Rantalicious: "Someday Celine, My Journal Will Go On If You Believe In Love I will Always Love You"

[vianegativa]

I open up Live journal, and there they are, coiled and lying in wait like some wharf hooker who sees a seventeen year-old with a $50 in his hand...

You ALL know what I'm talking about.

LiveJournal is a personal thing; a sacred cow to some of the highest order. This I understand. Music is a medium with bonds moments of great emotion with a tune or turn of the lyric. This I can appreciate as well. Using song lyrics to emote in your journal, or hell, anywhere is a time honored literary tradition practiced by poets and frustrated suburban goth girls centuries over. I can accept lyrics as a preface to a journal or even as a random entry.

Christ on a pogo stick, though, I am SO tired of people who do NOTHING but post lyrics.

/rant on

Look. It DOESN'T make you look deep to regurgitate some pap put forth on Top 40 radio. I don't CARE how connected you feel to music; writing your journal in jaunty flashes of someone ELSE's lyrical wisdom is only slightly less annoying than those people who use the latest ad campaign from Volkswagen as a witty quip.

You can "Zum, Zum!" my ass.

Own your own thoughts, be the emperor of your own time and space. If you're having problems in a relationship, putting down the entire lyrics to Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right, But It's Ok" may SEEM cathartic at the time, but it's just annoying to read. Why not try actually MULLING OVER THE IDEA in a non-lyrical format to come to your own conclusions?

Don't mistake my intent. I'm not saying that all people who post lyrics should go jump in a lake; not at all. I'm just saying that those incapable of doing anything BUT maintaining a journal or lyric sheets might reconsider actually USING their own voices.

Yes, those "all-lyric" people as well as those "all-cryptic one liner" people. I don't know which I despise worse.

I think I become so infuriated with the cryptic/lyric crowd because their journal is no longer about expressing themselves, but rather it's become a new media advertising tool to either get them liked or laid because they're "deep". This unsettles my craw in a way that makes me want to grab a gun.

But hey, it ain't my journal.

Given that, I just cut a few of the people who got my ire up that way. No offense, but if I want false pretense and the torrid use of others ideas, I'll watch network TV.

/rant off.

That is all.

Comments

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

Christ on a pogo stick, though, I am SO tired of people who do NOTHING but post lyrics.

I admit that I do lyric posts a lot, but I LJ cut them, as a) they get reeeeeeally long, and b) you're not the only one who gets annoyed with seeing lyric upon lyric.

(Coincidentally, the idea of lyric posting to get laid has never crossed my mind ::laugh:: If it DOES work that way, then I think I might be doing something wrong ^_-)

[redcub.livejournal.com]

..and all Gods bless you for using that lj-cut tag, too. I wish more people would learn its grace when posting very long messages.

I also wish you could lj-cut a reply as well, but ah well.

All I can say is prepare for the "It's my journal, I can write what I want" flames

[cub4bear.livejournal.com]

Other pet peeves:

• The daily lunch menu or cigarette smoking update
  
• AIM transcripts that are impossible to follow

As a blatant link-whore, I would like to take this opportunity to direct you to a similar rant from my blog (http://members.rogers.com/cub4blog/2002_05_01_archives.html#85035619). Here's an excerpt:

- Song Lyrics. If you're really smart, you'll add o/~ right before and after the lyrics. The ASCII-art note lets people know that you're posting lyrics, a clever device that is rare enough that people might not realize you haven't written your own poetry. Unfortunately, people still won't have a clue what the fuck you're transcribing those lyrics for. (Note: As a musician, the use of o/~ to represent an eighth note offends me deeply.)

To potential flamers: Flaming is nice, but please be creative.

Re: All I can say is prepare for the "It's my journal, I can write what I want" flames

[henare.livejournal.com]

the corollary to this is "if it really pisses you off then stop reading that journal." i find that nearly everyone i've stopped reading because of stuff like this are people i really don't miss.

Re: All I can say is prepare for the "It's my journal, I can write what I want" flames

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I did stop. I'm just letting off steam.

here here

[captainblunder.livejournal.com]

someone had to say it.

agreed.

Re: here here

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

I already removed those people from my list. My problem is banished. This was me expressing frustration.

So THERE.

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

Neither. I'm ranting.

Read more closely. You'll note I said I removed them from the list, hence I solved my problem. I can STILL however bitch about it in my journal if I like.

Pt 2

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

Did you bother reading all of the post?

Did you miss:

"Using song lyrics to emote in your journal, or hell, anywhere is a time honored literary tradition practiced by poets and frustrated suburban goth girls centuries over."

or:

"But hey, it ain't my journal.
Given that, I just cut a few of the people who got my ire up that way."

Gah. I don't bitch to annoy people. I DO act on my thoughts. I was letting off steam.

Infotainment?

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

Hey Charles,

I don't really offer advice, and I don't see people as a means to entertainment. I'm actually hurt to think you believe I think in those terms.

Do I seem that way to you?

Re: Infotainment?

[cub4bear.livejournal.com]

... you were criticizing how other people utilize their journals ... I agreed with your criticisms, but I value an individual's right to express themselves however they feel necessary more.

Although your original comment was in the form of a question, criticism was strongly implied, something that's backed up by your wording here. Given that your original comment was a criticism of what vianegativa's post, are you being very consistent? Aren't you criticizing vianegativa? What about his "right to express himself?"

Before you answer that you're not preventing him from using his "right to express himself," keep in mind that he wasn't preventing anyone else from expressing themselves either. In fact, he said "But hey, it ain't my journal."

Isn't it his journal to do with as he pleases, and "If you don't like it, don't read it?"

Re: Infotainment?

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

What's really sad to me is I'm sitting here looking at a journal entry where I'm ASKING for comments about something critical to me and no one has said a word....

Charles, I value your opinion, as I always have. I simply maintain that I can be annoyed by something and rant or complain or cry about it in my journal, as you often do, same as everyone else.

The FIRST person who takes my journal as advice is making a mistake. I should perhaps have phrased that more eloquently to express my frustration. Something along the idea of "I don't understand WHY people don't..."

On another point, I read journals because I care about my friends, and I'm honestly hoping to make new ones as I learn to express myself and order my thoughts. In the fact that I enjoy being a voyeur into other's lives, yes, it's infotainment if you wish to call it that, but by doing so you denegrate the people you're getting to know.

A long time ago, a friend wondered WHY I became furious with him for taunting people online. It was his contention that it "wasn't real". I told him otherwise, because these chats, journals, what have you ARE real people, just dealt with in a different medium. It doesn't mean I can't be frustrated at them or hurt them accidentally, or that they can't do the same to me.

It just means that I consider them people, not flashes of amusement.

[cub4bear.livejournal.com]

If it's cathartic for someone to post lyrics all the time rant about someone else's posts, that's how they want to express themselves. If you don't like it, don't read it. In this post comment, are you really offering advice to these people vianegativa, or is it that you just want to complain because you aren't being entertained enough?

[grunter.livejournal.com]

Well, I was going to sit and tap out my feelings about this here rant, but, y'know, I'll just let Debbie Boone voice my deep, deep sentiments:

YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE

So many nights I sit by my window
Waiting for someone to sing me his song
So many dreams I kept deep inside me
Alone in the dark but now
You've come along

You light up my life
You give me hope
To carry on
You light up my days
and fill my nights with song

Rollin' at sea, adrift on the water
Could it be finally I'm turning for home?
Finally, a chance to say hey,
I love You
Never again to be all alone

You light up my life
You give me hope
To carry on
You light up my days
and fill my nights with song

You light up my life
You give me hope
To carry on
You light up my days
and fill my nights with song

It can't be wrong
When it feels so right
'Cause You
You light up my life

*snif*

Kinda gets you right *points to a heart that's just grown three sizes too big* there . . .

Oh, I'm gonna get "it" for this . . . hee, hee.

[lostncove.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh. You are my hero of the day.

Yes yes YES!

[kev-bot.livejournal.com]

Yes, those "all-lyric" people as well as those "all-cryptic one liner" people. I don't know which I despise worse.

Oh yes. Those cryptic one-liner people ("I don't know which is worse." And that's IT!!!) crawl up under my fingernails and burrow there. I'm also against the all-lyric people. I've done it once and regretted it immediately. How does one know how to take these lyrics, especially if 1) they don't know the song and 2) you haven't put it into context?

I like using lyrics to beef up entries, as kind of a soundtrack to what's going on in your life at the time. But ALEs (All Lyric Entries) must go NOW.

(PS - Can I zum zum your ass? I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself...)

Buzz

Re: Yes yes YES!

[vianegativa.livejournal.com]

Actually, I prefer to have my ass laminated. :-)

[conner24.livejournal.com]

Lol! The only reason I ever post lyrics is if I like the song or wonder what people think of when they read it. I once wrote a very cheesy love song to someone.

I don't mind cryptic one-liners though.