and now for something completely random ~

[lookingland]

i've been lurking, but absent from posting for a variety of reasons too dull to go into. while there are yet an intrepid few of you still on my flist, lj looks dead (and i am likewise not doing much to revive it). the departure recently of several long-time flisters as well as the absence of many others (including the recently new proliferation of twittering) have made me decide that lj is in do-or-die mode and mostly dying.

most of you know i have been waffling about leaving or staying, but i'm resolving to make one last push. i'm going to force myself to blog at least three times a week. these posts are likely not going to be very personal. i'm no longer going to be posting about my creative process (which is a zoo in a china shop at the moment) but i will occasionally update with the necessary desk pictures from time to time. i'm mostly going to post about research and books as i get organized to tackle some major projects this spring. so if you are sick of the Civil War, the Lincoln assassination, bad 19th century novels, and/or picture books of various shades, be forewarned. occasionally i will try to post about movies as well.

i'm going to try to do this on a specific schedule. i will likely fail. but if i hope to continue keeping up with you precious few flisters remaining (and i want to!), i have to keep lj relevant for myself and this is the best way i can see to do it. nobody gets a foul for unfriending me. it's not likely that i will be posting anything that won't be totally open access from here on out.

post if you're still alive out there! i will be making a few cuts to trim some non-responsive peepage from my flist.

edit: and i don't mean that if you don't post i'm going to cut you! i really meant post here or to your own journal so we know you're out there and that there's still a community!

Comments

[almond-tiger.livejournal.com]

I'm alive out here. I usually don't do the "post or you get cut" thing but I kind of enjoy our interaction. Good luck on posting more. I seem to be faltering, too.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

oh, i didn't mean to threaten post or die! hahahahahaha ~ geh, mebbe i oughta reword that somehow!

i think i was trying to specifically target the twitterers who seem to me like lost souls of the etherworld.

: o p

[almond-tiger.livejournal.com]

Oh you weren't that threatening :) I guess it's just an LJ thing to do so I assumed. But hey! If you unfriend me now I'll *know* it's personal! Bring on the drama...

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

never! ~ mwhahahahahaha!

: D

[ryan-howse.livejournal.com]

I STILL EXIST AND I ENJOY YOUR ALIEN-SLUG CREATURE.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahahaha ~ ryan howse and john carpenter live!

: D

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

livejournal seems to me to be as alive as ever.
one has to have new people coming in to replace
the old ones who take a sabbatical from it etc
but it seems to work...comments on my journal are
pretty stable over the years depending on the nature
of a given post there can be rather few, some things
are hard to quickly respond to etc but this was
always the case
the friends page as a whole is littered by this
twitter stuff which certainly represents a sensibility
radically different from mine but then Ive always
accepted that much of my friends postings would be remote
to me own sense...it is like a village with a variety
of people.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

all true ~ it is, perhaps, too absurd to expect that the people in my village might share my own sensibilities all the time! and i have not done much to foster replacements, which is definitely a failing on my own part. i can hope that if i start looking at lj in a new way, i will find a new energy for it and continue to find new inspirations and make connections here.

p.s. your pictures these last couple of days have been beautiful and amazing ~ your place in lj is an amazing retreat for me and i do not thank you enough.

: D

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

well thank you that is kind
of you to say...

[utter-scoundrel.livejournal.com]

Civil War cthulhu?

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahahahahahaha ~ !

that also reminds me of this site (http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/c-w-dinos/), which amuses me greatly.

[sparowe]

As always, glad you're staying in some capacity. Most of my FList is still on LJ, and I just don't have the time to check individual blogs--or even multiple blogs on multiple networks. Granted, I've been fairly short recently, myself. Not because of anything LJ has or hasn't done, but there's been a lot going on around our way, especially presently. I'm stressed, but I don't like talking about it all of the time. I feel like I'm whining.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

oh, i know what you mean ~ it's hard when things are kind in the loo in the real world and focusing on other things to blog about is the last thing you want to put energy into!

hope you're feeling better soon, by the by!

[sparowe]

Thankee. :)

[redcoatcat.livejournal.com]

I still read :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ooh yay ~ you're definitely one of my more prolific fpeeps and i'm always happy to see knew stuff from you!

: D

[countrysoaper.livejournal.com]

I just did cuts on my flist, too. I enjoy reading your posts. I wish mine were as artistically industrious.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

but you post so many great pictures! i love pictures on my flist ~ always new things and new perspectives!

: D

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

I'm here!

But then, you knew that...

Zoo! Zoo!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

poor china!

y'are here! yay!

[geckobird.livejournal.com]

So you decided to give it one last shot, eh? That's way cool. ^_^

You know, most of those fun details about the Civil War, I've learned from you. Sure, I had some basic knowledge from studying history briefly in school, but well, textbooks don't give the juicy details that you hold in your hands. So sometimes, its pretty interesting to read about it.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

well this is all your fault you know, for posting that post ~ hahahahahaha ~

: D

[nextian.livejournal.com]

I still read -- and I'm sad to hear you'll be tapering off, but, hey, anything I can get. :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i actually hope if i put myself on a schedule i will at least post regularly ~ as opposed to these long stretches of silence. you're always on my flist and it's great to have some regular content to depend on!

: D

[dsch.livejournal.com]

I am still out here! And am definitely interested in your Civil War and Lincoln Assassination stuff, so no worries of that scaring/boring me away.

I've also been considering making myself blog at least once a week, but if I try and assign myself things, I tend to put them off even more. Maybe I should start uploading doodles, too.

(That doodle made me giggle! Is it a trilobite?!)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

awwww, i'd love to see more work from you!

it could be a trilobite, why not? hahahahahaha ~

: D

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

yeah, i get mightily peeved by twitter feeds ported to lj. *sigh*

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

there should be a twitter coup.

i don't know why i worry so much about cutting the twitter people.

: o p

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

Because people on lj tend to take it as a personal insult?

I just scroll right past them.

So not interested.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

maybe i just need to stop trying to control the look of my flist (control freak!). it costs me nothing to scroll by.

i can be such a dunce.

: o p

[jecn-stories.livejournal.com]

I do love those desk pictures!
I realized with a slight feeling of panic today that I no longer have a perfect place to do my random photo posts. I very well may keep gwyn_hwyfar breathing for just this purpose, and because I may feel like writing things there again. I don't know. I do love that little journal but am tired of feeling bad for neglecting it.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i love your random photo posts! you post some of the greatest picts on my flist. and you always have such cool stories about all those lovely states that i am entirely too far away from!

i'm glad, either way, that you are not totally gone.

[fishsanwitt]

I'm alive!!!

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i love your taurus avatar ~ dunno if i ever said so. i need a leo one!

: D

[fishsanwitt]

Aw, thank you :) It's the work of the *fabulous* semyaza.

[msmcguire.livejournal.com]

alive & listening. love the shell-less lobster. :)

[lanyn.livejournal.com]

I check LJ every day, sometimes more than once, but it still seems quite active to me. I need to post more myself, but when there's nothing going on, I sometimes tend to drift into lurky-reader mode! Or post on my other blogger journal. But I would miss you terribly if you went away. Your posts are always something I look forward to.

[jamiekswriter.livejournal.com]

Still alive! Still a big fan of your writing! :D