Interest surfing

[gurdonark]

Like most people, my "interests" list ranges wide across the various lint-thick minor interests of my life. Some of my "interests" are things I am very active with, while other interests are very casual hobbies. I'm not unique in this, I know, because my LJ friends seem to follow in many instances similar interests list paths.

I enjoy clicking on the "interests" entries that I have to see who else lists each particular interest. I am a creature of simple amusements. I love the contrast between, say, the journals that list "autoharp" as an interest and the journals that list "Joy Division" as an interest.

A small part of me is tempted to list interests which will add to the contrast--let's say "elven magic" or "extreme sports". But I don't know any elven magic, and my most extreme sport is a quiet hike on a suburban sidewalk.

I do notice, though, that I'm drawn to my friends' eclecticism. I like the people who juxtapose interests which do not stereotypically fit together. I'll say it more simply--I like people who are mazes of contradiction. But I do prefer when they are mazes of kind contradictions, when possible.

Comments

[dabroots.livejournal.com]

I put some of my first LJ friends on my list after clicking to see who else listed Isaac Bashevis Singer as an interest, and then noticed that all seemed to be pretty good storytellers. A couple of them have fallen away, but bram, purejuice and sirriamnis are still with me.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That's cool. One person on LJ has almost all my "odd" interests, but when I posted a comment on his journal, he didn't even reply.
I guess having similar interests doesn't make one interesting!

[dabroots.livejournal.com]

I'll bet you'd come across some cool folk who share your "outsider art" interest.

[cathla143.livejournal.com]

I like the people who juxtapose interests which do not stereotypically fit together.

Such as... hockey and classical music? hehe...

Not sure if I'm a "maze of contradiction" though...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

To me, hockey and classical music both involve a lot of sturm und drang too much of the time, so maybe they're similar!

I don't know if you're a maze, either, but you might have a winding lane or two...

[verian.livejournal.com]

This prompted me to go and look at my own interest list, which reminded me that I deleted it a few months ago. I really can’t remember why now but I’m sure I had a good reason at the time, I think it may have had something to do with Guinness.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Now there's your first 2 new interest entries: Guiness and Alec Guiness!

[wayofthelotus.livejournal.com]

I'll freely admit my own guilt in curiously perusing the interests of livejournal friends. It's fun to see their list of quirks and ponder their secret eccentricities. Sometimes enlightment is my own reward, when I happen to stumble across an interest I didn't even know existed. Take the interest "zuni fetish", as an example. I had no idea there was such thing as a zuni*, much less a fetish for them!

*Incidentally, the Zuni are a Southwestern Native American tribe who have always had a reputation for being the most skillful at carving fetishes, which are used in hunting, propagation, protection or even as pets. In learning this, I also learned that the difference between a fetish and a simple carving is purely a matter of whether or not the particular object is believed to possess power.


from a girl who lists "panties" next to "peace",
lotus

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I love zuni art. I also like to see friends' interest lists, and in particular their unique, only-they-have-it interests.

[iamthedan.livejournal.com]

That's how I found you, listing "justification by faith" as an interest. It's amazing what people will put as an interest, but unfortunately, many of my friends neglect to use this feature.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I thought it was really cool when you added me based on "justification by faith"!

[miscelenaclosed.livejournal.com]

So I'm reading through the comments here on your journal... and I see the one above.

And I know a guy named Dan,
from Ohio,
who made a 'strongbad' reference
on a music discussion list recently...

a music discussion list about a band from Ohio
who's about-to-be-released double-CD is entitled 'Ohio'...

the same music discussion list
on which I originally found an LJ-code...

...and so I go to look up THIS Dan,
who has a 'strongbad' user-icon,
to see if he's the SAME Dan...

and no, he's not...
but THIS Dan does live near Baltimore,
and cannot be more than 20 miles from my house,
which wouldn't be strange
if it weren't for the fact that you, the link,
are in Texas...

:) LJ is a very interesting bit of the web, indeed.

[miscelenaclosed.livejournal.com]

... and then.. and then...
I went to my 'interests' list, and noting for not the first time that no one else has yet listed 'chronicle books' as an interest (how can this be?)
...
I decided to check out the most recent entries from Marylanders.

I was skimming through names and photos and almost-but-not-quite randomly clicked on geekygabe...
who, it turns out, lists in his bio that he is "...a copy editor in Washington, D.C. for the American Society for Microbiology...."
...which rang some bells, so I scrolled down to see if he listed your friend and mine microbie as a friend also, but he doesn't.

He does, however, list my friend bucknersfolly... although I can't for the life of me figure out why, after reading through his interests list. I can't see how they'd have anything at all in common.

I should probably apologize for filling up your journal with comments about how my interests/friends interact (or don't) ... but I thought you might enjoy the peculiar interlinking... :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for taking the time to do this. It's fun to watch you work through it.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

i like an eclectic list too. in choosing lj friends, i mean, though i've tried to vary my own. people whose interests go off in all directions are most likely to be entertaining! :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I love to vary post topics, and I love that some topics draw some part of my readers, and others draw others.

[niyabinghi.livejournal.com]

Lots of contradictions in mine, for sure.... but, with my last entry, probably blew it in terms of "kind contradictions", heh.


I confess, there is often a little Stinker in me.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You're fine....but your last post suggests that cheating ex boyfriends don't fare so well :)

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

i am, too, drawn to the complex and daring, which i consider those who are not shy to vary their interests to meet their needs

it was interesting some years ago when i threw myself my first birthday party at 40 and invited my circle of closest friends that most of them did not know each other and that initially all they had in common was me

i have also come to appreciate that many of us are simply complex if i may use that oxymoron...intricate containers of the most interesting experiences that continue to inspire me....something in your interest list that i might not have thought about leads me to another person and another new idea or thought

i think for now the biggest contradiction in my life that those who know me laugh about is that i am a person who believes wholeheartedly in conservation and living simply and quietly and stock car racing with it's noisy, smelly gas-guzzling engines

i am my own paradox

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Cool. I am my own paradox.

Hey, I may be in SD in September for a business matter!

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

hey, if you have time, maybe we could do lunch or something

or i could at least list a few favorite sites for walking

and happy birthday tomorrow

[the-outsider.livejournal.com]

Do you mean people who's interests list looks like "ambient, black metal, depeche mode, james bond, napalm death, neil young, philip k. dick, pro wrestling, public libraries, sanford and son, slayer, spaghetti westerns, straight edge?" I wonder what sort of weirdo would have an interests list like that....

[secularkangaroo.livejournal.com]

I don't know if my interest list is a maze of contradictions or not. I do know that a lot of the journals I enjoy the most have hardly any of my interests listed.

[laruth.livejournal.com]

my most extreme sport is a quiet hike on a suburban sidewalk.

Dodging naughty police cars, swooping magpies, I-can't-control-my-temper young male drivers.....I don't know. A hike can be quite extreme ;)

When I do have the time (which is very rare), I do enjoy going through interest lists and discovering weird and new (to me) interests!

[nickelchief.livejournal.com]

When I scan someone's list of interests, I must confess that most of the time my eye is only drawn to the non-boldfaced, non-underlined interests, thus overlooking the others. It is interesting to see what a truly unique interest looks like, in four words or less.

[blue-by-you.livejournal.com]

I like people who are mazes of contradiction. But I do prefer when they are mazes of kind contradictions, when possible.

I just had to take a moment to agree.

[miscelenaclosed.livejournal.com]

Have you spent much time looking through people's user icons while you're checking out their interests?

I just looked at the labels on yours... and what you have named "Redwire Station" has always been a ladybug-from-above to me. :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I do click on icon names! I love them. But i can see the ladybug in redwire station