On extended absences

[greatbear]

It has been just over 2 months since my last entry here. The reasons are what you might expect, I've been busy, we had our vacation, there have been disasters both little and large... in short, life more or less as usual. Jeff was beset by a pretty nasty hernia, and had surgery for it a few weeks ago. Since neither he or I have been able to stoop, most of the yard work at Mayhem Acres has been entirely neglected. Weeds taller than me in the flower beds, I can't even see out of the sunroom windows, vegetable garden nearly completely neglected, the house looks abandoned and I have ended up in tears a few times because of it. No help offered, of course, except for one person, and that had to be postponed due to illness. I'm getting to the point where I don't care anymore. I'm not inviting anyone over to socialize in this mess. And the socializing I'm doing has become minimal. This goes for the virtual world as well, hence my absence here.

Since a fair amount of people I used to interact with here have moved onto Facebook, it's there where I will concentrate what little time I now spend on social media these days. There's little to no interaction here anymore, the effort is greater in creating a post, and I am no longer willing to write deeply personal stuff for general consumption anymore. Minor fluff and occasional messages I am comfortable with; I guess I finally reached social media overload for whatever reason(s). I have no idea if this will ever change, I had high hopes for blogging, and the practice as a whole has been basically dumbed down. What was once small-scale publishing from creative people of engaging stories, often with wonderful layouts and photography has been squashed into the sameness of Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr and other similar outlets. Gone is content-rich, replaced by mobile-compatible. The latter is destroying the internet as a whole in my opinion. LJ is one of the remaining holdouts, but almost nobody want to use this platform solely of smartphones, so it too gets neglected. I still try to catch up on reading here every day if possible, though in recent weeks, it has been more like every couple of days. I remember the days when I would be away for a weekend and have to catch up on LJ by reading a hundred entries or more. Now I can be gone for a few days and a single page of friends carries everything, including quite a few entries read those few days ago.

Anyway, unless something big and newsworthy, or a want/need to unload in a deeper, more personal style, I don't really know what to do here anymore. Crossposting is an option, but I'm not keen on Facebook having its tentacles in this space. I still like having a mostly quiet, private space here, but I don't know who sees my entries anymore. I know of a few that I'm pretty certain still comment and interact with me here, though most are on that other site as well. I'm open for suggestions.

Comments

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about Jeff's hernia troubles.

I'm sorry, too, that no one has been able to help you.

I understand your situation somewhat as I'm rather limited to what I am capable of physically nowadays, as well.

I've missed you & have thought about you.

Hoping things improve there soon.

[mister-don.livejournal.com]

I still read here daily--and sorry to hear of your problems--but no longer feel much like writing. The demise of LJ has been very sad to witness. Like most, I had high hopes of blogging as a means of real social interaction. Alas, after 11+ years, I'm conceding. At one point, I had more than 150 friends here. I was able to take 50 or so over to FB. The rest simply vanished, and of those, many had stopped posting here before FB had become that large. FB has become so big, with many listing friends in the thousands, that I sense it's imploded as a social medium, and merely represents a vague contact list. With that many people on one's list, the algorithm system buries anything one posts beneath where most will ever see it. So I've rather lost interest there as well, in either posting, or seeing what others have to say, especially considering the limits of FB overall. I ask myself the question there periodically whether I really care that much about having some particular person friended, and have culled along the way, sadly defriending some of those whom I knew here as time and distance draw us apart.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those who look forward to your Live Journal posts! I am still trying to create interesting, substantive content, though I have much less time to do so when I'm working with my nephew. There are days when I have to go back 60 posts to catch up to where I left off reading. I miss most posts on FB. Just know ... if you post here, I will see it and will interact.

I'm sorry your nephew didn't help at all with your yard. Can you afford to hire someone to get it in shape, so you aren't so stressed by it?

HUGS!

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

You do know that you can post here and have it automagically cross post to farsebook. I don't want to give up on LJ because Fatbook is far less personal and IMHO, Mr. Z. is the devil's spawn. I did not jump ship to FB, I went there at my nephew's urging so our family could maintain dialogue. While it was good, of late the jury is out for it to be a wise move. I'm hoping to exit there as soon as practical and return solely to LJ. I hope by then there are some of my buds left.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Well, you know I'm still here... and not on FaceBORG. ;)

Sorry to hear about Jeff's hernia - ow!

I have to admit, the ease of slapping up a short item on G+ has been part of why I post less here; I remember a few posts I did here with intricate layouts... only to find out that they fell apart for some because of those people's styles. ;)

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

I'm always happy when you surface again; I post just as infrequently as you do, so don't apologize.

If you read my last journal entry, I broke my kneecap Friday and have been hobbling around like a little old crone. It's humbling to have people treat you as though you're 75 years old just because you're walking with a cane. On the other hand, it's still summer—and a beautiful day out—and I've been in a surprisingly good mood.

So just know we're pulling for you and sending out good thoughts.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Understood - I prefer eljay but also use facebook. Happy to connect there for teeny tiny flippant remarks that a tween could type with 2 thumbs oh look a kitty.

No seriously - I always discourage posting as work. If you don't feel like posting, don't, but your words are always welcome.

[fingertrouble.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. I do check in here, not as often...and occasionally post.

I find FB terrible for the private stuff, the stuff I don't want to share with all and sundry. It's crap at long form, and the responses are usually inane/not helpful. People are hiding their true feelings, I know of serious stuff with friends that didn't even get a blip on their FB or twitter...that's not getting to know someone online.

I see a role for LJ, completely. Thing that bothers me is posting 'down' stuff a lot, because the 'up/fluffy' stuff suits elsewhere better. it's like putting on a happy face, or something. But that means there has to be a place for the deeper stuff.

[fingertrouble.livejournal.com]

At least we lost the real drama queens of old LJ to Tumblr and other places...they mostly got bored of FB. Thank goddess.

The few that didn't take the hint to shufty off, I blocked. Weird to think (and see old names) of BML types, or LJ of old, and think of all the shit I put up with in my 20's and 30's. No time nor tolerance for that now....I keep a tight ship on my FB friendslist.

You, are of course very welcome.

And if I was closer I'd be happy to do some weeding (and I HATE gardening) for the cost of a few hugs from some lovely men! ;-)

[2stroker.livejournal.com]

I've pretty much given up on LJ. FaceBook is a joke. All I use it for is to rant about the fascist government and the stinking police state they have imposed on us since the rich and their corporations bought our government out from under us.It's all bullshit on social media. I write about what I'm doing on my blog on google.No one follows it or comments but I put it out there anyway just so I have some record of my activities.Mostly it's about motorcycle travels,painting,and the work I'm doing on my camp up in the Adirondacks Here's a link :
http://facebkfugitive.blogspot.com
We all knew that LJ was circling in the toilet when the Russians took it over so none of what has happened here should come as any kind of surprise to anyone. I miss the friends I had made here .Was hoping to make new ones over on Blogger at google but the times have changed and the fascist government has really put out the fire that was once the internet with their constant surveillance under their patriot act shit.So,keep voting for democrats and republicans as they fuck you out of the rest of your freedoms. This is just a preview of the world that they are creating.