I decided, in my infinite hopefulness (or wisdom) to cease and desist the irreverent obscurity for a moment and say hello by way of posting a real email post I posted on a site called Thin Walls Talk which is geared to people who actually live in apartment community who want to communicate with other people in and around their apartment communities... hopefully they won't delete my post for providing contact information, because that would be even more rediculous than the apartment rating site doing that... like ok, you can communicate with each other but we won't let you know who each other are...

kind of like what most of us do right here on these diary and journal sites...

shhhh, no insult intended, even if my cynicism showed a tooth there... I wonder what it would be like to have a site like DLand where dozens of people I actually knew in RealTime offline were rambling on about their lives and me the way I'd be rambling on about my life and them... well, maybe not exactly alike, but I wonder...

maybe that's why nobody in Orlando (I'd link to the page listing Orlando diaries, but that's one more feature not working quite right here at DLand since the last crash a couple of months ago... which is one more reason not to renew and I really wish I wouldn't keep finding reasons to dis Dland, but they are there... so many diary links click to dead ends, error pages, and wastes of time... ok, so what community is perfect) contacts me... I mean, who wants to be immortalized in the kind of irreverent babbling that pours forth from the appendages attached to the body under the head that contains the brain cells that somehow come up with all these words?...

me! me!

ok, but besides me... anybody?

anyway, what you find below, reposted in it's entirety, is the greeting I left on specific community site labelled for my particular apartment community... maybe it'll give you a sense of the real person behind the candoor better than my babbling does... but then, much to the chagrin of former professors who had the dubious honor of putting grades on my papers, it is babbling of a different sort, since virtually everything I write is one or another form of babbling...

ready or not, here's the post:

Hi J

I live at River Park (about four years now) with my friend-who's-like-a-brother and his teenage daughter and while we've had stress with management over hurricane repairs and unkept promises, we're making the best of it. I could not in good conscience recommend moving here these days, mostly because there are better places at lower costs out there, but it's home for us for now and so, stumbling across this website, I decided to say hello.

Hello J

Orlando, as big as it's gotten, is still kind of a sleepy rural-feeling bedroom community. That is, there's not a whole lot of diversity in ways to meet people (there are bars, clubs, churches, and so on... in other words, drink, smoke, or seek God or you're pretty much left out of new social life). For the most part, new friends are found through personal introductions. People going out socially are usually in rather private groups.

I suppose most places are like that. Growing up (not that I've actually grown up, mind you) in NYC kind of spoiled me in terms of socializing. Some cities there is a wide variety of interest groups and ways to meet new people.

I've checked out meetup.com and other forums geared toward finding new friends with similar interests, but the online community is rather small, or at least uninvolved here in Orlando (at least from my experience so far... I'll thank you if you show me otherwise J

So here I am, saying hello to strangers in the hopes that friends might just be stumbling through here one day as I did. Most anything you want to know about me can be found somewhere on the web (start by clicking below if you have time) or simply by asking. I'm open, honest, curious about many things, and generally love life and anything (and anyone) that does no harm, but if you bring music, I'll love you even more J

This is what I want: wantlist

I love to read and write and ramble on for hours a day at times (perhaps you've already noticed) in online journals and I'd love to give up most of my online time for offline friends and activities. I am also a hopelessly hopeful romantic still in search of my soulmate, so if you see her, point her in my direction and I shall eternally be grateful (and I'll show it if you stick around too J

I gave up smoking and drinking (though not religiously) simply because I enjoy being alive and healthy. I'd love to find people who are into healthy activities (there's a tennis court right under my window, wanna play?). I work nights, so sharing a daytime or evening meal, catching a movie, walking a park, or doing most anything would be fun for me. I love the theme parks and would have annual passes if I found a friend or friends who'd go often. Anybody into running or going to the gym? (we can motivate each other J

I'd tell you that Michael's is my favorite restaurant, but after 20 years they've closed. I sent flowers. Macaroni Grill is a pale substitute, but I'm learning to enjoy it. I occasionally lapse back into vegetarianism, but in the south, barbecue smells too good to pass up so I am usually a lapsed vegetarian. I love all kinds of ethnic foods. I love good, clean buffets. The best I've found for the price ($15-20) is Grand Buffet up on 17/92 (north of 436). Crazy Buffet (on the other side of town at 434 and 436) is probably the best around at any price (about $30 a person with tip). The Lobster Feast is all seafood and expensive and full of tourists, but great for seafood lovers. I am still exploring (and would love someone to explore with) the various smaller restaurants closer to home.

I can spend hours in a library. With the right person, I can spent hours anywhere. Friends make anywhere fun.

So if you're out there looking for friends and tired of the bar scenes and meat markets and church socials are not your favorite meeting places, here I am.

there's always hope J

ric candor
407-325-1482
(personal site)
(main gate)
(friends?)
(activities)

and there you have it, complete and only slightly altered (links were made HTML friendly here and one word was spell-corrected {it was originally socialalizing, go figure} and the smileys were changed to WingDings font here... otherwise, that's my hello to the world via my local apartment community bulletin board...

alas, I appear to be the only post on the site... it was created back last summer sometime, so there's the internet for you, lots of long distance fantasy, role playing games, cyber-sex sites, research and gaming, but actually local communications seem to be too much to ask for from human beings... paranoia?... shyness?... whatever, it is as it is...

but I'll keep optimism alive and hopefully post my friendly little hellos and contact information wherever I find a place to put it... kind of like Kilroy, I suppose, only with an address and phone number (and who knows who Kilroy was?)...

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy comes out today... we intend to see it tomorrow... it better be good, or I'll come home all depressed over the lack of true imagination in humanity, at least for a little while... I'll get over it thought... and then I'll read the book again and forget all about the movie until the next time I see it when it might be better... life is like that for those of us with a subconsciously selective memory (patent pending)...
so many you are one of the very few people in this town (if any exist) who finds connecting offline as much fun, even more fun, than connecting online and maybe you recognize some of the places I mentioned and maybe you'll give me a call and maybe we'll get together and prove this great internet experiment has real merit in RealTime in the real world (whatever that is)...

are we having fun yet? J

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)