I have been sucked into the time vortex that is IRC. Like many of America’s youth, I did spend a far bit of time in chat rooms when I was younger. I pretty much quit the scene at about fifteen, though, because at that time the rooms were filled with people flaming on other people.

I used to go into AOL chat rooms, ICQ chat rooms, and a web-based chat server that I can no longer remember the name of (but my screen name there was Green Turpentine (I always did like the obscure), but after awhile, it just wasn’t any fun. I didn’t meet any people I wanted to keep talking to, and surprisingly, I’m internet-shy. Same reason why I’m more likely to lurk than leave comments on other people’s sites. I’m never sure if people really want me there and want to hear my opinion.

However, since I joined 9rules, I thought I should try to be more social. I already read a bunch of network sites, but I started to make more of an effort at commenting. Derek and Ben seem to bare the brunt of my commenting, but I’ve been branching out. Maybe.

So, this IRC thing. Addictive. I figured out how to get into the 9rules room, and I really don’t ever want to leave. I have to say, this is the first time I’ve ever really felt comfortable in a chat room and involve myself in the conversation. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I’ve talked to Nick from Greenr every morning this week—and sometimes at night too. At night, though, the room devolves into guys acting like twelve-year-olds.

In the morning, though, it’s good. Well, my morning. Depending on where everyone else is, it might be their night or something. I have to drag myself away from the computer to get any work done in the morning, because the conversation is generally pretty good.

Since I’m broke, I’m using an open source IRC chat client, Bersirc. There isn’t much documentation on it, but with a little bit of fiddling, it’s easy to figure out how to connect. However, I don’t know how to do any of the nifty stuff that other people do. Someone enlightened me on how to change my nickname while logged in ( /nick newnamehere), but I don’t know how to to the third person descriptions ( * lisa thinks it would be nice if people left comments), or how to insert what song is playing. In general, I don’t know much about anything.

Alongside IRC, I’ve been a forum junkie for a month or four now. First it was the getK2 forum,but now it’s the 9rules secret clubhouse. I don’t know why I’m addicted, but I am.

So, other than knitting and doing what little work I do, that’s what I’ve been up to. I didn’t really need another time sink, so I guess I’m going to have to learn how to budget my time. Ha. Like that’s ever gonna happen.

—”Down,” Blink-182: Blink-182

Really, I’ve just been doing research. I have two papers due next week, one which is on California, as usual. I am actually getting a head start on my research. And geese do I hate research.

It’s not that I hate research, exactly. I actually like looking things up and finding things out. But I hate having to decide what is important enough to put in the essay. And what should be left on the cutting room floor.

Anyway, the paper, if you couldn’t tell, is on voter apathy in California, and how people generally do not pay any attention to politics unless it has become a political three-ring circus, complete with a strong man and midget. While I do believe in what I’m writing about, I really have no interest in writing about it. But, such is the way school works out.

This is all really besides the point, since I wanted to write about how I am going about my research. To begin with, I am marking all the seemingly relevant sites I run across with del.icio.us (obviously). I have set up a tag bundle, to keep all the related tags together, so that I’ll be able to find what I’m looking for later in the week. If you’re interested, the tag bundle for this writing assignment is a boring “W.A.2″. Guess what the initials stand for?

Also, I’m using Google alerts in conjunction with my gmail account, to monitor the latest web postings for certain key phrases, such as California voter statistics, California elections, and California voter apathy. It’s handy, because once a day I’ll get an email for each phrase, giving me the most recent links. Very handy, since now I don’t have search the news everyday to find articles that might be interesting.

Finally, I ran across a really interesting site called Questia. It’s a large online library, which when you enter in a search term, it spits out a list of suggested books and articles. The paid version of the site allows the searcher to actually read the book or article, while the free version just lists the books/articles. The free version is still genius, because it gives you a great starting point to look for things in the local library. Especially since I never seem to find what I’m searching for using the library’s online catalog.

Well, that’s all I have for research tonight. At the moment, I’m listening to Binary Bonsai podcast #2, and damn Michael makes me laugh. I love listening to the Danish talk, and he has the perfect Danish accent. It’s there, but not overpowering. And seriously, he makes me laugh. I’d like to think if we met we’d get along great, although his being a well known blogger just puts him in a sphere so far above me.

Anyway… Back to the grindstone.

—”And I so Hate Consequences,” Mmhmm: Relient K