"why are you so negative?"

[quietann]

The answer finally hit me. I bitch a lot in LJ about little stuff. (I bitch much less face-to-face.) But what is really going on is a huge ball of helplessness over the Really Large, Really Bad Stuff, like politics, idiot Americans, energy (e.g. oil, alternatives to oil, etc.), and well, all that. My general philosophy of life right now is that I hope I die before things get really bad. I won't take any measures to make that happen, of course, but... it affects my attitude towards everything else.

This week holds the following:

-- three days working (Tues/Wed/Thurs)
-- a friend from grad school visiting (He is actually trying to get funding for an alternative energy project, using aquacultured algae as a source of biofuel. It's at least one and possibly two orders of magnitude more efficient than corn-derived ethanol. Oddly enough, my father was working on something very similar, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but President Raygun eliminated the agency that was funding my dad's project.)
-- arrival of Ben's parents and the Very Large Dog on Friday
-- departure of Ben's parents, but not the Very Large Dog, on Saturday
-- tai chi starting Wednesday
-- rat arrivals and departures, in that order. Things will be a bit crowded here.
-- party on Saturday, get to see someone I really want to see there.

It's all this nice mundane stuff. LJ seems to be turning, for a lot of people, into this nice mundane bloggy thing for chatting about housework, babies, job tasks, etc. Maybe it's just a way of coping by avoiding the Really Large, Really Bad Stuff out there, I dunno.

Comments

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

There is deinitely that. But also, I never see anyone outside of the family, so this is kind of my way of having coworkers and contact with peers and stuff. And antidote to "Nobody knows what I do and nobody cares." They still may not care *wry grin* but at least they know.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

This country's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. If you believe Strauss & Howe's "Generation Theory" about the cycle of Western history, we're supposed to hit another huge crisis in 2020 or so, on the order of the Great Depression or WWII. The way things are going, it certainly looks like we're on teh way to having things look really ugly in about 10 years or so....

[marmota.livejournal.com]

happyfunpaul loaned me Strauss & Howe's "Generations", and for the most part I agreed with their reasoning and conclusions (particularly, I'm extremely concerned about the effects of technological advance on the patterns they've defined). What with 'peak oil' about to make long distance travel a luxury even for the rich and the success of the republicans on drawing the great New Deal experiment that we've taken for granted all our lives to a close, it is indeed going to get very unpleasant. However, unlike quietann's take of " My general philosophy of life right now is that I hope I die before things get really bad", my take is that I aim to be part of the generation that fixes it, and live long enough to see things getting better again.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i think lj has always been mundane for me. but then, i ended up getting a lj account specifically because some folks in seattle wanted to keep the chatty "hey, what's up" stuff going on with each other after i moved.

in my mind, i think of LJ for chatty social stuff and other blog formats (typepad/wordpress based stuff) for more serious commentary.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of the above. I, also, generally have to make a huge effort to see anyone but my family and critters, and I do feel more connected using LJ. And I really don't mind listening to people bitch about the small stuff. It makes me feel a wee bit better about my own misadventures, like I'm not the only one that life happens to badly sometimes. As far as the Big Stuff goes, I'm doing my small part in my little corner, but it feels pretty minuscule sometimes.

I know the feeling

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

Well, I just posted a lot about the Really Large, Really Good Stuff, but Hungarian politics is very different from what's going on in the United States. And besides, the Really Bad Stuff is going to come after the government has settled down and gotten over the fact that they are the very first government of the Third Hungarian Republic that managed to do two consecutive terms. Seriously, the country is in bad shape financially, but at least the Good Guys(TM) won. (Of course, any opposition voter would likely disagree!)

I have been a Socialist supporter since 1996, but let's face it, they weren't really past their "good old Communists" image for a long while, I supported them because I didn't see any alternative after Fidesz became a right-wing party. (I tried the Liberals, but they annoyed the heck out of me, a bunch of we-know-it-all humanities intellectuals *sigh* This country would deserve better Liberals!) But ever since Gyurcsány became prime minister, he has tried to modernize the party, make it somewhat like the British Labour. He hasn't succeeded all the way yet (you can't just throw out people who've been around for ages), but it's undeniable that he brought up the Socialists from 20% to a resounding victory and he has changed the party's face forever (and for better!). All in less than two years. So right now I'm hopeful, if he can do the same with the whole country, the EU will have a happy country and we will have a happy EU. It will be very hard though :/

But you're right, if the world runs out of fuel or drowns in pollution, who will care that we had a smart PM? *SIGH*

[marmota.livejournal.com]

It's turning into a "nice mundane bloggy thing" because the Really Bad Stuff is already here, and all the truly interesting things that *could* be talked about are extremely unwise to mention in a medium that will be accessible to anyone and everyone for all time. I feel like yet another venue that used to be safe to express the trifecta of 'impolite' conversation topics (politics, religion, sex) has gone away. There isn't enough intelligent conversation in my life as it is, and now even 'outsourcing' it isn't an option anymore. I did come back to livejournal, though. Apparently there is sufficient demand for all the nice mundane details. I had no idea people cared if I went to NEFFA or not, or saw MIT G&S players' Goth version of Patience, or skipped a poetry reading at Forest Hills because of the weather. Maybe it's my Inner Taciturn New Englander, but I do wonder fairly often not only why people seem to talk so much when they don't have anything to say, but why they also expect it of me... then I remember it's because there's so much else that can't be talked about, so at least it's social contact. *shrug*

[tb]

I do wonder fairly often not only why people seem to talk so much when they don't have anything to say

It's an extrovert thing, so we wouldn't understand (and I'm only being slightly facetious here). For most people (and I mean in the "real world", not just on lj or among geeks), it seems that the main purpose of talking is to make social contact, and that the talking itself fills that need; the subject is not central to that purpose.

My desire for taking things deeper, for discussion, debate, exchanging really nifty ideas, etc., is often seen as rude and/or boring. It seems to me that what I want in a conversation does not seem to be what most people want (or at least not with me), so I've had to adjust my expectations accordingly.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

About the Very Large Dog

On Saturday I am going to connecticut for a day at a fiber festival, with an after-visit to Rein's Deli, then home. It will be a long day alone at home for Kosh. I don't even think I can make the party (but if I'm home at a semi-reasonable hour, I might come up to visit the person-who-can't-attend-the-party-because-of-dog.) Sunday is marvmerv's moving day, and I want to help him if I can.

Is it possible to trot up there on Friday, or perhaps Sunday on the later side after the move?

[quietann.livejournal.com]

The dog does not arrive until Friday afternoon, and we are pretty busy already on Saturday. If you want to come up on Sunday, I should be home all day.

[tb]

LJ seems to be turning, for a lot of people, into this nice mundane bloggy thing

Turning into? I'm actually quite curious about what your expectations were regarding what livejournal was "supposed to" be, or what it was like "before."

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

That was more or less my reaction as well. :-}

[quietann.livejournal.com]

It just seems to have become different. Or at the very least, my own posts (which have not changed that much over time as far as I can tell) seem more and more out of sync with what I see on my F-list...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Perhaps their lives have changed in ways that yours have not, so that different things are prioritized in their thoughts? I mean, you brought up babies -- if people you know are having babies, or trying to, that's going to be a major focus for them. Maybe you're not so interested, but they're not writing for you (or for me, or anyone else).

Speaking for myself, I don't write posts for any one reason. Sometimes I'm writing because I want to keep track of the things that happen in my life, even if other people may find them inconsequential. That's okay, I'm not writing those things for other people, but for myself; if people comment, that's fine, but it doesn't really matter if they don't. Sometimes I do write about things that aren't about me which I hope will elicit comments from others. Political posts fall under that category, but I don't always have the energy to write about those because there's so much upsetting stuff in the world. Sometimes I do also write posts about my life which I specifically hope will inspire comments.

If anything I write inspires thought, amuses, informs, etc. people who read them, then I'm genuinely pleased. But I don't feel obligated to provide that. Ultimately, my journal is for me, even if others can read it.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I used to talk about the big stuff, and nobody seemed to care. Then again, that may just be a reflection on me. Generally, too, people would rather see sad stuff than happy, so they could contribute with advice or hugs.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

I'd rather see happy stuff than sad, personally...

But I'm a rebel.

[tb]

I think part of the issue is that LJ posts are transient. Unlike blogs, where people specifically go look at one person's site, most people read lj through their f-list(s). A thought-provoking post about the big stuff scrolls off one's friends page pretty quickly as everyone else updates. I often go away to think about what I've read, then when I come back, I don't get around to answering because of all the new stuff that's come up since.

It would be cool to have a view which showed only the most recent post from each person on one's f-list (for all I know, there may already be a way to do that). That way someone's thought-provoking post wouldn't be as likely get lost when someone else decided to post multiple restaurant reviews or something.