I tend to make a few witty and many sarcastic comments. A few are appreciated, but many fall flat. I try to express sympathy when I read people’s stories, because they remind me of situations I’ve been in (or wouldn’t want to be in in the future). I somethimes have some tidbit of information I can drop in the thread, and can occassionally do it before someone beats me to it. Mostly though, I don’t post much - I’m pretty quiet.
Whaddaya know, it’s more like me IRL than I would have predicted.
[minor hijack]So which part of Houston are you from, Ringo, if you don’t mind me asking? I just moved from there - well, it seems like yesterday, but it was about a year and a half ago. [/hijack]
I dunno. I guess I’ve learned to write more informally here, but what’s really holding me up is my answering lots and lots of technical questions in GQ. That doesn’t always permit a very conversational style, although it does require my putting some very abstract ideas into layman’s terms. It’s a good skill to have, and I like to think that I’ve gotten to be pretty decent at it due to my time here.
I worry sometimes that I come across as very pedantic, but it’s not high on my list of things to spend a lot of effort on.
[continuing hijack] Oh, cool, downtown where the nightlife is. I went to UH some indistinguishable mumble years ago, but far longer than that (later) I lived over in Alief. I bet it’s much warmer there then here. (Snowing today)
I think my opinions come off as much less sympathetic than I am in person, also I think much faster than I can type so by the time I get things down I’ve lost track of most of my thoughts and end up writing something much shorter and less clear than I’d like.
Hmm. Now that I think about it, Ringo, I don’t think you’re really far off from your real life self.
The big thing is pacing. I read at my own normal speaking pace. You speak rather slowly and pause a lot as if you are considering each word before you really say it.
If I look back at your posts and read in your usual speaking pace (and add in the little side-to-side head thing you do) I can easily imagine it being just like real life.
