"Who's that Trip Trapping Over My LJ?"
When I was a kid I saw a film of Hansel and Gretel that we were shown around Halloween at school for some reason. The witch made an impression on me or, rather, one line she said has stuck with me to this day to the point that I can still hear her voice say, “Nibble, nibble like a mouse. Who has been nibbling on my house?”
My journal is mostly public. It is also published here on Live Journal and as an offshoot of my husband’s web log. I have had both since January 2004. And I have learned a lot over those 6 years. A lot has also happened during that time.
I knew from the outset that I had to be careful what I said here. I started it for my immediate family and friends to keep up with Caroline who had just turned 1 but I knew, since it was feeding off of my husband’s blog, I would have a lot of people at least looking at the entries.
Over the years we find out more and more what you put out on the Internet can come back to haunt you in the work place, the courtroom, or even the bedroom. People have not gotten jobs or lost jobs because of things they said in their social networking sites or pictures that come up when their name is googled. And you can’t really get rid of something once you have put it out there on the Internet. It can be caught and kept forever.
My abject first lesson in being careful what you say came from Peter’s ex who e-mail Peter and me about an entry I made that had upset Ariel. We sorted out later that the ex had been reading my web log every day and had left the entry up where Ariel saw it. The fact that the ex found my web log so interesting slightly disturbed me and made me take a more careful look at what I was saying because the last thing I wanted was to give the ex any ammo she could use against my husband in a custody dispute about Ariel. Now that Ariel is 18, that worry is gone but I take that lesson with me with each and every entry.
My next lesson was more fun. It came at a larger convention. I was sitting with Caroline behind the table in artist’s alley were Peter was set up. I noticed a young lady that seemed to be hovering a bit. She would glance over to the table but seemed unsure about approaching. She finally came over and got Peter to sign a couple of her Star Trek novels. I watched her face as she made up her mind to talk to me. She said that she really enjoyed my web log and loved reading about the family and all the creative stuff. She told me her online handle and I remembered her commenting on several topics. We had a very nice conversation and I found out that she had a live journal too so we linked up on live journal and I read her web log to this day. I learned I had an audience that was interested in what I had to say.
Since then I have met a number of people who I “met” first through Live Journal. Some even from LJ Idol. This past year I met the editor of the Idol Musings book that I have a couple of entries in. We got together in New Zealand where I finally signed the contract she had been waiting for me to sign for a while. I also met our Fearless Leader (Gary) at DragonCon last year along with a number of other Idolers.
I know a lot of people are drive-by readers of this web log. Many give it a look because they are fans of my husband. But just as many have come to it because of who I am and what I do. I am comfortable with that. I try to make it interesting but don’t get upset when people walk away from my web log. It’s my space and I use it as I see fit.
This was my entry for the LJ Idol. My partner ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thenodrin did an excellent entry that I highly recommend you read![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
