iLLa’s Neighborhood

Why do so many people think they can "write" when all they're doing is struggling to imitate what they think "writing" is?

One, no one writes like that anymore.

Two, if you're interesting and have interesting things to say, you'll be a good writer eventually.

Three, you're not fooling anyone. Not anyone who matters, anyway. And by "anyone who matters," I mean me.

I don't think I registered nearly enough excitement to please my boss when I was informed that I will once again be spendning a large portion of the summer doing data entry.

Now, to decide how best to say to her, "I hope you are kidding, and if you are not, I hope you understand that this is going to be a big problem."

So I went to my parents' place this weekend, for a baby shower for my cousin Amy, who is pregnant, of course, by this guy ("pregnant by" sounds so weird), Andy, who lives in Scotland but will presumably live here some day.

So, we're sitting at a table, tra la, me next to my sister who was next to a woman, who it was doesn't matter, but she was talking about stains, and I leaned over to my sister, who was mid-dinner roll, to quietly tell her,

"I think unexpected spaghetti is the best kind."

At which point my sister got roll up her nose.

And then I drove back to Maryland.

I will always, ALWAYS stop searching radio stations if I come across Guns n Roses or Meatloaf.

Always.

So, I got really busy... "busy"... at work yesterday and couldn't really make a big to do... "to do"... about my return to Vox, and by "to do" I'm not necessarily talking about fanfare or hoo-ha, but more rapid fire textbased gut spilling about nothing in particular, repeatedly, all day long, as crap has popped into my head.

Anyway. I did just notice something I thought was lacking when I first was rambling around Vox, as I talked about yesterday, and that's the addition of the ability to join groups based, I assume, on common interest, location, etc.

So of course, the first thing I do is search for a World Of Warcraft group, because, come on... do I really hav e any other interests?

(Yes.)

Well... no.

But anyway, I am quite enthused... "enthused"... look, if you knew me, you'd recognize it as true enthusiasm, the corners of my lips twitched a bit and I thought "Oh, that's nice," which really is paroxysms of joy, if you're basing your standards solely on me.

And two points for me for spelling paroxysms right on the first try.

Ok, here's something I hate, I hate a lot, I hate it in other writers and in an effort not to be a hypocrite, hate it in myself, it's the use of overblown vocabulary solely for ... well, I don't know what these people think they're doing. There are several "well known" bloggers who do this and drive me insane and I want to smack them and say "This is what you think a writer is? You use big words and overly flowery/constructed text and you want applause, and what sucks is you GET it, because people are idiots?"

Like, here's a tangent, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

People, that book SUCKED. No, seriously. Go back and read it again from the perspective of someone who just wants to read a book, not from the perspective of someone who has heard how good it is. The ONLY thing this book has going for it is an original perspective. Otherwise, it's just flat out TERRIBLE.

And you can see these bloggers who do this, my god, you drive me nuts, and anyway, what I'm getting to, is that I like to read, see? And with massive amounts of reading tends to come an overlarge vocabulary. And then you sit down to write and the word you want to use fits so perfectly, but you know it's one of those $5 words you yourself would roll your eyes at if used by one of these "writers" (and what makes me a good, somewhat good, person here is that I have a very specific mommyblogger in mind when I write this, someone who is so impressed with herself she nearly leaps off the page to beat you over the head with the fact that she may be a mom, yeah, but she's also a cool, happenin, cutting edge, extremely intelligent UBER-WOOMAN and why oh why can't you see that, can't you see the way she EVOKES FEELINGS WITH MERE WORDS? ... Woman, you write pulp crap, you have your legion of fans because someone one day mentioned they liked your page and the heaps of people dying for some sliver, anything, any little bit of internet fame, even if it's only in the comments section on your ridiculous webpage (status, status! on the internet, even!), and you really need to accept the fact that you, the general you of people trying to make a living on their blogs, are a dime a dozen, you've gone from possibly formerly interesting (I don't know, I got there too late to tell) to formulaic and contrived and frankly, people smarter than you roll their eyes at you every day, and you really just need to take your AdSense pennies and move on, and what I am SAYING is, I am ALMOST a good person because I am not going to mention you by name.)

AND OH MY GOD, pre-rant, I was going to say, I am SORRY for using the word paroxysm, but it fit so well and it was frustrating to me to try to cram a less suitable word in there.

I promise not to make a habit of using non-standard words, especially since my normal vocabulary really mostly consists of a series of grunts and glares.

So, a long long time ago, in a land far far away, where I was a happy girl with a sweet-ass boyfriend and a piece of crap car and everything was right with the world, I made this post.

This long ago, far away time was also known as "August" to many people.

After the last post I made here in that long ago, far away time, I quickly lost the boyfriend, the piece of crap car, and interest in Vox.

But anyway, I figure that it's been a while, we're out of Beta now, and I do still like all the stuff I DID like about Vox before, so I'm ready to jump back into it and see if the stuff I DIDN'T like is any better.

Also, I just bought a totally sweet digital video camera, so, you know, there's that.

I'm really happy that when I go to get gas, the pump only pre-authorizes $1.00 on my bank account, 'cause last night was the night before pay day and I sure did buy $45 worth of gas with the $10 in my bank account.

And then to add further insult to injury, I bought some diet soda too!

I am also really happy that last night I thought it was wise to stay up until my bank

account updated with my direct deposit at 2am, so that I could buy plane tickets (because God forbid I have to wait one second longer than necessary to buy the tickets I will not be using til September 1st), when just the night before last I thought it was equally wise to stay up playing World of Warcraft until I hit level 54.

But I did respec to Soul Link and that was awesome and totally worth it.

So this Vox thing, I'm not so sure yet.

I like everything about it, really, except that as far as social networking goes, so far, after spending a bunch of days using the 'explore' link, I have yet to find anything or anyone to network WITH.

I got my invitation through the mail a couple of weeks after I signed up to be notified when Vox was open to the public, so I don't have one of those instant connections to whoever invited me.

The 'connect' link will let me find someone only if I already know them, and, well, I don't know anyone who is using Vox yet.

The 'explore' link brings up all the recent posts, which is fun and all, but so far everyone I have come across in that link falls into one of these categories:

1. Hello Vox!
2. Um hi! I have lots of other journals and I don't know what I'm going to use this one for yet, but check out my "real" blog over at www.i-love-hearing-myself-talk.com!!
3. pretentious, overblown writers looking for a new place to be pretentious and overblown, wrongly thinking that the use of "creative" sentence structure, old-fashionedy type tone, and/or excessive use of their impressive vocabulary makes them a good writer, plus comments by all the people who honestly believe the above is true.
4. constant QOTD answerers. Not that there's anything wrong with the QOTD, I think it's a good idea and if I HAD A NEIGHBORHOOD, I would be interested in seeing the answers of all the people that I am usually interested in reading about. These constant QOTD answerers really seem to have nothing at all to say aside from what they're prompted to say by the QOTD, and let's be honest with ourselves - it's like a never ending meme. You're not interested in reading the one sentence replies of people you don't know, and neither am I.

So the problem I'm having with Vox has nothing to do with its capabilities as a new type of blogging software, the ability to integrate books and music and other whatnots so easily really is very appealing. However, being a chronic blog-reader, if a somewhat unreliable writer, I would LIKE to have some things to read - the only chances I have of finding something I would really enjoy reading on any regular basis are either hoping that some jewel pops up through 'explore' (and so far, as I said, after days of trying, no such luck) or inviting everyone I know and reading their stuff (I can talk to these people any time, I don't need to say 'Hey, hang on a second, I'm reading your blog to find out what's going on in your life... ok, I'm back... and hey, I'm updated, so what say we just end this conversation here?').

Right, my complaint - I'm supposed to be able to socially network, but the tools provided for that are somewhat lacking - I can't search people who live in my area, or who share the same interests, or who belong to any kind of organized group that I might like to be a part of. The only way, so far, it seems, to create a social network, is to get together everyone who belongs to the network you are already in - whether that be real life friends, other bloggers, or colleagues, or whatever, and basically bring your little circle over and plop it down into Vox, which I guess would be ok, but what's the point of that? You already interact with all those people on some level, a level that has presumably, thus far, been adequate and satisfactory to you, so the only point of moving that group over to Vox would be for the 'oooh, new and shiny!' factor, IF you could even get everyone you knew over here.

Dear Vox,

I would like to meet/e-spy on some new people. Please tell me how I can accomplish this.

Your pal,
Kelly

PS - Your damn spell check doesn't recognize the word 'bloggers.'

What, may I ask, the hell?

Seeing as how I have not had a boyfriend, until now, for more than four years, and the most recent one really was a pile of ass, there are a few things about the whole concept, either new or completely forgotten (probably for good reason), that quite bother me.

Without getting into the deep psychological and emotional issues because, you know, fuck you, I can tell you this - It seems that having a boyfriend makes it much easier for some people, especially coworkers, to approach me and start up a conversation.

I liked it better when they assumed I was a robot.