This is is the 100th post in quasiblog - technoculture. It has lasted well, considering I started it just before my birthday in April and it's now early September. I have kept it up, and updated often enough to alienate anyone who isn't dedicated enough to embark on a small essay each day or two.
I looked back at what I created a few days ago. I spoke about what I did, what I had done, and it rekindled memories, but I surprised myself with the lack of detail included, and that I could remember more details about the events I had written about than what I had written down. They acted as more of a subliminal reminder. However, I believe my level of detail has increased with time, and perhaps as my memory fades, this blog will step in.
I found myself, linked from a friend's band page, browsing some myspace journals. I would never do such a think usually, but you know, I thought about scoping out some of the abysmal sites people use to convey their depression and how nobody understands. I found one link that reminded me particularly of mow much I hate the teenager who believes that the sole purpose of digital cameras is to make sure everyone on the internet can see what they look like with their middle finger raised. SomethingAwful linked me to one site that had so many images of the owner and her respective friends raising their fingers that I had thought I had stumbled upon a KFC site with missing tongues. Either that or they really hated the person taking the photos, I couldn't be sure. But in the way I see it, it's another thing to add to the list of things stupid children do for attention.
These blogs have the purpose of sharing photos of either the group of friends: drunk, stoned, raising fingers or in the process of doing all three. They also serve as ways people can say how their life has changed because of the new Mars Volta album, or how their parents are too stuck in the past (only when compared to the parents of other children, and these kids are probably lying).
I'm not going to sit around blaming the children, they can't help it, they're just too young to realise how they're being played off from three seperate angles: corporations, their peers, and their superiors. Corporations push profitable images, peers push social ideal images (misinformed), and superiors push advantageous ideals (whether noble or self benefitting). And children are slaves to this. The entire Emo movement (popular Emo movement) is that of expressing individuality by acting identically, and then acting opressed when people judge them. But that's the image pressed by peers and by corporations. Image is so profitable.
Anyway, this is a terrible tangent. My initial point was that of the one MySpace which I read, the girl expressed her desire to go new places and meet new people. While this is hardly a unique thought, it made me think of what I want. Going lost of places and meeting lots of new people, it's a great idea, but I don't want that. I want to go to a few very different places, but meet a few people and know them well. While knowing many international people makes for excellent diversity, it also leads to an unsatisfying depth of relationship. This is why I will appreciate knowing a few people very well, and attaining a clique in which understanding is key. I don't know many people that I know well, nor do I think many people know me well, but I am discovering more and more that Chris Kiew-Smith's words ring true: it's not where you are or what you're doing, it's who you're with. Your surrounding social environment makes the most impact on your life, which is probably why my childhood felt so different and uneasy; the social environment was not suited to me.
I would love to meet many new people, but right now, I want to meet one person, and know them really well. From there, social interactions will spread, but certain ones are necessary. I feel terrible over the loss of some friendships, and I regret them frequently. And thus, my desire to experience other cultures through people leads me to the paradox: to learn of someone elses culture, you must spend much time with them, but people from other cultures are usually time limited. I wish I could have put that more eloquently. Let me put it in an example: at the moment I am speaking via MSN to Yukina, someone who left the country before I got to know them properly. I found her fascinating, not because of her culture, but because of who she was. But who she was was someone part of a different culture, and therefore time limited, and needed to return. Thus, the problem occurs.
Anyway, problems like this plague me every so often. Much like my HDD is plaguing me now. I'm so eager to perform a low level format, but I'm scared of never being able to retrieve the data that might not be retrievable anyway. I'm also finding out of the time it takes to compile Gentoo Linux, and it's a bit of a time burden. Apparently the whole kernel compile takes about 72 hours, and I need to know plenty of Unix commands. Which I don't. But, it seems like a project. I can get it running pretty smoothly if I study it a little.
Ah, perfect. My one hundredth post, and I include a diatribe of social commentry, and some hyper-nerdy talk. And it's a second post for today. Keeps you on your toes, eh? I plan to one day update more than Slashdot. Maybe I write more than Slashdot, I should check. I saw Natasha today, it had been several months and a few MSN conversations since I'd last spoken to her (she IMed me today and we chatted until I found out she was a couple of buildings apart). I saw her flat and met her flatmates and Dan came along later to make it a rather complete day with regards to English friends (save for Helgi, but I can't really count him as English). I'll say goodnight there, I'm going to go and listen to another episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and then collapse asleep once more.
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