EPTWhen I first chanced upon this site, I was a raw schoolboy - fourteen years old I think. Like most teenagers of that age, I had girl problems, school problems, life problems, and so on. I made a couple of blogs here and there, there were a few replies here, and a couple of exchanged of PMs there. And now, even with the power of retrospection, I can't say that I have gained any short term benefits from those angsty rants. However, I am going to take a step back and look at things on a grander scale. I think that I really shouldn't be thinking about why I didn't immediately learn anything from those blogs, but rather, I should be thinking about what I've managed to learn from my time on TL as a whole.
Back to the teenager-isms: a couple weeks back when I was loitering in the #TL-ABL IRC channel, where vGl-CoW was doing his thing, and marttorn was also doing his thing (which always involves depression and Japanese porn), I had a sort of monologue with cow. I talked about how upset I was with a certain event in school.
He did not give advice. I was not looking for any, anyway. He managed to sum up everything about being a teenager and how I should think about being one. It's a little silly, but appropriately so, considering the subject matter. This was his reply:
"~teen scene~"
I may be over-analyzing, but I don't think that matters as long as I gain some personal benefit from the thinking. I think cow's original intent for the phrase doesn't matter too. The silliness of the phrase embodies the silliness of being a teenager. I would place it in the same category as Vonnegut's famed phrase, "So it goes.". It accepts everything that happens and yet dismisses it at the same time. Of course, Vonnegut's phrase is polished and profound, while Cow's phrase is funny and frivolous.
At this point, I'm embarrassed that I actually feel quite exhausted and have lost some of the will to type this entire thing.
Although, I will continue in the name of principle.
I only just heard the combination of words, "in the name of principle", this morning. I was talking to farvacola this morning about reading. I told him that I was getting quite bored of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gay". He told me to continue in the name of principle, and then read something more interesting after I was done.
So there, that's one case where I learned from TL.
Moving on, I'd like to talk about how TL pushed me to learn more about crazy things like philosophy and literature. I cannot remember a specific instance where I simply decided that I would be tremendously interested in reading, and there is probably no such instance. I would say that my hunger for these subjects were spurred by a blurry collection of experiences. I would like to mention a couple of people that have been the main drivers behind my interest for these economically useless things. I am confident that what I'm about to write, I have already written to the people that are concerned.
As I usually do when I tread upon this subject matter, I want to mention samizdat and farvacola. If I am correct, I only really started to talk to them late last year. I hopped onto the #TLdebate channel and found these two goofballs talking about such and such. I asked them some questions on what they were talking about, which had something to do with literature, and I said some things of my own dealings in the literary world. I remember there was one time I asked farva to explain what post-modernism was to me, and I can't remember feeling more confused in my life. On another occasion, samizdat tried to explain how political ideologies were conjured up.
I hope I'm not being over-sentimental, but I am infinitely thankful that by some divine blessing, I managed meet these two potheads, and they've helped me see the majesty and wonder of literature.
Then there are people like ShadySands, OpticalShot vGl-CoW. SS helps to put things into perspective. He's like the sour parent that keeps pushing a child to not be a child and learn boring things like economics. OpticalShot of course, was always there to give real girl advice. Cow can be straight-up bicycle helmet retarded sometimes, but as I've mentioned, he's a pretty wise person. He taught me that misery was subjective, and I shouldn't downplay the feelings of others because I feel that I've gone through worse. But here's what I've managed to learn from these two, regardless of whether it was their intention to teach me something:
My life is as simple as it gets. All I have to do is be a student and have fun.
Man, as far as OpticalShot is concerned, whenever I think of him I am reminded of the times where I said things like "my love burns like a raging inferno". It's funny to think how much more stupid I was.
I'd like to mention Roe, marttorn, kollin, and Archas. They've just been pretty cool people all around. marttorn, kollin, and Archas at great at writing mechanically. I do not mean to insult their writing, but I feel as if good writing has something more to do than using $5 words where appropriate and having good grammar. I can't recall any of their writings where I came across a particular sentence or idea and though to myself,"Holy shit, this is genius!". Their prose is excellent, and that's all I have to say.
Roe on the other hand, is a completely different kind of writer. I can't help be feel that Roe is more personal in his writings, and not just because of the content he writes about. His blogs are always thought-provoking and interesting - they're always consistently reasoned as well.
Lastly, I would like to thank CreatorGX and DivinO. They were there to help and give advice when I decided to dip my toes into typography. I learned from them the basic rules of creating typographic art and design.
Now that I've said all this, what else is there to say? Thanks, I guess.
Thanks.
