The Art of Teasing

Go read some reviews i posted on SST! Miss Austen Regrets and The Young Victoria. Both excellent films as well!  Fall in love I suppose, or be like Jane and just look for money...

BUT that is not the subject of this posting! It takes a clever person to tease, its takes a bigger person to take the teasing!  The greatest example is my bad spelling that Rukia so kindly has taken to keeping track of!  I love a good laugh, no one dishes it better than the night crew of SST.  When the chat gets going with Levi, Rukia, Bru and even Nate and Andres if they are around, who knows the wild things that can come out of peoples mouths!  Or fingers as it may be...There was a lovely tease going on Thursday night with all the silly blogs that Jade could write about, my favorite was "Embracing my Inner Blonde"  thought up by Rukia...It goes back to that point of how much do you tell in chat?  Yes I cut a box where it was not supposed to be cut!  Yes I have my dumb moments, yes i wrote it in chat!  It was funny though, I like a good tease every once and a while. Squiddy would be proud that he is still noted in chat as well.

But it should be noted that teasing in chat is done in the sport of laughter and fun and should never really be taken seriously, Nate has taken a lot of chat teasing (why that man is picked on so much I have yet to full understand: research ongoing).  You pick out the sill things, you skew the facts a bit (or a lot) and you run with it!  There are no rules, there never are, just be big enough to take the teasing and do not let it get to yo, if you are on the receiving end that is.  I think it takes a close nit group to be able to get to that high level of tease, where you really like the person and are comfortable enough with them to be at that point where you can tease and know it is all just a joke.  You laugh at their expense, but you would have to know they would soon laugh right back at you if that point came.  I like to catch Rukia when she makes spelling mistakes, like she wrote "FRO" instead of FROM and I shot back at her with a little ghetto, FRO realz rukia?!?! I laughed, she laughed, who wouldn't laugh at my silly jokes? If you are not laughing then :P But then redjack proceeded to throw a fro at me which was not appreciated, but I still laughed.

Things may run out quickly, or they may go on for a while.  Some times the teasing can be long winded, they are still going on about silly blog titles!  The newest one is Bru: Blog 3: Bale in my Crawlspace - An Adventure!  -- Tank tops and Bawl Babies...Are you laughing yet?  Perhaps you would need to know Bruiser better to really get the tease, but it is worth it. Laughing so hard your side hurts, when was the last time you did that?  Smile a bit, it is all in good fun :)

The Great Game

This post idea came from Sockenfussel, thanks!  We were talking about chat dynamics and she brought up the idea that being in a chat room like SST is like role playing, in a way.  The chat room is the stage and you create for yourself your chat character, defined by that user name you chose when first coming on to the site and whom you will forever be known as....so play on dear chatters...

The member posts have sort of touched on the idea that each person has created for themselves a unique persona and that is how they are known.  They are loud, they are hug maniacs, they are deep composer thinkers and so on...just to generalize of course.  It would be interesting to meet everyone from chat just so I could compare them to their chat persona.  I have met two of the members I wrote about on here, I did write little comparisons between their two faces, but two is too small a number to really say if the persona played in chat is really who that person is.  I know to some degree, who you are in chat is a part of that real physical you (though I suppose some people do go so far as to be totally not themselves, but I'd like to think they are a small minority).  Perhaps those characteristics of your personality that are subdued in real life come to the front in your chatting life, you are quiet and reserved around people in real life but in chat somehow you cannot help but be loud and silly.

But regardless of the similarities, there are many things that you would never really do to someone if you met them in real life.  General chatting in a friendly environment would not likely produce some of the crazy antics that have occurred in chat, but that is because you are, in a way, more free in chat.  You have a virtual world at your disposal were reality doesn't necessarily need to come in to play at all.  the chat room, for example, has everything one could need...I even  made a cute little Shaun White snow man yesterday with virtual snow (his pretty red hair was made with licorice).  Istagi has a tail, brought on by Avatar of course, but he enjoys his virtual tail, except when Phire lights it on fire...Little pieces to create that unique chat persona apart from who you are outside.  I suppose you get the idea by now...be whatever you want to be...share as much as you want and keep hidden everything you can.  You are not really seen by anyone, so what would they know?

So we go into chat everyday, put on our username and play along with the rest of the group...hopefully you have fun with it because thats the point of it, to have fun (i hope so at least)

Quote on Brew-meister...

I suppose another chatter is needed, lighten up the mood a bit anyways.  Therefore I present BrewersGuy, although a recent addition tot he SST day crew, he has surely made for himself a name and personality most always enjoy to meet.

If anything could be said about the guy, it is that he loves to quote those quotable movies. It should be a well known fact that now all movies are quotable, you cant think of lines off the top of your head from every film, but then there are others that are a plethora of awesome quotes.  Comedies seem to be the most easily quoted, but Star Trek and Aliens likes to be quoted a lot as well.  But i digress, BrewersGuy can quote most anything but his favorites seem to be Airplane and Spaceballs. Just queue up a track off those films and he can go on and on with quotes.  Of course, often others join the movie quoting when a track comes up, but Brew seems to be a big player.  He noted one time in chat that he loved to quote and could quote almost any film.  I had asked if his girl knew of this hidden talent, and he told me not yet to the extreme! I am sure he could out quote anyone, if you got him going.

Besides the quotes, he loves to hug and tackle hugs any lady that comes in chat and for some reason has taken a liking to pretending I am a horse (I still have not figured that one out yet). He is a very nice guy, loves to flirt and loves to be silly as often as he can.  It is always fun to have him around and like everyone else, he adds so much to the chat that he is certainly noticed when absent.  It was interesting to see him first come on to the chat and find his footing and place within the chat, but he seems to have had no problem with all of that. Some shy away from the sillyness that usually occurs, be he just stepped right up and added to the mayhem. I think that says something good about his long term prospects.  But hey, its just a chat room.

...and there it is, another lesser known to mark the pages, quote on...

Much too Much?

How much is too much? I suppose its a valid observation to make about a chat community, SST certainly falls into that category.  I am not saying there is a right or wrong answer to that question, just throwing it out there to think on.  Just my view on the subject, what I've seen...

I think SST is a great place, lots of different sorts of people find their way to the site.  I've noted before how some members share more than others, not that any of them are wrong to do so.  But sometimes I wonder if there is a line somewhere when things should not be shared any further. You ask this person you know how their day was, they say it was awful and go into the details of the not so nice day at work, or whatever.  This person comes in, goes into great length about some family issues, how they cannot really cope and the people in chat are left to try and deal because you really don't like to see people down, but what can you do?  You are just an anonymous stranger who knows how far away.  Should you really indulge that sort of pouring out? Its nice to know details of someone's life, it helps you to get to know that person, but at some point it gets to be a whining thing and there should be a 'do not disturb' sign hung around that chatter's neck.

I suppose some feel that SST chat is one of the only outlets for them, they have no other friends really who would sit there and listen, or read as the case may be.  So they use what they have, in the hopes that someone will be able to comfort them. But what is truth?  How can you be sure of anything anyone says?  I guess that is taking it a bit too far, as you get to know these chatters you learn to trust them, you hope for the best in them.  You want what is best for them, even if you know them just through an online chat.

I believe though, there should be a point where one realizes their complaints and troubles are a bit too much for the chat to handle.  I believe people should be more aware of who the others are in the chat and what they really want to hear.  But i also believe that not everyone is so aware and not everyone really cares.  They just want to spew their troubles and that is it.  Care for me please!!! I am so lonely and so depressed!!!

Did I anger you?  Well these are my observations....take them at that....

Following and Creating a Train

So again with the long wait, no protests heard yet...! I thought a post about Trains would be nice, since Rukia and I had the fortune to have a fun go at it yesterday, though not a true train because there were songs in between, it was still fun.

It is amusing to note that most trains that I have done are usually just random thoughts and really had no pre thought of idea before it was begun, or it even may have begun on accident.  You selected a few songs that are similarly themed and decide to just run with that and see how many tracks or albums you can find with that theme.  Last night we ended up doing a curse word train, started with my razzing Rukia with a Cocaine Cowboys track that she laughed at the first time I requested, had the word motherfuker in it.  So she then proceeds to select another track with *** in lieu of a title and I followed suit.  it was a fun train, interesting to find how many tracks have swear words that were ***.  I made a comment in chat though, when Redjack noted that the Mickey Blue Eyes track really didn't coincide with the track title "Fuckin Cookies" It was a pleasant upbeat happy track, not the anger driven song one expected.  I thought it interesting that these track titles with their swear words astericked out don't necessarily reflect the feeling of that swear word. I guess that goes to show that titles do not always tell you what is in store for the song.  We had fun with the train, got some funny comments in chat asking why there were so many bad words in the queue, Rukia blamed it on too much sugar and I blamed it on her!  Only fitting I think.

I have not done a true train in a long while, usually the queue is too busy or I just do not stay up late enough.  I found in interesting that another member, LadyInque who is a scholar, is actually writing a paper on SST, trains and why members do them.  I am not sure entirely what the paper covers, but it is interesting because an academic thought it worthy enough to write about this little aspect of SST! I would be interested to read her paper when done, but when she asked me why I did trains I just said I thought it fun to try to get in as many tracks as you could without interruption and sometimes it is a good way to fill a small queue when you are unsure what to request.  I also admitted that I did like to see my name a bunch of times together in the queue.  I have not been lucky enough though to get an entire queue to myself, though others have and I applaud them for that!

It is just another aspect of SST that I think makes this place unique and fun.  Trains with another are great too because you get to compete, in a way, in who can find the most tracks or weirdest tracks in line with the train theme.  It is also a way to maybe find new music that you would not have requested otherwise.  It is also a challenge to find a unique theme to attempt.  It is another way to have fun and enjoy the site a little more...in my humble opinion...!

The Importance of Fan Clubs

Another general observation of the chat, there can never be too many fan clubs nor can there ever be too much enthusiasm for a single composer.  The fan clubs, generally abbreviated to FC play an important part in the chat room, it tells everyone who/what you love enough to shout out at every track that is a part of that grouping.

I believe the fan club trend started with Hisaishi and Morricone, both are the most popular fan clubs in the chat and seem to be the core fan clubs that are present throughout. There are random branches that people like to yell out, be it the VGFC or the HZFC, those members tend to just use the FC idea to express their love of a particular artist or genre as is the case for the VGFC which seems to be comprised of one member. The way this goes about is you yell out HFC...or whatever fan club it may be at the given time a track is played.  This lets everyone in the chat know what you like.  I think this is important due to the fact that you can associate with different members who you know like similar scores. Open up suggestions of other composers closely related or tell of the new score of said composer that you recently received.  It is just another tool really to add depth to the chat and give a little more info about people that make the place a more dynamic place to be.

While I noted above which were the original fan clubs, it is still fun to see random people make up random fan clubs.  Most notably to me is the VGFC, I suppose just by writing it here I give it far too much credit.  Just a random fan club started by ClassCE, one which for a while has not taken over the queue so that is good.  But when it gets going, beware of the potentially fatal video game tunes that may come up.  I love many composers, but cannot state that i proudly wear any fan club badge, I like to think I make my opinions clear just by yelling when someone picks a track/composer I enjoy.  Another side note of the FC yell is the Ned and BSG yells. While NED far exceeds many little fan clubs, it only has one score so it has fewer chances.  But it is still popular and always when a track plays from Waking Ned Divine, at least 4 members will yell out his name and even offer up a toast.  Not an official FC, but i would think it comes as close as one can get.  Battlestar Galactica is a smaller offshoot, not as many people yell BSG when it comes up anymore, there use to be a far bigger grouping.  I am among those, but what can I say, I love the music. But still, sometimes, often you will get the occasional yell in appreciation of Bear's music scoring.

Just another facet of a multi layered room, the fan clubs are fun to note and even more interesting to find who likes what. Just another way to let others know where you stand on certain types of music...