The internet is full of enthusiasts. Enthusing over many things. Sometimes they praise things I like, sometimes they praise things I don't like. Sometimes they apply their enthusiasm towards the dislike of something. It seems to me though that regardless of the topic enthused over, some people are rather enjoyable and some are just incredibly annoying.
Take John Green's sport-based twitter account. I have little to no interest in sport, but his enthusiasm for it is really very pleasing to read (to me at least).
Now take a variety of posts about Harry Potter from Tumblr. And if you don't mind, I shall take a deep breath and adjust my seating to make myself more comfortable. Some of it is enjoyable, such as the multiple layers of fun derived from screencaps by -morning. Some of it is legitimate "Well done JK for writing a great series of books, I have enjoyed them and this is why", which again I can respect and feel content about.
Then there are those posts which are obsessive.
Posts saying "OMG That's So Ravenclaw!" (which is not a 'thing', but I wish it was cause I just thought of it and it's funny ofc), or more specifically spazzing out over how amazing something is because it's related to the films or the books. Posts that go to great lengths to say why a particular house is amazing because of this and that and the other and how they still now read and reread the books to prepare themselves for the final film.
Now, don't get me wrong, I have read all of the books and watched all of the films thusfar. I will be going to see the last one when it comes out at the cinema. I have enjoyed much of it (though the ending of the Chamber of Secrets movie is the most horrifyingly cheesy thing I have ever seen). I just hate to see people speaking in reverential terms over fiction, I guess.
I have a similar problem whenever I've been to a gathering of Doctor Who fans. When I went to get my copy of The Writer's Tale signed in Birmingham, I was surrounded by obsessive fans who spoke reverently over little parts of the canon and of seeing and meeting various Who alumni. Some were enthusing over the costumes that they were wearing and some were dismayed that they has chosen not to bring and therefore not showcase a particular outfit. But to put myself in context in that scene, I was the only one anywhere near me who had actually read the whole book and I was incredibly starstruck at the thought of coming face-to-face with Russell T Davies. I got all of the little references that the people around me were making. I more than once restrained myself from correcting them because they were quoting things wrong or drawing incorrect conclusions. I still found the whole mindset repellent.
I suppose in a way, it's about expressing enjoyment without making a fool out of yourself. I suppose in a way, that last sentence was extremely pretentious. I just think it's possible to say how much you love something without vomiting rainbows over it. Without gushing openly like a New York fire hydrant smashed open by a great piece of media and somehow henceforth being infused with a potent overdose of caffeine, cocaine and golden syrup.
See also; My views on religion. Oh wait, you just did.
Sunday 27 February 2011
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Talking about myself when tragedies are happening worldwide. As we all do, daily, all the time.
Today I worked an extra hour and stayed later than that even to book the many days off I have planned for the next few months. By the time I finally reached the halfway point of my journey home and ran for and missed a bus I decided; fuck it, I can walk home and I could do with the exercise. For balance I bought a bag of chips and spent an hour walking back home while only three buses passed me.
Why am I telling you this?
Because in the first 20 minutes of that walk home, I'd actually come up with the opening few paragraphs of what could have been this blog. Unfortunately/fortunately, I was distracted by music and the built up prose dribbled out of my ears, lacking long term traction. Excuse me while I try to do it's (lack of) memory justice.
---
I'm a busy guy. It doesn't really occur to me until other people comment on it but it's true. I have some sort of plan for at least half of the days off I'm given and my evenings are often spent keeping up with Twitter and Tumblr while consuming media with the appetite of a starved and angry badger. Yet it took a day of unfulfilled lazing in front of the TV for me to realise that my new found busyness is just one aspect of a person that has really changed in the last two years.
A little under two years ago, me and my boyfriend split up. In the time since I've made almost all of the internet friends I have now, have travelled up and down the country (mostly down) to see them and have 'mastered' my finances and general planning of my life. Admittedly, I'm still not the greatest at being on time and I rarely organise any successful social events of my own, but you can't have everything. In the nearly elapsed two months of this year alone I've been to London, Sheffield, Stafford and Heathrow. A good time was had in all. I've sent and received Valentine's cards for (I think) the first time ever and [segue] yes Simon, it was me who sent the banana-based card and no, it doesn't matter that it wasn't reciprocal and I apologise for anything inappropriate I did when we were drunk (because alcohol is totally a valid excuse) [/segue]. I have so many more things planned for this year and I'm starting to get metaphorically itchy feet whenever I'm not moving or planning or accomplishing because I daren't let the momentum wane.
Even so, the New Years Resolutions I accomplished so well during the last year have not really been taken up so well this year. Again in the barely two months of this year, I've not been swimming once. Nor have I made a YouTube video [He said, forgetting that he posted a pointless little vlog that was unplanned and not all that great.]. I've kind of saved some money. I've been to a couple of new places and future different journeys are planned so that's a winner I guess. I've caught up tremendously with Sentai also; being as I am now only 50 episodes behind (up from 80). Sadly the Sentai speed will slow now because the new team that I just started watching, Goseiger, are a bit badly written and the actors are uninspiring.
I have tickets to see comedians and an eye on tours as yet unannounced. I have a list of the various boxsets and series I hope to get watched this year. And yet I have a fairly limited communication with the people I want to spend this time with. I have a complete disjoin to the Birmingham bars and people I used to go out with locally. I have a generally adjacent view to everyone I encounter on a day-to-day basis and I rarely make the encounter when the situation should call for it.
Again, I'm just belly-aching that everything isn't perfect and a little bit "Why don't I have something into which I have put no effort? Waah!" but I feel a bit lonely sometimes when half the people I'd like to speak to are far away and most of the methods of which to start that conversation without travel appear to me to be an invasion of me upon them and therefore unwanted and "Waah! No one wants to talk to me even though I make no attempt to talk to them! Waah!".
So yeah. I blogged about it. Maybe the above'd be a little shorter if I regularly got these feelings out in the open, say with a picture attached. I wonder where I could do that...
Why am I telling you this?
Because in the first 20 minutes of that walk home, I'd actually come up with the opening few paragraphs of what could have been this blog. Unfortunately/fortunately, I was distracted by music and the built up prose dribbled out of my ears, lacking long term traction. Excuse me while I try to do it's (lack of) memory justice.
---
I'm a busy guy. It doesn't really occur to me until other people comment on it but it's true. I have some sort of plan for at least half of the days off I'm given and my evenings are often spent keeping up with Twitter and Tumblr while consuming media with the appetite of a starved and angry badger. Yet it took a day of unfulfilled lazing in front of the TV for me to realise that my new found busyness is just one aspect of a person that has really changed in the last two years.
A little under two years ago, me and my boyfriend split up. In the time since I've made almost all of the internet friends I have now, have travelled up and down the country (mostly down) to see them and have 'mastered' my finances and general planning of my life. Admittedly, I'm still not the greatest at being on time and I rarely organise any successful social events of my own, but you can't have everything. In the nearly elapsed two months of this year alone I've been to London, Sheffield, Stafford and Heathrow. A good time was had in all. I've sent and received Valentine's cards for (I think) the first time ever and [segue] yes Simon, it was me who sent the banana-based card and no, it doesn't matter that it wasn't reciprocal and I apologise for anything inappropriate I did when we were drunk (because alcohol is totally a valid excuse) [/segue]. I have so many more things planned for this year and I'm starting to get metaphorically itchy feet whenever I'm not moving or planning or accomplishing because I daren't let the momentum wane.
Even so, the New Years Resolutions I accomplished so well during the last year have not really been taken up so well this year. Again in the barely two months of this year, I've not been swimming once. Nor have I made a YouTube video [He said, forgetting that he posted a pointless little vlog that was unplanned and not all that great.]. I've kind of saved some money. I've been to a couple of new places and future different journeys are planned so that's a winner I guess. I've caught up tremendously with Sentai also; being as I am now only 50 episodes behind (up from 80). Sadly the Sentai speed will slow now because the new team that I just started watching, Goseiger, are a bit badly written and the actors are uninspiring.
I have tickets to see comedians and an eye on tours as yet unannounced. I have a list of the various boxsets and series I hope to get watched this year. And yet I have a fairly limited communication with the people I want to spend this time with. I have a complete disjoin to the Birmingham bars and people I used to go out with locally. I have a generally adjacent view to everyone I encounter on a day-to-day basis and I rarely make the encounter when the situation should call for it.
Again, I'm just belly-aching that everything isn't perfect and a little bit "Why don't I have something into which I have put no effort? Waah!" but I feel a bit lonely sometimes when half the people I'd like to speak to are far away and most of the methods of which to start that conversation without travel appear to me to be an invasion of me upon them and therefore unwanted and "Waah! No one wants to talk to me even though I make no attempt to talk to them! Waah!".
So yeah. I blogged about it. Maybe the above'd be a little shorter if I regularly got these feelings out in the open, say with a picture attached. I wonder where I could do that...
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