Picos Gemeos

It's been a week since I arrived in London.  I've used these past days to say goodbye to this city and friends that I love so much. I fly back to Brasil on Friday... I have no clue when I'll be back in the UK.

My good friend live_life_like  started this journal in Brasil in May 2001 as a way of keeping in touch with myself and another friend we had in common. Thus the name. In September that year, a week after 9/11, I left Brasil and moved to London with my boyfriend to start a new life.

This journal has been a great place to inhabit during my 12 years in London.  I survived many dull temp jobs thanks to it, and met tons of people who went on to become close friends. I'd like to one day sit down and read through it - there have been some dramatic posts and some epic flamewars!

This journal will come to an end when I fly to Brasil on Friday. It brings to an end my 12 years in London.

Here's to whatever comes next!

I've been thinking today if blogging and livejournaling is dead. Dead in the sense that most people who used them before have gone on to acquire many more social networks, and because of the increase in their personal admin (checking Facebook, checking Twitter, checking Instagram, etc) they no longer can tolerate long pieces of writing.

Twitter, to me, seems of the time. Tiny digestible nuggets that can lead you to longer articles if you so desire, but there's no pressure to read - you can easily just move/scroll on.  Before, with blogs and livejournals, there was the online social pressure to at least skim read.  Make some noise that you were paying attention. Now, they lie unread, uncommented, unnoticed. Or saved for "later" reading.

The age of people keeping blogs to document their lives as policemen / ambulance drivers / sex workers is also dead. Again, I think personal admin has got in the way and that type of cultural product is resigned to the noughties much like a lot of reality shows.

For myself, I sat in an old cemetery for lunch today and read some Walt Whitman.  I now know that Livejournal will never be the same, but I'm Ok with continuing to write here, for myself and for the few that still read this.  I've also started writing letters to friends who refuse to use social networks, and on Monday mornings I find a cafe before work and do a bit of fiction writing.

Goths up trees!

Last week, in a beautiful synchronicitous moment, I discovered UbuWeb through a blog I follow on Tumblr that mentioned Andy Warhol's complete diaries were available for free to download just as wink_martindale came rushing into the room with the excited announcement that tons of art films are available there for free (Brian Eno, Bruce LaBruce, Jacques Lacan, Mapplethorpe, and many many more.) Such a great resource, much like Archive.org.

Where will we ever find the time to watch, read and see all the great things that have been created (and still exist)? Oh - I know - stop watching and reading so much crap! (My New Year's resolution.)

Last night, I went out in search of a lesbian bar with B, a friend who is single, gay and doesn't know many girls in London. This city is tough for lesbian establishments: for every 50 crowded gay bars filled with sweaty men there's 1 pub in the middle of nowhere with four lesbians playing pool and a young couple nooking in the corner. Where do London lesbians go on weekends? Who do they need to know? I refuse to believe there are more gay boys than girls in this city.

Edit: Just discovered another great site through The Observer: Edge.

Facebook
The ultimate Yellow Book.  Great for keeping in touch with people who are crap at keeping in touch, managing events, prying in the lives of those you haven't seen in decades, and moaning about the latest security fiasco that is on the brink of pushing you to delete your account. I have a group set up exclusively for my family and I belong to another one dedicated to the tower block I grew up in Brasil in the 80s. Facebook reminds me all the time of how old I am.

Twitter
is for chatter, for jokes, for self-promotion, for peeking in the lives of celebrities, for following natural disasters and revolutions, for wasting time.  I confess that I'm one of those people who dissed it (here on LJ) and promised to never have an account, but that's because I didn't "get it".  It's an amazing tool in my line of work (promoting the arts) and I've actually made a few friends through it (though I haven't met them in real life yet.)  I use my account to practice my (bad) French because I figured 140 characters is doable.  Surprisingly, some of my french followers don't seem to mind!

Flickr
The place to be for photographers or those who love photography. It is possible to use it as a social network though interaction is very limited. I find it useful for my work (again) as well as helping promote my mother's guesthouse.  It's a nice site to use alongside others (blogs, FB, Twitter), and to check out after a large event attended by many camera-wielding people (gigs, festivals, etc).

YouTube
Good for keeping up with the world of pop, comedy (intentional and otherwise), games and a whole lot more.  I can't be bothered with video commenting but I think some people are deeply immeshed there, also using video responses to react to what they have seen.  Like Flickr, good when used alongside other social networks though it bugs me that most music videos can't be embedded. Silly record labels.

Vimeo
Like YouTube, but slicker.  The alternative for iPad owners since their tablets don't play YouTube and other flash-based stuff (because of Apple's hissy fit with Adobe).  Lots of great short films can be found here though not much else.

Google+
I worry for Google.  They are trying so hopelessly to be the next Facebook but... I'm not sure it's working. They are like that party guest who goes on and on about the latest gadget they bought to a decreasing circle of interested ears. Google Buzz and Google Wave tanked; Google+ is doing remotely better, but only because of the novelty factor.  What exacty are they offering that's different from the other social networks? Little tweaks to a service are not enough: you need the next paradigm shift to attract the world's attention. Google+ ain't that. I like its structure though and how smoothly/easily it runs. I use it for posting music videos from the 80s. The idea of circles has meant that a lot of people treat it like a mixture of Facebook (inner sanctums) with Twitter (following strangers).  It might take off if celebrities adhere.

Orkut
This is another social network owned by Google that hardly anyone knows about... except for brasilians.  It's MASSIVE in Brasil, to the point of even the elderly and babies being on it.  The Portuguese language has now a word - orkutizacao - which means "turning something into Orkut; turning chavvy; appealing to the lowest-common denominator."  Everyone who is "cool" in Brasil has now switched to Facebook (especially - ironically enough - after The Social Network came out) and now there's constant moaning in my FB feed on how the "orkutizacao" of Facebook is just round the corner.  Orkut is PERFECT for downloading episodes of brasilian soaps and American TV shows - there are tons of communities dedicated to that.

Blogger
once competed with LJ for the attention of writers.  I think those days are over.  Some people who have a niche or angle to their blog, and have been with Blogger from the start, are still there, but most have now moved on to Wordpress.  They've done some changes to it recently which has improved functionality, and they have introduced the mosaic viewing mode to make your blog look more like a Tumblr account (worried much?), but there's nothing really special about it otherwise. 

Wordpress
A lot of writers and services use this; it's a pretty good system and has a free statistics counter that is quite addictive (I'm fascinated by what people type in search engines to reach my blogs.)  It's a little bit clunky when you are first trying to set up your blog, but you eventually get the hang of things.  Commenting is decent though nothing like Livejournal in its possibilities.  I used to have a blog in Portuguese here but I got swamped with evangelical Christians when I wrote a short story about a preacher seduced by a gay angel.  I deactivated my blog and moved to...

Tumblr
The fastest growing social network in my opinion. Very young-centred, very image based, but some interesting organisations are already there (The New Yorker, Discovery, Newsweek) providing good text too. Very limited when it comes to commenting (you need a Disqus account) but maybe that's something still to be developed (or maybe the service's users just don't care?)  It reminds me a lot of LJ's early years, when people posted tons of quizzes and cat photos.  Those young'uns from ten years ago grew up and got themselves Wordpress accounts; their baby siblings are now all over Tumblr.

Dreamwidth
If a tree falls in the woods and there is nobody around, does it make a sound?

Livejournal
I've come to the conclusion that LJ is one of the best social networks out there.  Its main strength are the deeply personal stories shared here - whether they are in big communities like the Ladies Loos or in safely secured posts.  When you have those people on your friends list, you are rewarded with some of the best writing available online. LJ has also been getting better over the years - listening to its users (unlike Facebook and Google), and sheding all those people that used to only post quizzes and photos of cats (presumably moved on to Facebook.)  LJ is also very good at creating friendships: I've lost count of how many people I've met here who have gone on to become very good friends of mine.  Can users in Blogger, Wordpress, etc, claim as many online friends that are meaningful?   Sure, there are some hiccups, it's not as popular as it used to be and it seems to be the Russian version of Orkut, but I think it's still a worthwhile site.  It may be clunky and as relevant as Woolsworth but I still like it.

I've decided to post at least once a day on LJ from now on, even if it's just an embeded video, to show my appreciation for all those times years ago when it saved me from boredom in the office. I don't want to go anywhere else with my mundane posts about wine stains on the carpet.  I want to stay here.

If you are a writer or enjoy creative writing, and you are on Twitter, I've discovered a great little way of sparking things off through HerLindsayness's blog. She writes:

Created by Monica-Marie, the idea (behind #wordmongering) is that at the top of every hour, participants write as much as they can for thirty minutes. Then they take a 30-minute break to stretch, snack, and generally refresh for the next round. You can participate in as few or as many rounds per day as you have time and energy for, and the encouragement shared between writers is invigorating. There is no contest and every word count, no matter how small, is congratulated.

I'm going to do my first one in 45 minutes. See you there?

Meanwhile on LJ, millionreasons has started a random postcard project which I also find interesting. I'm following her example and thinking of using Igor for my postcards.

Yesterday, an idiot carrying a cappuccino machine into the train dropped part of it on my elbow.  It's hurtin'.  I then got soaked wandering around London dropping off brochures for my arts festival in July.  At midnight, a brasilian friend arrived from Germany to stay with us for the weekend and we spent a few hours talking while I heated for him chicken and mushroom soup. I'm fighting annoying manflu so I can be well enough for drinks with him and his friends tonight.

38 minutes until my first #wordmongering...

Top 15 searches that landed on my journal in 2010:

1. gay police
   
2. james mcavoy
   
3. handsome gay
   
4. gerard butler
   
5. paul terry
   
6. bodice ripper
   
7. "i found someone new" hunx
   
8. police gay
   
9. david o'hara
   
10. drink and dance
    
11. "gerard butler"
    
12. dance and drink
    
13. polisi gay
    
14. gay handsome
    
15. gay police officers
    

Best searches that landed on my journal in 2010:

1. chavs in canada
   
2. "beauty is a dark cloud when you're alone"
   
3. "one night of sin is what i'm paying for"
   
4. "twinks in drag " wined dinned and sexed videos
   
5. anne strangeways foot creams
   
6. britney ass out
   
7. chatting up various kooks and screws
   
8. did patti smith drink?
   
9. drink and screw package
   
10. excuse letter for gym freeze
    
11. gothic toilet
    
12. gramas and garndpas like to screw
    
13. i'm bored. please send drugs
    
14. moms over 30 reading mills & boon books
    
15. need names of people that live in bell gardens californa
    
16. open your ass to global warming
    
17. peter andre porn
    
18. scottish men want fat
    
19. suzy and william friends plumstead london
    
20. texas death row computer access
    
21. the world is up shit creek.
    
22. trannies on rollerskates soho london
    
23. what happened to ljdrama
    
24. what hooks people into cults?
    
25. what wags drink
    
26. where can i find screws in brick lane
    
27. whitstable meth lab
    

There were a total of 702 search terms that landed on my journal, starting from April in 2010 when I installed Google Analytics.

Looking forward to what 2011 has to offer. ;-)

I'm kicking off neenaw's Save Livejournal Month[1] in October with:

[2]

[1] neenaw, amongst others, is trying to revive LJ by posting once a day. Facebook and Twitter are good for short bursts but is there anywhere else better for rambling confessions, flame wars and memes? Join us and Save LJ too!

[2] Via needler!

I've been using Google Analytics with my Livejournal for a month now. It was my dream for years to be able to collect data on who visits my journal: what do they type into Google to find me? Which posts are most popular? Where are my readers from? Google Analytics tells you everything, even who on LJ is reading you, and who isn't. In that sense, Google Analytics is more effective than LJ Toys because as far as I can see it can't be blocked like LJ Toys, though maybe LJ Toys gives you more indepth info on LJ users (who don't know how to block it) whereas Google Analytics only tells you if they were there or not. LJ users who are not on your friends list don't get logged unless they read posts' comments - that's where LJ Guests comes in handy (if they are signed up for that, though.)

These are the top 10 searched terms that land on my journal:

1. "gerard butler"
2. james mcavoy
3. camera obscura the nights are cold
4. dance and drink
5. gay police
6. gerard butler
7. best gay
8. david o'hara
9. handsome gay
10. "james mcavoy"

No surprise then that my post popular post is this one from 10th April 2007, featuring hot hunks from Scotland that appear on the list above. The post got 97 unique visits in the past 30 days. The second most popular post was my review of Camera Obscura's new single that was released on May 17. No doubt people searching for a free MP3.

And here are some of the quirky search terms leading people to my journal:

• americans aren't welcome
  
• ghost london fields
  
• britney ass out
  
• chavs in canada
  
• toronto chavs
  
• devil is gay
  
• did patti smith drink?
  
• elongatedcunts
  
• full gay gym shower black machine
  
• hypocritical church sloane square
  
• lots of muscle maries
  
• my plans for the summer
  
• one two three shame is knocking on the door
  
• pragues underbelly
  
• screw livejournal
  
• suzy and william friends plumstead london
  
• the world is up shit creek
  
• what do you call a group of people who live religiously?
  
• what hooks people into cults?
  
• who really killed ipswich prostitutes
  
• www. my horny old gray mare.com
  
• you suck certificate
  

There's a creative writing exercise in there somewhere... I love it! Keep them coming, Internet Weirdos.

Now that Livejournal is working with Google's AdSense, does that mean we'll soon be able to use Analytics on our journals?

I still don't understand why that feature hasn't been given to us. Would make things here a lot more interesting if we knew what exactly people typed into search engines to find us.