LJ Idol - Time to Leave
It's one, and the polls close in two hours. I have 68 votes, I need 71 to stay in. I'm nestled on the couch with gratefuladdict, while it rains outside.
"I should go" I say. I have a long drive ahead of me.
It's one thirty. I still need three votes. I could post a link to the polls a second time, or post to emosnail for the first time, but I don't. "I should go" I say
It's two. I still need three votes. I could surely call three people I know with LJs who probably haven't voted yet, but I don't. "I should go"
It's three. The polls should be closed, but I haven't looked at them in an hour or so. "I should go" I say, and finally manage to make it out to my car.
I find my car a box full of rain. Apparently I forgot to close the skylight. Even after closing it, it is still raining in my car. The ceiling continues to drip. The seats, everything is soaked. I didn't really want to leave today anyway. So I rejoin my favourite person I've met in LJ Idol on the couch.
But of course, in another sense, I am indeed to leave today.
LJ Idol began with "saying goodbye," but it doesn't end with it. In the end, for me, its about "getting involved."
But yeah, so, in conclusion, I very very easily could have stayed in had I acted on various options I had to drum up an additional three votes, but I realized it was becoming a bit of a treadmill of just how shamelessly can one get the votes they need. Not that there aren't good writers who are getting the votes they need -- there certainly are. But I realized there was a lot of very shameless votemongering, and I didn't want to be part of that.
As I've mentioned before, writing doesn't exist in a vacuum, you'll always be writing for an audience. It's been pretty clear for awhile now that MY demographic is different from the LJ Idol demographic. This week 72% of idolists-other-than-myself wrote about personal experiences, and thats been pretty typical of the whole season. I'm not sure I've written a single entry this season about personal experiences. For me, its not about me, I've never seen the point of writing unless its "bigger than myself." But tales of personal reflection and introspection are the bread and butter of idol. And that was the audience and so I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make history and science appeal to an audience that would rather read about what I learned from my last messy breakup. But I still have my own friends list to take into consideration, and that consists of 444 livejournalists who DO like my writing and whom I respect enough that I absolutely refuse to spam them repeatedly over this LJ Idol thing. So in the end, it was just another choice about fitting the audience.
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Gotta call you out on that one. Quite simply, you've done phenomenally well in the competition. All this talk from SHT about "you can't win if you have a penis" might be true in terms of WINNING, but not when it comes to doing well and I honestly don't think people were voting for gender (except insofar as people prefer a style of writing which some might categorise as male or female). Likewise, unless you have been riding on friends list all along (in which case, that makes you no different to many other contestants), it's a simple reality that people liked your writing. Even though you got knocked out this week, a LOT of people liked you enough to put a tick by your name (me included). That says something.
I enjoy your writing, whether it's Idol aimed or not.
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And it is true that I got very decently far. Far enough that I don't think anyone that gets this far should feel like they were "cut short" or anything.
What I meant by my remark was just that the prevailing style of writing in idol is very different from my own, and its been a factor that played a major role in my idol experience. I frequently found myself torn between "should I come up with a personal story for this?" "from what perspective can I write this that will make it resemble the kinds of things that everyone else is writing" and my natural instincts to just write about something. And I do think I've gained from the experience, I think even my intended audience will appreciate the greater attention I now play to making it feel personal. (=
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No really, I enjoyed reading (and still do), no matter what it is. In this Idol round I most appreciate the fiction along the really heartwrought posts, and I think the votes show that that goes for a lot of other people as well. But yeah, really enjoyed meeting you and
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This is not any scientific observation--I did not make a spreadsheet or any other form of bar graph/pie chart/dart board to come up with this theory. It just **appears** that way to my eyes.
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Sex
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You have had a terrific run - especially for one who has written what he wanted to and didn't hit up his friend's list for extra votes. So far, I haven't had to ask mine either - but I know the day is rapidly coming. I don't think I'm strong enough to resist the competitive urge when it gets here.
That's the thing - in the end, this is a game. You are writing for yourself, but you are writing to win too, and, when playing a game, there's no shame in that!
I'd say the best thing about this little game though is that you meet some amazing people along the way - and you've even been able to take your internet relationship into the "real world." How fabulously lucky.
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Yes a lot of people in the contest write about themselves, that is only natural in livejournal as a whole.
On the other hand if you had asked me if people not writing about themselves, if someone writing fiction or science or anything else would be able to make it this far, I would have said you were wrong.
You and others have proven it is possible to get very far even if you are male, even if you don't write the typical entry. It can be a trap to think about what you should write or what would appeal to other appeal to others. First and foremost you have to be true to yourself, otherwise I think the audience knows that.
This is also a game, and there is nothing wrong with asking the fl for votes, in my opinion anyway. Maybe some people take it a bit farther than necessary, maybe some people take it too seriously. But i do understand when the competitive drive kicks in and the desire to not get kicked out kicks in.
You should be happy with how you did, top 25 out of 190-something. That's pretty damn good.
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Do you care if I LJ stalk you to your other journal? I take it this one is for Idol and the other one is the "real" journal. :)
~*~
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It was great meeting you this season (=
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I don't know what I am going to do without my Kris dose of writing each week. You along with Stacey deserved to go much farther.
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I may or may not have an incriminating picture related to that. ;P
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wise fool
Your entries always reminded me of the 30-in-30 because they were all so peculiar and interesting at the same time.
And like you said, you have now 444 friends that will put up with your crap or at least skim over what you say. That's more than I can say about my LJ in its 6 years of being alive.
Re: wise fool
As I note in my entry, most of the other idolists are more into the personal stories, whereas, and I hadn't really thought about it before, but 30 in 30 really is kind of a festival of the humorous essay. I hope I can recruit some idolists into 30 in 30 though!
Also, doing LJ Idol really really increased the size of my friends list. With so many other people and other people's friends going through reading the entries, one is exposed to a lot of new people.
Re: wise fool
It's either Pratt or Vassar. The major difference being that Vassar is a scholarship program and I most likely will be paying 0 dollars and 0 cents. But I don't know if it's still being offered.
Hell, I haven't even applied to my four-year colleges. What's going on in my head?