I finally have a keyboard under these fingers again.
Temporarily at least.
Right before I went to the hospital....long messy story...my laptop broke.
I might have had a little something to do with that.
Seeing porn you think you know someone you care about in it changes the game a little bit in that regard. And yeah, my laptop paid the price.
But I can still dictate to that phone thing at least. Squeak out some of my thoughts in a slightly more ham-fisted way than previously. But I still prefer the keyboard. It feels a little more natural when trying to get my thoughts out in some sort of revisit able way.
I was just looking over a couple of those pieces that I did as dictattion/texting. Woof...I'll need to revisit those in the future and see if I can't suss out what I was trying to say so that it can be understood. |Even knowing what it was supposed to say I had to scratch my head a couple of times for the lack of editing.
Then again, I'm not really sure that a phone is the best way to get some of these thoughts out.
I try desperately to find some of that old chat-room magic. You know, the exhilaration of speaking with people who could be anyone, anywhere. I say speaking, when my fingers used to do all of the actual conversation in those places.
But I miss it.
I miss this.
Well kind of this.
There are parts missing here.
The other side of the conversations.
The perspectives that would help shape my words into something more understandable.
The ideas that used to be thrown around with so much earnestness that you'd think actual world changing effects were happning.
And when I really think about it, they were.
I mean, I wouldn't be anywhere near the person I am today if it weren't for the thousands of strangers I conversed with in scroll of words that people left behind.
For those of you who have never been in an actual chat room I'll break it down for you the best that I can.
Think a website like Reddit or Facebook.
Except no pictures and no videos, just text. Because the internet couldn't handle the rest of that information with anything boarding on alacrity.
Think a half hour or more to download a thirty second video.
Yeah, buffering wasn't really a thing then, or streaming.
But more Reddit than Facebook because people didn't have to fill out their profile information, could have a hundred different user accounts. And the maximum amount of chatters in any given "room" (read "server" for you gamers out there) was only a couple dozen at most. Sometimes more when things got a little better.
For me though, those little havens of anonymity and storytelling where one of the few places I've ever felt safe in the world. Which is funny because they are not a physical places. Just a digital space that my mind would play in while sitting somewhere less than desirable in the real world.
Funny how easy it is to ignore the grit and grime of your world when there is someone typing out their thoughts on the grit and grim in their world. Or, even better and where I spent most of my time in the digital landscape, were the RP chatrooms. Where chatters would take turns typing out paragraph long descriptions of their characters actions. Would hold court, fight duels of honor, train with hallowed warriors, travel, visit, love, loose, and laugh all to the clacking of a keyboard.
That is what I really miss about coatrooms and why, as a gamer, I get so frustrated with MMORPGs. 'Cause, from my experiences with them so far they should just be called MMRGs. Leveling does not a role playing game make. Taking on a character and trying to act with in their moral guidelines, holding conversations as that characters, and slowly building a reputation for that character.
That is role playing.
Compelling characters, sweeping backdrops, telling stories.
That's role playing to me.
That's why I miss chat rooms.
Because as a chatter, and with a couple of other people dedicated to their character(s) an entire novel could be written in a night or two.
And that's what I want to see again.
Writing.
From me.
From my friends.
From my compatriots.
And from there, who knows.
But at least getting some real writing done again will be nice.
That social media crap is for the birds.
Yeah, I'll keep posting pictures and stuff so that people can check in on me if they feel so inclined, but I'll be damned if I'm going to live my life on the damned thing anymore.
Because social media is not chat rooms.
There's more scrolling and less interaction.
Less need for language.
Less need for stretching these here fingers over some keys for an evening.
And hopefully finding a handful others that might have the same though.
But until then.
I find a ship.
I find a job.
And then I keep her flying.
And that's about all there is to it.
