losing my virginity

[chelidon]

LJ, that is. And much like many folks' first-time experiences, I'm not entirely sure I want to do this right now, and it's more than a bit awkward.

I've had this account, unused, since 2002, and never posted a blessed thing other than comments on friend's LJs (and even that only recently). Some of the origin of the persistently pristine state of my LJ has to do with my personal ambivalence about public journals, and the fact that I'm a fairly private person by nature. The 'net is a wide open book, and the space between things I might want to tell my friends, and things I want the whole entire world to see is rather large. And I'm a writer, I make pretty much my entire living by writing and editing, and I get paid, among other things, to blog, so do I really want to do more of that in my free time? And I also know very well that one of the most clever ways my brain procastinates and avoids the writing I get paid to do is by tempting me to write more of the stuff I don't get paid for. I become very prolific when I'm on deadline...just not about the stuff I'm supposed to be doing. Seems that writing *something* fools superego into not being so self-critical about puting off the "real" work. So another writing-related distraction I probably do not need. And my life is perpetually over-committed with tasks, obligations and avocations, so how on earth does it make sense to add one more?

Yet, still, however, but. I'm an email packrat, and I've got megabytes of archives of all my outgoing email going back at least ten years or so. For whatever reason, I've never been able to keep an actual regular journal or diary, and I've often wished that I had. The closest thing to it that I've got is my email archives, and I do like being able to go back to a particular time and circumstance and read what I was writing to my close friends, remember what was going on in my life, rediscover old insights, pains, joys and sorrows. I've found some real gems in there, too, that I've used in further writing, and some lessons, bits of wisdom that I'd forgotten I learned. This may serve some of the same purpose for me.

So here goes. I'll be posting things here occasionally, a slice-of-life, or maybe an older post that I enjoyed writing or think I might want to recycle. This is primarily for me, but if anyone else finds some kind of value, or prurient interest in anything I rant and rave about, so be it. It's yer brain, you have a right to fill it with whatever weird trivia, rambling claptrap or dubious musings you so choose. In a world of utter and complete information overload, what's one more source of noise among the din?

Okay, I'm not giddy or transported by bliss or anything, but that didn't make me as sore as I thought it might.

Comments

[snakey.livejournal.com]

"The 'net is a wide open book, and the space between things I might want to tell my friends, and things I want the whole entire world to see is rather large."

Friends filters=a goodness.

Welcome!!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and thanks for the posting tip! I'll have to pick up the subtleties of filtering posts -- I'm thinking the filter would have to be based on who I friend, not who friends me? Ah, well, whatdya expect from an almost-virgin ;>

[ravenedgewalker.livejournal.com]

you can filter so just the friends on your friends list can read stuff - thats easy a box to check on the update page, and then you can also create filters to specific groups or individuals depending on who you want to read what....

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

Glad to be a part of the virginity-losing experience. :)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Heh, me too. But will ya respect me in the morning?

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

Hey Chel! Nice to see you posting, what a surprise. I look forward to seeing what you dig out of your archives or what you ramble out when you're avoiding work. ;)

And yup, those friends filters are good, you can set some posts public, some posts friends only, some private, etc. I usually leave all my art posts public and keep all of my personal waffle friends only.

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

Yes I know it's lame to reply to myself, but I just noticed it and man I LOVE the photo of you on your user info page!!!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Thanks, my friend. It's been so delightful to see your work progress over the years on your LJ and site. I am just in awe. You don't need me to tell you this, but. You. Totally. Rock. And the green dragon is still hanging over my bed here, and Forest still completely adores the big dragon and Horace. Am contemplating mebbeso doing a Bardic Circle in late March, kind of a birthday present for myself...think y'all might be able to come?

That pic was a happy accident -- I needed a quick self-portrait and grabbed the digital camera, took a quickie blind shot, and the light at that moment was angling through the sliding glass doors and then one of the ironwork doors into the dining room and dropped shadows from the door on my face. Of course, once I saw it, I had to wiggle around a bit and take a few more to see how the shadows could line up ;>

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

Flattery will get you everywhere. ;)

Bardic circle in March would rock my world. March 23rd is Dave's birthday so maybe it can be a joint birthday bardic. Can we bring my sister if she's free? She lives in Hartford now and I've been telling her all about the joys of Casa Chaos for a long time. Oh she's on LJ, too - threefrognight.

Hooray for happy accidents, I always did love your eyes. I had a browse through the casachaos photo site (hadn't seen that one before!) and I laughed quite loudly at the "snowflake that ate daddy's head" pic. ;)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

awww, yer very sweet, thanks, gonna make me blush :>

Sounds like we've got a bardic! I'm embarassed to admit I'd forgotten Dave's natal day was the 23rd (good date, BTW ;>), another brilliant excuse to have a shindig. Would love to meet your sister, and just from you three and usn's that's, hmm, 10. Guess I'll have to start sending out invites. It's been a while, this could be a large one... Ah well, we should be all done tearing apart the house by then, there'll be plenty of room for all, the more the merrier. How's the 26th-27th look (the weekend before that is closest to equinox, not sure yet what's planned)?

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

We'll see what the schedule is like, but that sounds like a lot of fun. Time to come up with a theme. :)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

bardic announcement complete with theme(s) posted to LJ. I'll send it out to the old bardic email list, too, so you'll probably get it twice -- bonus! ;>

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

Woo!

Whoa!

[devbrain.livejournal.com]

Was it good for you, too?

Re: Whoa!

[ravenedgewalker.livejournal.com]

congratulations and greetings!

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Hmm, I just noticed that a majority of the people who replied with comments to this point are either English, married to someone English, English ex-pats, or anglophiles. Guess it shows I've got good taste in friends? ;>

Re: Whoa!

[snakey.livejournal.com]

We should make you honourary English or something.....

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

woo hoo! kewl! Oi mush, wot?

Hmm, okay, will have to work on that ;>

Re: Whoa!

[snakey.livejournal.com]

Um. ::pats nervously, backs away::

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I swear, that's *always* happening to me...

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Always, Dave, when yer involved :)

I was recently sending a friend one of the photos you took at Starwood a few years back, when we did Trol Kamp. Many good memories... and those pictures you took of the bonfire still blow me away.

Re: Whoa!

[devbrain.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I think that was Davis, otherwise known as <lj user="sirnotappearinginthisjournal">.

I don't recall taking many (if any) photos at starwood, actually.

Re: Whoa!

[draiguisge.livejournal.com]

Probably would have been me - I took tons of bonfire pics at the last Starwood. :)

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, I must have been misremembering which lovely photographer did that shoot, and I thought I remembered Dave taking pics that year-- they say memory is the first to go... Ah well, in any case, they're luscious pics. By the way, I heard from davis recently (and I owe him emails...) I'd encouraged him to go to some New York-area Reclaiming events, and he did (he went to camp, in fact) and now he's hooked ;> He recently took a weekend class with one of the people I taught with in Tejas this last year. Good to see him getting away from work (small "w") and getting into his Work (big "W")!

Re: Whoa!

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

I was at Starwood in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

hey, cool -- I'd gone for a number of years many years ago, then went again for a couple of years back around that same time. I'm sure we crossed paths, tho' probably didn't know it. If you saw a campground with a big white yurt with all kinds of strange noises coming out of it over by the entrance to the Fairy Woods, that was us.

Re: Whoa!

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

I always camped with the CAW folks in the Fairy Woods. So we've been neighbors! :)

Re: Whoa!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Indeed! So were you one of the ones in the pool, then, for the water sharing?

Re: Whoa!

[kiramor.livejournal.com]

I was.

[morrigandaughtr.livejournal.com]

A big welcome to the din!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

makes me want to ring the din-din bell. (*groan*)

[morrigandaughtr.livejournal.com]

Oh no! No puns!

In lieu: lunch.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

I fully recognize and own the fact that a love of puns reveals a deeply disturbed character ;>

And well, yes, lunch would be in Lleu, once he ate it, no?

[morrigandaughtr.livejournal.com]

Dear Deeply Disturbed Character:

One would hope. Caveat a bad lunch.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

*ahem* In reference to your lucid and inerrantly accurate salutation, I have three brief words:

Pot. Kettle. Black. *grin*

And if caveat a bad lunch, you might just hear the sound of a Calleach.

------
"It was the salmon mousse.'
--Monty Python, "Meaning Of Life"

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

By the way, was that an offer of lunch here, or lunch there? :>

[raqs.livejournal.com]

well, since i'm happy to know a bit more about what's going on with you other than "not dead, thanks", i'm happy you gave up your virginity. who were you saving it for anyway? and i feel smart because hol told me to friend you just last week - so don't cut me out when you learn how to do friend filtering. it's judith.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

*lol* I saw you in my friends list, and was wondering if/hoping that was you... how delightful! I've gotten some of the news of your travels/travails along the way. You're close enough now we could make a road trip in one or the other direction some time, yes? The website linked to on my LJ has more pictures of what we've been up to since we moved than you probably would ever want to see ;>

Nice erotica, BTW (hmm, not "nice" ;>) You have quite a gift.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

oh for pete's sake, don't read the porn; that's for people who don't know me. :-)

i'm in new york now; every once in a while i make a flying trip to boston; maybe one of these days will fly as far north as you are. i did see some online pics of the house. lervley.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

> oh for pete's sake, don't read the porn; that's for people who don't know me. :-)

Heh. Believe me, I am sympathetic to having diverse nomes-de-plume. And I am genuinely fascinated in what my friends write. And you do seem to have a flair for it.

So we're a 2 hour drive from Boston (well, when it's not rush hour), and an hour from Manchester, NH. If you ever get to Manchester and don't have a car, I can pick you up and bring you up here, or at least meet you down there for lunch or dinner. My weekday schedule is pretty flexible (meaning, I can always make a little time by not doing something I'm supposed to be doing ;>), and I know some really good eating places in and around Manchester from the year I had to fly in and out of there twice a week (eaugggh).

Yeah, it is really beautiful here -- a pretty unique combination of wilderness, clean environment, progressive attitudes and plenty of live music, arts, education, culture, etc. Since we moved, both of my parents separately moved out here (I have no illusions, #1 Grandson is entirely to blame for that), and several other friends have either already come out or are on their way. It's a nice hermitage -- yer welcome to come visit anytime.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Woo! I like how, when you lose your virginity, you lose it with multi-posting abandon!

And I swear to god I will make it up there one of these weekends. (Possibly not for the bardic; I think I'm away on a trip then. Must check.)

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

heh. Ah-yup. ...Well, when (over the what is it, fifteen, seventeen years we've known one another? gosh) have I ever done anything in half-measure? In for a penny, in for a pound, and besides, what use is being a little bit virgin?

And we are something like two hours away. Two. Hours. if ya don't make it out here some time soon, we'll just have to come out when you least expect it and perform a brazen kidnapping (will combine it with a trip to pick up some lobstah). And ya know we will, too. How's my kid going to learn these things if I don't show him how?

I strongly suspect we'll do another bardic in May or June sometime.

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

So, as I said before: WELCOME!

I, too, started by swearing I'd never post "here's what I did today" crap... and soon found that silly posts like those and the various "memes" got more response from friends than my rants.

Anyway, great to "see" you again! Love to C and F -- and yourself, of course! -- from K and me.

WILL / LOVE

- V -

PS: Did you get that email I sent with a submission for your bardic, with the lyrics to The Humours of Whisky?

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Thanks again, and it's lovely to have an excuse to touch base again! Looks like you're considering moving further away from our new locale, rather than closer, which is surely too bad from a purely selfish perspective, but of course ya gotta go where ya can live/work, and where the heart calls.

Thanks for the tip about the Humours of Whisky song, I just went back and found your email. Looks like it came in while I was out of town in Texas for a couple of weeks and got buried under huge mountains of unread email. Whoops, sorry! I love that song, BTW. Scottish performer/songwriter Andy Stewart (ex-Silly Wizard) used to sing it brilliantly (probably still does ;>) I remember doing it once at a bardic, maybe, oh, 15 years ago...thanks very much for the reminder, I may well trot it out for this coming bardic, and will of course let everyone know that it comes via you. Y'all will be thought of, and I'm sure you'll be there in spirit. Perhaps I'll sacrifice a Peep for ya both. How are Paul and Kathy doing?

Warm hearth, 93 93/93,

--*C