blather
i've_come_to_the_conclusion_that
Rabekah .....blather is dying. And I think technology killed it. I've been here about a week. It is a far cry from what it used to be in the early 2000's when I used to frequent here. It seems to have dropped from about six to about two posts per day. Are people tired of the two tone screen and seek out the infinite spectrum of colors on another blatherlike site? Do they want to trade in their anonymity for a glossy profile pic? I doubt that it is new fonts and emojis that blatherskites were craving when they left here. Some were teens that had no extra time to waste, when the demands of college and a career took their time away. But an outlet for creative writing when you have a gift, is something that should one should make a priority. I know many have found a new home and a place to share, and I wish them my best. Some may go on to publish their work. After nearly sixteen years of existence, blather either needs a revival or it will fade away. No matter what I enjoy this place even if it's an empty_room. It's all about taking a gander. 131112
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past Its about words, about flow. Since I've returned to checking daily there's been spikes and valleys. Red is almost more active these days. 131112
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jane i
wish
i
still
wrote
like
i
used
to 		131112
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Rabekah I took it literally, searching for a place called red. Reddit, perhaps. Maybe blather isn't dying, but it has evolved. Who am I to judge it's future based on the number of posts per day? Even when there were 20 blathes per day, it doesn't mean all were worth reading. Thanks for your contributions. It is thru all of our efforts, that this will remain. 131112
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epitome of incomprehensibility That'd just be

http://www.blather.newdream.net/red/

the smaller and redder half of blather.

I used to write mostly here, then mostly there, now a bit on both. (I save my political arguments for blue, though, because for some reason blather_red doesn't feel like the place for them. But I have ranted angrily about vegetables! see http://blather.newdream.net/red/g/garden_variety.html

Peace,

. 		131114
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(z) (i still love blather. it is unique. i have been lurking, waiting for the spark to catch. i miss the community feel. facebook, etc. does not replace the freedom and intimacy here. i wait for the culture to return. perhaps it will. i guess i should stop waiting, and start blathing. perhaps it's time for a community of one to actively wait for others to join. in that spirit, i will try to blather, at minimum, one blathe every day. i will try.)

(if you are reading this, join me. let's make something new.) 		131115
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TCMT blather_resurrection 131115
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TCMT resurrect blather 131115
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TCMT resurrect_blather 131115
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TCMT (z), I think meta is a great ideas. That is the beauty of blather. Any idea can be great! I plan on using meta many more times in the future. 131115
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() () 131116
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epitome of incomprehensibility The philosophers are getting practical, the minimalists are getting voluble, and the surrealists are getting comprehensible. Since we're all so contrarian, blather's_end might not be an end. Or it might be a title, like Howard's End, or maybe just one end, hopefully the right end. 131117
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ldeax I like that it's deadish
I don't feel responsible for the lack of quality in my posts
I don't feel like I'm "like" farming
I don't have to worry about what my kid's preschool teacher, or my high school best friend will make of my blatherings
I can just blather, like the bad old days 		131117
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TCMT That's a good perspective actually... 131118
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Rabekah ldeax, that is so true about "like" farming. That's why these other websites are so popular. Collecting likes and followers feed our egos. That has really lost it's appeal for me. Here we may comment on writing that we like. But more often, we leave each other personal space, giving us more freedom. But if it sparks something, we continue adding more pieces, not expecting it to ever be completed. That's what I love about blather. 131118
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dafremen I don't know about the rest of you, but the people that left blue for red remind me of the people living on that island in the movie The Beach.

When those two guys got bit by the shark and everything got less than ideal..ugly...horrifying. They didn't have any qualms about moving the victims out into the forest to die an ugly, painful death.

To me, (and mind you, this is just my opinion), these people took what they wanted from the blue..free expression and fellow spirits..and left it when things got ugly, real-world and copy-pasta-y. The whole computer online world used to be fairly beautiful and utopian for a short time. Fairy tales are made in the minds of the authors and readers. Reality is what it is and things need healers to heal..not runners, snobs and tralala rainbows only nazis. Like I said, just my opinion. 		131119
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dafremen If you give people what they want..after awhile..they start to take advantage of you. And when you take their advice against your own, just to make them happy, they will tell you it's your own damned fault when the shit hits the fan.

And if you then decide to keep your own counsel..to listen to your OWN gut and form your OWN opinions and do it YOUR WAY for a bit to see how it pans out..

They will tell you that you're full of yourself. That you're a know it all. That you have a messiah complex. That you think you're all that.

Notice how the only thing wrong with either equation was that any attention at all was paid to the judgemental opinions of other people.

My rules are simple:

I'm like this. It's taken me years to get to this point, and though I have many, many things I'd like to work on and improve about myself..this is it right now. Either you're in..or you're out. It's that simple.

You get what you give with me. Ball's in your court. 		131119
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dafremen Another example from history of how these people think (though they are completely oblivious to it):

Black folks moved into white neighborhoods. see also: blather_is_being_slaughtered

First the white folks tried to make them feel unwelcome and drive them out. see also: kx21_must_die shit_raker

Then they just abandoned the neighborhoods and let the neighborhoods die.

All for not meeting their narrow-minded standards. see also: the_intellectual_decay_of_blather

see also: plastic_plants_rubber_people 		131119
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^^ plastic_plants__rubber_people 131119
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punk rock e_o_i I like how I can shake my head at your arguments one minute, and be saying, "Yes! Exactly!" the next. You're like a non-racist, more comprehensible Ezra Pound :)

I can share some of the brilliant brilliance of red right here: see Canadian_Winter. I mean, I'd rather be annoying than a lalala raindbow nazi, right?

(Title of Lower Class Brats song: I'd Rather Be Hated Than Ignored. Not my personal philosophy, really, but it kind of fit the above sentiment.) 		131119
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e_o_i Grrr. Rainbow, not raindbow. Also, here's my brilliant digest of American history seen through the prism of retro gaming (both of which are subjects, I can assure you, I possess extensive knowledge of): andrew_jackson_and_the_castle_on_the_cloud.

Enjoy! 		131119
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in a silent way some people simply prefer the colour red. did you ever consider that, daf?

you really haven't bothered to look at much of anything that's gone on at red in the past decade if you think it's all been "sunshine and rainbows". people have come and gone and written the things they wanted to write. just like here. it's quieter now than it used to be, but not dead. just like here. there's been some spam and petty bullshit at one time or another. just like here. there have been moments of genuine connection, and failed attempts at connecting. just like here.

some people who write there also write here. some use different names for blue and red. some people have only ever written there and never knew blue existed, or vice_versa. there's been ugliness and beauty, heartbreak and happiness, poetry and prose, confession and fiction. again, just like here, only different. both places developed their own identities, and somewhat different casts of characters, long ago. blue was always a little more freewheeling. red was always a little more...red.

i can't see that as a bad thing. it's just a thing. it doesn't make one place better than the other. when i've shown blather to friends i thought might appreciate its unique beauty and get something out of it, i've always shown them both blue and red. not that anyone's stuck around to write much, but i've tried.

with all due respect, you kind of sound like someone who didn't get invited to a party and so assumes every single person who shows up must be an asshole, and you want to egg the house, but you forgot to bring eggs, so you pull down your pants, squeeze out a few nuggets, and fling your shit at the cars in the driveway, hoping someone notices and maybe even flings some of their own shit back. well, here. fling. fling. fling.

you do realize you're the one who comes off looking like a bit of a snob here, right? no one on red is going around saying, "oh, it's so much nicer here than it is on blue, and we're all so much better and more profound than those blue 'skites! down with blue!" no one's gone around saying anything like that for eons now. all the people who once thought that way are long, long gone. you're the one implying that this is a place of truth and reality, and over there it's all delusion and throwaway hugs. you're the one implying one group of people is "better" than another while criticizing the very behaviour you engage in, dredging up arguments from years ago that haven't been touched in recent memory.

some people prefer blue and always have. some people prefer red and always have. some people don't have a preference. some people preferred one place and then changed their minds. everyone has a different set of reasons for feeling the way they do. relocating because it makes sense to you in the moment doesn't make you a coward or a "runner". it makes you someone who moves.

but i guess you'd rather make cookie cutter people out of us all, so we can be made to fit inside of whatever version of reality you decide you like best. it's good to see that hasn't changed.

i've been here almost as long as you have, though not under this name. i "left" (kept reading but stopped writing) for red long ago. there were bad memories here for me, and i was embarrassed about some of the things i wrote when i was younger. i didn't feel i'd contributed much that was worth anything. i wanted a fresh start, to redeem myself, if only in my own eyes. i got that chance in the other space, where i felt i could work out who i was and who i wanted to be without my blue baggage following me around. i didn't run. i walked. when i had more confidence, i came back here and made peace with the dust-caked luggage, writing some things i was proud of, and others that were just therapeutic or fun to write.

i've come to feel more at home over there. that's where i found my voice and self-belief as a word-slinger. i also like the colour. always have. i care about the place and want to keep it humming on the slow days. for those reasons and a few others, i do most of my writing there. if you think that makes me a snob, i think your dictionary is broken.

i'm not going to get into a debate with you about blather snobbery. that song is old and tired and hairless and beer-bellied. you think what you think. i think what i think. i don't have the patience or the energy to get involved in one of those long-running blather pissing matches of old that doesn't finally spin itself out until the page takes ten years to load and no one can even remember what they were arguing about to begin with. life's too short. besides, there are too many entertaining dust-ups from years past already, and they make for some pretty stiff competition.

i should be sleeping right now. fuck this shit. i'm done. insult me or do a little dance. lament my inability to grasp the true depth and scope of "the show", whatever the fuck that even means anymore. tell me i missed your point, which is that we're all beautiful snowflakes until you decide you want to kick us in the teeth just because your toes are itchy. have a party. 		131119
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n o m i want to swim but it's cold outside 131119
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dafremen I was going mention the possibility that some folks just prefer red..but then I decided "WTF? Off with their HEADS TOO!!"

Plus I liked the extreme, prejudiced nature of the rant and the way it weaves a story with a motive out of thin air.

So yes, I did think about covering all of the nit picky little loopholes and being really OCD anal about not letting a potential comeback slide past me..then I let it go.

Cuz it's just netertainment and who GIVES a fuck?

Just sayin.. 		131121
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TCMT I always find it interesting when the net is put off as something that's just for kicks. Like the real world makes more sense. Like we know who we are better out there than we do in here. We are grasping at straws either way, changing our versions of truth as we go along. And who we are depends on the day and the mood, doesn't it?

Daf, I've always found your thoughts interesting. I still do when I go back and revisit them. But it has always bothered me when you make an impassioned speech, then take the joker's way out, by saying this is all just a show, and I chose to be so narrow-minded and so on. And this isn't to say you didn't choose. And this isn't to say that you can't treat everything as a joke. It just seems easy to me. It justifies itself too well by not justifying itself at all. And it makes it virtually impossible for you to be wrong or admit your faults or acknowledge any depth in anything. You've done a real good job of wrapping up anything anyone else says and everything that you say as just words, of little to no true meaning.

You'll either stick to your guns here, continue to justify why this is just a big joke or you'll try to do be unpredictable just to cement the argument that you could be anyone at any given moment without having to take responsibility for who you were before. This is a philosophy that is iron-clad; it will protect you when the beasts are at your doors.

But this isn't just the net, implying that it isn't so important in the long run. Here, in this place, we have the opportunity to get to the heart of things, even if we decide tomorrow that that the heart is different or somewhere else.

Yes, we can be whoever we want here. We can hide behind our words or stand in front of them. But no matter what we are doing, it matters. In little and big ways. We won't be here forever. Not any of us. But we are here. Because there is something to do this even when we say it is nothing.

Writing it off is easy. Embracing the complicated oscillating mess of it is much harder. 		131123
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dafremen I'm sorry you find it so difficult to believe that I like to just read something (or hear something) then simply see where letting the words, thoughts and emotions flow will take me. I'm constantly surprised by what I say or write; amused and appalled in equal measure.

Who TAUGHT me to believe that things were different? That words are somehow SACRED in a world that blasphemes against this notion daily? Who would have taught me that words are some holy relic to be oh-so-carefully scribbled, mumbled or screamed?

The 22 foster families that professed undying love then kicked a little feral kid to the curb when his PTSD and attachment disorder got to be too much to handle? (Who could blame them?) They taught me that people have no reverence for words whatsoever, unless they are feigning it to scold someone for not agreeing with or understanding them. Gotta concede the point in this pissing match of ideas we like to call socializing, or people will get all pissy. (As if we aren't inclined to it already. Just watch Big Bang Theory: nerd pissing match.)

But my history is one where people say one thing and do altogether other things.

In my world, the REALITY of the society which I live in is one of words that RARELY match their cover.

THAT is the impression I got in lieu of a mommy or daddy that loved me then taught me to lie. And I'm fine with that.

I even think I'm fine with you judging me from a very ugly, very deceptive little place where people lie to their aunt about ugly Christmas gifts because they think they're doing her a favor. (A conviction which evaporates a little each year as the gifts get uglier, less well conceived and more frequent what with a liar's encouragement and all.)

What you hear and read is NOT what you get in this world. Stop making your issue with that reality out to be of my making. Sorry I triggered that irrational shit in you.

I'll be going back to read the rest of your rant before going back to the nice sentiments at the beginning of it.

Yay! Happy sunshine pony breath and shit! 		131123
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dafremen The sentiments at the end were nice. You get what you give. If you give nothing, you get nothing. Don't expect much on those occasions.

I've ALWAYS attached my email address to my name for a reason. If people want to know the truth behind the words, they will look for it. Otherwise they get a cover-judging fool's prize.

I'm here to write because I can and because it's nice to be able to just write whatever comes to mind without a moderator coming along and making me want to confirm Godwin's Law..AGAIN.

That's it. If you're in the mood for sincerity, take it in fits. That's the way it comes in public.

And as one final thought:

It's extremely presumptuous AND rude..to assume what faults a person is willing to admit to or work on. You gotta earn access for that kind of information. Few have. Works for me. 		131123
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"And this isn't to say that you can't treat everything as a joke. It just seems easy to me." - TCMT

See: the_cosmic_joke 		131123
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Hey what happened to the 'somebody' name?? 131123
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past e_o_i, in the summer when i cross the canal, i dream of my skates. in the winter while walking (or skating) on the ice, i wish it was warm enough to swim.

i also wish i wrote like i used to.

i write differently. i share it differently. i think how i'm living now will breed more words, is already breeding new words. but for where and for who.

there's too much beauty in the world to be limited. 		131123
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p the skating and swimming should point at nom, not e_o_i. 131123
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dafremen Truth(TCMT that is you, right old bean? They Call Me Truth?)why can't you be more like friend p(ie. past)?

Oh Gawd..now I'm the fascist. Doh!

---

(mostly)Seriously though, aren't you tired of living in a world where we have to second guess our words for fear of being: wrong, misjudged, embarrassed?

I'm going to be what I'm inclined to be because freedom is being; not planning on being. Or even "conditional being." And to me, freedom is the breath of life.

Secondarily, after all of these years, haven't you noticed that it's as easy to dismiss FOR judgement as it is to dismiss THROUGH judgement?

One's more righteous than the other. I'll let you decide. 		131124
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TCMT It is I, lol, though I feel less inclined to be so arrogant these days. I still mean it though, in a more subjective way.

We all don't go in the same direction after years of thought old Daf. This is just my version of things.

I like to see the world not so much as an enemy but a friend you have to talk to in order for it to understand where you are coming. I use my life towards that end.

But I will say this. Now that I know more of where you are coming from, and have been reminded of other things I had forgotten, I know that I was being a bit harsh. But I kinda wanted to see if I would get more of you than what you normally present. I was hoping for that much. I didn't want for you to take the joker's way out. It may be rude. You can call it that. But I was being very sincere. Wasn't try to shit on you either, just calling it the way I see it (notice I did not curse you or call you names).

But anyway, always enjoy these talks because like I've said before, I do find you quite interesting. That may not buy you my undying belief in your version of things, but it does buy you my respect. Even if you don't have much care or use for it. Even if your respect is not offered in return.

That is all. 		131124
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dafremen Dear Truth,

I've mentioned on several occasions through the years that I'm not so much inclined to pay attention to what people say as I am to ask myself why they used THOSE particular words. I noticed this:

"But I kinda wanted to see if I would get more of you than what you normally present. I was hoping for that much. I didn't want for you to take the joker's way out."

And what have YOU done to earn more of me than a public face? What have YOU offered that is worth more than just words that spill from moment to moment with no purpose other than to be expressed? Have you offered ANYTHING to earn that sort of confidence? Anything that words might convey but can't possibly encompass? Hmm? It's not harsh what you did. Simply presumptuous..and rude. I get that you didn't mean it that way. Fact of the matter is, you have NEVER emailed me, nor have you attempted to rectify that situation, which would be an indicator of a sincere desire "to see more of [me] than what [I] normally present."

All evidence indicates that you weren't hoping for much more than to "put me in my place" at first, and to justify your actions later.

Words are just words, after all. I hope you can see that. What you said, and what you did..don't match up very well at all.

And that's not a criticism, a judgement or a complaint. It's an observation. Words. Words. Words. Words. Yours and mine. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah.

You get what you give. Give nothing. Get nothing. Or as a teacher of mine once said, "If I take away your words..what do you have left?"

There are a few here at blather and (if this can be believed) as few in the world at large who have taken the time required to know of me and perhaps even know me. At this point you seem like little more than either someone trying to save face, or a person who wants to find out what's behind the veil so they can judge it like they judge the public face. I'm paranoid like that. 		131125
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TCMT Daf, old boy, I do not see the world the way you do. I'm sure you know this, but it is worth reiterating. I do not believe have to do anything to deserve honesty and sincerity. I am honest and sincere because it is a personal choice. I get that you see things differently. I don't see what I said as rude or presumptuous, but I acknowledge your opinion. For me, I was shooting straight. I could defend that with a bunch of words but that way of thinking doesn't appeal to you. There might be no way to bridge the gap between our varied opinions.

I did what I did. You are well within your rights to do as you do. 		131125
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dafremen Let's not read to much into things..shall we? : ) Think popcorn. 131125
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nirvanic blind Only on blather will you see a ten thousand word debate end with "lets not read too much in to things" :-D 131125
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daf : ) Nice ending. 131126
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TCMT uh huh... 131127
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TCMT I'm pretty optimistic about blather. I think that blather has a lot of untapped uses.
I remember once reading somebody's serialized fiction on here. I would like to see that again. I also look forward to interesting blather_projects that blatherskytes can collaborate on. Who knows what the future holds.
Blather can be anything you make it. Death can only come from a lack of imagination.
Somewhere down the road, if they keep the lights on, there will be a blather_renaissance. I think I will stick around to see that happen. 		131127
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dafremen I'm waiting for blather_banksy.. 131127
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dafremen Better dead than red. : D 131127
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CheapVodka Boo! Boo I say! Boo! 131127
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e_o_i Nobody stoppeth thou from writing on blather red. I like that you took time to write in my dictionary page. Because it didn't need to be just about critical theory.

(Maybe you don't remember what I mean. But anyway.) 		131127
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e_o_i I meant daf, but I'm with CheapVodka as well. Sort of. I simultaneously agree and disagree with everything, as it pleases me. Blather_anarchist? 131127
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silentbob I like smaller blather. Remember kx21? 140203
what's it to you? blather
who go from