a piratey soul full of vinegar and stuff

Real life and online. Usually people divide those two into clear separate boxes, like the two had very little to do with each other, like internet was the land of fairy-tales and wonder while real life was, well, real. I don’t really do that, despite the fact that I recognize that there is a border between the on-line life and so called real life. Essentially, I consider on-line life to be a part of the so called real life, it‘s a part I like to keep some people out of.

Despite the fact that it is easier to cheat on your identity on-line, the people you interact with are still real - unless you actually got fooled by some of those crummy chat bots. They live, breathe, they have emotions, histories and reasons for why they act the way they act, why they say the things they say. On-line you often act in a social environment. So the way I see it, you are not being anti-social; you interact with other people - often without seeing their faces, which is not really that different from talking on the phone or writing a letter. Other people are involved and you are not alone. The way I see it, it indeed is a form of “real life” (a term which I feel the need to keep within quotation marks, much like enika).

The reason for the way I think is probably that I’ve come to consider internet my main way of social interaction with other people. A lot of my best friends I got to know via internet (though not by simply walking up to them and asking if they want to be my friend...I actually got to know them like a normal person) and it’s the way I communicate with most of my “real life” friends too when I can. It’s easy and cheap. Then there are the perks of not having to show your appearance - you can be as shabby as you want, you could be nude for all they care. It's quite liberating and convenient. Usually upon meeting a new person, the first judgement comes through observing their appearance - you create a prejudice based on it. On-line, this factor is removed if you choose to do so and you take a short cut into personality and behaviour. Hence for many people it is easier to get to know others via on-line methods. I know it is for me. Plus I get to be in my underwear all day and be social at the same time (I just made myself laugh with this line - you'll understand if you have gutter goggles on).

So, what do I actually do on-line? I don’t think I will go through everything I do but mainly I chat with other people. I quite enjoy it. While I’m insecure to the point of paranoid when meeting face to face, I’m more relaxed and open when writing on-line. I’ve come to realize that I’m far wittier most of the time, which is definitely a sign of me being more comfortable.

I’m also heavily involved in forums, a variety of them. I’ve maintained and helped maintaining several. These days I’m mostly involved in post-by-post or play-by-post forum role-playing games (often referred to as RP or RPG forums) or forums related to them ( RP resource and discussion forums). It’s like acting in text form, or writing a collaborative story. You have a setting, or a plot, and you have your created character or characters. You play as them, so you write from their view point and other people in the game do the same with their characters.

Here’s a quick example:

Player 1: The floor of the old house creaked as John snuck in. He blinked as he peered in. The thick, worn curtains were closed and it was so dark that he had to blink over and over again just to make out the figures of the nearest furniture. “Cassie? Are you here?” He whispered with his voice quivering slightly. John took a careful step towards the living room, allowing the door to shut behind him. “Cassie?”

Player 2: Cassie slouched on a moth-bitten arm chair with an apathetic expression on her usually worry-ridden face. She had come to the conclusion that a particular problem would not go away and she could not do a thing about it. All she could do was close the curtains and tend to her looming migraine. Suddenly she heard a creak. Her now alert eyes darted around in the dark, looking for what ever it was that had broken the silence. That was when she heard a feeble voice call for her from the direction of the hallway. “Shut up and get in.” She said with a flat tone. “Did you get the good stuff? I think Rowland is hungry again.” A faint smile rose onto her lips at the mention of Rowland.

So, there’s that and then there are the art circles, which I try to be involved in as much as possible. It’s enjoyable and possibly beneficial financially since I do try to get commissions (orders for art) every now and then. The more the merrier, since I’m not in a financially good situation. I don’t have my own official portfolio set up just yet (I had one, using deviant art‘s new portfolio feature, but I scrapped it because of all its ridiculous inhibitions and bugs). I have designed it, actually several times over, but since I’m not all that good at coding, a friend of mine is supposed to start coding it any day now. She’s also gracious enough to offer me web hosting, which is just plain excellent for me. I, in return, make art for her stories and so on.

*Cough* I'm not really going to discuss certain piratey things but they are definitely there too.

So, yeah, that was a peek at my internet life. I reckon that’s enough about it for now. While I could probably write a novel on this subject, I doubt anyone would want to spend days reading it. xD