Taking Charge » Old Friend

‘Net Apathy

tyralyn — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:08:43 +0000

It seems like every spring I go through a severe case of ‘net apathy. Not sure why, but I get to the point where I’d like to completely shut down my computer and Internet and walk away from it all. Spring Fever? Maybe, but it goes away after a while. The thing is, this year, it started early. I’ve been slowly building up to the point where I’d like to put my fist through my monitor since February. I’ve been spending a lot of my time reading or listening to audio books. Mostly to keep my brain from being able to think too much. I think I need something more going on when I’m at home.

I have a lot of things that I should be doing, I’m just apathetic about doing them because they involve sitting here looking at the computer screen. Meh. I think I’ll feel better when the weather is decent enough that I can go dig in dirt and plant my garden. I want to grow peppers, squash and tomatoes. I’m also thinking of planting a small patch of rhubarb and I’d also like to grow asparagus, but I keep getting told that it’s too difficult. Meh.

There’s a lot going on in my brain, but most of it, I’m not willing to share. It’s hard and it’s frustrating, but it’s life. So until I feel like sharing, I’ll just babble on about stupid little things like getting the car inspected yesterday and getting hugs from an old friend.

Until next time.

Chasing Pavements

tyralyn — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:29:49 +0000

One of the things that I realized yesterday is that I always have 4 tabs open in my browser. Always. Livejournal, Gmail, Plurk and Twitter. I also check Facebook, Myspace and MyYearbook regularly as well. Plus I have some other sites that I don’t check as often. I have each account for a different reason.

Facebook – I keep my Facebook fairly recent because I have connected with some high school and college friends there, plus there are a few of my other friends who are either there exclusively or use it more than other things.

Myspace – Before Facebook, that was the place to connect with those from HS/College/etc.

MyYearbook – I don’t even know how I found it, but I keep it up to date for a single person – an old friend whom I lost touch with years ago. The reconnection with this particular friend is quite important to me, so I check there for messages from him.

Plurk – I love plurk. I had plurk before it was ‘cool’ but didn’t use it much. It’s fun, it’s interactive, and I’ve made a lot of great friends through plurk, plus a met a couple people that remind me why I keep to myself (more on that in another post) a lot.

Twitter – I’ve been on twitter for as long as I’ve known about twitter. I deleted my original Twitter account but recreated a short time later. I like twitter because it works with my cell phone, unlike livejournal, plurk and most other services. I can send short updates via text when I’m out and it makes a great way to make a bullet list post to livejournal or other sites via loudtwitter for things to expound on when there’s time.

That’s not really the point of this post. The point is that it seems like a lot of people spend their time online chasing from site to site to keep up with the people they care about. I know that’s how I feel. This isn’t new, though, it’s been going on since there were ways for people to communicate other than via e-mail. If you think about it, there is IRC with hundreds of servers, each with hundreds and up to thousands of channels for people to chat in. There is Yahoo chat, AOL chat, other web-based chats and various different messenger services. My personal preference for Instant Messaging is MSN/Windows Live Messenger. Others prefer AIM or Yahoo and that’s fine. I have all of them, it’s not a big deal, really.

I feel, a lot of times, that I’m spreading myself too thin and wonder how many others feel the same way but don’t know what to do about it. It’s hard to say no when you really want to be where your friends are, but it’s also hard to juggle so much stuff and not drop the ball sometimes. Recently, a good friend said that they spend more time on Facebook because it’s more accessible from their cell phone. I don’t really understand that, tbqh, because any cell phone with a web browser can access most any site quite easily. Most major sites have mobile versions of their sites for just that reason. Heck, there are even apps for the iPhone for livejournal. But anyway, that’s just my thoughts.

Adele Lyrics
Chasing Pavements Lyrics

What’s the point of all this? Who knows, perhaps it’s just me making up my mind to stop chasing people from site to site on a daily basis. I know that I’ve been neglecting my livejournal because of it. I don’t like that, since I’ve been on livejournal for so long. Created on 2001-04-29. There are no visible entries prior to 1/1/08, however, but I’ve been here and been posting all that time. 2806 Days ago, I joined livejournal. I have posted 4241 Entries. Average of 1.5 entries per day. Last time I did an average, the average was 2.5 entries per day, which means that in the last year, I’ve posted far less than I used to.

I could blame plurk, twitter, etc, for my lack of posting. This is only half of the reason, though. The rest is all me. I do hope to change that, however. We’ll see.

End of 2008

tyralyn — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:52:33 +0000

The year is coming to and end and I for one am grateful that it is. This year hasn’t been horrible, so I can’t really complain a whole lot about it. I thought about doing a year in review, but I’m not sure I want to. Maybe a few bullet points of certain things.

Good Things

I have made several new friends whom I wouldn’t trade for all the money on earth.

I finally got a grave marker on my father’s grave

I took up crocheting fairly seriously during the colder months and even sent out 2 baby blankets as gifts

I went to almost every home football game for my alma mater this year – and we did REALLY WELL!

I’ve been reading and listening lots of good audio books

I spent more time out of the house doing stuff during the warmer months – including taking Rob cherry and blueberry picking for the first time ever

I reconnected with an old friend that I thought I’d never speak to again

Bad Things

I lost a few friends that I didn’t really think I’d lose and it makes me sad

I celebrated the 10 yr anniversary of my father’s passing

Our car(s) broke down or had problems more than once when we were in Ithaca

I feel pretty severely duped and burned by a newer online friend that made me question whether it’s worth being online any more.

I spent more time at doctor’s offices than I did with friends doing fun stuff

The good outweigh the bad, for the most part. Overall, I can’t complain a whole lot about the year. You learn from all of it and make the most of it and move on into the new year. I don’t make resolutions. I’m not even setting goals this year. I seem to obsess far too much when I set goals. I will do what I do, I will accomplish what I can accomplish. I will make the most of the year to come.

Made by defiant_angel

Ok, so

tyralyn — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:15:05 +0000

I normally don’t post about my ‘day’ any more, but then again, it’s usually stupidly boring. Today was slightly different, though. I lurk and read the local Freecycle lists, offer stuff that we replace if it’s still worth using and someone else would want it. Pay it forward, so to speak. Anyway, I saw a listing for a laptop bag, so I responded to the listing and went, “I wonder if that’s the same person..” Well, I didn’t hear back on it, so I went on, assuming someone else got it. Well, I got email yesterday, saying the original person was a no-show, so it was mine if I still wanted it. So, I made arrangements to go meet her and pick it up this afternoon.

We had a couple other things that we needed to do, so we ended up with a late start, which was alright, we totally flipped things around and went to meet her first instead of last. Anyway, we headed off and went to the end of the earth. Not really, but it could be. We got to our destination before the other party did, which is okay with me, we waited for her to get home and admired the area where she lives. It’s secluded and quiet, and really nice. When she arrived and got out of her car, I was quite happy to see that it was the person I thought it was. So not only did I get a laptop bag, I got to reconnect with an old friend.

It was like nothing had changed, really. She and I got to chit chat for a little bit, I got to meet her little girl and even got to find out what one of my former classmates is up to and find out that the rumor about him is not true. She got to meet Rob as well, so that was nice. Unfortunately, her man is shy and didn’t want to come out to say hi, but I don’t think I blame him, really. Even though I do know him from school as well. Hopefully now that we’ve reconnected, we can at least email back and forth a bit, it was really nice talking to her today.

After we left, we had a couple other things that we had to get done, so we headed off to take care of that stuff. It was an absolutely PERFECT day, weather wise. It finally warmed up to the point that it seemed like spring, which is good for me, since I *hate* going out in the cold. I actually ended up coat-less by the time I got home, that’s how nice it was.

I have a few other things I want to post about, but I’m not using this post, this is a happy post.