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This is a Weird Weekend
12 years ago
General
Mostly because I wanted to get the Watchroast journal off my page (apologies again to all who were involved, card house kind of fell apart), but today is kind of weird in a special way.
This past week, there's a program that's been going on in Minnesota called "Mooseburger Camp" or just Moosecamp for short. If you picture when TV shows used to joke about going to clown camp in the summer, that's what Moosecamp is. And when I was fifteen, it was the only place in the world I wanted to go. Money and parental permission stopped me, and by the time I was of age I had fallen out of love with clowning and become more involved with the fandom instead. But, the clown forum I used to be on (yes, it exists) had a decent community of people who went; and so I wound up getting a phone call from the friends I has made on that forum one night from Moosecamp.
It was a significant point in my life because it was the first time I ever really felt like part of a group, or a community, and the first time I realized that distance doesn't necessarily negate friendship. Now, five years later, I've still never met a friend I've made online; come October, I plan to change that, but until then its still never happened. But earlier I had a conversation via phone with another friend of mine, a person I've got a lot of respect for, who got to hear my voice for the first time despite our being so close. And it drummed up a lot of the same ideas, and the memory of that phone call three years ago; and it just kind of struck me as funny they happened on the same day.
Couple that with Megaplex going on and people I'm friends with all having fun together... and I guess I'm just feeling sentimental. I've felt closer and more in tune with people whose voices I've never met and I'm perfectly fine with that. Thanks, internet, for giving me friends when I had none; and showing me how much people really can come to care for me.
This past week, there's a program that's been going on in Minnesota called "Mooseburger Camp" or just Moosecamp for short. If you picture when TV shows used to joke about going to clown camp in the summer, that's what Moosecamp is. And when I was fifteen, it was the only place in the world I wanted to go. Money and parental permission stopped me, and by the time I was of age I had fallen out of love with clowning and become more involved with the fandom instead. But, the clown forum I used to be on (yes, it exists) had a decent community of people who went; and so I wound up getting a phone call from the friends I has made on that forum one night from Moosecamp.
It was a significant point in my life because it was the first time I ever really felt like part of a group, or a community, and the first time I realized that distance doesn't necessarily negate friendship. Now, five years later, I've still never met a friend I've made online; come October, I plan to change that, but until then its still never happened. But earlier I had a conversation via phone with another friend of mine, a person I've got a lot of respect for, who got to hear my voice for the first time despite our being so close. And it drummed up a lot of the same ideas, and the memory of that phone call three years ago; and it just kind of struck me as funny they happened on the same day.
Couple that with Megaplex going on and people I'm friends with all having fun together... and I guess I'm just feeling sentimental. I've felt closer and more in tune with people whose voices I've never met and I'm perfectly fine with that. Thanks, internet, for giving me friends when I had none; and showing me how much people really can come to care for me.
Haha, I remember when we Skype called a while back and you were like "my god, you sound older than I expected"
Also, I literally work at clown camp. It's RAD. You don't know what you've been missing, dude.
TL:DR the internet has helped and shaped a lot of us in fantastic ways : >
I started using the net in 2000 and it was AC '03 when I first took the plunge and jumped on a plane to meet some online pals. So, three years of chatting on a computer before the real deal. Was a bit worried on that flight, I'll admit, but I've never looked back.
Of course, the problem is that I now have friends scattered across the US, UK, Australia and mainland Europe - which means meetups happen but once or twice a year if I'm lucky. But I do treasure those meetings.
There's still quite a few people I'd like to know a lot better.