Listening to: Future Starts Slow ... The Kills
Greetings. Welcome to the very first post for this blog. While I'm not a first time blogger I'm not that experienced. I tried a blog once. It didn't take. Either I wasn't in the right place... or my mouse wasn't... or I was just as boring as all heck. Who knows but that didn't work out. Then, not all that long ago, I began writing recaps for Outlander which I'm loving way more than I probably should.
Seriously, have you folks SEEN Outlander?!?! I'm having withdrawals. The long, LONG wait until April is gonna do me in. Seriously. Meanwhile, who wouldn't mind a 24-hour Jamie and Claire channel?
Change.org petition anyone?
Let me tell ya, writing blog postings, recaps and all kinds of fun has been a BLAST which I plan to continue doing as long as I stay in the Blog Mistress's good graces. What it's really done is spurred me into writing. And that's how I ended up here.
Mind you this isn't an Outlander blog but... it could have Outlander-themed postings in the future. (Just a warning.) But, really, I've got lots of things to say and only so much brain power so I guess I better start huh?? But before I do I feel I must clear something up. I think I better define the word 'plucky' right now before we go any further. According to Oxford Dictionaries, 'plucky' means:
Having or showing determined courage in the face of difficulties.
So, as the Plucky Girl To The Rescue! I've got my own signal...
...and I plan to tackle the world's difficulties with determined courage! At least, I will act like I am. But, seriously, it would be helpful if my problems amounted to something like, 'Shall I eat the yummy Mexican food or the tasteless, dry rice cake I know I should be eating?' Sigh. Decisions, decisions.
Anyway, onto the main topic at hand because, really, you don't want to hear any more about me do you??
How I met myself on the Internet
The internet has become quite the fascinating beast, hasn't it? It's made, and lost, fortunes; bought together, and torn apart, lovers; created, and destroyed, fantasy lives. But, really, what is it?? Is it a way to download movies, buy cat food (even if you don't have a cat), order pizza and blog about that wart that just won't go away? I think it's definitely that but if you don't have warts it's ok; you can find something else to write about. But it's also a way of communicating.
I have made some AMAZING friends over the internet. We met, through our shared love of Hugh Laurie and House M.D.
I miss that man something terrible. Every once in awhile I still wake up, in a cold sweat, screaming, "I miss you Greg House!".
Yeah. I still miss you Greg House, and I want to have your baby!!
Ahem.
My House friends and I found we had a lot in common besides The Stubbly Jerk (let's face it; not everybody can love him.) Now, we travel to visit each other. We travel WITH each other. We support each other. We laugh, cry, eat bacon and just have a great time. Mmmmm... bacon...
BACON!!
Ok, ok. I'm back. While the internet has become a constructive tool, it can be just as destructive. People use it to vent their frustrations. Listen, I'm all for venting; it's an important tool, believe me. It's necessary. It's cathartic. It helps. Ranting on the internet is a whole heckuva lot cheaper than replacing not only the phone you threw but the 50 inch flat screen TV you threw the phone into...and it's a LOT cheaper than sessions on a shrink's couch. Venting on the internet isn't as strenuous as taking your fight out on a punching bag, and not as morally objectionable as kicking your Schnauzer. My internet friends are invaluable because we rant to each other and we don't have to worry about the pretenses of face-to-face conversations or interactions. We're like a bunch of gossipy girls sometimes.
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| No, not them!! |
Venting is very different than cyberbullying, a very serious issue that I'm not going to discuss on this blog. It's discussed quite a bit and I have nothing new to say. I want to look at it from a 'how has my life improved because of the internet, other than ordering all those ceramic animal figurines from Ebay?' (Not really but...how do you REALLY know?)
And, I will admit, I found confidence on the internet. The internet made a socially-impaired blabbering fool like myself into someone who is CLEVER and WITTY and all around really pretty AWESOME. (or was that clever girl always there but just afraid to come out?)
But yeah, let's just say I rock the clever comebacks. (Ok, a bit of pride there.)
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| Oh look....they got my good side.... |
The internet has made me much bolder in my real life as well. I am trying new things and taking chances, and I'm making some necessary changes in my life which might not have happened if I hadn't gained confidence. I've learned a lot of great stuff about myself and, I think overall, the internet has been a positive experience for me. I'm just rockin' the place.
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| Rock on peeps. |
Photo courtesy of Pet Life Radio
However, for a lot of people, 'bold' means 'Let's just be absolute jerkwads and make others feel smaller in order to make ourselves feel better'. They use the internet for evil and not good. (Tsk, tsk) And the occurrences of awful experiences online are, sadly, exponentially greater. The internet has made people narrow-minded and less, well, tolerant accepting of others. I hate that word, tolerant. To me tolerance is the superficial, minimal amount of approval of a situation you don't necessarily agree with. Tolerance doesn't have either the time, or the will, to allow for understanding; acceptance does. Acceptance forces a person to develop a better understanding. That's an awful lot to ask, though, as everybody, on all sides of any issue, has crap in their own backgrounds that limits acceptance of others who are different from themselves. It's probably why tolerance is preferred to acceptance.
I can't fault anybody for that because there are things I'm much more tolerant than accepting of. But that doesn't mean I can make war online!
Well, that'll work too...
So... how have your internet experiences been? And are you any different, as a person, because you're a traveler on the information superhighway??
Well, that's it for today. That soapbox was HIGH and I was getting a wee touch of vertigo. So, thank you for reading this little blog. I don't plan on changing the world though I wouldn't mind that. After all, if anything, blogs are great for venting.
That's all folks.
Jen
