| Friday March 15th 2002 Damn, these Pringles potato chips are addictive. That's it, I'm putting the lid back on and putting them - way - over - there. Gotta get some real food before heading out to see 'Men With Brooms' with a couple of buds. Won't have a clue what's going on (it's all about curling apparently) but that's all right; I'm sure at least a little of their enthusiasm will prove contagious. The city bus broke down on the way home tonight, but it wasn't a terribly long wait for the next, and my thoughts were pretty occupied anyway. I've been thinking about the audience for this site, and how the more people I've told about it, the less I know about who's actually dropping by. That makes this a first for me, in a very significant way. I've always known my audience up until now, whether it was an e-mail I was writing or whatever. Even with this I started with an assumption of who would be visiting (ie. people who dont' know me). Now I'm getting a mix and it's - different. Different in a good way. That was the whole point to this site - to just write with my real voice, about real things, which you don't always do when you're writing for a particular person or group thereof. It's a liberating experience. That makes it interesting to study how I react to other's similar web sites, too. Does writing my own give me a more understanding, forgiving, sympathetic perspective on theirs? Well..... Not really. No. Not a bit. I'm as judgemental as ever. That doesn't mean I'm not faced with a mystery, now and then; somebody I can't decide whether I like or not. Here's a case in point; this "exotic dancer" in LA (Chrissy's sister apparently, of Absolut Chrissy fame). I assumed a bio by someone in her profession would come off sounding pretty shallow. But not only does she write well - the story of her early teenage years fairly parallels my own. Then we chose entirely different paths. I was very big on not bowing into peer pressure, while she totally caved under in very similar circumstances. It's a bit of a 'what if' scenario from my own past, albeit translated into female terms. I believe I made the right choice. She wasn't true to herself. But she seems happy, well-balanced, etc., and I believe she has the smarts she lays claim to, despite what you'd assume. Do I like this person? I don't know - but I have to respect her. She's set a level of self-honesty worth emulating, and I shouldn't aim for anything less. A real voice. A real me. |