tavie.com

Is this a real person, or a joke? (I saw the link in my site referrals, although I can't figure out where on the page my site is linked.)

I only ask because I seem to have lost my sense of humour recently. I can't tell when people are kidding or not anymore. It's strange. And this journal seems to be by a pretty little blonde girl who's going to UCLA and is so obsessed with fashion and supermodels that she posts pictures of them all over her journal, and only talks about fashion and how she has to lost a pound because she's deathly afraid of the freshman 15 and can't go above 105.

That's a parody site, right? Those people aren't real, right? They only exist as characters on tv and in movies?

Yes?

No?

Someone help me, I'm losing my always-tenuous grip.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:33 PM | shower me with attention

Kirsten and I are off tomorrow morning to join our parents and aunt-- yes, the entirety of our clan-- in Williamsburg, VA, which has long been a favourite family destination, and which Kirsten and I haven't been to since a trip we took there, just the two of us, when we were 19; one of the best trips ever, in fact, and the first trip the two of us ever took without our parents.

This one will be with our parents, though, to celebrate Halloween (which is also their 34th wedding anniversary) and to visit our favourite places and buy slate pencils. (Oh, me and my slate pencils.) And if there's a hand spindle to be found, I'll get one, too. And peanuts. Lots of peanuts.

We'll go straight to work from the airport on Monday, which should be a freakin' blast. :P

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:11 PM | shower me with attention

Thursday, October 28, 2004

I was talking to J-Dawg yesterday about his experiences on the internet, which seemed to run an interesting sort of parallel to my own, and I'd like to pick his brain some more. It's funny how I can snap into anthropologist mode when I want to. It's hard to know when it sounds like I'm being nosy, because what I'm being is just curious. I wonder how real anthropologists deal with that. I guess it's about context. When you're engaged in an "official" researcher-informant relationship, you can probe in the interest of science; when you're just asking people about their experiences on the internet, you run the risk of sounding nosy. I think what saves that is that people generally love to talk about themselves if someone is genuinely interested.

It's interesting because it seems to be that despite all the time he's spent on the internet, in forums relating to his topic of interest, that interest was so specific, and somehow... productive?... that it doesn't seem like a sense of "community" was felt among the participants. I want to know things like what specific forums he visited, with what frequency, did he get to know anyone in them outside of the context of the topic of interest, and if not, why does he think not... I've been so focused on what makes an internet community that I haven't been looking at what doesn't make one.

I'd sort of like to hear a lot more about that from other people, too. When I was talking to Gina's Al-Franken-blog friends, I got the very specific sense of a community bond from them. The cybertalk shifted naturally from politics to other things and back, and personalities emerged through the talk. Whereas if someone is in a forum that's dedicated to, say, sharing guitar tablature, you're not, I suppose, going to see the talk deviate much from the topic at hand. What's the difference?

And what do I mean by productive? What do I mean at all?

I'm babbling.

I have an crumb of an idea that I'm toying with. I want to try and develop the kind of questionnaire I wrote about in my cyberanthro research proposal last year. I wonder, if I was able to come up with one, if any of you would mind being my guinea pigs?

I don't know why. It's not for a grade; I'm done with my anthro classes and if I ever go to grad school for something like this, it will be way in the future. I'm afraid of it. I'm not... I don't want to say smart, but I'm definitely not disciplined enough to be a real anthropologist. All that writing...

Maybe I just want to see if I can do it. Amateur science. Can you imagine me playing at scientist? Or being an academic for the rest of my life? Can you imagine me being anything?

If anyone has any ideas of what kinds of questions would be helpful in uncovering people's experiences with online community (or lack of!), shoot 'em at me. I don't know why I want this sort of data, but I do. Maybe just to see if I can sustain my own interest. I don't expect to "learn" anything, but it might help me get an idea of what the point of any of this could be...

Where the hell is Ade? I need my mentor right now.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 6:54 PM | shower me with attention

Kirsten and I went to see J-Dawg*'s band play downtown. They were supposed to go on late but they ended up going on even later. But it was really fun because you don't really expect people you know to be in a good band and play the guitar really, really well, but there was practically smoke coming from that thing and his fingers were a blur and their lead singer had this manic energy that worked a lot better on stage than on CD. It wasn't at all like seeing your teacher out of school, because even though J-Dawg is our boss he's our age and he's really cool, but not in an icky hipster way, in a people-you'd-want-to-hang-out-with way. And his girlfriend (?) is freaking adorable. They look like elves.

Damn. I should be asleep right now so I'll have at it.

Blew my fucking eardrums out though.

I wonder if Blogger is working yet...

*Alias used to protect the innocent. This blog may have my full name on it but that doesn't mean I shouldn't at least attempt to be careful.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 2:08 AM | shower me with attention

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

I love cheese! Wisconsin cheddar is so good!

Hm, I sound very Special Ed this morning. I read this joke on Boing Boing the other day and every time I thought of it all day I'd crack up laughing:

Q: How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: LET'S RIDE BIKES!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:18 AM | shower me with attention

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

I'm the teasiest teaser that ever teased. Thank god they tease back.

I think one of the dumbest things my father says is, "Teasing is never a friendly act." He must've read it in some psychology book forty years ago, but it just ain't true. Teasing can be a friendly act, or a flirty act, or a fun-way-to-pass-the-time act. As long as both parties are sure it's not mean-spirited-- which can be confirmed with facial expression, gesture and tone of voice (and, hey, even email for good measure)-- then teasing can be one of the friendliest acts there is.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:40 PM | shower me with attention

Ah, fudge, I wrote a post but Blogger stalled and I lost the post.

It's too late, I have to go to bed. I think the gist of what I had to say was:

Missed Scott at Luna Lounge but oh well at least I went to class and was responsible.

Started the last Dark Tower book, don't want it to end.

Surprise quiz in Latin, whoops, I suck.

Okay then.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:21 AM | shower me with attention

Monday, October 25, 2004

Internet-free weekend. We piled a lot of goils (and a puppers!) into the car and drove to Rhode Island to pick up Cheryl, and then we drove to Salem, Mass to see witchy things and foliage. The foliage was stunning. I gaped at the trees everywhere we went as if I had never seen foliage before. It held off raining until we left.

I'd forgotten how cheesy the Salem Witch Museum was.

Everyone was very happy over some sort of baseball-related event, and the old man who sold me a bag of peanuts on the street, after asking where I was from, apologized profusely and then thanked me (as a New Yorker) for "giving them a break". Which I thought was very cute.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:57 AM | shower me with attention