In any case, if you skim down through the comment thread, you'll see that I made the mistake of adding my voice to the fray. I felt obligated to speak up, even if my speaking up meant nothing in the grand scheme. Tommy was none too happy (he makes a vague comment about it in his journal, refering to me as a "veteran member", though if I didn't do anything, why classify me as veteran?) and made a point to say so. And so the idiocy begins. At this point, I feel obligated to remain a part of discussion because I got myself involved. If you're going to help make a mess, be responsible enough to help clean up after the party dies down. Do I care that Tommy is trying to run my name through the mud now? Not really. My former deeds for LJ, large or small, are largely forgotten by anyone but a minor few. Most of them I can't talk about because it had to do with abuse and I don't have access to the information needed to prove anything. Any desire to have those deeds recognized/appreciated has mostly faded in the last year. Besides, it's just a web site. I've a job in the real world, friends, family, things I care about. I used to care about LJ, and to some extant, I still do. But it's just a web site.
I'm amazed at the phenomenon that is weblogs. It seems that as they become more popular, the more they define who we are as a people. The problem is that we're allowing it to define who we are. If someone tells me that they use LJ or some other blog service in a real world setting and I don't know them very well, I automatically assume that they're a vacant quiz poster. There are fewer quiz posters than there are regular bloggers out there, but the average blogger you meet is probably an inane kid rather than someone with a valid point of view. That doesn't make them less of a person, of course, but is an indicator of the general perception of bloggers. As a community, we've begun to lose sight of what this is all about and why we've come together. Blogging has begun to define our unique group. It doesn't define who I am, who my friends are that I've met through it, or who any of it's users are. We should be defining it. I don't want random people to see me wearing my LJ shirt and thinking that I'm some vapid kid who doesn't know what he's talking about solely on the fact that I blog. It might not happen right now (especially in a backwards town like KC where most people are behind on internet trends), but it will happen in the next 5 years, if things continue to progress as they have. ramble ramble ramble. listen to that brook there...
I think I'm going to get a degree in anthropology when I go back to school. It's applicable in every area that I have an interest in. Then I can pursue other degrees after that.
