Nothing but the effects of dust and vapor in the thin skin of air

I am rediscovering reading. It's a little odd, really, since I used to be a nine novels a week person (god bless the local library). The degree rather put paid to that, and the internet hasn't helped at all. I'm finding it very hard to start reading anything; I just don't have the motivation. Once I have started, though, I'm devouring books. I feel a little dissatisfied afterwards, when I run out of pages and still want more Book, but that may be because I've been reading novels that do that deliberately (Brave New World and I Am Legend, to be precise, plus extracts from Milligan's War and Down and Out in London and Paris). And it's strange, because I finished Brave New World all of five minutes ago, and I'm both wanting more of it and having no desire to read anything else. I only started BNW at the hospital this morning, and I've been running around and shopping and stuff since then. So feeling a little unfulfilled, I guess.

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My paid lj account expires soon. Don't know whether I'll renew it or not. I understand the moral objections everyone else has/had, but lj isn't even owned by that company any more, and I admit I wasn't nearly as bothered as most people seem to have been. Obviously, I was against the deletions and bannings, and the breaking of their own TOS, but things like flagging seem like the obvious business solutions to me. Because LJ is a business, and it is subject to law. Fanfiction is illegal, and depicting minors (even fictional) in sexual stuations is illegal; fight the law, not the people obeying it, I guess*). I see fanfiction and fanart in the same way most people see speeding, in terms of illegality, and it seems a lot of corporations do too now, since the era of C&D letters to many-and-various fan websites seems largely over. The flagging system is like sticking ratings on fanfiction: of course it dosn't prevent people from viewing it, but it puts the blame on their head, not LJ's.

On the other hand, the one thing all the banning and flagging and everything did draw to my attention was that LJ, as a business, was being very badly run. But Six Apart are gone now, replaced by a company that I know little to nothing about, and have heard equally worrying things about. I'm assuming (I'm hoping) that LJ's servers are still in the US, and subject to US laws, because I know nothing about Russian Intellectual Property and free speech laws, whereas fandom has provided a pretty good rough guide to American ones. If things do go down the pan again, I'd like to be able to get out without leaving too much money behind; equally, if enough people on my FList migrate, I'd like to join them. GreatestJournal is now dead in the water, which leaves InsaneJournal as the next main contender, and JournalFen it's usual, adults-only membership-codes self (that I never add any entries too, but like having the option of commenting on other people's).

Of course, the relevant arguments are "can I afford more paid time?" and "is it worth it solely for icons and polls?". I don't want a plus account (that's something I will take a stand against, even though with firefox I don't even see most of the ads), but I don't use all of the paid features anyway. I have more than six fandoms, and I like having relevant icons for each, as well as icons relevant to my moods and non-fannish interests. I like my layout, which I think is paid only (it won't disappear when my time expires, as I recall, but I won't be able to have anything like it again), and I like being able to do proper polls and edit comments and stuff like that. I like showing my support for a site I've used for five years now, but I'm not sure it deserves that support any more.

I guess I might as well take advantage of those paid features until I make up my mind, right?

[Poll #1132798]



*Where 'I guess' means 'I know this is a huge generalisation and not applicable in many circumstances, but it roughly conveys my reaction to people taking arms against LJ for not wanting to get shut down for breaking the law, and I like the phrasing'. When I use phrases that suggest I'm not firm in my argument**, or I'm making vague generalisations, they're usually shorthand for something like this.

**I have very few arguments I'm firm about (e.g. socialism trumps capitalism, or the idea thatphobas can esult from cultural memories is bullshit), and it's not really worth having those with anybody because I'm just going to reject their statements and not learn anything new. I mean, it's nice if someone else's mind gets changed and they learn something new, but I have a tendency to have these arguments with people towars whom I can be bullish and loud and steamroll whatever the other person is saying so I can feel good about myself. Attempting to have them with people who have equally firm feelings results in a quick stalemate and me backing down because I'm bored. I enjoy debates and friendly arguments, but much more so when something productive is likely to come out of it; introduce me to ideas I haven't had, show me the side I hadn't seen, and let me do the same. Now that I have some control of it, I like having my mind changed by other people. It makes me feel intelligent.

[Poll #952988]

I've had this account paid for about eight months now, and this is the first time I've got around to doing a poll. I keep having ideas for polls, but finally the need to prevaricate has persuaded me to make one.

post. There's more like that on there too.