Another meme and assorted musings
Sep. 3rd, 2004 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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artifuss:
I am obviously a weak person who can't resist the meme thing. It would be an interesting school, though...
The internet is very, very cool sometimes. I get to meet and talk to people who are idiologically my opposite, but we don't have to hate each other.honorh is a good example: a conservative-thinking, deeply committed Christian. I'm a rather left-leaning European liberal who's ideas on religion aren't quite so popular. The Anglican church (where I grew up) left me with a bad taste in my mouth and, though I still believe in and try to honour God, I can't see myself returning to organised religion any time soon. If I did, it would be to the Quakers, who aren't exactly the Anglican idea of Christian :-) I also have pagans and atheists that I talk to regularly, liberals and conservatives, and none of them have ever tried to 'save' me from whatever belief I hold that they don't agree with. Contrast this with many of the RL people who have tried exactly that and people may start to see why I find it easier to make friends through mailing lists and LJ than through pubbing and clubbing. I'm not sure whether it's because the contact with people of vastly different idiologies forces us to be more tolerant or whether the people involved with Internet stuff are naturally this way, but I like it.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy a good discussion about politics, religion or current affairs (anyone who knows me will know that I love that stuff), but I appreciate the fact that my opinion is respected and no one attempts to force me to change.
The odd thing is that the RL friend who is the most respectful in this way is the one who is also completely my opposite - Best Friend in America is a deeply committed Christian, was fairly conservative in her thinking and is slowly becoming more liberal in her ideas as she sees the world around her and gets to know people (such as her gay best friend *g*) who don't fit that conservative mold. She's even going to check out the Republican and Democratic platforms so that she can be informed in her voting choice rather than voting for the guy who spouts the most Christian rhetoric. And she's seen how hurtful it is to be told that gay people are second class citizens so I have hope that she won't vote for the guy who tries to remove gay rights *g*
Wow, I really got off point in that one. There was a point there, once, but I think it fled in fear.
The other cool thing today was this post bymirabellawotr. It's more of a rant, actually, but it says lots of interesting things about Harry Potter. I may not agree with all of it, but it's definitely interesting. I liked the fact that she pointed out that HP are kids books. They are. There's no getting around it. Well-written children's books are great and can usually be read just fine by adults - I've got a number of kids' books on my bookshelves and I'm not ashamed to admit it. She's also got some interesting points about Hermione's intelligence that make a surprising amount of sense. I was one of the irritating kids who only did the minimum of work required, rarely revised and got high grades consistently. Possibly could have done even better if I had worked, but I didn't see any point when there were so many other things to do (er, books to read, usually) and my teachers obviously felt the same way, judging by the biology teacher who turned a blind eye to me reading stonking great fantasy novels in her classes :-) Hermione is more like my sister - naturally smart, but needs to work obssessively to get the highest grades she possibly can. I think Mira is a little harsh towards Hermione, but it is an interesting POV on the character and I completely agree that she is the popular, outsider view of smart people.
Not that I'm fabulously smart. I just have a good memory and hate to re-read assignments for more than spelling mistakes :-) But there must be some natural smarts in there because otherwise my attitude to school work would have seen me failing every class. My sister and super-smart younger cousin have proved to me how much better I could have done if I'd been more Hermione-like in my studies.
And again, the point has gone somewhere irretrivable.
I am looking forward to Redemption '05 and have discovered that a couple of fanfic writers that I like might be there too. This is very cool :-)
The parents have gone on holiday (yay!) so I've got the house to myself for a while :-) I may have to indulge in Chinese fooda few times once or twice. Starting tonight :-)
artifuss:I am obviously a weak person who can't resist the meme thing. It would be an interesting school, though...
The internet is very, very cool sometimes. I get to meet and talk to people who are idiologically my opposite, but we don't have to hate each other.
honorh is a good example: a conservative-thinking, deeply committed Christian. I'm a rather left-leaning European liberal who's ideas on religion aren't quite so popular. The Anglican church (where I grew up) left me with a bad taste in my mouth and, though I still believe in and try to honour God, I can't see myself returning to organised religion any time soon. If I did, it would be to the Quakers, who aren't exactly the Anglican idea of Christian :-) I also have pagans and atheists that I talk to regularly, liberals and conservatives, and none of them have ever tried to 'save' me from whatever belief I hold that they don't agree with. Contrast this with many of the RL people who have tried exactly that and people may start to see why I find it easier to make friends through mailing lists and LJ than through pubbing and clubbing. I'm not sure whether it's because the contact with people of vastly different idiologies forces us to be more tolerant or whether the people involved with Internet stuff are naturally this way, but I like it.That's not to say that I don't enjoy a good discussion about politics, religion or current affairs (anyone who knows me will know that I love that stuff), but I appreciate the fact that my opinion is respected and no one attempts to force me to change.
The odd thing is that the RL friend who is the most respectful in this way is the one who is also completely my opposite - Best Friend in America is a deeply committed Christian, was fairly conservative in her thinking and is slowly becoming more liberal in her ideas as she sees the world around her and gets to know people (such as her gay best friend *g*) who don't fit that conservative mold. She's even going to check out the Republican and Democratic platforms so that she can be informed in her voting choice rather than voting for the guy who spouts the most Christian rhetoric. And she's seen how hurtful it is to be told that gay people are second class citizens so I have hope that she won't vote for the guy who tries to remove gay rights *g*
Wow, I really got off point in that one. There was a point there, once, but I think it fled in fear.
The other cool thing today was this post by
mirabellawotr. It's more of a rant, actually, but it says lots of interesting things about Harry Potter. I may not agree with all of it, but it's definitely interesting. I liked the fact that she pointed out that HP are kids books. They are. There's no getting around it. Well-written children's books are great and can usually be read just fine by adults - I've got a number of kids' books on my bookshelves and I'm not ashamed to admit it. She's also got some interesting points about Hermione's intelligence that make a surprising amount of sense. I was one of the irritating kids who only did the minimum of work required, rarely revised and got high grades consistently. Possibly could have done even better if I had worked, but I didn't see any point when there were so many other things to do (er, books to read, usually) and my teachers obviously felt the same way, judging by the biology teacher who turned a blind eye to me reading stonking great fantasy novels in her classes :-) Hermione is more like my sister - naturally smart, but needs to work obssessively to get the highest grades she possibly can. I think Mira is a little harsh towards Hermione, but it is an interesting POV on the character and I completely agree that she is the popular, outsider view of smart people.Not that I'm fabulously smart. I just have a good memory and hate to re-read assignments for more than spelling mistakes :-) But there must be some natural smarts in there because otherwise my attitude to school work would have seen me failing every class. My sister and super-smart younger cousin have proved to me how much better I could have done if I'd been more Hermione-like in my studies.
And again, the point has gone somewhere irretrivable.
I am looking forward to Redemption '05 and have discovered that a couple of fanfic writers that I like might be there too. This is very cool :-)
The parents have gone on holiday (yay!) so I've got the house to myself for a while :-) I may have to indulge in Chinese food
