Green Room - Week 18 - Day 1
Sep. 20th, 2013 02:26 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
clauderainsrm.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
therealljidolHow do you want Exhibit B to be remembered?
That is the power that is in your hands, right now.
It’s the power that has been in your hands the entire time. But not everyone stops to think about that on a regular basis.
Will it be looked on as welcoming? As divisive? Will the positivity win out or the negativity?
You are the best, and the worst ambassadors LJ Idol has. You go out into the world and either make it look good, or look bad by what you do and what you say.
In the end, more people should be walking away with that feeling you get when you have just walked off a rollercoaster and are just so overwhelmed with emotions… hopefully more people feel the rush of “I want to do that again!!” than are vomiting into the bushes.
One comforting thing is that, regardless of the atmosphere at the end, that I don’t have to worry about who is going to win. I’ve fortunate that the writers have all been of such quality that I knew that no one mattered who ended up in the winner’s circle, that it was going to be someone extremely talented.
The results are up from last night: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/696245.html
As if the new topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/696365.html
My hope is that Exhibit B will finish out with the same sort of energy that Exhibit A did… with a rush of “I can’t wait until we can do that again!”
That is the power that is in your hands, right now.
It’s the power that has been in your hands the entire time. But not everyone stops to think about that on a regular basis.
Will it be looked on as welcoming? As divisive? Will the positivity win out or the negativity?
You are the best, and the worst ambassadors LJ Idol has. You go out into the world and either make it look good, or look bad by what you do and what you say.
In the end, more people should be walking away with that feeling you get when you have just walked off a rollercoaster and are just so overwhelmed with emotions… hopefully more people feel the rush of “I want to do that again!!” than are vomiting into the bushes.
One comforting thing is that, regardless of the atmosphere at the end, that I don’t have to worry about who is going to win. I’ve fortunate that the writers have all been of such quality that I knew that no one mattered who ended up in the winner’s circle, that it was going to be someone extremely talented.
The results are up from last night: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/696245.html
As if the new topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/696365.html
My hope is that Exhibit B will finish out with the same sort of energy that Exhibit A did… with a rush of “I can’t wait until we can do that again!”
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-09-20 02:33 pm (UTC)I fail to see why this is mutually exclusive.
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Date: 2013-09-20 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-20 04:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-09-20 02:48 pm (UTC)When one is weary, it's easy to be snippy, snarky, emotional, etc. It's one of the reasons why I've been trying to stay offline lately. I'm not pointing this solely toward Idol, btw, but because Idol is a huge part of my online life, it's included.
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Date: 2013-09-20 03:25 pm (UTC)I've certainly experienced more than a little of that "people on the edge snapping" first hand. It feels like more than I've had in some time. But that could be recency bias.
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Date: 2013-09-20 05:10 pm (UTC)I have no idea if Mercury is in retrograde, however.
Seriously -- I seldom complain about customers, but we've had some real doozies recently. It's like somebody blew a high frequency horn and they came out of the woodwork.
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Date: 2013-09-20 05:11 pm (UTC)To put it in another context: I tend to be a pretty "laissez-faire" mom, allowing KFP, in our unstructured moments, to play and explore the way he wants (provided he's not doing anything unsafe). But when I'm tired, all my patience goes out the window. I find myself snapping at him for doing the same thing -- such as banging his wooden hammer on different surfaces to check out the sounds -- that I found perfectly acceptable earlier in the week.
Keeping this in mind, I don't know what your plans are, but I would recommend a break of at least a couple months before beginning Season 9. Maybe you could kick it off in January, after the winter holidays are over, when people are feeling energized and renewed? In the meantime, I would love to see the Green Rooms remain active on at least a weekly basis, addressing writing topics and/or proposing topics for people to write for fun.
As always, I'd be happy to brainstorm with you or anyone else via e-mail (shantipoet at gmail).
I tend to be a pretty enthusiastic ambassador for LJI, since so much of the essays and fiction I've written in the last few years that I'm currently either publishing or sharing came from the contest.
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Date: 2013-09-20 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-09-20 07:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-09-20 05:44 pm (UTC)How do we measure the quality of a writer? Imagination? Grammar? Telling a complete story? Literary style? Genre? Likable characters? Emotional reaction?
As the number of contestants gets smaller, are we voting for just the entry from this week? For the overall performance of the season? For the degree of improvement? For the people we just like better?
When we get to the point where everyone's attention is on a handful of people, everything seems more important or less fair. It's like the end of a horse race or a marathon. People watch the whole thing, and they care to some degree or they wouldn't be watching at all, but people don't stand up and yell until the end.
I don't think anyone intentionally wants to hurt anyone else's feelings, but people feel strongly, and things are said. Hell, there have been a couple of things said in the past day or so that have stung me when I read them, but I've never competed this close to the end. I am reminding myself of similar things that have been said in other seasons, and I am making the decision not to take it personally.
I'm a big fan of Idol. There are things I don't like about it, and things I dearly love about it. Sometimes my favorite has won and sometimes not. It's a great group of talented people, and people don't always get along. It's up to each person to decide to remember the good and work through the rough spots.
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Date: 2013-09-20 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2013-09-20 06:09 pm (UTC)Even as a reader, one gets caught up in the Idol race, as it were. Everyone is always going to vote for a slightly different reason, and with different criteria, and this can lead to confusion, and words, and bruised feelings. It's not limited to the end game, of course, but it's at its peak right now. (And I can finally say it's way more intense as a participant.)
A lot of people voted in that last poll. It was almost the last two polls combined. And on one hand, that is a fantastic amount of people reading great writing from everyone participating! Awesome!
On the other, a subset of a lot of people are disappointed at the results, either in part or in whole (depending on how they voted).
So it's a hard thing to balance. Time and distance from The Moment will lend perspective, and everyone will calm the H down in time. And the Idol community does lean toward the forces of good rather than the forces of ill ... so we'll get there. Idol usually does.
</lettersea_pontification>
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Date: 2013-09-20 07:34 pm (UTC)I will also add that Idol is a pressure cooker. We jumped in this pot together back in early May, for goodness sake. We've been cooking together for a long time now, under increasing amounts of stress, dealing with all kinds of personal and interpersonal challenges as we struggle to write one or more things week after week after week, with variable deadlines, variable topics, variable schedules... I'm honestly surprised that there haven't been more explosions in the kitchen considering how close to dinner time it's getting and how long this stew has been churning away.
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Date: 2013-09-20 07:57 pm (UTC)When you have a community full of passionate, creative people, you get... well... passion and creativity. This inevitably means you get lots of different perspectives and viewpoints from people who tend to feel strongly about things and express themselves powerfully with words. The elements that cause people to make comments that other people might not like or agree with are the exact same elements that result in people writing a huge variety of wonderful, creative things week after week, month after month, and keep on trekkin' with style and flair. You can't kill one without killing the other because they're fruit of the exact same tree.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-20 06:07 pm (UTC)I have jewelry designs to craft from walnut. Not an easy wood to work but very pritty.
While I could work in writing with this I am uncertain if I should. I am also hopeful of getting a court date for my ssi review - well maybe hopeful is too strong a word more like wishful.
Community Chest MIA
Date: 2013-09-20 06:47 pm (UTC)Perhaps you contacted me and I just couldn't find it last night. In which case, just email me again to make sure that I write it down! :)
Re: Community Chest MIA
Date: 2013-09-20 07:14 pm (UTC)Re: Community Chest MIA
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Date: 2013-09-20 07:26 pm (UTC)Re: Community Chest MIA
Date: 2013-09-20 08:50 pm (UTC)Anyway, I'll email you now.
Re: Community Chest MIA
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Date: 2013-09-20 09:04 pm (UTC)Re: Community Chest MIA
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From:apropos of nothing
Date: 2013-09-20 07:37 pm (UTC)Oh, and we have a neighborhood turkey! I think it's nest is in a yard on the other side of my block. It's been making the rounds in everyone's yard except for mine. I think The Kidz might have something to do with that.
(edited because I can't spell for some weird reason)
Re: apropos of nothing
Date: 2013-09-23 05:10 pm (UTC)Run it off, I say! Or you'll be sorry later. :O