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I've been reading @plebpoet's journal. I'll write a few words every now and then and hope they survive.

When I write, I don't want to write; I want to be done and see what I've written. I want the words to stream out of my fingers like a magic spell. The words should write themselves; I shouldn't need to think about them. When I have to think about them, my words start to feel fake, forced, insincere, calculated, meaningless. They might as well be someone else's words. When this happens, I usually delete everything I've written when I open the file the next day. I hope this won't happen with these words. It's starting to feel that way.

It's okay if I don't know how to write something, but I should know what I want to write. I usually do know what I want to write before I open the text editor. But once I stare at the blank page, I feel empty. It's the moment of truth, and I'm full of lies. It hurts.

There are many things I want to write about, but I don't, because I am afraid. I am afraid that it will look like I am seeking attention, because maybe that is true. It won't be the whole truth, but it will be part of it.
Don't we all like some attention, in our own specific ways? Isn't love essentially limitless attention? Am I guilty of desperately seeking love? I think so, because writing this made me cry.

I have been a terrible boyfriend. I know it; she didn't have to tell me. I even knew it at the time, but I was too comfortable being terrible. I pushed all responsibility away from myself by assuming she would tell me if something was wrong. Even when I knew something was wrong, I still trusted her answers—that nothing was wrong—more than my own feelings, because it was too convenient. I trusted her, but I failed. I could have been better.

When we broke up, I told her all the things I had been thinking about doing to fix things blindly. I would have done whatever she wanted me to do to get us back to how things were before. She said it was too late. It still hurts.

I miss the cute sounds she would make when I said something kitschy. I miss us chirping like birds together. I miss having someone with whom I can be silly.
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69 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car 35m
This is what I thought of when I read this @ek if you are lucky you will meet the doomer girl of your dreams. It will be absolute chaos and you will love it and hate it at the same time.
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Wrt writing, here's my current struggle.
For the last three years I've done a story a week. Some of these have been really good. Some have been okay. Many, recently, have been shit, just awful. I can't seem to find anything to be excited about, and if you're not excited it shows.
And then I look at my daily logs, and there's so much that I'm excited about. Like, bursting with things. Without a moment's hesitation I'll toss off hundreds of words full of energy and life. Yet when I am purposefully framing the act as "It is time now to produce an interesting piece" what emerges is dead. Something about the intention drains the blood and joy from it.
The spirit of play seems important. The difference between work and play, even when the actions themselves are the same. I'm trying to figure this out. But it seems very easy to look in the wrong place, solve the wrong problem.
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101 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 12 May
For the last three years I've done a story a week. Some of these have been really good. Some have been okay. Many, recently, have been shit, just awful. I can't seem to find anything to be excited about, and if you're not excited it shows.
Do you not share them because writing them with the intention of sharing would change how you write them?
Something about the intention drains the blood and joy from it.
This so much. I think I need to keep a (physical) notebook and write down these fleeting little nuggets of wisdom I sometimes feel I have, just so I can check if I still feel the same way about them in the following days.
I also get the sense that sometimes my emotions are so volatile that I feel like a different person, like someone else who sometimes feels better or worse than my 'normal self.'
How can you like what you wrote a few days ago when you don’t even feel like it was you who wrote it?
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Do you not share them because writing them with the intention of sharing would change how you write them?
Mostly for the "mode" reason I mentioned to you here. I have noticed that I feel deeply vulnerable and at-risk for certain things.
I don't mind putting myself out there, like now. Something beautiful in that, important even. But fiction feels different, feels like inviting the grossest part of the world to inject venom into me. It's like my fiction self is my true, unguarded self. It's possible I may one day become so hard, or so unconquerable, that this will no longer pose a threat, but that feels as far away as becoming a god.
How can you like what you wrote a few days ago when you don’t even feel like it was you who wrote it?
You're close to an answer, I think.
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Don't we all like some attention, in our own specific ways? Isn't love essentially limitless attention?
The ties between love and attention are strong. But also between attention and life, and life and writing. I think it's about putting something into the world, into a relationship, and having that offering be accepted and returned to you.
The improvisation that unfolds when A reacts to B reacts to A. Minus that you're dead, or just shouting into the void.
Am I guilty of desperately seeking love? I think so, because writing this made me cry.
The seeking of it is the only thing there is, it's just this gets covered up because the surface form of the seeking is so different.
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101 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 12 May
Love is one of those things where I feel like I have a lot to say about how I view it. It's one of those things I want to write about, because I'm pretty sure I must be wrong somewhere, but then I sometimes wonder if I just hope I am wrong and I shouldn't share it because it will just sound like someone who got hurt really bad and there's nothing more to it, lol.
The improvisation that unfolds when A reacts to B reacts to A.
That reminded me of strange loops. I still haven't finished GEB, even though it might be the book that's given me the most to think about ever.
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Ha, I'm in exactly the same boat. GEB is my white whale -- I've made three attempts, always run out of steam. But each time I get further!
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Thee art brave, hearty soldi'r
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @plebpoet 11 May
it’s good to cry at your own writing, everyone should do it lol. It’s like a cleansing rain. a release.
thanks for reminding me of my journal. I actually edited that page out of my website the other day and changed it to display the zines, but haven’t pushed it yet. maybe there’s a reason to keep it up. Also I haven’t written anything nor have I focused on writing in a long time. I think I will begin again.
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37 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 12 May
Yes, I like crying haha, it's better than to feel empty and disconnected
It's also validation that I am feeling what I write and not just making stuff up
maybe there’s a reason to keep it up
I read it now, now you can remove it haha
But I can tell you, it was very nice to read it, it's very relatable, even as someone who has (almost) no ambition to ever write a book.
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When we broke up, I told her all the things I had been thinking about doing to fix things blindly. I would have done whatever she wanted me to do to get us back to how things were before. She said it was too late. It still hurts.
You know I could write theses after theses; you just broke a damn part of me. I am not a narcissist either but let me tell a story.
I was 17 then. The age ripe for new love, creating new memories and changing partners in this horrible generation. I was always an old timer among my friends. They called me "delusional" because I did not look up to girls the way they did. My friends all had by now 5-6 exes and here I was stuck with just 1 for about 3 years and am still single. They said I was destroying myself because not moving on means I can't accept changes. But my perception of her was different. It wasn't change, it was, it was the cease of change. Eventually, my old friends got separated as their partners thought me "invisible and nerdy" - all I could do was my thing, excel at academics, studying, doing my work. But why? I was an introvert. I did not know how to communicate with people, make friends and share emotions the way everyone did. I was afraid of the unknown force that might make me bow my head down if I did or said something wrong. Then one day I got grouped with her for my annual science exhibition. Just like any random girl, I did not find any interest in her - or perhaps I did not know what it meant to be "interested", but I was too fast to judge myself. I realized the heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows. Then came the day of the exhibition. The halls echoed with the murmur of rehearsed lines and the confidence of other students. She walked beside me, not ahead, not behind. She didn’t wear perfume like others, but she smelled like freshly printed books and mild soap, something comforting, something real. We worked for weeks together, building a prototype of biodegradable plastics that gave us the first prize. But it didn’t matter. Somewhere between soldering wires and arguing over which chart to use, I started noticing her laugh, not loud, not fabricated, but the kind that escapes when you genuinely forget to hold it in.
I found myself waiting for our work sessions, not for the project, but for her. She didn’t talk too much, nor did I. It was the silence that bound us. That silent kind of understanding that doesn't scream for attention. I didn’t even realize I was falling, no butterflies, no violins in the background. Just this steady rhythm, like a tide inching its way toward the shore, refusing to retreat.
But like most tides, it was never meant to stay.
She never looked at me the way I did at her. Maybe she did, but not in the way I hoped. Maybe I was just... convenient. A study partner, a quiet guy with no drama and a sense of decency, a rare breed in our generation. Maybe she liked that comfort. But comfort is boring to most. We chase storms.
When the exhibition ended, so did our frequency. The late-night calls turned to muted chats, then to nothing. It wasn’t a breakup, because there was never an “us.” It was the quiet ghosting that people nowadays romanticize as “fading away.”
But the thing is, she didn’t leave me hollow. She filled me in a way that made emptiness more tolerable. Like she taught me how to bleed and smile at the same time. I had changed to a more free person who could discuss with others, socialize and respect people.
My friends mocked me for holding on. “She wasn’t even yours, bro.” I know. That’s the damn point. You don’t have to own a star to be mesmerized by its light.
I didn’t fall in love with her face or the sound of her name....I fell for the version of myself I became when she was around. A little braver. A little less invisible.
I haven’t moved on, not because I’m stuck, but because some experiences aren’t meant to be replaced. They're meant to be carried, like a scar you don’t want to heal, because pain, too, is proof you once felt deeply in a world that’s forgotten how to. I'm still madly searching for her on social media platforms, if she has any connections with her old friends, if she got any job, etc. after we lost connection when we became alumnis.
So here I am now, a little older, maybe wiser. I still sit in crowded rooms and feel unseen. Still excel at things that don’t matter to most. Still writing, still reminiscing.
And maybe, just maybe, that's not destruction. Maybe that’s preservation.
After all, some hearts are libraries, not cafes. They're not meant for everyone to enter, but for a few to leave bookmarks in. I am too just a useless person after all in this huge universe.
So if you learnt something from her Mr. @ek , it's a request. Don't forget her :)
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30 sats \ 3 replies \ @ek OP 12 May
Thanks for sharing, I think I get what you're saying. Knowing that you're Indian (me too btw), I also feel like I can better understand what you said about your friends.
I sometimes think that Indian culture has a really strange relationship with love, and that it's poison for Western relationships.
you just broke a damn part of me
you're welcome haha
Don't forget her :)
I won't, I like foxes, birds and chirping too much
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Indian (me too btw)
wth, that's great!
strange relationship with love, and that it's poison for Western relationships
exactly, we prefer chai breaks together rather than fancy candlelight dinners
I won't, I like foxes, birds and chirping too much
😭
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 12 May
we prefer chai breaks together rather than fancy candlelight dinners
That’s basically the opposite of what I meant. #975689 is an example of what I meant.
Indian women tend to be very materialistic. I wouldn’t say that about Western women, they seem to care more about character and love.
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Indian women tend to be very materialistic. I wouldn’t say that about Western women, they seem to care more about character and love.
and that's the opposite of what I meant :) I would say this depends on the character, not western or eastern. Nowadays, meeting (forget pulling) a loyal, non-materialistic, skilled girl is like getting the Golden Apple from Gaia's tree. But it's true India has more women who are gold diggers :/
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Ok, we need a possibility to have our own blogs which are not part of the territory, but accessible from the profile page! Somebody code it:))
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So now ol' man is writing a diary :)
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