Date: 2004-06-01 01:54
Subject: "I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good."
Mood:

A few days ago I looked at these Vineyards here and noticed how boring it is. The layout is boring - heck, it was copied from a default first generation Live Journal template. The texts are boring - I just start talking and never stop, and the subjects are hardly any fun at all; it is in English, which means it will be ignored by the majority of readers of other blogs I read; the text column is too wide, making it hard to read (but that goes in layout).

Then I reached a conclusion that wizard from Deoch 1 would never reach on his own: I want to make people happy.

What do you mean, make people happy? What devious malevolent entity got hold of your sanity?
What entity? Not telling. But that part about making people happy, that is just it. I wanted people to be happy when they read something I wrote. Or maybe if I could be so bold, something I drew - but that is a long way ahead, if ever. Something I coded could work, eventually; something I composed is most unlikely. All in all, something I created. Maybe I could write a children's book. Or a nice little text. Or draw something beautiful. Anything. I just wanted to make people happy. I want someone completely random to look at it, smile, and show it to someone else completely random - not because they are my friends or liked my past writings, but because that one piece made them smile.

But I do not currently have time to do any of these things. I am stuck with these "school papers".

"Oh", says the passing reader, "another angsty teenager with too much acne, which led him to read loads of bad novels, and now he daydreams that his writing is good enough to make people happy - ah! it will not make anyone better than himself happy. At least he is not writing goth poems like he read too much Poe."

My my, what a little expression can cause, no? "School papers". No, I am no longer a teenager, I am no longer angsty, and I did not read loads of bad novels. I read a lot of Poe, but I certainly am nothing anywhere near goth.

If I change it to "college papers", does it help? No, because it is in English, American English. And in the United States, college students are not a much better bunch than high school ones. Shame, because I cannot go higher and say "master papers" - if that at all exists. We will all have to settle down with college papers and agree that they are not easy, not shallow, and I have not been stuck with them because I had parties with lots of beer and boobies to go to that only end when the police comes. No, no such parties. Yes, I know, I took the stereotype from teen movies. It was on purpose.

I am stuck with these papers because they are hard to do. If I just had to write a short story, all would be perfectly fine. But one is an analysis, half-breed academia, half-breed journalism (I am not a journalist, what do they want from me?), the other is a journalistic text (ditto), and... I forgot the rest. Hopefully their deadlines are further away.

Concluding - I cannot do anything to make people happy right now, and I cannot make the Vineyards less boring, because I have all these things to do before I get to it. I partially regret not having finished that biographic tale about music, since now I have to finish it before making changes to this blog's style.

Oohh, he called the Vineyards a blog!
Well, it is not in Live Journals anymore, it is not a journal anymore - and never was, really. Let us just call it properly from now on.

Alright, I am done. Back to being lost about these papers.

Posted by Etienne at June 1, 2004 01:54 AM
Comments

Boobies?

You, of all people, used "boobies" in an actual sentence. The pervasiveness of this word is complete :(

How on earth does one translate "boobies" into other languages?

Wait, I don't want to know...

Posted by: Courtney at June 1, 2004 05:08 PM

Why, Courtney...
Did you not notice that, too, was on purpose?
I even gave some nice aliteration to that term I believe is used mainly by the college students I refer to.
If it is not a good word, however, I will be sure to change it. But indeed, that was irony. I will remember to use quotes or italics when I do that from now on.

Posted by: Etienne at June 1, 2004 08:38 PM

please, do forgive him, Courtney...
it must be the entity speaking. ^^;

Posted by: ruby at June 1, 2004 08:47 PM

Hmm... Não achei esse post boring.
Aliás, não é esse o problema dos outros posts. Só são compridos. Mas não chega a ser um probleeeema.

Meu! Isso aqui é muito bom!
Eu só não forço todo mundo a ler porque tá em inglês e ninguém que eu conheço vai entender esse seu Sr. Inglês. - Talvez esse seja o problema...

Ah, e eu não entro aqui só porque sou sua amiga e não tô falando isso só porque sou sua irmã.
Eu acho o seguinte, se você tá insatisfeito com o que é, quando tiver um tempinho, muda. Mas a única pessoa que tá reclamando é você.
O que você tem que perceber é que é muito raro alguém ler um textão desses aleatoriamente. Mas uma vez que isso acontece, essa pessoa vira fã (aqui, pelo menos), eu tenho certeza.

Posted by: Flines at June 1, 2004 10:22 PM

... does that mean I'll have to start writing in portuguese..? o.o;
I could use a few more readers, y'know... ^^;;

or worse, I'll need a bilingual version of rubysland, otherwise eph won't be able to read a thing! o.o;;

Posted by: ruby at June 1, 2004 10:51 PM

You used "boobies" perfectly properly, and I wasn't blaming you, only commenting that the word seems to be everywhere. There's nothing wrong with it, I don't think, it's just interesting how it's spread.

The other interesting thing is how things come out translated via google's translation tools. I get some very interesting reads from translating your posts (and other people's comments!) Perhaps google needs a translation for the translation...

Posted by: Courtney at June 2, 2004 11:25 AM

This one is in shock that his eyes have seen the letters of Lorneau speak the hidden vernacular!

Truly, life will never be the same. You have changed, forever, and now I must go away and hide myself in the mountains.

I reach the top only to find that two weeks later you use the word again, and I dive under the ocean in excessive mortification.

But, I continue reading nevertheless, intrigued at the Swarthy Adventures of the Pirate Etienne, Rapscallion Third Class.

Posted by: Citizen (American) at June 13, 2004 10:32 PM