online friends

[pallas_athena]

... are cool! Rare, and cool.

It all began [DORK ALERT, BIG HUGE DORK ALERT] on the Xena: Warrior Princess fan forum.

It was the late nineties, and I'd never belonged to an online community before. I joined the forum in order to have that experience. It was strange: becoming familiar, let alone friendly, with personalities whom you only know as typed words on a screen is, I suppose, strange by definition. But we've all done it, right? Some of the typed-words-on-a-screen became friends; some I admired from a distance; some I just plain avoided.

Nevertheless, it was a good few years before I met any of these typers in person. At long last a witty, articulate girl whom I knew only as myriad mentioned that she was coming to Britain to seek work as a nanny, environmental science having burned out her brain; she didn't know many people in London, and would I like to meet up?

I said yes, and I'm phenomenally glad I did. Myriad and I met up and were very relieved to discover that neither of us were psychopaths (much), and over the next year we'd phone each other up regularly and get together whenever she was in London. She worked for a family in Europe for a year, then used the proceeds to go travelling; her odyssey ended in long-lasting love with another witty, articulate forum member, and they now live together on a farm in the Land of Oz. Which goes to show that on the internet, anything is possible. myriadim, I salute thee!

These days, my online community of choice is MonkeyFilter. There have been meetups, there has been drunkenness, and a splendid time has been had by all. Monkeys are good people.

A short while ago, I had a lovely conversation over coffee with moonwolf. She, nanashi_jones and I met at DragonCon this past September, while dancing at a drum circle, and got on like a house on fire. But it was LJ that kept us in touch, and let me know she was coming to DC to visit friends, and led to us hitting a craft store and a coffee shop and having a lovely time. moonwolf was kind enough to show me her sketchbook, which is filled with the most joyful things a pen can do to a piece of of paper. She's just landed an Awesome Illustrating Job, too. Go Moonwolf!

(Makes mental note to get Moonwolf and speedlime in the same room sometime with sketching materials and see what comes out)

So here's my wish for us all in 2007: may this be the year of Finding Friends In Unexpected Places! Peace out.

Comments

[moonwolf.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaay! *hugs much* It's wonferful to know you! And always great to see you in person and chat. I'll try to get in touch before I leave.

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaaaay and hugs back atcha! Hope New Year's Eve was rockin'. Did the tattoo markers come in useful?

yaaay and *blush*

[myriadim.livejournal.com]

Ms Ho, you OUTED us. I've always managed to make it sound like we met on a very highbrow intellectual discussion forum!

Oh well! :D

Well if we don't kick the miserable little sh*t aka johnny howard out this year, you never know Ms Ho, maybe Keres and I will flee these shores. Although I'd be tempted to try and start a movement for Tas to secede to NZ first. The political landscape has been very grim for so long. Being involved in the Greens is both helping, and exhausting/frustrating. Better than doing nothing (I kee telling myself, har har)...

I think it's going to take me a while to get used to doing the journal thingy - I'm waaaay too seldf-conscious! -And yet it is strongly alluring - Hints? Tips?


Nice to meet you moonwolf - and Happy New Year!

cheers, myriad

Re: yaaay and *blush*

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess technically we really got to know each other on Aggie and Nem's ezboards... and very highbrow they were too! (Remember Murder on the Moors?)

You will be amazed at the amount of time you can waste enjoyably online with LJ. If you post anything you're unsure about the wider internet seeing, you can always friends-lock that post (that is, make it viewable only to people on your friends list.) If there are a lot of photos in your post, use the lj-cut tag. That's about all the tips I can think of! You learn much faster than I ever did anyway.

You know, I bet if you got a lot of people and paddles, you could probably row Tasmania across to NZ pretty easily. Possibility?

[nanashi-jones.livejournal.com]

I don't know about random trips, but there's a space at D*Con with your belly in it, that's for damn sure. ;)

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Can't wait. Hope you're settling in OK in Florida!

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

I'll toast to that! Long live unexpected friends! :-)

I had a similar experience, starting off with theonering.com (theonering.net is a fine site, but it wasn't my home). I drove from Vancouver (where I was studying) down to Seattle to watch the premiere of the FOTR trailer (yes, the trailer) with some of them. Much relief at the lack of psychopathy :-).

And I think it's so awesome that we just barely made contact at D*C but now I keenly follow your LJ and am so pleased with your presence on my friends list! Looking forward to meeting up with in person next year!

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Yaaay! I think it's awesome too; I always look forward to reading your posts. You are an adornment to anyone's Friends list, and I too am looking forward to more in-person fun and hangin' out!

[pvcdiva.livejournal.com]

bum...back when I managed the IMAX at Waterloo I pestered and pestered my boss to be allowed to run an all nighter of the whole trilogy. He finally gave in to my demands and it was a terrific success - filled the whole damn place with orcs and hobbits. You'd have loved it - not only was the screen 20 frigging metres tall, but the sound system is just fantastic so you can really feel Helm's Deep...

just watched the LOTR again

[myriadim.livejournal.com]

- the extended 6 disc version. Peter Jackson is just a liiiitle too fond of exposition (Ian McKellen also seems to be playing Captain Obvious as well as Gandalf half the time),Elijiah Wood should never EVER be made to speak that slowly and look that constipated again, and I don't know who directed Cate Blanchett, but she, for once, seems very wooden and not at all convincing. Other than that, it's still absolutely fab. :-)

My bother, a LOTR purist & major pagan eccentric, still refuses to watch because they left out Tom Bombadil. Silly boy.

Re: just watched the LOTR again

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

I can deal with the exposition, especially when spoken by Ian McK! What bothered me much more was what Jackson pulled with the characters of Faramir and Denethor. But overall, they're still good films.

Re: just watched the LOTR again

[myriadim.livejournal.com]

I take it you mean the complete repulsive looniness of Denethor - far beyond what I remember in the book anyway - and his horrible relationship with Faramir?

I actually didn't mind that, just as I didn't mind a lot of the "beefing up" of the character's personalities and relationships. Tolkein's greatest weakness for me has always been his terribly 2-dimensional and cipher-like characters. There are other changes I mind more, so I'd be interested to hear what really disturbed you about D/F.

Re: just watched the LOTR again

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Hi lovely. Posted a longish reply to your comment over at your journal. Thinking of you today!

[ladykate63.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you're still checking this old thread, but I met my best friend on a Xena fan forum. *G* Yes, yes, dork alert. (Who says Xena forums are not a place for deep intellectual discussions? We have them all the time on the one I currently co-mod.) I even went to Australia to hang out with her, twice (and also to visit two other good Aussie friends I'd met on the same forum). Made several other good friends there as well; some I've met "in the flesh," some not. I think that after you've interacted only online it's a little awkward at first to meet in person (no emoticons! LOL) but once you "break the ice," it's great.

Are you still interested in Xena, btw?