A birthday request

[textualdeviance]

No real b-day plans today save a movie and dinner, perhaps. May spend much of the day writing.

I do have one request, however, for those that may be so inclined:

Comment here telling me how/where we met (online or off) and what your strongest memories are of that time. Not necessarily memories about me, but maybe memories of what we were doing and what was the most important to us then.

Now that I'm on the last year of my 30s, I'm kinda feeling nostalgic for the past decade or so of my life, and I'm interested to relive a little of it through others' memories instead of just my own.

(xposted to FB)

Comments

[jessytemple.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!!

well we don't quite know each other.. i read some of your stories, i follow you at twitter and i see lots of your ALP 'chats' with Pottsfanatic over there xP i guess the most we interacted was in some posts over here at LJ..

i think you must be reserved, cause i feel you don't really pay attention to me LOL no worries, i know that not all fans interact ;P i just think you seem to be a good ALP fan, your name is usually in lots of the posts in the community but you're still not a member of the fanclub.. the most active people over here joined us there.. i'm not saying you haaave to, it's just that i find it a little bit odd.. you're the one missing over there ;)

hope you keep on writing, i really enjoy your stories ;) they showed me a whole new world.. :P once i sent some ideas when you asked but never knew if you really got them, google chrome was acting weird at that time. not sure if you watched all of ALPs movies and series neither.. hope you did x)

well have a nice bday! lots of ALP to you =)

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

I met you five or six years ago through the SLGC. I initially thought you were kind of bossy (ironic coming from me) and then you started to sing your solo and you blew me away. And then I got to know you online (since our in-person meetings are rarely conducive to in-depth debate), and I now am convinced that you're fantastic.

[miss-swamp.livejournal.com]

HMS Pinafore with SLGC. I remember wishing I could sing even half as well as you. Now I can still see that little boob shimmy when I think of "Many years ago."

[sheistheweather]

Didn't we meet in a Media English type class in community college? Fuzzy brain, y'know.

I remember smiling that your name was the same as mine.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I'm enjoying my fandom stuff, though I'm trying to keep a rein on it because I had some bad experiences with another fandom a while back. Just too intense.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks.

And you're not wrong. I can get bossy. Though it's less a matter of wanting to be controlling or domineering and more just my lack of understanding about why people don't see the inherent logic and rightness of whatever it is I've decided is the Proper Thing for a given situation.

I have this strong drive to educate and enlighten people, and when I see some sort of mistaken information out there or see someone doing something the "wrong" way, I feel ridiculously compelled to offer the correct information. And I don't always do that in a tactful or kind way, because I tend to present it in a "this is how things are" sort of matter-of-fact tone. I figure it's better than being condescending or wibbling about it.

Nine times out of ten, I am more or less objectively right about things (I try to do a lot of research before I make statements of what I consider fact), but there have been times (mostly in the past; I've tried to learn from my mistakes on that count) when I've decided there's a Right Way about something and it turns out that the way in question is significantly more subjective than that.

The biggest thing I've had to learn, however, is that even if I am right, it's not always wise or useful to point that out, and it's important to be kind about it. Even if I'm not presenting it in a personal way (I'm right; you're wrong) and am just presenting it as an objective established fact, people sometimes get really sensitive about finding out they were wrong about something. Even if it's something as innocuous as... Oh... Understanding security procedures at the airport, sometimes offering a correction to mistaken information can make people feel like they're being attacked: They don't see it as, "Hey, thanks for the info," they see it as an embarassing expose of a mistake. And react accordingly.

I think this is partly a possible Aspie thing for me, and partly a Girl Language one. People are more used to getting such sorts of "oh, actually, this is what the real deal is here" sort of no-nonsense info from men. Getting it from a woman often feels weird to people because women generally don't do that. They soft-peddle it, or present it as a question or opinion or do upspeak with it or whatever.

For instance, if a woman's giving driving directions, she'll often present them as, "I think you're supposed to turn here? Maybe?" Whereas a man will actually just say, "Turn here." And that's how I do it. Which freaks people out. Men find it a challenge to their dominance and women find it a challenge to their own perceptions of how other women are supposed to behave, and act to keep the stray herd member in line.

Beyond all that, though...

I know I can be bristly in general. It's a defense mechanism, really. I guess I subconsciously want to give off a Handle with Care warning because I'm actually quite easily hurt. Just a feral kitty who hisses at everyone until she's sure she can trust them, I spose.

On the plus side, it does mean I easily go all snarly Mama Bear on people who mess with the people I love. ;)

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

LOL! And thanks.

I loved doing Pinafore. Some of the most fun I've ever had on stage. And off, too. Loved the crew that year. I seem to recall that almost all of us got along really well.

Guh. I miss performing.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Yup! Introduction to Media or something like that, at Shoreline. I remember we talked names and LOTR. :) Always thought it was serendipitous that we both ended up at Western.

[sheistheweather]

Heh, yes.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Of course, the weirdest thing was finding out later that we had some other friends in common. Small world.

[sheistheweather]

Indeed!