I am looking for information. I realize asking two things in one post if I want responses on both isn’t the smartest thing but I am going to do it anyway.
Something I have been wondering for a little while is how my journal is perceived. Is it all light and fluff, more serious minded, impersonal, very limited, dry, all over the place? About the only defined quality I can figure is that for the most part it is low in Drama and I like it that way. I started wondering when I got to thinking the side most people see of me is the surface level stuff and not the philosophical stuff. Then I looked and realized I put some heavy stuff here. I have never kept a journal or exposed stuff like this to the wide world. What do others see?
The other request for info I have of all of you is related to my bio. I am faced with describing myself and I am at a loss. I can’t get past the 6ft tall female bit. I figure I am pretty distinct but I don’t know how to define me. What I am looking for is something that if you know me, you will recognize the description on all these online communities. I am looking for labels. How would you describe me?
I think of your journal as a little window into Gina world – sometimes it’s light, sometimes it’s heavy – it depends on your state of mind.
As for labels, I usually think of you are existing outside labels. It seems corny but you really are unique to me. Anyway, a few descriptors that I think apply to you are good dancer, fabulous dresser (no one else has the Gina style), creative, caring, curious, beautiful, outgoing, and forthright. I very much admire your ability to just say what everyone else is thinking but doesn’t have the guts to spit out. And wow, that’s a poorly constructed sentence.
That is one of my problems, when I ask for a description, I get Gina, i.e. Gina-style, Gina-logic…
I am just so … Gina!
Is it any wonder that nicknames don’t stick?
How in the world am I to write a bio if it is just full of my name?
Just Gina (with little hand flip to either side of the face.)
Thanks for the constructed sentence about saying what others are thinking. I hadn’t thought of it in those terms before.
Does it matter?
How your journal is perceived?
It’s your journal you silly goose, and you do with it what you want.
The people who read your journal do so because they are interested in what you have to say.
And you, my dear, are beyond description sometimes, because you’re GINA!
DOn’t worry, I have trouble with my bio too. I mean, what do you put in there that doesn’t make you seem like a total hack? Labels is all it is, to put words to qualities that are make up the greater whole that IS Gina.
If you want to put in a bio, you can just put in the labels that make Gina, Gina….costumer, dancer, great dresser, quirky, …etc.
TRying to describe a person in the online context without meeting them is trying to describe an elephant to someone who is deaf and blind and who has never even HEARD of the word “elephant”.
Re: Does it matter?
I am not worried about how my journal is perceived, I am just wondering. It is a blind spot I am wanting to see into just because it is a blind spot, not anything I think I need to work on.
As for the online description, I don’t care so much about describing me to people that have never met me. I realize I defy that type of description. I am more concerned with people that do know me and can link my online identity to me. Like for LJ, I see someone on a friend’s friend page that I think I may know, I check their user info to see if I can figure out who they are. Right now, I have no clues as to who I am. Unless you have my screen name or have browsed my webpages and recognize my icons, there is no way to tell it is me.
Defining The Gina
As K said, you don’t fit neatly into pre-defined boxes. One of many things I like about you. “I will not be briefed, debriefed, stamped, or filed. My life is my own!”
You are curious, flirtatious, kind to animals, like all vegetables that begin with “A”, have a knack for computer stuff.
It’s not an extensive list, but it’s what comes to mind when I think of you
- D
Insert silly voice: You are a woman of mystery, with a thousand guises!
I guess I mostly think about the creative flair you have for fashion and costume design. I also think about your love of labyrinths. I think about your occasional physical fragility, and about your tremendous strength of spirit in accepting, dealing with and overcoming it.
The reason that nicknames don’t stick…
IMO, it’s because you present as very singular – in many ways, you aren’t like anyone else that I know. You share traitsin comon with a number of my friends, but you fefinitely stand out as an individual, at least from my vantage point.
Question one:
I see your journal as a very slight window into your personal world; mostly it’s stuff that doesn’t seem to be too personal – the personal stuff that is there is more important for those that know you better than I do ( I feel my own journal is very similar in this regard – the more shared context you have with me, the more one “gets”).
Question two:
Labels for you…
..the best I can think of is stylish – you have the best sense of personal style that I know of. Of course, I am a bit biased, as I find you physically very attractive as well. I also tend to think of you as somewhat guarded; though I know that you really aren’t, based on the conversations we’ve had. I think you do present that way.
For a long time, my bio just read “I’m just this guy, you know.” I mean, it’s not as if I don’t have special qualities, but everyone has special qualities. We’re all unique, and all that…
Then I added the disclaimers about what I post and who’s on my friends list.
And then, because it spoke to me, I added the Neil Gaiman passage from Small Gods.
If you read my journal you find out more about me than any simplified biography can explain. My LJ is my living biography.
However, if you want a simple descriptive summary, I think “stylish” covers all of your positive and negative qualities about as well as anything else. If you feel the need to add to that, you could make it “stylish, with skulls on”.
And, like others, I see a window into your life when I read your LJ; a part of you that I can’t see because you live far from me, and I tend to only see you in particular social situations, generally interacting with others. Your LJ gives me a glimpse into the you that interacts with the rest of the world.
you are magic you are unique you are dancing you are very fine you are dazzling you have sharp parts you catch and hold my eyes and my wonder.
No wonder I have collected so many of you Crow types. I am a bright shiny. *snerk*
awrk – figured us out!