As subversive as a Snickers bar

I love Pink. The color and the music artist. She just permeates angst and the dislike of being pigeonholed. I am obsessed with her song, "Sober." "The quiet scares me because it screams the truth."

I have a LiveJournal - it's yet another site where you can blog. I don't use it anymore, but I check my friends' page frequently to see if any of my friends on there post. When you log in, you see the question of the day. "What do you miss the most about being a kid?" I thought about it. Not much, not much at all. I do miss riding my bike. I'd ride it around the driveway, pretending I was a taxi cab driver. As an adult, you can't really ride a bike around your driveway for hours without being taken off to the mental institution. Oh, and I miss playing with Strawberry Shortcake and my hotwheels. That about sums it up.

Other people can post their answers to the question, and then you can link up to their journals if their journals are public.

One thing that's good to know is that LiveJournal is, well, kinda subversive as a whole. I don't like to stereotype, but the vibe over there is, "Why have a Blogger? It's so mainstream...ick...who wants to be mainstream? I'm angst-ridden, emo, and... well... so not mainstream." I myself am appear as mainstream as a Snickers bar, and maybe that's why I don't fit in over there. I have my slightly goth tendencies, but it's more of a personality thing. Do I read those books? Nah, I didn't even like Twilight. Do I listen to that kind of music? Not much - a bit of The Cure. Do I dress goth? Not really. Yeah, I don't fit in over there.

So I go connect to the journals of some people who responded to the question of the day. I read two teenagers' blogs and three 40-ish women's blogs. I was surprised because I could actually understand them. I have encountered a few LiveJournal blogs before that I had no flipping clue what they were saying. It was English, but I could not make heads or tails of it. Thankfully I could understand these. Here's my impression -

Girl 1: Hates her mother. Emo picture of herself. Hates her mother. This girl really hates her mother. Wow, this journal is getting repetitive. Nexxxxxxxxt....

Girl 2: Loves, loves, loves her daddy. Daddy made her pancakes. Posted a picture of herself, emo. She posts samples of her emo writing (which I didn't read because emo writing doesn't really interest me). She seems to have a 'normal' life. She can't wait to get a car. She went to 'smart camp' for two weeks. She plays the violin. Cool beans, mostly normal girl that has an emo bent.

Woman 1: Money problems, talk about husband, wait, talks about some other guy. Wooooooo...I'm confused. Ah, it's getting weird. What?? Isn't that so 70s? So you meet a couple for lunch and then you each go home with the other partner? Then you say you update your Facebook during all the festivities? My mainstream Snickers heart is palpitating now. The next blog entry is back to money woes.

This LiveJournal stuff is not for the feint of heart. Nexxxxxxxxt...

Woman 2: This woman has a crappy life. CRAPPY. To paraphrase, she's 40-ish, both her parents died when they were in their 40s, her only brother died a year ago, her stepkids don't talk to her, her one biological daughter who's almost 18 is locked up in a juvenile detention center. Her dog ran away a month ago. She's filing for bankruptcy. Her car died and she doesn't have transportation. She has 2 jobs to make ends meet, and she has to walk to both of them because she doesn't have a car anymore. Isn't that the basis for the worst emo-tinged country song you have ever heard? On Christmas her daughter couldn't come home, so she borrowed someone's car to go visit her daughter in the juvenile detention center. I want to pay for this woman's therapy. Obviously, if she doesn't already need it (which I think she does because there are obvious battles with depression going on), she'll need it soon enough.

Woman 3: Oh my. OH MY! She's married, however, the theme of Woman 1 is carrying on with this woman as well. She has a crush on another dude. Wait, her and her crush hooked up. Now all she can talk about is this other dude. Oh wait, she has a girlfriend too! BDSM references. And they are all going to the Renaissance Fair and doing renaissance-y things together. My Snickers bar mind is overwhelmed with Renaissance, BDSM, two guys & two girls. She doesn't understand why the mainstream world has problems accepting her 'polyamorous' self. More money woes.

I see a theme that women on LiveJournal who answer the question of the day have money woes. I would also hazard a guess that my small sample of the women experienced some abuse as girls too.

LiveJournal is definitely some interesting reading if you aren't feint of heart.