Vainglorious Vicissitudes

I don't much like trying to describe myself in a few paragraphs; I always feel driven to be painstakingly complete and then get frustrated by the difficulty of doing that properly. If you want the short but dull rundown, think of me as your standard-issue bi poly switch, with multiple strains of geekdom, no clearly defined spiritual system, and no clearly defined gender. I also like to think my (continually refined) interests list says a great deal about me if you look closely.

Reading my journal will, of course, tell you a few more things about me, but you may not find it makes a whole lot of sense if you don't already know me, because I don't bother much to put things in context. I will answer questions put to me (within certain limits), but in general I just can't muster much interest in detailing my entire life in narrative form, either as a whole or one day at a time, so instead what you'll usually see here are my impressions and moods at various isolated moments. Sometimes I will narrate a random incident; sometimes I will expound at length on a silly idea; sometimes I will vent an impersonal grievance; sometimes I will link to something entertaining or newsworthy; and sometimes (though less often these days) I will simply wallow in angst. I try not to air dirty laundry. I am something of a memesheep, but I try to be a selective one: I mostly stick to memes that involve my actually revealing something vaguely interesting, or involve audience participation, or are particularly silly and have not already been seen by half my friends list.

And as you may by now have noticed, I tend to write very long paragraphs composed of very long sentences. Although I value conciseness, I often find myself trying harder to be precise than concise due to my hatred of being misunderstood; also, I have a hard time breaking up sentences and paragraphs because I have a very strong sense of the interconnectedness of my thoughts (or for that matter, the interconnectedness of everything in the universe), and splitting them apart just doesn't feel natural. Perhaps the writing classes I'm currently taking will help me figure out this thing called "brevity," but meanwhile you're gonna have to live with my wordiness a bit longer. I do, at least, spell and punctuate scrupulously correctly, and I usually manage to be shorter-winded in comments to other people's journals than in my own.

My friends list is mostly a reading list, although these days I post friends-only a bit more than I used to (then again, I post a lot less often overall than I used to.) Whether I add someone to it is generally determined by a combination of how well I know them and how much their journal interests me. I might add a random stranger who rants amusingly or who posts about local events I'm interested in hearing about; I might add a friend of a friend whose life story is entertaining to listen to; I might not add someone I'm acquainted with who only talks art or politics. I don't much mind who adds me or drops me from their lists, except that a) occasionally I'm a little hesitant to add someone unless they add me first or otherwise let me know they're okay with it, and b) I will likely be sad if I get dropped by someone on my reading list who posts friends-only a lot. Might I suggest, if generic-you don't want to read me any more, that you take me off your Default View but leave me friended so I can still read you? Unless you really don't want me reading your flocked entries; in that case, unfriend away.

If you comment anonymously in my journal, I'd appreciate it if you'd identify yourself. I can't always tell who you are just from your word choice, and I find it a little creepy not to know whether or not I should know you.

And because that aforementioned interest list just won't hold everything I'm tempted to include in it, here is a supplement thereunto (although it really does need updating). Read it if you're curious to know on a more specific level what my tastes are in art, music, literature, philosophy, and visual media. Furthermore, a list of my disinterests can be found here.

Finally, my contact info is in a private, backdated entry for the benefit of LJ admins should I threaten suicide or something (highly unlikely.)