On success

[cosmolinguist]

How do you measure greatness in a LiveJournal?

Not that you have ever tried, probably. I myself never thought about it until tonight; I walked to the grocery store, and I think weird things when I go for walks. But since I did think about it, I'll impose my thoughts on you (that is, after all, what LiveJournal is for, right?).

My journal seems to have come a long way from its beginnings a year and a half ago as something soltice told me about when I complained that I never wrote anything anymore. Now I have plans to meet (and maybe even sleep with! or at least make out with?) a half-dozen people I met via LiveJournal...and those plans will have to wait until I get back from England, where I plan to stay for the summer with a person I met via LiveJournal. Less obviously--but no less importantly--now that many of my real-life friends have journals, I know new things about my old friends. And they could probably say the same for me.

Anyway, greatness? How to measure it? Right, here we go.

Greatness wouldn't be the number of friends the journal has: I have about 60 friends--and that's enough to keep up with!--and about 80 people say I'm their friend. (I know there are people who get really agitated about this use of "friend," but I'm not one of them; I don't care if the list says "friend of" or "read by" or "people stalking me." Though my "friends" list does include some of the people I'm closest to, it also includes people whose real names I'll never know who just happen to write things I think are fun to read.) I don't really care who adds me or subtracts me or whatever, and I hope my random whims in doing so don't affect other people too much, because they're not meant to.

Greatness wouldn't be the number of comments the journal gets. Sure, one entry might have almost 200, but the next one might have none! I like comments because I like talking with my friends and I love watching them talk with each other--and the tangents are always fun; I love tangents--but I know that some of those comments consist only of me saying "Cool!" and that's not worth getting excited about.

If I were to think my journal at all "great," it would be because I have achieved one really cool thing: I've noticed my friends adding other friends of mine. I know some of them were friends before, and I know some already belonged to the same social circles, either in real life or on LJ, but I also know that some of them have spotted each other here or shared conversational exchanges in my journal's comments and ended up "friends." I've done the same thing myself--that's how I got a lot of my random LJ friends. You guys have good taste!

My journal is not so much about the things I've written. I rather like a few of those things, but I'm not going to win any prizes for them. My journal makes me happy because of the people who read it and talk about it. I'm not an exhibitionist or even a voyeur, I just like my friends. (Notice when I talked about where my journal's gotten in its year and a half, I didn't talk about how my writing matured, I talked about how relationships formed and matured.) Writing things down on paper, while still having its merits, now seems to noticably lack that aspect, if you ask me.

Not that anyone did. Or will.

And not that I'm trying to get all sappy here or anything. I may love you, but I don't want your Bud Light. I just wanted you to know that you make http://holly-lama.livejournal.com/friends a cool place.

Comments

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

Its a good thing you don't want my Bud Light. I haven't bought any Bud product in years. There is, however, a 6 pack of Fosters in my frig...and as soon as I take a shower it will become a 5 pack :-)

[cosmolinguist]

I don't even like Bud Light. :-) I barely drink beer at all; the only time I've had more than a sip was a couple weeks ago, when I had half a Killian's. That was pretty good.

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, one more thing (I promise I'm not trying to fill up your journal with my own comments). I faintly recall you saying this was your last week at school. How long does your email address last, and will you still have net access down on the farm?

[cosmolinguist]

My e-mail address should still work (because even though I may not come back, the school doesn't know that yet...mwa ha ha). I have another, of course, but it's a stupid Yahoo one I've been using for things I don't want to give my real e-mail address for, and I like this one because I can use Pine and not bother with the webmail at all... But anyway, until further notice, my e-mail address should still work. :-)

And we do have Internet access at my house, but it's dial-up and it takes up our phone line (and there's a good chance I'll have to fight with my brother to get near the computer at all).

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

A nice post. I wish I drank Bud Light, so that I could offer you one.

[cosmolinguist]

It's okay; I don't drink it either. :-) I don't like it. I especially don't like the commercials where the guy says "I love you man!" and the other guy says "You're still not getting my Bug Light."

[cosmolinguist]

Actually, I'd like it a lot better if he said "Bug Light." But I meant "Bud Light." Can you tell I just woke up? :-)

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking the same thing (but you probably knew that by now ;) ). I have a tendency somehow to end up with the entire friends list of many of my friends being sort of absorbed into mine, one by one (embrace and extend? ;) ). I don't know quite how it happens, but I'm very grateful it does, as otherwise I wouldn't know you, and wouldn't be looking forward to three months in the company of such a wonderful person.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing you don't want my Bud Light. 'Cause even if I drank beer (which I don't), it wouldn't be light beer. I mean, seriously, who wants to drink beer that's legal under Atkins? :p

I'm happy to do my part in making your friends page a fun place to hang out. [nibbles ear]

[cosmolinguist]

I try not to do anything that's Atkins-friendly, actually.

Which is really easy for me. I love pasta and chocolate and yes, even bread (it's very helpful in making sandwiches, I've found), and meat doesn't really do much for me. And I'm not grossly obese--nay, I'm told I'm beautiful! even from people who've only seen bad pictures of me!--so there.

I actually saw a commercial for Bud Light yesterday (which probably made me think of the old Bud Light (at least I think that's what they were) commercial I'm referencing in this post) that made a big deal of light beer being low in carbs. Bah! This country is full of crazy people!

Which is why I'm so happy to have cool people around who write cool stuff in their journals every day. :-)

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

It's the rice I couldn't do without. I realized that Monday as I was eating my Barbacoa.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh, god yes. I love rice. I love barbacoa, too...

I hate you.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

I knew you were going hate me for mentioning Chipotle. You say that every time.

[sigh] You'd think I'd learn not to mention it.

[cosmolinguist]

I know i say it every time, but more as a theatrical bit than anything. I could never mention it again and thus probably never even think it again. And it's not your fault I live so far away from Chipotle.

Man, you shouldn't be so nice when I'm being silly, it catches me off guard.

My friends really are very good to me. :-)

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Honey, that's what friends are for.

But if it makes you feel any better, I didn't go to Chipotle for lunch today. :)

[cosmolinguist]

My friends do certainly seem to be nice to me when I'm being silly to them, recently. This is the second time I've complained about such an instance today. :-)

And just because I ca't enjoy the wonders of Chipotle myself doesn't mean I wish a similar fate on other people.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Oh, I never said I was going to stop eating at Chipotle. I just thought I might stop mentioning it quite so much. :)

[cosmolinguist]

I never said you should stop eating there. :-) That was just my response to you telling me that you couldn't go there.

[orgash.livejournal.com]

I've often wondered, what happens if the Bud Light goes out? Do people just sit in the dark and mumble, "I knew I shoulda went for the Coors Light or even the Miller Light..."

Anyway, enjoy the summer.

[chuck-lw.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwww.

*hugs*

[cosmolinguist]

::grins::

And thanks for not mentioning the throwaway reference to a beer commercial that seems to be all anyone else has picked up on. :-) Your reaction is more like what I was going for here.

[chuck-lw.livejournal.com]

Oh, well then, I really should have slipped an ice cold can of beer down the back of your shirt during the hug.:-P

[orgash.livejournal.com]

Oh, we picked up on the rest of your sentiment...but, because we don't like people to see us get all mushy and cry and stuff, we opted for the low-road.

[cosmolinguist]

Sure, whatever you say. :-)

I know you picked up on it--I love you guys for your intelligence, after all--and I don't really care anyway. True, this time I was in fact making the point that my LJ friends are cool, but if they didn't notice they were being complimented it'd be their loss, not mine. :-)

And if nothing else it proves my point about how odd and tangential strings of comments can be.

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

There are several people who are on my friends list whom I'd never had met if not for your lj. And I wouldn't have met you if not for Andrew's. So, thank you both!

Hmmm...now you've got me thinking about the evolution of my email account's address book and "safe" list...

Helga

[cosmolinguist]

I was thinking especially of you and Andrew (and gentleman_lech and some other people...) when I wrote this.

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's the other way round - I discovered Holly (and the few mutual friends we now have) through *your* friends list. You discovered her through chuck_lw and I added her because anyone on both your lists must be cool (I was right).

So thank *YOU*. Very much...

You discovered Chuck through my list though...

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

*tries to remember that far back, realizes it was only a few months ago, and despairs of both her short and long term memory*

But, hey, it's the end result that counts, right? *whistles innocently*

Helga
-not for the first time glad that Andrew has a better memory for these things than I do

Of tasty bugs and stolen munchkins

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, he's right; I remember adding chuck_lw because he wrote this great thing about seeing dead bugs on top of a toilet and thinking about eating them becasue they looked like bacon bits. (Such a person is obviously someone I'd like.) Then I remember talking to you in some thread in his journal, though the only thing I remember about it is that I told you that when people say "What would Jesus do?" you should answer with "He'd laugh at you!" I think you added me then, and I was happy about that because you seemed really cool. Then, as he said, Andrew added me for the reasons he gave you again now. I remember that; I really liked him because I first parsed his screen name as "steal the munchkin" instead of "stealth munchkin."

I can't tell you about how I "met" all my LJ friends, but some of the random encounters stick out in my mind, and since this one was fairly recent and had a fairly big impact on my life already, it seems to have hung on in my memory a little bit. And who wouldn't like a story that involves tasty bugs and stolen munchkins.

Oh, and by the way

[cosmolinguist]

I forgot to say this last time, but I was going to reassure you that, considering how much he likes me at the moment, Andrew would be happy for whoever "introduced" us, whether they remembered it or not. :-)

[stealthmunchkin.livejournal.com]

Many of my LJ friends I can't remember how I added them (some I can't remember *why* I added them or who they are...) - I remember Holly because it was so recent and we became very close *very* quickly...

[orgash.livejournal.com]

So, all day now (well outside the times when I was taking a nap, building a new screen door, and discovering the cure for the common cold, that is), I've been thinking about how do you measure greatness on/in(?) LiveJournal?

And after literally hours on hours--okay, minutes--of torturous and deep contemplative thought, I finally came to the answer:

You take the number of entries/posts divided by words in those post multiplied by the number of actual LJ friends divided by the actual number of registered LJ users subtracted from people in the world and...awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwe nuts, that's way too difficult...just use a yardstick.