Randomosity [Scribblings from the Mitchy Side]

1) I used to really miss not being able to read LJ during the day because by the time I got home in the evening to read stuff, people had already commented and moved on. And now that I can read LJ during the day, there's been very little traffic and almost nothing that couldn't have waited until evening. Sod's Law, I hear you cackling....

2) If I see one more post on my flist from someone going "Oh woe, my paid account expires today, I'll miss the polls and the icons!", I am going to post a reply that says "You know damn well that by posting this, someone will stump up for paid time for you; if you're going to beg, at least admit it."

3) Goodness, am I the only person who reacts to crises by, y'know, dealing with them? We seem to be turning into a planet of people who can't cope unless they're on tranqs. I get being overwhelmed sometimes, I've been there, we all have. So take a step back, breathe, rant to a friend, whatever. But to flail and stick your head in the sand, rant on LJ about "OMGMYLIFEISSOHARD!" and hope it'll all go away every time you get an owie boo-boo? Get a backbone, puh-lease. (And I'm not talking about those with legitimate mental conditions, so put the burning torches and pitchforks down....)

4) In unrelated news, I'm getting remarkably intolerent in my old age :P

4a) I may possibly need more soothing tea....

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2 - OH MY GOD YES! YES YES YES! THIS!

3 - THIS! THIS!

4 - THIS TOO!

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*giggles* Here, have some soothing tea, sounds like you need it as well :)

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I feel better now, I have had food.

But yes, the 'my paid account is up' pisses me the hell off.
WELL BUY ONE OR DEAL WITH IT OR DO WITHOUT.

I agree with EVERYTHING YOU SAY HERE. I even had tea this morning with my Tamiflu, and I don't normally drink much tea! (My inherent Englishness extends as far as approving heartily of tea. I don't drink a lot of it, because hot drinks make me sleepy, and I was force-fed many many lots of cups of the stuff by my well-meaning but tea-addicted grandparents until I worked out that I was allowed to say "No" to them from time to time.)

*petses* We'll lure you back to the ~~dark~~ tea drinking side again soooon :)

Are you feeling better, btw?

I drink a cup or so a month, I think. That's enough for me!

Am feeling better in some ways and worse in others. I put that down to the Night Nurse.

I put that down to the Night Nurse.

*splorts into tea* Maaaaan, you do NOT want to know about the mental image I had just then........I have such a dirty mind :P

Edited Date: 2009-08-12 03:05 pm (UTC)

1) Aww. Bored?

2) ...People do that?

3) THIS. (Hopefully I come under the heading of someone who reacts to crisis by dealing with it, or at least working to get back up after the knock-down.)

4) What old age?

4a) Tea is good.

1) I'm at work, it's pretty much the default condition during summer :)

2) They really do. And it always works.

4) Flattery will get you everywhere :)

3. Ah, now, y'see, I like to rant on my LJ on the grounds it's nearly as cathartic as ranting to a friend and on LJ at least they can scroll past the bloody whining. lj-cut and the private filter do make this slightly more sociable as a habit...

Agreed, but there's a difference between the "Oh bloody hell!" type rant when you've reached overload which, as I've said, happens to everybody, and the "OMGMYLIFESUCKS" continual ranting every.single.day. And usually the person doing the ranting is upset because of something so trivial, I want to reach through the compy screen and slap 'em.

3) In general I prefer to DEAL with things. I hate stuff just hanging over with nobody really taking action. To the point that I failed several interviews when younger because I couldn't answer the question 'Tell me about a time when things have gone wrong' in the way they wanted because I plan for things going wrong which generally prevents it happening. After a while I just started lying but I'm still not sure if I can answer that question in the way they want. Why let a crisis build when you can have an easy life by taking a bit of action?

Yes, agreed and agreed again. So much of the whining could be averted if people got off their arses and did something about it.

But most of these people want Others to do it for them. And then will moan that it isn't done right!

I think (for me) that Facebook has stolen some of my LJ enthusiasm, but! I still post!!

Facebook does suck you in but there's no substitute for space to really have a proper rant :)

Gotta disagree, emphatically, on one particular corner of 3). Ranting on LJ is at least as cathartic as ranting to a friend, and can on occasion be even more so. Moreover, I always find - and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this - that ranting in a blog entry about how one's life is sooo hard often proves to be a first-class ticket to turning around, rereading what you've just written, and realising that things could be worse.

If you feel like it's the end of the world, then what the hell is so bad about coming out and saying that it feels that way. Nobody's saying it IS the end of the world, just ranting about how they feel in a particular moment. IMHO, there's no difference whatsoever in ranting about one's trobules to a friend or ranting in one's blog. In both contexts you're taking a breath, sitting back, and ranting about it, so what's the difference? Ranting is ranting, and if it's okay to rant in one place, then why in the name of all things holy is it not okay to do the same thing in another?

I suspect the lady means things like this:

OMG I HIT MY TOE MY LIFE SUCKS!
or
WAH WAH WAH MY MUM WON'T GIVE ME EVERYTHING I WANT WAH WAH
or
MY LIFE IS CRAP BECAUSE I CANNOT HAVE IT ALL ON A PLATE AND THE MOON ONNA STICK.

That sort of thing.

I agree with this. I'm quite happy to use my blog to rant/whine/go all emo-kitteh because it's MY blog. If others don't like it then they don't have to read. That said, I think there's a balance and I tend to r/w/g a e-k using filters so that only my actual friends or people I think would understand can read it.

It still annoys me that people will use their blog to vent and then do nothing about the situation though. Not even use the writing to reflect or make themselves feel better. Some folks do seem to be caught in a spiral of venting which doesn't benefit them at all.

There's having a good old vent - and then there is having a whiiiiine.
Vent = cathartic
Whiney whiney = boring after the nth time of whining at everyone and not actually doing anything about it.

I'm all in favour of a good old rant.

Exactly. I can only speak for myself, but when I write about something, it is ultimately because I feel a need to write about it. I write, first and foremost, for me. People are welcome to skip over anything they find boring/uninteresting/repetitive/annoying. My LJ is not a consumer product, and entertaining the people who read it, charming as all of you are, is not my chief aim. I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that I'm not alone. People write about all kinds of things, and some of those things seem inconsequential, but if someone cares enough to actually sit down and write about it, then it's far from inconsequential to them. Yes, I think people can get caught in a constant spiral of whining, but sometimes life just sucks, and those for whom this is true honestly cannot be bothered to care whether their entries entertain the masses. It's a blog, not a novel.

Edited Date: 2009-08-12 01:42 pm (UTC)

For me the point is not that a particular blog is used to vent/whine. It's that some people continually whine and yet make no effort to better their situation or change their attitude to it. If there is a crisis they don't try to deal with it, they just complain. I really hate that attitude. By all means vent/whine in life - god knows, I do it myself. But don't keep whining about things when you could fairly easily deal with them. In general there seems to be such an attitude these days* that things should be perfect and if not then we are incapable of fixing them without the assistance/permission of other people. Just get off your ass and sort it fercryingoutloud.

*Why yes, I did feel old writing that. What makes you ask?

I think I made it clear in answer to another comment, I'm not talking about the sort of ranting that gets things off your chest and is between friends. People on your flist generally know when that happens and they will wander by with tea and sympathy or a kick up the arse as is needed. That's fine and dandy, that's one of the best things about LJ.

What I'm talking about is an endless, endless self-pitying "woe is me"-fest of an LJ that only accomplishes one of two things: everyone reading the LJ has this burning urge to defriend you or else it manipulates the more gullible into feeling sorry for you. I defriended at least one person this year who fell into the latter category when I realised that she'd been given in excess of $800 over the previous 18 months by various people (not me) to help her with her life crises and yet she was not one whit better off for it and was still whining about her life. She had genuine problems (assuming they were true and I was starting to doubt) but I could see no effort to really solve them. I decided to quit before she worked up to asking for more handouts.

Rant away in your LJ, I'm all for it. I do. That's what my post was, fer cryin' out loud :) But there's a line where ranting becomes self-pitying whinging and enough is enough.

You wanted comments, you got 'em. *g*

Yeah, I was wondering if

mitchy decided the only way to go was with the grar :P

I don't recall actually asking for comments but I am mildly reassured that people do read this thing :D

I kind of think the easiest problems in the world to fix are other people's and things look much bigger the closer you are to them, so I tend to blip over the excessively emo face, let me show you it stuff as a rule because I figure people will be embarrassed enough when they get back to it ... I know I am o_0

In other news, my permanent account expires never but I'LL MISS THE POLLS AND ICONS. *flees*

*throws things at you* :)

Research does suggest that holding something warm in your hand does cause you to view other humans more charitably.

But as a sixth grade teacher, I'm just working on kids getting pencil and paper out of their lockers before they come to class.

Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Randomosity

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January