Wading in the Velvet Sea

Very true.
I first came here because you're a friend. But I stick around because this is fun to read. In a sense, we're not really friends any more. We're not part of each other lives now. You and Tim are my 1997 friends, who don't know 2003 me, just as I don't know 2003 you. And reading this blog is not a social interaction. Even commenting on this blog is not a social interaction, much as I sometimes wish it were. In fact, often I have started writing a comment, and then not written it, because I realised how inappropriate it would end up being. It would not be inappropriate if we were still a bunch of friends sitting in a room and kidding around, or even sitting at our individual computers writing but still living on the same campus, exposed to the same small group of people. That would be a social interaction. This isn't. We still know nothing about 2003 each other. But whatever it is keeps me coming back here, is interesting enough without being a social interaction.

One thing that emphasizes this to me are your Buffy comments, which I simply cannot read. I'm behind on Buffy - If I had to wait for the episodes to actually be aired on TV here, it would be another year or two before I could watch season 6, not to mention 7. As it is we ordered the season 6 DVD set from Amazon and started watching it yesterday. So by the time I get around to reading your Buffy comments, I won't even be able to have the illusion of interacting with you in any way. But I still plan on going back and reading them, because they're bound to be fun to read.

I don't really understand how some bloggers can treat this medium as a diary of sorts. How can you divulge the intimacies of your daily life to a bunch of faceless people? And then have them comment on it? I come to your site daily because I like what you write and I enjoy reading the comments. Like Gili, I too have nixed comments because I deemed them inappropriate or questioned how they would be received by the others. But with friends, I generally let what's in my head come out of my mouth. I know that my friends will laugh at me, but with people I don't know and probably will never meet, it's much different.
I may not know you, but your site does give an impression of a guy who is a lot of fun to be around and is very intelligent, with whom you could probably have a conversation on just about anything. I would dare say that your friends would agree with me, but that's not a very hard opinion to make based upon the varying content of your blogs. But then again, this could be what you want to project to those of us who don't know you. Ah, the magic of the internet.

Well, I _am_ fun to hang out with.

I'm also a 12 year odl girl, so...

However you've also got to agree that the fictional Ryan and Commander (and J for that matter, not to be confused with J-Lo) all become pesonalities on the web that people can relate to. Some of us may actually come here to witnes your pole dancing, perhaps even wishing they had the cajones to do the same thing. I did that once in a bar in Korea, they asked me to leave their country and not look back, so it takes a special person to pull it off and not be deported. I'd guess that your every-day readers have a special place in ther hearts, down somewhere near the cockles Im sure, for this fictional ryan...

The social construct known as "Ryan" hath cut me to the quick. No, not by claiming that I also am a social construct -- I'm actually cool with that. Senior year, my roomates would have seminars debating my actual existence or whether perhaps I was just a figment of the collective unconscious, or perhaps "Foley" denoted a societal role that I was filling on a temporary basis. It was all part of their roundtable discussion entitled, "Will the Real Foley Please Stand Up?" Yes, we were bored. I attempted (unsuccessfully) to argue that if I didn't exist, then how could I possibly be spilling my hot tea on them. They claimed the burns were merely psychosomatic. Let me tell you, term papers lose their importance when you've just had someone logically disprove your corporeal existence. Compared to that, "Ryan"s claims of a meta-textual Commander Foley are kid's play.

No, "Ryan" hath cut me to the quick by his mention of prom, for lo, my youngest sister (hence known as Ensign Foley) went to her senior prom last night. I am freaked out beyond all measure. Granted, I'm going to her graduation from High School this weekend, but part of me thinks she can't possibly be this old, because then what am I?

Aside from "a figment of everyone's imagination," obviously... like Tito from the Jackson 5. No one's seen him since 1980. I think we all dreamt him.

I used to baby-sit my neighbors kids, and they are the closest I ever had to younger siblings, being an only child myself. The youngest is graduating from high school this year, and the oldest just turned 21. I have known both of these girls since they were babies, and used to answer all the oldest one's questions about sex (she was old enough to know, but old enough to be embarrassed about asking her mom about stuff). That I will now see her down the bar from me is a sobering thought.

Heh. You said "Tito".

My boss has a client named "Tushey." heh, Tushey.

I love blogs. I love logs.

I have three comments actually:
1. Once someone's musings become public they are not an accurate representation (not even close) of him/herself since certain important aspects suddenly are hidden from view -- embarrassing or otherwise -- so this should be a given. Kind of like how the "Real World" kids are always complaining about the editing.
2. Whose dumb idea was it to have prom on a Monday?
3. As a subset of the "figment" conversation involving Tito's family, this opens the age-old rumination as to whether anyone has ever actually seen Michael and LaToya in the same room together. Uh, Clark, you remember Superman.

1.) ... though not as hilariously as Sarah Kozer on "Joe Millionaire" complained that the editing made it seem as though she had performed a sex act on national TV. I didn't even watch the show, so I can't vouch for the scene, but she seemed pretty upset on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

2.) Their last class was a week and a half ago. Exams are done. Not sure what the Ensign is actually supposed to be doing now. Possibly nothing, which, conincidentally, is that she does best.

3.) I used to believe that argument until Michael transformed himself into a wee pixie.

1) I saw the episode. There was a lot of slurping and she supposedly said that things would work better if they were laying down. And I think she doth protest too much. She did S&M films for God's sake. Suck it up, honey. (Oh, wait, she did!)
3) I believe that Michael & Latoya may be the same person. But whatever happened to Tito?? And why would you name a child that?

1.) They showed a clip of one of her videos on Jimmy Kimmel. The fact that they were able to show it to you on network TV should tell you something right there. Basically she was fully clothed, tied up, and struggling against the ropes. That was it. Jimmy proclaimed it "the most boring porn I've ever seen."

As usual, I have no point. I'm just providing detail.

2.) Speaking of porn, I remember Chris Rock's take on Latoya posing nude for Playboy a second time: "What's the point of that? We saw everything the first time! Did you think we'd forget?"

That Jackson family... just, wow. They have problems beyond thinking that "Tito" is an acceptable name for a child.

Hi.

Nice drapes.

Now, why should that not be considered a social interaction?

Sure, I wasn't speaking with the Ryan I used to know (that would be Ryans 1998-2001), but I did just make a dumb joke in front of a group of people.

Unless of course, someone made this page and all the comments so as to look like some people I used to see every day. But then I would still be interacting with someone who was not me.

Admittedly, this is not as personal as hanging out downing Ones, but I think that we all put forth some aspects of our current personalities here. I don't pretend that I'm going to get to know the inner workings of Ryan's psyche just by reading this, however I didn't think I was going to get to know that when I was seeing Ryan every day.

That being said, I still think that my reading this blog every day carries on some semblance of what hanging out with Ryan would be like. Considering I never post, it's a horrible semblance for him of what hanging out with me would be like (but then again, he's the "Center of Attention" here, so that's not the point).

This is a limited medium, so it would be ridiculous for me to think that I know everything about Ryan or even about "Ryan and The Commander." However, unless Ryan starts deliberately misrepresenting his own thoughts, I think I can gather a pretty good idea of what's important to him (at least in reference to his relationship with us, the blogees).

Even though, I don't see most of you that often (or ever), I would still argue that we have a relationship because of our presence here.

And even though, my only version of the current Ryan is through this blog, I still think that I should be able to consider us friends.

Unless of course, he's pissed at that comment I made in my last email to him...then I'm just a big jerk (which may already be clear).

1) She still did porn. Whether she got naked is beside the point. She did a movie designed to get someone off. But I'm sure she's a lovely girl otherwise.
2) Chris Rock is so damn funny. I love the OJ stuff - "I ain't sayin he should of killed her, but I understand!"

3) That the Jackson family has a myriad of problems and could provide a case study for practically every diagnosis in modern psychology goes without saying.

Nicely put, RAY.

I never meant to imply that a collective fiction is entirely false, but to assume a 100% success rate of truth is bollocks. A collective fiction is just a web of truths, half-truths, and outright fiction all rolled into an experience, and that experience is this blog. I kinda like how I am not the only one shaping it, for better or for worse.

You people know way too much about reality and talk shows. Then again, the blog is something of an ancillary to a reality TV show so that might explain it. I am soooooo completely behind on my pseudo-reality (My example is "The Real World"?! Crikey....).
To Ray's point, I know Ryan about as well as I know Joe Millionaire so all I can do is read and make assumptions -- if I ever met him I'm sure that I would discover a number of contradictions to those assumptions within his character. As for Foley, whom I know and have seen recently, though there are obviously similarities, I wouldn't realize that The Commander was based on him if he hadn't told me that. Oh, and the photo from "Sweep the Leg." That was a dead giveaway. Hmmm...talk about contradictions....

Diana, i don't know you either, but since MJ is mentioned on this thread, you're hereby dubbed "Dirty Diana".

"Dirty Diana and the Commander" sounds like a fun superhero combo.

Maybe everyone should get a nickname. Why not?

For those of you playing at home...

Commander Foley is the Earth-2 Timothy Foley. Hope that helps.

http://www.io.com/~woodward/chroma/crisis.html

No way in HELL am I allowing a Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis blog.

Dirty Diana. Wow. I'm amazed that nobody thought to call me that when the song came out in junior high... ;)

Though a fictional version of myself could certainly come in handy.....

My alter ego is named Delores Santiago. She is a saucy little Latino woman, complete with a bad accent.

Good-bye, peoples! Me no want to chime in on this topic. Since me am not imperfect duplicate of Commander Foley, me know very little about being fictional character, about alter-egos, about not being blamed when Commander Foley do something stupid ("That am me," him not say, "That was not Bizarro Foley who lock keys in car!") But you readers understand Bizarro Foley imperfectly! Me am too complicated to be misunderstood. What you see am not what you get with me, me not promise! Oh well, interested on this topic. Hello for now!

Ouch. I think I've just been majorly dissed by Ray.

Well, yeah, it is interaction, and it is social, but for me it's a lot more like reading a book written by a friend than actually being with the friend. Ryan and Tim will never be NOT friends of mine, barring any actual animosity. But there used to be a time I knew all about what they were up to, and I we were all involved in the same activities and I knew a LOT more about them than I do now, even without a window into their psyche. (I once almost kissed Tim. In a scene by Pinter we were both acting in. He being the immaculate gentleman that he is, minimized the awkwardness by totally ignoring the stage instruction and not even implying that I was a bad actress for doing the same.)

This blog is fun, but it still doesn't compensate for how much I miss my old friends.

Hey Gili, no dis intended; just disagreed.

However, I definitely agree that this doesn't make up for not getting to hang out anymore.

But considering that we're scattered about the globe now, I would say this is pretty good.