N~space

I'm getting  a bit tired of Livejournal and it's screwy entry interface. Normally I write entries in wordpad (because I learned early on not to trust the autosave feature) and then paste them in on the rich text view and everything works fine. But if I then add in a picture, say, or even a link, it chucks a fit.  And I don't even think of editing if I've put a LJ cut in.

That last entry, for example? It was a nice logical (for me) review of the book. It flowed. Then I put the Holidailies gif in, and the first paragraph disappeared. So I put it back in. I did not notice that the first paragraph was actually at the end, or that the second paragraph was now missing (it turned up somewhere down the bottom). GARGH! 

I've sorted it out now, so if you want to see what I was trying to say, go read it now. And do you have any tips for how to avoid these problems? How do you put your entries in? I've seen those interface thingies on the LJ site, but they confuse me. I really like the friends function and the security features, I don't want to stop using LJ, so how do you all get your (unbutchered) entries in?

So this is Livejournal. I'm not sure what I'll use this for exactly, I still have my main journal and I like having total control over the content, archiving, etc. But I also like the idea of the blog format, the easy updating without having to faff around with HTML, which might make me actually update instead of just thinking about what I want to say. So I'm giving it a go. Plus, it's just cool, okay? They look so good, I want one too.

I think this will be for the more private stuff, the things I'm not comfortable having out there in the cold open waters of the interweb. My journal is meant to be an exercise in stripping away the mask, showing the real me, but too many people who know me in real life read it (how would I have any readers at all if I didn't force my friends to read it?) and there are things I don't want to talk about in front of friends, brother, lover--or the friends of my lover, for that matter. I don't want them reading those things and thinking I'm foolish, or pathetic, or feeling uncomfortable or hurt because of them. It's too onesided, too raw. Of course, people on the interweb might also think I'm foolish and pathetic, but at least I don't have to look at them while they think it!

So that stuff, it goes here. But why not keep it in a paper journal? Because there's a difference in my writing when I'm writing to someone else. I know my thoughts, there's no point writing them down for me. No matter what I try, my paper diary always ends up being about how fat/lazy/whatever I am, and how I want to change. No, to get the thoughts out of my head I have to write them for to someone else, even if that means imaginary internet people like you.

Or, I could just use this as a writing journal, to chart my progress. I might do that too. Of course I'd need to be fucking writing something for that to be useful, wouldn't I?

Time to post this and see how pretty it looks.