on the subjects of OD interests and circles…

I suppose I’m a wee bit sore over the anime circle and forum not being very active, read: dead. See, I’ve actually been hunting through pretty much every diarist who has added Anime & Manga to their interests in the hope of finding someone who writes about it in some details, a prospective companion with which to share my enthusiasm.

It’s not to be.

Most of the diaries here are predominantly focussed on day-to-day events and feelings which is a great thing, the true purpose of a diary I suppose. Interests serve to give slight insights into who we are, that perhaps they may be cultural markers that build a slightly bigger picture than an individual entry would. Some people are better at writing about their lives than others, while many I think are simply written in a style that I don’t identify with. This is in no way inteded to be a critique of people’s writing – not at all. Afterall, I’ve always been a big promoter of diarists writing for themselves as a first priority, and ignoring any possible greater audience. That I don’t always enjoy them in no way invalidates them.

As I always do, I tend to examine possible reasons as to why the myriad of different personality types write in different ways; our private lives, the quality of our close relationships, the percieved quality of our study/workplaces, etc. I don’t document every-day occurences, yet I truly treasure them in my very Japanese celebration of the mundane way. Generally I write about my passions, with a good sprinkling of inspired creative-writing from time to time…

Most of the time I write about anime.

All of this pondering has come about simply because I can’t seem to find another otaku like myself here in the Opendiary community, and it seems strange that such an enormous gathering of people, with such a huge list of people in the Anime & Manga interest list, simply wouldn’t have anything to say about it.

My final thought is that the logical course of action would be to become active in the animenewsnetwork or animenfo forums. As I said in one of my previous entries, they just aren’t the communities for me. I won’t reiterate what I mentioned in that entry, only to say that I was hoping for more perspective from those whose nature it generaly is to write more than a few lines.

Nevertheless, after years of using Opendiary, it’s still great to see so many different people from around the world actively writing and expressing themselves in a free and open environment. We really have the DiaryMaster and his staff to thank for all of their efforts over the years, and anyone not truly greatful to them really needs to think about the privileges they take for granted. True there are others around, LiveJournal and countless other sites, but there’s a particular feel to Opendiary that has always made me feel like I’m home.

See now that’s the spirit of Opendiary – an entry that potentially was a bit of a whinge, has ended up being an acknowledgement of something positive.