. I couldn't resist commenting:

Wow! Suddenly I've forgotten all about the war in Iraq, our skyrocketing national debt, institutionalized corruption in Washington, and our rapidly melting polar icecaps. Thanks, Dr. Dobson, for reminding us about what's REALLY important.

When we're all neck-debt in rising water, explaining to our grandchildren why they'll be paying interest to the Chinese for the rest of their lives, and praying that our children are making it safely through the day on patrol somewhere in the Middle East, it'll be good to know that gays can't marry. What a relief!

Thanks, Dr. Dobson

"Dr." James Dobson just did an editorial for CNN about the gay marriage threat. I couldn't resist commenting:

Wow! Suddenly I've forgotten all about the war in Iraq, our skyrocketing national debt, institutionalized corruption in Washington, and our rapidly melting polar icecaps. Thanks, Dr. Dobson, for reminding us about what's REALLY important.

When we're all neck-debt in rising water, explaining to our grandchildren why they'll be paying interest to the Chinese for the rest of their lives, and praying that our children are making it safely through the day on patrol somewhere in the Middle East, it'll be good to know that gays can't marry. What a relief!

Three Annoyances

This evening I was visited by three annoyances, in three different forms:

1. A letter from my Senator, "liberal" Republican Lincoln Chaffee. "Prepared, Printed, and Mailed at Taxpayer Expense", it helpfully reminded me. And what was the urgent message that required the Senator's use of his franking privilege and my taxpayer dollars? Why, to tell me what a great job the Senator was doing, of course! He's spearheading legislation to give control of Rhode Island's Fox Point Hurricane barrier to...the Army Corps of Engineers.

Wait a minute. Aren't those the guys who screwed up the levees in New Orleans? Why would Chaffee want to boast about a bone-headed move like that? I honestly wonder.

Hmm. The flunkies who designed the mailing (at my expense) threw some "how to prepare for a disaster" info on the back side, just to make the more dim-witted of his constituents think that the Senator actually gave a damn about their pitiful lives. How thoughtful.

Am I too cynical, do you think?

2. Shortly after I read that mailing, the phone rang. It was yet another pre-recorded sales pitch for the DISH network. I waited for the prompt, and hit "1".

She sounded bored.

"Satellite Sales (?). Are you interested in signing up for the DISH network?"

"No, I'm on the do-not-call list, and you people keep calling me-"

SLAM! Must have been a bad day for her - she hung up hard. I only wish that I'd strung her along long enough to get her phone number or the right spelling of the company name, so I could file a complaint. But perhaps they'll call again.

3. After dinner, I checked my email. What joy: spammers had once again decided to infest my site. In this case, it seemed to be Italian spammers, putting hundreds of messages promoting sex, drugs, and indecipherable crap in my site guestbook, as well as in some sections of The Chaos Project.

That situation had been getting worse and worse over the past couple of weeks. I'd tried blocking IPs and key words from their URLs, but they were coming up with new ones faster than I could block them. Finally a light bulb went off over my head, and I took away the field that allowed people to list their homepages. It's a pity, but what else can I do?

Just another evening in early-21st-century America...

Three Annoyances

This evening I was visited by three annoyances, in three different forms:

1. A letter from my Senator, "liberal" Republican Lincoln Chaffee. "Prepared, Printed, and Mailed at Taxpayer Expense", it helpfully reminded me. And what was the urgent message that required the Senator's use of his franking privilege and my taxpayer dollars? Why, to tell me what a great job the Senator was doing, of course! He's spearheading legislation to give control of Rhode Island's Fox Point Hurricane barrier to...the Army Corps of Engineers.

Wait a minute. Aren't those the guys who screwed up the levees in New Orleans? Why would Chaffee want to boast about a bone-headed move like that? I honestly wonder.

Hmm. The flunkies who designed the mailing (at my expense) threw some "how to prepare for a disaster" info on the back side, just to make the more dim-witted of his constituents think that the Senator actually gave a damn about their pitiful lives. How thoughtful.

Am I too cynical, do you think?

2. Shortly after I read that mailing, the phone rang. It was yet another pre-recorded sales pitch for the DISH network. I waited for the prompt, and hit "1".

She sounded bored.

"Satellite Sales (?). Are you interested in signing up for the DISH network?"

"No, I'm on the do-not-call list, and you people keep calling me-"

SLAM! Must have been a bad day for her - she hung up hard. I only wish that I'd strung her along long enough to get her phone number or the right spelling of the company name, so I could file a complaint. But perhaps they'll call again.

3. After dinner, I checked my email. What joy: spammers had once again decided to infest my site. In this case, it seemed to be Italian spammers, putting hundreds of messages promoting sex, drugs, and indecipherable crap in my site guestbook, as well as in some sections of The Chaos Project.

That situation had been getting worse and worse over the past couple of weeks. I'd tried blocking IPs and key words from their URLs, but they were coming up with new ones faster than I could block them. Finally a light bulb went off over my head, and I took away the field that allowed people to list their homepages. It's a pity, but what else can I do?

Just another evening in early-21st-century America...