LETTERS TO STRANGERS
...WORDS I HAVE POSTED PUBLICALLY IN VARIOUS PLACES IN RESPONSE TO OTHERS WORDS...
...a friend is a stranger waiting to be met...
LIFE IN NEWSGROUPS
THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE...
LETTERS TO STRANGERS
...WORDS I HAVE POSTED PUBLICALLY IN VARIOUS PLACES IN RESPONSE TO OTHERS WORDS...
...a friend is a stranger waiting to be met...
LIFE IN NEWSGROUPS
January 15, 2000
>There are times I just can not catch up with y'all and reading this
>newsgroup. It certainly is a busy one! So many truly gifted people
>and so spoken from the heart. To have all you folks around for
>company is great chicken soup! There is certainly a lot of feeling
>emanating from here.
>
>The name of the newsgroup is such a contradiction to the mass of folks
>who contribute to it. I shall never replenish another lonely cell in
>this body ever again.
>
>But how the heck does one keep up around here!? Is there a "condensed
>version?" My goodness, now i feel old for sure!
LOL... it's been a lot busier at times... and sometimes it's quieter... when I first got here (hey Bill, how old are we? LAM ;)
well, in the olden days [wink]... there were just a handful of people... people come and go, for the most part... the good news is some are still friends on ICQ... anyway, it was easy to keep up when there were sometimes no posts on a given day... just a lot lonelier...
from what I see since 1998 the flood gates have opened, people have found this newsgroup (maybe pubicizing it was not such a good thing? LOL :) and to really read and respond as I'd like to it takes about 4, sometimes more hours a day devoted just to sitting at this computer and reading and thinking and responding... heck, I've not uploaded any new pages to my personal website in two weeks LAM :)
when I have time as I do now (especially after being away for all of 1999), I spend a week or few "living" online and catching up with the feel of a group...
ASL is one of the groups...
when I don't live online, I just download headers and then look for people I've enjoyed, online friends, and subjects that interest me... I then read a few lines and if something clicks in the response part of my head, I respond... otherwise I move to the next post...
there's not enough time to read all unless I'm on vacation (as I am now) and choose to spend a bulk of my time here (though I do drift in and out of films on the tube and head out to dinner with my roommies and read a little email - way way behind there - and other groups... and I've got other stuff I'm doing online today too), the only way to keep up is to selectively read and respond...
how to select is whatever feels right for you... for me, it depends on my mood... these days I'm happier than I've been in years so I can just pick and choose at random... when I am sad or feeling defensive or upset about something, I come here seeking only positive and don't open anything I might find negativity in as that's the last thing I'd need and I'd probably react poorly... anyway, that's sorta how I do it :)
I think an important understanding is that there's no harm intended when skipping posts, just a lack of time or my mind not focusing on the subject at hand... I get past any guilt I might feel in not responding to every single post (yeah, I actually don't ;) by knowing this...
also... I resist any sense of possessiveness or responsibility to help everyone or save everyone (if you're susceptible to that)... and I try to remember that "you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself" is just as important as "love thy neighbor" and "do unto others as you'd like done to you"...
as I see newsgroups, it's a lot like being at a party or any social gathering... you can't talk to everyone at once unless you're preaching or giving a lecture intended for the group... most conversations are just a few people in one part of the space discussing a few things... and if you don't get to say hello or talk to everybody at one day's party... maybe you'll bump into them the next party you attend...
and another key to keeping up is focusing and not babbling on and on and on in every post or response (who me? LAM ;)
honest love, ric
"Do... do you think I chose to be like this?
Do you have any idea how lonely it is, how dangerous?
I would love to be upstairs watching TV
or gossiping about boys or...god, even studying!
But I have to save the world... again." - Buffy, TVS
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