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

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!