You Don't Live Like I Do

The Friday Five: Dreamwidth / LiveJournal

2026-03-19T22:24:00Z

The Friday Five for 20 March 2026

1. What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?

In 2000, a lot of the UK Goth scene ended up on LiveJournal. I tried my hand at blogging by hand-writing HTML on a shell account on a nerd friend's Solaris box in the States, but quickly realised that the comments and community were an important part. Partly I moved so I could post sickeningly cute comments on my then-gf's LJ. That... didn't end well. But I started my LJ in 2001.

I was a fairly late mover to Dreamwidth after LiveJournal started its long slide downwards; I didn't hit the migrate button until 2017, and I didn't delete my LJ account until 2018 when a then-coworker linked to it on work IRC. There were a lot of very cringe public entries from decades before I didn't particularly want to be associated with.

2. How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?

Other than thefridayfive, not many! DW never seemed to get the right critical mass for communities. I welcome suggestions!

3. Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

See above!

4. How did you pick your user name?

About the time I needed an LJ username, I was listening to a lot of The Velvet Underground, and the line "Different colours, made of tears" from Venus In Furs was stuck in my head. Unfortunately, that was one character too long for LJ usernames, so I had to elide a vowel. I'd never heard of the TV show "Diff'rent Strokes" before.

5. If you could change your user name, would you?

I don't think so. I have many usernames in many places, but I like this one here!

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The Friday Five,

2023-06-18T14:27:26Z

From friday_five here:

1. Can you diagram a sentence?

Technically I know what this means, and I expect I could do it, but I don't know the methodology. Breaking up a sentence into clauses, identifying verbs etc. is easy for me.

2. What word do you always spell wrong, no matter what?

"Medicinal", which I always spell (and say) as mecidinal.

3. What word always looks like it's spelled wrong to you but isn’t?

"Phoenix" really feels like it should be "Pheonix".

4. Do you have any little memory games when it comes to similar words, like principle and principal?

Not that I'm aware of.

5. Was grammar something you enjoyed or detested in school?

I loved it, because I was a brainy little swot who could remember it very well, and being correct gave me some small vestige of power and authority over the less brainy people who bullied me.

Now I'm older and more secure in myself. Mostly thanks to cosmolinguist's good influence, I understand that perfect grammatical correctness is a racist tool used for oppression. Between those things I'm a lot less critical of other peoples' spelling and grammar, though I'm always happy to help when somebody wants to get it "right".

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The Friday Five for 9 October 2020: This Old Thing

2020-10-09T08:04:10Z

This Old Thing

1) What is the oldest thing you own?

Probably my great-great-grandfather's police watch. It doesn't have a date on, but must be from around 1850.

2) What is the oldest home you've lived in?

In Oxford, I lived in an old farm house. The farm lands had been converted into a housing estate. The farmhouse was several hundred years old with thick stone walls and floors. It was great.

3) What is the oldest book you've read?

I have a volume of Horace's poetry which I forgot to return to the school library as a teenager, which dates back to 1831 IIRC.

4) What is the oldest electronic device that you still use?

I don't particularly chase new techology, but probably either the PS4 or my Dell laptop. I replaced my phone a year or so ago, and my desktop is relatively new.

5) What is the oldest work of art/architecture that you've seen?

I grew up near Stonehenge...

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The Friday Five for 2 October 2020: Summer Review

2020-10-06T10:45:53Z

1) What did you plant?

Personally, nothing - but mother_bones and cosmolinguist have been busy in the garden all summer. We've had fresh salad, tomatoes, and even some nearly-edible grapes!

2) What was your favorite summer food?

Not sure I have one specific to summer, but I'll say barbecue - we've not had a lot of them but they've been good.

3) What song will remind you of this summer?

I don't think I've heard any songs which particularly make me think of this summer.

4) What was your favorite body of water to be in?

I have been in two bodies of water this summer - the waterfall at Three Shire Heads, and Spring Lakes in Nottingham. Of those two I preferred Spring Lakes because you could have more of a swim and there were fewer people.

5) What's been your favorite outfit?

Same as usual - T-shirt, cargo pants / shorts, trainers, hoodie.

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The Friday Five for 7 February 2020

2020-02-15T13:00:38Z

From The Friday Five.

Can you do simple sewing repairs, such as replacing a button or rejoining a straight seam?
Yep, a bit messily and by hand. mother_bones keeps threatening to teach me how to use the sewing machine.
Can you change a flat tire?
Yes, though last time I tried the wheel nuts were too stiff. I now have a longer wrench.
Can you plan and cook a simple meal?
Yes. I am an OK cook but nothing haute cuisine.
Can you rewire a lamp?
Yep. Again, I'm an OK sparky for the basics.
Are you a spender or a saver? Are you able to switch from one to the other on occasion?
I tend to be a saver - I'm not much one for spending for its own sake, and most of my hobbies are cheap. However, sometimes the best way to solve a problem is with money, as cosmolinguist assures me that Captain Awkward says.

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