It\’s six in the evening here. It\’s five in the morning there. It\’s the little things like time zones and skipping seasons that positively enthrall me. No one (that I know) shares my extreme fascination with this, which is not unusual. I\’m the only person I know (other than blood relations) who doesn\’t like sushi, either.
From the lovely and amazing Wikipedia:
The term \”train spotter\” is often used as a derogatory term towards someone perceived to have an enthusiasm for acquiring or hoarding detailed or humdrum information. It was translated in French as the neologism Ferrovipathe which literally means \”railway disorder\”.
It is widely believed that many train spotters may be suffering from a form of autism. Some of the \”symptoms\” of this disorder are: poor social interaction skills, obsession with routine, increased number skills, and increased ability to recall information. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_spotting
* * *I\’m still reading a few ljs, as some of you may have noticed from comments, but not many. Mostly been busy wrapping my head around things and trying to move toward the bigger picture.
Can we ooze the pretention on just a little bit more? I don\’t think we have yet reached the peak of self-absorbedness that the internet is capable of.
My classes start in June. I\’ve got two paid site design projects, one paid writing gig, one on-going paid photography job, and one plausible conference to help out with. Maybe two conferences at some point soon. Trying to not bite off more than I can chew the way I tend to.
I\’ve uploaded nearly a year\’s worth of photos onto my Flickr account now. Just a few more sets to go. The good ones are all mixed in with the shitty, taken while driving in my car ones. I kinda like it that way. In the fouteen months I\’ve got photos from Seattle (WA), upstate New York, Palm Beach (FL), Ft Lauderdale (FL), Manhattan, Long Island, Jersey City (NJ), Inverness (Scotland), Edinburgh (Scotland), Brisbane (Australia), and of course — the continual bane of my existence and the source of nearly all the beating in my murmuring heart — DC. It\’s almost all buildings and beaches — not many of people — but I guess that shows where my tendencies fall.
After this entry, there will be one more here. I\’m not sure when that\’ll be yet, but soon. I\’m in the process of moving over to the new interface and I think this lj will be going rss feed. CMS allows much better integration of del.icio.us tags, Flickr photos, news, blogs, journals, calendars, and other social networking tools. I just feel like it\’s time, I guess. I\’m just a few months shy of nine years on the internet now, and about six months shy of six years doing online journaling.
The only consistent thing beyond bodily functions (and even that hasn\’t been nearly as consistent in some areas) in my life over the past ten years has been the internal draw to a terminal. Over the past year I\’ve had quite a few instances of going sometimes several weeks at a time with no internet access on top of the usual no television, no magazines lifestyle that I generally lead, and, well, the disconnect feels so damn good. So.damn.good.
In the first years of having the internet, it was a godsend. It was the only connection I had to the outside world as a legal minor with a really bad case of social phobia. The internet helped me make real life friends, and I suppose still does. But I don\’t need it anymore. 75% of the time I am perfectly capable of walking outside and talking to someone through means other than the internet. But when my fingers are within reach of that data connection, I\’m like a junkie trying to milk the last few drops from a needle. Over the years I\’ve weaned myself off the hours of mindless IRC and instant messaging conversations and have settled into the world of data collection.
Knowledge is power, right? But easy access to knowledge perverts, warps, and corrupts the mind. Information overload is well documented at this point, so I hardly need to elaborate. But shall we say that the mind of a collector strains when introduced to so much material? Without a connection, I am a joyous free spirit drifting between books and street corners, and the occasional book on the street corner. With a connection, I\’ve got e-mail to read and answer, friends journals to try and follow, a server community to maintain… and then over 100 various news feeds that I try and stay on top of. And why? Because knowledge, I believe, is important. Being informed is necessary. I spent the first four years of my internet life with the handle of \”connected.\” But connection shouldn\’t mean addiction. What good is being informed of various local and global crises, the history of scat, obscure 1920s blues songs, and the social demographics of an obscure area of Washington, DC if I don\’t do jack shit with it? The need to feed, even on information, is just greed, right?
So I\’m trying to cut back on my excesses. We all know that affluence is a terrible thing, right? Well, some of us know that, anyway. And god knows I\’m sick. Like I said in my last post, everybody I know is fuckin\’ ill — affected, absorbed, binging, sad, self-occupied motherfuckers. (I\’m not discluding myself from that.) And I think it\’s sad — really fucking sad — because everyone I know is also really sweet, intelligent, charismatic, funny, and so many other things, but we all just waste it. Waste it inside our own heads and our own vices, miseries, and insecurities. And it\’s such a goddamn waste. I can\’t take it anymore, I just can\’t. And I won\’t. So I\’m not going to.
Next update will be coming from outside of hell. I hope to see you all there.
