Sunday, 22nd June 2003
Unnoticed absence
Sorry I've been a bit quiet in the last few days, and apologies in advance for this big emotional dump here; it's not something I do often. On Friday night I had a rare argument with my parents - along the lines of: "You spend far too much time on the computer, you should leave it alone for a bit, and what's so good about communicating with all these people who you don't even know, and no, you don't know them and there's no way that you could ever really know someone from the internet because people aren't always who they say they are," etc. *sigh*
Anyway, this argument resulted in my feeling rather angry and upset, and as a result I couldn't concentrate on anything. Revision. Writing a blog entry. Answering Fionnaigh's five questions (above). Finishing an email that I should really have sent a week ago; a task which was made more difficult by the fact that my mail client apparently swallowed up the draft I was writing during one of the times when the computer really crashed (as opposed to just the normal Windows-induced crashing which happens several times a week).
Calming down involved watching Blade Runner, which I found to be the perfect distraction film for me because I find it very involving even though it's so familiar. I could just take a deep breath, relax and sink into it without thinking about anything else. Everything else was wiped from my mind for two hours, and I emerged feeling much calmer and less stressed. But yesterday I still felt unsettled and unable to write things, and I just got frustrated when I tried and it wasn't coming out right.
On the plus side I did get a lot of reading done and have now finished The Changeover, which took longer to read than it should have done because it's a large print copy and, believe me, it's large. Holding it at arm's length wasn't enough; I had to read at a table with it propped up some way away, and every so often I'd lean forward to turn the page. Iona and Fionnaigh were right, it is a marvellous book, and I am eternally grateful to Fionnaigh for sending it to me!
Depending on your point of view it could be a good thing that I can't write properly when I'm stressed since this means that, by and large, you'll only ever get my fluffy-bunnies moods, which make for much more relaxed reading.
Comments
Glad you enjoyed the book :) Yeah, sorry about the print - lol. It *is* a children's book...
Shame about the argument. I've known some people for years on the internet before meeting them... and I've only been (very mildly) surprised a couple of times when I've met people "in the flesh." Mostly they've been exactly how I imagined them, sometimes just slightly quieter or something.
It's funny, because parent-aged people often seem to have issues with internet friendships, but they never had issues with pen pals back in the good old days. What's the difference?
Hya, You know what to do about it of course: see to it that at least one of them gets hooked on blogging themselves. (I presume you have more than 1 PC in the house). works a treat.
My parents are rather distrustful of the internet on the whole, so I think that wouldn't work.. and anyway, if it did work I'd never be able to get on the computer myself!
Fi, I think it was specifically large print for people who have difficulty reading normal-sized fonts, rather than just for a children's book. I hope. (I hope 14-year-olds can read print smaller than that...)
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