Livejournal influences

[pegkerr]

I was reading my friends list and ran across an entry by lollardfish, talking about his adorable son Nico. In the comments, gerisullivan mentioned in passing that she was eating some pumpkin ice cream. When lollardfish lamented his lack of pumpkin ice cream, I was suddenly overcome by an irresistible urge. So I went downstairs, dished up some vanilla ice cream, microwaved it for ten seconds, opened a can of pumpkin and threw a 1/4 cup on top of the ice cream and mixed it all together. I'd never done such a thing before, but it was so ravishingly delicious that I went down and fixed myself second bowl. Uh, because I need more vitamin A, right?

I find it funny that a passing comment from a woman in Massachusetts would set off a food craving for me here in Minnesota.

Tell me about an instance where something you've read on LiveJournal influenced you to do something, maybe something you've never tried before. Big or small--whatever. I know some of you started the 100 pushups program because you read about it here. What else?

Comments

It was you!

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

You posted the link and info about the 1000 Friends of MN and TPT's Legacy Letter project. I looked at thought well I could do that. Did it, submitted it and now I get my 5 minutes of limelight sharing my dearly loved family history/love of Minnesota.

So thank you!!!!!

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

From reading all the posts people made about WisCon in 2005 and 2006, I desperately wanted to go. I made it in 2007 (and again in 2008), and:

-misia, who had volunteered to do tea leaf readings, validated my desire to quit the job that was gradually sucking out my soul;

-I made some dear friends;

-I made up my mind that I did want to keep writing and submitting my writing even though I'd written five novels and had received only form rejections, and was having a bear of a time with the sixth. Well. That sixth novel got accepted for publication.

[naomikritzer]

A certain blogger who will remain nameless once posted a recipe for this stuff called "chocolate microwave cake."

I still hold a grudge. But because I believe in sharing this particular sort of suffering as widely as possible, I re-posted the recipe on a message board, and I do believe there are people as far away as Italy who now curse my name in much the same spirit that I hold a grudge against you.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

*cracks up*

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Oh there are lots of things... The 100 pushup challenge as you said; using a crock-pot - you can't buy them in Denmark, so I'd never have gotten hold of one if it wasn't for a dear LJ friend who sent me one; switching from pads to the mooncup (which I LOVE), reading heaps and heaps of books that have been recommended to me by people here...

I'm probably forgetting something really obvious, but that's what immediately sprang to mind.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

I restarted my martial arts program in part because of reading about your karate experiences.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Awww, wow. I'm honored by that.

[aome.livejournal.com]

The 100 pushups, lots of memes and links - like the sort where if you click on something or play a game, you're creating a donation of some kind. The livelongnmarry auction - I contributed both money and items to that cause. Lots of recipes, from individuals and communities. I've read books because of repeated recommendations or mentions on my flist. I've tried wrock. I've read fics that appeared on my flist or were recommended, and been coaxed via LJ to sign up for fic fests. Watching a RPG inspired me to start playing in it.

Also, I really want to come to your May Day celebration because of the number of times you've described it and enjoyed it. :)

[creepygirl-chow.livejournal.com]

In 2004, I was hearing some really appalling stories about attempted voter disenfranchisement. I was furious, but really didn't know if there was anything constructive I could do about it.

Someone on livejournal (unfortunately, I don't remember the name) posted a link to a group called Election Protection (http://www.abanet.org/2008election). I discovered that Election Protection was looking for attorney volunteers to help document election irregularities in Arizona, where my parents live.

I found a cheap plane ticket to Phoenix and signed up. It was one of the most frustrating and most rewarding experiences of my life. I worked a precinct that was pathetically understaffed and poorly organized (the poll workers had only one list of registered voters, so they would only check one voter at a time.) The wait for voting started out at 30 minutes and quickly got up to 4 hours over the course of the day. The head poll worker wouldn't do anything about it until nagged by Election Protection to come up with some ways of speeding things up (bringing in EP volunteers to help, breaking up the list so that one person could check names A-C, another D-K, etc.).

I learned a lot that day. I'm generally soft-spoken and don't like being loud and aggressive, but it was clear that day that my polite attempts to get things moving faster were ignored, while some of the more louder and more obnoxious people actually got things accomplished. It also became very clear to me that disorganization was the cause of a lot of disenfranchisement. One of our own volunteers disenfranchised a woman by reading her Voter ID incorrectly, and sending her to the wrong precinct to vote. By the time she realized the mistake, it was too late for her to vote.

I met a lot of people from all over the country who were really passionate about the right to vote, and we helped a lot of people. I got to see an astonishingly diverse neighborhood in Phoenix, one that I probably never would have visited had I not signed up. I wrote a really comprehensive report about the problems with this precinct (it had experienced a lot of growth since 2000 and the poll workers hadn't adjusted accordingly) and with the organization, and I hope that the report may help prevent problems in the future.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

That's a really cool story. Thanks for sharing!

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

I joined SparkPeople because of you. I haven't lost much - exercise is a major problem, but I'm tracking, at least.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

Oh, and various people's reading lists. I have a number of new-to-me authors' books to read now, several of whom have ljs.